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If I give you 36 limitations of Superman, does that mean he exists?
I'm so glad you have the inside scoop. Did God send you an email?
Are you honestly telling me that a deity who can create the entire universe with a mere word, is incapable of communicating with me? I'm not buying it.
God has been communication with man for 6,000 years, since He created us. The most obvious way now is through His Word the Holy Bible. In the scriptures God tells us repeatedly about Himself, His nature and His characteristics. He also gives us information on US. One of the main themes of the Bible is sin and it's effects on man, both in the here and now and the hereafter.
God has multiple ways of communicating with you here in the latter days. He also uses other Christians to try to get in touch with you. Witnessing Christians such as pastors, ministers, missionaries, friends, relatives, the Bible, internet messages and videos, TV programs and commercials, radio, billboards, magazines etc... It's up to you to stop rejecting God's outreach and open your mind and heart.
He reached out to you 2,000 years ago when His only sinless Son gave His life on the cross so your sins could be forgiven and you could be reunited spiritually with God. God gave you the means then and even today that sacrifice is offered. Your sin prohibits DIRECT communication from God but God through Christians and scripture still tries to reach you.
It's now up to you if you want to accept His free gift of eternal life or continue to reject it.
You want to hear from God?? Seek Him out with all your heart! Humble yourself before Him, ask for forgiveness of all your sins in true repentance and accept salvation in place of stubborn pride. Ask for and receive the Holy Spirit within your heart. If you seek God with all your heart you will find Him.
elyn02- scriptures available on request. Pick a limitation and ask me for a verse. Please then have the courtesy not to reply with, "well the Bible isn't the Word of God". Thanks.
Thank you for offering. I do believe you that the limitations can be found in the Bible. I think what I was trying to say was that after I left Christianity, I found out and/or figured out these limitations in a very indirect way. This is why it is so difficult for me to come back. Why did the Bible make it so difficult to communicate this? My expectations are very high for God in his ability to communicate who he is and what he wants. Sure, he simply wants me to believe in Jesus Christ but his pathway is confusing.
Thank you for offering. I do believe you that the limitations can be found in the Bible. I think what I was trying to say was that after I left Christianity, I found out and/or figured out these limitations in a very indirect way. This is why it is so difficult for me to come back. Why did the Bible make it so difficult to communicate this? My expectations are very high for God in his ability to communicate who he is and what he wants. Sure, he simply wants me to believe in Jesus Christ but his pathway is confusing.
Several years ago I found myself trying to defend Pat Robertson after some of the bold, true yet extremely insensitive things he had spoken publically. At times, defending the Bible is puts me in a very similar situation.
Unlike a huge number of Christians, I will openly and readily admit that the Bible has mistakes- omissions, mistranslations etc... This all occurs because man has... well, screwed it up. I believe in my heart that the original Hebrew and Greek manuscripts written by the Apostles and writers of the Bible are without fault- directly translated correctly by Holy Spirit filled Christians.
There was a thread on the Christian forum not too very long ago about the errors in scripture which was pretty all-encompassing. It would be a very good read for you if you have the time and can find it. Not sure what the title of it was so I'm no help there.
Some of the main reasons for problems correctly discerning scripture are:
1. some languages simply do not translate into others well.
Hebrew is, IMO, one of the most difficult. It reads (or used to) f rom right to left, it was not (until an unknown date by me) that it started to include vowels in it. Can you imagine the confusion a written language would have being translated without vowels?? OMG!
2. those who are not spirit -filled try to give their own translations of the Bible
Talk about missing the mark! This is the worst possible scenario. Spiritual things are discerned by the Holy Spirit- 1 Corinthians 2:14
New King James Version (NKJV)
[SIZE=3]14 [/SIZE]But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Look at how many people have translated the Bible when God did not call them to do so! All these translations are leading the people astray and giving the Holy Bible a bad name.
3. some worlds in Hebrew and Greek have multiple meanings
The word salvation in Greek is SOTERIA, which has
9
different meanings. One of these meanings actually means healing but in English we know only one defination. How many millions of men, woman and children have missed out on healing from God simply because they didn't delve into the true meanings of scripture and didn't know they were entitled to it?
There are other factors which muddle the true meaning of scripture but off the top of my head they elude me.
I feel the need to reach out to you and invite you to private message me.
God is drawing you back but you must take the next step.
Blessings, JHWJ
I fee
Several years ago I found myself trying to defend Pat Robertson after some of the bold, true yet extremely insensitive things he had spoken publically. At times, defending the Bible is puts me in a very similar situation.
