a few problems with christianity (sorry)

not trying to be rude or offensive to christians, but could they please answer a few questions for me as i feel pretty confused about this...

1... does it really matter if i believe in god anyway, after all, when i die surely god will just forgive me and let me into heaven, if he doesnt, isn't this kinda going against what he's preached to millions..?

2... didn't god create sin anyway, after all, he did create everything... not only that, if i say to my son don't do this and he does it, i now have to punish him for disobeying me, but by setting the rule in the first place i've made it possible for him to break the rule. isn't that just the same as sin

3... if god is anything, is he also the devil..? if not, is he just not the devil and everything, or is he only good and nothing to do with evil..? if so, does that make him incomplete..?

4... if god knows all, does he also know when i will sin..?

5... finally, if jesus died for our sins, why is there still sin in the world..?

answers...

1... good point

2... good point

3... good point

4... good point

5... good point

Originally posted by queengilbert
not trying to be rude or offensive to christians, but could they please answer a few questions for me as i feel pretty confused about this...

1... does it really matter if i believe in god anyway, after all, when i die surely god will just forgive me and let me into heaven, if he doesnt, isn't this kinda going against what he's preached to millions.. ...[text shortened]... sin..?

5... finally, if jesus died for our sins, why is there still sin in the world..?

1. The living God has devised a test of will. Either you choose His, or you choose your own. If you reject His will, you accept the alternatives that rejection brings. In this case, you accept an eternal separation from Him. That is what He has 'preached' from the beginning.

2. The creation of sin has been addressed ad nauseum, always with the same results. God created free will. Free will has potential (not guarantee) for transgression.

3. No. God is described as good of intrinsic value; in His case, the value upon which all good is measured.

4. Yes.

5. Jesus' work on the cross took away the penalty of sin, not the presence (although such a sin-free environment waits in the future).

I will take a crack at your first question. As I am not a scholar or eloquent, I will let a gifted theologian respond to it.

"New Testament Greek speaks of believing "into" rather than believing "in." In English we can perhpas convey the distinction best by using either "in" or no preposition at all.

Believing in God is an intellectual position. It need have no more effect on your life than believing in Freud's method of interpreting dreams or the theory that Sir Francis Bacon wrote Romeo and Juliet.

Believing God is something else again. It is less a position than a journey, less a realization than a relationship. It doesn't leave you cold like believing the world is round. It stirs your blook like believing theworld is a miracle. It affects who you are and what you do with your life like believing your house is on fire or somebody loves you.

We believe in God when somehow we run into God in a way that by and large leave us no choice to do otherwise.

When Jesus says that whoever believes "into" him shall neve die, he does not mean that to be willing to sign your name to the Nicene Creed guarantees eternal life. Eternal life is not the result of "believing in." It is the experience of "believing."

Frederick Buechner

Originally posted by queengilbert
not trying to be rude or offensive to christians, but could they please answer a few questions for me as i feel pretty confused about this...

1... does it really matter if i believe in god anyway, after all, when i die surely god will just forgive me and let me into heaven, if he doesnt, isn't this kinda going against what he's preached to millions.. ...[text shortened]... sin..?

5... finally, if jesus died for our sins, why is there still sin in the world..?

Can I add my questions too:

http://www.redhotpawn.com/board/showthread.php?threadid=55297

Originally posted by rooktakesqueen
answers...

1... good point

2... good point

3... good point

4... good point

5... good point

1. who cares
2. who cares
3. who cares ect.
Edit: 1. dumb questions
2. dumb questions
3. dumb questions ect.

Originally posted by queengilbert
not trying to be rude or offensive to christians, but could they please answer a few questions for me as i feel pretty confused about this...

1... does it really matter if i believe in god anyway, after all, when i die surely god will just forgive me and let me into heaven, if he doesnt, isn't this kinda going against what he's preached to millions..?



I'll answer this question first: does it really matter if i believe in god anyway?

It doesn't matter if you believe in Him. Does it really matter if I believe in the wind?
The question you should be asking is, is He real? the answer is yes

Now this one: after all, when i die surely god will just forgive me and let me into heaven.

First of all, we all haved sinned and come short of the glory of God. (Rom. 3:23)
All of us have sinned, I have too, everybody has. We have broken God's Law, the Ten Commanments.
Here are some of them:
1. Do not lie (if you lie that makes you a liar)

2. Do not steal (it doesn't matter what the value of the thing is. if you stole it, that would make you a theif)

3. Do not commit adultry (Jesus said," You have heard it was said, 'Thou shalt not commit adultry.' But I say unto you, if you so much look upon a woman and to lust after her you already commited adultry in your heart." Matt.5:27-28 and doing this would make you an adulterer)

4. Do not kill (ok, so none of us have actually killed someone but Jesus says, "That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause is the same as murder." Matt 5:22 so like, if your out on the road and someone cuts in front of you, you get mad and if your like me you get a little to mad. Jesus says that the same as murder)

This is just four of the ten.
Now lets put this in a court, your on trial and your guilty of this stuff
And the evidence is there. Your guilty.
and you tell the judge "I know I've lied, stole, killed, and commitied adultry ,but, can I just go?"

