Part 15 of Post Your Tough Questions Regarding Christianity

It's true that God doesn't hate anyone but He does hate sin so much that if a person is not saved they will not enter Heaven, it is all written in Scripture. Any person stained with sin will not enter Heaven. The way to cleanse yourself from sin is to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord Savior.

We read in Scripture, "We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are.

For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he declares sinners to be right in his sight when they believe in Jesus."---Romans 3:22-26 NLT

 

So are you rejecting all Scripture from the OT? Are you saying God did not punish anyone for their sins during the OT days? You don't believe the Great Flood story of Noah? How about the Exodus story of Moses?

That something that God hates is sin. Since He is perfectly Holy and sinless, sins are a trangression to God.

I agree that we people are to blame for the miseries we endure and it's all because of sin.

We are all given the gift of free will. Whoever chooses to believe in God, who acknowledges they have sinned, who have asked for forgiveness of their sins, have accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord Savior will be saved according to Scripture.

But whoever chooses not to believe in God, not believing He exists, not acknowledging they are sinners, rejecting Jesus Christ as their Lord Savior will forever be separated from God and will have to pay the penalty for their sins and I'm sorry to say this penalty is punishment.

It is all written in Scripture which is the infallible Word of God!

 

It's true that God doesn't hate anyone but He does hate sin so much that if a person is not saved they will not enter Heaven, it is all written in Scripture. Any person stained with sin will not enter Heaven. The way to cleanse yourself from sin is to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord Savior.

We read in Scripture, "We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he declares sinners to be right in his sight when they believe in Jesus."---Romans 3:22-26 NLT

Note: This repost was brought up again because the first had an error, it directed Jeannette's post to the wrong page that the post was quoted from. Thanks for everyone's understanding!

 

Not entirely correct. Works can't save anyone by itself. It's because even if you refrain from sinning as best as you can, the fact remains because you have already sinned at some point in your life, you are still a sinner. No matter how good you try to be by works alone that will not save you. What really saves all us sinners is to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord Savior. One still has to confess through their mouths that Jesus Christ died for their sins and accept Him as their Savior!

Sorry but you are so wrong! If you are not a Christian, have not confessed that you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord Savior, works alone will not save you.

Do you think He is going to say, "well since you did more good than bad you are saved"? That is what Muslims believe in their religion, but that is not what Christianity is all about.

Only Christians who have accepted Jesus as their Lord Savior will be saved.

 

Incorporeal quote.

Nothing wrong with that word. We use 'misunderstand' today, but 'miscomprehend' is still a valid word.

 

Wrong! Goto www.thefreedictiioonary.com and type in "miscomprehend" (without the quote marks), then see what comes back as a response. That search will reveal that "miscomprehend" (according to that dictionary) requires a capital "M". Or, try this dictionary:
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/spellcheck/all/?q=miscomprehend

 

I have to agree with Giftedone here. It is all written in Scripture.

 

When the Bible mentions God as being jealous it is not the same kind of jealousy that we mortal humans beings experience. Maybe later I will explain it in greater detail for I know I have explained it a while back but for now I'll just say it is not the same kind of jealousy.

But let's be clear, God is not vengeful and the hate that He has is towards sins and that's why He punishes sins and He has every right to do so since He is the Creator and Sovereign over His entire creation.

 

about 9 dictionaries include the word.


However miscomprehended a life may be, the Eternal Power does not leave it without hope. Hoffman.

T. Busby Lucretius I. ii. Comm. vi, The preceptor of Nero seems to have miscomprehended the poet.

Baring-Gould Bk. of West I. 16, I am quite certain to be miscomprehended by them.

W. Kaye Life Sir J. Malcolm I. xv. 499 In either case, of disobedience or miscomprehension, he had proved himself..unworthy of the confidence.

Kipling Life's Handicap p. ix, [They] stare at each other hopelessly across great gulfs of miscomprehension.

 

Nice quotes. Now how about providing links to the dictionaries that you assert have the word 'miscomprehended' listed in them.

 

I wouldn't use the word "slaughter" the word "punish" is better suited. Let me present again the thorough explanation coming from the gotquestions website.

The fact that God commanded the killing of entire nations in the Old Testament has been the subject of harsh criticism from opponents of Christianity for some time. That there was violence in the Old Testament is indisputable. The question is whether Old Testament violence is justifiable and condoned by God. In his bestselling book The God Delusion, atheist Richard Dawkins refers to the God of the Old Testament as "a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser." Journalist Christopher Hitchens complains that the Old Testament contains a warrant for "indiscriminate massacre." Other critics of Christianity have leveled similar charges, accusing Yahweh of "crimes against humanity."

