Zone1 We can all see that God created us, and the Earth for us to live on.

[Esdraelon]

We created God in our image. That is why the God of ancient Israel acts like a Bronze age autocrat instead of the newer incarnation of peace and love as in the NT. IMHO

I came to faith in Christ back in the 70s as a teen. I was never a regular church going person but I've never had any doubt at all about the reality of Christ. I am VERY, VERY, FAR from being the best follower that I could be but I never stop trying.

I spend a lot of time on another site and there is a group there that are extremely well educated and who like to mock and demean those who speak of faith. It no longer bothers me because I really believe everyone has the right - and the duty - to make their own choice about faith in the Creator. I try to respect that right in others and I've never been a part of any group that makes demands of anyone of any faith, or those who reject the idea as nonsense.

The one area where I have a problem with these folks is when they become dogmatic about the concept of prophecy being fulfilled in our time. Their go-to answer is that anything that happens, say in the M.E. regarding Israel, that seems to match predictions from one or more of the ancient prophets, is somehow "self-fulfilling". They never actually explain how that works. I guess they have faith that they're correct and that there is some kind of cabal or shady characters working in the background to make these things happen as described.

I won't get into any of them except the single example of the coming great war in the north of Israel. The book of Ezekiel, chapter 37 speaks of the remnants of a "dead" nation (valley of dry bones) regathering in the land Jacob's descendants called Israel. THAT prediction came to fruition on May 14, 1948. The northern war that Ezekiel speaks of will involve the people groups that lived - at that time - in what is now Russia, Turkey, Iran, and several smaller Muslim nations. They are predicted to form a "coalition" and sweep into Israel to "take a spoil".

I'm no historian but I'm unaware of that grouping of forces ever fulfilling those words before now. That prediction was recorded about 2500 years ago, long before Islam even existed. Now, in this time we are seeing Russia, Iran, Turkey, and some of the former soviet republics which are majority Muslim, beginning to align themselves as allies.

WHEN they surround Israel, no other nation on earth will stand to help the descendants of Jacob. Here's the clincher... all of these forces will descend like a cloud over the land and the IDF is not going to be in a position to stop them. THEN supernatural events are going to be unleashed - specifically, earthquakes and fire falling from the sky - add to that the coalition is going to fall apart and turn on each other.
When the battle is done, 5/6th of the entire force will be annihilated. This was recorded 2500+ years ago. While no specific date was given, the character and the train of events is sufficiently detailed to show that those who refuse to credit this prophecy, will do so willfully, out of a desire to deny God is real. IOW, they simply will have made the choice to deny the Creator's role in our world. So be it. We all have a choice.

 

[Esdraelon]

primordial earth - evolution over millions of years would lend credence more for the metaphysical forces of the universe to be responsible for life on earth and anywhere else conducive for its development than any of the scriptural renderings made by the desert religions.

Will your accepted bias keep you from fairly evaluating your position in light of long written predictions actually occurring in our time? Also, while I have no doubt that natural selection is responsible for the forms of all the life on earth, I've never gotten a credible explanation of the initiating event that set it all in motion. IMO, the description of the "big bang" just really doesn't make the case that everything essentially came from nothing, but science KNOWS there was no evidence of a creator or any intelligence that acted in the creation.

 

[BreezeWood]

Will your accepted bias keep you from fairly evaluating your position in light of long written predictions actually occurring in our time? Also, while I have no doubt that natural selection is responsible for the forms of all the life on earth, I've never gotten a credible explanation of the initiating event that set it all in motion. IMO, the description of the "big bang" just really doesn't make the case that everything essentially came from nothing, but science KNOWS there was no evidence of a creator or any intelligence that acted in the creation.

the original and prescribed religion of antiquity, the triumph of good vs evil has two outcomes possible - seems the desert religions have chosen only one and somehow they will be saved when it is everyone's responsibility and culpability for the final judgement - so no, their predictions are only that and nothing more and do not comport to the original religion and hopefully erroneous in their conclusions.

bb is cyclical, the transfer from energy to matter and back again - for most likely all eternity.

 

[konradv]

It is no accident that the Earth , with all the plants and animals air and water, was all designed and created by God for us to live on. It just did not all happen by accident. Some intelligent God made everything that we see and consume here on the Earth. Many say oh no, we evolved from apes, I say no, it all was created by God. Your thoughts.

