Free Will & The Sinatra Syndrome
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The Choice: God's Way vs Man's Way
A key to understanding the origins of evil and suffering is the concept of FREE WILL.
Man's innate tendency, inherited since his rebellion in the Garden of Eden is to try to satisfy his/her threee crucial needs for security,self-worth and significance in any way s/he can without reference to God.
Human Sin: The "Sinatra Syndrome" 1 JOHN 3:4
Everyone who sins breaks God's law; in fact, sin is lawlessness.
The word used for lawlessness in Greek is anomia - the deliberate rebellion against God's boundaries as set out in the Ten Commandments.
In 2 THESSALONIANS 2:1-12 Paul refers to the Anti-Christ as "the man of lawlessness", who sets himself up in place of Christ before Christ's return and the Day of Judgement.
Sin is man's refusal to let God be God or to go God's way.
In the words of a song by Frank Sinatra, "I did it my way."
The Brothers Karamazov: A Story of Faith & Unbelief
For a classic story of free will and the origins of evil and suffering, read Dostoevsky's novel The Brothers Karamazov
To read The Brothers Karamazov on Kindle, click THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV.