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Originally Posted by LMP
He has been very merciful. And I still think that there is some way in which Christ's redemptive act works backwards into the past such that many who were believed to have never had a chance, will be numbered amongst God's people. There are references to this same kind of thing in the NT here and there: we will be surprised who's there and who isn't ... largely because we look at the outside while God looks at the heart.
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If the act took place in both time & eternity (uniting both in effect) this would be a valid interpretation - in fact it would be a necessary consequence. But that doesn't make it true, merely 'logical' within the 'Secondary World'. But this is the point - it doesn't prove it actually happened in the Primary World. Its also 'logical' that the destruction of the One Ring cause the fall of Sauron within that Secondary World. It seems that you inhabit a 'world' that I don't. Actually, I like your world a lot. There's something in me that responds strongly to the world of little country churches, the language of the King James Bible & the Prayer book, of evensong, of tradition stretching back into the mists of time, of the same hymns sung & prayers said in the same words. Part of me would love to enter into it & live there. But there's also a part of me that would love to go live in the world of Ealing comedy & Launder & Gilliat, with Alistair Sim & Margaret Rutherford, Terry-Thomas & St Trinians, when the world was in black & white & safe & comfortable. Or Middle-earth. Only problem is that world never really existed - its nice to go & visit though.
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But the picture isn't nothing like the subject, to use your analogy. All humans still bear the image of God, however blemished it may be. Again, why do you think He reached out in the person of Jesus?
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Well, I don't believe that He did. I do love the story, though. I'm reminded of that line from 'The Man who Shot Liberty Valance': 'When the Legend becomes fact, print the Legend.'
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I'm surprised, davem, that you didn't add one more phrase: One God
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Oh, but that's the problem: One God, One Story, Many Gods, Many Stories. The Elves made many rings, Sauron made One. I just like stories so much that I want as many as possible.