One Step At A Time

hungryfish · Posted: Tue Oct 01, 2002 12:26 pm Post subject: One Step At A Time

I firmly believe and confess without reservation that there is only one true God, eternal infinite (immensus) and unchangeable, incomprehensible, almighty and ineffable, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; three persons indeed, but one essence, substance or nature entirely simple.I have no question in my mind, based on faith alone and not scientific evidence. I have seen God work in too many mysterious and wonderful ways to post here.

quote:
Originally posted by iokua:
Hello Everyone,
I am really quite new to these forums and I was wanting to get a general handle of what people believe in here. I have read some of the posts and some people have said they don't believe in God and some people have said that they do.
In addition to this very simple question I would like to know why you feel that way. The biggest reason why you believe this. Is it because you think science explains everything, is it because you have witnessed something impossible to explain, is it because of the facts? Why?
Last I would like to know what confuses you the most, what dont quite you get/understand, that you would really like to learn more about?

Thanks for your time

Sara Jansky · Posted: Tue Oct 01, 2002 1:36 pm Post subject: One Step At A Time

www.doesgodexist.org

There are some video tapes available here that I know Christians and atheists alike will enjoy and learn from.

Bren1 · Posted: Thu Oct 03, 2002 11:34 am Post subject: One Step At A Time

Sara,
Kudos to you for suggesting the website you did. I copied the online study that is going on. Very interesting and informative.

Porky Pine · Newbie Alert Joined: 28 Sep 2002 Posts: 4

From what I read from that site, his entire evidence is just one big design argument. He can't imagine how it could happen any other way so it must come from God. I didn't see much in the way of evidence for God (unless you consider "See this? It's really complicated. Godddidit!) as evidence.

victoria · Posted: Fri Oct 18, 2002 6:30 pm Post subject: One Step At A Time

I know that this is a rather old posting and subject matter, but I feel compelled to post.

First I feel a deep sadness for any person that has not yet believed in and accepted our Lord. As a christian, we are to go into the world be witnesses for Him. I will agree that in this world, there is all kind of violence and horrific occurances. All the more reason to have a hope that is bigger and faith that is real and the assurance that no matter what, there is the Savior and a heavenly future awaiting his children.

I do not understand not believing in God, because I was raised as a minister's daughter and through the years have seen incredible things happen that can only be attributed to God's answers to prayers. But a component that seems to be missing in unbelievers, is an iniate inability to trust and find the faith that must be there to get past the denial.

Even a watch has to have a watch maker. It just did not happen out of the blue. Look at the seed that becomes a tree. The very air we breath is perfect, did that all happen be some explosion? Why is it easier to believe that all of this happened by chance. In most circumstances, things happen as a result of an action or plan. But the big stuff, like the creation of the place that we stand on and the air we breath, that's by chance. I don't think so.

All I know is that any person who is without God is missing what God has promised and that my friend,is so incredibly sad. Be alarmed, because sadder still would be going into eternity and hearing, depart from me. Read both the 38 and 39 Chap. of Job. where God reveals things that we would have never know unless He revealed them to us in scripture.

I pray that the writer of this denial of God will find the Lord, before he leaves this earth. It all begins with a wee little faith, a small question, like, "what if there really is a God?" I am humbly amazed that our God is always faithful to those that are seekers and I know that He can help you see the truth if you will open your heart to the possibilities.

V

ddennisstevens · Posted: Fri Nov 22, 2002 8:03 am Post subject: One Step At A Time

I am new to this site. I am constantly putting effort into reviewing my purpose and trying to clarify my beliefs and grow in my relationship with God. The opportunity to verbalize my answer to this discussion group's question is good for me. This is a long reply but hopefully it also helps someone else. Thank you for the opportunity.

The question is what do I believe and why. I believe that there is one God and that all good comes from this God. I believe that Jesus died on the cross and through complete love rose from the dead. He showed us how to live completely and we should try to live as he did. I believe that being good matters and that at the end we are measured according to our love, our stewardship of our blessings, our intentions, and our works.

