re: God Has A Plan For Your Life

Foo. I really don't have anything to add to the premise of this thread however I do want to compliment you on your well thought out responses and patience with so many of these fonts that like to throw stones at you every time you defend Christianity and espouse your beliefs in these types of threads.

You're obviously well educated in theology and I enjoy reading your posts. As a life long Yellow Jacket I very rarely say this but you're a damn good dawg! Keep up the good work.

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Why not have 590 genders

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Fine with me, I'm not the one confused.

Why do we condone the murder of millions of innocent and, free the wicked?

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We don't know why He has determined that one person live to 80 while another die in the womb.

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But we do know that setting someone on a path where they literally cannot fail no matter what (aborted child) and having someone live to be 80 (what percent of the human population that's ever lived will make it to heaven? Much less than half) are placing people on two totally different playing fields.

How is that compatible with being perfectly just?

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What we do know is that God is holy. We know that He has a purpose for everything He does and allows to be done. We know that all things are done ultimately for His glory. We know all humans are sinful (conceived with a sinful nature) and guilty before God. We know that God is just and must punish sin. These things together allow for us to understand why He can remain holy and allow for sin and evil to exist for a time, knowing that all of it will be judged in His time."

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No, we don't know any of that. All we can do is surmise what we can from the evidence we have. And a perfectly just being setting up a scenario where some people cannot fail, and others have a great chance of failure, isn't just.

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Have you read these message boards and other ones? We are a stubborn, thickheaded people.

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Even still, seeing rivers of blood seems to be more of an attention grabber than simply following the tradition of blood sacrifices. There's nothing immediately miraculous about burning an animal. In fact, I could buy a cow, kill it, and burn it this week (might be breaking a law but it's within my power to do so). Turning a river into blood? Not so much.

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you couldn't say but I gave money to charity so could you please let me out of this ticket. Your good work wouldn't absolve you of your wrong doing. You'd still need to pay the fine.

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And if our legal system allowed for you to pay your fine by donating it to charity it would prove that God's decision to base salvation on blood sacrifices is arbitrary? I doubt you'd make that allowance, so why should I allow this to rest on how an imperfect human legal system happens to operate?

Whether your giving a cow to God via sacrifice or to a poor family, you're losing something very valuable to you. That was the point you mentioned earlier right? That having to sacrifice a prized animal was a tough thing to do for someone living in that sort of setting.

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The bigger issue in your argument here seems to be that you don't like how God does things.

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With respect to this practice I haven't given an opinion. The issue actually occurred to me while watching Narnia, the lion was talking to the witch about compensation for something the little girl did (I forget what, but it represented sin) and she demanded blood. The lion growled at the witch and said that he was there when the laws were written and he didn't need to be reminded of them, or something to that effect. While it's a kids movie, it did totally gloss over why those were "the laws" (or the way things were).

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You and I are not God and as I said to the other poster, we aren't in a comparable position to even judge his actions.

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And yet Christians allow all sorts of praise and worship songs where they declare how great, moral, wonderful, perfect God is.

That sort of thing is allowed, so long as it's completely positive.

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Foo. I really don't have anything to add to the premise of this thread however I do want to compliment you on your well thought out responses and patience with so many of these fonts that like to throw stones at you every time you defend Christianity and espouse your beliefs in these types of threads. You're obviously well educated in theology and I enjoy reading your posts.

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+1

Virtus autem nihil igitur me una hora vigilare mecum? - CAPUT XXVI Matth versum XL

Gloria Patri!

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man preserved the wheel and fire longer than the bible has been around. man has the ability to preserve as much as they do control.

Where is the proof that God exists in the form you believe other than the bible? So many other religions some much older than Christianity also have books "divinely" written. Why are they wrong?

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The preservation alone isn't the issue. It's whether or not the Bible is purely an act of man's imagination or whether it is the infallible word of God that has been preserved throughout time.

The Bible is proof enough, but since you asked, nature is proof of God's existence. As Romans 1 states, God has revealed Himself through nature, namely His power. Even further, there is the transcendental argument. God exists out of logical necessity, and the proof that God exists is that if He didn't, it wouldn't be possible to prove anything at all due to His existence being a necessary aspect of reality. Things like uniformity, laws of logic, and moral absolutes that we rely on every moment to make sense of reality require the Biblical God's existence.

The other religions aren't logically consistent within their own worldviews. Their tenants don't provide the necessary preconditions for intelligibility within the reality we experience. Being "old" is not what makes the Bible true, and being older doesn't make other religions true, either.

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so he created a lesser version of himself to have a relationship with? he sounds lonely.

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He's not lonely and He never has been. The godhead consists of three persons that have enjoyed eternal fellowship, needing nothing else.

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And yes i left out all the good things. But he cant only take credit for the good things and just let us imagine that he takes no credit for the bad things.

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God is sovereign over all things, yet He is not the author of sin and evil. That means that He does not force any person to sin. All people are perfectly capable of sinning without God's intervention, yet God does use our sin for good purposes, as was the case with Joseph and his brothers.

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If god is all things he is good and evil.

