Intellectual frivolity

“Todd -- Steve's response to the contrary, your questions do not appear to me to be frivolous.”

Not only are Todd’s objections frivolous, but Grano’s objections are equally frivolous. That’s because Todd’s objections have been answered on this very blog, time and again.

And when we respond, Todd invariably changes the subject.

For his own part, Grano is merely using this thread as a pretext to plug his EO theology.

He’s a liberty to do so, but it says something about his own moral compass when he takes the side of a blasphemer and chooses to disregard the history of our engagement with Todd.

Thus far, all Grano has succeeded in illustrating is that commitment to EO theology carries with it no corollary commitment to Christian ethics.

“To argue that 6 million innocent people died in the Holocaust and 10 million in Stalin's Russia (in both instances many of them children) all somehow for the "glory" of God is a monstrous lie.”

Once again, we’ve dealt with this sort of objection many times before.

“Jesus said ‘He who has seen me has seen the Father.’"

Eastern Orthodoxy doesn’t hold the copyright to Jn 14:9. We have that verse in our Bibles as well.

“Look at what Christ did while on earth--does he look anything like Calvin's god?”

Good question.

“At that time Jesus declared, ‘I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him” (Mt 11:25-27).

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you accursed ones, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (25:41).

“And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. And he said to them, ‘To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables, so that “they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed year but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven”’” (Mk 4:10-12).

“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (Jn 6:44).

“As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ Jesus answered, ‘It was not that this man sinned, or his portents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him’” (9:1-3).

“For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind” (9:39).

“But when Jesus heard it he said, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it” (11:4).

“Therefore they could not believe. For again Isaiah said, ‘He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them’” (11:39-40).

“Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world” (17:24).

“God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted a well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels inn flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed because our testimony to you was believed” (2 Thes 1:6-10).

“Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?” (Rev 6:15-17).

“And at that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven” (11:13).

“And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, ‘If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also will drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name’” (14:9-11).

Continuing with Grano:

“For a brief but trenchant critique of this notion read David Bentley Hart's little book "The Doors of the Sea: Where Was God in the Tsunami?" It points the way to a solution (as much as one can actually claim a 'solution') to the problem of evil that is outside of the Calvinist dialectical box (either God controls everything down to the minutest detail or He doesn't control anything at all.)”

And what is Hart’s solution?

“Simply said, there is no more liberating knowledge given us by the gospel—and none in which we should find more comfort—than the knowledge that suffering and death, considered in themselves, have no ultimate meaning at all.”

http://www.firstthings.com/ftissues/ft0503/opinion/hart.html

“The Christian understanding of evil has always been more radical and fantastic than that of any theodicist; for it denies from the outset that suffering, death and evil have any ultimate meaning at all.”

http://www.opinionjournal.com/taste/?id=110006097

Yes, I'm sure that will make a believer of Todd in no time flat.