Soooo I'm back and asking questions again

[Analog]

Every year or so I tend to find myself asking those big questions everyone deals with at one point in their life, and each time I'll decide to see what each religion has to say, wrestle with epistemology a bit (the study of knowledge, an interesting branch of philosophy), and then get closer to the truth. But despite my best efforts that never happens, and Christianity is the only religion that ends up getting looked at seriously.

I've been this nagging feeling lately so I've decided to give it another shot, and here i am. So my questions...

1 How real/influential is God on our daily lives ?

Is he just the big old guy up in the sky that set everything in motion then kicked back and relaxed. Or is it more to the other extreme where by everything good or ill that happens to you is a result of his will / plan for you (although getting that to work with freewill, and why bad things happen to good people, is well tricky :o)

2 How do you determine which are the core, unshakable tenets of your faith. Different denominations believe different passages from the bible are more important, and some passages are just plain redundant.

3 How do you know God is a 'good' God. Lots of bad things have happened, and are still happening in his name. If he is good, why doesn't he just lay the smack down on those who use religion to exploit and dominate others ?

 

[LJSGM]

1 How real/influential is God on our daily lives ?

Is he just the big old guy up in the sky that set everything in motion then kicked back and relaxed. Or is it more to the other extreme where by everything good or ill that happens to you is a result of his will / plan for you (although getting that to work with freewill, and why bad things happen to good people, is well tricky :o)

It's right smack in the middle of those two extremes. Bad things happen because of freewill. When someone steals from you, is it not man that does it? God "interferes" or perhaps interacts is a better word, when it serves a greater purpose. What is that greater purpose? He is creating a people unto God, that have freewill yet serve him.

2 How do you determine which are the core, unshakable tenets of your faith. Different denominations believe different passages from the bible are more important, and some passages are just plain redundant.

The OT was a shadow of things to come, the Christ to come. The New testament, all of it, is a tenet to my faith. I guess it depends on which ones you're speaking of. Do you have any you specifically want to discuss?

3 How do you know God is a 'good' God. Lots of bad things have happened, and are still happening in his name. If he is good, why doesn't he just lay the smack down on those who use religion to exploit and dominate others ?

"bad things" happening is evidence of freewill. Of course, that is not to say that the two always go together. He will "lay the smack down" when the full number of gentiles/believers has entered in. It's called judgment day. Hope I've helped.

 

[unkern]

Just to kinda add to what LJSGM said:

Because of our freewill to choose that which is wrong and that which is right, God enters in at the right time. He know that some will choose hell, but he uses certain actions in order to get the largest amount to heaven. We could never imagine his kind of timing (imagine a capsule that shows every minute all laid out at one time) our brain cant understand how he can see all those at once. Also we as Christians should find every verse equally important, just some our more important to each person because it deals with something in our lives.

 

[ConqueredbyLove]

I am so glad you are back because I am new here and have not read your posts before....

1 How real/influential is God on our daily lives ?

Well, for me, it is really up to me...God always wants to be real and desires to be influential in my daily life...But the issue is, how real to I want Him to be in my life at any given moment and how influential will I let Him be in my daily life? It is always His desire to be real and influential but will I close Him off by sin or indifference in my life? He leaves that choice up to me...at least for now.

Is he just the big old guy up in the sky that set everything in motion then kicked back and relaxed. Or is it more to the other extreme where by everything good or ill that happens to you is a result of his will / plan for you (although getting that to work with freewill, and why bad things happen to good people, is well tricky :o)

Oh, no, no, no...He is most definitely not the big old guy up in the sky...And, no He has not kicked back and relaxed. For you see, Jesus always lives to make intercession for me. As to why bad things happen to good people...well, I am not good...but I have been through much suffering. The other day I was thinking about "injustice". Yes, I have been a victim, if you will, of great injustice...but nothing like my dear Lord and Saviour, Jesus has been a victim of. For, you see, He has been the greatest victim of injustice of all time....