But are these criticisms valid? Is the God of the Old Testament a “moral monster” who arbitrarily commands genocide against innocent men, women, and children? Was His reaction to the sins of the Canaanites and the Amalekites a vicious form of "ethnic cleansing" no different from atrocities committed by the Nazis? Or is it possible that God could have had morally sufficient reasons for ordering the destruction of these nations?

A basic knowledge of Canaanite culture reveals its inherent moral wickedness. The Canaanites were a brutal, aggressive people who engaged in bestiality, incest, and even child sacrifice. Deviant sexual acts were the norm. The Canaanites’ sin was so repellent that God said, “The land vomited out its inhabitants” (Leviticus 18:25). Even so, the destruction was directed more at the Canaanite religion (Deuteronomy 7:3-5, 12:2-3) than at the Canaanite people per se. The judgment was not ethnically motivated. Individual Canaanites, like Rahab in Jericho, could still find that mercy follows repentance (Joshua 2). God's desire is that the wicked turn from their sin rather than die (Ezekiel 18:31-32, 33:11).

Besides dealing with national sins, God used the conquest of Canaan to create a religious/historical context in which He could eventually introduce the Messiah to the world. This Messiah would bring salvation not only to Israel, but also to Israel’s enemies, including Canaan (Psalm 87:4-6; Mark 7:25-30).

It must be remembered that God gave the Canaanite people more than sufficient time to repent of their evil ways—over 400 years (Genesis 15:13-16)! The book of Hebrews tells us that the Canaanites were "disobedient," a word that implies moral culpability on their part (Hebrews 11:31). The Canaanites were aware of God's power (Joshua 2:10-11, 9:9) and could have sought repentance. Except in rare instances, they continued their rebellion against God until the bitter end.

But didn't God also command the Israelites to kill non-combatants? The biblical record is clear that He did. Here again, we must remember that while it is true the Canaanite women did not fight, this in no way means they were innocent, as their seductive behavior in Numbers 25 indicates (Numbers 25:1-3). However, the question still remains: what about the children? This is not an easy question to answer but we must keep several things in mind. First, no human person (including infants) is truly innocent. The Scripture teaches that we are all born in sin (Psalm 51:5, 58:3). This implies that all people are morally culpable for Adam’s sin in some way. Infants are just as condemned from sin as adults are.

Second, God is sovereign over all of life and can take it whenever He sees fit. God, and God alone, can give life and God alone has the right to take it whenever He so chooses. In fact, He ultimately takes every person's life at death. It is not our life to begin with but God’s. While it is wrong for us to take a life, except in instances of capital punishment, war, and self-defense, this does not mean that it is wrong for God to do so. We intuitively recognize this when we accuse some person or authority who takes human life as "playing God." God is under no obligation to extend anyone's life for even another day. How and when we die is completely up to Him.

Third, an argument could be made that it would have been cruel for God to take the lives of all the Canaanites except the infants and children. Without the protection and support of their parents, the infants and small children were likely to face death anyway due to starvation. The chances of survival for an orphan in the ancient Near East were not good.

Finally, and most importantly, God may have provided for the salvation for those infants who would not have otherwise attained salvation if they had lived into adulthood. We must remember that the Canaanites were a barbarous and evil culture. If those infants and children had lived into adulthood, it is very likely they would have turned into something similar to their parents and been condemned to hell after they died. If all infants and young children who die before an age of moral accountability go straight to heaven (as we believe), then those children are in a far better place than if God had allowed them to live and grow to maturity in a depraved culture.

Surely the issue of God commanding violence in the Old Testament is difficult. However, we must remember that God sees things from an eternal perspective, and His ways are not our ways (Isaiah 55:8-9). The Apostle Paul tells us that God is both kind and severe (Romans 11:22). While it is true that God's holy character demands that sin be punished, His grace and mercy remain extended to those who are willing to repent and be saved. The Canaanite destruction provides us with a sober reminder that while our God is gracious and merciful, He is also a God of holiness and wrath.


Read more: http://www.gotquestions.org/Old-Testament-violence.html#ixzz30ySm6T73

 

Yes indeed, God sent the rain for 40 days and nights because He was punishing a world gone wrong. Only Noah and his family of 8 and pairs of animals were spared.

But I disagree with you in thinking that the OT God is not the NT God. I know I gave an explanation before, just holler if you want that explanation otherwise just be silent if you don't and so if you want it I will present it again and you don't have to wait a year for it...lol

 

This is not what Scripture says but I have pointed this out to you so many times its like flogging a dead horse.

