OrthodoXngan's Xanga

St. Isaac of Syria

Tue, 03 Apr 2007 19:34:48 GMT

As for me I say that those who are tormented in hell are tormented by the invasion of love. What is there more bitter and violent than the pains of love? Those who feel they have sinned against love bear in themselves a damnation much heavier than the most dreaded punishments. The suffering with which sinning against love afflicts the heart is more keenly felt than any other torment. It is absurd to assume that the sinners in hell are deprived of God’s love. Love is offered impartially. But by its very power it acts in two ways. It torments sinners, as happens here on earth when we are tormented by the presence of a friend to whom we have been unfaithful. And it gives joy to those who have been faithful.

That is what the torment of hell is in my opinion: remorse. But love inebriates the souls of the sons and daughters of heaven by its delectability.

God’s recompense to sinners is that, instead of a just recompense, God rewards them with resurrection.

Let yourself be persecuted, but do not persecute others.
Be crucified, but do not crucify others.
Be slandered, but do not slander others.
Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep: such is the sign of purity.
Suffer with the sick.
Be afflicted with sinners.
Exult with those who repent.
Be the friend of all, but in your spirit remain alone.
Be a partaker of the sufferings of all, but keep your body distant from all.
Rebuke no one, revile no one, not even those who live very wickedly.
Spread your cloak over those who fall into sin, each and every one, and shield them.
And if you cannot take the fault on yourself and accept punishment in their place, do not destroy their character.

What is a merciful heart? It is a heart on fire for the whole of creation, for humanity, for the birds, for the animals, for demons, and for all that exists. By the recollection of them the eyes of a merciful person pour forth tears in abundance. By the strong and vehement mercy that grips such a person’s heart, and by such great compassion, the heart is humbled and one cannot bear to hear or to see any injury or slight sorrow in any in creation. For this reason, such a person offers up tearful prayer continually even for irrational beasts, for the enemies of the truth, and for those who harm her or him, that they be protected and receive mercy. And in like manner such a person prays for the family of reptiles because of the great compassion that burns without measure in a heart that is in the likeness of God.

David B Hart, "The Anti-Theology of the Body"

Wed, 17 Jan 2007 17:56:23 GMT

The difference between John Paul’s theological anthropology and the pitilessly consistent materialism of the transhumanists and their kith—and this is extremely important to grasp—is a difference not simply between two radically antagonistic visions of what it is to be a human being, but between two radically antagonistic visions of what it is to be a god. There is, as it happens, nothing inherently wicked in the desire to become a god, at least not from the perspective of Christian tradition; and I would even say that if there is one element of the transhumanist creed that is not wholly contemptible—one isolated moment of innocence, however fleeting and imperfect—it is the earnestness with which it gives expression to this perfectly natural longing. Theologically speaking, the proper destiny of human beings is to be “glorified”—or “divinized”—in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, to become “partakers of the divine nature” (II Peter 1:4), to be called “gods” (Psalm 82:6; John 10:34-36). This is the venerable doctrine of “theosis” or “deification,” the teaching that—to employ a lapidary formula of great antiquity—“God became man that man might become god”: that is to say, in assuming human nature in the incarnation, Christ opened the path to union with the divine nature for all persons...

The materialist who wishes to see modern humanity’s Baconian mastery over cosmic nature expanded to encompass human nature as well—granting us absolute power over the flesh and what is born from it, banishing all fortuity and uncertainty from the future of the race—is someone who seeks to reach the divine by ceasing to be human, by surpassing the human, by destroying the human. It is a desire both fantastic and depraved: a diseased titanism, the dream of an infinite passage through monstrosity, a perpetual and ruthless sacrifice of every present good to the featureless, abysmal, and insatiable god who is to come. For the Christian to whom John Paul speaks, however, one can truly aspire to the divine only through the charitable cultivation of glory in the flesh, the practice of holiness, the love of God and neighbor; and, in so doing, one seeks not to take leave of one’s humanity, but to fathom it in its ultimate depth, to be joined to the Godman who would remake us in himself, and so to become simul divinus et creatura. This is a pure antithesis. For those who, on the one hand, believe that life is merely an accidental economy of matter that should be weighed by a utilitarian calculus of means and ends and those who, on the other, believe that life is a supernatural gift oriented towards eternal glory, every moment of existence has a different significance and holds a different promise. To the one, a Down syndrome child (for instance) is a genetic scandal, one who should probably be destroyed in the womb as a kind of oblation offered up to the social good and, of course, to some immeasurably remote future; to the other, that same child is potentially (and thus far already) a being so resplendent in his majesty, so mighty, so beautiful that we could scarcely hope to look upon him with the sinful eyes of this life and not be consumed.

