If God is loving and omnibenevolent why would God…

[CG Didymus]

Reddit Baha'i is an English forum, and I'm sure there are many Baha'is, from Hindu and Buddhism backgrounds for instance that don't know English, and of course there are many Baha'is in poor countries, without access to the internet besides. Many of those are in Latin America, and most of those are from a Christian background, and there are a lot of Baha'is in Africa, which have a mixed Christian, Muslim, and indigenous religion background there. I have no idea the percentage of those from from a Christian background around the world. I don't know or nor if most are from A Christian background, but odds are that might be true, considering how many are in Latin America which are still very much Christian. Religion may be waning in Western countries and Japan, but in the rest of the world, religion is not waning at all.

So many Christian Churches are filled with just nominal believers. I would hope they would get up and leave and find some truth that they can believe in and actually put into practice. But is the Baha'i Faith any better? It too has its "inactive" Baha'is.

So, can any "organized" religion, a religion that is designed for the masses, really get its people to deeply care and put their beliefs into practice?

For Christians, they go to Church on Sunday, or some only once in a while.

For Baha'is, some go to Feast and that's it. And some only once in a while.

Back in the early 70's, the big push was for Baha'is to go out and teach... not many did. And most of them were young people that were new to the Baha'i Faith. Who is doing the work of teaching the Fatih now?

 

[Spice]

So many Christian Churches are filled with just nominal believers. I would hope they would get up and leave and find some truth that they can believe in and actually put into practice. But is the Baha'i Faith any better? It too has its "inactive" Baha'is.

So, can any "organized" religion, a religion that is designed for the masses, really get its people to deeply care and put their beliefs into practice?

For Christians, they go to Church on Sunday, or some only once in a while.

For Baha'is, some go to Feast and that's it. And some only once in a while.

Back in the early 70's, the big push was for Baha'is to go out and teach... not many did. And most of them were young people that were new to the Baha'i Faith. Who is doing the work of teaching the Fatih now?

The conservative Meeting of the Society of Friends gather on Sunday in mostly silent contemplation. Their "footprint" can be found in things like community gardens, and other community services you'll not find "listed" anywhere. They just DO. I'm not a Quaker but I do admire them so I took a moment to give them their props.

 

[Truthseeker]

So many Christian Churches are filled with just nominal believers. I would hope they would get up and leave and find some truth that they can believe in and actually put into practice. But is the Baha'i Faith any better? It too has its "inactive" Baha'is.

In the early days mistaken approaches to teaching was made. They would teach the principles of the Baha'i Faith to them, and if they believed in those principles, they were encourages to formally become Baha'is. No, I believe the right approach is to show that Baha'u'llah was a Messenger from God, and encourage them to investigate that claim for themselves, and not to just take their word for it. As a result, many were not active usually without formally writing to the national Assembly and withdrawing from the Baha'i Faith when later they were disenchanted. This is the main source of "inactive" Baha'is. Some have withdrawn from Baha'i communities, because the Baha'is had disunity in the community, or in some other way they saw what looked like hypocrisy there. Baha'is are imperfect just like other human beings.

Who is doing the work of teaching the Fatih now?

It is hard in my area to find anyone to teach in the Dayton, Ohio area. It is different in other parts of the US, but in general there is not the interest there was in the 60's and early 70's. That time was different from now. I can't put my finger precisely on what the difference is. There seems to be less idealism today, and more disenchantment with organized religion. We feel as Baha'is that the way the Baha'i Faith is organized is different than how how organized Christian churches are organized, and that in our case being organized is good, but the casual outsider can't see that unless they delve into how our religion is organized, and getting them to do that in the first place is a problem. The Baha'i population frankly is aging here in the Dayton area. It's hard to find young Baha'is here.

 

[loverofhumanity]

I don't know which Bible you are reading, but here's a lot of killing go on in the name of the Lord.

