I didn't create the universe nor do I make the rules. God created you with the ability to accept or reject Him. There is no good without God in the spiritual realm. When you lose your flesh, you will pay the consequences of the choice you made. While you are alive you have the opportunity to find the truth.
Learning Genesis
- Thread starter TubbyTubby
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That's where you and I differ. I accept the consequences of my choices in this life, you believe it only matters in the next life.
That's why an islamist jihadist is convinced that blowing himself up and taking a plane full of non-believers with him grants himself favour with Allah and an afterlife surrounded by 72 virgins.
I know that Islam is not your faith but the principle (and the God) is the same, I'm just stating a powerful example. The lure of a promise after death is so powerful that they pretty much disregard their existence here as worthless.
Well yes, I use the only standards that I am familiar with.
I forgot about the artificial light. Ok so I accept that this light was capable of suppporting plant life before the Sun appeared.
Your definition is fine. This planet is far from perfect however.
The practices of Islam are nothing near what Christians practice. Islam was created on the Jewish and Christian God but does not hold the truth. Genesis tells us that mankind disobeyed God (original sin) - even if you live a saint like life here, you will still be stained with original sin - it's innate and in the genes. But if you have ever lied - you have sinned. If you lusted after a married gal in only your thoughts - you have sinned. Anyone who does not enfold into Christ's spiritual body can't go near the presence of God. Evidence of life after death? There are probably 2 dozen or more ghost shows on TV plus centuries of stories about ghosts - make that millenia. They have evidence on video tape. There are literally libraries on books with near death experiences and ghosts that you can ponder. Are they all lying? imaginations gone wild? And not like you take testimonials but any Christian here will tell you of wondrous events they have witnessed - rationale, every day folks who have uniquly been shown the truth. It's not all unseen, the Hand of God.
14 Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; 15 and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so. 16 Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. 17 God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 So the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
The 'lights' are the stars? Or stars and planets?
If these stars are 'signs', is that signs to navigate by or signs that tell us things as in astrology?
The 'two great lights' are the Sun and the Moon?
The 'lights' are the stars? Or stars and planets?
If these stars are 'signs', is that signs to navigate by or signs that tell us things as in astrology?
The 'two great lights' are the Sun and the Moon?
Well that is just it. This planet is and has been fulfilling its purpose......perfectly. Since neither you nor I created/designed/made/built it, we can't really complain that it falls short of design specifications now can we? Or, if you think you can do better, I'm happy to lend you a screwdriver and soldering iron.
But it hasn't been fulfilling its purpose perfectly has it?
And yes, if I had the power to create a planet I would do a much better job than Earth.
Offhand I'd say more like signs such as Christ's birth. I studied astrology. There's a lot that I found workable in natal charts - I never prognisticated such as in progressed charts. By workable, I only mean it was a useable personality profile that required an "art". The ancients depended on the stars for telling what time it was - harvest, winter, spring etc.
Can you itemize those areas which have fallen short of the 'design specifications'? not your ideals but the actual design specifications as laid down by the creator...............humour me....there is a creator.
Can you itemize those areas which have fallen short of the 'design specifications'? not your ideals but the actual design specifications as laid down by the creator...............humour me....there is a creator.
Not really, I know what I would design (based on creating a better planet for us to live on) but I would need to see detail of Gods specification before saying whether the Earth meets that spec or not.
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I think I know what you are saying, but I am not positive.
When you say........."but everything in the bible is spiritual", what exactly are you inferring?
Personally, I take the view that everything in the Bible is literal, unless specifically stated other wise.
God created a LITERAL heaven and earth.
God created a Literal human being.
The cross of Jesus was a LITERAL event.
The 2nd Coming of Jesus is a LITERAL even.
Jesus took bread and said, "Take and eat; this is my body" in Matthew 26:26. Now IMHO that would be spiritual.
When Jesus told people that they must eat his flesh (verse 53), he did not mean it literally. That would be a figurative/spiritual sense of understanding. Even when he said that his flesh was "real food" (verse 55), he did not mean it literally. He explained that flesh is not important (verse 63). To be given eternal life, we need something spiritual.
This may seem trivial to some but I have seen how the difference can and does cause a variety of problems in understating what God wants us to learn and know. When I read the Scriptures, I understand words in a literal sense first, then in a figurative sense if the literal doesn't make sense. That's the normal way we use language, and it's a sensible way to start. Literal first, figurative/spiritual second.
Funny, I remember things from when I was two, confirmed by my parents, but now I have trouble remembering what I had for lunch!
AMEN!!!!!!! Not that is the truth and if you have not had that happen yet,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,just wait, it is coming!.
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I was standing in the bathroom the other day trying to figure is I was coming in or going out.
I was going to post that.
So was I......
I have to wonder when "I want to remember" replaces reality?
Lets say Tubby that the standard is that perfection that God made in the beginning. If perfect is the standard we all fall short correct?
Jesus speaking says, "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life (John 6:63).
The words are what? Spirit.
"God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth (John 4:24).
God is what? Spirit.
"For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart" (Hebrews 4:12).
The word of God is what? Alive.
Do you believe the bible was written by man's mind or by the Holy Spirit through men?
I believe it was written by God having the Holy Spirit work through men.
"All Scripture is God-breathed" (2Timothy 3:16).
"For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost" (2 Peter 1:21).
God had a purpose in every word, in every word placement, in every verse.
The bible could have said, "God created in six days the heavens, the earth, everything in them including man and woman." He could have said the whole thing in one sentence, but he didn't. God's words are spiritual. A believer should have the Holy Spirit speaking to them as they read. That is why the same verse can be an ever deepening well with God adding a deepening spiritual understanding and also more comparative verses as the believer reads.
If the believer reads it without the Holy Spirit and without seeing God's spiritual meaning in every line, then he is no different in reading it than someone who says that they believe in God, but they don't believe in Jesus.
God's words are spiritual and have spiritual significance. Not some, but all of them.
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1).
Did God put this verse here for no reason. No. God is truth, not just speaks truth, is truth. God is life, not just speaks life, he is life.
"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us" (The Word is God as Spirit manifest that became flesh manifest).
The word of God is the truth of God's Spirit manifest in writing. God is the manifest Word that became flesh, life for us. His words are life for us.
I do not read the bible a certain way. I have the Holy Spirit guide me as I read. Do you not hear the voice of the Holy Spirit? How can you ask this. Every believer should hear the the voice of the Spirit of God (the spiritual) in every page and life of the bible.
"But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you" (John 14:26).
"But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him" (1 John 2:27).
"But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the LORD, "I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34"They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them," declares the LORD" (Jeremiah 31:33-34).
"But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come" (John 16:13).
"But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you" (John 14:26).
The bible is just a book if not read spiritually.
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