Unlike a huge number of Christians, I will openly and readily admit that the Bible has mistakes- omissions, mistranslations etc... This all occurs because man has... well, screwed it up. I believe in my heart that the original Hebrew and Greek manuscripts written by the Apostles and writers of the Bible are without fault- directly translated correctly by Holy Spirit filled Christians.
There was a thread on the Christian forum not too very long ago about the errors in scripture which was pretty all-encompassing. It would be a very good read for you if you have the time and can find it. Not sure what the title of it was so I'm no help there.
Some of the main reasons for problems correctly discerning scripture are:
1. some languages simply do not translate into others well.
Hebrew is, IMO, one of the most difficult. It reads (or used to) f rom right to left, it was not (until an unknown date by me) that it started to include vowels in it. Can you imagine the confusion a written language would have being translated without vowels?? OMG!
2. those who are not spirit -filled try to give their own translations of the Bible
Talk about missing the mark! This is the worst possible scenario. Spiritual things are discerned by the Holy Spirit- 1 Corinthians 2:14
New King James Version (NKJV)
[SIZE=3]14 [/SIZE]But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Look at how many people have translated the Bible when God did not call them to do so! All these translations are leading the people astray and giving the Holy Bible a bad name.
3. some worlds in Hebrew and Greek have multiple meanings
The word salvation in Greek is SOTERIA, which has
9
different meanings. One of these meanings actually means healing but in English we know only one defination. How many millions of men, woman and children have missed out on healing from God simply because they didn't delve into the true meanings of scripture and didn't know they were entitled to it?
There are other factors which muddle the true meaning of scripture but off the top of my head they elude me.
I feel the need to reach out to you and invite you to private message me.
God is drawing you back but you must take the next step.
Blessings, JHWJ
I fee
Your zealousness has an endearing quality because it comes from a good-hearted place.
It's just a shame (for you) that your Good Book does not contain satisfactory answers in the opinion of many questioners.
I'm happy you have found your answers within its pages but wish you'd both understand, and accept, that others follow different paths, following different holy books, or other whispers. All paths which honour life lead back to the same place.
The only reason why god(s) has(have) limitations is because they are self induced creations of man. I find it ironic that atheists raise the bar for a god moreso than theists do.
Based on scripture, it says pretty clearly that we would do greater deeds than Jesus did. Apart from the mythical magic shows he allegedly put on, ironically he was right. We have managed to do far greater things thanks to scientific discovery.
Now if those pesky scientists will just discover that water to wine thingy we should be all good (except for the grape farmers of course).
God has been communication with man for 6,000 years, since He created us. The most obvious way now is through His Word the Holy Bible. In the scriptures God tells us repeatedly about Himself, His nature and His characteristics. He also gives us information on US. One of the main themes of the Bible is sin and it's effects on man, both in the here and now and the hereafter.
God has multiple ways of communicating with you here in the latter days. He also uses other Christians to try to get in touch with you. Witnessing Christians such as pastors, ministers, missionaries, friends, relatives, the Bible, internet messages and videos, TV programs and commercials, radio, billboards, magazines etc... It's up to you to stop rejecting God's outreach and open your mind and heart.
He reached out to you 2,000 years ago when His only sinless Son gave His life on the cross so your sins could be forgiven and you could be reunited spiritually with God. God gave you the means then and even today that sacrifice is offered. Your sin prohibits DIRECT communication from God but God through Christians and scripture still tries to reach you.
It's now up to you if you want to accept His free gift of eternal life or continue to reject it.
You want to hear from God?? Seek Him out with all your heart! Humble yourself before Him, ask for forgiveness of all your sins in true repentance and accept salvation in place of stubborn pride. Ask for and receive the Holy Spirit within your heart. If you seek God with all your heart you will find Him.
How does one manage to live in the 21st century and still believe the earth is only 6000 years old?
On the limitations of God, I like to talk about infinite in regard to God
The way I see it, man has by his thinking process come to the concept of infinite which however is an invalid concept.
And even the way the concept is formulated, it is by adding the prefix in to the word finite; but that is one concept that cannot be formulated by just adding a prefix of negation, for in doing so you come not to a valid concept but to an invalid concept.
The reason is because in actual reality everything is limited, at least and at most limited by its own essence and nature: the essence and nature of an entity are the boundaries of the entity -- no entity can go beyond its essence and nature.
So, this is one instance whereby we cannot just add a prefix of negation to a valid concept, and obtain another valid concept that is the opposite of the base concept.
