Hi Oecleus, here are your "problems."
"Why Christianity? Why not Buddhism? Why not Islam?
An omniscient being in a universe is incapable with freewill. If a being is omniscient then it already knows what I did before I did it and that would mean I had no choice in it at all.
I don't see your point with there being evil in the world because of Gods gift of freewill. When God made us he put in every fault into us, there is no random effect he can give us that will make us create faults on our own.
If I choose good actions i still am highly likely to get bad things to happen to me, what is the sense in that? Why wouldn't you reward the good people and make sure the sinners don't hurt the others.
Heaven and hell also doesn't make sense to me. I can live a perfect life giving to charity, helping every person I can, and never hear of "God's word" and I would end up in hell. But, I could kill millions and millions of people and as long as I believe in Jesus and God I automatically go to heaven.
I have a problem with the laws put forth by the Lord. If I work on a Sabbath I should be stoned? If I am disobedient to my parents I shall be tied to a tree and stoned?
Lastly(Not of my objections but of what I am willing to type), I don't understand the significance of Jesus, God created himself in human form, sacrificed himself in human form, then resurrected himself for what? To take away the bad sins and allow people access to heaven? If he really wanted to, and if he was omnipotent, he would just forgive the sins and be a more reasonable God."
Your first problem is quite valid. If I had been born into a Hindu culture, I probably would not be a christian. So I plead guilty to following the beliefs of my parents and my culture. After I was already a believer, I obtained a very limited knowledge of other religions by skimming through "comparative religion" material calculated to shatter one's faith.
Second problem, omniscience and free will. Again quite valid if you accept the definition of omniscience as God is all knowing and exhaustively knows the past, present and future. But if that doctrine is unwarranted, and does not actually reflect what the Bible teaches, we can adopt another view. Many scholars accept that "omniscience" means God knows all He has chosen to know. This view eliminates the conflict with limited free will. Yes where God has predetermined an outcome, we do not have the power to alter it. But if God has not predetermined who will choose to believe in Jesus, then we can alter the outcome of our life.
Next you do not think God would have allowed "evil" into His creation. And then you assert God Almighty cannot create autonomous beings that can make choices independent of God's programming. This a a very difficult topic to discuss. First lets try and define evil. Lets define it as something that is adverse to my desires. I want to cross the street and it is evil for a beer truck to run me down. So the first point is what we call evil depends on the point of view. What is evil for me might not be evil for you. Picture two soldiers on opposite sides. One fires his rifle at the other. If he strikes his target, the person hit would consider the act evil. But the one firing the shot might simply think he was being a good soldier, protecting the lives of his buddies.
To cut to the chase, when God brings calamity, like a tornado hitting your house, you might call that evil, but if the harsh environment on earth serves God's purpose, then it is not evil in God's eyes. So God's actions which bring about pain, suffering and death seem evil to those experiencing the actions, but which are not evil from God's perspective. In addition to natural calamity, mankind also introduces evil into the world, treating others differently than they would want to be treated. The purpose of the harsh environment invites us to seek God as a refuge. And as you have already heard, the purpose of allowing us to choose or reject options, provides the ability to chose wrongly and cause pain, suffering and death.
Heaven and Hell. Again, your problem stems from a perhaps mistaken view of hell. What if hell provided perfect justice. You receive the exact right amount of punishment for your evil deeds as you deserve, no more and no less. If that describes God's actual hell, then your good man will go to hell because he physically died in unbelief, but he then would get perfect justice.
Does a person who believes in Jesus automatically go to heaven? Nope. Only those believers whose faith is credited as righteousness by God go to heaven. See Matthew 13:20-22 for a description of two types of believers whose faith was not credited as righteousness. One did not believe from the heart, and the other believed "half heartedly" because he also trusted in worldly wealth.
Yes, you should have problems with "the Law" of Moses. It has been replaced with the Law of Christ, and can be summed up with this: Love your God with all your heart and love others as you love yourself.
And finally you last problem is God should have done it differently, in a more "reasonable" manner. Perhaps, but God chose the redemption plan and brought it about at great cost. His purpose is to choose for Himself a people for His own possession, that we might proclaim His excellencies, who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. Jesus paid the price, the ransom, so that we might obtain forgiveness of sin, if we trust in Jesus and His sacrifice.
