State Of The World

Things like that are only part of the reason why I have doubts.

Let us reach out as Christians and help change things, they will know us by our good works, praise be to Jesus our saviour

John Davidson said:

What do you mean? Can you please elaborate and share your ideas?

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Sure.

Looking at the state of the world is one of the many reasons why I've begun to have doubts regarding Christianity. Though along with seeing the state of the world in general (not just in the present) and how God being all-powerful would certainly be able to create people with personalities and brain chemistry that wouldn't have them want to harm others (and that wouldn't be "interfering with free will" even though God did that in the Bible at times), my additional reasons for doubts include:

-the violent things that God commands at times in the Bible (mainly in the Old Testament)
-the fact that a good chunk of things in the Bible seem less like the knowledge of God and more like the knowledge of a patriarchal society
-the fact that there are points of differences in the Bible between books that shouldn't be (Jesus's last words, how many at the tomb, etc.)
-God performed miracles like tongues of fire in the Bible but you never hear that today
-the Gospels were written decades after the events happened
-there's many conflicting denominations
-some priests, who are supposed to be for God above all else, have abused children
-the "We love you, I promise, believe us or you'll burn for eternity" mentality some have that is blatant fear-mongering
-it took centuries for certain doctrines (the Trinity, how many books) to be agreed on and set as dogma
-it's indicated Revelation was meant as a representation of Christians being persecuted by the Roman Empire, the Beast was Nero, and the church leaders mentioned at the start were the ones meant to hear the message of hope. No "2000+ years in the future" thing
-the Apostles clearly used language to indicate they thought the end would come in their lifetimes

Well the bible said things will get worse. And to think we are only at the tip of the iceberg right now. Things will get WAYYYYYY worse then we can imagine still. Thankfully we know how it all ends.... Jesus/God wins!

John Davidson said:

I don't accept things getting worse. I want to make the world a better place.

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If you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself, and then make a change.

Well I know many christians that want to make the world a better place and even wish for world peace. And while thats great to think, you don't want to stray to far into avoiding the truth of the Bible. Because at that point you would be telling God essentially "Hey I know how things end, but I can't really accept that and need to hope for peace anyways!".

But to each their own. I know some people have a hard time accepting the future. And for some such as my one friend, she has depression, so she will not talk about the future other then to say things will get better.

John Davidson said:

And how do you expect to change things?

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Through Jesus Christ our Lord. The new kings are powerful people with might at their side, let us be careful how we speak of them in public. Let us meet and break bread together and let the Holy Spirit wash through our souls, it his through his name that we shall find hope

John Davidson said:

I see. Well I struggle with doubt myself. But the state of the world isn't God's fault it's Satan's. Satan is the God of this world and most everyone is serving him. Most people are only concerned about themselves and their own agenda. They aren't concerned with others or making the world a better place. That is why the rich are hoarding money, they are serving themselves and not God.

Trust me God is real. He made the Sun. Don't doubt him.

I'm sorry that I don't have time to address everyone one of your points but I'm trying to stay focused on what this thread is about.

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I understand.

Though there was a point I forgot to put in my doubt-list that you just reminded me of: Satan was only seen as doing what God permitted him in Job, the serpent in Genesis was just seen as being a serpent, Isaiah 14 refers to a Babylonian king and not Satan, and God sent lying spirits in the Old Testament—in other words, Satan was barely there and God was seen as in charge of absolutely everything, both good and bad things. It wasn't until the New Testament, hundreds (even thousands) of years later, that Satan was seen as the harbinger of all evil who deceives everyone, and not until Revelation the serpent was seen as Satan (and Revelation was heavily symbolized anyway)

And relating to the thread, overall the world seems to slowly be getting better, at least in the sense we don't have mass slavery and genocides as widespread throughout the world any more, and slavery is abolished in America.

Actually, the world as a whole is getting better and better. World hunger, crime and poverty are on a slow, but steady decline. We could propably do more, but it's not that bad once you look at the actual facts.

John Davidson said:

It may have gotten better is a lot of ways but the world is still a very horrible place.

There are people smoking right across the street from where I live. When companies can profit from the poisoning of others that's not good.

You tell me the world is good but I see ugliness.

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In 1990, 18.6% of the worlds population was suffering from undernourishment.

In 2014, that percentage was down to 10.9%.

If you value some people smoking across the street more important than that, perhaps the fault lies with you.

http://www.worldhunger.org/2015-world-hunger-and-poverty-facts-and-statistics/#hunger-number

John Davidson said:

You clearly don't have much of a grasp of the suffering that exists in the world today.

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Clearly.

I never said that things were perfect or good.

I said that things are improving, instead of getting worse.

If you want to improve the world, you have to look at the bigger picture instead of making mountains out of mole hills or only look at the bad stuff. Then, you can analyse what improved things, and then you can think about implementing those measures to improve things even more.