The resultant concept is invalid because it is not fixed: how can we do anything with it since it is not fixed, for being without borders: when we attempt to use it, we realize that it is not manageable.
Summing up, a concept like infinite, meaning without any limits in any sense and in any environment, that is totally unmanageable: thus when we use it to apply to God, in many instances God comes out to be all self-contradictory.
For example He is infinitely knowing, therefore He knows what man is going to commit a bad deed; and He is infinitely good, so He must prevent him from committing a bad deed, but bad deeds just the same are done by humans, so God is not good for He does not prevent men from doing bad deeds.
Etc. etc. etc.
God is not infinite, He is limited by His essence and nature, but since we do not know completely and exhaustively His essence and His nature, we cannot know all the ins and outs of His essence and His nature.
Therefore when we say that God can do everything and then the atheists ask [of course fallaciously, later we will come to that fallacy]:
"Can God create a rock so heavy He cannot carry it?"
They seem to have a trouble for God.
If He does create a rock so heavy that He cannot carry it, then He is not omnipotent because there is a rock He cannot carry.
But if He cannot create such a rock, then also He is not omnipotent because there is something He cannot create.
That is a trick question from atheists, it is a fallacious question.
First, God is as powerful as He is according to His essence and nature.
But we humans do not know and we cannot know His essence and nature, so we do not and cannot ever know the limits of His essence and nature: just the same He is in Himself limited to His essence and nature.
Since we cannot ever know His essence and His nature completely, exhaustively, we do not know the limits of His essence and nature, in particular the limits of his power.
On the other hand, according to logical thinking which we or I submit God is also into, namely, logical thinking: God cannot do something that for example is round and not round at the same time, in the same space, and in the same sense of the meaning of round.
That is to produce something that is intrinsically self-contradictory, and God is not a self-contradictory worker.
Now, let us come to the fallacious question of atheists, Can God create a rock so heavy that He cannot carry it?
That is a statement that is self contradictory though it takes a keen examination of the statement to come to see the self-contradiction in the statement, in the assemblage of words which cannot go together to convey a coherent, consistent thought.
Can God create a rock so heavy that He cannot carry it?
There are two parts in that statement question.
Part 1: In this first part, there is the understanding which is correct and accepted by atheists, namely, God can create and carry any rock as heavy as He wants to create and can and will carry.
Part 2. In part 2 there is a consequence of part 1 which does not follow, but atheists make it to follow as a consequence from part 1, by negating part 1, namely, so heavy He canny carry it.
In part 1, atheists already concede that God can create and carry any rock as heavy as He cares and wants to create and to carry however heavy He creates it.
In part 2, the consequence is therefore whatever rock however heavy atheists want God to create and to carry, God can and will create and carry it -- of course only on condition that God just wants to humor atheists.
But the question as atheists want to make it, is fallacious, because part 2 from atheists' negative dis-construction, namely, so heavy that He cannot carry it, that is a consequence that does not follow from part 1, which part 1 is already a concession by atheists that God can and will create and carry a rock as heavy as He or atheists even want and challenge Him to do so.
Now, this fallacy is founded on human challenges, like you ask your strongest man like say Goliath, to keep on adding more and more stones to a big big sack and tie the sack with a stout rope, then to carry it or lift up the thus heavily loaded sack of stones: there will come a point when Goliath cannot anymore carry the sack.
So, the question atheists should address is to Goliath, namely: Can Goliath put more and more stones in a sack so that eventually it becomes so heavy that he cannot lift it up anymore?
That question addressed to God by atheists is a trick question founded upon a sneaky comparison of God with Goliath.
I hope atheists can think straight and see what they are doing is to engage in tricky questions.
Back to God and His limitations, I submit that God is limited in that He cannot produce things which are intrinsically self-contradictory, like creating a rock so heavy He cannot carry it.
How does one manage to live in the 21st century and still believe the earth is only 6000 years old?
You went to point "C" from point "A". You put words in my mouth -
In fact, I agree the universe is between 13 & 15 billion years old.
Never assume anything because it makes an ..........
-snip-
I hope atheists can think straight and see what they are doing is to engage in tricky questions.
Back to God and His limitations, I submit that God is limited in that He cannot produce things which are intrinsically self-contradictory, like creating a rock so heavy He cannot carry it.
This is not really an argument postulated except maybe by very young (and probably rebellious) atheists.
In fact if god were real, it would be far more capable of doing useful stuff than lifting rocks. Seeing god is of a human construct, of course its limitations would be very much human. All the so called biblical attributes of this egomaniac are very much like what a god would be like if humans invented him/it. Jealousy, anger, to name but two.
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