Religious but not spiritual

Originally posted by FMF
Nope. I have given it to the world. It is now for the world to project whatever meanings they wish onto it ~ suffice to say it is something subtly different from "technocratic christian" [in all its faintly riff-raffish 1,200,000-ness]. No. I shall take a step back and see where this 21st century world takes my newly minted lexicographical item.

I'm afraid that's just not good enough.

You have to begin by lending the new word your own definition, otherwise it's just a word, and you don't get to take credit for it. Where it goes from there is up to the masses, but it has to start somewhere.

Just pulling something out of your ass without justifying it means nothing.

Originally posted by Suzianne
I'm afraid that's just not good enough.

You have to begin by lending the new word your own definition, otherwise it's just a word, and you don't get to take credit for it. Where it goes from there is up to the masses, but it has to start somewhere.

Just pulling something out of your ass without justifying it means nothing.

People can just absorb its meaning [and nuance] from the context in which I gave birth to it. Indeed, I am by nature a descriptivist and not a prescriptivist. So here I am, putting my professed descriptivnotprecriptivism [another new word I am coining today] to the test.

Originally posted by FMF
People can just absorb its meaning [and nuance] from the context in which I gave birth to it. Indeed, I am by nature a descriptivist and not a prescriptivist. So here I am, putting my professed descriptivnotprecriptivism [another new word I am coining today] to the test.

Don't be lazy. Show your pride in your creation by giving it every chance to succeed.

Just cutting it loose to fend for itself isn't being a good parent.

Originally posted by Suzianne
Just cutting it loose to fend for itself isn't being a good parent.

When it comes to "good" parenting, think of me as toad squirting out spawn.

Originally posted by FMF
A lot of Christians here ~ such as yourself, and Kelly Jay, and Grampy Bobby, and RJHinds, and others ~ to me, anyway, come across as merely religionist and theologically technocratic ~ and not as spiritual at all, at least not in a way that affects others [beyond 'preaching to the choir'], not in a way that means much to me.

Having said that, I do accept th ...[text shortened]... ropology thrown in ~ and it does not constitute a significant or involving kind of spirituality.

As long as the disconnect exist, i.e. "there is no God" and what "God has spoken", between believers and non believers we will never resolve this issue.

You keep implying that what Christians say about spiritual matters is of no consequence to you since their beliefs are disunited, and that is understandable, but who argues with God and wins the debate?

Obviously your don't recognize or hear the voice of God, even in His Word. Some things were meant to be believed. Others seem hard to understand. Everyone is at different stages of development. Some are mature. Some are not. Everyone is learning. God's Word is the final authority.

Originally posted by Rajk999
Genesis 4 says that? It is not in mine.
The Council of 'God's' Bible maybe?

Genesis 4:1-9

First John 3:11-14

Originally posted by josephw
As long as the disconnect exist, i.e. "there is no God" and what "God has spoken", between believers and non believers we will never resolve this issue.

When I say I am an "unbeliever", I am of course stating that I am an "unbeliever" in Christian terms. I don't type it out every time I use the word. I am not an atheist. I simply have no convincing reason to believe that God has revealed Himself to you or any of the other Christians who are regulars in this community.

Originally posted by josephw
You keep implying that what Christians say about spiritual matters is of no consequence to you since their beliefs are disunited, and that is understandable, but who argues with God and wins the debate?

I do not think for one moment or claim to be 'debating with God' when I am debating with you, josephw. Sorry to pop your bubble. 😉

Originally posted by sonship
[b]Genesis 4:1-9

First John 3:11-14[/b]

You think bolding your answer makes it any more credible?
Absolutely nothing about God loving Cain.

Originally posted by Rajk999

You think bolding your answer makes it any more credible?
Absolutely nothing about God loving Cain.

The love of God for Cain is expressed in the mercy God had upon him after his terrible crime.

First of all, God encourages the man Cain that he has every opportunity to be accepted in worship as Abel.

" If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up?" (v.7a)

This encouragement reveals God's love for Cain.

Secondly God warns Cain of the further damage that might occur to him if he does not overcome the sin nature seeking to rule him.

" And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and his desire is for you, but you must rule over him." (v.7b)

God's love for Cain is expressed in God not wanting to see Cain become more unrighteous by being ruled by the sin nature.

Then after the horrific murder God expressed His love for Cain by patiently asking Cain about what has happened to Abel.

God knows perfectly well what has happened to the murdered Abel. But in love he gives Cain an opportunity to listen to his own conscience:

... Cain rose up against Abel his brother and slew him. (v.8b)

Then Jehovah said to Cain, Where is Abel your brothers? And he said, I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper? (v.9)

Something seems dense in you if you cannot detect the patience and forbearance of God. He is giving Cain an opportunity to come clean in confession. Pure love.

