If you genuinely believe that, then you must be a dualist (which I doubt you are) because, by logical extension, all bad things must flow from somewhere else, which would make Old Scratch co-equal with God. It's an interesting theological point to argue, but essentially irrelevant.
Societies that deny free speech and property rights, on the other hand, have long, indeed inevitable, records of despotism, decay and disintegration. Such is the demonstrable result of denying liberty. God makes a pleasant neighbor, but property rights make the neighborhood in the first place.
Some truths are self-evident.
If you genuinely believe that, then you must be a dualist (which I doubt you are) because, by logical extension, all bad things must flow from somewhere else, which would make Old Scratch co-equal with God. It's an interesting theological point to argue, but essentially irrelevant.
In this you are correct; I am no dualist. I'm not quite sure what the rest of your statement means. Perhaps I am slow of mind at 3 am, or perhaps you are being obtuse. I will leave that for others to judge.
Societies that deny free speech and property rights, on the other hand, have long, indeed inevitable, records of despotism, decay and disintegration. Such is the demonstrable result of denying liberty. God makes a pleasant neighbor, but property rights make the neighborhood in the first place.
Again, it is my contention that you are putting the cart before the horse. True freedom flows when the True God is trusted and relied upon. Those who willfully deny Him, and thrust him away, at the same moment thrust away all of His blessings...one of the first of which is freedom.
I will post one bit of scripture to back up this contention...a passage I believe to be utterly correct, and explanatory of much of the misery caused by unbelieving men, particularly in the past century:
"Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty."
If you genuinely believe that[all good things flow from God], then you must be a dualist (which I doubt you are) because, by logical extension, all bad things must flow from somewhere else, which would make Old Scratch co-equal with God.C.S. Lewis answers this in Mere Christianity in the chapter "The Invasion."
Then Lewis attends to the charge that it's all a matter of taste. Which is Good and which is Bad? So he lays out for us some revealing comparisons and juxtapositions of the two forces, until we must confront the paradox here:
But the moment you say that, you are putting into the universe a third thing in addition to the two Powers: some law or standard or rule of good which one of the powers conforms to and the other fails to conform to. But since the two powers are judged by this standard, then this standard, or the Being who made this standard, is farther back and higher up than either of them, and He will be the real God. In fact, what we meant by calling them good and bad turns out to be that one of them is in a right direction to the real ultimate God and the other in as wrong relation to Him.
At the end, Lewis describes supernaturally what we see in the natural world [a connection I make in the link above]. Just as we see natural and man-made parasitics accompany all work or potential for work in the well studied science of thermodynamics, Lewis said this about the bad force.