Why does God hide himself? (salvation, hell, Jewish, believing)
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Thanks for sharing your opinions. Let's go back to the reason I and some others gave, that God is in some sense fire and the human soul is in a similar sense kindling. Why do you disbelieve this? Why would this reason be complicated, hackneyed, pathetic, desperate and/or man-made?
Because it makes no sense at all. It is a convenient, but childish way to justify God's self-imposed isolation from us. I mean, where is that even in the Bible? The soul being kindling and God being fire? Knowing how even the smallest of metaphors and similes are taken seriously by some Christians, there's just no way I can give any sort of credence to your comparison.
Like I said, I'm sure God in all of his infinite wisdom and awesome holy godly righteous power can come up with a way to show himself to us without giving our fragile little souls a booboo.
Because it makes no sense at all. It is a convenient, but childish way to justify God's self-imposed isolation from us. I mean, where is that even in the Bible?
[SIZE=3]“Therefore as the tongue of fire devoureth the stubble, and as the dry grass sinketh down in the flame, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust; because they have rejected the law of Jehovah of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.” (Isa 5:24)[/SIZE]
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[SIZE=3]“And Jehovah will cause his glorious voice to be heard, and will show the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and the flame of a devouring fire, with a blast, and tempest, and hailstones.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]For through the voice of Jehovah shall the Assyrian be dismayed; with his rod will he smite him.” (Isa 30:30-31) [/SIZE]
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[SIZE=3]“For Jehovah thy God is a devouring fire, a jealous God.” (Duet 4 :24)[/SIZE]
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[SIZE=3]“And ye said, Behold, the LORD our God hath shewed us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire: we have seen this day that God doth talk with man, and he liveth.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3] Now therefore why should we die? for this great fire will consume us: if we hear the voice of the LORD our God any more, then we shall die.” (Deut 5:24-25)[/SIZE]
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[SIZE=3]“And the appearance of the glory of Jehovah was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel” (Exodus 24:17)[/SIZE]
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[SIZE=3]“For wickedness burneth as the fire; it devoureth the briers and thorns; yea, it kindleth in the thickets of the forest, and they roll upward in a column of smoke.” (Isa 9:18)[/SIZE]
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Knowing how even the smallest of metaphors and similes are taken seriously by some Christians, there's just no way I can give any sort of credence to your comparison.
Why is metaphor not to be taken seriously? Are you saying metaphor cannot contain truth? How would you justify this belief? Isn't it possible that your inability to grant credence lies more in your lack of understanding than it does in what was presented? You seem to make little or no effort to understand the ideas presented, just offering condemnation using the thinnest of reasoning.
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Like I said, I'm sure God in all of his infinite wisdom and awesome holy godly righteous power can come up with a way to show himself to us without giving our fragile little souls a booboo.
I agree. He could. Why is it not possible that there might exist some good reason beyond human understanding that He does things the way He does? For instance, IF God is who He has revealed Himself to be in the Bible, and IF His voice is like fire to the evil in the human soul, and IF knowing this He chose to create the world in such a way that this state of affairs exists anyway, how does this voilate logic. You've made it clear that you feel contempt for the notion of God and His relationship with humanity in this scenario, but your contempt in itself provides no proof for the reasonableness of your opinions.
You appear to only be parroting current popular atheistic views with little understanding of the meat of your arguments. Isn't this something only those ignorant Christians are said to do?
Every time someone asks this, Christians will give you these complicated, hackneyed answers about why God simply just can't send down a nice piece of evidence to us that isn't two thousand years old. It's almost sad how pathetic and desperate many of these painfully obvious man-made justifications are.
As a writer, it sort of reminds me of the process one must go through to find a way for a character you like to do something that is cool, but completely illogical and unbelievable.
Many of the reasons you guys come up with are pretty flimsy.
"God can't do that! If we see him we'll die!"
"Well, he already revealed himself to our great great great great great great great grandfather's great great great great great grandfather's ancestors, what more could you ask?"
"God does reveal himself! You just have to look carefully at things. He is the beauty in the sunset, that warm feeling you get when you eat a good dinner, that sensation that follows the emptying of your bladder. God is love!"
"God is not a magician and does not have to reveal himself to us pitiful puny humans!"
"You have to be a Christian to see him," or "God will purposely hide himself from unbelievers."
I guess anything mired in a convoluted theology will spawn even more convoluted and confusing justifications for whatever logical gaps may be present in it.
And I guess being a Christian for all of your life, and just passively accepting the fact that Christianity has some things to believe in, sort of softens you for whatever bullsh*t explanation you may encounter. Because you're so used to it.
Great Post!
The reality is that Christians have no answer for these types of tough questions. They can come up with thousands of justifications and cover stories but the reality is that Christianity and the bible have more plot holes and red herrings than an entire season of Lost.
How would you know it is Him since He is spirit and invisible?
And THAT'S the problem. How was this "invisible spirit" able to be seen by biblical witnesses? Better yet, who was there to record the events of Adam and Eve if the aforementioned two plus one "invisible spirit" man were the only three in existence?
Question: Why does God (the Chrsitian one) hide himself?
And THAT'S the problem. How was this "invisible spirit" able to be seen by biblical witnesses? Better yet, who was there to record the events of Adam and Eve if the aforementioned two plus one "invisible spirit" man were the only three in existence?
This is why they coined the holy ghost, folk believed in ghosts back then and they were probably accepted as invisible.
The claims as you pointed out being physical manifestations ceased to exist as people became more educated.
Everything now is relegated to mystery, hallucinations, meditation, fuzzy feel good explanation yet we are expected that;
Once upon a time god/angels did interact in 3D.
Hmmm Once upon a time, that sounds like a beginning of a kiddies fairy tale.
One need only google vids of the Toronto Blessing to see how whacked out these folk have become.
I am sure that you are smart enough to recognize that I was not talking to myself
"Half of being smart is knowing what you are dumb about"
Again ...
I am sure that you are smart enough to recognize that I am not talking to myself here eather...
Yeah, I was pretty sure you feel the rules are different for everyone else than they are for you. I just wanted to make sure.
God hides him/herself from anyone who doesn't look within.
Talk about blaming the victim. A supernatural omnipotent god allegedly desperately wants a personal loving relationship with us, and somehow it's our fault that he can't have it. Sure, that makes a lot of sense - if you ignore the fact that an omniscient god could make it happen if she really cared.
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