Now you might be getting somewhere but you're still lost in the weeds of equating an ethnicity or faith with nothing more or less than a monetary power play.

You're letting bigotry destroy a legitimate point or the point is just corollary to your bigotry, which is it?

Why do you think I am a bigot?

I am surprised that what I believe and typed would make you think I have decided to be my own god. I see nothing in what I typed to make anyone infer that.

I've stated many times on here that I believe in God. I don't believe God is petty, vindictive and has the faults of an immature human. God is greater than that. I believe God is good.

Why would anyone worship anything so flawed as to hold the innocent guilty for the sins of ancestors from the extreme, remote past? That seems more like a false belief, promoted by Satan, to separate mankind from God or rulers who want to control their subjects.

Keith

Keith,
Most of his posts on this thread I can't even comprehend. I don't understand the attacks.
Reminds me of John 18:23

Define your own god accordingly to your own concepts. Next you'll be telling us that you can't define what a woman is.

Scripture is inerrant in the detail and the whole or not at all.

Man, you sure know how to ruin a good thread.

Warrior why do you believe God is petty, vindictive and wanting to punish people?

I've never understood why Baptists fear God, instead of loving God.

I love and am thankful to God. I think God is amazing. I don't fear God because I believe God is good. I try to act as I believe God wants be to act because I am grateful, not because I fear his wrath.

God made us in his image. God gave us free will and the intellect to understand right and wrong, hoping we would choose right. God would not keep the threat of punishment over us, since we are made in his image.

I don't believe that most of the Bible is a divine revelation from God. If you read it, you can see it's imperfect and created by men.

As a believer, I'm sure you're familiar with the "Our Father" Jesus taught his disciples and the words he said leading up to it.

"Our Father, Who art in heaven,
Hallowed be Thy Name.
Thy Kingdom come.
Thy Will be done,
on earth as it is in Heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. Amen.

It does not sound like a prayer you would make to a cruel God of vengeance, but to a loving God, who sees you as his beloved children.

Keith

Warrior, we view God very differently. I view God as a loving Father, who made us and many amazing thinks for us to learn, experience and enjoy, with some hardships to build us to be more like him.

You seem to view God as an abusive, tyrannical Father, quick to punish all that don't do exactly as he wishes.

Keith

God is a loving God. Loved us enough that he did not spare His own Son.

If he wouldn't spare Christ from the cross you want to think he would hold us to a different standard?

Our Father?

You mean when Jesus taught us how to pray.

It's not a nursery rhyme get out of jail free card.

Thy will be done, as it is in heaven.

You think the heavenly host are going hey wait a minute there, God, we think You might be mistaken?

You missed my point again. You're motivation for behaving the way you believe God wants appears to be fear of punishment. My motivation to behave is because I love and am grateful to God.

Do you fear God or love him?

Do you want to please God, or just try to avoid God's punishment?

Keith

The answer is or should be, both. It's much the same as a relationship with a human father and son.

You're 10 years old, at school and some kid you never liked is bragging and showing off his new pocket knife he got for Christmas. At recess that day he gets distracted and sets down his knife and you swipe it. Unfortunately for you, someone seen you and after recess the teacher calls you out, takes the knife from you and sends you home. You have to explain to your mom why you're home early, and her response is "Just wait til your dad gets home."

Now, you're afraid of when your dad gets home because you know you did wrong, and you're gonna get your butt beat. But you're also afraid because you know that you've disappointed your dad and you love him and didn't want to let him down. When he does get home, you do get your butt beat, but you still know that your dad loves you and would do anything for you. The next time the thought crosses your mind to steal, you consider the butt beating but you also consider the fear of disappointing your dad because you love him.

The Bible talks repeatedly of fearing God. You say you don't believe the Bible is the divine word of God, so I imagine that's where your confusion is coming from. You're trying to mold God to fit YOUR beliefs.

So to answer the question, yes and yes... I love and fear God.

i could never set one of my kids on fire

thats the act of a sadist

and its evil

Who is the accuser?

A guy and his son went down to the hog lot to cut wood on one crispy morning. The lady of the house fixed them a nice lunch, which when they got to the hog lot the guy set the lunch on a stump from their previous cutting. They was sawing away with the 2 man crosscut saw. When all of a sudden the boy let go of his end of the saw and said uh! uh! uh! uh! The father said now son slow down and count to ten before you try to talk.


The boy calmly said 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10. The sow just ate our lunch.

Foxpaw you should start a vlog of parables.

The internet is such a hard place to have a meaningful and productive conversation! Seems like we just go around and around in the same circles and never get anywhere on anything. I hope that all of the believers here are having these conversations in churches and Bible studies with actual people who are committed to following Jesus and encouraging each other where they actually live.

Here's a question to ponder. I'm not really asking for anyone to answer me; I just think it's worth considering. How can we be sure that we're reading the Bible in order to let it determine our views and our understanding of the world rather than using our views and understanding of the world to determine our reading of the Bible? In other words, how can we make sure we aren't using the Bible as an echo chamber in which we put our own ideas into it, and it magically spits them back out at us, then we can use the Bible to tell the world exactly what we think is right?

JHT, thats the western world 21st century bias that we all seem to experience. The only way I know to combat it is to try to understand the complexity and context that the target audience would have had. As I have done that its been pretty eye opening versus the things I have always just accepted as fact previously.

Thanks sportsman, that’s the journey I’ve been on for several years now. I’ve found studying the Hebrew language to a helpful part of understanding the context too. It certainly has been eye opening for me as well. Actually trying to read and understand the Bible as it was written has made it so much more profound and meaningful than it was when I was merely reading it to see what I had already been told. Thanks for the response.

Discernment of the Holy Spirit.
Compare scripture to scripture,
I personally stay away from comintaries. Test the spirits .when you receive an unction test it with scripture.
Also study sound hystory. If you're belief dous not alien with sound doctrine and historical facts maybee your headed in the wrong direction. To turn to the right direction is repentance. To turn.
Rich