Originally posted by RJHindsThe only things going to heaven are the things that came out of heaven.
Speak for yourself, not we, especially not me. I am awaiting heaven and plan to bypass any detour to Hell. 😏
Don't plan taking your "redneck" back with you.
Better look to the sanctifying Christ to conform you more to His image.
(Me too ... more than you)
Let me see if I have this right.
Let's see if you have this right ?
Your god ...
There is no possibility you can disown as your own God.
My Creator is your Creator.
If God exists how can He not be THE God of all people, at least in terms of our common Creator and to Whom we are all accountable ?
If God is real that God He owns your soul as well as mine and vica versa.
You may not be on speaking terms with your earthly dad or mom.
They are still yours in that you derived your coming into the world from them.
created hell but god isn't responsible for the punishment there.
What I read was that God prepared the eternal fire for the devil and his angels. If you are following the wrong leader you co-share the destiny of that wrong leader.
If you follow Christ you correspondingly co-share His glorious destiny. Where your leader goes you also will go. Your decision is to choose who you will follow.
"Then He will say to those on the left, Go away from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels..." (Matt. 25:41)
Did you see that? They go to that destiny prepared for their leader. Since they refused to get out of the line following this miserable leader they co-share his destiny.
What is worse is that in this passage they go there BEFORE the leader does. For the implication of the words "the eternal fire PREPARED for the devil and his angels" is that the devil and his angels have not yet gone there.
Some leader huh? He postpones his punishment and let's the dupes following him go in before him. Is that who you want to follow ?
If not then you should believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and you'll never have to eternally go to the place prepared for the devil and his angels.
The awesomeness of the choice is with you.
Not even God will usurp your free will to decide who you wish to follow - Christ or Satan.
Your god created the dirty ol' devil but again god is not responsible
God created a high and glorious being with a free will.
That being decided to exalt himself above the throne of God and in short became Satan.
He chose to be the arch originator of the dirty.
Your decision is whether or not you want to follow the dirty one or the Son of God who loves you and laid down His life at Calvary that you might be saved from the rebellion.
Your god created us but god isn't responsible for god's creation
God is not responsible for YOUR choice.
He has gone to the uttermost to save you.
The awesomeness of the decision rests with YOU.
Could God have created robots that respond to Him with the push of a botton? Maybe. But He did not for His own reasons.
And you have a choosing will to share the arch dirty one's destiny or the Son of God's glorious and splendid destiny.
Feel the sheer power of your own deciding free will !
Of course, you can do as the desperate father did in the Gospels. That is he cried out "I believe. Help my unbelief."
I don't have in myself any more faith than you do. I know where I can get more faith. I can cry out to God to help my unbelief.
I can go to the word of God. For faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. So don't throw your Bible away, shut it, and say "Get that thing away from me. Don't show me anything in that Bible."
For if you are weak in faith the word of God can nourish and cause that weak faith to grow. That too is a choice I cannot make for you.
Your god knows all and can do all but is not responsible for god's actions
That God knows all is possible. If you repent, He know you would. If you decide not to repent, He knew you would. If you change your mind today, He knew that. But if you change your mind again the next day, He knew that too.
So whatever He knows it is not relevant to what you decide. Do you feel some power coercing you to disbelieve or believe the Gospel ?
So I don't think God's foreknowledge has any effect on your final choice. If He knows He has not told ANYONE. He hasn't told you.
So you have the awesomeness of your own deciding free will to choose Christ or reject salavation.
The last reported sighting of your god is several millennia ago
Pray. Exercise the "Seeing" of your innermost spiritual being.
Remember what Jesus said to Doubting Thomas who said he would not believe in the resurrection of Jesus unless he could put his hands physically into Jesus' wounds.
"Then He said to Thomas, Bring your finger here and see My hands, and bring your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving but believing.
Thomas answered and said to Him, My Lord and my God!
Jesus said to him, Because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have no sen and have believed." (John 20:27-29)
I have enjoyed the blessedness of not having seen yet believed.
