RE: Free interpretation of the Genesis 3:5 KJV
November 12, 2016 at 7:29 pm
(This post was last modified: November 12, 2016 at 7:31 pm by Funky_Gibbon.
Edit Reason: Attributing Quote
)
I'd disagree... I like W.H. Auden on Hell... which is ironically a lot closer to the Eastern Orthodox interpretation of is as I understand it.
"Criminal laws are laws-for, imposed on, with or without their consent... IF God created man, then the laws of spiritual nature must, like the laws of physical nature, be laws-of, laws, that is to say, which one is free to DEFY but not to BREAK, anymore than one is free to "break" the law of gravity by jumping out the window..."
To state the laws of God in the imperative "Thou Shalt! Thou Shalt Not!" - is simply a pedagogical technique... as when a mother says "Stay away from that window!" because the child does not know what shall happen when he falls out of it.
In the case of physical laws we learn very soon the painful consequences of defying them. A broken leg for trying to defy gravity. But in the case of spiritual laws, where the consequences of breaking them are not immediately perceptible to the senses and take effect only gradually, we are all too inclined to behave as if we know better.
Since God has given us the freedom to either accept His love and obey them the laws of our created nature or reject it and defy them, He cannot prevent us from going to Hell and staying there if that is what we insist upon.
All sins tend towards the addictive and the terminal point of addiction is what is called damnation."
~ Not word for word, but the jist of a good section on Hell from W.H. Auden's work " A Certain World".
"Criminal laws are laws-for, imposed on, with or without their consent... IF God created man, then the laws of spiritual nature must, like the laws of physical nature, be laws-of, laws, that is to say, which one is free to DEFY but not to BREAK, anymore than one is free to "break" the law of gravity by jumping out the window..."
To state the laws of God in the imperative "Thou Shalt! Thou Shalt Not!" - is simply a pedagogical technique... as when a mother says "Stay away from that window!" because the child does not know what shall happen when he falls out of it.
In the case of physical laws we learn very soon the painful consequences of defying them. A broken leg for trying to defy gravity. But in the case of spiritual laws, where the consequences of breaking them are not immediately perceptible to the senses and take effect only gradually, we are all too inclined to behave as if we know better.
Since God has given us the freedom to either accept His love and obey them the laws of our created nature or reject it and defy them, He cannot prevent us from going to Hell and staying there if that is what we insist upon.
All sins tend towards the addictive and the terminal point of addiction is what is called damnation."
~ Not word for word, but the jist of a good section on Hell from W.H. Auden's work " A Certain World".