Or it was a total accident, when a cosmic collision caused the moon to be formed and evolution given a kick start?

 

[presonorek]

Some intelligent God made everything that we see and consume here on the Earth.

I accept this premise. All elements in existence can be broken down into carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen. That makes it possible that those three elements was all there was at one point and they kept rearranging to produce what we know today. However, that leaves a gap. Who created carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen? For this reason I think a creator is the most logical possibility. That doesn’t mean it was the god in the Bible. That doesn’t mean that the creator god still exists. You have proven a god created all we know. We just don’t know which god. There are trillions of possibilities. The likelihood of it being the god in the Bible is nil. So what good is your argument? It’s not a slam dunk, not even close.

 

[presonorek]

There's a reason why Christianity spread so fast around the world after Jesus' time here on earth.

Yes. Christianity’s motto for centuries was, “Convert or die!”

It doesn’t sound all that persuasive to us today in our comfortable peaceful world but to folks back then this was very persuasive. Almost all chose to convert. The ones that didn’t, well. They died. That’s why they never had offspring to spread the counter message of Christianity.

 

[alang1216]

I came to faith in Christ back in the 70s as a teen. I was never a regular church going person but I've never had any doubt at all about the reality of Christ. I am VERY, VERY, FAR from being the best follower that I could be but I never stop trying.

I spend a lot of time on another site and there is a group there that are extremely well educated and who like to mock and demean those who speak of faith. It no longer bothers me because I really believe everyone has the right - and the duty - to make their own choice about faith in the Creator. I try to respect that right in others and I've never been a part of any group that makes demands of anyone of any faith, or those who reject the idea as nonsense.

The one area where I have a problem with these folks is when they become dogmatic about the concept of prophecy being fulfilled in our time. Their go-to answer is that anything that happens, say in the M.E. regarding Israel, that seems to match predictions from one or more of the ancient prophets, is somehow "self-fulfilling". They never actually explain how that works. I guess they have faith that they're correct and that there is some kind of cabal or shady characters working in the background to make these things happen as described.

I won't get into any of them except the single example of the coming great war in the north of Israel. The book of Ezekiel, chapter 37 speaks of the remnants of a "dead" nation (valley of dry bones) regathering in the land Jacob's descendants called Israel. THAT prediction came to fruition on May 14, 1948. The northern war that Ezekiel speaks of will involve the people groups that lived - at that time - in what is now Russia, Turkey, Iran, and several smaller Muslim nations. They are predicted to form a "coalition" and sweep into Israel to "take a spoil".

I'm no historian but I'm unaware of that grouping of forces ever fulfilling those words before now. That prediction was recorded about 2500 years ago, long before Islam even existed. Now, in this time we are seeing Russia, Iran, Turkey, and some of the former soviet republics which are majority Muslim, beginning to align themselves as allies.

WHEN they surround Israel, no other nation on earth will stand to help the descendants of Jacob. Here's the clincher... all of these forces will descend like a cloud over the land and the IDF is not going to be in a position to stop them. THEN supernatural events are going to be unleashed - specifically, earthquakes and fire falling from the sky - add to that the coalition is going to fall apart and turn on each other.
When the battle is done, 5/6th of the entire force will be annihilated. This was recorded 2500+ years ago. While no specific date was given, the character and the train of events is sufficiently detailed to show that those who refuse to credit this prophecy, will do so willfully, out of a desire to deny God is real. IOW, they simply will have made the choice to deny the Creator's role in our world. So be it. We all have a choice.

Most of what you wrote is based on your faith, which is perfectly fine. When you mention Ezekiel, chapter 37 speaks of the remnants of a "dead" nation, I think he is referring to the Kingdom of Israel. In 720 BCE, the Assyrian army captured Samaria, the capital of the northern Kingdom of Israel, and carried away many Israelites into captivity. The virtual destruction of Israel left the southern kingdom, Judah, to fend for itself among warring Near-Eastern kingdoms.

 

[buttercup]

Yes. Christianity’s motto for centuries was, “Convert or die!”

It doesn’t sound all that persuasive to us today in our comfortable peaceful world but to folks back then this was very persuasive. Almost all chose to convert. The ones that didn’t, well. They died. That’s why they never had offspring to spread the counter message of Christianity.