Full article: http://www.thenewatlantis.com/archive/9/hart.htm

Divine Eros

Fri, 18 Aug 2006 17:48:48 GMT

“Well, as long as we do not know God experientially then we should at least realize that we are simply ideological believers,” Father Maximos replied dryly. “The ideal and ultimate form of true faith means having direct experience of God as a living reality.”

I went on to mention that experiencing God may be as “simple” as seeing God in the beauty and complexity of nature. Father Maximos agreed but pointed out, however, that the experience of God is something much more profound than that, impossible to pin down with words or poetical constructions.

“If this is true,” I reasoned, "then the Creed within the Christian tradition does not mean what most people assume to be its message, that is, a blind faith in the idea of God.”

“That's a popular fallacy with all its disastrous consequences. True faith means that I live with God, I am one with God. I have come to know God and therefore I know that He truly Is. God lives inside me and is victorious over death and I move forward with God. The entire methodology of the authentic Christian mystical tradition as articulated by the saints is to reach that stage where we become conscious of the reality of God within ourselves. Until we reach that point we simply remain stranded within the domain of ideas and not within the essence of Christian spirituality which is the direct communion with God.”

....

“The spiritual methodology developed by the saints,” Father Maximos explained, “aims at offering us the possibility of the direct vision of God. When that happens, as I have said many times, it is no longer a matter of belief in the existence of God but a direct recognition of the eternal and unbroken relationship that exists between God and humanity.”

“And of course, the essence of that relationship,” he added, “is Love, which first emanates from God to humans and then from humans to God. It may sound scandalous to some people, but the full flowering of that relationship is the attainment of a deeply erotic relationship with God that lies far beyond the most intense and the most passionate erotic rapture between human beings. That state of ecstasy is what Saint Maximos the Confessor called the eros maniakos [maniacal erotic love]...”

--The Mountain of Silence, pp. 45-46

-----------------

Wounded by Love - Elder Porphyrios

On Divine Eros

He who loves little, gives little. He who loves more, gives more. And he who loves beyond measure, what has he to give? He gives himself!

Christ is our love, our desire

Christ is joy, the true light, happiness. Christ is our hope. Our relation to Christ is love, eros, passion, enthusiasm, longing for the divine. Christ is everything. He is our love. He is the object of our desire. This passionate longing for Christ is a love that cannot be taken away. This is where joy flows from.

Christ himself is joy. He is a joy that transforms you into a different person. It is a spiritual madness, but in Christ. This spiritual wine inebriates you like pure unadulterated wine. As David says, You have anointed my head with oil and your cup intoxicates me most mightily [Ps.22:5]. Spiritual wine is unmixed, unadulterated, exceedingly strong, and when you drink it, it makes you drunk. This divine intoxication is a gift of God that is given to the pure in heart [Matt.5:8].

Fast as much as you can, make as many prostrations as you can, attend as many vigils as you like, but be joyful. Have Christ's joy. It is the joy that lasts forever, that brings eternal happiness. It is the joy of our Lord that gives assured serenity, serene delight and full happiness. All-joyful joy that surpasses every joy. Christ desires and delights in scattering joy, in enriching his faithful with joy. I pray that your joy may be full. [John16:24&1John1:4]

