Some amazing words by the late Patriarch Theoctist (or Teoctist) of the Romanian Orthodox Church, quoted by Elizabeth Esther and reposted by Jeremy Myers:
Man has a very powerful will—so powerful that even God Himself does not break it. And by this [God] is actually showing that man is in the likeness of God. Without man’s will he could not make any progress on the way to goodness. So out of all the gifts that God grants the human being, we believe that freedom is one of the most important.
Agreed – assuming that “man” here is to be understood in a gender generic sense. I cannot accept the Calvinist position that men and women cannot resist the grace of God, because if God forced them to accept it he would be taking away their humanity and their image of God.
The problem is that the human will is so often opposed to the will of God. That, fundamentally, is why there is so much evil and suffering in the world. Don’t blame God, blame men and women who ignore his instructions and warnings.
And that is why in the end I disagree with what Rob Bell is supposed to have said, that hell will be empty. It won’t be because that is where some people will choose to go. Even if they were to have an eternity of chances to repent, many would not take them, as C.S. Lewis memorably put forward in The Great Divorce
Well said! Even when my will is to follow His lead I have trouble keeping my will constant and under control. I need His help and His grace even there.
I wrote this before the death of Osama bin Laden, or at least before it was announced. Now I don’t want to pronounce on anyone’s eternal destiny. But if media reports are to be believed, he was a good example of someone whose will was set against God’s purposes and was not broken by God. I don’t rejoice to say so, but he is probably on his way to hell, to the punishment his sins, and mine, deserve. Maybe he had a last minute chance to accept God’s grace and forgiveness. We will never know, in this life, if he accepted any such chance, so all we can do is hope that he did.
“Maybe he had a last minute chance to accept God’s grace and forgiveness. We will never know, in this life, if he accepted any such chance, so all we can do is hope that he did.”
Salvation has nothing to do with “chance” but is simply by God’s grace, and “where sin abounds, grace superabounds.”
Jim, the word “chance” has several senses, and the sense I intended in the sentences you quote is nothing to do with randomness or luck but means “opportunity”. Substitute that word if you prefer.