I don't care about bible contradictions.

[Longhorn]

How do you know anything about god? How do you know the bible is the word of god?

Again the verification of a set of instructions is found in the following of said instructions and coming up with what those instructions said you will find.

I followed the path the bible outlines to find God. I found Him. therefore the instructions/The Bible is accurate. If the bible is proven to be accurate then what is says about God is also accurate.

Oh really? How do you know you found him?
What about everyone else reading the bible and following the instructions and not finding god?

Oh right.....you can just assert they're not doing it right

What ARE the instructions? What are the steps? How do you know you've found god?

[Drich]

If someone tells you that he has experienced Thor's presence in his life, you have no grounds to say that he hasn't.

Actually verification can be determined through what was written about thor and how he interacted with the midgaurd and it's inhabitants. if the two accounts do not line up then the expirence no matter how genuine is not with the thor of ledgend.

If someone tells you he's had -no- experience of -any- gods presence in his life, you have no grounds to say that he -has-.  

All equally legit, right?

Actually the same is true here. If one's personal experience with God lines up with what the bible says about God or rather how the Holy spirit interacts with people then one has a basis to judge whether or not a given person's experience is genuine or not.

The devil is literally in the details.

[Drich]

Oh really?

yes

How do you know you found him?

In the bible Paul talks about receiving the initial measure of the holy spirit and receiving 'Spiritual fruit' which everyone who has been given even the smallest measure/interactions with God will exhibit. then as we mature spiritually and strengthening our relationship we will receive Spiritual gifts.

I have been given both fruit and gifts. (I can provide the actual verses if you want to read what he has to say or you can just google spiritual fruit and spiritual gifts.

What about everyone else reading the bible and following the instructions and not finding god?

Everyone A/S/K's for God finds a "measure" of Him. what they do with this measure will determine their level of interaction with God. as per the parables of the talents taught by Jesus.

Also one of the reason

Oh right.....you can just assert they're not doing it right

That's the thing sport.. None of us 'do it right' that is why Christ died. so we don't have to do it right. we just have to be faithful to what God has given us. This faithfulness also has to include the rains/hardtimes he sends our way. Because the rains help wash away all that keeps us from a closer understanding/relationship with Him.

What ARE the instructions? What are the steps?  How do you know you've found god?

They are found in Luke 11 in the parable of the persistent neighbor.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?se...ersion=NIV

The steps:
We Ask. we do this through prayer,
We seek. do this by asking people who know the bible and God to answer our questions about Him/his nature, in places like this forums, in church, or we seek him ourselves by reading the bible. Just any and every avenue to try and to get to know God.
We knock. In the parable Jesus told the neighbor knocked or repeated his request over and over till he got what he was asking and seek to find. Jesus says you being evil know how to give a good gift how much more will the Father give the Holy Spirit who A/S/K for Him?

Being faithful per the parable of the talents to what we have been given is to follow these steps come hell or high water, till we can recognize the fruit of the Spirit in our lives.

[robvalue]

When several people talk to me and ask me my opinion about a subject, they all get the same answer.

When people talk to God and ask him his opinion about a subject, they get a vast range of answers, many contradicting each other.

Problem? Is there a different God for each person, or is God being deliberately confusing?

[Longhorn]

In the bible Paul talks about receiving the initial measure of the holy spirit and receiving 'Spiritual fruit' which everyone who has been given even the smallest measure/interactions with God will exhibit. then as we mature spiritually and strengthening our relationship we will receive Spiritual gifts.

I have been given both fruit and gifts. (I can provide the actual verses if you want to read what he has to say or you can just google spiritual fruit and spiritual gifts.

That word, spiritual. What does it mean?

We seek. do this by asking people who know the bible and God to answer our questions about Him/his nature, in places like this forums, in church, or we seek him ourselves by reading the bible. Just any and every avenue to try and to get to know God.

How does anyone know anything about god's nature?

How does this fit with 'mysterious ways'?

[Drich]

When several people talk to me and ask me my opinion about a subject, they all get the same answer.

When people talk to God and ask him his opinion about a subject, they get a vast range of answers, many contradicting each other.

Problem? Is there a different God for each person, or is God being deliberately confusing?

No. God gives answers based on our ablity to comprehend. As our comprehension matures so too does our responsibility and understanding.

This is also true with you, unless you just like being an A-hole to small children.

The problem is we like to fancy ourselves as well learned adults, when in fact most of us view the world as a child would. It is only when we humble ourselves before God and approach Him as Small Children does our ablity to comprehend Him and the things of this world increase.

[Minimalist]

No. God gives answers based on our ablity to comprehend.

You must get your messages in finger paint.

[Jenny A]

When several people talk to me and ask me my opinion about a subject, they all get the same answer.

When people talk to God and ask him his opinion about a subject, they get a vast range of answers, many contradicting each other.

