No I think God wants that person to repent and get help and never, ever do it again. I was referring to physical deformities, but when you bring up the internal sickness in people don't you see how sin has destroyed people especially when they let it take them over?
No, I don't see the difference. Some people are born with mental illnesses. Sometimes people contract mental illnesses because of their surroundings. According to your version of God, they are all there because of his minion, Satan. You have sympathy for one, but the other you have disdain for. Frankly, I can't see why any God would create disease, physical or mental.
If God gives us a cure for cancer that would be a total miracle. It's nice to see medical science has made some progress with it.
Not a miracle at all. Mostly science and hard work. With more of the same, we'll find a lot more cures. God has had thousands of years to come up with this, but until modern medicine came along (which relies heavily on the theory of evolution), He didn't do squat.
I'm just sharing from my own experiences and some of what I hear others share in there testimonies of what God revealed to them through circumstances and situations. It really is a personal relationship with Him. And perhaps all these things we go through are so people develop more Godly character. Can't you see that as a real possibility?
I see a lot of people who credit God. I also see a lot of people who experience what you would call "miracles" without the benefit of faith.
But when it comes to sin, God's the only one that has the cure for that, JESUS. It's all true Tricky.
It is not the least bit true. Christians cannot even agree on what is sinful. Catholics think birth control is sinful. Seventh day Adventists think working on Saturday is sinful. What I see is Christians calling anything they don't like "sin". Gambling, dancing, sex, smoking, drinking... which ones do you think are sins?
And I'm sorry about your mom. Do you mind if I ask you if she believed in Christ? I hope so.
She chose to follow Christ, but she was nothing like you. She believed that God would let everybody into heaven who was a good person, not just those who had followed Christ. She did not believe in the tyrannical version of God that you seem to worship.
But thank you for your condolences. I believe in acknowledging and being grateful for any prayers offered, even though I am not a Christian.
You can't blame me for you denying Christ. If you show up on judgment day and try to tell God it was Kathy's fault I rejected you I don't think that will fly. Sorry don't even go there.
I'll go where the evidence leads me, and the evidence leads me to say that evangelical Christians like yourself do more harm to Christianity than they do good.
No, I'm not saying it is your fault I left Christianity. I was an atheist long before I met you. But it was people
like you that made me realize that Christianity was not a road to truth. It was people like you that made me see that some (not all) Christians were worshiping a hateful, vengeful, egotistical God, and that I did not want any part of that worship.
No, you weren't the one who drove me away from Jesus. But you could well be the one who drives others away from Christianity. You make it very unattractive. Maybe you ought to rethink the message you are sending to others.
I think Satan does work as a catalyst for God. If you don't choose good over evil then you aren't someone God wants in His eternal kingdom. Haven't we learned anything from the way Satan and his demons were cast out of heaven? They wanted it on there own terms too and God said no way.
So what would the world be without Satan? Have you ever stopped to consider that? Does God
want people cast out of heaven? If not, why did he create Satan? He didn't
have to create him. The only conclusion is that God
wants evil, even if it is to be a foil for good. Evil is part of His plan. Don't blame Satan. God created him exactly for that purpose. He's just doing the job he was assigned by God.
We cannot put God in a box or create him in our own image of him. What we do know of God's character is revealed through scripture.
I am the last person to put God in a box. I recognize many many variations of God, both yours and Huntster's and Mr. Clingford's and Allah and Vishnu and Zeus and countless others. I don't believe in any of them. When I talk about God to you, I am talking about the God that YOU describe. I am telling you why
your version of God is not one I could ever follow.
You are the one putting God in a box. You are the one saying that only the God of Christ could be the "real" God. You are the one who says he allows people to go to hell. That is not my box. I don't create God in any image whatsoever. That is your box. It is a very tiny box. You ought to consider breaking down the walls of that box and seeing other views of God, including the atheist view of God, the one that doesn't exist. That is a box with no walls.
But you want
some walls, don't you?
Not true. He is our loving heavenly father who gave up everything he loved when He gave Jesus to pay for our sins. Jesus did the hard part. All we need to do is believe in Him! Now what's so hard about that? Doesn't His sacrifice mean anything to you? He paid it all for all man kind. No one but God could do that.
What did our Heavenly Father give up? Jesus? Nope. Jesus is still there, right? He was dead for three days. Have you ever been apart from your parents for three days? It ain't no big deal. He didn't pay squat for mankind. If I thought I could end war everywhere for all time, I'd gladly die, and not just for three days, but
forever. (Lots of brave soldiers, including non-Christians, have died for even less.) And I ain't even Jesus. Jesus was a wimp by comparison. By your belief, he's not even
dead! You call that a sacrifice? It's
nothing. Don't cry to me about your brave Jesus who was in hell for a weekend.
What's so hard to believe? I'll tell you what. I can't believe that a God who claims to love everyone would
ever let anyone go to Hell forever just because they don't believe that Christ was His son. That is the most unjust punishment I could ever imagine. Only a merciless tyrant would
ever command such a punishment.
No, I don't believe in your version of God. If I did, I could not sleep at night for the horrible nightmares.
Oaky so I guess I should let Mr. Clingford do all the sharing here, I know I'm much too straight forward about the subject of saving faith.
Yes, you should let Clingford, Huntster and Darth et. al. do the legwork. You should go to some nice Christian forum where your beliefs will be accepted and praised. These boards are not for you. You will never win a single convert here. You can only do damage to your religion because you are incapable of defending it.
I tell you this as a caring person who wants you to be well and happy. If I thought lying to you would make it better for you, I might do it, but it will not, so I am being as honest as I can be. I know you are here out of love, but love needs a proper home, one that shares the same kind of love. There is love here, but it is not your kind of love. This is not the home for you. I hope you find your home.
