MDMD(3)--Just a thought

[Doug Millison]

At 4:47 PM 7/8/97, Steven Maas (CUTR) wrote:
>Are you saying that adherents of this sect believe that no matter what
>they do in their lives it is predetermined whether they will go to heaven
>or hell?  What incentive does this give them to behave any way other than
>on their whims?

Entering deep and murky waters here...I don't know the details of this
particular sect, but Paul Mackin's
>God has determined from all
> eternity whom He will save and whom He will damn, regardless
> of their faith, love, or merit, or lack thereof. (extreme form)

implies that God's grace offers a way out, grace being God's whim, you
might say. The milder versions of Protestantism teach that we qualify for
and will receive God's grace simply by turning towards Him, and loving our
neighbors as as ourselves, and that's accounted for in the pre-determinism
somehow, of course...

I always liked Kerouac's images of God in "Big Sur":

"As I imagine God to be doing this very minute, watching his own movie,
which is us."

"But I remember seeing a mess of leaves suddenly go skittering in the wind
and into the creek, then floating rapidly down the creek towards the sea,
making me feel a nameless horror even then of "Oh my God, we're all being
swept away to sea no matter what we know or say or do..."

"O how wonderful life is, how miraculous, God made this and God made that,'
how do you know he doesn't hate what He did:  He might even be drunk and
not noticing what he went and done tho of course that's not true"


D O U G  M I L L I S O N ||||||||||| millison at online-journalist.com
     Today in history (8 July 97):  951. Paris was founded.