carter@huey.css.gov (Sam Carter) (07/20/90)
I would like to enter my opinion in response to the question of whether God destined Adam to fall in order that Christ might be later glorified as alluded to in Benjamin Britten's "A Ceremony of Carols". I find this line of reasoning to be completely false and inconsistant with my conception of the Nature of God. God created man in order that man could share in the Love that is present between the Father and the Son. He did not intend that man should just be a vehicle for the Glorification of Christ. In order that this love might be freely given, God created Adam with the ability to freely choose to share in His Love or to reject it. He did this because love which is mandated and is not freely given is not a true love. Having decided to create us as a people with the freedom to accept or reject the Love that He offered, He saw that this would ultimately lead to the Fall and to the schism which would develop. Because the Fall, the people of earth were powerless to accept the Love of God. It was then that God decided to come to earth in the Person of the Son to restore that former grace which Adam had forsaken. Because of the Sacrifice of the Son, our original freedom to choose God's Love was restored, and now each one of us face the same choice to accept or reject God's Love that Adam once possessed. The glorious advantage that we possess, is that our single decisions to reject God's Love are no longer universally condemning. Such is the power of Jesus's Sacrifice, it continually restores in us the ability to reject sin and satan and to accept and share in the Glory of the Love of God! |\ Let us say: | \ | ) D E O G R A T I A S | / |/ each day for the wonderful gift | that we have been given. o--|--o | Sam Carter (carter@huey.css.gov) | Springfield, Va. |