Not surprising 2tired. The other thread on this "age old question" reached 75 pages and had over 25 000 views before it came to an end. Massive thread.
Peace,
tammy
Posts by tec
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2596The Pastor of my Old Church Tried to Re-Convert Me Yesterday
by cofty inyesterday evening my wife and i were invited to friends house for new year's eve.
we met them when i was a christian and we have kept in touch.
they had a few other friends there as well, including the new church pastor and his wife.
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2596
The Pastor of my Old Church Tried to Re-Convert Me Yesterday
by cofty inyesterday evening my wife and i were invited to friends house for new year's eve.
we met them when i was a christian and we have kept in touch.
they had a few other friends there as well, including the new church pastor and his wife.
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tec
An all-knowing god would be aware on the earthquake under the Indian Ocean before it happened and could have quelled the wave at its source without any human ever being aware. Not in order to impose his presence any anybody but purely as an act of love. That's what I would have done which makes me far more moral than your god.
And the physical consequences of doing that? Do you know what those would be?
Peace,
tammy
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199
Millions die in Natural disasters - God is doing nothing. Do I adopt Anthropomorphism to him?
by KateWild ini do not think god is a'morphic.
god is not human, so hence he does not possess human characteristics, to know god better and to understand him better i study science.
there has been a new discovery of strange signals picked up from black holes and distant supernovae suggest there's more to space-time than einstein believed.
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tec
I do not think God is A'morphic. Do you?
No I do not. You cannot apply human characteristics to God because man is not the image of God. Man is not even IN the image of God. The first man (and woman) were created in the image of God. But they did not remain IN Him, so as to remain in His image, and any who came after them, from them, came in their likeness.
The image of God... is Christ. So you can apply to God the attributes that you find in Christ. Because Christ is the Truth about God. See Christ... see God. Know Christ... know God.
God is not human, so hence he does not possess human characteristics, to know God better and to understand him better I study science. There has been a new discovery of strange signals picked up from black holes and distant supernovae suggest there's more to space-time than Einstein believed. This is reported in New Scientist.
I see the appeal in that. Even though it is Christ who is the image of God. I can see the appeal in that the processes of science may help one to see the processes of God in creation, as well as simply feed our curiosity and knowledge about the universe we live in. I enjoy this also. But I still know to look at Christ if I want to see/know the Truth about God.
The physical realm and things within the physical realm also provide examples so that we can get a sense of how things are/how things work in the spiritual realm.
For example... the temple that Moses was instructed to build is a reflection of a spirtual equivalent. There was a Most Holy (God), a curtain/door (Christ) to get TO the Most Holy (God).
In Egypt during the famine... Joseph (Christ) distributed the grain (holy spirit/water of life) that belonged to Pharoah (God) to all those Joseph (Christ) chose. If one wanted grain (holy spirit/water of life) from Pharoah (God), then one had to go to Joseph (Christ) FIRST. He did not go directly to Pharoah, but to the one Pharoah appointed in charge of all of his possessions, the land, the grain, etc.
If we understand space-time better, what could be the possibillities that time travel may be possible and all the consequences of natural disasters undone? Rev 21.4 could be possible?
As in death being undone and the events that man himself set in motion when man did not remain in God... ? Yes!
I am assumeing that you mean the consequences of natural disasters (only called disasters if man is in the way, otherwise these are just events, making life possible to thrive/develop... or maybe ripples left over that allowed life to thrive/exist to begin with)... being death, or injury (at least to the physical body)?
No need for time travel... although time travel in a sense could explain how those who have seen and/or exist in that time know to warn us of what IS coming and at what times such things DO happen. Such things will simply happen at the time they are appointed TO happen, according to God's knowledge and wisdom (far more than our own, including in space-time and mathematics, etc)
Peace to you!
tammy
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2596
The Pastor of my Old Church Tried to Re-Convert Me Yesterday
by cofty inyesterday evening my wife and i were invited to friends house for new year's eve.
we met them when i was a christian and we have kept in touch.
they had a few other friends there as well, including the new church pastor and his wife.
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tec
You're still talking about man and what man applied to God. When did God or Christ ever say to throw away knowledge? That is the part you highlighted in my quote.
Peace,
tammy
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2596
The Pastor of my Old Church Tried to Re-Convert Me Yesterday
by cofty inyesterday evening my wife and i were invited to friends house for new year's eve.
we met them when i was a christian and we have kept in touch.
they had a few other friends there as well, including the new church pastor and his wife.
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tec
Adamah, when did God or Christ ever say to throw away knowledge?
Peace,
tammy
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45
Does anyone here believe that things are worse than they were in the past?
by Trismegistus ini still hear this crop up every once in a while, so i figured that i'd open it up to a wide audience.. things are looking pretty good to me..
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tec
Some things are worse, some things are better, some things are roughly the same.
Answer depends on where you live also. But I think for the most part that living conditions have improved. Certainly we are capable of making sure that everyone has the necessities of life. That we aren't putting that into action perhaps speaks to what is worse now than in the past.
Or maybe just the same.
I don't think people have changed all that much, other than more and more not believing in/not loving God. I do think we have as many 'gods' as people have ever had, if you consider that 'versions' of God are like individual 'gods'. Regardless, every generation thinks its smarter and more moral and 'better' than the one that came before.
I don't agree with that.
I also think we have given up some wisdom 'smarts', for technological 'smarts'. Generally speaking.
