npetreley said:Dear God,
I need to have a word with you. First, let's cover your strong points. You're a good God, or at least we can say you probably mean well. Obviously, being God, whether you're good at it or not, means you can't sin. Sin is disobedience, and you can't disobey yourself. So no matter how many mistakes you've made, nobody can accuse you of being an "evil" God no matter what you do. To be evil, you'd have to sin (disobey yourself) and that's logically impossible.
Anyway, people have been fussing on the Baptist Board about whether or not you're the author of sin. They're saying that if you're the author of sin, that makes you an evil God - not in those words, but that's the gist.
Personally, I don't know what it means to be the "author" of sin. How do you invent disobedience to yourself? I don't get it. I can see how you can create someone and then will that the person will be disobedient to you, sure. But I don't see how that NECESSARILY translates into you being an evil God. It just means that it was your will that your creature would disobey you. I'm not saying that's what you did -- FAR FROM IT -- but that's the only way I can understand what it means to be the "author of sin", since you, yourself, can't sin, and sin isn't something you can create. It's something someone -- ostensibly your creation -- does. The question is whether or not the creature does it according to your will.
So let's put it this way. The fuss is about whether or not it is/was your deliberate will to bring sin into your creation by way of your creatures.
Could you do that? Sure, I suppoose. It's your creation. But personally, and this it the key point here so don't miss it, I don't trust you enough to have a good reason to create, according to your will, someone who will sin. How could you have a good reason for doing that? And since I can't trust you to do it without you, yourself, being tainted, then you can't possibly have done it. Flawless logic, right?
So, let's assume the logical conclusion that nobody would ever sin according to your will.
So if it wasn't your will that sin enter your creation, then how did it happen? Free will, right? Okay, for the sake of argument, I'll buy that. But if you really didn't will for sin to enter your creation, and you created creatures with free will who you KNEW would sin, I can think of no other explanation than you're just plain incompetent.
Don't feel bad. Plenty of they mythical gods were incompetent, too, so you're in good company. But let's face facts. If you didn't will it to happen, then sin entered the creation in spite of your will. You screwed up. Plain and simple.
Yeah, I heard all that stuff about how you couldn't display your glory unless you demonstrated your wrath against unrighteousness, and you can't do that without sin. But then if it's unrighteousness that you, yourself willed, then they really don't deserve that wrath, do they? I mean, how could you still blame them, for who resisted your will? It's a rhetorical question you probably wouldn't understand, so never mind.
Now, I'm going to set you straight in a moment, but I have to admit I can't give you any advice about satan, which precedes all this next part. You don't give us enough information for me to set you straight about what happened to him. But I can show you how NOT to screw up creation next time.
First, let's have a look at what you did:
Okay, bad move right there. Let's see why.
Bzzzt. Now, this is just plain stupid. You plant a tree that has good looking fruit and say that it's off limits.
Now don't give me any excuses about how you wanted to test Adam with the tree. You know everything, right? So you HAD to know he was going to be disobedient and eat from the tree, right? What's to test?
So if you REALLY didn't want him to disobey you, why the heck did you plant an off-limits tree there in the first place? What were you thinking? Dumb, dumb, dumb.
So here's tip #1 for your next creation:
1. Don't plant any trees in the garden that are off-limits. I don't care if you think they look pretty, or you think you need it for that nice tri-level effect with the path going down the middle. If you're really that picky, create a tree that looks the same but bears shiny wax fruit or someting harmless. Same diff, right? Cosmetics, no danger.
Here's tip #2:
2. This next tip is probably unnecessary if you simply follow tip #1. But just as a precaution, how about next time you DON'T let satan into the garden, okay? I mean, we both know he doesn't exactly have the best interest of the human race in mind. So why let a trouble-maker in there? Put a big KEEP OUT sign outside the garden just to be safe.
Honestly, God, to put the tree in there with Adam and Eve and THEN let a trouble maker in the garden to mess with their heads? I mean, that is so stupid that if I didn't know better, I'd have to say you deliberately set up Adam and Eve to fail. It was so easy NOT to have that outcome. No tree, no trouble-maker, no disobedience.
So if it's not your will that sin enter your creation, then just follow my tips next time. And if you need any more advice, just give me a ring. I'm kind of partial to platinum.
Nick, Mr. Wiser Than God
[No, I am not back, and I don't plan to participate in this thread. I asked a number of times to have my account deleted and nobody has done it yet. Maybe it's not possible, but nobody has told me that either way. So I figured I'd start a fun thread. Anyway, God bless you all, given that he's actually competent enough to do that, and enjoy.]
Nick, this is brilliant. Don't be surprised that some folks don't get it.
I can't help it! :laugh: