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Electra
Registered Member
Date Joined Feb 2002
Total Posts : 611
| Posted 2/6/2003 4:16 AM (GMT -6) |   | This passage is from the book of Sirach, which Paul was fond of quoting from:
Do not say, “It was the Lord’s doing that I fell away”;
for he does not do what he hates.
Do not say, “It was he who led me astray”;
for he has no need of the sinful.
The Lord hates all abominations;
such things are not loved by those who fear him.
It was he who created humankind in the beginning,
and he left them in the power of their own free choice.
If you choose, you can keep the commandments,
and to act faithfully is a matter of your own choice.
He has placed before you fire and water;
stretch out your hand for whichever you choose.
Before each person are life and death,
and whichever one chooses will be given.
For great is the wisdom of the Lord;
he is mighty in power and sees everything;
his eyes are on those who fear him,
and he knows every human action.
He has not commanded anyone to be wicked,
and he has not given anyone permission to sin.
(Sirach 15:11–20)
Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Matt. 10:8 | | Back to Top | | |
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GregBoyd
Registered Member
Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 1818
| Posted 2/6/2003 4:21 AM (GMT -6) | | Great quote Electra. Thanks. It shows not only a belief in free will, but the persistent temptation -- very common during the intertestamental period -- to deny it and fall into fatalism.
Greg
"In Christ...the ONLY THING that matters is faith energized by love." Galatians 5:6 | | Back to Top | | |
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fyodor
Registered Member
Date Joined Dec 2002
Total Posts : 179
| Posted 2/6/2003 5:00 AM (GMT -6) | | I love Sirach.
It's such a Lutheran travesty that most Bibles don't contain the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical texts. I often tease my wife that I'm reading from some of the books she doesn't have in her Bible. Ha!
Radical, destination determining free will at that. "He has placed before you fire and water; stretch out your hand for whichever you choose."
†††"To have a self, to be a self, is the greatest concession, an infinite concession, given to man, but it is also eternity's claim upon him." – S. Kierkegaard | | Back to Top | | |
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