"Pavel Mircea, who is serving a 20-year sentence for murder, filed a lawsuit in the western Romanian town of Timisoara against God for not protecting him from the Devil. He claimed that he had concluded a contract with God at baptism but God had not kept his side of the bargain. "He was supposed to protect me from all evils and instead he gave me to Satan who encouraged me to kill," he claimed."
Now I am not sure what the views are of the Romania's Orthodox Church would be concerning the nature of Baptism, but I imagine it is the error of many religions. It is the error that physical baptism regenerates in some fashion as to bring one into favor with God.
Keeping this short, I think the obvious needs to be said. Acts of righteousness save no one. It is even admitted by those who hold to baptismal regeneration that men may lose their salvation. These men are in religions which preach a Gospel that is based on human cooperation and effort. They are in a word, Synergistic.
In God's defense from the Romanian Orthodox perspective,
"Constantin Stoica, the spokeswoman for the Romanian Orthodox patriarch in Bucharest, told reporters Thursday that the prison chaplain will be given the difficult task of explaining to the man 'that God does not act without our will and that people have the freedom to choose between good and evil.'"
This kind of synergistic answer just doesn't cut it. In the end, Theology Matters. Without it, giving a proper Apologetic for the faith becomes a lot of fast talking and short on substance. If you doubt me, just ask any Evangelical about 9/11 and listen to the inconsistencies falling from his lips.
6 comments:
If you doubt me, just ask any Evangelical about 9/11 and listen to the inconsistencies falling from his lips."
How does 9/11 relate to theology? Have you blogged on this subject?
Beth,
Just ask about the problem of evil, and you will quickly see Christians quickly trying to defend God from any evil event in this world. Think of the pastors that went on the news after the Tidal wave in India. think of all of the banal answers to 9/11 that you have heard. Most of them are emotionally driven.
http://how2fish.blogspot.com/2007/05/gods-wrath-at-vt.html
I read your link, but I don't get it. Are you saying that God "allowed" 9/11 or that he "willed" it? Was it God's wrath poured out for his glory?
Beth,
The language of "allowed" is just a way of speaking to explain the interface between God's decree and man's actions. To say He willed it is not wrong. The question always becomes "how", which is obviously the mystery.
The truth that Scripture teaches is that God ordains everything for everything has a purpose. If any event falls outside of God's decree, then you by necessity fall into the trap that Christians try to avoid...the trap of fatalism.
Read Genesis 50, Isaiah 10 and for the best example of "Compatablism" please read Acts 4, which is about the most evil event in all of history, the murder of the Son of God.
God Bless
So, God is the ultimate source of all Evil, and this is the "good news." Your world is a very dark and horrible place.
Ordaining and giving purpose to all things is what God does.
You may think my world is dark, but how is it any brighter in yours? In yours, man may not really be that bad. However, you must turn a blind eye to the evil of man. All of the women that have been raped and murdered is just pointless and meaningless. Your God knew before He created man that he would be evil, yet He created him anyway. In your world, God made man knowing Billions would go to hell, but He did it anyway with no purpose in mind at all?
Explain to me how your world is better and explain Biblically why I should believe it?
God Bless
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