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Why?Because they love the Truth.
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Why?Because they love the Truth.
IMO you just can't put the cart ahead of the horse. The question isn't really any different than the one that St Anselm answered, taking it as far as he could. To the question, "Why did Adam sin?", his answer, arguably more profound than it sounds at first glance, was, "Because he willed to sin."Why?
I didn't say that either. A person who chooses to turn to God does so before he is saved. It is only AFTER you turn to God and repent that you become a child of God. So the initial choice is done against your nature.
Why keep adding to what I think and say?
No, just the one who is misunderstanding it.I'm not the one who gave the Parable.
Then you’ll have to conclude that some folks are just better than others.IMO you just can't put the cart ahead of the horse. The question isn't really any different than the one that St Anselm answered, taking it as far as he could. To the question, "Why did Adam sin?", his answer, arguably more profound than it sounds at first glance, was, "Because he willed to sin."
Why does man love at all? I think because we were created in the likeness of God, who is love. He is love, we, I think, are participants in love. Why do some love one thing, and others love a different thing? Because we were created also with that power of deciding to what, or to whom, our energies would be directed. Where our treasure is, there will be our heart. When we invest our time, our effort, our desire, our resources in a thing (or person, or ideal) we draw that thing into our heart while at the same time pouring our heart into it. For what is "treasure" if not what we strive most to obtain? And what is our love if not this drawing into and simultaneous outpouring from our heart? Yes, I believe that God allows us to direct our energies, love included, to whatever we will. However, there is an incentive we can discover for directing our love towards Him rather than other things, is there not? What love fills us rather than drains us? What love brings light into our soul rather than darkness? What love gives the satisfaction which we seek but cannot find from other sources? What is the pearl of great price, and why does man forsake all else when he finds it?Why?
What I meant was, that in your understanding, there are some folks who are better, wiser, smarter, more spiritual (whatever works), and those are the ones who will be saved.I didn't say that either. A person who chooses to turn to God does so before he is saved. It is only AFTER you turn to God and repent that you become a child of God. So the initial choice is done against your nature.
Why keep adding to what I think and say?
among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. - Ephesians 2:3Why does man love at all? I think because we were created in the likeness of God, who is love. He is love, we, I think, are participants in love. Why do some love one thing, and others love a different thing? Because we were created also with that power of deciding to what, or to whom, our energies would be directed. Where our treasure is, there will be our heart. When we invest our time, our effort, our desire, our resources in a thing (or person, or ideal) we draw that thing into our heart while at the same time pouring our heart into it. For what is "treasure" if not what we strive most to obtain? And what is our love if not this drawing into and simultaneous outpouring from our heart? Yes, I believe that God allows us to direct our energies, love included, to whatever we will. However, there is an incentive we can discover for directing our love towards Him rather than other things, is there not? What love fills us rather than drains us? What love brings light into our soul rather than darkness? What love gives the satisfaction which we seek but cannot find from other sources? What is the pearl of great price, and why does man forsake all else when he finds it?
I know what you want, though. You want a family of passages which, together, teach that everyone sins because it is our fundamental nature to sin in every activity we undertake and therefore always reject the gospel, while some believe because God sovereignty changes their nature to one which inclines toward God and then, by virtue of having their nature changed, choose to believe in Christ in keeping with their nature ensuring that man gets no credit and that God gets all credit.No, just the one who is misunderstanding it.
They are largely ignored, is what you should be saying.I know what you want, though. You want a family of passages which, together, teach that everyone sins because it is our fundamental nature to sin in every activity we undertake and therefore always reject the gospel, while some believe because God sovereignty changes their nature to one which inclines toward God and then, by virtue of having their nature changed, choose to believe in Christ in keeping with their nature ensuring that man gets no credit and that God gets all credit.
Such passages don't exist.
I believe I can make the case that God will prick the heart at some point of ALL of those alive. Some respond, some don't. We did... but early in my walk when I was trying to figure this out, I met many people who claimed to know God but who couldn't, or wouldn't, pull themselves away from whatever sin they found themselves. I don't know why that is, I don't think God plays favorites, and I believe Yeshua died for ALL PEOPLE, hence John 3:16 and others like it. Light is in the world... and we will all see it at some point... on the TV, radio, in a friend, from a friend, on a billboard, somewhere.... and we are left with a choice.What causes a person to make a choice against their nature? If behavior is the product of the person's nature, then the choice would follow the nature.
No Hammy, that is not my belief or understanding. Look at my post above this one, #53. Thanks.What I meant was, that in your understanding, there are some folks who are better, wiser, smarter, more spiritual (whatever works), and those are the ones who will be saved.
Please do so.I believe I can make the case that God will prick the heart at some point of ALL of those alive.
It’s still comes down to some difference in people. There must be something better in one person than another, however small.No Hammy, that is not my belief or understanding. Look at my post above this one, #53. Thanks.
I don't agree with that. Nobody is better than others in the sight of God.Regarding God pricking the hearts or otherwise making the light known to all...It’s still comes down to some difference in people. There must be something better in one person than another, however small.
It’s clear in John why some reject it. And why some don’t. Knee-V mentioned the parable of the sower. I think that gives us a great explanation as to why some believe and others don’t.I don't agree with that. Nobody is better than others in the sight of God.Regarding God pricking the hearts or otherwise making the light known to all...
I can share some verses that say the light came into the world so all within it would be saved (John 3:17 as one example) but I think I would rather share a story that not only depicts people going against their nature, it depicts an aspect to an event most of us miss when reading.
Go back to Egypt, to the day of the final plague. Who died? The firstborn of ALL save for Israel. The first born animal, the firstborn of every Egyptian family, and it says it plainly... the firstborn of the foreigner living in Egypt. When Israel came out of Egypt, many foreigners came with them. They would ultimately assimilate into the tribes they traveled with. Native Israel was to treat those foreigners as if native born. And the Torah was given not just to Israel, but to the foreigner with them as well. Those foreigners became a part of Israel.... they were the first to be grafted in. But my point... they had just lost their firstborn sons and yet they STILL went against their cultural nature (pagan nature) AND what had to be some inclination to at least be awfully mad at the God who just took their sons. They still saw a better way in Him, they still saw light (and life) in Him.
Light has entered this world and all will, at some point in their life, see it and/or hear it. Responding to it has nothing to do with intelligence, instead, it has everything to do with one's heart condition.
@Hammster if you're referring to this post, it's basically all I've said. At some point we all hear about Jesus... some will respond and some don't. It isn't about intelligence, it just is what it is.Some believe because some believe, and some don't because some don't. Better and worse, who gets credit, etc, are premises whose validity perhaps ought to be reconsidered.
I know you have. You just cannot explain why.@Hammster if you're referring to this post, it's basically all I've said. At some point we all hear about Jesus... some will respond and some don't. It isn't about intelligence, it just is what it is.