Not all that is good is a blessing, and not all that is evil is a curse. Knowing both what God is, and is not, is a blessing. Knowing only what God is, or is not, is a curse. Good is what God is. Evil is what God is not. God reveals both what He is, and is not, because anything, even God, is revealed just as much by what it is not as it is by what it is. Many Christians are left to believe they man had no problems until we sinned. Nothing could be farther from the truth. We had a terrible problem before we sinned. In deed, the law that brought forth sin is the beginning of the solution not the beginning of the problem. God is good. God can only do good. God can only create what is good. That's a problem. If a creature cannot know both good and evil, both what God is and is not, that creature cannot know the difference between them self and God. They will be left to believe that they are enough of an equal with God to have a relationship with Him wherein the their responsibility, to God, for themselves, extends from their authority over themselves. That is commonly referred to as a 'free-will' relationship. Free-will relationships can only occur between equals. In a free-will relationship, one's responsibility for oneself extends from one's authority over oneself. In relationships between sovereigns and subjects, such as between Creator and creature or author and character, the subject's responsibility for them self extends from the sovereign's authority over them. Adam and Eve were left to believe that they had a 'free-will' relationship with God because they only knew what God is. They had no idea what God is not. They knew only good. That is a problem. So, how does a God, Who can only do good, can only create what is good, reveal evil? The solution was genius. God gave them a law to break, so that when they broke it, when they sinned, they would know both good and evil. God revealed evil to us via our own sin, then He wrote Himself into the story, equal to any other character in the story in as much as He was equal to them as a character, whilst retaining His authorship, He paid the penalty for our sin. The devil never sinned. The devil never sinned because he was never given a law to break. One could say that he sinned by proxy, by getting those who were given a law to break it, but the devil, himself, never sinned. Therefore, evil remains unrevealed to him. Even though the devil has become the very personification of evil, evil remains totally unrevealed to him. To this very day, the devil is left to sincerely believe that he is as good as God. We were well on our way to the same fate as is evidenced by the fact that we did sin when given the opportunity. Christians, who are left to believe that they have a 'free-will' relationship with God have simply gotten 'back to the garden". There's more, much more Neo. The penalty for sin is death. God created one human flesh in Adam. All human bodies have come from that one human flesh. All human bodies are composed of human flesh. God created one human spirit in Adam. All human souls have come from that one human spirit. All human souls are composed of human spirit. Human spirit died in Adam and Eve. Every human conceived of a man and a woman is conceived with living human flesh and dead human spirit. we were each conceived with living bodies and dead souls. We're already dead. That's why we need to be born again. Jesus died for everyone's sins for all of time, but He did it AFTER the death penalty had been carried out on everyone of all time. We are born; in deed, we are conceived already dead. That's why we need to be born again. To my brothers and sisters in Christ, to those who have received the Holy Spirit as a deposit guaranteeing their rebirth on that great day - We didn't go through all of this because something got out of control, or because God "sovereignly-subjected" Himself to human volition. We've gone through this for the reason I outlined above. We've gone through all of this to dispossess us of the idea that we have 'free-will' relationships with our Author and Creator. The most telling thing that humans have in common with the devil is that they are left to believe that they have 'free-will' relationship with God. God gives us the desires of our hearts, all of them, all of the time. A blessing is a God given desire for the good that God is. A curse is a desire for the evil that God is not. Blessings and curses are not the fulfillments or frustrations of desires; they are the desires themselves. "WHEN you eat from it, you will surely die."
I began two discussions here that relate to these ideas...... A message from Adam to all mankind by Rick Joyner. and..... The Book of Adam and Eve? actually a third one........ Could Lucifer be the name of the white horse of Revelation.
Problem is, you can in no way show your god exists, let alone show anything in your post to be correct.
I would react more to the tittle than the text because I have nothing to say about the text. Stoïcian and many other wisdoms think that hardships is necessary. Seneca would say "we test the gold with fire", or "nothing will please more the gods to see a valuable man tested".
Material contingency is empirical evidence of necessary being. To date, I am left to believe that the God of the bible uniquely fulfills the implications of a necessary being.
And you can in no way show that any god exists, let alone your god of the Bible. You can't show that a god is a necessary being, or that humans are contingent beings.
Bricklayer has a limited amount of material. He repeats it again and again. His "necessary" and "contingent" claims are just that...his mere assertions. Of course, he assumes them to be true and attempts to peddle them on others. He fails.
If contingent being exists, necessary being must exist. To date, I am left to believe that the God of the bible uniquely fulfills the implications of a necessary being. As a contingent being, the closest thing I have to proof positive is experimental repeatability. As a contingent being, it's not so much that ideas are really ever proved to me as it is that all of the other ideas I've considered have been disproved. What remains is what I am left to believe. Then, that's tested, and so on, and so on.
