There’s a big difference between believing God COULD do something and believing God DID do something. Your argument seems to conflate the two.
The Bible is littered with great stuff, but only an idiot would buy this “because God COULD inspire men to create a perfect book that lacks nothing for our salvation, we must assume that he DID.”
Yeah. God COULD have destroyed the cabal thousands of years ago and make sure it
never returned. But he didn’t, did he?
If there’s one lesson every Christian should take from the Bible it’s this: men can talk to God and God can talk back, and men, when they exercise faith in God, and in themselves as children of God, can work mighty miracles. The Bible was never meant to be your guide. It was never meant to replace the voice of God. If it does anything, really, it points us toward mediation, prayer, faith, and righteousness. But the Catholics tricked you with the story of Saul/Paul and littered the book with his false doctrine of repackaged Old Testament idolatry. But instead of a golden calf, it’s a man on a cross. And rather than follow that man’s teachings and example, you tell yourselves you’re good cause you’re “saved.” Talk about the lazy path of least resistance. No wonder so many people are into it.
Jesus didn’t come to wash away our sins. He came to teach us how to avoid them, make amends for them, and reach our full potential as children of God. He died for the same reason all the prophets before him died: because those who live in the dark and hate the light didn’t want to relinquish their power and they put him down to shut him up. He went willingly though because just like the prophets of old and those who came after, he knew the power of non-resistance and knew the power of not resisting evil, just like he taught, and knew that dying for what he believed brought a power to the world all on its own. Don’t let the Bible be your God. Let it point you to him. Let it help you get into the headspace to communicate with Him through prayer, but don’t forget to actually communicate with him. Else your faith is worthless and your life will be nothing but a string of excuses for failing at things you absolutely could have excelled at.
For if miracles have ceased, then faith has ceased, for miracles are wrought by faith. And if faith has ceased, whoa unto the children if men, for all is vain.
Lots to unpack here but once again, this entire reply has no biblical basis whatsoever. It is just your opinion. Literally everything I have said can be backed up by scripture.
And if Jesus didn't come to wash away sins then none of it matters anyway because you still stand guilty in front of God. What foolishness. No amount of "works" and self-diagnosing yourself as a good person gains you access to heaven. And no amount of "I passed the test! the bible is all wrong, its a trap because I think so" gets you there either.
I'll say it again. If scripture is not reliable then the entire Christian faith falls flat on its face. Miracles haven't ceased; that dusty book on your coffee table that you turn your nose up at is one of them.
Backed up by a scripture that was compiled by the cabal. But keep banging that drum. And I know that dusty book on my table like the back of my hand (but nice country song reference). Its value is unquestioned. Your faith, however, and your intelligence if you haven’t learned the main lesson it had to teach you despite the bullshit the cabal put in there, that’s on you. I can lead a horse to water, but I can’t force him to walk on it. Keep your nose in the book if you want. For those in my house, we choose to apply it.
And yes, your “Christianity” does fall on its face. Christ warned of wolves in sheeps clothing who would teach things he never said. Paul showed up, taught. bullshit gospel of easy salvation instead of the gospel that Jesus taught, and all if you ignored where that came from and lapped it up like warm milk. I’ve yet to hear a single self proclaimed born again Christian quote more than one verse of Jesus to back up their positions. They quote Paul to no end though. Sad that so many people on this site still can’t admit this to themselves. Keep repeating your mantras though.
I'm curious to know why you even have one? I mean "its value is unquestioned" but its content is faulty, misaligned, evil and tampered with. Whats the point?
And these scrolls? Have you translated the originals yourself? How do you know their content is gospel? How do you know they haven't been tampered with?
By your logic, how do you know the teachings of Jesus are really even his teachings? What if the smarter-than-God-himself "cabal" only included what they wanted you to think Jesus taught and left all the important stuff out? How would you ever know the truth unless you personally witnessed Jesus 2000 years ago? What if Jesus really taught that the way to salvation is walking backwards your entire life with your head up your ass so that you don't have to face reality? You would be his greatest disciple!
Futhermore, why are you even on here? How does God win in the end and extinguish evil when He couldn't even defend His own word? What if He "allows" evil to win just to teach everyone a "lesson".... you know, like when He allowed the bad bad men to pervert His doctrine!!
I think the warning about wolves, false prophets and false teachings are exactly this. Those who discredit God by trying to sew seeds of doubt concerning Him into the minds of others.
Spripture is Gods word. It is holy. And the way it has been compiled is only the way God allowed it to be. It reveals who He is and what His Son did for us to repair a chasm created by sin. Whats in it is what He intended for us to know and follow and what is not in it He did not. Mortal men, regardless of how wicked their intentions may be, cannot overpower or outsmart the limitless God that created them. Sorry.