1 Samuel 15:2 This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. 3 Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy[a] all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’”​

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Numbers 21:1 When the Canaanite king of Arad, who lived in the Negev, heard that Israel was coming along the road to Atharim, he attacked the Israelites and captured some of them. 2 Then Israel made this vow to the Lord: “If you will deliver these people into our hands, we will totally destroy[a] their cities.” 3 The Lord listened to Israel’s plea and gave the Canaanites over to them. They completely destroyed them and their towns; so the place was named Hormah.​

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Numbers 31:1 The Lord said to Moses, 2 “Take vengeance on the Midianites for the Israelites... 3 So Moses said to the people, “Arm some of your men to go to war against the Midianites so that they may carry out the Lord’s vengeance on them... 7 They fought against Midian, as the Lord commanded Moses, and killed every man... 15 “Have you allowed all the women to live?” he asked them. 16 “They were the ones who followed Balaam’s advice and enticed the Israelites to be unfaithful to the Lord in the Peor incident, so that a plague struck the Lord’s people. 17 Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, 18 but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.​

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1 Kings 18:36 At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: “Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. 37 Answer me, Lord, answer me, so these people will know that you, Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.”​

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38 Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench.​

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39 When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, “The Lord—he is God! The Lord—he is God!”​

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40 Then Elijah commanded them, “Seize the prophets of Baal. Don’t let anyone get away!” They seized them, and Elijah had them brought down to the Kishon Valley and slaughtered there.​

All these people had their own religion and their own God's... But the God of Israel told his people that these were false Gods. And that justified that those people must be killed.

So, what do you do about those stories? The Bible clearly says that those religions were not from the one true God. But back then, there were many Gods... How do Baha'is interpret and explain that?

In Ugarit, the gods were called 'ilhm (elohim), or the children of El, a probable parallel to the the biblical "sons of God." The chief god, a progenitor of the universe, was El, also known as Elion (biblical El Elyon), who was the father of the divinities. In the Urgaritic material, El is the consort of Ashera, who is described as the "mother of 70 gods."​

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In the Urgaritic Baal cycle, Baal, the god of storms and fertility, earns his position as the champion and ruler of the gods by defeating the tyrannical Yam, the god of the sea, and later triumphing over Mot, the god of death. Yam had been placed over the other gods by El but ruled them tyrannically. Asherah offered herself as a sacrifice if Yam will ease his grip on her children. He agreed, but Baal boldly declared that he will defeat Yam, despite Yam's being endorsed by El. With the aid of magical weapons given to him by the divine craftsman Kothar-wa-Khasis, Baal is victorious. However, the god of death and the underworld, Mot, soon lures Baal to his own death in the desert, spelling drought and ruin for the land. Baal's sister/wife Anat retrieves his body and assaults Mot, ripping him to pieces and scattering his remains over the fields. El, meanwhile, has had a dream suggesting that Baal would be resurrected, which indeed takes place. However, Mot, too, had revived and mounted a new attack against Baal. After their titanic but indecisive battle, Mot finally bows before Baal, leaving Baal in possession of the land and the undisputed regent of the gods.​

The authorship of 1-2 Samuel is unknown. (Zondervan Study Bible). Israel throughout its history has had to fight for its very survival as it is now and if the enemy is using innocent civilians as shields in a war these innocents will be harmed.

The bottom line today is that no politicians or governments have an answer to stop the current wars. The world wars, Vietnam war, Korean War, Israeli wars. Non-one can solve the problem or heal the wounds that is except I believe Baha’u’llah. Only a power that comes from God can enable people to become unified.

The proof is living testimony. For over a 100 years now Baha’is from conflicting backgrounds such as Jewish and Muslim, East and west, black and white all are united and have no wars nor any conflicts. The only thing remaining for the world to take notice of Baha’u’llah’s power to unite all humanity is when the Baha’i World Community reaches a certain number maybe a half billion or we have some nations which are Baha’i.

The remedy Baha’u’llah brought has PROVEN itself to be able to unite people from all religions, races and nationalities?
A proven remedy exists. But I suppose the world needs to see maybe a billion people or countries become Baha’i before it will take notice that peace and unity IS and already has been established by a cross section of the human race by following the teachings of Baha’u’llah .

 

[CG Didymus]

The only thing remaining for the world to take notice of Baha’u’llah’s power to unite all humanity is when the Baha’i World Community reaches a certain number maybe a half billion or we have some nations which are Baha’i.

I asked in one of these threads what Baha'is were going to do if a city were ever to get thousands or more Baha'is. How would the LSA run a city of Baha'is that large? I asked how they would even hold their Feast. I think one Baha'i said that the Feasts would be held in different locations. But where is the "unity" in that? Is each location going to have its own mini-LSA and then a city-wide LSA that would be over them?

I really don't know how the Baha'i Faith is going to be able to run things. Especially if you're going to have people elected to the LSA that don't have the knowledge and capability to run things on such a large scale.

