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I like that. The most important thing to keep in mind IMO is that the God who created beauty, pleasure, all things good, will only give a better life yet in the next. But love is the center of it all. And as we come to increasingly know a God of infinite love, then we come to increasingly trust...

Fait enough, perhaps, and yet we observe the traces of his family tradition in each other and within ourselves everyday: the unreasonable pride and self-righteousness that keeps us separated from God, from each other, and even from ourselves to one degree or another-and which can cause great...

That's speculation. Adam exalted his own opinion above God's or else he could never disobey. There may well have been mitigating circumstances that lessened his culpability but to disobey God is foolishness in any case. When a created, rational being with free will comes to value God above all...

I don't think it matters. Because disobedience of God necessitates pride in any case, necessitates my believing that whatever I do for whatever reason I do it is superior to or more important than God's will.

Yes! That's good. But why did Adam allow his wife to affect/influence Him over God? That's the question. That's the sin. That's what needs to be overcome in all of humanity-so that we'll begin to value and heed God and His voice first above all else, above all created things. IOW, we need to...

It means that being born again/salvation isn't a done deal such that a believer can't possibly die all over again. If one persistently fails to walk by the Spirit they won't be entering heaven.

And neither did I. But this type of speculation is going nowhere anyway. I disagree with your assessment. To me, it doesn’t sound consistent with the overall message of the bible, with historic speculations, or with reason. Informed decision? I guess we should all prefer death then, knowing what...

God knows how bad the consequences of disobedience are. He told them about it. God knows good and evil but they didn't yet know the evil that would come, they knew only good, having never experienced anything else, nothing to contrast it with. And they didn't believe Him.

If Adam believed God, or knew what he was going to experience, do you think he would've disobeyed? What would be the point? Adam thought that he knew better; that was the problem. He needed to come to believe God, that He was right and perfect in His wisdom after all. And that first act is...

This world is a stepping stone, back to the God man rejected in Eden. There's a reason God wants us here: to learn, by experience, revelation, and grace. We're all born prodigals, experiencing the pigsty, relatively speaking.

Adam was more culpable; it wasn't deception but rather his own pride combined with peer pressure that moved him to disobey. But to say that he had such complete knowledge that he understood what sin and death truly meant, is to go against the grain of the whole story of the fall and salvation...

Personally I don't think.Adam really even knew what death truly meant. It was a lesson to be learned, part of what it means to live in an effectively godless existence, "free" and separated from the Source of life.

Sure they can.

Jesus warns us that we must remain in Him. From the beginning His Church acknowledged that one can leave Him after coming to know Him. Early fathers attest to this as well, along with Scripture. Being justified consists of more than forgiveness of sin, but of becoming new creations, with...

Overcoming sin and doing good are proofs, or evidence, that one is one with God. Love of God and neighbor is proof that one is one with God, to put it another way. Anything else is just talk.

I already said that we can't do it apart from Him. And that makes it a partnership, with Him at the helm, He initiating and we responding. Or not. Our part is to make that concerted effort, to strive, to be vigilant, to persevere. Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without...

Being born again has nothing to do with what we resolve to think about ourselves, but about entering sonship with God and acting like it now, by the power of His Spirit. The more we strive to do that, the more we'll overcome the sin that we couldn't overcome before, apart from Him.

This is nonsense. Here Spurgeon denounces antinomianism with one hand while supporting it with the other for all practical purposes, ignoring all Scripture that blares out: no holiness=no salvation.

Yes, and the remnants of that desire also persist in believers, for them to wrestle with. But we have the ammunition now to win that battle.

This is true, and, incidentally, is essentially the gospel taught by the ancient churches and ECFs. I also teach it, and am often opposed for to doing so. The basis of this freedom from the obligation for man to be and live righteously has its origins dating back some 5 centuries ago, although...