Into the Wardrobe

::My apologies, you are quite correct, I was slightly rude and disrespectful in my previous response to you. And you're quite correct, I was stating what I believe as certainty and dismissing what you believe completely, my apologies. Though I can't say I'll stop frowning - I tend to do it a lot when I'm thinking.

Thank you for being gracious.

::Of course there is no god more loving than the true God, but if He sets some limits and we willingly choose to step outside of those limits, would it be right of Him to drag us back in to His love?

I believe that human nature is such that we do not need to be dragged back; love softens the heart, it breaks our defenses.

::I put it to you, Adam, that Hitler chose death (unless he repented on his deathbed). I also put it to you that he quite probably is far from the only one - he's just one of the obvious ones.

I'm not sure that he repented on his deathbed or not, but I believe that hell is refining and sanctifying, so I believe that eventually he has chosen life.

::One more thing, Adam, remember Paul says of Christians that we are to those who are perishing - the odour of death. Would you say that "those who are perishing" will end up choosing life? And if so, wouldn't that mean that the choice isn't even a reality?

Paul taught that we participate in the death of Christ so that we can share in the resurrection of Christ; we are perishing in order to be reborn. Choosing to die to our old self is precisely how we choose life.

If I gave all of my students a choice between an A and an F, they would all choose the A. I suppose in some sense it's not a real choice, but in other senses it still very much is.

We are free to seek what we need.

Actually, I do believe in a reality that is more simple and kind than our present reality, it's called heaven and I am already there to a degree, so I know it from experience. But it's not the world.

Children do not believe things just because they "sound good". They're constantly asking questions and revising their view of reality. For adults to revert to uninformed "childhood" is a travest.

There is a difference between "childlikeness" and "childishness". If you believe things becuse they sound good, then your philsophy will end up being merely childish.

"Sound good" is not enough. It's the basis of all temptation. Eve ate the friut because what Satan said "sounded good". If you decide to beleive what you like, you're not going to be able to make very good decisions because they're not going to correspond to the reality that you're working with.

All of your students would choose an A out of selfishness (if that were the case). I would never have chosen an A when I deserved something less because that would have been self deluding. I kne what A and F meant. hey are idicators that I'm getting what I need out f the courses I'm taking. If I could choose an A over a deserved C, I would beharming myself and all the people that I now serve in the long run.

Nonregenerate people make selfish choices. When they remove themselves from the center of their universes and place God in the center, they stop making selfish choices and start making right choices. Love may soften a heart, but it doesn't cause people to stop being selfish - in fact, for some people, they become more selfish as the soften.

The chioce to reject self and accept God is the only unselfish choice that nonregenerates can make and the only motivation is the desire to be right (not in the sense of "correct" but in the sense of being "fit") and of the sense of obligation to God instead of pandering to self. The "leap of faith" required to lead to salvation isn't from unbelief in God to belief in God, but from selfishness to Godliness.

People are not moved to that by love. And some people are never going to choose to reject self even though they are swallowed up by misery.