The LSA members I knew only had to run communities from nine to about twenty people... and they still had problems.

How many Baha'is do you have in some of your cities in Australia? And how do they handle things?

 

[CG Didymus]

The remedy Baha’u’llah brought has PROVEN itself to be able to unite people from all religions, races and nationalities?
A proven remedy exists.

A couple more thoughts... When the old-world order crumbles, is the Baha'i Faith ready to take over and establish its new world order?

We could test it and try it out right now. Take... let's say 10,000 Baha'is from all the different places and from different backgrounds and put them all together, maybe on a big island, and see how things go.

To make it more realistic, we could leave some non-Baha'is there and see how they take to being ruled by the Baha'is and their new world order.

The other thing... In the Bible story, the God of the Israelites has Moses tell the Pharoah to let his people go. What was the religion of those Egyptians at that time? Was it a true religion of God or a false religion with make-believe Gods?

And tying this all back into the thread, all those ancient people had their own religions and their own Gods. They all thought that theirs was the true one. Christianity was part of that world. The Greeks and Romans believed in false Gods and had a false religion. The Jews had a true religion but were practicing it wrong and had corrupted it. The new religion brought by Jesus was the only true religion.

Then came Islam and then the Baha'i Faith. Both religions are doing the same thing. They believe the previous religions have gotten corrupted and their new "truth" has replaced them. For Baha'is, the old "truths" of the old religions don't work anymore.

Is that a "progression" or the replacement of what used to be believed as true... but is no longer true?

 

[Trailblazer]

A couple more thoughts... When the old-world order crumbles, is the Baha'i Faith ready to take over and establish its new world order?

I don't think that the old world order is going to crumble suddenly, but that is just my personal opinion based upon what I read in the Writings.

“Beseech ye the one true God to grant that all men may be graciously assisted to fulfil that which is acceptable in Our sight. Soon will the present-day order be rolled up, and a new one spread out in its stead. Verily, thy Lord speaketh the truth, and is the Knower of things unseen.” Gleanings, p. 7

I think the new world order is slowly rising in order to be able to replace the old world order.

 

[CG Didymus]

There is only one God Who reveals guidance and teachings for us for each age. It is the same God. He is the God of all religions. People have not fully understood that there is but one God that continues to send His Prophets and Messengers to us. There is but one sun yet some argue that the their sun is true and the sun of other days is false. So they say for example only the sun of Monday is the true sun but the sun of Tuesday, Wednesday and the rest of the week are false. They are not understanding that by rejecting the other ’suns’ they are in reality rejecting their own sun which is the same. We all worship the same God whether we call him by different names or use different prayers.

Nobody says the Sun that shines on Monday is a different Sun than the one on Tuesday. But they do say that their prophet, messenger, manifestation or incarnation is different than one believed in some other religion.

The Baha'i explanation is that God gave those people a different message because of the time and place they were living. The Sun sends pretty much the same rays of light each day. If the messengers were as consistent as the Sun, then I'd agree with you.

Then came Islam and then the Baha'i Faith. Both religions are doing the same thing. They believe the previous religions have gotten corrupted and their new "truth" has replaced them. For Baha'is, the old "truths" of the old religions don't work anymore.

Is that a "progression" or the replacement of what used to be believed as true... but is no longer true?

The Baha'is "grade school" analogy is the same. When a kid goes to the next grade the teacher doesn't say that what the kids learned in the previous grade are no longer valid... that they are going to teach them something new. And on top of that tell them that the information they learned had been corrupted and misinterpreted.

So, still I ask... is it really a "progression"? Or more like each religion replaces the beliefs and practices of all the previous ones? But... since it is replacing the older religions... is the Baha'i Faith the best replacement for all the other religions? Religions with a lot of laws have never worked. People from the top to the bottom have all found ways and reasons not to obey the laws. But some of them act as if they are obeying them.

 

[Spice]

@CG Didymus
Your post #88 is a great thought to Christianity to Judaism, too, which I'm more familiar with than Islam to Baha'i.

I feel that Jesus's mission was a continuation of Judaism but with a softer, more pacifist hand. The "times" were the very beginnings of the Roman-rule end, politically at least. Not only the inhabitants of Palestine, but all of the Empire were in need of his message, just like today. We don't need to be wishing for, nor looking for Armageddon, IMO, as I hear so many Christians promote, but the calm, humble, love of our fellow man that was his message for the "now."

