God Questions......

[Beta]

I would have rather been a robot...Atleast there will be lesser suffering.

I know how you feel !!!
But that is one choice we don't get.

 

[Father Heathen]

I am not asking anyone to believe me. I am simply stating my belief in God and answering people's posts as best I can.
If anyone wants to believe differently they are free to do so. Our relationship with God and Christ is one to one and we are to follow HIM, not people.

But it's people who've appointed themselves interpreters and middlemen for god. It's people who claim to act and speak on behalf of god. It's people who write the holy books and form and lead the churches, mosques, synagogues, temples, etc. Everything you think you know about god was taught to you by people.

 

[Beta]

But it's people who've appointed themselves interpreters and middlemen for god. It's people who claim to act and speak on behalf of god. It's people who write the holy books and form and lead the churches, mosques, synagogues, temples, etc. Everything you think you know about god was taught to you by people.

You may be right - - but there are people and there are people. We don't have to believe everything everybody says !!!
GOD too has a voice !!!

 

[McBell]

Remember they (Adam & Eve) had disobeyed God thinking they could attain to God's level by their own efforts and own reasoning.

Talk about reading into the Bible tons that are just plain outright not there....

This is an impossibility (as God knew) so there was no point allowing them to go on - hence Babel.

What a load of crap.
If it was impossible, then God had no reason to stop it.
However, not only did he stop it, he authored mass confusion to prevent it from happening again.

Perhaps your Bible has much more detail contained within it than any of the ones I have access to...?

But even so God was not washing his hands of man and continues to struggle on with us to this day !

God struggles with man?
I can agree with that.

But to end up fair, just and good it must be done GOD's way as HIS Commandments require !(not as WE figure it out in our perverted imperfect ways).

I flat out disagree.
In fact, of all the characters in the Bible, at least the versions I have access to, God is the biggest hypocrite.

 

[McBell]

We believe in God the Father and in the Son of God !
Each one is held responsible for what he knows and not for other's beliefs.
We are told that the Bible is inspired by God and not by man. The Bible is a book of Faith and does not originate from material evidence - whatever man may claim about it. Man has free choice to believe God or reject him - it's just as simple as that.

Nice little paragraph.
Unfortunately, it does absolutely nothing to answer the questions it was in reply to.

 

[McBell]

I am not asking anyone to believe me. I am simply stating my belief in God and answering people's posts as best I can.
If anyone wants to believe differently they are free to do so. Our relationship with God and Christ is one to one and we are to follow HIM, not people.

And you still have not answered the original questions or the new ones this post in a reply to.

At least you are consistently batting 1000 with it....

 

[Beta]

Talk about reading into the Bible tons that are just plain outright not there....


What a load of crap.
If it was impossible, then God had no reason to stop it.
However, not only did he stop it, he authored mass confusion to prevent it from happening again.

Perhaps your Bible has much more detail contained within it than any of the ones I have access to...?


God struggles with man?
I can agree with that.


I flat out disagree.
In fact, of all the characters in the Bible, at least the versions I have access to, God is the biggest hypocrite.

With some people it's not what is or is not in the Bible but what is in their head !!!

 

[Beta]

And you still have not answered the original questions or the new ones this post in a reply to.

At least you are consistently batting 1000 with it....

Humor me will you and ask me again !

 

[McBell]

With some people it's not what is or is not in the Bible but what is in their head !!!

So you are just filling in what you want where you want?

I mean, you are reading tons into the Bible that just plain outright ain't there.
Are you now saying that your source for the extra stuff is your own head?

 

[McBell]

Humor me will you and ask me again !

I am not the one asking the questions you are not answering.

 

[Black_Shuck]

With some people it's not what is or is not in the Bible but what is in their head !!!

Are those people right or wrong? Its seems that all of the bible was written long ago by biased prophets and each book reflects the prophets mindset. So who are we to trust?

 

[fatima_bintu_islam]

To answer the original question, Im quoting from someone :

God cannot forsake us

Anyone with a modicum of intelligence will agree that God cannot forsake us. If Nokia Manufacturing Company would not manufacture a phone without supplementing it with a Manual, the good and loving God is expected to give mankind a Manual/Guidance to life issues. In Psalm 23 God is described as a “shepherd” who cares for His sheep but which kind of a shepherd is this, one may ask, who does not provide a map/manual/textbook/answerbook/scripture which would explicitly show people the true religion? For convincing argument on this point see this article “Why Would God Forsake Us?”

As for which manuel is the real one, than you cannot decide until you have read them all , can you?

 

[Beta]

Are those people right or wrong? Its seems that all of the bible was written long ago by biased prophets and each book reflects the prophets mindset. So who are we to trust?

The Bible was written by men inspired by God. If you think it is the product of MEN you will be confused. The whole world is already deceived by running ofter men's ideas.Rev.12v9.
So who are we to trust ? GOD OF COURSE !

