Bible Questions?

I'm really beginning to think this now. Sadly, it seems that the God of most religions are this way. Do as He says and He might just be good to you.

 

He's good to everyone.

Also, it has to be understood in detail what God asks of us and why.

Usually when it is asked what is a sin and what is not a sin, when those things are expressed and explained, people mostly get upset and claim that their lives are trying to be dictated and then become offended and will call the other judgmental and the like. But I personally see no dictation, its more of a plea from God to move away from things that aren't as good for us as what God would like for us.

In the end, I am not exactly sure what people are missing out on that is so great. But even with that said, God will not stand in their way, but will acknowledge that holding onto these sins will inevitably lead to something because it disconnects us from both truth and God.

If it can be said what is so great that is being kept away from us then maybe I can understand, but I really don't see it.

 

How can God be good to everyone when He allows pain and suffering all over the world?

If it was only the 'bad' peopleI could understand, but it isn't. To be it looks as though if we don't bhave and do what He says, he acts out and either causes diasters/ pain or just doesn't do anything about it.

Yes, he doesn't want us to rebel and sin aginst Him, but killing people and throwing them into Hell for eternity does not show a loving God.

 

God see's everyone as being equal.

God doesn't cause disaster, he gave us a guideline on how to build up our civilizations but even then we ignored him.

God has been trying to correct the sins of man since Adam and Eve through time and is going to bring about a world that is much better than this one, but this process will be very painful. But through it all, Christians are comforted by God through his spirit through times of trouble. God has been a comfort to many millions of people during these times - Just look at Christian Haitians. They STILL pray and praise God even after what happened.

God not only works through miracles, but God works through man to help man. God uses human agency in order to spread love and peace to the world, but in that process many don't want it and during this innocent people end up suffering.

God doesn't send anyone to hell simply because I don't believe that hell is scriptural based. There is a death that is understood as sleep and a second death which is understood to be eternal non-existence. Some beings are disturbed by being inside God and we can say that they literally hate existence and God won't allow these ones to live on if they don't want to exist.

The greatest way I came to understand God and his ways and what he wants from us is by me reading the Bible with a silent mind while forgetting everything I learned about Christianity.

In the end though, I am not exactly sure which sins are worth keeping a hold of if they keep us from our potential. Do you have any in mind?

 

So the millions of peoplle that believe in God and follow the word of Jesus also suffer because God continues to treat everyone equally? That doesn't make sense. If that is the case, the why bother being Christian? How can we be so sure of Heaven if those who do what God wants still are treated this way in this life?

This I never understood. Why do the decisions Adam and Eve made all those years ago, still reflect the way He treats us today? He says that we all have a choice - but yet He seems to have taken that main choice away from us.

He promised them happness and peace in the Garden of Eden - they made one mistake and now the rest of the world is punished for this for the rest of time.

If you look into it, most things in life are sinful. Homosexualtiy (even accepting this) and sex before marriage for example, I believe are down to the individual. Christians have said that someone who is gay has the choice to say no, and 'decide' to be straight. Just like that. It seems God decides when and what we are allowed to choose. He says we are given decisions, puts us at a crossroad and tells us to choses a path, yet dictates what path we should actually take and then rejecting us if we don't choose His way. This to me, isn't giving someone a choice.

 

Devotion is equal. Jesus deserves the respect of an older brother because of his superior experience and we may count on his brotherly devotion to us to help us "bridge the gap". Awe and reverence are appropriate for the creator of us all.

 

Christians can still suffer their own sins and the sins of others but they find shelter with God and for many Christians this is good reason to continue to go to God; through revelation by God through faith, Christians can know of the promise that God has set out since the beginning and use this to empower themselves.

Depending on our actions is dependent on the consequence that we receive, but sometimes we can receive the sins of others if those sins are directed outward (Murder, Rape, thievery, hate, bigotry, etc).

The way I came to understood this is equal to the treatment of our parents and the values that they instill onto their children. Children within a good environment will usually end up with few psychological issues and will have a greater chance of success and may find happiness better. But since Adam and Eve sinned, they declared that they knew more than God and since then their perception of God has been twisted and since their understanding of God has been twisted, they instilled that understanding onto their children. This misunderstanding has lead to sinning and this sinning slowly moved us away from what God had created for us; over time we picked up on behaviors that not only deteriorate our soul (body) but our spiritual sense (conscience).

We will not be punished for the rest of time because God has set out to correct this over time and only God knows how to bring this about. The righteous and the unrighteous will be ressurrected over time on a paradise earth where they will gain a chance and decide if they want to continue existing, but Jesus and the faithful followers throughout time will have the responsibility to be spiritual gurus on the earth forever.

I am personally bisexual and I do at times struggle with whether or not I should embrace this side of me. But even then, I don't feel like I should blame God because I get a sense that he isn't doing this to punish me but to protect me. But if I do decide to embrace that side of me, I may not be a Christian because I chose not to put complete trust in my creation, but God will still love me to the end and even after I am resurrected - God still loved David even though he probably had sex with other men.

There are many dangers to premartial sex that we all know about, but even when it's somehow safe, it's more of a plea to accept a relationship that is overall more loving than a summer time fling; not that these things are bad, or evil, but are described as being lesser forms of love. It really is a matter of believing whether or not a man and a woman with an emotional, spiritual, and sexual connection that put complete trust and love with each other through thick and thin is overall better than a summer time thing - So while we can decide and God has allowed us to decide, our decisions may not always be the best, but God will still love us.

There are many choices, but that these choices may not be as good as the choice as God would like for us. But even when we choose these things, God will still love us. So to me, I don't see these as dictatation, more as divine advice

 

Both are saviors.