This is what our religion is. This is the direction we must take. Christ is Paradise, my children. What is Paradise? It is Christ. Paradise begins here and now. It is exactly the same: those who experience Christ here on earth, experience Paradise. That's the way it is, just as I tell you. This is right, it's true, believe me! Our task is to attempt to find a way to enter into the light of Christ. The point is not to observe all the outward forms. The essence of the matter is for us to be with Christ; for our soul to wake up and love Christ and become holy. To abandon herself to divine eros. Thus He too will love us. Then the joy will be inalienable. That is what Christ wants most of all, to fill us with joy, because He is the well-spring of joy. This joy is a gift of Christ. In this joy we will come to know Christ. We cannot come to know Him unless He first comes to know us. How does David put it? Unless the Lord builds the house, they labour in vain that build it; unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. [Ps.126:1]

These are the things our soul desires to acquire. If we prepare ourselves appropriately, grace will bestow them on us. It's not difficult. If we acquire grace, everything is easy, joyful and a blessing from God. Divine grace is constantly knocking at the door of our soul and waiting for us to open so that it can enter our thirsty heart and fill it. The fullness is Christ, our Holy Lady, the Holy Trinity. What marvelous things!

If you are in love, you can live amid the hustle and bustle of the city centre and not be aware that you are in the city centre. You see neither cars nor people nor anything else. Within yourself you are with the person you love. You experience her, you take delight in her, she inspires you. Are these things not true? Imagine that the person you love is Christ. Christ is in your mind. Christ is in your heart. Christ is in your whole being, Christ is everywhere.

Christ is life, the source of life, the source of joy, the source of true light, everything. Whoever loves Christ and other people truly lives life. Life without Christ is death; it is hell, not life. That is what hell is -- the absence of love. Life is Christ. Love is the life of Christ. Either you will be in life or in death. It's up to you to decide.

One thing is our aim -- love for Christ, for the Church, for our neighbor. Love, worship of, and craving for God, the union with Christ and with the Church is Paradise on earth. Love towards Christ and towards one's neighbor, towards everyone, including enemies. The Christian feels for everyone, he wants all to be saved, all to taste the Kingdom of God. That is Christianity: through love for our brother to arrive at love for God. To the extent that we desire it, to the extent that we wish it, to the extent that we are worthy, divine grace comes through our brother. When we love our brother we love the Church and therefore Christ. And we too are within the Church. Therefore when we love the Church we love ourselves.

There is one thing, O Christ, that I want, one thing I desire, one thing I ask for, and that is to be with You.

Let us love Christ and let our only hope and care be for Him. Let us love Christ for His own sake only. Never for our sake. Let Him put us wherever He likes. Let Him give us whatever He wishes. Don't let's love Him for His gifts. It's egotistical for us to say: 'Christ will place me in a fine mansion which He has prepared, just as the Gospel says: In my Father's house there are many mansions...so that where I am you may be also [John14:2-3]. What we should say rather is: 'My Christ, whatever Your love dictates; it is sufficient for me to live within Your love.'

As for myself, poor soul...what can I say...I'm very weak. I haven't managed to love Christ so very fervently and for my soul to long for Him. I feel that I have a very long way to go. I haven't arrived at where I want to be; I don't experience this love. But I'm not discouraged. I trust in the love o God. I say to Christ: 'I know I'm not worthy. Send me wherever Your love wishes. That's what I desire, that's what I want. During my life I always worshiped you.

When I was seriously ill and on the point of leaving this life, I didn't want to think about my sins. I wanted to think about the love of my Lord, my Christ, and about eternal life. I didn't want to feel fear. I wanted to go to the Lord and to think about His goodness, His love. And now that my life is nearing its end, I don't feel anxiety or apprehension, but I think that when I appear at the Second Coming and Christ says to me: Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment? [Matt.22:12] I will bow my head and I will say to Him: 'Whatever you want, my Lord, whatever your love desires. I know I am not worthy. Send me wherever your love wishes. I am fit for hell. And place me in hell, as long as I am with you. There is one thing I want, one thing I desire, one thing I ask for, and that is to be with You, wherever and however You wish.'

I try to give myself over entirely to the love and worship of God. I have consciousness of my sinfulness, but I live with hope. It is bad to despair, because someone who despairs becomes embittered and loses his willingness and strength. Someone who has hope, on the contrary, advances forward. Because he feels that he is poor, he tries to enrich himself. What does a poor man do? If he is smart, he tries to find a way to become rich.

