Simple Questions:

[neva_black_n_white]

ok, i agree with that, just for me, even though i seem to find something that allows me to believe i question even more to ensure that i believe this precise thing or faith. it seems to me that a lot of our lives would be based on religion if we were to straight ahead chose one without questions and thats why i ask others hard questions as you put it, in some way its pretty empowering to hear that you found it difficult, maybe because it tested you and you still went through with your beliefs (i wont question what made you believe because thats a little personal )

 

but i do want to know something, do you ever feel that sometimes the aspect of god is hidden or explained with too simple an answer or an answer given that is unlikely just to fill the doubt?

 

like the one theory i thought was worth while was that of there being a maker and then it questioned who was the maker of this maker, and instead they decided god was timeless, isnt this a little odd how an answer is given so qucikly?

 

did you ever attempt another faith?

 

kel

[Nifty_Swifty1]

God has shown himself to complicatingly (I think I just made up that word but it gets the point accross) simple. It's like love. It's something so simple, but yet no one really ever knows everything about it. Like I said earlier, what makes it so hard to believe that God doesn't have a maker is that we look at things from our vantage point in time. The problem is that God exists outside of time. He can look at time in its entirety (giving way for the Calvinist view of predestination), and we can only see things from the moment of time where we find ourselves.

 

No I haven't tried another religion, and I have a number of reasons why, which all seem to tie together. There are so many proofs that show me that what I believe is true. For example when something is passed down by word of mouth it quickly becomes distorted and changes. For hundreds of years the gospels were only shared by word of mouth, which using common since would tell you that they should be distorted right? Not only that but it had gone through translation after translation. When the Dead Sea scrolls were found that were dated to about 30 ad, if I remember correctly, they still matched up word for word with King James Version of the Bible. If you ask me, that has to be more than just coincidence. Not only that, but my relationship with Christ has never been dictated to me. It has always been personal (because I let it be that way). I accepted this troth when I was very young, but not because anyone presented it to me like you would think. For me it was just me sitting under the kitchen table alone when I was about 4 years old. No one told me I needed to pray the "sinners prayer" no one lead me to Christ except Christ himself. It wasn't a religion I was accepting. I didn't even know what that was. Sitting under that table alone at 4 years old I found a friend. I found someone that took everything I had done wrong as his. It was sort of like when pilgrim's burden falls off and rolls into the empty tomb in the book pilgrim's progress. He didn't understand the burden to be sin, but he knew it was gone. By the way, that's a book I recommend you to read. It's the second most read book in literary history (next to the bible).

 

God bless

[neva_black_n_white]

i have yet to read the book as i still question the thoery of MANY religions, i dont feel that it is a decision to opt for the one, yet i see why it is that you chose not to go for others or attempt them, why is it you believe that your god or bible could not have been changhed by translation? why is it it that you can not relate it to christianity? i mean how do we truly know that the bible has not been change and same with the qu'ran. i can understand that it couldnt be too coinsidental in what you described and the metaphor of love against god did shed a lot of light on to the way i looked at it but to me its still giving a little answer to what they couldnt explain.

 

i dont get the whole idea of making god timeless its like they pushed it out there so no one could query, however i do understand that you believe this completely as without it how could you believe in god. it just makes me wonder sometimes.

 

you said that you tested your religion or more so didnt find it an easy ride earlier (yet it came to you naturally?)

 

do you feel that there a christians at different levels in believing at that still their sins are taken from them (as you said)

just not all christians would apply such knowledge as your own but they still believe, i guess i was curious as what you saw a ''true christian'' to be or a true believer?

 

kel

[Nifty_Swifty1]

I don't think the bible has been changed in translation because the Dead Sea scrolls are most likely the original document or at the very least an early one to one copy. When you take the scrolls and compare them to the current version of the bible they match up almost word for word. I don't quite understand your question on why I can't relate that to Christianity though. I don't know much of anything about the quran though.

 

It's not that someone just decided that they wanted to make God timeless, but I do know how it could make you wander. I didn't get it until at one point I got into reading on dimensional theory. I was only 11 or so at the time, but there was a book that described dimensional isolation in a why that made me understand things a little better. That was so long ago that I don't remember the book though.