Not according to Jesus . There you go again "speaking for God"... Substituting your own man made dogma and claiming that it is from God.

Only Christians who have accepted Jesus as their Lord Savior will be saved

- - - Updated - - -

Finally you have come to your senses !

 

Are you blind? Can't you see things around you?

First of all, the complexity of our planet points to a deliberate Designer who not only created our universe, but sustains it today.

The Earth is located the right distance from the sun. Consider the temperature swings we encounter, roughly -30 degrees to +120 degrees. If the Earth were any further away from the sun, we would all freeze. Any closer and we would burn up. Even a fractional variance in the Earth's position to the sun would make life on Earth impossible.

But I guess your response to this is that we got lucky, it was just an accident that everything just happened to fall into the right place...yeah right!...lol

Secondly, we know the universe had a start...so what caused this start? The universe has not always existed. It had a start...what caused that? Scientists have no explanation for the sudden explosion of light and matter. Scripture tells us at the very beginning of the Holy Bible, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Genesis 1:1 NLT

Thirdly, the universe operates by uniform laws of nature. Why does it? How is it that we can identify laws of nature that never change? Why is the universe so orderly, so reliable?

Richard Feynman, a Nobel Prize winner for quantum electrodynamics, said, "Why nature is mathematical is a mystery...The fact that there are rules at all is a kind of miracle."

Fourthly, the DNA code informs, programs a cell's behavior. Well, just like you can program your phone to beep for specific reasons, DNA instructs the cell. DNA is a three-billion-lettered program telling the cell to act in a certain way. It is a full instruction manual.

Natural, biological causes are completely lacking as an explanation when programmed information is involved. You cannot find instruction, precise information like this, without someone intentionally constructing it.

Fifthly, we know God exists because He pursues us. He is constantly initiating and seeking for us to come to Him. The issue of people believing in God greatly bothers many atheists.

But what is it about atheists that they would spend so much time, attention, and energy refuting something that they don't believe even exists? What causes an atheist to do that? Tell me my atheists friends, what compels you all to do that? Could it be that God is pursuing you to come to Him.

Lastly, unlike any other revelation of God, Jesus Christ is the clearest, most specific picture of God revealing Himself to us.

Look throughout the major world religions and you'll find that Buddha, Muhammad, Confucius and Moses all identified themselves as teachers or prophets. None of them ever claimed to be equal to God.

Surprisingly, Jesus did. That is what sets Jesus apart from all the others. He said God exists and you're looking at Him. Though he talked about his Father in heaven, it was not from the position of separation, but of very close union, unique to all humankind. Jesus said that anyone who had seen Him had seen the Father, anyone who believed in Him, believed in the Father.

In conclusion, saying you can't love something that's not there is just a poor excuse...clearly a denial when there are adequate evidence around us as proof to the very existence of the Almighty Creator God. And so it is very easy to love and worship Him for His divine creation!

 

What does "we evolved" mean? Do you mean to say somehow lifeless matter miraculously created living matter?

That sounds so illogical. It makes more logical sense to believe that something that is already living can create other living beings.

BTW how did the lifeless matter evolve? Did it just "popped" into existence from nothing? Or do you believe lifeless matter always existed and is eternal?

 

pardon me, Mitt, but you claim that god hates sin, and wants people to stop sinning, right? at the same time you say the ONLY way we can be saved from the consequences of our sin is to 'accept jebus as our saviour'.

so what does your god REALLY want? he either wants us to stop sinning, or he wants us to swear allegiance to his lovechild. I could stop sinning tomorrow, and never sin again, but clearly that won't mean anything to your sky dad - despite your constant assertions of how much he hates sin. if I tell my kids how much I dislike them leaving clothes on their bedroom floors, I actually want them to stop leaving clothes on their floors, not to announce they're now committed to a life of worshipping the idea of clean floors.

 

I am not interested in the "Got Questions" website Mitt. I am interested in what you think. To go to some apologist website with biased agenda and using that website to answer all your questions is essentially putting your brain on hold.

Philosophy - the art and science of thinking. What constitutes a good argument, logical fallacies and so on. One of the tenets of writing a good essay/argument is that you go out and find the best arguments from "both sides".

You have your "story" and I get that. What your story lacks is depth. It does not consider any arguments from "the other side"

If you want to make a really solid argument for something you go out and find the best arguments for both sides. Then when you state your opinion it will hopefully refute the best argument from the other side.

Try spending more time reading arguments from the other perspectives rather than focusing only on stuff that agrees with your perspective.

Given the nature of the killings in the OT - Slaughter is precisely the word. The word punish implies that the person being killed has done something wrong.

