Ask, Seek, Knock

[Drich]

"For me it took..." Yes, for you, not necessarily for others.

Indeed. for I had a very callous heart and it took alot more than what it would take for some of you.

Actually, that was what I was reffering to. Not a general good mood, per se, but a good event that breaks a trend.

you still don't get it. Do you want me to try and explain it again? At it core what i am telling you is their isn't a 'good event.' Nothing breaks the trend. We just find contentment and the rest is window dressing for this life. for whether good, bad hardship, or excess I am given over to contentment.

I've heard the 'gumball machine' argument before. Firstly:
Matthew 7:7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you."

This is the defination of cherry picking. for Christ has a whole lot more to say on the subject than what was written in the one verse you desperatly need to focous on in order for your arguement to work. When you are ready to look at the rest of them and compile all that is written let me know and we can proceed.

Of course, some prayers that are never answered.

Every PRAYER is answered. Not all petitions are Prayers as luke 11 points out.How is there a difference between god answering prayers when he feels like it and not doing it at all? There is no way to tell the difference.

kinda already answered this one.
http://atheistforums.org/thread-14138.html

Me: Uh, god? There are some starving kids in Africa, and ones dying of diseases you created, so could you please help them? I'm just a poor college kid, I don't have much money to give.
god: pfft, yeah right! Do it yourself, fill that need! I have better things to do, like help Tebow score some touchdowns.

Actually if you knock on that door an oppertunity will arise. If you are faithful to that oppertunity then another will arise. and so on. If you are not then the door will be closed to you.

I see... How exactly did Abraham have [more] impressive faith if god didn't reveal himself to other people?

how do you know that He didn't appear to other people? History is recorded by the victors. Aberham and many sons won. Therefore their story was told. That doesn't mean their weren't any other stories.

Why did god never advocate peace?

Because peaxce is not in the heart of man.

Why didn't he reveal himself and then see who had impressive faith?

Again who is to say He didn't? As I have said many times. The Laws of God have Never been popular with those who have received it. Perhaps those who are not spoken of ignored God for their personal form of self righteousness/morality over that of God. (kinda what is happening now in our culture.)

Or did he purposely allow paganism to spread as a test of faith?

Paganism spread because God built a god shaped hole in All of our hearts. When people willingly turn from God, they still need to fill the hole. So they create gods they can control with whatever is currently passing as morality.

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I know I did, and I know all other 'christians' would say they also had a stake in the death of Christ as well. thatjust leaves everyone else alive whether they are willing to admit it or not.

I had no stake in anything that happened 2,000 years before my birth.

Like the great Hitch said, if I'd been there at the time, I'd have felt the moral obligation to try to stop it.

Based on what? If you had been there you would have grown up in a blood lust culture, and you morals would have been shaped by it just like everyone else. So anything telling you to stop it' would simply not be there then. either though conformity to your soceity or fear from the religious leaders or fear from Rome. If I would have been there i would have ran further than Peter. Unless i was working for the man then I should think I would have been the guy to drive those nails myself, then figure out after it was all over that I just killed God incarnate.