And so in spite of the fact that I feel weak and that I haven't achieved what I desire, I nevertheless do not fall into despair. It is a consolation to me, as I've told you, that I don't cease to try continually. Yet I don't do what I want to. Pray for me. The point is that I cannot love Christ absolutely without His grace. Christ does not allow His love to show itself if my soul has not done something to attract Him to me.

And perhaps that's what I'm lacking. And so I entreat God and say, 'I'm very weak, O Christ. Only You with Your grace will be able to allow me to say along with Saint Paul the Apostle, It is no longer I who live; Christ lives in me [Gal.2:20]

That is what preoccupies me. I try to find ways to love Christ. This love is never sated. However much you love Christ, you always think that you don't love Him and you long all the more to love him. And without being aware of it, you go higher and higher!

When Christ enters your heart, your life changes

When you find Christ, you are satisfied, you desire nothing else, you find peace. You become a different person. You live everywhere, wherever Christ is. You live in the stars, in infinity, in heaven with the angels, with the saints, on earth with people, with plants, with animals, with everyone and everything. When there is love for Christ, loneliness disappears. You are peaceable, joyous, full. Neither melancholy, nor illness, nor pressure, nor anxiety, nor depression, nor hell.

Christ is in all your thoughts, in all your actions. You have grace and you can endure everything for Christ. You can even suffer unjustly. You can endure injustices for Christ, and indeed with joy. Just as He suffered, so you too can suffer unjustly. Did you choose Christ in order to avoid suffering? What does Saint Paul say? I rejoice in my sufferings. [Col.1:24] This is our religion: for our soul to awake and love Christ and become holy, to give herself over to divine eros. And so He, too, will love her.

When Christ enters your heart, your life changes. Christ is everything. Whoever experiences Christ within himself, experiences ineffable things – holy and sacred things. He lives in exultation. These things are true. People have experienced them – hermits on the Holy Mountain. Continually and with longing they whisper the prayer: 'Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'

When Christ enters your heart, your passions disappear. You are unable to swear, or hate, or seek revenge or anything. Howe could there be hatreds, dislikes, censures, egotisms, anxieties, depressions? What holds sway is Christ – and longing for the unsetting light. This longing makes you feel that death is a bridge that you will cross in an instant in order to continue the life of Christ. Here on earth you have an impediment and so you need faith. This impediment is the body. After death, however, faith is abolished and you see Christ as you see the sun. In eternity, of course, you will experience everything more intensely.

When Grace is energized in the heart of the one who prays, then the love of God floods his entire being to such an extent that he may not be able to take more. Then this love is transferred to the love of the world and the human person. His love becomes so powerful that he asks to take upon himself all the suffering and unhappiness of the others so that they themselves may be relieved. He suffers with those who are suffering even for the suffering of animals, so much so that he sheds bitter tears when he becomes aware of their pain. These are the attributes of Love. But you must keep in mind that it is prayer that energizes them and causes them. That is why those who have advanced in the prayer never stop praying for the World.
--Monk Joseph, Geron Iosef Oh Hesychastes [Elder Joseph the Hesychast]

Thanksgiving and Sin

Thu, 10 Aug 2006 22:46:43 GMT

...the Church convicts sin though her thanksgiving. Through it she recognizes the "vital essence" of evil, the source of sin as unthankfulness, as man's falling away from the "hymning, blessing, praising, giving thanks and worshiping" through which he lives--for man, and in him all creation, knows God and has communion with him. Not giving thanks is the root and the driving force of that pride in which all teachers of the spiritual life, that "art of arts," without exception see the sin that tore man away from God. For the subtlest spiritual essence of pride, properly distinguishable only in the spiritual effort of "discernment of spirits," lies precisely in the fact that, as opposed to all other causes ascribed to the fall, it alone is not from below but from above: it is not from imperfection but from completion, not from deficiency but from an overabundance of gifts, and not from some unexplainable "evil" of an unknown origin, but from enticement and temptation of the divine "very good" of creation and man. Pride is opposed to thanksgiving precisely as unthanksgiving because it arose from the same causes as thanksgiving. It is another, opposite answer to the same gift; it is temptation by the same gift.

