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Did God send this virus into the world

Dave L

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What church? And what is heresy? You lost me.
If you begin with the Ecumenical Creeds, they define what the historic Church believes. Sooner or later groups began dropping off holding views that contradicted the creeds. The Catholics dropped out on the heresy of free will, embracing it in their sacramental system of works. Luther, then Calvin and the rest of the Reformers re-claimed it proving the Catholic Church was a heretical institution among other things.
 
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renniks

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Go back to the first church fathers, before 400, they all believe in free will. Augustine was the first one to bring in determinism.
 
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Dave L

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Go back to the first church fathers, before 400, they all believe in free will. Augustine was the first one to bring in determinism.
Paul didn't. Nor did any others in their writings. You read free will into their writings thinking they did.
 
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renniks

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Paul didn't. Nor did any others in their writings. You read free will into their writings thinking they did.
And I suppose that Irenaeus just forgot what Polycarp learned from John about everything being predestined? I guess I'll go with "no" on that.

"Men are possessed of free will, and endowed with the faculty of making a choice. It is not true, therefore, that some are by nature good, and others bad.
1. This expression [of our Lord], How often would I have gathered your children together, and you would not, Matthew 23:37 set forth the ancient law of human liberty, because God made man a free [agent] from the beginning, possessing his own power, even as he does his own soul, to obey the behests (ad utendum sententia) of God voluntarily, and not by compulsion of God. For there is no coercion with God, but a good will [towards us] is present with Him continually. And therefore does He give good counsel to all. And in man, as well as in angels, He has placed the power of choice (for angels are rational beings), so that those who had yielded obedience might justly possess what is good, given indeed by God, but preserved by themselves. On the other hand, they who have not obeyed shall, with justice, be not found in possession of the good, and shall receive condign punishment: for God did kindly bestow on them what was good; but they themselves did not diligently keep it, nor deem it something precious, but poured contempt upon His super-eminent goodness. Rejecting therefore the good, and as it were spuing it out, they shall all deservedly incur the just judgment of God, which also the Apostle Paul testifies in his Epistle to the Romans, where he says, But do you despise the riches of His goodness, and patience, and long-suffering, being ignorant that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? But according to your hardness and impenitent heart, you store to yourself wrath against the day of wrath, and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God. But glory and honour, he says, to every one that does good. God therefore has given that which is good, as the apostle tells us in this Epistle, and they who work it shall receive glory and honour, because they have done that which is good when they had it in their power not to do it; but those who do it not shall receive the just judgment of God, because they did not work good when they had it in their power so to do." Against Heresies (Book IV, Chapter 37)
 
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Dave L

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How does this prove the church did not condemn free will as heresy in 431 at Ephesus? Look how crazy most of the early commentators were.
 
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renniks

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How does this prove the church did not condemn free will as heresy in 431 at Ephesus? Look how crazy most of the early commentators were.
And that was only one interpretation of Free Will declared heresy, by the Catholic Church by the way...palugius doesn't speak for arminians. He supposedly believed that a person could be sinless on their own.... Arminians don't believe that at all.
But since we don't actually have his writings, what he actually believed in and what he was said to believe may have been two different things.
 
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Halbhh

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We learn in genesis chapter 3 why these bodies die of cancer, flu, accidents, illnesses of various kinds. Storms, earthquakes....

Everyone -- A 100% fatality rate.

But we are not our bodies.
 
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Dan1988

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I also believe it's too late to stop the Antichrist system from enslaving the whole world.
The moral standard of the average person has fallen to an all time low. I read an article, which compared the moral standards of secular unbelievers in the 1950's and it showed that they they had higher moral standards than today's 'Christians'.
Today, the average Christian accepts things like the murder of unborn children and many other things that unbelievers would have rejected in the 1950'.
God gives us what we want, so we get corrupt leaders and the breakdown of the family unit. The family unit has been under attack for decades, so it's all about 'self' these days and that's exactly what the social engineers wanted.
It's easy to control an individual, so they wanted to get rid of the family unit and they have succeeded. I can't see a way back form here.
 
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Dan1988

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I appreciate your effort to include the above scriptures. All of them show that God is most certainly sovereign over everything that happens.

Christians are very divided on this question, most believe that He created everything and then sat back and allowed it to randomly unravel.

Our understanding of who God is, effects our whole worldview. Christians have very different views about the Gospel itself, even though the Gospel was recorded in plain language.

I heard that there's something like 40,000 different denominations, each one claims to posses the correct theology. Christ established His Church as one body of believers, but we find many are bitterly opposed to each other.

It's a sad indictment on the Church as a whole, it makes it harder to share the Gospel with unbelievers. They see all the various denominations rubbishing each other, so it's no wonder they're not interested.
 
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Dave L

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No we're not.. we just have different views on what He taught....
At least I'm not saying that you are worshiping a false god.. Are you saying that I am?
If Jesus is truth, a false definition = another Jesus.
 
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Dave L

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Pelagius and Arminius end up in the same place. Trusting in free will instead of Christ to save them.
 
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Dave L

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Crazy? How were they crazy?
They were confused. As scripture developed clear cut doctrines formed and we no see longer see through a glass darkly as they did. But now face to face.
 
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