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To: Alamo-Girl

True.

I think I agree with all you’ve said.

Perhaps you could elaborate a bit about

” . . . the image of man in the revelation, i.e. that he has a role in it.”

That’s not precisely clear to me.


900 posted on 06/21/2010 10:41:33 AM PDT by Quix (THE PLAN of the Bosses: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/2519352/posts?page=2#2)
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To: Quix
Perhaps you could elaborate a bit about

” . . . the image of man in the revelation, i.e. that he has a role in it.”

That’s not precisely clear to me.

It refers to the metaphor I used at post 873.

Receiving spiritual insight from that vantage point, man is inseparable from God in Scripture. Or to put it another way, man's works facilitates God's will and therefore God's will could not be done without man's willful participation.

More to the point in this sidebar, from that vantage point, man cannot be saved by God alone. He must do something of his own free will for that to be the result.

This point usually comes to foreground when the discussion turns to Mary. Her will (consent) stands apart from God's will and thus she is venerated as a "co." Or as some suggest, Christ could not have come in the flesh without her consent.

Those of us looking at the diamond from the opposite facet, seeing the Light and no images of men, shudder at such claims. We do not perceive man's works as facilitating God's will but rather as evidence of His will being done.

In the case of Mary, we call her blessed not because of anything she did of her own free will, e.g. her consent - but rather because God chose her. If she had not consented, God would nevertheless have seen His will done.

And to the point at issue, we would say no one and no thing can thwart the will of God.

Remember the former things of old: for I [am] God, and [there is] none else; [I am] God, and [there is] none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times [the things] that are not [yet] done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure: - Isaiah 46:9-10

The former might point to the murder of children when Moses and Jesus were physically born as evidence of the belief that the will of God can be thwarted. The latter would point to the very same passages as evidence that the will of God cannot be thwarted.

Likewise, the former might point to the Noah flood or the rebellion of the Israelites as evidence of the belief that the will of God can be thwarted. And the latter would point to the very same passages as evidence that the will of God cannot be thwarted.

The former might theorize that mankind could kill itself off and thus thwart the will of God, i.e. prophecies yet to be fulfilled would not be fulfilled. The latter would counter that God would prevent such a thing because His will is revealed in those very same prophecies.

Bottom line to me is that those on both sides are sincerely testifying to what they actually see in the words of God.

But it is the same Light - God - and the same diamond - Scripture.

I thank God for the spiritual ears and eyes He has given me, that I do not perceive images of men in the diamond. Because of that discernment, I have His blessed assurance:

For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. – Romans 8:38-39

And I testify that no thing and no one can thwart the will of God.

God's Name is I AM.

907 posted on 06/21/2010 11:42:32 AM PDT by Alamo-Girl
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