 

[loverofhumanity]

If God is loving and omnibenevolent why would God make Christianity the only true religion and Jesus the only way to God?

That makes no sense to me and that is one reason why I could never be a Christian. I believe that God is just and it would be terribly unjust if Christianity was the only true religion and Jesus was the only way to God. What about the 67% of the world population who are not Christians? Even worse, to say that all those people are going to hell is an untenable belief. How can people actually believe that?

It’s time for Christians to stand up and defend their beliefs.

“It’s in the Bible” is not good enough because the Bible can be used to support any beliefs that people want to hold. I can even use the Bible to support my Baha’i beliefs.

Fear has been used to control Christians for centuries I would think more so since the Revelation of Muhammad so they won’t join other religions. To do this they use certain quotes and almost always warn them of false prophets and to be careful of Satan controlling them. This produces a very closed minded mindset which is basically incapable of learning.

Nobody says the Sun that shines on Monday is a different Sun than the one on Tuesday. But they do say that their prophet, messenger, manifestation or incarnation is different than one believed in some other religion.

The Baha'i explanation is that God gave those people a different message because of the time and place they were living. The Sun sends pretty much the same rays of light each day. If the messengers were as consistent as the Sun, then I'd agree with you.

The Baha'is "grade school" analogy is the same. When a kid goes to the next grade the teacher doesn't say that what the kids learned in the previous grade are no longer valid... that they are going to teach them something new. And on top of that tell them that the information they learned had been corrupted and misinterpreted.

So, still I ask... is it really a "progression"? Or more like each religion replaces the beliefs and practices of all the previous ones? But... since it is replacing the older religions... is the Baha'i Faith the best replacement for all the other religions? Religions with a lot of laws have never worked. People from the top to the bottom have all found ways and reasons not to obey the laws. But some of them act as if they are obeying them.

There are seasons when the sun is less or more stronger. But progression makes perfect sense to me. Christ taught love thy neighbour for example but in His time He couldn’t have taught world unity because the nations had not been established nor international travel and communications. So when we did progress socially and scientifically to that point Baha’u’llah comes along with teachings for unity. Humanity needed to establish nationhood which Muhammad did by uniting the conflicting tribes into one nation. After Him we had other nations including the USA being founded. Now nation building has been completed the next stage is world civilisation. Makes a lot of sense to me.

 

[CG Didymus]

There are seasons when the sun is less or more stronger. But progression makes perfect sense to me.

Still the same Sun. And still, I think a progression should build more on what was taught by the previous religions. Maybe "evolved" from the previous religions fits more into what I'm thinking. Because even a religion like Christianity very well could have borrowed some of its concepts from pagan religions. Things like Satan/Hades and virgin born savior God/men that die and rise again.

Christ taught love thy neighbour for example but in His time He couldn’t have taught world unity because the nations had not been established nor international travel and communications. So when we did progress socially and scientifically to that point Baha’u’llah comes along with teachings for unity. Humanity needed to establish nationhood which Muhammad did by uniting the conflicting tribes into one nation. After Him we had other nations including the USA being founded. Now nation building has been completed the next stage is world civilisation. Makes a lot of sense to me.

I know that some Baha'is have tried to say that one manifestation brought "family" unity. Then the next united people in tribes, then cities, then states, then nations and now the world.

However, there's been several great empires that are as big or bigger than most nations. And those empires might have had only one religion that united the whole empire into believing one thing... Probably that the emperor was a God. So, for me, that nation thing doesn't work either... along with the Sun analogy.

But I do agree with Baha'is that it is necessary for all the world to get together and live in peace. That's why I first was interested in learning about the Baha'i Faith. Now I'm just not sure the Baha'i Faith can actually get the job done.... like I've said, religions with a lot of laws have never worked.

Although, they try to make them work by forcing people to conform to "God's" laws. And that just makes things worse. And if people don't conform to those laws, then you don't have the unity. You've got people that are against the religion and its laws.

Oh, and again, like I've said before, the people in the religion, especially the leaders, aren't even able to follow and obey all the laws, though some try to act as if they do. And that causes other people not to respect those laws.

 

[loverofhumanity]

Still the same Sun. And still, I think a progression should build more on what was taught by the previous religions. Maybe "evolved" from the previous religions fits more into what I'm thinking. Because even a religion like Christianity very well could have borrowed some of its concepts from pagan religions. Things like Satan/Hades and virgin born savior God/men that die and rise again.

