RE: I am an orthodox Christian, ask me a question!
August 14, 2009 at 11:06 am
(This post was last modified: August 14, 2009 at 11:09 am by Jon Paul.)
(August 14, 2009 at 9:44 am)Dopethrone Wrote: Do you think it's right to scare children into believing in some sort of mythical being through storys such as the one about Sodom and Gomorra?No, I don't believe it's right to scare children into believing in God, if that's what you mean.
And that is not what the stories in the Old Testament serve to do, for the populations of the destroyed cities had long histories of grievous sins (Gen 15:16, Dt 25:17-19), which often included sacrificing their children to false gods (Dt 12:29-31).
Now, children would surely be more safe with the God who destroyed some peoples who sacrificed children to false gods to avoid them corrupting the Israelities, than with those false gods who wanted child sacrifices. God destroyed those peoples, because the innocent among them had no better destiny on earth, than being abused, even sacrificed, and filled with sin, possibly leading them to eternal damnation if they took up the practices of the rest of their societies; and surely the innocent among them he could grant eternal life and peace resting in Him, if he acted before they became corrupted, too. What he made sure by doing so, was that those wicked peoples did not get to corrupt the people of Israel away from the way of the one true God and into pagan, sinful practices. And that was what God was trying to avoid all along, as is evident from these and other verses:
Deuteronomy 18:9-12: When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire...Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD, and because of these detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you.
Deuteronomy 12:31: You must not worship the LORD your God in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the LORD hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods.
Kings 16:3: He walked in the ways of the kings of Israel and even sacrificed his son in the fire, following the detestable ways of the nations the LORD had driven out before the Israelites.
Psalm 106:38: They shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was desecrated by their blood.
Jeremiah 19:4-5: For they have forsaken me and made this a place of foreign gods; they have burned sacrifices in it to gods that neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah ever knew, and they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent. They have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as offerings to Baal - something I did not command or mention, nor did it enter my mind.
In the case of Abrahams sacrifice, we see that God shows us, the reason why he does not want child sacrifices is not that he doesn't want sacrifices, but that what matters is the trust in Gods goodness, and so the willingness to make sacrifices to follow Gods commandment in trusting that God commands what he does for a reason, not the sacrifice itself; for no thing that a human can give God, he doesn't have already, and so, God does not really want to take Isaacs life, but wants to test the faith of Abraham:
By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, "It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned." Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death. (Hebrews 11:17-19)
"Do not lay a hand on the boy," God said. "Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son."
(August 14, 2009 at 9:44 am)Dopethrone Wrote: Do you believe that your religion is the only right one? And if so? What happens to the people who believe differently, let's say: Muslims, Atheists, Jews and Hindu?That depends what you mean with the only right one. The only one that contains any truth? No, not at all. I believe it's the fullness of the truth necessary for eternal life and resting in the Creator; but I don't believe that other religions don't have any of the truth.
As to what will happen to those people, or what will happen to Christians even, that's up to God. No one is sure of their salvation until they have passed, and we, humans, know nothing of who is damned. All we can do is look into our own hearts and souls and focus on our own salvation.
Surely the True Church is the Church of all the good, humble, righteous, truthful people all over the world, even if some of them are in ignorance of the True God, then if they act in goodness and truth, they draw themselves nearer to God indirectly, because God is himself goodness and truth.
(August 14, 2009 at 9:44 am)Dopethrone Wrote: Do you believe that we as mankind are created by god to worship him? Or did he intend us to live our lives to the fullest and be the best we can be?The answer to both questions is yes. The way we live to the fullest is by coming into accord with the will and being of God, for him to pour his graces down upon us and give us deep satisfication, peace and happiness without ceasing.
The people who are the most bigoted are the people who have no convictions at all.
-G. K. Chesterton
-G. K. Chesterton