 

[McBell]

The Bible was written by men inspired by God. If you think it is the product of MEN you will be confused. The whole world is already deceived by running ofter men's ideas.Rev.12v9.
So who are we to trust ? GOD OF COURSE !

The Bible is a product of man.

Of course, if what you say is true, then you are really not helping Gods public image.
Not with those outside your choir at any rate.

 

[Beta]

The Bible is a product of man.

Of course, if what you say is true, then you are really not helping Gods public image.
Not with those outside your choir at any rate.

And what public image do you think God needs to be acceptable to people ?
Perhaps you are not aware that man has to change to God's ways and not the other way round ?

 

[McBell]

And what public image do you think God needs to be acceptable to people ?
Perhaps you are not aware that man has to change to God's ways and not the other way round ?

Just as soon as god decides what ways he wants man to actually follow.

I mean, he has already changed his mind once, that why we got the NT.

 

[Levite]

And are you saying that an almighty powerful God is quite helpless in the face of human interference with godly matters ?
We see that the 10 Commandments are exactly the same in Exodus 20 as they are in the NT for us today. If we don't trust God to preserve what is important for us we might as well be atheists.

First of all, the 10 Commandments aren't even the same from Exodus to Deuteronomy. I don't recall spotting them in the New Testament, but then, I don't pretend to be expert in Christian scripture (in any case, why would Christians need the 10 Commandments? Didn't Jesus' New Covenant supersede the Mosaic Law by Christian doctrine? I never understood that one. And if the New Covenant doesn't supersede the 10 Commandments, why aren't Christians keeping kosher and following the rest of the Torah laws?) But both Scripture and interpretation have been changed, shaped and reshaped, redacted and altered over time: the earliest strata of J and E date from somewhere between 1100 BCE to 900 BCE, and the Torah was finally redacted into its current form somewhere around 450 BCE; the rest of the Tanakh was not fully canonized until the early Talmudic period (1st/2nd Century CE or so). That's over a thousand years that the Hebrew Scriptures were being knocked into their present shape.

Now, I can believe that most of the people who were writing and editing that text were some kind of prophets, receiving some form of inspiration from God. But I can't believe that God literally dictated the text word for word; nor can I believe that prophecy is like God videoconferencing you, and everything is crystal clear and totally rational.

I believe that God has tried to teach us some things, but does so in ways that do not violate our free will, and does so in ways in which we are participatory. That is what a covenental relationship is: both parties have to contribute to the covenant. God contributes the inspiration and the Creation; we contribute the shaping and interpretation of the law, and the following of it as a path in the universe. The law, in other words, is not, as you put it, a "godly matter." It is a matter for God and for humans, together. We say that Torah is never complete: the Written Torah is finished and canonized, but the Oral Torah (without which we believe that the Written Torah cannot be properly understood, much less followed) continues to be "written," with every new exegetical work published, with every opinion of Jewish law that is decided and recorded. Scripture, in that sense, is not static: it is living, breathing, evolving. And so it must be, according to our understanding of it, for it is inspired by the Living God, and it is intended to be interpreted and followed by living, breathing, evolving humans.

As for a "helpless" Almighty, of course I don't believe that God is unable to interfere or act; I believe He restrains Himself, in the interest of preserving free will and the sanctity of the covenental relationship. I believe that there are a fair number of things that God can do that God won't do, because otherwise it would unduly compromise the functionality of the universe. Doesn't make Him less Almighty, just makes Him a little more low-profile.

 

[berrychrisc]

Leviticus is almost what makes me want to cross the threshold into a complete rejection of God and his law because honestly so many of those laws, I break and from what I understand even thinking the thoughts is the same as committing the sin. The overwhelming guilt and sorrow has to have a plan behind it right? So what is the source of this justice and how did God come to make this his foundation?

I used to have the same dilemma when I read the old testament, and I stopped going to church because the people there insisted that God really did and said all those unloving things. What I found helpful was to let go of the attachment to the idea that those texts are the ultimate authority for my concept of God. Most of the human race does not even read Leviticus, much less give it authority as an inspired, infallible text. And of those faith traditions that actually use Leviticus, there is no consensus as to what should be taken literally and what doesn't even apply anymore. If Leviticus (and other texts) is not looked upon as some authoritarian document, then the overwhelming guilt and sorrow can be released. The path to God is through peace and love. Guilt and anguish in believers benefits the religious hierarchy, because it makes believers easy to control, but it doesn't bring anyone closer to God.

 

[Beta]

Just as soon as god decides what ways he wants man to actually follow.

I mean, he has already changed his mind once, that why we got the NT.

Actually God has not changed his mind but he has made changes .
But the 10 Commandments were given at Sinai personally by God and are still in force today. I don't know what people are still waiting for !

 

[McBell]

Actually God has not changed his mind but he has made changes .

Must be one of those faith things, like the trinity.

But the 10 Commandments were given at Sinai personally by God and are still in force today. I don't know what people are still waiting for !

Yeah, the pick and choose mentality prevails.