We know that, according to the testimony of all who follow the path of struggle with sin, temptation is not yet sin. Christ himself was tempted, and precisely by the gifts he possessed: power, authority, miracle-working. In fact, every gift of God to man, his divine image and perfection itself, is a temptation--and above all the gift to man of his I, the miracle of his absolutely unique, eternal, unrepeatable and indivisible personality, which renders each man "like a king of creation." Temptation is inherent to the personality because out of all creation only man is called by God to love himself, i.e., to be conscious of his divine gift and the miracle of his I. It is actually only through this love for himself that man comprehends God as the Life of his life, as the absolutely desired Thou, in which he finds himself, his fulness, his happiness, his human I, created in the image and likeness of God, who is love. The human personality is love for oneself and thus love for oneself as a bearer of the divine gift of knowledge and ascent into the fulness of life. And here it is innate to convert this love for himself that is implicit in man into love of oneself, into self-love, which constitutes the essence of pride.

No, man is not enticed by "evil" but by himself, by his own divine image, by the divine miracle of his I. He heard the serpent's whisper "you will be like gods" not from outside, but from within, in the blessed fulness of paradise, and wanted to have life in himself and for himself. He wanted all of God's gifts as his own and for himself: "I looked upon the beauty of the garden and my mind was deceived..." (Canon of St Andrew of Crete, ode 2,1)

The fall of man occurred here, at these heights and from these heights: "you will be like gods." But these words were in fact stolen from God. God created us and called us into "his wonderful light" so that we would become "like gods" and have abundant life. What then transformed these words into a lie, into the beginning of the fall, into the source of sin, decay and death? The answer to this question is given precisely by the eucharist, by the thanksgiving that returns us to the throne of the kingdom, grants us to see the face of God and his creation, heaven and earth, the fulfilment of his glory. The eucharist answers not with definitions, words about words, but with its own light and power. For thanksgiving is the power that transforms desire and satisfaction, love and possession, into life, that fulfils everything in the world, given to us by God, into knowledge of God and communion with him. And thus only thanksgiving convicts, i.e., exposes, sin as the falling away of love from thanksgiving, as unthankfulness. Created in the image and likeness of God, who is love, man cannot cease to be love, he "admires" all the same gifts. But it is a love that has ceased to be thanksgiving, i.e., the knowledge of the gift of life and everything in life as not only God's, from God, but as the revelation of God's love to man, as a call to man to transform all gifts and life itself into partaking of the divine life, into knowledge of God.

Life in oneself... But only the Father has "life in himself" (Jn 5:26), only God is Life and therefore the life of any life. The horror and finality of the fall lies in this: wanting life in himself and for himself, man fell away from life. Through sin death entered the world (Rm 5:12) and the world itself became "darkness and the shadow of death." Not transformed by thanksgiving into the "food of immortality," into communion unto life, it became communion unto death, and love for the world. Not transformed by thanksgiving into knowledge of God, it became a dim and self-devouring "lust of the flesh and lust of the eyes and pride of life" (1 Jn 2:16). "Man is a passion, but a useless passion." In saying this Jean-Paul Sartre did not of course know what happened in the falling away of man, in that "original sin," in which ceasing to be a sacrament of thanksgiving, the world died, and life became dying.

We know that all of this, the terrible lawlessness and untruth of sin, the bottomless sorrow and death-dealing power of our fall from God, the power of evil, had once reigned in the world each time that, from the heavenly heights to which Christ's thanksgiving had raised us, these two expressions come forth: "when we had fallen away Thou didst raise us up again..." But we know it because we have been restored, because we have access to the Father and have been made partakers of the kingdom which is to come: "and Thou didst not cease to do all things until Thou hadst brought us up to heaven, and hadst endowed us with Thy Kingdom which is to come."

In Christ human nature is lifted up to heaven, sanctified, deified. "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him, God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God" (1 Cor 2:9).

Paradise was on earth, but we have ascended to heaven, and even now our life "is hid with Christ in God" (Col 3:3). The revelation of this last and highest gift, its endowment, is precisely the Church. And this endowment is accomplished in the sacrament of thanksgiving, in which the Church fulfils herself as heaven on earth.