I believe that beyond this it is too complicated. Explaining God and judgment and mans nature is like trying to explain the Internet to an ant. We have too limited capacity, and there is so much context, that it can't be understood. Just because its complex it must be made by God isn't the point I'm making. The fact that good matters, that love matters, that there is a “good side of the force” prove that there is a God.

I believe that the bible has a lot of truth in it but I don't take it literally. I read it as allegory with messages for life. I believe that some of the contradictions or apparent untruths come from normal social behavior. When the guy comes along to talk about what God's will is the basic perspective he faces with his audience is skepticism. He isn't going to get any traction on the core story unless he can embellish it with all the things the people really wanted to know. They clamor, "Where did we come from? What happens when we die?" They say, "If you intend to tell us what God wants than surely you can answer these important questions." And so he answers them. In order to tell a compelling story and get to the important truths, he decides to tell where we came from and all this other stuff. Maybe it was a bad idea but I believe that's what happened. Haven't you ever told an untruth when you thought it was unimportant, and then found yourself having to defend it later? This discussion thread is an excellent example of us arguing about unimportant things and trying to destroy an ultimate truth. People are defending contextual things that were said to defend against previous skeptical attacks. It would be good just to say we don't know. Let's keep pursuing these things through science and reason. But the questions you're asking are just so big, and we know so little about it that we don't have an answer it. I think it’s pretty clear the creation story didn't happen the way its described in Genesis (or either of the ways). The two lights were represented for dramatic affect, a story telling technique to get the children and others to listen to it. It only becomes relevant when the skeptic says, "Yeah, well the lights thing is clearly untrue, so there is no truth to anything you say." Well, you know what; the lights thing isn't literally true and clearly reflects the limits of mankind’s knowledge at the time. But this has no bearing on whether there's an ultimate God or whether theres good things to learn from the bible.

I also believe that the bible has been translated and corrupted over time by men to be utilized for the power and wealth of controlling organizations (churches). There is no more compelling claim for membership than "belong to my church or live an eternity in pain." I believe that the pettiness and judgementalness of humans leads us away from what's important and down dangerous destructive paths. I see the fundamentalist Islamic mullah's as a product of a repressed society who are using the words of man built on the same ultimate truth as our Christian religion to perform despicable acts. Again, power and money being distorted by man to do great harm. The greatest lies often have great truth behind them. We know the bible was torn apart about 1300 years ago. Entire sections removed. Entire schools of writing burned on the threat of death. The current bible was assembled by men hungering after money and power. Men do this, it part of our nature.

But the fact that real life has impacted the representation of the bible; that the bible can be disputed and found to be contradictory and inaccurate doesn't mean that there is no God or that Jesus didn't live and die and rise. I believe that there is an absolute truth out there, that it is good, and that our world is full of it. I believe that most members of the Christian Church, and most other religions, have the desire to bring this good to bear in the world. I believe that different religions and denominations are corruptions of man built on a desire for power and money. I believe that there is truth in all of them and lies in all of them. We spend our time arguing about differences that don't even matter.

I agree with everyone in this discussion group. I see and understand how you could take the position you have taken. We make all of our arguments based on things we don't know or defending things that are contextual. But, to paraphrase Paul in Romans 2 & 3, judging others under the law while you aren't exactly perfect yourself is a bad idea.

I believe that working towards the common goal of love, good intentions, stewardship of our blessings, and good works as a community is a better use of our time that fighting, judging, and polarizing.

Just my thoughts. May you live in love.

------------------
Dennis Stevens

[This message has been edited by ddennisstevens (edited 11-22-2002).]

Nobby · Posted: Fri Nov 22, 2002 9:25 pm Post subject: One Step At A Time

But Fre, we all know that the stars put out
more light than the moon! The moon has no light, it is a mirror of the sun's light. I would doubt very much if the sun was the brightest light! But it is the brightest to the earth by day! And it's mirror,(the moon) is brighted at night,(when it's not shaded by the earth) simply because of its distance from the earth!
Know doubt sience has learned a lot thru the years,and there's nothing wrong with that!
But God didn't intend for us to know all that He knows, for then we would as smart as He! Lucifer I think tried that,look what happened to him?

[This message has been edited by Nobby (edited 11-22-2002).]