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God isn't "all things". God is perfectly holy and there is no sin (or evil) in Him. God allows evil to exist so that a greater good will come about. The most evil thing that has ever happened or will ever happen was the unjust crucifixion of God's only begotten son, Jesus, yet God planned for it to happen at the hands of sinners so that other sinners would be saved through it.

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My point being that we lack understanding and to say that one person or a group of people have it exactly right and if you dont believe the way this group does you will burn in hell.

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We lack this understanding in and of ourselves, yes, but that's why God has condescended to reveal these truths to us so that we can understand that we are sinners and law-breakers who are deserving of God's wrath yet can attain pardon through faith the sacrificial atonement that Christ has provided. That's precisely why Jesus has commanded His disciples to go throughout the world and preach this good news of salvation, because this message can only be known through God's special revelation to humanity.

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I said nonchalantly because he makes no fan fair when we are born or die. some suffer immensely with not a word from our creator. if he cared so much where is he? why do we have to wonder if he is there? it sure feels like the creator does not give a crap and creates and disposes of us at will.

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It sounds like you're projecting, and if so, know that God has provided a means to reconciliation with Himself through His son, Jesus.

God has revealed Himself throughout creation and has provided more specifics about Himself through special revelation in the Bible. There's no shortage of churches throughout our country and the information about God and His son is widely available throughout the internet, which is also the primary reason why I engage in these discussions. There are missionaries throughout the world proclaiming the message of God and His son to all nations, tribes, and tongues, as well.

You don't have to wonder if He's there and listening. He is, and He has provided a means to be saved from the penalty our sins deserve. He is our father and has adopted a people to be His children through faith.

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according to the man written bible

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Many men over a long period of time, actually. God used many instruments to reveal His word to the world.

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so he needed someone to have a relationship with? that feels like stockholm syndrome. so because he wanted us to worship him he puts us in a scenario or simulation (earth) with some really shitty rules, enables suffering and creates only one way out and thats through him. Thats psychotic.

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Needed? No. Like I've already said, He needs nothing.

What standard are you using to justify your condemnation of God's law or His chosen path to salvation for mankind? If you reject God, you reject a rational basis for making such criticisms.

Even so, God didn't make rules for us to follow as some arbitrary exercise of power and authority. God desires us to be holy as He is holy. Those "rules" reflect His very nature and they act as both a guide to show us how to be holy as He is as well as a measuring rod to show us how we don't cut it and why we need to be made righteous due to our sinfulness.

And why would God enable another "way out" that isn't through Him? The only "way out" is to be made righteous because God cannot simply look the other way towards sin due to His perfect holiness. The debt of sin needs to be paid for us to even be in His presence, and Christ's sacrifice (God obeying the law as a man and paying the price our sin deserves) is the only way to be reconciled to the Father. We can't do enough good works to wash away our unrighteousness.

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many religions claim the same thing. with very similar stories.

I dont think we have it right simply because we dont have all the facts.

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No other religion or worldview provides the necessary preconditions for intelligibility.

We know enough facts to attain justification through Jesus Christ if we trust in His sacrifice by faith. We have all that we need to know God and be reconciled to Him.

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I have faith people are smarter than your "personal belief"

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this has nothing to do with the point i made.

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I believe people can and have

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you're doing it right now so even you can't. it's one of the most common misconceptions about christianity. catholic priest does something bad. "oh, i KNEW christianity wasn't true. this just confirms it."

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the Bible said the reason they were killed was because of Pharaoh's decision not to release the Hebrew slaves

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but this is sophistry. you're acting like they are somehow morally "innocent." i've asked you multiple times now how you think you know that

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Therefore God killed children because Pharaoh didn't let the Hebrews go

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not entirely. once you clear up your confusion on this matter, you will probably understand the situation better

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So why target specifically the first born males?

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because of the cultural significance. it was definitely a loaded action to take.

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Are you going to argue that only the first born males were in support of Pharaoh's decision, that everyone else was against it and was therefore spared?

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so now you're getting further into the weeds because you are trying to second guess god which is just stupid. you think you know who all god is justified in taking and when. job 38:4-7. romans 9:14-24

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IS GOD WRONG FOR DOING THAT? for some reason, none of you knuckleheads want to answer that question

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Yes. It's a silly gotcha because even if you play dumb and ask how can I determine right from wrong, you're still left facing your own moral standard which also says yes. Ezekiel 18:20 is quite clear. The children were not the ones preventing the Hebrew slaves from being released. That was Pharaoh, he should have been the one to have been punished/killed, not the Egyptian first born.

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i asked you 2 questions to prove that you know that's what happened. you haven't answered.

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Why do you think the 10th plague was sent if not because God wanted to pressure the Pharaoh to release the Hebrew slaves? You mentioned Middle School Bible classes earlier, this is preschool level shite... You clearly don't know your own holy book at all.

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you can't prove that. you're just saying it because it makes you feel better

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Stop it, you're making yourself look retarded. Peasant kids weren't influencing Pharaoh's decisions.

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you have the wrong interpretation of the ezekiel verse because you're assuming the children were morally innocent which is something you definitely can't prove.

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So what's your angle here? That only the Egyptian first born males were commanding Pharaoh to keep the Hebrews? Is that why only they were killed? Not a single woman, or non-first born child, was commanding Pharaoh to do so?