Is God able to provide additional evidence that would convince more people to accept him?

[Beta]

Yet, he failed to understand that unless he is a little more convincing in his way of presenting himself people will divide themselves into countless religions and will die and go to hell before they even begin to understand what God is all about?

I believe you are referring to Jesus for failing to understand mankind.
Ever thought that the fault lies with inferior, imperfect , ignorant and stubborn man ??? God tells us how we can get to know him and man goes away TO DO HIS OWN THING then blames God or Jesus when it all goes wrong.
That is very intelligent of us !

 

[DeitySlayer]

I believe you are referring to Jesus for failing to understand mankind.
Ever thought that the fault lies with inferior, imperfect , ignorant and stubborn man ??? God tells us how we can get to know him and man goes away TO DO HIS OWN THING then blames God or Jesus when it all goes wrong.
That is very intelligent of us !

I think the point is, many religions have come claiming that they are the only true way to God. All of them also claim to have performed miracles, etc. Why did God not give more concrete and time-enduring proof that Jesus was really the path, knowing that all the paths essentially looked the same and without differentiation?

 

[Beta]

I think the point is, many religions have come claiming that they are the only true way to God. All of them also claim to have performed miracles, etc. Why did God not give more concrete and time-enduring proof that Jesus was really the path, knowing that all the paths essentially looked the same and without differentiation?

Yes friend, I quite understand the difficulty man has, I really do. Was in the same boat (of doubt,ignorance and misunderstanding) myself for most of my life until I had self-reasoning and human intellect knocked out of me. Maybe that is what it takes for us to listen to God and obey him. It worked for me.
The thing is man has to learn to look at life , God and Creation from GOD's point. Trying to understand HIM through / by our own reasoning never never works, hence the religious confusion in the world. Every person looks at God (and what he does) from their own very limited comprehension and ends up with limited and flawed results.
So why does God allow this ? We need to go back to Adam and Eve who chose to disobey God's command not to eat of the forbidden tree Gen.2v16,17. Gen.3v1-6. Having given mankind free choice God had to respect their wish to do things their own way. God gave mankind 6 days (6000 years) Ex.20v9 to show what they could achieve. Now this time is about up and God can finally take over rule of the world Ex.20v10 without having broken his promise to us to interfere in our affairs.
So that is the reason man has had to struggle on doing his own thing and actually making a mess of it which will come to a head in the great tribulations of the next very few years Mat.24v21,22. :yes:

 

[DeitySlayer]

Yes friend, I quite understand the difficulty man has, I really do. Was in the same boat (of doubt,ignorance and misunderstanding) myself for most of my life until I had self-reasoning and human intellect knocked out of me. Maybe that is what it takes for us to listen to God and obey him. It worked for me.
The thing is man has to learn to look at life , God and Creation from GOD's point. Trying to understand HIM through / by our own reasoning never never works, hence the religious confusion in the world. Every person looks at God (and what he does) from their own very limited comprehension and ends up with limited and flawed results.
So why does God allow this ? We need to go back to Adam and Eve who chose to disobey God's command not to eat of the forbidden tree Gen.2v16,17. Gen.3v1-6. Having given mankind free choice God had to respect their wish to do things their own way. God gave mankind 6 days (6000 years) Ex.20v9 to show what they could achieve. Now this time is about up and God can finally take over rule of the world Ex.20v10 without having broken his promise to us to interfere in our affairs.
So that is the reason man has had to struggle on doing his own thing and actually making a mess of it which will come to a head in the great tribulations of the next very few years Mat.24v21,22. :yes:

You seriously believe in a literal, 6 day, 6000 year ago Creation? And how do you know that Christianity is more valid than, say, Sikhism?

 

[Beta]

You seriously believe in a literal, 6 day, 6000 year ago Creation? And how do you know that Christianity is more valid than, say, Sikhism?

I can't speak for other religions because I don't know their gods. Neither am I upholding TRADITIONAL christianity but the God of the Bible the God of Israel.
The God of the Bible tells me HE is the Creator who creates ALL things and there is no other besides Him.
In conjunction with other scriptures I have been led to believe THIS GOD and to obey him . This is my choice and others must make their own.
This world and the Universe have been around much longer than 6000 years but not Adam and Eve (mankind) from which time we need to count for ease of understanding and learning. :rainbow1:

 

[LuisDantas]

Is God able to provide additional evidence that would convince more people to accept him?

The topic question can apply to any God who supposedly wants people to believe that he exists.

Logically, yes, of course he would be able to. So we should assume that he does not want to.

There are at least two possible approaches to explain why (three, if you include the hypothesis that there is no such God).

1) God does not think that it would be worth the trouble. Supposedly because atheism doesn't really bother him that much.

2) God is interested in maintaining Free Will (whatever that means).

I never quite figured (2).

