← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Knute
Thread ID: 18323 | Posts: 3 | Started: 2005-05-21
2005-05-21 00:47 | User Profile
[center][color=red]:jester:--- [/color][color=red]Pope says God wants Converts and People Must Fear Him --- :jester:[/color][/center]
[center][size=1] [/center] Wednesday, 11 May 2005 mithuro.com PRESSESC [/size]
The precise aim of divine intervention is to coerce people into conversion, Pope Benedict XVI said today.
He told a 17,000-strong faithful at today's general audience, held in St. Peter's Square that throughout history god has interfered with events of the world and has "his way" with affairs of people.
"History is not in the hands of dark forces, of chance, or of merely human choices," the pontiff said. "The Lord, supreme arbiter of historical events, rises above the discharge of evil energies, the vehement onslaught of Satan, the emergence of plagues and wickedness. He knowingly guides history to the dawn of the new heaven and the new earth, as mentioned in the last part of the book in the image of the new Jerusalem."
"Nations must learn to 'read' in history a message from God," he added. "The human adventure is not confused and meaningless, nor is it hopelessly condemned to the prevarication of the domineering and the perverse."
He highlighted the possibility of "recognizing divine action hidden in history," and of openness to "fearing the name of God."
"Thanks to fear of the Lord, one is not afraid of the evil raging through history and can vigorously resume the road of life," the 78-year-old pontiff concluded.
[center] :whstl: [/center]
2005-05-22 19:37 | User Profile
Looks like you need a little help figuring out what the Pope was saying here.
If "fear of the Lord" is something by which one is impervious to and both courageous and hopeful in the face of the worlds worst ills, perhaps it's not quite the one-dimensional take you seem to have.
2005-05-22 22:13 | User Profile
Edited for precision----
[QUOTE=MITHURO]
[size=1]Wednesday, 11 May 2005[size=2][color=Red]**
mithuro.com**[/color][/size]
PRESSESC
[/size]
[center]**[color=red]:jester:--- [/color]****[color=red]Pope says God wants Converts and People Must Fear Him --- :jester:[/color]**[/center]
The precise aim of divine intervention is to coerce people into conversion, Pope Benedict XVI said today.
He told a 17,000-strong faithful at today's general audience, held in St. Peter's Square that throughout history god has interfered with events of the world and has "his way" with affairs of people.
"History is not in the hands of dark forces, of chance, or of merely human choices," the pontiff said. "The Lord, supreme arbiter of historical events, rises above the discharge of evil energies, the vehement onslaught of Satan, the emergence of plagues and wickedness. He knowingly guides history to the dawn of the new heaven and the new earth, as mentioned in the last part of the book in the image of the new Jerusalem."
"Nations must learn to 'read' in history a message from God," he added. "The human adventure is not confused and meaningless, nor is it hopelessly condemned to the prevarication of the domineering and the perverse."
He highlighted the possibility of "recognizing divine action hidden in history," and of openness to "fearing the name of God."
"Thanks to :taz: [u][color=Red]fear of the Lord[/color][/u]:taz:, one is not afraid of the evil raging through history and can vigorously resume the road of life," the 78-year-old pontiff concluded.
[center] :whstl: [/center]
[/QUOTE]