2 How do you determine which are the core, unshakable tenets of your faith. Different denominations believe different passages from the bible are more important, and some passages are just plain redundant.

The core, unshakable tenets of my faith is Jesus Christ of Nazareth, and the Lord Jesus Christ. My faith rests upon His faithfulness and what He has done for me and continues to do.

3 How do you know God is a 'good' God. Lots of bad things have happened, and are still happening in his name. If he is good, why doesn't he just lay the smack down on those who use religion to exploit and dominate others ?[/quote]

That is a great question, and I really cannot answer it except to say He is good.

 

[OldWiseGuy]

I just watched "Anger Management" again last night. What a perfect allegory. Jack Nicholsen as God and Adam Sandler as us. A hoot, and humorously analagous to the God-man relationship.

owg

 

[ebia]

Every year or so I tend to find myself asking those big questions everyone deals with at one point in their life, and each time I'll decide to see what each religion has to say, wrestle with epistemology a bit (the study of knowledge, an interesting branch of philosophy), and then get closer to the truth. But despite my best efforts that never happens, and Christianity is the only religion that ends up getting looked at seriously.

I've been this nagging feeling lately so I've decided to give it another shot, and here i am. So my questions...

1 How real/influential is God on our daily lives ?

Is he just the big old guy up in the sky that set everything in motion then kicked back and relaxed.

That's deism. Popular because it doesn't challenge anything, but it also doesn't answer anything.

Or is it more to the other extreme where by everything good or ill that happens to you is a result of his will / plan for you (although getting that to work with freewill, and why bad things happen to good people, is well tricky :o)

Not everything is as God would wish it to be - that's precisely why Jesus became man, died and was resurrected, to get it back on track. But God can and does take even the most unpleasant and difficult situations and use them for good. "With God, nothing is wasted".

2 How do you determine which are the core, unshakable tenets of your faith. Different denominations believe different passages from the bible are more important, and some passages are just plain redundant.

I don't think many would conciously regard a passage as redundant, although none of us are capable of focusing on the whole thing all the time so we are all bound to be guilty of sidelining some aspects. I would say the core tenants are that God is the creator, that the bible (from Genesis 12 onwards) is the story of his acting to put that world back on track, that that story comes to its climax in Jesus of Nazareth's death and resurrection, and that we live between that resurrection when the world is put to rights in principle and the final resurrection when it is all in place in practice.

3 How do you know God is a 'good' God. Lots of bad things have happened, and are still happening in his name. If he is good, why doesn't he just lay the smack down on those who use religion to exploit and dominate others ?

Because force doesn't solve the problem of evil - the Noah story is exactly an explanation of that. God has to, and does, get down to the messy business of redeeming a falled creation from the inside through loving sacrifice and that's a long, slow, untidy business.

 

[Zunalter]

I've been this nagging feeling lately so I've decided to give it another shot, and here i am. So my questions...

Glad to have you back. I hope this is a more productive venture than last time, since you are still undecided.

1 How real/influential is God on our daily lives ?

Is he just the big old guy up in the sky that set everything in motion then kicked back and relaxed. Or is it more to the other extreme where by everything good or ill that happens to you is a result of his will / plan for you (although getting that to work with freewill, and why bad things happen to good people, is well tricky :o)

Well, the Bible has a lot to say about that:

(Matt. 5:45) He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

So, we learn that He acts kindly to those even who are His enemies.

(Romans 1:21-26)
For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts.

As you can see from this passage and the previous one, God gives all men what is known as "common grace" or blessing and restraint on our natures that He extends to all humanity. However, as this Roman's passage points out, He will take that common grace from those who are committed to rebellion against Him and allow the sinful nature of man to run unchecked.

That is just a taste of what is in the Bible, we haven't even touched on the specific, personal working of God in the nation of Israel recorded in the OT. But, the point I would like to get across to you is that God takes very personal interest in our lives. That should answer your question about Deism. (Personally, I think that a God that would create us and walk away or not involve themselves personally isn't worth knowing about, since they have little to no affect on our lives.)