I was talking about the very beginning of Christianity, soon after the resurrection. The disciples and other followers of Christ were brutally killed for not renouncing their faith. What you're talking about is not Christianity, as it goes directly against the very words of Jesus. So take your hatred and filthy misleading words elsewhere. And based on your posts I've read in the religion section, I'll pray for you. You are in dire need of help or deliverance.

 

[BreezeWood]

I was talking about the very beginning of Christianity, soon after the resurrection. The disciples and other followers of Christ were brutally killed for not renouncing their faith. What you're talking about is not Christianity, as it goes directly against the very words of Jesus. So take your hatred and filthy misleading words elsewhere. And based on your posts I've read in the religion section, I'll pray for you. You are in dire need of help or deliverance.

you know for a fact the c-bible was written in the 4th century and was written / edited over that entire time span just short of 100 years as more a political document than religion -

written by the very people that crucified the earliest followers of liberation theology, self determination they did die for and not one for the c-bible buttercup uses to misconstrue the true events of the 1st century.

 

[presonorek]

I was talking about the very beginning of Christianity, soon after the resurrection. The disciples and other followers of Christ were brutally killed for not renouncing their faith. What you're talking about is not Christianity, as it goes directly against the very words of Jesus. So take your hatred and filthy misleading words elsewhere. And based on your posts I've read in the religion section, I'll pray for you. You are in dire need of help or deliverance.

Christianity was a super small insignificant cult until Constantine adopted Christianity as a vehicle. Constantine was a Platoist. Plato taught that a good leader needed a state religion. Constantine was fascinated with Christianity and saw it as his perfect state religion. Believe what you want. Christianity is popular because it was a mandate. What does history have to do with hate? Christians don’t force conversions today and haven’t for a long time. There was some sociological force in play in the 1950s in the United States but people weren’t coerced with violence.

Pop quiz. What did Jesus mean in Matthew 10:34?

What did Jesus mean in Luke 14:26? Constantine had a lot to work with when he read Christ’s teachings. Jesus never demanded Sunday morning worship only. Jesus demanded full surrender and obedience. No Christianity today practices full surrender and obedience the way early Christians did under Constantine’s rule.

 

[alang1216]

I was talking about the very beginning of Christianity, soon after the resurrection. The disciples and other followers of Christ were brutally killed for not renouncing their faith.

I think most were killed because they were considered a threat to society. They weren't but the pagan society they lived in didn't believe that. The pagans believed that the gods required sacrifices or they would bring destruction, not on individuals but on everyone. So if there was a group that refused to offer those sacrifices, they were putting everyone in danger.

 

[CarlinAnnArbor]

I think you're wrong.

There's no magnificent being living in the clouds telling us how to live.

Jesus didn't rise from the dead. Mary was not a virgin.

Those are my thoughts...

So, how long have you been having these wrong thoughts?

 

[CarlinAnnArbor]

Christianity was a super small insignificant cult until Constantine adopted Christianity as a vehicle

Still is. Constantine was never a true Christian. Like Mohammed and Joseph Smith, the one who portrays himself as an angel of light misled this person to follow the "antichrist"

 

[FA_Q2]

...All elements in existence can be broken down into carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen. ...

wtf?

Uh, no....
Do you even know what those words mean?

 

[Michael1985]

I don't believe science has any real idea of how something could come from nothing or how life could emerge from non-life. The scientific community loves to say that these things are "random chance", which is basically code for "we don't know". Until better answers can be found, there will be room for belief in a divine God to help fill in those gaps. This does not mean that the Earth and universe as a whole were necessarily created in that way.

 

[frigidweirdo]

It is no accident that the Earth , with all the plants and animals air and water, was all designed and created by God for us to live on. It just did not all happen by accident. Some intelligent God made everything that we see and consume here on the Earth. Many say oh no, we evolved from apes, I say no, it all was created by God. Your thoughts.

So who created God then? Or was God an "accident"?

 

[Leo123]

There does seem to be some guiding principles shaping Human beings and Earth. Call it 'God' or happenstance, we are all subject to it.

 

[Leo123]

So who created God then? Or was God an "accident"?

Good question......IMO God is a human creation based on strong belief. Belief is a powerful force in human beings, do not underestimate it.

 

[FA_Q2]

The scientific community loves to say that these things are "random chance" ...

No, they don't.

 

[Leo123]

We want to encourage young folks to have children and to raise them as heterosexual.