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From: aeq@pucc-h (Jeff Sargent)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: Re: More replies to Ken (and general comments)
Message-ID: <1470@pucc-h>
Date: Sat, 10-Nov-84 10:15:23 EST
Article-I.D.: pucc-h.1470
Posted: Sat Nov 10 10:15:23 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 13-Nov-84 08:07:47 EST
References: <1845@nsc.UUCP>
Organization: High-level Operating Systems Experts [HOSE], Inc.
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>> = Ken Nichols
>  = Chuq Von Rospach

>>... "God wants to save us."  Not everyone will be saved.  Some people don't
>>think there is anything to be saved from, so why would they accept a Saviour?

You just touched on one of my pet peeves about many Christians -- insisting on
using spelling (in this case) or phraseology (thee, thou, and the appropriate
archaic verb forms) which are not current in 20th-century America.  "Savior",
with the capital S, is sufficient.  But that's not the main point of this
article....

> But can't God do anything? If so, then why can't He save everyone? Being
> all powerful, He can do anything He wants, so if He wants to save us,
> aren't we saved?

This ties back into the great question of free will.  God is a gentleman; He
will not force Himself on you.  (I'll say it before someone else does:  We
could learn a lot from Him....)  If you choose to spend life and eternity
without Him, He will honor that choice.  In a sense, He indeed cannot give us
Heaven if we have rejected Him on earth -- not because He wants to punish us
for that rejection (He's not that petty), but rather because we are so intent
on holding onto our own selves and lives that we cannot receive the much
greater love, joy, peace, et al. which God wishes to give us.  (I know this
from experience; some Christians fight God too, but eventually realize --
rationally -- that they're only hurting themselves by doing so.)  And again,
God insists on giving us free will (whether we like it or not), so He won't
force us to give up ourselves; we would be only automata if He did, and He
would find that, if nothing else, supremely uninteresting.

-- 
-- Jeff Sargent
{decvax|harpo|ihnp4|inuxc|seismo|ucbvax}!pur-ee!pucc-h:aeq
"I'm not asking for anyone's bleeding charity."
"Then do.  At once.  Ask for the Bleeding Charity."