Re: I love the smell of Calvinism in the morning. It smells like... self-loathing. - Edit 1
Before modification by Zalis at 01/09/2010 03:24:27 PM
The death and resurrection of Christ allow Christians to put a targeting system on our bows. I don't view sin as a commodity that's bought and sold; that's an interpretation of the Western churches that, to my knowledge, is not held by the Orthodox. Theoria is so much more hopeful and worthy than the repugnant "total depravity" of Calvinism.
So Jesus died so that we could "do better?" I think it has more to do with the post-salvation indwelling of the Holy Spirit than it does with anything inherently human. We were created in the image of God, but I think it has a lot more to do with volition and our capacity for relational intimacy (read: not sexual intimacy).
We miss the mark. Christ doesn't magically wave away all we've done; He lets us try again. Christians hold that we're made in the image of God. It's a pity they view that image with such contempt.
Because of the emphasis those adherents place on <our> works after the fact. It's all through God's power, not our own. The Holy Spirit can bring about great change in our hearts and lives, but we're still not to depend on our own perceived merits.
Universal salvation has been posited since Origen, by the way, so you might want to read up on that before casually dismissing it as a new, meaningless thing. Personally, I worship God out o thanksgiving and not fear, and I find the relationship to be liberating, rewarding, and holy. But I'm a young Episcopalian.
Solomon was wise to say there's nothing new under the sun, so I'm not about to say that age is immune from error. I don't profess that anyone is following a 100% correct interpretation in every aspect, but there are reasons why I am not an Episcopalian. (or a Catholic, etc)
In the end, so long as we worship the same Christ and agree that salvation comes only through His death & resurrection on the cross, we're on the same team. Or in the same city. A different team or country would be a camp that says humanity is inherently good, that Jesus was just a nice prophet who taught us to be excellent to each other. That life is about our good deeds outweighing bad on some celestial scale, to be accounted for in the after. Stuff like that.
So, saying that, I apologize for any sense of antagonism that may have been reflected in the earlier post. This forum is typically a pretty hostile place in regard to Biblical truth, and the "Word, brutha" thread had mock replies on my mind.