Think about it: how can someone be held responsible for an event they
had no power either to cause or to prevent?
If God is the only being who can cause or prevent all events, God must
be held responsible. Only in a dysfunctional family does the father
hold all the power, and yet the children are held responsible for
anything that goes wrong.

In fact, YHWH takes responsibility explicitly for our suffering:

"I am the Lord, and there is no other; I form the light and create
darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the Lord, do all these
things." [Isaiah 45:6-7]

I do not suggest that we have no responsibility for our experience, but
rather that it is only via the divine spark within us that we have any
power, and therefor any responsibility. It is an ancient Hebrew
tradition to realize our connection with YHWH by holding God
responsible, and kvetching! [See: Book of Job]

Kvetching, properly directed, is a very sincere form of prayer. If
Christians were less afraid to hold YHWH responsible and complain to
YHWH about the sorry state of creation, we would have richer spiritual
lives. So go ahead and pin the blame on God: YHWH is big enough to
take it.

- Peter

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Stephen M. Adams wrote:

> wrf3@stablecross.com (Bob Felts) writes:
> >Stephen M. Adams wrote:
> >> wrf3@stablecross.com (Bob Felts) writes:
> >> >Stephen M. Adams wrote:
> >> >
> >> >> lsenders@hotmail.com writes:
> >> >[...]
> >> >
> >> >>
> >> >> >8) every believer has the right to read and interpret the
> >> >> >Scriptures for him/herself.
> >> >>
> >> >> Which means anarchy.
> >> >
> >> >Can you show how this follows?
> >>
> >> One needs merely look at the various Protestants who claim that their
> >> doctrine is derived solely from Scripture to see the anarchy.
> >
> >There were divisions in the Church long before the Protestants came
> >along, were there not?
>
> Yes, and the vast majority of them caused by private interpretation
> of Scripture without reference to the traditional teachings of the
> church.
>

Let's go back to a post you made to s.r.c.b-s on 12/8/04, in which you
wrote to Matthew Johnson:

I've read Augustine - and my reaction to things like "On
Predestination" were seminal in my discovery of the Orthodox
Church...

You were not Orthodox, you became Orthodox, but you did so based upon
your evaluation of the evidence. So it seems to me that you used the
very principle you decry.