Carolina QuotesMan can certainly keep on lying (and he does so); but he cannot make truth falsehood. He can certainly rebel (he does so); but he can accomplish nothing which abolishes the choice of God. He can certainly flee from God (he does so) ; but he cannot escape Him. He can certainly hate God and be hateful to God (he does and is so) ; but he cannot change into its opposite the eternal love of God which triumphs even in His hate. He can certainly give himself to isolation (he does so — he thinks, wills and behaves godlessly, and is godless) ; but even in his isolation he must demonstrate that which he wishes to controvert — the impossibility of playing the "individual" over against God. He may let go of God, but God does not let go of him.
Karl Barth Connected to the Carolinas
Source
2:2 — Paraphrased variant: Man can certainly flee from God... but he cannot escape him. He can certainly hate God and be hateful to God … but he cannot change into its opposite the eternal love of God which triumphs even in his hate. — Quoted in Simpson's Contemporary Quotations (1998) by James Beasley Simpson.
- work
- Church Dogmatics (1932–1968)
- year
- 1932
Cite this record
“Man can certainly keep on lying (and he does so); but he can…” Karl Barth. Carolina Quotes, record CQ-89AFD6E365. https://carolinaquotes.com/quote/89afd6e365
More from Karl Barth
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I had to show that the Bible dealt with an encounter between God and Man. I thought only of the apartness of God. What I had to learn after that was the togetherness of Man and God — a union of two totally different kinds of beings.
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