Secondly, God forbids anyone to murder Cain in revenge.

"And Jehovah said to him, Therefore whoever kills Cain, vengence will be taken on him sevenfold. And Jehovah put a mark on Cain, so that anyone who found him would not strike him." (v.15)

Cain has just committed the world's first bloody and brutal murder. Yet God says anyone who takes vengeance on Cain God will take vengeance on his executioner sevenfold. And you don't see any love of God toward Cain?

Originally posted by sonship

You think bolding your answer makes it any more credible?
Absolutely nothing about God loving Cain.

The love of God for Cain is expressed in the mercy God had upon him after his terrible crime.

First of all, God encourages the man Cain that he has every opportunity to be accepted in worship as Abel.

[quote] [b]" If you do we ...[text shortened]... ill take vengeance on his executioner sevenfold. And you don't see any love of God toward Cain?

Your constant misintrepreting of the Bible is annoying to people who know better and misleading and dangerous to those who dont.

Did God love Satan, or the serpent, or the Devil or those of the devil? Cain is described as one of them.
God sparing Cain or Satan from immediate death, does not mean love by any stretch of the imagination.

Here is the verse which you yourself quoted

.. we should love one another. Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous.
(1 John 3:9-12 KJV)

Originally posted by Rajk999

Your constant misintrepreting of the Bible is annoying to people who know better and misleading and dangerous to those who dont.

In the immediately previous post I wrote, pinpoint please where I misinterpreted the Bible.

Did God love Satan, or the serpent, or the Devil or those of the devil?

Originally, God probably loved the Daystar very much.
And Satan took advantage of that love. He may have decided that God was a pushover or weak. Maybe he thought he could outsmart God.

The divine judgment had never before been seen by any creature. And God's hatred for sin had never been witnessed.

But this has nothing to do with the human man Cain, whom God loved as much as Abel. It is Cain who did not return that love. He returned contempt for God and jealous hatred for his fellow man, his brother.

Cain is described as one of them.
God sparing Cain or Satan from immediate death, does not mean love by any stretch of the imagination.

There is no hint that Abel was loved but Cain was not.

There is no hint that the two men were [NOT] (edited) on equal footing before God.
If you say God hated Cain then why not say He hated Abel also?

And if God accepted Abel's offering but rejected Cain's it does not show partiality in love. It shows God has a specific way in which the sinners can approach Him.

I reject that there was partiality in love from God towards one man over another.

Where is the passage explicitly saying that God hated Cain ?

Here is the verse which you yourself quoted

.. we should love one another. Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous.

Right. And all our works apart from Christ are evil too. But we have the blood of Jesus Christ by which we can be JUSTIFIED before God.

(1 John 3:9-12 KJV)

Where in that verse are you told that God hated Cain ?
God hates the sin but loves the sinner.

Are you not of the evil one too?
I was of the evil one also. Now I am of God my Father and Christ Jesus my Savior.

But I was redeemed, I was washed in the blood of the Lamb. I was accepted and justified. And Christ was judged on His cross for my evil.

Originally posted by sonship
.. God .. loves the sinner....

This the crux of problem with your doctrine .. the blanket claim that God loves sinners.

Gods does not love sinners they way you express it. Let me clarify :

God loves sinners in that he sent his Son Jesus to die for sinners ... YES
God loves repentant sinners who after repentance refrain from or resist sin ..YES
God loves sinners who continue on in their sinful lifestyle ... NO
God loves sinners who boast that they are sinners or sinful ... NO
God loves sinners who think that Jesus died so that they can continue on with sin .. NO.

There are many good reasons not to kill Cain. God had plans for Cain. Cain was among just a handful of people whose task was to multiply and replenish the earth.

Originally posted by Rajk999
God loves sinners who think that Jesus died so that they can continue on with sin .. NO.

God loves sinners who think that Jesus died so that they can exalt themselves over all other men .. NO.

Originally posted by FMF
When I say I am an "unbeliever", I am of course stating that I am an "unbeliever" in Christian terms. I don't type it out every time I use the word. I am not an atheist. I simply have no convincing reason to believe that God has revealed Himself to you or any of the other Christians who are regulars in this community.

Neither do I expect you to acknowledge that God has "revealed" Himself to me just because I may say so.

But neither can you expect me to agree with you that God hasn't revealed Himself at all in some form or fashion.

If you're not an atheist, then how do you know there is a creator God?