Peace,
tammy
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2596
The Pastor of my Old Church Tried to Re-Convert Me Yesterday
by cofty inyesterday evening my wife and i were invited to friends house for new year's eve.
we met them when i was a christian and we have kept in touch.
they had a few other friends there as well, including the new church pastor and his wife.
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tec
Your point is well made Humbled. And that story is a great story, thanks for posting it. That girl took heed, noticed the signs, I would suggest that because she had knowledge she was better equipped to hear/see the warning, and so sound a warning for others to get everyone else to safety.
Your point... and others... won't be accepted because some refuse to believe anything other than that God is to blame, leading to God does not exist.
But your point is heard by others. Mankind has thrown away a lot of knowledge that would be to his benefit, if he could ever stop thinking that his generation is the brightest and the best, and that those who came before were all ignorant and knew nothing.
Peace to you!
tammy
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Epic FAIL! :( My sister is gone from me.
by Faithful Witness ingot this email from my sister today.
there is a lot of back story, and this isn't a surprise.
it will be interesting to see how it affects the rest of the family, if they hear about it or not.
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tec
I need to clarify that I was NEVER a JW, and I never agreed to follow their rules. I will not stop being kind to my sister or my niece and nephew.
Good for you!
I am sorry that your sister has cut you off.
Peace to you,
tammy
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2596
The Pastor of my Old Church Tried to Re-Convert Me Yesterday
by cofty inyesterday evening my wife and i were invited to friends house for new year's eve.
we met them when i was a christian and we have kept in touch.
they had a few other friends there as well, including the new church pastor and his wife.
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tec
You voice seems somehow familiar to me Viviane. If so, welcome BACK. If not... time will tell. Welcome anyway.
Well, be specific. Are you suggesting that God may have stopped the tsunami and that may have enraged someone so they killed someone else? Or that the tsunami killed someone who was a future mass murderer and the tsunami stopped him? Are you suggesting that your God may not have stopped the death of 200000 to save... some unknown number?
If so, that's a fascinating theory. Please expound upon how many lives were potentially saved to equal out the 200000 that DID die. I am truly intertested to hear how allowing hundreds of thousands to die in a single event prevented even more deaths.
I was pretty specific. Perhaps read again.
May I ask you a question though? What does the numbers have to do with anything? Do you think that the value of life lies in the number of lives saved? If so then ANY action or inaction that causes the LEAST amount of deaths (end justifying the means) would be acceptable to you?
Then you should pray for your god to remain hidden if his presence is so terrifying that it will cause murder, panic, fear and all that goes with it. Truly a monster were he to reveal himself.
Those who seek, find.
Except in a few rare occassions (where people are killing HIS people, that I know of), He does not force Himself upon others. They hear and follow Him (by hearing and following his Son). Or not.
Neither do you. All we CAN know is that hundreds of thousands died and your all-powerful all-knowing god could or wouldn't stop it.
Difference is... I am not condemning someone in my ignorance.
I assume you would want to be given the benefit of the doubt in the absence of knowledge and/or extenuating circumstances? Especially given the examples of your nature from the One you sent to reveal the truth about you? Even just given the example that you gave us all life, and offer the promise of eternal life?
Lazarus didn't have a choice. Your Jesus took away his free will. Some loving guy, huh?
Now you're just being silly. Lazarus loved Christ, belonged to Christ, served Christ. All by his own choice. Christ did not even remotely take away the free will of Lazarus.
No more so than STORIES of Zeus, Mithra, Zoroaster, Shiva, Ba'al or any other god of that age. You would condemn those as false, please explain why special pleading should work for you and not them? How is your god any different?
This has nothing to do with anything I said, nor does not believing in the existence of something equal condemning that something.
I don't think atheist condemn God simply by not believing in Him. That makes no sense at all.
And the rest of your points also have nothing to do with anything I said either... but they do serve to make your voice sound even more like someone else's, at least to me.
Peace,
tammy
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2596
The Pastor of my Old Church Tried to Re-Convert Me Yesterday
by cofty inyesterday evening my wife and i were invited to friends house for new year's eve.
we met them when i was a christian and we have kept in touch.
they had a few other friends there as well, including the new church pastor and his wife.
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tec
Well, here is one more thing for you to consider:
How do YOU know that God intervening in that tsunami would not have been the cause of anothers' death? Not necessarily from a physical reaction (but possibly)... and not from those who died in the tsunami at some later date who might later kill someone else... but from a human reaction to God having stopped that tsunami? (for whatever reason, use your imagination) Or even from the fear and panic caused by being confronted with the undeniable existence of God... but yet not knowing God, and so fearing Him and being terrified?
You don't know what the results might be to the opposite of what happens.
I also thought that was a good example, Pelicanbeach. One other aspect to that story that is food for thought: Lazarus now had to go into hiding because men were trying to kill him, because Christ raised him from the dead. Some people might rather simply wait for the resurrection than face that and worse.
To others ... assume the worst if you want, any of you who do want. You have the free will to make that assumption.
But to have the example of being given life to begin with... of being promised eternal life on top of that... and the many examples of Christ healing the sick, feeding the poor, giving his life, bringing people back from the dead all out of love (and Christ is the reflection of His Father)... well, these things ought to give you pause in your condemnation. Because your assumption and condemnation just doesn't make any sense in light of these truths. A monstrous god (as Cofty describes what he does not know) does not give life or attempt to help, guide, serve, heal, save, etc, man, including those who so often reject Him.
Peace to you,
tammy