"Why Christianity? Why not Buddhism? Why not Islam?
An omniscient being in a universe is incapable with freewill. If a being is omniscient then it already knows what I did before I did it and that would mean I had no choice in it at all.
I don't see your point with there being evil in the world because of Gods gift of freewill. When God made us he put in every fault into us, there is no random effect he can give us that will make us create faults on our own.
If I choose good actions i still am highly likely to get bad things to happen to me, what is the sense in that? Why wouldn't you reward the good people and make sure the sinners don't hurt the others.
Heaven and hell also doesn't make sense to me. I can live a perfect life giving to charity, helping every person I can, and never hear of "God's word" and I would end up in hell. But, I could kill millions and millions of people and as long as I believe in Jesus and God I automatically go to heaven.
I have a problem with the laws put forth by the Lord. If I work on a Sabbath I should be stoned? If I am disobedient to my parents I shall be tied to a tree and stoned?
Lastly(Not of my objections but of what I am willing to type), I don't understand the significance of Jesus, God created himself in human form, sacrificed himself in human form, then resurrected himself for what? To take away the bad sins and allow people access to heaven? If he really wanted to, and if he was omnipotent, he would just forgive the sins and be a more reasonable God."
Your first problem is quite valid. If I had been born into a Hindu culture, I probably would not be a christian. So I plead guilty to following the beliefs of my parents and my culture. After I was already a believer, I obtained a very limited knowledge of other religions by skimming through "comparative religion" material calculated to shatter one's faith.
Second problem, omniscience and free will. Again quite valid if you accept the definition of omniscience as God is all knowing and exhaustively knows the past, present and future. But if that doctrine is unwarranted, and does not actually reflect what the Bible teaches, we can adopt another view. Many scholars accept that "omniscience" means God knows all He has chosen to know. This view eliminates the conflict with limited free will. Yes where God has predetermined an outcome, we do not have the power to alter it. But if God has not predetermined who will choose to believe in Jesus, then we can alter the outcome of our life.
Next you do not think God would have allowed "evil" into His creation. And then you assert God Almighty cannot create autonomous beings that can make choices independent of God's programming. This a a very difficult topic to discuss. First lets try and define evil. Lets define it as something that is adverse to my desires. I want to cross the street and it is evil for a beer truck to run me down. So the first point is what we call evil depends on the point of view. What is evil for me might not be evil for you. Picture two soldiers on opposite sides. One fires his rifle at the other. If he strikes his target, the person hit would consider the act evil. But the one firing the shot might simply think he was being a good soldier, protecting the lives of his buddies.
To cut to the chase, when God brings calamity, like a tornado hitting your house, you might call that evil, but if the harsh environment on earth serves God's purpose, then it is not evil in God's eyes. So God's actions which bring about pain, suffering and death seem evil to those experiencing the actions, but which are not evil from God's perspective. In addition to natural calamity, mankind also introduces evil into the world, treating others differently than they would want to be treated. The purpose of the harsh environment invites us to seek God as a refuge. And as you have already heard, the purpose of allowing us to choose or reject options, provides the ability to chose wrongly and cause pain, suffering and death.
Heaven and Hell. Again, your problem stems from a perhaps mistaken view of hell. What if hell provided perfect justice. You receive the exact right amount of punishment for your evil deeds as you deserve, no more and no less. If that describes God's actual hell, then your good man will go to hell because he physically died in unbelief, but he then would get perfect justice.
Does a person who believes in Jesus automatically go to heaven? Nope. Only those believers whose faith is credited as righteousness by God go to heaven. See Matthew 13:20-22 for a description of two types of believers whose faith was not credited as righteousness. One did not believe from the heart, and the other believed "half heartedly" because he also trusted in worldly wealth.
Yes, you should have problems with "the Law" of Moses. It has been replaced with the Law of Christ, and can be summed up with this: Love your God with all your heart and love others as you love yourself.
And finally you last problem is God should have done it differently, in a more "reasonable" manner. Perhaps, but God chose the redemption plan and brought it about at great cost. His purpose is to choose for Himself a people for His own possession, that we might proclaim His excellencies, who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. Jesus paid the price, the ransom, so that we might obtain forgiveness of sin, if we trust in Jesus and His sacrifice.
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