Monday, December 29, 2008

Free will - Walking on earth, walking on clouds

AELW 9:51

"Unless, therefore, God reveals His Law, by which He makes His will known to us (Ps. 103:7), there remains only that saying of ours: “Every man is a liar; every man, vanity” and Is. 55:9: “Just as the heavens are above the earth, so are My ways above your ways.” Hence that argument of the scholastics about free will is most foolish: “I have the freedom to govern a cow or to throw away money; therefore I have the freedom to do what pleases God and to serve Him.” But that is the same as if you said: “I can tread on the earth with my feet and walk on the earth; therefore I can also go into the heaven and walk on the clouds.” Indeed, from his creation man has free knowledge and power to rule and deal with those lesser than himself. But to govern himself and to do what pleases his superior, he neither knows nor is capable of. There free will ends; there he is necessarily blind, powerless, yes, dead and condemned. Therefore one should not be presumptuous here or choose what to do; but one should lean only and solely on the Word of God, neither adding nor subtracting anything. Hence where a man is not altogether certain that the Word of God is present, there he should not go at all; where he is certain that the Word of God is present, he should not draw back. This is such necessary counsel!"

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