Notice what the Banner (mag.) article quotes from The Canons of Dort:

Point three, Article 16 of the canons says, "Just as by the fall man did not cease to be man, endowed with intellect and will, and just as sin, which has spread through the whole human race, did not abolish the nature of the human race but distorted and spiritually killed it, so also this divine grace of regeneration. . . does not act in people as if they were blocks and stones; nor does it abolish the will. . . and its properties or coerce a reluctant will by force, but spiritually revives, heals, reforms. . ., and—in a manner at once pleasing and powerful—bends it back. As a result, a ready and sincere obedience of the Spirit now begins to prevail where before the rebellion and resistance of the flesh were completely dominant. It is in this that the true and spiritual restoration and freedom of our will consists. Thus, if the marvelous Maker of every good thing were not dealing with us, man would have no hope of getting up from his fall by his free choice, by which he plunged himself into ruin when still standing upright."

Seems to me that the Greek Fathers chose to speak of the "image and likeness" of Christ. We are created "after the image" of Christ, and fail to reflect "the likeness." Imagine a mirror that is smeared and who's bends distort the reflected image in strange ways.

I'm glad to see Dort using the language of "bent" and "bent back."

We should all get in the habbit of using that imagery in our thinking.

- Bruce in Chicago