huckelberry wrote:My comments skirted what is usually the issue first discussed about judgement, what sort of moral character a person has. The variety of people"s character would be the one thing that would incline my to wonder if there actually is a dimension of life prior to birth here. If we are something before birth it would be natural to Gods justice for that Character to be part of what we are when we are born here. That could be an advantage for some and a problem for others. It could help explain why there are people born to cultural and physical advantage who are of excellent character while other have bad character. The same is true of people born with disadvantage.
I think God cares about the absolute objective difference between good and bad character. I also believe that God is desirous of people moving from bad to good so celebrates when that movement happens even when there are people who have already developed to a place closer to the goal.
I agree with your well stated notions here.
I suppose I am trying to resolve either scenario.
1. If we are all born with equal character, then particular advantages or disadvantages acquired/lost along the journey would be mere products of circumstance - results from factors often, if not always, beyond one's influence...free will is necessarily nonexistent. This would seem to contradict Justice, wherein some acquire arbitrary burdens while others are given an unfair advantage..
2. If we are all born with varying character, which would accord with a pre-existence Divine Judgment, then particular advantages or disadvantages acquired/lost along the journey would be mere products of our
perceptions of the circumstance...our decisions about the events that unfold before us, many of which may be the result of freely made decisions in our lives. But this does not account for the seemingly random drunk driver tragedy. Is it to easy for us to say tragedy befalls only those who had it coming anyway?
either scenario gets a little sticky
But if our character is transcendental, as you speculate above, then it stands to reason that we are being "refined" by experiences here...that this character must be susceptible to free will, because it would be possible to move from bad to good...to change. Such a transformation is a supernatural change, and perhaps merits the claim that our spirits are of a divine nature.
Nevertheless, the level of character one brought into this world is not meant for an unrighteous judgment by the rest of us, and certainly merits our compassion...demands, perhaps, a special consideration...like the
ADA?
