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To: Terabitten

“If we say our God is an all-loving god

How does anyone who believes that ever become an archbishop to begin with?”

The same way a monk named Anthony became +Anthony the Great teaching this:

“God is good, dispassionate, and immutable. Now someone who thinks it reasonable and true to affirm that God does not change, may well ask how, in that case, it is possible to speak of God as rejoicing over those who are good and showing mercy to those who honor Him, and as turning away from the wicked and being angry with sinners. To this it must be answered that God neither rejoices nor grows angry, for to rejoice and to be offended are passions; nor is He won over by the gifts of those who honor Him, for that would mean He is swayed by pleasure. It is not right that the Divinity feel pleasure or displeasure from human conditions. He is good, and He only bestows blessings and never does harm, remaining always the same. We men, on the other hand, if we remain good through resembling God, are united to Him, but if we become evil through not resembling God, we are separated from Him. By living in holiness we cleave to God; but by becoming wicked we make Him our enemy. It is not that He grows angry with us in an arbitrary way, but it is our own sins that prevent God from shining within us and expose us to demons who torture us. And if through prayer and acts of compassion we gain release from our sins, this does not mean that we have won God over and made Him to change, but that through our actions and our turning to the Divinity, we have cured our wickedness and so once more have enjoyment of God’s goodness. Thus to say that God turns away from the wicked is like saying that the sun hides itself from the blind.”


6 posted on 05/15/2009 8:57:53 AM PDT by Kolokotronis (Christ is Risen, and you, o death, are annihilated!)
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To: Kolokotronis

Your analogy doesn’t fit.


10 posted on 05/15/2009 9:01:18 AM PDT by pgkdan ( I miss Ronald Reagan!)
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To: Kolokotronis
To this it must be answered that God neither rejoices nor grows angry

I'm not sure if you meant your post to be in agreement or opposition to mine, Kolokotronis my brother. The idea that God neither feels joy nor anger is utterly unsupported by Scripture. God's joy and wrath are themes found throughout Holy Scripture - often from His own mouth.

27 posted on 05/16/2009 6:04:13 AM PDT by Terabitten (Vets wrote a blank check, payable to the Constitution, for an amount up to and including their life.)
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