is this what its all about?

[shadowman]

here is what I have been led to beleive about christianity and the christian god. He is not all. and there is no duality... (this is probably a corruption that the church made up, however this is what christianity in its most recent form seems to be saying, personaly I do find duality in lines like "love your enemy")

they say: god is good, perfect and holy. Aswere we, singing praises in eden. and then gods creations turned to evil.


one of them the serpent tempted the humans and got them to disobey, eat the fruit and gain the knowledge he had

which led to sin and its consequences. (christians say god has to judge and erradicate sin, I dont understand since god has knowledge of good and evil, is he going to eradicate evil from himself at judgement?)

this world is not in full control of GOD. god i powerless in a few aspects on this earht, and evil and it forces have lots of sway.

this seems to be what many christians are saying. Im not sure.

[xtreem5150ahm]

Hi Shadowman,

I'm just curious.. in this thread, are you setting up for argument, or are you really trying to get some answers to help you understand?

If it is for the purpose of understanding, may i suggest moving this to the Theology section? There are people there that could probably be more helpful.

You have such small posts that pack so much theology in them, that if these are truely a search, then people that are more focused in that section, might be more beneficial.

In the apologetics sections, you are going to get more sound bite answers, just because of the nature and scope.

Atleast, that is my opinion. I do hope that i've been helpful though.

God Bless,
johnny

[shadowman]

i try and look at the big picture, i dont see any other option

[zorathruster]

here is what I have been led to beleive about christianity and the christian god. He is not all. and there is no duality... (this is probably a corruption that the church made up, however this is what christianity in its most recent form seems to be saying, personaly I do find duality in lines like "love your enemy")

they say: god is good, perfect and holy. Aswere we, singing praises in eden. and then gods creations turned to evil.


one of them the serpent tempted the humans and got them to disobey, eat the fruit and gain the knowledge he had

which led to sin and its consequences. (christians say god has to judge and erradicate sin, I dont understand since god has knowledge of good and evil, is he going to eradicate evil from himself at judgement?)

this world is not in full control of GOD. god i powerless in a few aspects on this earht, and evil and it forces have lots of sway.

this seems to be what many christians are saying. Im not sure.

If you are really looking for answers about humans, study humans. The best place to start is on human psychology. Why and how we think. Religion developed as a result of human survival skills that were either aptly applied or taken advantage of by unscrupulous priests.

That said, religion has affected humanity at times well, at other times not so well. The affects are debatable.

The belief in a God for instance is often sited as a good reason to follow rules that some humans would not otherwise follow. Yes it is true, the impetous to cheat is very strong in humans, some people have not the mental ability to understand and then emplement a moral philosophy. For those, religion provides a mythical "Grand PooBah" in the clouds keeping a list of who's naughty and who's nice. For the morally challenged, this is a good thing. If you don't yet have a moral philosophy that you have developed, you might just hang on to those rules until you get different rationale.

If you don't like the religious answer, you are committing yourself to a search which is long and very indepth. You will eventually assemble a working morality with truly good underlying principles. However, it is not easy.

The easy answer is to show up on Sunday, mumble the prayers and sing the songs, then the rest of the week do the stuff that you can be remorseful for next Sunday.

[The Midge]

this world is not in full control of GOD. god i[s] powerless in a few aspects on this earht, and evil and it forces have lots of sway.

I'll take you up on this point.

God is not powerless. God is in control of creation. The Biblical texts are firm on these points. God could wind the whole of creation tomorrow if that was what He wanted to do. And wipe out all evil doers. Note none would be left by the day after tomorrow if God were to do that!

However this is not what God wants to do (otherwise God would have done it!). I (as a Christian) believe this is because:

• Mercy: God wants to give us time to come to our senses.
• Orginal Good: (I assume you have heard of original sin? This is the opposite!) God made us good. We are not utterly depraved. The good is still there. Therefore we are inherintantly worth something.
• Grace: Rather than destroy the world (in a world wide flood for example) God gives us a second chance.
• The free will choice: We cannot unmake the choice to sin (and all its consequences) but we can make the choice of the prodigal and come back to our heavenly father. In that story the wayward child had to throw himself at his parents mercy withthe hope he would be taken on as a hired hand.
• Unconditional Love: Even though we have rebelled against, rejected, fought, disobeyed, hidden from, run from, slandered or [fill in the blank] ______________ God He still loves us regardless. Therefore God would do anything and put up with with so much rather than finish us off with the proviso that He is able to discipline and correct to improve us. That is true love (agape) is tough not warm and fuzzy. Yet with our inheritance squandered and the family disgraced the father has his arms open wide to welcome the lost one back.

It is important not to confuse what God allows or permits with what God wills or commands. God wills that we will (otherwise we cannot love in return) and thus delegates His will so that we may excersise ours. It is a privilidge taht God can withdraw at any time and hold us to account for it. A fact that the serpant would gloss over if it could.

God is so in control that he can allow us our little tantrum fits and squables and still achieve His master plan, only stepping in to force his will on rare occasions as His favoured method of opperation is to seduce and pursuade.