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Yet even though I think to myself, Gosh you have to be really heartless to do something like that, I know that I do not have the perfect standards of morality whereas God does. Even though I may not understand it, God is right and I am not.
...
Or perhaps those accounts were written by men who wished to justify their barbarism and brutality. Or perhaps the stories are just that - stories. Those first borns never were slaughtered and the Egyptian army never was drowned. And the story of Lot was a myth taken from another religion.
I don't know so much, BFun. It's clearly written in the bible. The story of Job comes to mind. The Egyptian first borns, the drowning of the Egyptian army ....
As far as I can tell, he's agreeing with me. We're both saying about the same thing. Non-believers say God is barbaric for killing people in the Bible. BF's saying that's because people think they're better than God. At least that's what I get from it. BF should correct me if I'm mistaken. It sounds as though he comes from a Reformed background too, but I'm really not sure.
Quote:
Originally Posted by fishbrains
It seems to me that you are implying that you do not agree with Basil’s theology?
That is fine of course, obviously your choice. I don’t think you have any obligation to defend another’s religious belief.
I do think it is a great example of the denomination problem we recently discussed. From my point of view, how should I determine whose theology is correct, your’s or Basil’s? You both claim to be Christian, I am not convinced by your arguments or his. Isn’t it reasonable, based on this series of posts, for me to conclude that there are multiple denominations of Christianity that do not agree?
Like I mentioned above, as far as I can tell we have similar doctrinal beliefs. I am a woman though (a widow, I lost my husband recently. I guess "guy" can be like "Hey, guys" or something like that, but just to clarify).
Last edited by Basiliximab; 09-19-2020 at 01:36 PM..
Or perhaps those accounts were written by men who wished to justify their barbarism and brutality. Or perhaps the stories are just that - stories. Those first borns never were slaughtered and the Egyptian army never was drowned. And the story of Lot was a myth taken from another religion.
Yes, if I did not believe the Bible was written by the Holy Spirit and is perfect and infallible, yes. that would be an option. But I believe the Bible is the true inspired word of God and I will not put myself in the place of God.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Arach Angle
I think some theist just follow other people's theology without thinking about it in detail.
Yes, I've thought about it. I choose God. If that's not a good idea in some people's viewpoint then it's not a good idea in their viewpoint. I read the Westminster's Confessions of Faith, found it made a lot of since and reread the Bible. God called me to him and I chose to follow him. That's about all of why I'm a Christian. I can relate to a lot of what atheists say about God because I felt much the same way once. What changed was that I loved Jesus when he revealed himself to me. Much of what's being stated on here will generally get the same reply from me, that I won't put myself in the place of God.
Quote:
Originally Posted by phetaroi
Killing the first born BABIES of Egypt was a loving thing?
No, it was just. It may have been loving in some way we do not understand. If the infant did not die that night, he may have died in some other horrible way.
Though it also can be asked, Was it loving of God to take my husband from me suddenly so that we could not even say good bye to each other (a massive stroke) after just two years of marriage? How should someone look at that? [My husband was a bachelor and we were married when he turned 60. He had wanted to be married all his adult life (was engaged like 3 times). I felt as though I had found the other half of my soul when I met him when I was 34].
Last edited by Basiliximab; 09-19-2020 at 01:53 PM..
Killing the first born BABIES of Egypt was a loving thing?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Basiliximab
No, it was just. It may have been loving in some way we do not understand. If the infant did not die that night, he may have died in some other horrible way.
Or..... it simply didn't happen at all. Which is the much more likely scenario, given that everything we know stacks against the "truthiness" of that particular story?
That's a hard one. I must confess I have difficulty accepting that it was 'just'.
How do you feel about God killing all of Job's family to test his faith? Remembering of course that the s't'n acted on God's instructions. Note that I spelled it s't'n to indicate it was a not a person or god named Satan but a Hebrew 'challenger' which as called a s't'n (they didn't use apostrophes - that is my doing to illustrate that point). Consider this in light of the thread topic - God's plan.
P.S. I'm sorry for your loss. Please don't be offended by my questions or comments. I did not have 'God' to turn to when my son died. He suffered most of his life before finally ending it.
No, it was just. It may have been loving in some way we do not understand. If the infant did not die that night, he may have died in some other horrible way.
...
I would call this a perversion of christian thinking.
What is God's Plan?
God has no plans, he just is.
It is humans who have plans. Mostly they want to be happy. When they are happy they want to be very happy and they want it it last forever. But of course it doesn't. Nothing lasts forever. So they go shopping, go out to eat, keep the Dow up. That is the goal, keep the market going up. But it doen't it crashes. Bad things happen to those who counted on it to go up forever. They want to be happy. They find nothing lasts forever.
If I'm with Mystic on anything, it is in rejecting the OT as telling us anything about any real god that may exist and seeing it rather as the creation of men of the time.
If I'm with Mystic on anything, it is in rejecting the OT as telling us anything about any real god that may exist and seeing it rather as the creation of men of the time.
The primary challenge facing theists is that of parsing the spiritual fossil record between those concepts and ideas inspired by God from those that are the inspirations and interpretations of men. Of course, atheists generally do not think there are ANY inspirations from God making any parsing superfluous to them.
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