If he's a good judge he's not gonna let you go.
Thats why God sent His son ,Jesus, to the world. To die on the cross and take our place.
It's like, your guilty and right before your sentance someone
comes in and tells the judge "This is my friend and I love him so much that I'll take his punishment."
And all we need to do is to ask God for forgiveness and repent. We need to make a full 180 in our life and follow after God.

Originally posted by Chessteen16
Originally posted by queengilbert
[b]not trying to be rude or offensive to christians, but could they please answer a few questions for me as i feel pretty confused about this...

1... does it really matter if i believe in god anyway, after all, when i die surely god will just forgive me and let me into heaven, if he doesnt, isn't this kinda go ...[text shortened]... ss and repent. We need to make a full 180 in our life and follow after God.

What you said is great !!


But what is salvation for?

I'm sry, but could you explain your question a little better.
I'm an Iowan I get confuse easy

Originally posted by Chessteen16
I'm sry, but could you explain your question a little better.
I'm an Iowan I get confuse easy

Ok , if we all be judged in the final day for our sins, and GOD coudn't let us away, so why was Jesus crosified? How are you save by accepting Jesus Christ?

Originally posted by queengilbert
not trying to be rude or offensive to christians, but could they please answer a few questions for me as i feel pretty confused about this...

1... does it really matter if i believe in god anyway, after all, when i die surely god will just forgive me and let me into heaven, if he doesnt, isn't this kinda going against what he's preached to millions.. sin..?

5... finally, if jesus died for our sins, why is there still sin in the world..?

No, it doesn't really matter if you believe in God. Your chances to live a flourishing life won't be substantially diminished if you believe or fail to believe in God, and no benevolent God would punish you merely for failure to believe when confronted by inadequate evidence.

If possible, you should try and dispense with the whole notion of sin (or, at least, with the naive evangelical notions of sin). Try, instead, to be virtuous. There is no reason to believe that, even if God exists, He could determine by mere fiat what is morally right and morally wrong. Chances are, if God exists, He would want you to try and cultivate those character traits that are appropriate to your nature as a rational and social creature, one that can choose your projects and ends, and one that needs nourishing interpersonal relationships and other benefits of social cooperation. That is, He would want you to be compassionate, generous, honest, courageous, and so on. He probably wouldn't want you to feel as though you were dirty, or that your body was some foreign source of unclean urges, or that women should be treated like chattel, or...

Cheers!

Originally posted by bbarr
No, it doesn't really matter if you believe in God. Your chances to live a flourishing life won't be substantially diminished if you believe or fail to believe in God, and no benevolent God would punish you merely for failure to believe when confronted by inadequate evidence.

If possible, you should try and dispense with the whole notion of sin (or, at l ...[text shortened]... reign source of unclean urges, or that women should be treated like chattel, or...

Cheers!

and what about after death bbar? after someone dies what happens?
I would like to know about your religon, if its ok.

Originally posted by Chessteen16
and what about after death bbar? after someone dies what happens?
I would like to know about your religon, if its ok.

At death you (the person you are) ceases to exist. I have no religion for you to know about.

Originally posted by FreakyKBH
1. The living God has devised a test of will. Either you choose His, or you choose your own. If you reject His will, you accept the alternatives that rejection brings. In this case, you accept an eternal separation from Him. That is what He has 'preached' from the beginning.

2. The creation of sin has been addressed ad nauseum, always with the same ...[text shortened]... penalty of sin, not the presence (although such a sin-free environment waits in the future).

I wish I could rec this post.

Anyone that can, please rec this?

I like your answers very much FreakyKBH. The questions I have for queengilbert is ...

1. do you understand them (the answers givin to you)?
2. does the information you received change anything the way you felt before?
3. do you want to believe in God?

A person that does not live in the palm of the hand of God, will not understand God's will and the tongue in which things are explained in the Bible. These things will only come clear, and I mean crystal clear once you have opened your heart and let in God to open your eyes and ears etc. to see who He really is. (This is my person opinion)

Originally posted by queengilbert
not trying to be rude or offensive to christians, but could they please answer a few questions for me as i feel pretty confused about this...

1... does it really matter if i believe in god anyway, after all, when i die surely god will just forgive me and let me into heaven, if he doesnt, isn't this kinda going against what he's preached to millions.. ...[text shortened]... sin..?

5... finally, if jesus died for our sins, why is there still sin in the world..?

1. No, it doesn't matter. Believe in a god, or not, as you see fit. In the unlikely event that there is a god of some sort, you have no idea what he's like, or what he desires. Behave as Bbarr describes in his post.

2. Yes, god (if he exists) created sin. If mankind sins, he is behaving exactly as god created him to. But more importantly, god necessarily created all natural evils, which the 'freewill theodicies' can never explain away.

3. God (if he exists) is responsible for the devil (if it exists). The devil could not exist except by god allowing him to.

4. Yes, he does. That is an inherent feature of omniscience. And that is precisely why god is responsible for sin in the first place, because he 'saw it coming.' We can only conclude that the way things turned out are precisely the way he intended them. If he desired a different outcome, he could have altered the starting input.

5. Jesus didn't die for your sins. That is a mythology that was created after his death. As was his supposed resurrection