I know that some Baha'is have tried to say that one manifestation brought "family" unity. Then the next united people in tribes, then cities, then states, then nations and now the world.

However, there's been several great empires that are as big or bigger than most nations. And those empires might have had only one religion that united the whole empire into believing one thing... Probably that the emperor was a God. So, for me, that nation thing doesn't work either... along with the Sun analogy.

But I do agree with Baha'is that it is necessary for all the world to get together and live in peace. That's why I first was interested in learning about the Baha'i Faith. Now I'm just not sure the Baha'i Faith can actually get the job done.... like I've said, religions with a lot of laws have never worked.

Although, they try to make them work by forcing people to conform to "God's" laws. And that just makes things worse. And if people don't conform to those laws, then you don't have the unity. You've got people that are against the religion and its laws.

Oh, and again, like I've said before, the people in the religion, especially the leaders, aren't even able to follow and obey all the laws, though some try to act as if they do. And that causes other people not to respect those laws.

The proof as I said exists in the Baha’i World Community. There is proof that under world governance a cross section of the human race comprised of all the races, religions and nationalities are united which the world outside is incapable of doing. In time the world will stand up and take notice of the uniting force of Baha’u’llah. Humanity will never become perfect but we can progress and will continue to mature. We need unity and reconciliation at this time so this is why these teachings are appropriate for this time. But we will never reach perfection.

 

[CG Didymus]

@CG Didymus
Your post #88 is a great thought to Christianity to Judaism, too, which I'm more familiar with than Islam to Baha'i.

I feel that Jesus's mission was a continuation of Judaism but with a softer, more pacifist hand. The "times" were the very beginnings of the Roman-rule end, politically at least. Not only the inhabitants of Palestine, but all of the Empire were in need of his message, just like today. We don't need to be wishing for, nor looking for Armageddon, IMO, as I hear so many Christians promote, but the calm, humble, love of our fellow man that was his message for the "now."

I'm not so sure about the definitions of God or Gods that some religion give. But I do think there is some sort of "higher" power or something that we can connect with or tune into.

Now about "organized" religions... They all kind of negate the other ones. Even one sect of the same religion sometimes negates all the other sects plus all the other religions. But I usually focus my attention on the Born-Again types of Christians. They do believe they are the only ones that are right.

As we all know they believe Adam sinned and messed up everything. But then they say that Judaism and the Law was only meant to show people that they couldn't ever be good enough to earn their own salvation. They needed a perfect sacrifice to atone for their sins... and that's Jesus.

I pretty much agree with them that what is written in the NT supports their beliefs. But, since I don't agree with their beliefs, what can I do? The only thing is to question the truth of the gospels and the rest of the NT.

And that's pretty easy for me to do. They have a man that is born of a virgin, that walks on water, and rose from the dead. For me, there's a good chance that the people 2000 years ago made up and embellished the story of Jesus and made him a God/man.

Now the Baha'i Faith comes into the picture. They claim that Jesus was only one of many messengers/manifestations of God. But for Jesus, and most of the others, they don't believe the stories about those men. That doesn't work for me. It allows them to say anything they want to about Jesus and the others and claim that their prophet, Baha'u'llah, knows the true story and that the stories about these people in the Bible and in the other Scriptures aren't accurate.

By the time we're done... I don't see that they are really believing in any of the older religions or their prophets/messengers. They are rewriting the stories of those men to fit their religious beliefs about a "progression" of spiritual teachers.

I'd much rather take spiritual teachings and look at those religious stories about Gods and prophets more like myths and legends.

So, I'm not that far off from Baha'i beliefs on spiritual things, it's just their claims of being connected to all the other religions, and how they claim that their prophet has fulfilled all the prophecies of those other religions... religions that they don't really believe are true and accurate in all their teachings, beliefs and practices.

Anyway, you seem like you're on a spiritual path that sees the good stuff in all the religions. And I think that's a great way to be.

 

[InChrist]

Smells like special pleading.

Also kind of funny and ironic that an all-powerful, all-knowing god seems to be so limited.

Why should it be limiting if that’s how God determined or knows that’s the best way to carry out His plan and so has communicated it to humanity?

 

[Spice]

I'm not so sure about the definitions of God or Gods that some religion give. But I do think there is some sort of "higher" power or something that we can connect with or tune into.

