I guess it’s far more preferable to insult God.
if god is up there … do you really think humans can insult him? Doesn’t your religion say that god created homosexuals (just as he created everyone else). Doesn’t your religion say that god is omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent? Therefore, god must have known (eternally) that homosexuals would be homosexual.
The whole point expressed by Paul was that Christians cannot blame the sinner or regenerate for their state (anymore than a bird can be blamed for flying). It’s god who has mercy on whom he chooses, and it’s god who denies mercy … all according to his good pleasure (and NOT according to our personal merit).
Can the homosexual be blamed for his or her sexual preference and refusal to struggle against their passions? If they’re denied grace isn’t the only choice they can freely make perdition?
This concept is critical in the matrix Paul wove in his theology. Acknowledging divine mercy and providence lies behind regeneration takes away the impetus to judge others (since if Christians understand that they would be the same as any heathen but for the grace of god then how could they harshly judge the reprobate). Moreover, within that matrix is the idea that god’s choices are not based on human merit. The importance of this is it strips man of any cause to boast or judge.
If Christians think god chose them because they (through their own volition) merited his selection, then they have cause to boast of themselves (and to judge others for not making the same wise choice).
It’s a tapestry that fits together fairly well if you have a good grasp of it. However, alter one piece of Paul’s theology and it falls apart. It’s complex because obviously Paul never dissuaded people from good behavior (in fact he enumerates it as a witness of grace). To Paul within our mind (the only way humans can quantify things) good behavior, charity, and so on is the result of our will and effort. However, he simply wanted Christians to understand … to spite the fact that within their own cognition it is their will and effort which gives them the impetus to behave well, love others, perform good / charitable works, and so on … it’s still god behind it all. The credit belongs to god alone in Pauline theology, and man was never capable of any goodness through our own volition (and devoid of grace). For Paul that grace was an all encompassing grace (that not only assists our will, but irresistibly so, and not only prods us to obey god, but causes us to obey).