2 How do you determine which are the core, unshakable tenets of your faith. Different denominations believe different passages from the bible are more important, and some passages are just plain redundant.

Core unshakable tenets of Christianity = Anything that has a direct impact on whether or not you are saved and go to heaven.

Examples of this are:

Who is God? (If we don't know, how do we know who we are worshiping?)
What is his nature and character? (What is our standing with Him and how do we relate to Him? Also relates to the first question.)
What is the nature of man? (What obstacles do we need to overcome to come into harmony with our Creator?)
Who was Jesus Christ? (Was He God? Was His life significant? Was His crucifixion for any particular reason, or was it just bad luck?)
How does one get to heaven? (I think this is fairly straightforward.)

I hope you can see where having a wrong answer about any of the above questions can put you in hot water. As for different denominations, 90% of them are completely united on the essentials, it is the non-essentials that are disagreed upon. Which, is not a big deal, as long as someone agrees upon the essentials, I am fine with any differences of opinion on the non-essentials.

3 How do you know God is a 'good' God. Lots of bad things have happened, and are still happening in his name.

I broke your last question up into 2 because I think they have 2 different answers.

I know God is good because without a transcendent, absolute source of morality, there would be no solid standard by which to judge what was good and what was evil. Also, add to that the life of Christ, who (most) people agree was the most remarkable man ever to exist (Even if they didn't believe He was God).

If he is good, why doesn't he just lay the smack down on those who use religion to exploit and dominate others ?

He will, if not right now:

(Nahum 1:3) The LORD is slow to anger and great in power; the LORD will not leave the guilty unpunished.

(Romans 2:5)But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed.

You may look at these verses and ask "Why doesn't God just deal with them now and save everyone a lot of trouble?" Well, here are some more thoughts:

(2 Peter 3:9) The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

(Romans 9:22) What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction?

Whew! That was long...sorry for the novel, I hope helps you out!!

-Z

 

[Polycarp_fan]

Every year or so I tend to find myself asking those big questions everyone deals with at one point in their life, and each time I'll decide to see what each religion has to say, wrestle with epistemology a bit (the study of knowledge, an interesting branch of philosophy), and then get closer to the truth. But despite my best efforts that never happens, and Christianity is the only religion that ends up getting looked at seriously.

As well "it" should. You are a smart person.

I've been this nagging feeling lately so I've decided to give it another shot, and here i am. So my questions...

1 How real/influential is God on our daily lives ?

Every breath we take is pretty influential.

Is he just the big old guy up in the sky that set everything in motion then kicked back and relaxed. Or is it more to the other extreme where by everything good or ill that happens to you is a result of his will / plan for you (although getting that to work with freewill, and why bad things happen to good people, is well tricky)

Try feeding, clothing and cleaning every single person you "love." You will see the rejection of love and help in reality. People want to be free, even if it means bad things will happen to them. "We," were created "in the image," of God. Notice, God doesn't like to be told what to do either.

2 How do you determine which are the core, unshakable tenets of your faith.

Apostolic witness. Those guys wrote what they did for a very ultimate reason.

Different denominations believe different passages from the bible are more important, and some passages are just plain redundant.

That would be expected wouldn't it?

3 How do you know God is a 'good' God.

Life seems to feel quite good a lot of the time.

Lots of bad things have happened, and are still happening in his name.

"His" name is "Yahweh." Also, Yeshua (Jesus) "Yahweh Saves," Just what is happening "bad" in His name? Where? How? Why? Jesus's people seem quite nice worldwide that is.

If he is good, why doesn't he just lay the smack down on those who use religion to exploit and dominate others ?

What time is it?

It's not that time yet.

The smackdown is a-comin'. Even the "global warmingians" know that.

But if all of the bad things in the Bible are true, then, so are all of the good things.