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The following comment in the linked article is heretical:

"The shattering and distortion of the 'image.' That is, darkness of mind, depravity and corruption of the heart, loss of independence, loss of free will, and tendency towards evil."

Free will was not lost in the fall, and the image of God -- according to the Eastern Fathers -- was unaffected by Adam's transgression, while the likeness to God was wounded but not itself destroyed by Adam's disobedience.

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The article linked below is worth reading:

The River of Fire [orthodoxpress.org]

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Originally Posted by Apotheoun
The following comment in the linked article is heretical:

"The shattering and distortion of the 'image.' That is, darkness of mind, depravity and corruption of the heart, loss of independence, loss of free will, and tendency towards evil."

Free will was not lost in the fall, and the image of God -- according to the Eastern Fathers -- was unaffected by Adam's transgression, while the likeness to God was wounded but not itself destroyed by Adam's disobedience.

I don't think that it is heretical as much as probably a mistake in expressing something he wanted to say or perhaps an ommission of a word or thought. Any cleric knows that we have free will, and this is so basic that even a nominally catechised child knows that! That is why I cannot believe that it was intentional.

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Originally Posted by Apotheoun
The article linked below is worth reading:

The River of Fire [orthodoxpress.org]

Todd,

First thank you for the link to that article. I have two questions:

1. do you think it accurately describes the soteriology of the Catholic Church, as described in the CCC?

e.g.
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You see now, I hope, how God was slandered by Western theology. Augustine, Anselm, Thomas Aquinas and all their pupils contributed to this "theological" calumny. And they are the foundations of Western theology, whether Papist or Protestant. Certainly these theologians do not say expressly and clearly that God is a wicked and passionate being. They rather consider God as being chained by a superior force, by a gloomy and implacable Necessity like the one which governed the pagan gods. This Necessity obliges Him to return evil for evil and does not permit Him to pardon and to forget the evil done against His will, unless an infinite satisfaction is offered to Him.

2. For that matter, do you think it accurately reflects Byzantine theology?

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If you all would please forgive the slightly off topic remark. laugh
Originally Posted by Apotheoun
The article linked below is worth reading:

The River of Fire [orthodoxpress.org]

This would certainly explain the existence of Christoper Hitchens as we know him.

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Even if there exists a means of escaping the eternal wrath of this omnipotent but wicked Being (the death of His Son in our stead), it would be much better if this Being did not exist. This was the most logical conclusion of the mind and of the heart of the Western peoples, because even eternal Paradise would be abhorrent with such a cruel God. Thus was atheisrn born, and this is why the West was its birthplace. Atheism was unknown in Eastern Christianity until Western theology was introduced there, too. Atheism is the consequence of Western theology. 3 Atheism is the denial, the negation of an evil God. Men became atheists in order to be saved from God, hiding their head and closing their eyes like an ostrich. Atheism, my brothers, is the negation of the Roman Catholic and Protestant God. Atheism is not our real enemy. The real enemy is that falsified and distorted "Christianity".

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