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$\"\"$ <\/a>
A comment on my last post questions my words, \u201c<\/span>Indeed, I wonder if it is really up to God as well. Yes, being the all powerful one, and the Almighty judge, he is the one who consigns souls to hell, but it is also true that we choose Hell<\/span>.<\/span>\u2018 The reader is concerned that I\u2019ve taken things out of God\u2019s hands too much, and am too close to a God who is uninvolved in our world. He asks me to explain further.<\/p>\n

The analogy of an earthly judge will do. An earthly judge is the authority that sends a criminal to jail, but who really sent that person to jail? Who really made the decision that put the person behind bars? The criminal did when he chose to break the law. Sure, the judge sends him there. That\u2019s his job; but the criminal is the one who made the really crucial choice. The judge simply confirmed his choice by making sure it received the correct and just response.<\/p>\n

Does this take control from God too much? I don\u2019t think so because I believe in free will. Maybe my view on this is too speculative, but I have always understood free will to be a little smidgen of his omnipotence that God gives each one of us when he creates us in his image. We really can do what we want. We really can choose against God, against good, against beauty, against Wisdom, against Love. God really will not force us to love Him. He will not force us to live in beauty and Truth. He really will not force us into heaven, but if we will not go to heaven, then there is only one other place to go: the place where there is no goodness, no Truth, no beauty,no Love.<\/p>\n

Does God really give us a portion of his omnipotence in this thing called Free Will? I believe so because of what we did with his Son Jesus Christ. When God took human form and came to save us I believe things were open ended. We might have repented and accepted him as King and savior and then he would have redeemed us a different way. As it was, we chose to use that omnipotence God gave us and we killed the Lord of Glory.<\/p>\n

Then God\u2019s omnipotence is proved by the fact that by this most terrible crime we were redeemed. When you think about it, what is omnipotence if it is exercised by force all the time? God\u2019s omnipotence is proven in that he gives it away in the form of free will, and still his Will is done and his Divine Providence is completed.<\/p>\n

But what do I know about it? I\u2019m the theological equivalent of a poet-taster, a dilettante, an ecclesiastical jack of all trades and master of none.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"