"God had mercy upon His creation[...]"

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"God had mercy upon His creation, and bestowed upon them a new salvation through His Word, that is, Christ, so that men might learn by experience that they cannot attain to incorruption of themselves, but by God's grace only." (Irenæus, Adv. Hær. V. 21.3)

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Origen on the continuity between the commandments of the law and of Jesus (Matt. 5:38-39)

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"[...]it is written in the Lamentations of Jeremiah: 'It is good for a man when he bears a yoke in his youth, he will sit alone and in silence when he has taken it on himself. He will give a cheek to the man who smites him and shall be filled with reproaches.' The gospel, then, does not lay down laws in contradiction to the God of the law, not even if we interpret literally the saying about a blot on the jaw. And neither Moses nor Jesus is wrong. Nor did the Father forget when sent Jesus the commands which he had given to Moses. Nor did He condemn His own laws, and change His mind, and send His messenger for the opposite purpose. " (Con. Cel. VII,25)
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Exceptions to God's love? A thought on violence and salvation, Anabaptists, Yoder, Barth and Luther

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Billede
"Anabaptists" being tortured for rejecting violence and saying that there will be an end to otherworldly torture. In the Lutheran Augsburg Confession (CA) the so-called Anabaptists were condemned not just for their baptist practices but also for their views on eschatology, soteriology and ethics. First there is the Anabaptist rejection of violence. The Lutherans condemned the Anabaptists for teaching the necessity of not engaging as soldiers in “just war”, to “sit as judges” and to award “just punishments”. ”They condemn the Anabaptists who forbid these civil offices to Christians.” (CA § XVI) On soteriology we hear that Lutherans believe that the devil and sinners shall be tortured without end, while the Anabaptists are condemned for teaching that there will be an end to torture: ”They condemn the Anabaptists, who think that there will be an end to the punishments of condemned men and devils.” (CA § XVII) While the claim that there will be an end to punishments...
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Origen (according to Justinian): God's power is finite

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We must now resume the plan of our discussion and consider the beginning of creation - as far as it is possible for the mind to consider the beginning of God's creative work. In this beginning God must, by his will, have established as large a number of intellectual beings, or whatever the above mentioned minds are to be called, as he could control. For we are bound to maintain that God's power is finite; we must not be deterred by the pretext of piety from the assertion of its limitation. For if the divine power were infinite, it would necessarily by incapable of self-knowledge; for in the nature of things the infinite is incomprehensible. So God made as many beings as he could grasp and control and keep under his providence. In the same way he prepared as much matter as he could reduce to order." (On First Principles II, 9, 1-6, GCS, 22, 163-70) (from Koetschau's edition of De Pr., frag. 24 from Justinian)
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