Posted on 03/07/2011 11:20:48 AM PST by RnMomof7
That said; 'evil' is a miserable accompaniment to life; and it would be nice to 'know' it's value; but have a whole lot less of it.
A very nicely put-together article on a very difficult topic
I think what the writer of that phrase means is that although God is omnipotent and omnipresent, since man chose to obey Satan, in the Garden, over God, Satan influences what happens in our corporal existence if we don’t, with God’s help, resist him.
In a roundabout way that was my point. We have ‘free will’ but our wills naturally run the wrong way from birth. As do the demons since the fall. God puts bounds on all that, although for a brief time in the Tribulation He gives us a taste of what it’d be like without His sovereign hand.
I don’t consider evil to be the absence of good, but the rebellion against good. Going left when you should go right, if you will. I wouldn’t say God authored evil, but allowed it, allowed rebellion that is. For the most part I agree with his logic.
Fortunately we are given a path to achieve the good, through no effort of our own. He pulls us back to the good.
Well, that’s a question nobody has ever asked before.
Like it’s never been brought up in a Philosophy 101 class or Freshman dorm discussion.
Sorry, my FRiend, “free will” is not a reformed viewpoint. It derives from a wrongheaded attempt to inculcate a semi-pelagian heresy into the Gospel. Free will is a pagan myth stuck in the dark ages and often added to recent renditions of “Chrisitianity”, but not Christianity. You are invited to post at other threads.
I think you are doing fine.
You are invited to post elsewhere.
You make the same point as did Thomas Aquinas. It won’t wash. Evil exists, and therefore is part of creation. However, while this clearly indicates that God planned to incorporate evil into Creation, it suggests that we may misunderstand both evil and His divine intentions.
What kind of loving Creator would consider condemning any being to an eternity of suffering? No matter what evil an incarnate being may have willed, the idea of hell as a punishment seems absurdly excessive and absent of wisdom.
Alternatively, evil may be considered to be nothing more than one of His teaching instruments. This becomes a particularly appealing solution for the problem of evil if reincarnation permits souls to learn and to grow. In this manner, a truly loving God could permit all to justly earn their redemption.
This is my current hypothesis for the problem of theodicy. Facing the issue drove me out of the Catholic Church at the age of thirteen. In the six decades since, I’ve migrated through a brief spell of atheism, a long turn as an agnostic, and have finally returned to my love for Christ and the merits of his teachings.
I therefore presently regard myself as a Gnostic Christian. As a self-professed heretic, I’m really immune to the imprecations of those who cite Biblical scripture to fend off demons like me.
The exercise of my capacity for reasoning, coupled with the testimony of those who’ve had a wide variety of unconventional experiences (NDEs, OOBEs, hypnotic regressions and more), have led to my somewhat unconventional views.
No one really has "free will" that is a myth..think about it.. can you choose to Fly ( without a plane :) can you grow leaves on your arms? Can you jump out a window and change your mind half way down?
All of our choices are restricted by our nature and circumstances ...
Satan can not do as he pleases..He too is under the authority of God.
Does He pull us back or do we choose to go back ourself?
I believe He had to pull me.. what do you think?
Notice my quotations. We have freedom to choose, but we always choose wrong in our natural state. We are slave to our natures.
It is not Philosophy it is about the nature of God..
No reformed is the doctrine that came from the reformation. .and that is what it means.
Hyper Calvinism is another topic
“those who don’t know what the word “Reformed” is code for.”
Your post is an example of the above phrase. Reformed is not code for Hyper-Calvinism nor do the Reformed elevate Calvinism to a doctrinal level; it is a method of interpretation that includes “sola scriptura”.
Exactly
Let me enlighten those who don’t know what the word “Reformed” is code for.It’s code for they believe in Hyper-Calvinism, which if taken to it’s logical extreme, even replaces Israel’s place in God’s economy with the Modern Church.
Caucus, dude. Get thee gone.
Why did God make men?
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