Replies

“God’s justice requires what it requires, whether an act of love or wrath. If God had decided to let all men be lost, then that would have been fine with God’s justice. But He didn’t. He wanted to save some. OK, how can God do that while remaining true to Himself? Answer - He takes the punishment in the place of those He wishes to save. What is the punishment for all sins? Death. That’s God’s own rule, so He goes by it. In order to be true to Himself, Jesus had to die for some to be saved.”

Time for some more Continuing Orthodox Education, FK. God is NOT the author of Death.

“This is evil: estrangement from God.” +Basil the Great, That God is Not the Cause of Evils,

“As many... as stand apart in their will from God, He brings upon them separation from Himself; and separation from God is death.” +Irenaeus Against Heresies 5. 27.2.

“Men, rejecting eternal things and through the counsel of the devil turning toward the things of corruption, became the cause to themselves of the corruption in death.” +Athanasius the Great On the Incarnation.

“For as much as he departed from life, just so much did he draw nearer to death. For life is God; deprivation of life is death. So Adam was the author of death to himself through his departure from God.” +Basil the Great.

The danger of the theology your are espousing is that it quite literally makes God the author/cause of evil. The fact that Death had a salutary effect after the Fall in that it prevented the multiplication of sun completely unchecked does not change this.

Time for some more Continuing Orthodox Education, FK. God is NOT the author of Death.

I would agree that God is not the author of sin, but God does implement death. Who killed all those people in the OT?

“As many... as stand apart in their will from God, He brings upon them separation from Himself; and separation from God is death.” +Irenaeus Against Heresies 5. 27.2.

I'm good with this one. Here, God is implementing the separation.

Yes, God did not "zap" Adam to make him sin.

The danger of the theology you are espousing is that it quite literally makes God the author/cause of evil. The fact that Death had a salutary effect after the Fall in that it prevented the multiplication of sun completely unchecked does not change this.

I don't see how it makes God the author of evil. God has no duty to shield anyone from his own sin. And when God "executes" :) His justice, that is not evil, that is just.