Problem? Is there a different God for each person, or is God being deliberately confusing?

No. God gives answers based on our ablity to comprehend. As our comprehension matures so too does our responsibility and understanding.

This is also true with you, unless you just like being an A-hole to small children.

The problem is we like to fancy ourselves as well learned adults, when in fact most of us view the world as a child would. It is only when we humble ourselves before God and approach Him as Small Children does our ablity to comprehend Him and the things of this world increase.

Not a good analogy.  Let take a good child/parent topic like where do do babies come from?  Parents may have a fable like the stork or under cabbage leaves but the problem is really parental discomfort not the child's ability to understand.  Wiser parents may tell some but not all of the truth beginning with things like they grow in mommy's tummy and adding details as the child grows. 

But god appears to tell people absolutely opposing things.  It's not a growing understanding, it's telling one person that his homosexuality is god's plan for him and that it's perfectly fine for him to marry his boyfriend, and telling another person that homosexuality is the worst of all sins ever under any circumstances.  One of these persons is not talking to the same god.  Their ability to comprehend has nothing to do with it.  The truth of the matter is that people who consult god usually find that god agrees with them.

[Drich]

That word, spiritual. What does it mean?

In context, of or From the Holy Spirit.

How does anyone know anything about god's nature?

For me, it was the gradual opening my eyes to what the bible has said all along. Before God opened my eye I had a picture of Him like most in and out of the church do. But as I matured spiritually what the bible said spoke as loudly as what the bible did not say about God. For instance:
The idea's or doctrines of an Omni max God are pretty standard beliefs in and out of the church.

I use to always have trouble when people out of the church would challenge this 'Omni-max' idea of God. Especially the Omni-benevolent attribute of God. (If God is all loving then why do bad things happen.) I studied my tail of trying to reconcile the idea of an Omni max God against all the different paradoxes assoceiated with the ideas of an Omni max God.

Then one day while going over it in my head, God opened my eyes to the plain as day simple truth. In the bible He never describes Himself as Omni-max God, nor did He ever say He was Omni-benevolent. Yes He does use some Omni attributes to describe the nature of His Characteristics but the are not his defining qualities. So the Question then becomes What are His defining Charactistics as HE Defines them? He says He is alpha and Omega the Beginning and End of all things. I know I have always been very familiar with this description, but never knew what it meant or how to apply it. Until He opened my eyes. To be Alpha and Omega, means He answers to no one or nothing. All of creation answers to Him. That means God could create a rock so Big He could not lift it IF He wanted too, Or He could not. For an Omni-Max God this is a problem. For an Alpha and Omega it is not.

The answers to who God is and His revealed nature are and always have been in the bible. However it takes the direction and an eye opening experience of the Holy Spirit to see Him for who He has shared with us to be.

Is God more than what He has shared? absolutely that is by the very nature of being a Infinate being. But at the same time what has been shared is finite, and as we are finite We can know a great deal of god, because He has already shared it.

How does this fit with 'mysterious ways'?

As one matures in the Spirit the 'mystery' gets solved. Sure there are still questions, but as one matures in the Spirit those questions get answered one by one, and if you remain faithful your knowledge and access to God/The Holy Spirit increases. I have always said the reason I do what I do here is because God has answered ALL my questions, and now I seek yours inorder to have a deeper understanding of Him.

I may not always give an answer that you all like or even agree with, but I have never once ever had to default to 'God works in mysterious ways.'

[TubbyTubby]

This is also true with you, unless you just like being an A-hole to small children.

The problem is we like to fancy ourselves as well learned adults, when in fact most of us view the world as a child would. It is only when we humble ourselves before God and approach Him as Small Children does our ablity to comprehend Him and the things of this world increase.

Maybe, just maybe Drich, your world has been distorted in your early years? No going back now you have built your belief on those stories you clung to as though they were oh so real as your parents lovingly told you them as you fell asleep..

While your parents were filling your tender innocent mind with tales of Jesus saving mankind, across the world, other parents were pushing the virtues of Mohammad into their childrens heads because that is all they knew. It's all down to luck of the draw Drich, it's all down to where/when/who you were born to that dictates what stories you believe.

You got Jesus, congratulations. Iqbal, who shares the very same birthday as you but born in the backwaters of Yemen was fed the stories of the Qur'an since before he can remember.

Your belief is nothing more than a rag-tag bunch of mythical tales that you have, by chance, been born into. If you want to pretend that some supernatural force has given his message to you personally and then dismiss the claims of billions of followers of another god as false you need to take a long hard look in the mirror.

In a Universe of hundreds of billions of galaxies with billions of stars each, a tiny planet sits there and the inhabitants have invented thousands of gods to explain it all. Yet you still believe because that one story that was handed down to you is the absolute truth.

Fuck it. You deserve your delusion if you don't see the futility of it all. Stick with it Drich, and you GC. Think.