I think you should definitely read for yourself the Bible more. If you recall God was visibly upon the Mount Sinai for 40 days at the time of Exodus. There was your eyewitness verification of God Almighty.
It did not stop them from growing tired of waiting for Moses to come down. And they made for themselves a golden calf and demanded that Aaron take them back to Egypt !
Exodus therefore demonstates that eyewitness to a physical manifestation of God on earth may not thwart man's tendency for unbelief and rebellion.
We have the word of God. Open your heart to the word of God with a willingness to be changed within by His Holy Spirit.
Every decade or so a new variation of worship is invented to your god
I figure people have an obsessive need to feel connected to some higher being. But they are carrying this OCD thing a bit too far
If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead you will be saved.
Originally posted by sonshipI'm having trouble parsing this, and I just have no idea what your main thesis is.Most atheists I know do not hate themselves and do not cry out for agony and suffering and punishment to befall themselves. You seem to have fashioned a pretty absurd caricature of the non-believer here, one which I would think is irrelevant to the discussion.
The condition I was discribing was AFTER the last judgment:
[b]"And I saw ...[text shortened]... God commands all men to hear and believe the Gospel.
Goodnight.
Consider some general atheist, who does not believe God exists based on his honest take on whatever evidence there is at his disposal. Do you have any reasons to think that God would be justified in providing for this person's eternal suffering?
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I'm having trouble parsing this, and I just have no idea what your main thesis is.
Consider some general atheist, who does not believe God exists based on his honest take on whatever evidence there is at his disposal. Do you have any reasons to think that God would be justified in providing for this person's eternal suffering?
I'm sorry that my writing is not more comprehensible to you. I am limited and ever learning and hoping to improve my communication.
You speak of a general atheist's "honest take." Let me ask you this and you give me your "honest take." And if not to me (for that doesn't matter) what is your honest take to yourself ?
This is the question:
Of all the people who have ever been known in history, if you were to choose ONE who best represented what God is like, who would you imagine that person would be ?
Asked another way - If there was indeed a God and this God came down to be among us, WHO in human history would you imagine to be the best candidate for God being among us here on earth ?
You do not have to account to me. Give your honest take on that to yourself.
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Originally posted by sonshipThe question is ridiculous, it is the same as me asking you;
[
This is the question:
Of all the people who have ever been known in history, if you were to choose ONE who best represented what God is like, who would you imagine that person would be ?
Asked another way - If there was indeed a God and this God came down to be among us, WHO in human history would you imagine to be the best candidate for Go ...[text shortened]... ere on earth ?
You do not have to account to me. Give your honest take on that to yourself.
Of all the people who have ever been known in history, if you were to
choose ONE who best represented what my Uncle George is like, who
would you imagine that person would be ?
Originally posted by LemonJello"For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse."
I'm having trouble parsing this, and I just have no idea what your main thesis is.
Consider some general atheist, who does not believe God exists based on his honest take on whatever evidence there is at his disposal. Do you have any reasons to think that God would be justified in providing for this person's eternal suffering?
(Romans 1:20 NIV)
The Instructor
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Originally posted by wolfgang59Either question is not ridiculous. Try again.
The question is ridiculous, it is the same as me asking you;
Of all the people who have ever been known in history, if you were to
choose ONE who best represented what my Uncle George is like, who
would you imagine that person would be ?
LemonJello is free to consider who reminds him the most of a possible Supreme Being as God.
He can say no one.
He can say Confucius, Socrates, Alexander the Great, Mother Teresa or even Bruce Springsteen.
You see some atheist imagine up gods not to believe in.
They invent gods and then say that they do not believe that that god exists.
I simply ask who, if anyone, would he best discribe such attributes as he would assign to God.
As for your Uncle George - why couldn't the same question be asked about your Uncle George ? I can think of people who reminded me of my Uncle Al or my Uncle Jack.
Back to the skeptic drawing board with you wolfgang.