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To: Dr. Eckleburg
And if God were simply our grandfather all that you wrote would be true.

But God is God.


And Jesus has instructed us to relate to Him (God) as ... Father.
Matthew 6:9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

11 Give us this day our daily bread.

12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

14 For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:

15 But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
... unlikely and unscriptural that God created anything that ... displeases Him.

Really? God DID create viruses, however, and earthquakes and Judas and cancer and democrats and lice and the French. So God did create things that are, in and of themselves, not "good."


What God originally created (prior to the Fall) was good.

It is the result of man's disobedience in the garden which brought evil into the world.

Realize that you say God is "pleased" by man's free will, yet that same free will, according to you, is what enables man to sin in the first place. Do you see the illogic here?

Not at all!

I am pleased to eat rich food (at times), yet, at the same time, I may be displeased later on with the effects of eating that same rich food.

At the same time, I can be displeased to have to have a particularly painful medical procedure, ... only to be pleased later on with this same procedure's effect on my health.

In like manner, God can certainly be so pleased by having men freely (at some level) choose Him, ... that He is willing to tolerate whatever negative effects occur as a result of that.

But Adam's Fall did not surprise God, anymore than our sin surprises God. It was and is all part of God's plan for His creation. It can be nothing else, if He is God. Thus, whatever God does is "good," because it accomplishes His holy purpose.

Of course God was not surprised ... God foreknows all.

Furthering His glory is not God's only purpose.

It is the first commandment, more important than all others.
"The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork." -- Psalm 19:1.
The first commandment is to love God.
Mark 12:29 And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:

30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.
It is the reason for our being.

Hmmm ...
Ecclesiastes 12:13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.

2,785 posted on 04/08/2004 8:04:18 PM PDT by Quester (The mills of God may grind slowly, ... but they grind exceedingly fine.)
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To: Quester
I'm sorry. I have less and less patience with posts that make God into a Hallmark greeting card.

Have a good Easter.

2,807 posted on 04/09/2004 1:11:34 AM PDT by Dr. Eckleburg (There are very few shades of gray.)
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