It's probably quite immature of my faith, but I thrive in knowing that God is all these other things, besides love.
some of those things don't coincide with all loving to me. and to be clear, i'm an agnostic, I honestly don't know one way or another, but I CHOOSE TO BELIEVE that if the Christian god exists it's not one who would actively kill millions of people, sinners or not. Just as I refuse to believe god currently intercedes to create miracles for some humans and doesn't for others. Because to me the alternative is not pleasant.
One of the fundamental pillars of Christianity is that God is holy, and cannot tolerate sin, and all people are sinners. Therefore we get what we deserve, unless He chooses us or we choose Him, or some combination of the two. (big argument there)
I think if you stop with just all loving, the rest is not going to agree or make sense. To me, even in a human sense, love doesn't always make good sense by itself. Much less trying to comprehend how God could be that with everything else. I don't understand it and probably never will fully. But I can deal with that too.
I understand doubt. I've just been there, obviously. I also concede that there are things I will never be capable of understanding.
At it's very foundations a Christian is someone who has genuinely accepted Christ as his Lord and Savior and for who He is - the Son of God. Being saved presupposes that the individual believes we all suffer from a sinful nature and that Jesus died and rose from the grave in order to pay that debt. I've been flamed on here in the past for my position but I do not see how anyone who claims or professes to be a Christian thinks it ok to omit part of the Bible or chalk it up as fantasy. To me (and I would think to most Christians) that's extremely contradictory. Everything we know about God is through the Bible. It may be oversimplifying it but either you believe it or you don't. As far as Gnosticism goes, it's been a while since I've read about it but it's certainly not compatible with Christianity. I know that they claimed to follow Christ's teachings but they contradicted those teachings...a lot. I think Gnostics believed that salvation was achieved through divine learning or something like that which is obviously in direct conflict of what I said above. There's more conflicts but I'd have to look them up.
I consider this verse when I get concerned about these things. Seems like there is a lot of confusing mercy with approval going on. 2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
I was taught in catholic school that the bible was written by man and inspired by god. therefore the message needs to be taken literally, not the actual events listed.
I don't think anyone could ever with 100% certainty claim they have never had it. If they did I wouldn't buy it. I think for some its as simple as not being able to be at peace with some level of doubt or understanding at a given point. Its easier for some than others. I know it will never make perfect sense to me no different than a lot of other things that surround me. The good thing is, it doesn't have to and thats why I can deal with it.
There are many kinds of doubt. There is skeptical doubt (which is good) and there is the doubt in yourself, which leads to mental paralysis and mental confusion (this is bad). From my side of the fence, the Buddha said not to take anything a holy person has to say simply because they say it, not even the Buddha. You must examine it yourself and see if it is true or not. And if Buddhism cannot hold up to what science says, then Buddhism must change, not science. Don't try to apologize (though many do via quantum mechanics and Emptiness). This is what attracted me to Buddhism in the first place, and once I got into it, I have found it to be a very strong driving force in my life. It doesn't depend on an outside agency forgiving me, but I have to forgive myself and change my own life. And it gives you a guidebook on how to make these changes. As simple as that.
I didn't feel that way at all. I always find these conversations illuminating and stimulating even though i'm not on the same page with many here.
I agree. Something else that seems to be lost on people is whether we're talking hypothetical or not if you're willing to say that God is the creator of all things then that automatically makes him sovereign over all things. That alone justifies any action of His will whether we understand or agree with it. I think non-Christians would be surprised to know that we all (Christians included) have trouble understanding or agreeing with things at times.
What about things that are attributed to an act of Jahweh than can be easily explained as something not supernatural? Going back to just one aspect of the Exodus, the Pillar of Fire and Smoke. Moses was using his military background from his youth. We know of smoke and fire signals were used to direct large detachment of troops. Who knows, maybe it was used as a go between of Genesis 15. To me, it's pretty clear that Moses used a smoke screen.
Why do you feel it necessary to challenge the reason if the Bible has given it to you? Exodus 19:18 states "Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the Lord descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled violently." Do you think God incapable of such a thing?
Not at all It doesn't make much sense for something to be a miracle when it was already a standard military practice.
