“So why in our insanity can this (homosexuality)—among alleged Christians, churches and denominations—become sanctioned in our day? Never in the history of the church has the body of Christ been forced to make a significant stand on sodomy, because there was never a question as to its standing. Why today? Because the world has declared […]
Sin
On God Causing Sin
By Richard A. Shaward CALVIN : GOD DOES NOT JUST PERMIT SIN BUT WILLS/CAUSES/ORDAINS SIN “From this it is easy to conclude how foolish and frail is the support of divine justice afforded by the suggestion that evils come to be not by [God’s] will, but merely by his permission. Of course, so far as […]
Cyril of Jerusalem on Sin
Cyril of Jerusalem (ca. 313 – 386) [taken from his “Catechetical Lectures” Lecture II] “A fearful thing is sin, and the sorest disease of the soul is transgression, secretly cutting its sinews of the soul, and becoming also the cause of eternal fire. Sin is an evil of man’s own choosing, an offspring of free […]
Sin, Evil, and Providence
Much of the energy of patristic reflections upon providence focused on how to relate the claims of providence to the harsh presence of evil and suffering in this world that God has ordered. The crucial question as it presented itself to the church fathers was, How can evil and suffering be compatible with the caring […]