“I’ll just keep praying for them to wake up!”
“Stfassisi, you are right. Every time I see Calvin and the gang, I see the devil peering from behind them.”
I have tried to keep the discussion focused on the scriptures without the ad hominem attacks but you guys just can’t seem to keep up with that sort of discussion.
We’ll try once more. Since God created man just a little lower than the angels from the dust of the earth, he being created could not possibly know the Creator or commune with God unless God condescended to fellowship with him as he did in the beginning. That condescension included a warning to obey which evidences an understanding that man will disobey and the sense of guilt in man evidences a built in warning system at creation. The fact that God had already devised a covering for sin in the garden demonstrates he was aware of it and the punishment because of the serious break in communion.
Created man on his own could never measure up to the love or moral purity required by God since he was not God. Good and very good, but not God. Created beings can’t create ex nihilo, so whence comes sin?
BD, I will try once more, too. The taching that God is a source of sin is satanic to an Orthodox/Catholic. There is no other way to put it. This is not personal. We are apalled that some Christians actually believe that sin is a creature of God. Last time I checked, the bible says God hates sin.
God gave man wide freedom but he also placed one tree from which man was not to eat, as a reminder that man's freedom is not like God's, but limited. And, in fact when man abuses his freedom, which is what happened with Adam, man loses his freedom. The same is true to this day.
God would have known Adam's choice, but God dind't make that choice for Adam. Adam's sin came from Adam's choice, not from God's. In doing so, Adam separated himself from God and cut off God's life-sustaining grace.
If God is the source of sin then sin is not sin. Sin is evil, and we believe nothing from (the Christian) God is evil.