New Apologetics Ankit Dhawan Concerning Question 3:
You wrote:
“I will resist the temptation to not read your first statement as “God is not sovereign”!
We reply: God is sovereign, but we must not make that common mistake of understanding divine sovereignty to entail that God is running things directly. In truth, the world is *not* operating in God’s will, but is full of events which are totally contrary to God’s intentions for humanity. It is only through the redemption that it becomes possible for God to draw good out of evil. Through the redemption, all the power of evil is turned against itself, and therefore God’s purposes (and hence his sovereignty) are assured. Furthermore, the effects of the redemption permeate all space and time, so there was never a time when evil had the upper hand. We assert the following:
1) Apart from the redemption, sin, suffering and death are infinitely offensive to God, and only lead to a shattering of divine providence and human destiny.
2) Through the redemption, God has reconciled all things to himself, and nothing can separate us from him. Hence, we can affirm the following two quotes from the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
“Death is a consequence of sin. The Church’s Magisterium, as authentic interpreter of the affirmations of Scripture and Tradition, teaches that death entered the world on account of man’s sin. Even though man’s nature is mortal God had destined him not to die. Death was therefore contrary to the plans of God the Creator and entered the world as a consequence of sin. “Bodily death, from which man would have been immune had he not sinned” is thus “the last enemy” of man left to be conquered.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church 1008)
“We know that in everything God works for good for those who love him.” The constant witness of the saints confirms this truth:
St. Catherine of Siena said to “those who are scandalized and rebel against what happens to them”: “Everything comes from love, all is ordained for the salvation of man, God does nothing without this goal in mind.”
St. Thomas More, shortly before his martyrdom, consoled his daughter: “Nothing can come but that that God wills. and I make me very sure that whatsoever that be, seem it never so bad in sight, it shall indeed be the best.”
Dame Julian of Norwich: “Here I was taught by the grace of God that I should steadfastly keep me in the faith… and that at the same time I should take my stand on and earnestly believe in what our Lord shewed in this time – that ‘all manner (of) thing shall be well.'” (Catechism of the Catholic Church 113)
You wrote:
I will jump right to “free will” as that is one heck of a confusing concept where I note that even devout and sincere Christians don’t agree. Following the response to my previous two questions, I am born in “Original Sin”, and now I have “free will”.
We reply:
You have free will in the sense that your freedom has not been completely destroyed. It is, however, seriously impaired because of the sufferings you have experienced by being in a world filled with disorder.
You wrote:
However, being in Original Sin, I don’t even have an iota of goodness in me (Calvin view).
We reply:
The Calvinist view is false. It is self-evident that you have goodness in you by the fact that at least some evils offend you.
You wrote:
Not only that, I don’t even have capacity to choose anything but sin on my own.
We reply:
Human beings were created for a situation in which all of their individual needs were met (original justice), but now (because of original sin) we live in a world of pain where our needs go unmet broadly. We were also created to be in total communion with others, and to be integral to the happiness of all other persons. Both of these aspects of human nature (the desire to meet our individual needs *and* to meet the needs of others) are inherited from our first parents. Now, though, when we cannot meet our needs in this disordered world, we are *driven* to try to meet them by our inherited nature. We can hate this drive towards selfishness and fight against it, but we are not made to fight ourselves, and so we will repeatedly give in to selfish behavior despite all resolutions to the contrary. All the while, the desire to be in total communion with others *remains*, because it, too, is inherited. Every person finds that they are in a state of perpetual conflict and frustration (torn between self and others). Some are so injured by this conflict that they are psychologically destroyed. Others cope through an intricate game of self-deception. There is no healthy natural response because the situation is intrinsically unhealthy and unnatural. The bottom line is that we are all looking for the justice that was lost, and this present state of affairs is a fiasco. God understands why we do what we do. He wants to save us from this *unjust* situation, not to inflict an unjust punishment because he blames us for a crime we didn’t commit.
You wrote:
So, if that is what Original Sin brings to us, then what is the value of “free will”?
We reply:
Even though our freedom is greatly impaired, we retain enough of it to begin to cooperate with God’s effort to draw us out of this destroyed system of things. There is much to say about this, and we are happy to answer your questions indefinitely.
You wrote:
Now, let’s assume that we do have free will, does this mean that I can choose not to sin?
We reply:
You can choose not to sin, but your own nature will fight against you, and your resolve will erode because you were not made to be divided against yourself.
You wrote:
If yes, then on my own I can live a sinless life and go to God’s kingdom and there is no need for Jesus. If no, then why do we say that we have free will?
We reply: We retain enough of our freedom to respond to God’s attempt to rescue us. By his grace, we can recognize our need, and give God permission to save us. He will then begin to transform us into Christ. Once again, there is very much to say about this, and we will let you lead with more questions.
January 4, 2013 at 5:44pm · Like