Divine Inspiration

[Drich]

I know why you might think that the video was biased, but he made some good points that I hadn't thought of.
1. If we love everyone as ourselves, doesn't that devalue love?

Only if you are working with the modern day understanding of the term, and are using yourself as the only source of Love.. that is one of the Fruits of the Holy Spirit. (A greater Capasity and higher quality of love)

2. If we turn the other cheek, doesn't this mean that people can do anything bad they want without fear of retribution?

for a while. There is a Great Korean Movie that demonstrates this principle in a non religious secular way. "The Way Home."
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0312841/
If you don't mind subtitles this is an AWESOME Movie about a little boy and his grandmother.

3. If we can ask god for forgiveness, this means that we don't need forgiveness from the person we've wronged.

Not in God's econmy.

I highly doubt he was doing it in self-interest.

Then you do not know or understand all the 'perks' of being a pastor or preist. The TV is full of men like this who benfit from being a 'pastor.'

Then why are we even debating this? You seem convinced that I will never find god no matter how hard I try, and if I do I'll reject him.

I am not debating anything really. I am simply correcting your understanding of God and Christianity so you can make an informed desision.

God revealed himself to them knowing that they would ultimately reject him anyway. That contradicts your previous answer (above).

How, what?

Why doesn't god just reveal himself and see who will join? Why must he toy with us?

Our 'opting in' is not what God is looking to accomplish here. God has given us this life so we may proove to ourselves where our hearts lie.

The A/S/K does not have very clear instructions. You said earler that god doesn't care if you follow incorrectly due to an honest misinterpretation of the bible. Apparently that rule doesn't apply here. The above statement is as valid as yours.

Who said that one honestly misinterperted the bible? If you decide to do your own version of A/S/K then that is not the same as A/S/K with all of you mind, heart Spirit and strength, but fall short because you do not understand the principle fully. The difference? the condition of the heart going through the motions of worship. The reason the parable is vague is because God has allowed room for several different expressions of this process. Again what makes one expression of A/S/K valid before God and the very same works performed by another invalid is the condition of the persons heart that has approached God.

Well it's either that or burn for eternity... (you just admitted that an unbiased person would not conclude the existence of god from the evidence, you realise, don't you?)

even though I was privy to the experience of the 'gates of Hell.' Fear of Hell did not fuel my desire to know God. Just before my judgement I got to look at Christ in the eyes, and felt the oneness or completeness of being in His presents could only bring. It is an indescribable feeling, one of contentment and belonging x1000. True fullfillment. This inspired my search for God. not a frantic fear of hell, but a longing to return Home. In my search for Home It took my time and questioned everything. In doing this over a period of years of A/S/K I found my way. (Not there yet, but am headed in the right direction)

I say that to say those who seek Heaven as a refuge from Hell understand neither. Heaven is not about living in a gated community with gold streets where everyone gets a mansion. Hell is not about fire and brimestone.

Heaven is being in the presents of God and Hell is about being cut off from God. I used to ask this question all of the time: What if for some reason the descriptions for Heaven and Hell were somehow mixed up, and Hell was what we would think of as paradise (but no God) and Heaven was a firey pit that the God of the bible lived in. Would you still want to goto Heaven (The firey pit) and be with God? Again your eternal fate is not about your suroundings, but your proximity to God.

You have a strange dream that is true to you but that everyone else doesn't believe and you still defend it?

God gave that dream to me for me. It was the 'evidence' i needed it was what I had initaly needed to start my faith/walk with God. It was how I know my masters voice out of all the others calling out to me. The only reason I share it is so that you know that if you honestly approach god He will reach out to you in a way that only matters to you. For everyone elses can and will (by design) be able to dismiss what you life has turn around on.

So you are saying the kid was wrong, or aren't you?

I am saying what ever the kid saw was between him and God. The fact that his family is doubting their faiths/beliefs simply points to the deep need they have to turn to God to fill in the blanks. Rather they are turning to themselves and turn on the boy because of what he did not see. I feel for the kid for I have seen many wonderful and scarry things thatdo not always coinside with what people believe about their God, and rather address their faith they turn of the messenger.

