That's putting it rather starkly, A-G! But IMHO it's the truth of the matter.
Of course, there's nothing that says man has to rebel against God and the universe. Unlike animals, he has free will: He always has the option to choose the good.
The Greeks had a word for the good: Agathon. It's a symbol that encompasses the ideas of truth, justice, and beauty. You might say it represents the divine standard and measure of universal reality. By this standard and measure, man's "rebellion" against God turns out to be equally a flight from the ordered universe as it is.
Of course, it really doesn't matter whether a man actively chooses to rebel (that is, to do evil), or merely backslides into it. The result is the same in either case, IMHO: disorder -- of the personality, of family and social connections; of the natural world.
But maybe this sounds 'way too "simplistic."
Oh, Excellent!
Of course, it really doesn't matter whether a man actively chooses to rebel (that is, to do evil), or merely backslides into it. The result is the same in either case, IMHO: disorder -- of the personality, of family and social connections; of the natural world. But maybe this sounds 'way too "simplistic."
I'll never forget the first time I spiritually read and therefore understood a phrase out of Hebrews where Christ is described as the express image of His [the Father's] person. It suddenly dawned on me that I could not tell where the Father ends and the Son begins. He loves the Father so much, He is completely surrendered, they are one.
The light went on in my spirit and I found myself rifling through other Scriptures and I could see things clearly that were previously hard to understand. Most importantly, John 17 came alive.
Truth is always simple!