Actually, he's the opposite. He serves us.

 

I'm not sure I understand (which of course could be my problem). How the fundamentalist version translates to me is: God's ways are far beyond what our poor human brains can comprehend, but he is wise, just, and good (it says so in the Bible) so we should go along, even if it seems cruel and appalling to us, and be thankful Jesus died for our sins. And that may be true. Who am I, with my limited human intellect, to say otherwise. But I'm the one who has to make the choice, and I choose in favor of things that strike me as plausible, just, and compassionate. I still accept the basic formulation, and find inspiration in Jesus and the Bible. I think original sin describes a fundamental human tendency for worldly attachments. I think Jesus showed us the way out. Unfortunately, his ghastly death and martyrdom may have been necessary to get the message across. But those attachments are powerful, and the message gets lost in the static (as illustrated by this whole thread). I do like your homework analogy, and I do agree if that Jesus came again (in the same form as last time, not at the head of an army) he'd meet a similar fate--maybe institutionalized this time, or spending time at Gitmo being waterboarded.

 

It's not only that it says so in the Bible, and it is up to the person to consider for themselves through their own reasoning. Of course, though, none of this has to be forced to be taken for granted and everyone does decide for themselves in the end. For me, this interpretation works and I don't see it as unjust but I do see it to be fair. And to me, it ultimately needs to be taken into greater view and context because sometimes I get the feeling of simplicity on what is trying to be expressed.

The idea, at least how I get it, is that the world is going through a universal trial. Just how Jesus carried the cross, his disciples of today will need to do the same; so Jesus saved us, and through the trials of Christians, they will saved the rest of humanity that isn't getting the message. Unfortunately, I understand this that the message can only come across through great trials worldwide; to me I see as the ultimate shaking of our souls... take for example all those alien movies where the whole world comes together against a common enemy, but in the end going against the common enemy creates a union in the world that otherwise could not have happened. But apply that idea with Christianity, and that's the way I personally understand the trial. After everything is said and done, when Jesus returns all that will be left are the true Christians, but as people return, they will return in a paradise world, and i'm thinking they will remember the old ways of things and the whole experience.... I may not be explaining this right...

But overall, the idea is that the world will experience an earthshaking experience that will teach us some things as a human race; basically the full fruition of our ways will bounce back at us like punching a rubber wall... and God is just allowing us to get that punch rickochets back at us... but of course this sounds cruel and vindictive to the liberal Christian. But the way I gather this whole issue is that I could be wrong in the end and your interpretation on the Bible could be true, and it's rare for me to not try to enter into your perspective. I just personally feel strongly about this interpretation.

And ty for liking my analogy, your water boarding example is pretty good too, I just believe that those doing the waterboarding after all that goes on are choosing the second death...

But just as you say concerning being concerned over worldly things, being concerned over those worldly things and worshiping them has twisted the original creation of things and God is allowing us to twist it as we learn what would be better in the end; which way works and which way does, not but we need to see for ourselves otherwise we will continue to hold doubts. In other words, we still believe that God is holding out on us and God is allowing us to prove, through us, that he isn't.

 

I feel the same way. Sometimes things can happen that seem terrible at the time but can be huge learning experiences that end up making things better in the long run. I've experienced this quite a bit.

Maybe this is why God doesn't take away all our suffering, but instead meets us in our suffering and nothingness.

 

If you were to do an act of humility and submission to someone other than God, say a court official, maybe a judge, do you think that would be wrong in God's eyes?

The truth is God's word the Bible, our worship needs to be in agreement with that truth.
The more we bring our lives into harmony with what the Bible says the more God's spirit plays an active part in our lives and the better we understand the Bible and how we can bring our minds and hearts into harmony with God.

We will never be the only begotten son of God, so no we will never have exactly the same relationship with God that Jesus has but we can have a very similar relationship to God but at this time to have that relationship we must approach God though Jesus.

No, it is not wrong to "worship" Jesus as long as we do not think of it as supplanting God or God's worship. The honor that belongs to God should not be given to any other, not even Jesus.

 

I'm sorry but you have this backwards,

God is teaching us how to benefit ourselves.

If a father tells his child not to put his hand on a hot stove does that suddenly make the father a totalitarian dictator?

The child can put his hand in a multitude of places and the father will not say anything put if the child starts to put his on a hot stove the father will warn him. Yes the father has tried to take away one choice from the child, that would harm him but has left him a multitude of other choices that will not, how does that make him a totalitarian dictator?

 

Pain and suffering is our choice not God's.

Once again pain and suffering was never God's "plan" for us, it was our not wanting to do it God's way that has brought disasters, pain and suffering on ourselves and then we blame it on God.

God does not "kill" us or throw us into "hell" for eternity.

It is our own sins that "kill" us and hell is just the common grave of mankind to which everyone goes to await the resurrection.

 

If it is not God's choice then He doesn't need to just sit back and let it happen.

I mean, even the father who warns the child not to put their hand on the stove wil act if they do, not just sit there and watch, saying I will comfort you now.

 

The thing is he is not sitting back and letting it happen, it has already happened and he is doing something about it. Once the child is burned there is no quick fix. Christianity is the ointment and the bandages until it can be fixed and to fix the problem will take Jesus' sacrifice and a thousand years of his millennium reign to fix and remove the scar.

 

OK forgive me if I am being naive, but couldn't God stop prevent things from happening in the first place?

Yes, that might defeat the point of choice etc, but there must be a better way for God to show who He is, and how much we need Him than letting this happen and then acting afterwards to fix it, when it may already be too late.

 

If god was warning of a hot stove this might make sense...

 

Well, hot stove... hell? It kinda works.

 

The person I quoted does not believe there is a hell full of suffering.