(You say it was real to him, but wouldn't that mean not real to you? And then your 'vision' wouldn't be real to him.)

What he see does not need to be real for me. I have all the 'reality' that i could possiable be responsiable for.

No he didn't. (though he did provide the animals)

Ya-huh.
But first:

Genesis 6:6

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The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled.

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How does god regret doing something he already knows the outcome of?

Before i was married I had an on again off again girlfriend. We Loved each other passionatly for about a week or two at a time and then we would be at each others throats, saying all sorts of vile things to each other. then 6 months or so would go by and we'd be back together (even if we were seeing other people.) this went on for 5 years or more. to the point we did not stop our lives to get back together because we both knew how it would end. (in a bitter ugly fight.) Each time was the last time i would swear and 6 months later we'd go out again.. (till she introduced me to one of her childhood friends then it was over for good.)

How does God regret something He did even though He knew how it would turn out? How does man made in the image of God do the same thing?

Now, as for how Noah made the ark:
Genesis 6:14-16

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So make yourself an ark of cypress[c] wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. 15 This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high.[d] 16 Make a roof for it, leaving below the roof an opening one cubit[e] high all around.[f] Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks.

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God just told him to make it, god did not make it.

I didn't say God made the ark. i even went so far as to say it wasn't about the logistics/Noah's efforts that saved creation from the flood... (building the Ark was an attribute of Noah's efforts.)

Genesis 6:19-22

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You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. 20 Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. 21 You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.”

22 Noah did everything just as God commanded him.

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God provided the animals, but how could they fit in a man-made ark?

Again the Ark was only a manifestation of Noah's Faith. A creation saving faith that God used to save creation Himself. Noah's faith Had him do as he was told. This faith saved creation, not the ark itself. God held noah's efforts together and kept them safe. This is not a story of noah against God. Noah did whay he was told and God saved creatio through his efforts.

Genesis 7:1-5

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The Lord then said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation. 2 Take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and one pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, 3 and also seven pairs of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth. 4 Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made.”

5 And Noah did all that the Lord commanded him.

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More commands; now Noah has a time limit.

ok?

Genesis 8:1-4

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But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded. 2 Now the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens had been closed, and the rain had stopped falling from the sky. 3 The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down, 4 and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.

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How, in the seven months Noah was at sea did:
1. no one starve to death (how could he fit enough food?)

How did christ make enough food to feed 5000 men out of 5 loaves and 2 fish?

2. no animal kill another?

way "They went two by two into the ark" God gather the animals and sent them into the ark. It was up to God to subdue them.

3. no disease kill anyone?4. Noah keep the animals under control?
5. the animals not die of inbreeding?
6. the animals all survive in the same climate when there would have been everything from slalmanders to polar bears?

Again this is not a logistics story. the story of the Ark is about the faith required to save creation. I am afraid the "god did it" can be my only answer from this point on. God saved creation through the faith Noah had in building the Ark.

I didn't read the whole thread, but I read a good part of what is in your link. However, if your theory is true, it opens up more problems than it fixes. Does this mean that 'monkey man' evolved without god?

Nope.

Then how is god necessary?

He still 'seeded' the whole of creation.

How does the 'original sin' of two people come to ruin an entirely seperate race?

Same genus Same species makes them the same race. The only difference being one has a soul and the other does not. If man does not have a soul then they were not 'ruined' they were just primal blanks like a dog or horse or whatever else you want to relate to.

How does god claim dominion over that which he did not create?

God doesn't have to magic something into being inorder to have created it. God is the God of the known universe, it would only stand to reason that God would use the laws and principles we are labling and discovering under the title of 'science' rather than circumvent the very laws He put into place everytime He wants something done..

The Idea that God has to be magic and unexplainable is a 1000 year old understanding of God.