 

[nrg]

I believe you are referring to Jesus for failing to understand mankind.

If indeed it was Jesus fault, God should be alot better at chosing the right man for the job. And if no one is qualified, do it himself.

Ever thought that the fault lies with inferior, imperfect , ignorant and stubborn man ??? God tells us how we can get to know him and man goes away TO DO HIS OWN THING then blames God or Jesus when it all goes wrong.
That is very intelligent of us !

Yep, and if he was alot more convincing, or made humans better at understanding what he meant (hell, even Christians aren't unified in what position God maintains in alot of subjects) alot of these problems wouldn't have happened.

The thing is man has to learn to look at life , God and Creation from GOD's point. Trying to understand HIM through / by our own reasoning never never works, hence the religious confusion in the world.

So, why not be just a little more clearer in how his reasoning works? I sure know alot of citizens in Northern Ireland who would've appreciated God doing just that.

 

[Beta]

nrg , human problems would not happen at all if mankind would listen, hear and obey God.
The Bible is full of warnings, admonitions and consequences for our disobedience. So what else do you expect God to do ? Take away your free will ? It would certainly settle a lot of in-fighting in NI you mention as an example. :slap:

 

[nrg]

nrg , human problems would not happen at all if mankind would listen, hear and obey God.
The Bible is full of warnings, admonitions and consequences for our disobedience. So what else do you expect God to do ? Take away your free will ? It would certainly settle a lot of in-fighting in NI you mention as an example. :slap:

No, just make us better at listening, hearing and obeying God. It wouldn't be taking away our free will since he's just making us better decision makers.

 

[Beta]

No, just make us better at listening, hearing and obeying God. It wouldn't be taking away our free will since he's just making us better decision makers.

Again you bring up human intellect in one form or another - our ability to make decisions.
This is exactly what God is NOT looking for. HUMAN reasoning is not what God wants at this stage of our creation/existence. Prov.3v5 is maybe not the best scripture to bring that home to man but it's one always coming into my mind when self-opinions and self-reasoning rears it's ugly head in me. We all suffer from this - it's called human nature which is basically anti-God (Rom.8v7) since the time of satan's influence. Adam and Eve made one decision which was disastrous for mankind .
The Grace we are granted now is to put that right by a PERSONAL choice :yes: and the only way this time is to obey and follow Christ simply and humbly.

 

[nrg]

Again you bring up human intellect in one form or another - our ability to make decisions.
This is exactly what God is NOT looking for. HUMAN reasoning is not what God wants at this stage of our creation/existence.

Ok, then make why not make us better at reasoning?

Prov.3v5 is maybe not the best scripture to bring that home to man but it's one always coming into my mind when self-opinions and self-reasoning rears it's ugly head in me. We all suffer from this - it's called human nature which is basically anti-God (Rom.8v7)

You know, for being omnipotent, omniscient and what not, he seems to not understand what the consequences are of making it our nature to reject him.

since the time of satan's influence. Adam and Eve made one decision which was disastrous for mankind .
The Grace we are granted now is to put that right by a PERSONAL choice :yes: and the only way this time is to obey and follow Christ simply and humbly.

Um, why do it in this extremely complicated manner? How could Eve and Adam's decision affect the judgement of us in any way? It's like pointing at the witch huntings and claim all christians should be judged by that.

 

[Beta]

Ok, then make why not make us better at reasoning? You know, for being omnipotent, omniscient and what not, he seems to not understand what the consequences are of making it our nature to reject him. Um, why do it in this extremely complicated manner? How could Eve and Adam's decision affect the judgement of us in any way? It's like pointing at the witch huntings and claim all christians should be judged by that.

That's just it my friend , in our initial beginning we are IGNORANT of God and what he is all about. To make sound judgements one needs the right kind of knowledge, the truth only HE can give. It was available through the tree of life. By mankinds own choice we ended up in lies and confusion. GOD DID NOT MAKE US LIKE THAT - we chose that way by wrong decision and lack of true knowledge. Like a small child will do stupid things because it has no knowledge or experience yet and needs to trust it's parent to know best. God and the Bible are mainly about faith and tust so we may learn from them UNTIL we get knowledgable as we grow in that way of life.
It's not complicated but 'spiritual growing up' by faith and obedience to God.
Had God pre-programmed man with his knowledge we would have NO CHOICE or WILL of our own and been much like robots. That is not God's plan for mankind.
In the NT man is no longer judged by A & E sin but by our own personal choice. That Grace was attained for man by Jesus' sacrifice . But sin came into the world by A&E and we need to know about that because it originally impacted human life.

 

[emiliano]

The topic question can apply to any God who supposedly wants people to believe that he exists.

God, any god that has the power to do it will only do it for those the He elect.

 

[Beta]

God, any god that has the power to do it will only do it for those the He elect.

