-Ron- > To me, immortality and eternal life have the same meaning. Your > definition of "immortality" is mine for "salvatation." Yours > for "eternal life" is mine for "exaltation."
I think you meant "salivation". ;)~ <--(drool) This points up once again that which I personally believe to be the basis for almost all philosophical pondering: The definition of words. Obviously, we must have common word definitions in order to communicate. Almost as obviously, the Lord has historically used existing words in a given language to represent concepts that are actually above or beyond the accepted meaning of the word; witness "eternal life", a state which we believe comes to those who have died. I believe this is the case with God's "hatred" of sinful and unrepentant individuals. Some object to the term "hate", thinking that somehow it lessens God's majesty or perfection to "hate" anyone or anything; or perhaps they're afraid that if perfect love does not preclude hatred, maybe God won't love them. As I wrote before, I don't understand the psychological reasons, even in myself, that people have such a strong reaction to the clear scriptural teaching that God's love is conditional. Nor do I believe that God's hatred of the unrepentant wicked is spiritually similar to my hatred of that mean bully who picked on me in school when I was a boy. But still, God uses the word "hate" to represent his feelings, so I don't think we're authorized to correct him on that point. As to your specific example of eternal life vs. immortality, I believe current prophetic usage of the terms has established that eternal life == exaltation, while immortality == resurrection. You may hold private definitions, of course, but in public conversation one generally reverts to the established meanings. Stephen ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// /// ZION LIST CHARTER: Please read it at /// /// http://www.zionsbest.com/charter.html /// ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// --^---------------------------------------------------------------- This email was sent to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?aaP9AU.bWix1n.YXJjaGl2 Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] TOPICA - Start your own email discussion group. FREE! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/create/index2.html --^----------------------------------------------------------------