Blessed Father Alexander Schmemann, "The Eucharist" pp 187-190

Orthodox Circle

Mon, 31 Jul 2006 23:56:02 GMT

http://www.orthodoxcircle.com/

Sunday, April 30, 2006

Sun, 30 Apr 2006 01:23:01 GMT

This excert is something I thought worthy to be read on this blog. This letter written in the second century explains how the ideal Christian should live thier lives, and be a constant reminder and encourager for us to do so. Peace be with you.

...For Christians cannot be distinguished from the rest of the human race by country or language or customs. ²They do not live in cities of their own; they do not use a peculiar form of speech; they do not follow an eccentric manner of life. ³This doctrine of theirs has not been discovered by the ingenuity or deep thought of inquisitive men, nor do they put forward a merely human teaching, as some people do. ⁴Yet, although they live in Greek and barbarian cities alike, as each man's lot has been cast, and follow the customs of the country in clothing and food and other matters of daily living, at the same time they give proof of the remarkable and admittedly extraordinary constitution of their own commonwealth. ⁵They live in their own countries, but only as aliens. They have a share in everything as citizens, and endure everything as foreigners. Every foreign land is their fatherland, and yet for them every fatherland is a foreign land. ⁶They marry, like everyone else, and they beget children, but they do not cast out their offspring. ⁷They share their board with each other, but not their marriage bed. ⁸It is true that they are "in the flesh," but they do not live "according to the flesh." ⁹They busy themselves on earth, but their citizenship is in heaven. ¹⁰They obey the established laws, but in their own lives they go far beyond what the laws require. ¹¹They love all men, and by all men are persecuted. ¹²They are unknown, and still they are condemned; they are put to death, and yet they are brought to life. ¹³They are poor, and yet they make many rich; they are completely destitute, and yet they enjoy complete abundance. ¹⁴They are dishonored, and in their very dishonor are glorified; they are defamed, and are vindicated. ¹⁵They are reviled, and yet they bless; when they are affronted, they still pay due respect. ¹⁶When they do good, they are punished as evildoers; undergoing punishment, they rejoice because they are brought to life. ¹⁷They are treated by the Jews as foreigners and enemies, and are hunted down by the Greeks; and all the time those who hate them find it impossible to justify their enmity.

6 To put it simply: What the soul is in the body, that Christians are in the world. ²The soul is dispersed through all the members of the body, and Christians are scattered through all the cities of the world. ³The soul dwells in the body, but does not belong to the body, and Christians dwell in the world, but do not belong to the world. ⁴The soul, which is invisible, is kept under guard in the visible body; in the same way, Christians are recognised when they are in the world, but their religion remains unseen. ⁵The flesh hates the soul and treats it as an enemy, even though it has suffered no wrong, because it is prevented from enjoying its pleasures; so too the world hates Christians, even though it suffers no wrong at their hands, because they range themselves against its pleasures. ⁶The soul loves the flesh that hates it, and its members; in the same way, Christians love those who hate them. ⁷The soul is shut up in the body, and yet itself holds the body together; while Christians are restrained in the world as in a prison, and yet themselves hold the world together. ⁸The soul, which is immortal, is housed in a mortal dwelling; while Christians are settled among corruptible things, to wait for the incorruptibility that will be theirs in heaven. ⁹The soul, when faring badly as to food and drink, grows better; so too Christians, when punished, day by day increase more and more. ¹⁰It is to no less a post than this that God has ordered them, and they must not try to evade it....

Letter to Diognetus, 2nd Century A.D. Circa

You can read the rest of this letter HERE.

And other ancient Christian works & links too HERE This website is pretty easy to navigate.

Monday, April 24, 2006

Mon, 24 Apr 2006 18:25:40 GMT

Christ is Risen!

Monday, April 03, 2006

Mon, 03 Apr 2006 19:05:13 GMT

This is related to Orthodoxy in a way--but not necessarily theological in nature. Although I am sure it could be made into an theological argument! :)

The past couple days I have been confronted with something totally un-expected. Over some long conversations with a friend of mine, her name being Stacy, I have began to discover that I am attracted to her--and she is not a believer. I am not talking about a "Non-Orthodox" Christian, but a non-believer period. As in she doesn't know Jesus through any of the Christian traditions/denominations.