 

As for you question as to weather or not I believe that there are Christians at different stages of believing. No I don't. You ether believe or you don't there is no middle ground. There are however Christians at different stages of understanding. All that a true believer is is someone who:

1. Acknowledges they are a sinner

2. Believes that Christ died for their sins

3. Confesses both their sins and that Christ is lord.

Everything after that is simply building a relationship and knowledge and faith. Since Christian means christ like, and christ was perfict, by definishion, no one can be a true christian, but I guess thats just me being a little too picky with verbage.

 

I have a question for you though. Why don't you believe that it's a "decision to opt for the one?" If you can pick and choose what you want to believe you aren't really believing anything are you? It seems to me that is more making you own God than believing.

 

I need to got to work

 

God bless

[neva_black_n_white]

fair enough to the responce but if your going to say one religion is based of differences in translation then you cant really be biased by your own religion i mean it COULD happen right, im not saying it did, but dont compare it just on the one thing, so many comment and arguments are brought up within religions and yes your three elements would define a christian and therefopre wouldnt query any arguments but it could be that the christian god isnt all that he seems to be.

 

i mean how have people put w face to christ and god? it cant be passed on through that amount of time, why is he male? whats the deal with it, i just want someone to explain how they chose, how he was created or why was he there in this timeless zone in the first place? who taught him all that he knew or did he create and for some reason everything seemed to fit, who did he get to right all his words out? how was it that it all got written down? i mean it must have been changed at some point its been a long time since adam and eve and they werent perfect now were they?

 

but as for your wuestions, who said that i thought there was a god at all? maybe i dont even define him or her like this, i think there was a creator but only because it was a christian theory that made me believe doesnt mean that im going to opt for that religion either, i query too many thing too much, and i dont think i will ever come to terms with something, it could be that your religion is all made up and its been done to con you just because everything DOES fit, but you cant say no it ist because how do you truly know?

 

i dont know who i believe in because i havent challanged myself, i have an incling in what i believe because for some reason i try not to sin (but maybe i just want to be good, but in the same way im not sinning) i try not to hate and when i need someone i dont talk to a specific god but i talk to someone, maybe its my family who have died or someone just because i can, but i do things that are relevant, but i dont think someone could outline what i believe.

 

it makes me wonder why you questioned who or what was god and then believed from 4 onwards.

for me this was a time when the world was the world and i was just something precious enough to be in it, something special that MAYBE no one could ever explain. sometimes i believe that if i couldnt explain something i could always dream or have my own opinions, feel true in the world anf have free will, not confined or within contract, you know?

 

i believe in faith, but even that will change in time.

kel

[Nifty_Swifty1]

All that I said as fact is that there is proof that part of the bible (the part where the Dead Sea scrolls were the original or at very least an early copy of) has not changed over the years. It is my belief that the rest of the book hasn't changed (If God wouldn't allow part of it co change why would He let the rest of it change) but that is based on nothing more than my belief… faith. As for God not being all that He seems to be… your right… He's much more. He's more than any of us could understand.

 

God being a male is somewhat of a falsity as far as I'm concerned. God made man in his own image, then took woman from man, so in my reasoning God would be best described as both man and woman together. In our understanding God takes on more of the tendencies of an alpha male… taking on the role of a more of a father figure than a maternal one.

 

I'm not even going to take on God having no beginning or end again. You're at the same point I was a number of years back as far as understanding that. My understanding of that came from realizing that a 2 disentail object can not comprehend dimensions beyond it. Only length and height make since. Depth is beyond its grasp. Time is as far as we understand. We can know that there is more, but we can't comprehend it.

 

Who wrote Gods words? People he chose to speak to and have them write it down. People and there choices aren't perfect, but God and his choices are.

 

I don't think I ever said that I questioned who God was, and if I did I'm sorry, because I don't think I have. I have had troubles understanding some of the aspects of God, I still do, but all things come to those who wait.

 

Having your own opinion is free will which is both a blessing and a curse. By what I believe it was having your own opinion about something God said that caused the first sin right? It was also the one thing that made us so very important to God that he would die for us.

 

You say that you believe in faith, but what do you have faith in?

 

God bless