The Bible is a massive history of stories of men and women communicating with God. When Jesus left his disciples he told them he would send the Holy Ghost to guide them, not some book. The book has value but is subject to be altered by evil men. I find great value in reading the book and asking God for guidance in understanding what is true and what isn’t. See: James 1:5.
As for the scrolls, they’re open to the same scrutiny. I don’t read them and accept what they say blindly either. When something resonates as true it resonates. When it doesn’t it doesn’t. I didn’t mean to offer some defense of the scrolls or to claim they were more credible than the Bible. I don’t think I said anything that implied that either.
As for why I’m here and how I think God could eventually win this war, I think that because I think God CAN do anything, but whether or not he does depends largely upon us, and the faith we’re willing to exert collectively to bring his will into alignment with reality. God gave us agency, and when men don’t exercise that agency for good, He clearly doesn’t stand in their way. But I have faith humanity can finally get it done this time, so here I am.
As for me sowing doubt about God’s word, I’ve done nothing of the sort in my mind. I trust God’s word completely. The problem as I see it is that because the only place you’ve ever found God’s word is in the Bible, you haven’t considered the possibility that not everything in there is His Word. You’re operating under the same circular logic you learned in church as a child and haven’t given room for any other possibility. But I have. I trust the Holy Spirit to guide me and help me identify that which is truly God’s word and that which is merely the doctrines of men. You seem to not believe you have that ability. And as long as you refuse to believe that, your life will reflect that. But if you’ll exercise the faith of just a tiny mustard seed that God can speak to you directly, making you reliant upon your own revelations rather than on those of others you perceive as being better than you somehow, then your life would really open up.
And once again, your claim that mortal men cannot outsmart God is not being challenged here. So you can stop with that straw man. Men cannot outsmart God, obviously, but they can outsmart other men, and God will not force anyone to obey him and thus, the world finds itself in the state we’re in despite Him. Become part of the solution. Exercise faith in Him and in yourself as His child to change the world, and if enough of us do it, the prophecy of Habakkuk will finally be realized. God wills it. Let’s see if this time enough men will it too in order to make it a reality.
There’s a big difference between believing God COULD do something and believing God DID do something. Your argument seems to conflate the two.
The Bible is littered with great stuff, but only an idiot would buy this “because God COULD inspire men to create a perfect book that lacks nothing for our salvation, we must assume that he DID.”
Yeah. God COULD have destroyed the cabal thousands of years ago and make sure it never returned. But he didn’t, did he?
If there’s one lesson every Christian should take from the Bible it’s this: men can talk to God and God can talk back, and men, when they exercise faith in God, and in themselves as children of God, can work mighty miracles. The Bible was never meant to be your guide. It was never meant to replace the voice of God. If it does anything, really, it points us toward mediation, prayer, faith, and righteousness. But the Catholics tricked you with the story of Saul/Paul and littered the book with his false doctrine of repackaged Old Testament idolatry. But instead of a golden calf, it’s a man on a cross. And rather than follow that man’s teachings and example, you tell yourselves you’re good cause you’re “saved.” Talk about the lazy path of least resistance. No wonder so many people are into it.
Jesus didn’t come to wash away our sins. He came to teach us how to avoid them, make amends for them, and reach our full potential as children of God. He died for the same reason all the prophets before him died: because those who live in the dark and hate the light didn’t want to relinquish their power and they put him down to shut him up. He went willingly though because just like the prophets of old and those who came after, he knew the power of non-resistance and knew the power of not resisting evil, just like he taught, and knew that dying for what he believed brought a power to the world all on its own. Don’t let the Bible be your God. Let it point you to him. Let it help you get into the headspace to communicate with Him through prayer, but don’t forget to actually communicate with him. Else your faith is worthless and your life will be nothing but a string of excuses for failing at things you absolutely could have excelled at.
For if miracles have ceased, then faith has ceased, for miracles are wrought by faith. And if faith has ceased, whoa unto the children if men, for all is vain.
Lots to unpack here but once again, this entire reply has no biblical basis whatsoever. It is just your opinion. Literally everything I have said can be backed up by scripture.
And if Jesus didn't come to wash away sins then none of it matters anyway because you still stand guilty in front of God. What foolishness. No amount of "works" and self-diagnosing yourself as a good person gains you access to heaven. And no amount of "I passed the test! the bible is all wrong, its a trap because I think so" gets you there either.