I know what Apostle Paul wrote on the subject, of how "a believer and on-believer cannot be equally yoked"--but the delema is this, she seems open to the Gospel and such, and I have been trying to take opportunities to share my faith with her, but how do I do that without my 'feelings' getting in the way? How can I remain objective without inadvertently falling for her? I have always known that I could not have a relationship with a non-believer, because we couldn't share the most important aspect of my or any other Christian's life--Christ. If He could not be the center of that relationship, I just don't think it could work.

And aside from this--I want to bring her to the knowledge of Christ...but now that my personal feelings are involved, I am worried that I will mess things up. Please pray for me in this--and comments on this will be completely appreciated.

power_of_thought

Did God Create Evil?

Fri, 31 Mar 2006 20:14:56 GMT

heh. I got this from one of those annoying lame-brain emails that are desperately trying to make you think and failing miserably, but I actually kind of liked this one. Supposedly, Einstein was the student in this, but . . . . I really don't know the validity of that claim.

>The university professor challenged his students with this question:
>"Did God create everything that exists? "
>
>A student bravely replied "Yes, he did!"
>
>"God created everything?" the professor asked.
>
>"Yes, sir," the student replied.
>
>The professor answered, "If God created everything, then God created
>evil
>since evil exists, and according to the principle that our works
>define who
>we
>are, then God is evil."
>The professor was quite pleased with himself and boasted to the
>students
>that
>he had proven once more that the Christian faith was a myth.
>
>Another student raised his hand and said,
>
>"Can I ask you a question professor?"
>
>"Of course," replied the professor.
>
>The student stood up and asked, "Professor, does cold exist?"
>
>The professor replied, "Of course it exists.
>
>Have you never been cold?"
>
>The students snickered at the young man's question.
>
>The young man replied, "In fact sir, cold does not exist. According
>to the
>laws of physics, what we consider cold is in reality the absence of
>heat.
>Everybody or object is susceptible to study when it has or transmits
>energy, and
>heat is what makes a body, or matter, have or transmit energy.
>Absolute
>zero (-460 degrees F) is the total absence of heat. Cold does not exist. We
>have
>created this word to describe how we feel if we have no heat.
>
>The student continued. "Professor, does darkness exist?"
>
>The professor responded, "Of course it does."
>
>The student replied, "Once again you are wrong sir.
>
>Darkness does not exist either. Darkness is in reality the absence
>of
>light.
>Light, we can study, but not darkness. In fact we can use Newton's
>prism to
>break white light into many colors and study the various wavelengths
>of
>each
>color. You cannot measure darkness. A simple ray of light can break
>into a
>world
>of darkness and illuminate it. How can you know how dark a certain
>space
>is?
>You measure the amount of light present. Isn't this correct?
>Darkness is a term used by man to describe what happens when there
>is no
>light present."
>
>Finally the young man asked the professor. "Sir, does evil exist?"
>
>Now uncertain, the professor responded, "Of course, as I have
>already said.
>We see it every day. It is in the daily example of man's inhumanity
>to man.
>It
>is in the multitude of crime and violence everywhere in the world.
>These
>manifestations are nothing else but evil."
>
>To this the student replied, "Evil does not exist sir, or at least
>it does
>not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just
>like
>darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the
>absence of
>God. God
>did not create evil. Evil is the result of what happens when man
>does not
>have
>God's love present in his heart. It's like the cold that comes when
>there
>is
>no heat or the darkness that comes when there is no light."
>
>The professor sat down.
>
>The young man's name --- Albert Einstein

yeah, it's the type of spammy email that generally makes me want to puke, but I really liked this argument. although if you ask me---that professor's pretty clueless. but I like it anyway.

-Ingenius_Inevitable

Sunday, March 05, 2006

Sun, 05 Mar 2006 23:15:03 GMT

Hey Seeker of Truth,
I can't come up with any arguments that I think will convince you. Thanks for the discussion.
-malenkaya