In many cases the folks that got slaughtered had done nothing wrong.

These criticisms are definitely valid. The fact that some group of people did some evil things does not justify the intentional killing of babies. Gods law forbids "punishing" children for the sins of their parents so these acts go against Gods law.

Do you really expect me to believe that God is that fickle ? Does this make any sense?

There are cases where folks were not like that which are described above. The fact that the writer does not consider these cases shows how ill thought out his/her argument is. Notice that no explanation or justification is given for these cases or for baby killing.

This is just silly and shows a complete ignorance of scripture. Is the Author not aware that the Israelites were doing the same things ? The Israelites only worshiped YHWH for a very short periods and even then it is in doubt according to the Bible. They were sacrificing Children and worshiping other Gods pretty much continuous up until the Persians freed them from Babylonian captivity. This is a Biblical fact that the author is conveniently ignoring.

What is the argument here ? We are all born to sin so it is acceptable to slaughter anyone at any time using this as an excuse. This is lunacy.

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More lunacy. It was Gods command "thou shalt not murder" Now killing someone for good reason is not murder but we are talking the slaughter of babies here and according to the previous paragraph the only reason that is required is that the person is human and as such is a sinner and deserves to be killed.

Does God not follow his own commands? This makes God out to be an idiot and I can not accept that.

In many cases it is the Israelites that do the killing sure "in the name of God" but they are still violating Gods commands by killing innocents.

These arguments are so bad that it is painful even to read.

 

For God to be fair, He did not condemn anyone to hell who lived prior to our Lord Savior Jesus Christ but it didn't mean that those people who did live prior to Jesus Christ had free reign to live a wicked immoral life.

The inhabitants of Canaan were neither ignorant nor innocent victims of an angry God. They had been committing terrible sin knowing full well of the true and living God.

Because they rejected Him and His forgiveness God harshly judged them. That goes for the people who lived just prior to the Great Flood too.

 

Nope, sorry that is not what I'm saying, how do you non-believers always misinterpret what you read?...lol Is it because you are in denial?...don't need to answer cause I already know the answer...it is yes because you all are always in denial.

Jesus was necessary to save mankind from their sins. Look around, aren't people still sinning?...well of course we are thus Jesus was necessary.

 

Yet you still come to this thread that is about to enter Part 16 and so what does that make you? And so when you posted and said you agreed with a post I made 100% does that make you a moron 100% since you have just said all the answers been completely moronic?

 

Wow! The day you stand in judgment before God maybe He'll bring this statement up that you've made.

Guys like you are so brave in disrespecting something you don't believe in but when the day comes and you see that He really does exist, that's the day you are going to regret you ever existed as a non-believer.

 

God has made Himself perfectly clear, Scripture tells us, "For God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent His son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through Him.

There is no judgment against anyone who believes in Him. But anyone who does not believe in Him has already been judged for not believing in God's one and only Son. And the judgment is based on this fact: God's light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants." ---John 3:16-21 NLT

 

God exists in three persons, the Trinity. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit make up the Trinity. So there is one God existing in three persons.

These persons are all distinct. They are all equally God. The divine nature cannot be subdivided, God’s nature is infinite.

Though there is one God in three persons, the person of Jesus Christ has two natures. He has the divine nature and the human nature. He was born and took on human flesh. He suffered physically and emotionally.

So Jesus could operate out of His human nature or His divine nature. As a man He ate, as God He performed miracles.

So, while Christ's body was dead, He remained alive since God cannot die. This should not be a great surprise, since human souls remain while the body decays.

Jesus' human soul remained in the way that all human souls do, while His divine substance remained unchanged.
So even while His human body lay dead, it was possible for Jesus, through His divine nature to display His power by ressurecting Himself.

We see in Scripture that Jesus, speaking of His body said, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." John 2:19 KJV

So certainly it was God who raised His body and Jesus is God. But Scripture also teaches that the Father raised Him. (See Eph. 1:17-20 and Gal. 1:1) Even the Holy Spirit is said to have raised Him. (See Romans 8:11)

So, the act of raising Jesus from the dead was not the operation of one person within the Trinity, but was a cooperative act done by the power of the divine substance. The fact that the Holy Bible teaches that God raised Jesus from the dead, and that Jesus raised Himself is yet another testament to Christ's divinity.

 

You again wanting the thread to die and yet you still come to this thread and respond in it...too funny!

We are about to enter Part 16 because it's guys like you that keep coming here and so I have to continue to respond. I'm only on Part 6 and so I have lots of work ahead yet.

 

Exactly! Good post Jeannette!