I'll say it again. If scripture is not reliable then the entire Christian faith falls flat on its face. Miracles haven't ceased; that dusty book on your coffee table that you turn your nose up at is one of them.
Backed up by a scripture that was compiled by the cabal. But keep banging that drum. And I know that dusty book on my table like the back of my hand (but nice country song reference). Its value is unquestioned. Your faith, however, and your intelligence if you haven’t learned the main lesson it had to teach you despite the bullshit the cabal put in there, that’s on you. I can lead a horse to water, but I can’t force him to walk on it. Keep your nose in the book if you want. For those in my house, we choose to apply it.
And yes, your “Christianity” does fall on its face. Christ warned of wolves in sheeps clothing who would teach things he never said. Paul showed up, taught. bullshit gospel of easy salvation instead of the gospel that Jesus taught, and all if you ignored where that came from and lapped it up like warm milk. I’ve yet to hear a single self proclaimed born again Christian quote more than one verse of Jesus to back up their positions. They quote Paul to no end though. Sad that so many people on this site still can’t admit this to themselves. Keep repeating your mantras though.
I'm curious to know why you even have one? I mean "its value is unquestioned" but its content is faulty, misaligned, evil and tampered with. Whats the point?
And these scrolls? Have you translated the originals yourself? How do you know their content is gospel? How do you know they haven't been tampered with?
By your logic, how do you know the teachings of Jesus are really even his teachings? What if the smarter-than-God-himself "cabal" only included what they wanted you to think Jesus taught and left all the important stuff out? How would you ever know the truth unless you personally witnessed Jesus 2000 years ago? What if Jesus really taught that the way to salvation is walking backwards your entire life with your head up your ass so that you don't have to face reality? You would be his greatest disciple!
Futhermore, why are you even on here? How does God win in the end and extinguish evil when He couldn't even defend His own word? What if He "allows" evil to win just to teach everyone a "lesson".... you know, like when He allowed the bad bad men to pervert His doctrine!!
I think the warning about wolves, false prophets and false teachings are exactly this. Those who discredit God by trying to sew seeds of doubt concerning Him into the minds of others.
Spripture is Gods word. It is holy. And the way it has been compiled is only the way God allowed it to be. It reveals who He is and what His Son did for us to repair a chasm created by sin. Whats in it is what He intended for us to know and follow and what is not in it He did not. Mortal men, regardless of how wicked their intentions may be, cannot overpower or outsmart the limitless God that created them. Sorry.
Wow talk about a lot to unpack.
The Bible is a massive history of stories of men and women communicating with God. When Jesus left his disciples he told them he would send the Holy Ghost to guide them, not some book. The book has value but is subject to be altered by evil men. I find great value in reading the book and asking God for guidance in understanding what is true and what isn’t. See: James 1:5.
As for the scrolls, they’re open to the same scrutiny. I don’t read them and accept what they say blindly either. When something resonates as true it resonates. When it doesn’t it doesn’t. I didn’t mean to offer some defense of the scrolls or to claim they were more credible than the Bible. I don’t think I said anything that implied that either.
As for why I’m here and how I think God could eventually win this war, I think that because I think God CAN do anything, but whether or not he does depends largely upon us, and the faith we’re willing to exert collectively to bring his will into alignment with reality. God gave us agency, and when men don’t exercise that agency for good, He clearly doesn’t stand in their way. But I have faith humanity can finally get it done this time, so here I am.
As for me sowing doubt about God’s word, I’ve done nothing of the sort in my mind. I trust God’s word completely. The problem as I see it is that because the only place you’ve ever found God’s word is in the Bible, you haven’t considered the possibility that not everything in there is His Word. You’re operating under the same circular logic you learned in church as a child and haven’t given room for any other possibility. But I have. I trust the Holy Spirit to guide me and help me identify that which is truly God’s word and that which is merely the doctrines of men. You seem to not believe you have that ability. And as long as you refuse to believe that, your life will reflect that. But if you’ll exercise the faith of just a tiny mustard seed that God can speak to you directly, making you reliant upon your own revelations rather than on those of others you perceive as being better than you somehow, then your life would really open up.
And once again, your claim that mortal men cannot outsmart God is not being challenged here. So you can stop with that straw man. Men cannot outsmart God, obviously, but they can outsmart other men, and God will not force anyone to obey him and thus, the world finds itself in the state we’re in despite Him. Become part of the solution. Exercise faith in Him and in yourself as His child to change the world, and if enough of us do it, the prophecy of Habakkuk will finally be realized. God wills it. Let’s see if this time enough men will it too in order to make it a reality.