From: exuptr@exu.ericsson.se (Patrick Taylor)
Newsgroups: alt.rush-limbaugh,alt.fan.rush-limbaugh
Subject: Re: Possible bases for taboos on anal sex (was Re: Homophobes...)
Date: 11 Dec 92 20:33:31 GMT
Organization: Ericsson Network Systems, Inc.
X-Disclaimer: This article was posted by a user at Ericsson.
              Any opinions expressed are strictly those of the
              user and not necessarily those of Ericsson.

In article <9DEC199219285100@zeus.tamu.edu> rlc1028@zeus.tamu.edu writes:
>In article <dlhanson.1.723836354@nap.amoco.com>, dlhanson@nap.amoco.com (David L. Hanson ) writes...
>|In article <nate.894@psygate.psych.indiana.edu> nate@psygate.psych.indiana.edu (Nathan Engle) writes:
>|>
>|>    In the pre-1600's world in the absense of any understanding of 
>|>microparasitology it must indeed have sometimes seemed that the wages 
>|>of sin were death.
>| 
>|The wages of sin always have been and always will be death.
>|"For the wages of sin is death"  Romans 3:23
>| 
>|Signature follows:
>|"Jesus saith unto him, I am THE way, THE truth, and THE life:
>|NO MAN cometh unto the Father BUT BY ME"

>I'm going to be tacky and reply to a signature.  Heaven help me.

>      "I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No man comes to the 
>       father except via me." Jn 14.6 "Unless you are reborn in the 
>       spirit, you cannot enter the kingdom of God." Jn 3.5

>A fundamental tenet of Orthodox Christianity is that people must be "saved" 
>by Jesus Christ in order to avoid going to hell after they die.  

I'm glad you brought that up.  Now what does that really mean, "reborn in
the spirit"?  It means to put down the spirit of flesh and take on the
spirit of Jesus.  It means you are willing to die to your old ways, to
surrender your will to Jesus.  Why is this necessary?  Because God cannot
look upon sin and only Jesus is perfect.  So he must see Jesus in your spirit
if you are to be saved.  It is not arbitrary for arbitrariness' sake.

>And many 
>Christians will tell you that only the few will be saved and go to heaven.  

Don't listen.  Only God knows, and each and every one can make his own 
choice freely.

>If this is so, then God surely foresaw this outcome when he created the 
>world and this scheme of reality. 

God may choose to look into the future or not, much the same way as you can
choose to recall the past or not.

>God thought that people would rather suffer eternal agony in hell than not 
>have the freedom to make moral choices on earth.  It's not a simple matter 
>of "liberty or death".  That old Colonial battle cry assumed that in death 
>there would be release of suffering under tyranny.  Eternal agony is no relief.

Good point, but where does it go?

>So, God must have thought it was best in the long run to give us free will, 
>even though it would result in the majority of people suffering eternal 
>agony in hell.  Was the free-will worship of the few so important to God?

Maybe.  Maybe it is a moral issue for Him.  Personally I believe God wants
to save every one.  Just look at the story of the Prodigal Son.

>But alas, we are told not to question the wisdom of God (lest we expose a 
>flaw in a man's theology).

You can question the wisdom of God if you like, but you are asking qeustions 
no one can answer.  It is more fruitful to question the wisdom of man ;-)
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  - Patrick Taylor, Ericsson Network Systems
    exuptr@exu.ericsson.se                    "Don't let the .se fool you"
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