I don't know what other gods do
but the God of the Bible (the Creator) will not turn away any that come to Him Joh.6v37.

 

[nrg]

That's just it my friend , in our initial beginning we are IGNORANT of God and what he is all about. To make sound judgements one needs the right kind of knowledge, the truth only HE can give.

So why don't he give it to us directly at our initial beginning?

It was available through the tree of life. By mankinds own choice we ended up in lies and confusion. GOD DID NOT MAKE US LIKE THAT - we chose that way by wrong decision and lack of true knowledge.

Hey, I didn't chose anything. How come I still suffer the same consequences?

And why did he give us the capability of chosing a life full of lies and confusion? Why is it essential that we have that choice? That we have the choice not to live a life with God, ok, I'll buy that for now, but why does the other necessarily have to be lies and confusion?

Like a small child will do stupid things because it has no knowledge or experience yet and needs to trust it's parent to know best. God and the Bible are mainly about faith and tust so we may learn from them UNTIL we get knowledgable as we grow in that way of life.

The thing is, parents aren't all powerful so they cannot fully learn a child everything it needs to know about life in the blink of an eye. God, however, is.

It's not complicated but 'spiritual growing up' by faith and obedience to God.
Had God pre-programmed man with his knowledge we would have NO CHOICE or WILL of our own and been much like robots. That is not God's plan for mankind.

Huh?

What reasoning made you draw that conclusion? Just because I've been pre-programmed with abilities that would make it alot easier to make the right decision, doesn't mean I'm being forced to make the right decision. I still have the ability to chose wrong, the only difference being that I know why it would be a wrongful decision. By your argument, blind people have the most freddom when it comes to the interior decorating and studying at law school takes away your choices of how not to interact in society.

In the NT man is no longer judged by A & E sin but by our own personal choice. That Grace was attained for man by Jesus' sacrifice . But sin came into the world by A&E and we need to know about that because it originally impacted human life.

Ok, and why did he do that to us? Are all the people born BC not as worthy as we are?

 

[DeitySlayer]

So, then, Beta, how do you know that the Christian interpretation of God is more valid than, say, the Hindu or Sikh or Muslim interpretation, if you don't use reasoning?

 

[emiliano]

I don't know what other gods do
but the God of the Bible (the Creator) will not turn away any that come to Him Joh.6v37.

You mean to tell me that God has promise to save everybody?

Mat 10:22
And you will be hated by all for My name's sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved.​

What happens to those that do not endure to the end?

Mar 13:13
And you will be hated by all for My name's sake. But he who endures to the end shall be saved.
Mar 16:16
He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.
Luk 13:24
"Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able.​

I am Christian and I like the idea of universal Salvation but I don’t see it in scripture.

Jhn 3:16
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.​

 

[nrg]

I am Christian and I like the idea of universal Salvation but I don’t see it in scripture.

So, God simply didn't like greek people born a couple of hundred years before Christ?

 

[Sirktas]

So, then, Beta, how do you know that the Christian interpretation of God is more valid than, say, the Hindu or Sikh or Muslim interpretation, if you don't use reasoning?

You were ignored, imagine that.

 

[Beta]

So why don't he give it to us directly at our initial beginning? Hey, I didn't chose anything. How come I still suffer the same consequences?

And why did he give us the capability of chosing a life full of lies and confusion? Why is it essential that we have that choice? That we have the choice not to live a life with God, ok, I'll buy that for now, but why does the other necessarily have to be lies and confusion? The thing is, parents aren't all powerful so they cannot fully learn a child everything it needs to know about life in the blink of an eye. God, however, is.
Huh?

What reasoning made you draw that conclusion? Just because I've been pre-programmed with abilities that would make it alot easier to make the right decision, doesn't mean I'm being forced to make the right decision. I still have the ability to chose wrong, the only difference being that I know why it would be a wrongful decision. By your argument, blind people have the most freddom when it comes to the interior decorating and studying at law school takes away your choices of how not to interact in society.
Ok, and why did he do that to us? Are all the people born BC not as worthy as we are?

So let me give you again the example of a small child - could you put into his mind all it needs to know how to be a doctor, a surgeon, an accountant, a preacher, a banker, a scientist ? (you get the picture ?) And even if you could know it , all it would give you is an educated human life that ends with death. That is not what God has planned for us. ALSO BESIDES knowledge we need to have love, mercy, compassion, patience and a host of other Godly qualities that come only with experience.
Non of us chose anything when we were infants but we get to make choices when we grow up which is what is expected of mankind now we have been around a few millennia. NOW you get to choose God and learn HIS ways or reject him. That is man's initial step now as adults.
We learn by personal experience, not by being pre-programmed
with head-knowledge. It alone does not complete our creation.
(will answer other points as we go along)