(May 20, 2013 at 2:10 am)Praetorian Wrote: I know when I was a believer, this was a constant worry. It was stated differently, as in, "Don't let your own thoughts get in the way of what God is telling you." People had varying degrees of certainty as to what they were hearing, of course. A famous example is a southern preacher, can't recall his name, who had the idea of hell weighing heavily on his conscience. So he prayed, and he's now utterly certain that God told him hell doesn't exist. Convenient, yes?
Can that story be verified, could it be you misunderstood what was said by the supposed preacher.
Prae Wrote:Prayer is nothing but deep self reflection, no matter what @Godschild says about his personal experience. There is certainly no interaction with the supernatural, and the answers you can get from it are the simple result of asking yourself a question. Ask and you shall receive - from yourself.
You need to disprove my experiences before you dismiss them, that is if you want to be honest with yourself. How is it you are certain, your word not mine, there is no interaction with God. Exactly how was it I gave an answer to myself, especially when the answer was something I could not have imagined.
Prae Wrote:Isn't it profound that, as a Christian, when you pray and hear nothing, Christian doctrine tells you that you're just, "not ready for the answer yet?" It's silly, and obvious to anyone who spends even a moment as an outsider.
That's not Christian doctrine, who told you that, that's a fact of life in many different arenas. So you must believe all facets of life are silly, just because a person is not ready for some type of knowledge.
God loves those who believe and those who do not and the same goes for me, you have no choice in this matter. That puts the matter of total free will to rest.
