To: annalex
Bishop Minatios treatise on Jacob and Esau:
Jacob have I love, but Esau have I hated, (Romans 9:13) says God Himself. Just as a potter can make a worthy vessel or an unworthy one from the very same clay, likewise almighty God glorifies as valuable certain of His creatures, while rejecting others as unnecessary. Therefore hath He mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He hardeneth (Romans 9:18). God acts according to His own will. Who can contradict Him? Yet, is there then some sort of falsity in God? No, there is not! In our effort to understand this point, take as an example the teachings of St. Paul. His teachings are deep and exalted. The more we delve into them, the less we understand. But what of this? In the question of predestination, all is incomprehensible: everything which Holy Scripture says on this subject is unfathomable.
Augustine's treatise on Jacob and Esau:
"Also discussing, I say, 'what God could have chosen in him who was as yet unborn, whom He said that the elder should serve; and what in the same elder, equally as yet unborn, He could have rejected; concerning whom, on this account, the prophetic testimony is recorded, although declared long subsequently, "Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated,"' [Mal. 1.2,3. Cf. Rom. 9.13.] I carried out my reasoning to the point of saying: 'God did not therefore choose the works of any one in foreknowledge of what He Himself would give them, but he chose the faith, in the foreknowledge that He would choose that very person whom He foreknew would believe on Him,to whom He would give the Holy Spirit, so that by doing good works he might obtain eternal life also.'
As I stated, some don't wish to carry out the reasoning. Some do.
1,017 posted on
01/11/2006 11:27:23 AM PST by
HarleyD
("No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him..." John 6:44)
To: HarleyD
some don't wish to carry out the reasoning And some don't wish to carry out the reading. What you excerpted from Bishop Minatios is not what he teaches on Esau and Jacob. To know what he teaches you will have to read about half way into the article. Look for a phrase that contains "This is how we must understand the blessing of Jacob". I do recommend that you read to the end, but if you make the effort that far, you would be able to comment on that the bishop has to say about Esau and Jacob.
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