Re: Saint Catherine
- From: "Marty Helgesen" <mnhcc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 3 Dec 2005 16:44:55 -0800
Keith F. Lynch wrote:
> Marty Helgesen <mnhcc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > See also Sartre's _No Exit_ for a dramatization of how bad choices
> > on Earth warp someone's character so he cannot avoid suffering.
>
> If you make nothing but good choices, you can avoid all suffering?
No, not in a general sense. Although my sentence was badly worded
and I left too much to context, I was referring to the suffering of
Hell.
> > Every sin is a choice to do one's own will in defiance of the will
> > of God.
>
> How is anyone supposed to know what the will of God is? Or even know
> whether God exists?
We can know the will of God from His revelation. Also, the Bible
teaches that some of God's law can be known by reason, examining our
nature as human beings (Romans 2:14)
People can know that God exists by faith, which can be helped by
various philosophical arguments leading to the conclusion that He
exists.
<SNIP>
> > Seeing the infinite perfection of God "face to face" makes it
> > impossible for us to choose any lesser good, so we cannot sin
> > in Heaven.
>
> How do you know? Have you ever been there? Have you ever seen Him?
I know because I believe that the Church which Jesus founded to teach
in His name teaches that, based on His revelation.
> > However, for those who die in a state of rejecting God's will,
> > their wills are fixed in the state of choosing self over God.
>
> What about those of us who neither accept nor reject?
Ultimately, everyone either accepts or rejects. In some cases,
rejecting may consist of a culpable failure to accept, like putting
the telescope to one's blind eye. (Nelson got away with doing that
because he won the battle. That won't happen in the situation we're
discussing.)
> > That is the situation of the damned in Hell. If they would repent
> > they would be admitted into Heaven, but they won't repent.
>
> What, none of them? Not even those who are landed there because they
> didn't believe in Heaven or Hell?
No, for two reasons. People go to Hell for their sins. If someone
was culpable for not believing in Heaven or Hell -- something that
only God can judge -- then he will go to Hell for the culpable fault,
not merely for not believing. Also, as a practical matter, there is
no likelihood that anyone could live his life without sinning in
other ways than not believing when he had -- in God's judgment --
sufficient reason to believe.
-------
Marty Helgesen
Bitnet: mnhcc@cunyvm Internet: mnhcc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Hopefully I use English correctly. Disgustedly I watch others
massacre it." Steven Brust
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