Now about "organized" religions... They all kind of negate the other ones. Even one sect of the same religion sometimes negates all the other sects plus all the other religions. But I usually focus my attention on the Born-Again types of Christians. They do believe they are the only ones that are right.

As we all know they believe Adam sinned and messed up everything. But then they say that Judaism and the Law was only meant to show people that they couldn't ever be good enough to earn their own salvation. They needed a perfect sacrifice to atone for their sins... and that's Jesus.

I pretty much agree with them that what is written in the NT supports their beliefs. But, since I don't agree with their beliefs, what can I do? The only thing is to question the truth of the gospels and the rest of the NT.

And that's pretty easy for me to do. They have a man that is born of a virgin, that walks on water, and rose from the dead. For me, there's a good chance that the people 2000 years ago made up and embellished the story of Jesus and made him a God/man.

Now the Baha'i Faith comes into the picture. They claim that Jesus was only one of many messengers/manifestations of God. But for Jesus, and most of the others, they don't believe the stories about those men. That doesn't work for me. It allows them to say anything they want to about Jesus and the others and claim that their prophet, Baha'u'llah, knows the true story and that the stories about these people in the Bible and in the other Scriptures aren't accurate.

By the time we're done... I don't see that they are really believing in any of the older religions or their prophets/messengers. They are rewriting the stories of those men to fit their religious beliefs about a "progression" of spiritual teachers.

I'd much rather take spiritual teachings and look at those religious stories about Gods and prophets more like myths and legends.

So, I'm not that far off from Baha'i beliefs on spiritual things, it's just their claims of being connected to all the other religions, and how they claim that their prophet has fulfilled all the prophecies of those other religions... religions that they don't really believe are true and accurate in all their teachings, beliefs and practices.

Anyway, you seem like you're on a spiritual path that sees the good stuff in all the religions. And I think that's a great way to be.

But I do get frustrated somewhat over the same things you do. I had a 2-hour head-to-head in face time today and we both came out still friends. But it hurts her that I don't believe "correctly" and it drives me nuts that she can't see she's wrapped up in a "system" that stunts her spiritual journey.

What do we do? The same thing Evangelicals do -- keep trying. Hopefully in patience and genuine love.

I saw this today and it resonated with me:

Tolerance doesn't care. Tolerance just looks the other way and goes about its own business. Tolerance is Indifferent.

Caring is blind--the kind of caring that cares for everybody, no matter who they are, but doesn't allow them to step outside the path your caring believes to be good for them. Caring can suffocate.

And then there is deep love. Deep love recognizes another person's right to grow, their need to travel along a path and get there on their own--and yet has the compassion to be there for them when they are lost. Deep love has room for a thousand private journeys.
--Rabbi Tzvi Freeman

I'm tolerant when that's the only choice, and in this instance I hope I'm never caring. I strive to be loving.

Namaste

 

[TagliatelliMonster]

Why should it be limiting if that’s how God determined or knows that’s the best way to carry out His plan and so has communicated it to humanity?

Because an all-powerfull, all-knowing god would be able to come up with more efficient ways.

 

[Trailblazer]

Because an all-powerfull, all-knowing god would be able to come up with more efficient ways.

I believe God did come up with a more efficient way.

 

[InChrist]

Because an all-powerfull, all-knowing god would be able to come up with more efficient ways.

According to your finite, limited understanding….maybe, but I am of the view that an All powerful, All knowing God knows more than you or me and has come up with the most efficient, effective, wisest and most loving way.

 

[Trailblazer]

According to your finite, limited understanding….maybe, but I am of the view that an All powerful, All knowing God knows more than you or me and has come up with the most efficient, effective, wisest and most loving way.

I agree that an All powerful, All knowing God knows more than you or me, but I don't believe there is only one way to God for all of time and eternity, as Christians believe, since that makes no sense to me if God is benevolent and loving.

 

[Spice]

I agree that an All powerful, All knowing God knows more than you or me, but I don't believe there is only one way to God for all of time and eternity, as Christians believe, since that makes no sense to me if God is benevolent and loving.

I believe there is only one way, although that has nothing to do with religion. Religion, IMO, is the recipe, but there are many, many good recipes for bread. One's particular taste or need in bread leads them to their choice of recipe, but all are still reaching for the Bread of Life which is God -- whether flat bread, pumpernickel, artisan, etc., etc.