RE: Hell and the Play Nice Christian
February 17, 2015 at 9:17 pm
(This post was last modified: February 17, 2015 at 9:47 pm by ether-ore.)
(February 17, 2015 at 6:18 pm)SteelCurtain Wrote: Welcome, again, ether.
So what is your evidence for this spirit prison/paradise?
Sorry for not responding sooner. I just realized that subscriptions to threads aren't automatic. So I had to go and subscribe.
About your question: There probably isn't any that you would accept because it is related to scripture. I'm sure that would look like circular reasoning to you.
But, the way I look at is that the men who wrote the scriptures were eye witnesses, and the coherence over time of all their testimonies is something I'm willing to accept as valid evidence.
(February 17, 2015 at 6:32 pm)TRJF Wrote:(February 17, 2015 at 5:42 pm)ether-ore Wrote: How many thousands of denominations are there?
The number I often see quoted here and elsewhere is 40,000 christian denominations
Don't know. That number was intended to suggest that there are many. the exact number is unknown to me.
(February 17, 2015 at 6:39 pm)AFTT47 Wrote: That's not as bad as the bulk of Christianity but still has a few fatal flaws:
The idea that someone must suffer for transgressions is very primitive. The need for revenge is a base emotion that can be overcome with intellect. If we can do it, obviously God can do it.
Since God is omniscient and creates everything, evil is all on him. You can argue free-will all you want but it doesn't matter. When God creates someone and gives him or her free-will, God knows exactly what he/she is going to do with it. Why create someone when you know that person is going to do evil?
If anyone deserves any amount of punishment, it's God.
[
Here's my understanding: You and I and everyone who ever lived or will live on this earth, are eternal beings. Meaning that there is an aspect of us that had no beginning... that we, our essence (if you will) was not created by God. We just always were. In LDS parlance, this entity is referred to an "intelligence". This is a name and a property for that entity. Because of this, we have agency. We have always had agency. Agency was not given us by God, He just didn't take it from us. While these intelligences had choice, they were otherwise limited as to what they could actually do.
God offered these intelligences an opportunity to progress by making them His spirit children. We accepted and continued to progress and learn until one day (so to speak) we were offered another opportunity to come to earth and gain physical bodies. So this life is just another step in our progression. But this life is also a test to see if we will obey God's laws as reveled to us by His prophets. Depending on what we choose to do relative to those commandments; will determine how far we can continue to progress after this life.
God does know what His children will do under certain circumstances, but that is not a determining factor. We do have choice. We make choices everyday. I argue in favor of free will because it is in our very nature; it is in our essence, that part of us that was not created by God.
