Thank you for your concern. Pray enlighten me.
God's will is 180 degrees from man's will
Do you even understand how provincial and unlearned that statement is? God's will is. Man's will varies according to his own whims and the working of the Grace of God within him. Again, you give us another illustration of the belief that the Reformed God is a puppet master, imposing a programming upon one's soul and taking it over. A Dagonesque god who delights and takes pleasure in the seemingly random destruction of the majority of his creations.
and "conditional vs. imposed" is not the point.
It is precisely the point.
Man in unable<\I> to please and obey God unless God first regenerates his dead heart - something only God can do. It's His decision. He's God.
On the surface, we Catholics agree with that statement, with the caveat that we believe that men are not dead. They are mortally wounded. It is when we delve into the hideous attachments to the Reformed understanding of that statement, that Catholics disagree with the Reformed.
MB-"Do you even understand how provincial and unlearned that statement is? God's will is. "
Dr. E is absolutely correct and is precisely what I'm trying to point out. There is God's will and there is man's will. They are completely opposite.
On the surface, we Catholics agree with that statement, with the caveat that we believe that men are not dead. They are mortally wounded.
Actually, the nature of man cannot be mortally wounded. If one were to go back and review the events of Adam, we see that Adam sinned before judgment took place. Reading through the curse of Adam we see that he goes back to dust, the ground is cursed, his life is going to be difficult, etc. It did nothing to change his nature. All God's command not to eat the fruit served to show that man will NOT keep God's command-no matter how simple. We are, by nature, disobedient and rebellious.
We could complain to God that this isn't fair because of the way He made us; but then that is one of the reasons Christ came in His humanity-to show us that this isn't a flaw in mankind. Rather we could obey God's commands if we really wanted to as Christ did. We, children of Adam, just don't want to. That is why as Christians God has to replace our hearts of stones and "cause" us to walk in His statutes and obey His ordinances.
“Provincial?”
Lolol
Sorry, Mark. God’s in control. You’re not. And it’s quite Scripturally “unlearned” to presume so.
Just try to change the date of your birth. Your death. Try to surprise God. I’d love to see you try.