I am doing quite well, thank you! I currently attend a non-denominational church that, when compared with the mass, is quite similiar. Trying to pidgeon-hole my “persuasion” would be difficult as I believe doing so is a bit reminiscent of 1 Cor 3. In any case I will try to make my position as clear as possible.
First off, God gaves us free will, and he also has predestined us for salvation. This is evidenced in Scripture that BOTH are true and if they are in conflict with each other it is that our understanding of one or both are incorrect. So yes, I absolutely believe God gave us a choice in choosing salvation, to not believe so would be to completely contradict the very heart of the gospel message Christ gave to the apostles.
I can’t say I “believe” in free will for angels as nothing in Scripture ever talks about it except for the instance that they follow Lucifer away from the presence of God, but Lucifer certainly seems to have left by his own volition so there must have been some choice given to him by God, but there is no point in which we see the current salvation or transfer from heavenly to fallen or visa versa when it comes to angels, so I have no real position on it. If you would like to enlighten me to any teaching by the Magesterium I will gladly submit.
Again, evil is not a “thing” to be created, just as God is not one to be created. Evil is just things not of God, so to say God created evil is like saying God created himself, it doesn’t quite make sense because evil has to do with a spiritual dimension of godlessness whereas the idea that it was “created” is far too time oriented. Basically, I am agreeing with you that God did not “create” evil, that he does not decide all we do, etc. You can put that how-to-refute-hyper-calvinism book down
You will notice that God only gets angry at the Jews. Does he pour out his wrath on the Canaanites? Certainly. Does he completely destroy Sodom and Gomorrah? Sure does! But his
anger burns against Israel only. He destroys the nations because of their sin, but when Israel sins, what happens? He gets ANGRY. Why? Because they are called to something different, but their free will is messing it up. He pours out his wrath on the nations so to show his glory before all, but does not destroy Israel. The fact that God can limit his absolute sovereignty and power by NOT controlling everything absolutely is what amazes me more than the idea of him actually controlling everything. In any case, this is clearly what Paul is talking about, yes?
I am agreeing with you on 4 no worries. A great verse is Romans 5:11 or 12 I think? Through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, etc.
And from then on out, we are agreed. In fact, I think we are in agreement all the way through. A quick question, if I have a LOT (and I mean a lot) of questions on Catholicism, is there someone here I can talk to? I feel like the local priests I have talked to are a bit out of their depths and I always leave our meetings with questions as unanswered as before. It seems like since there are so many questions posted here many get few answers if they are difficult theologically but not, perhaps, that interesting.
I ask all this because my fiancee is Catholic and I have been interested in the Catholic church for a long time, I just need to reconcile some of the core beliefs of the church with what the Holy Spirit has led me to through Scripture.
