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To: stfassisi; irishtenor; kosta50

Knowing the Greek won’t help you here. Better to read what people who spoke Greek as their language understood the term to mean in a theological context.

The consensus patrum of the Eastern Fathers NEVER understood predistination in a manner like that of the Calvinists and some other Protestants. That idea is the sad result of Blessed Augustine’s years as a Manichean heretic which carried forward into his days as a Christian. The West’s notion of predestination is one of the primary differences between Eastern Christianity and various sorts of Western belief.

This snip, from +John of Damascus, is consistent with the consensus patrum. It is what The Church in the East has always taught:

“We ought to understand that while God knows all things beforehand, yet He does not predetermine all things. For He knows beforehand those things that are in our power, but He does not predetermine them. For it is not His will that there should be wickedness nor does He choose to compel virtue. So that predetermination is the work of the divine command based on fore-knowledge. But on the other hand God predetermines those things which are not within our power in accordance with His prescience. For already God in His prescience has prejudged all things in accordance with His goodness and justice.”


10,486 posted on 11/05/2007 7:11:54 PM PST by Kolokotronis (Christ is Risen, and you, o death, are annihilated!)
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To: Kolokotronis

This little snip from +Irish from Seattle:
God is in control. Get used to it.


10,490 posted on 11/05/2007 7:33:58 PM PST by irishtenor (History was written before God said "Let there be light.")
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