Why are we starting out with the assertion that most Christians "inherited" their beliefs?
That's true for myself and everyone in my family, and the vast majority of the christians I know. It's also apparent that if you grow up in a catholic family or society, chances are you'll hold to catholic theology when you grow up. Or protestant, or muslim for that matter. We don't 'choose' our faith as freely as we like to think.
Some reason? You wouldn't be a man without free will.
I don't think the bible defines man as someone who has a free will.
At the very least our will isn't completely free, God has been known to "harden the heart of Saul," for example. And when Judas betrayed Jesus, was that his free will? Or part of God's plan? Paul also apparently states that people are the way they are because God decided to make them so. He then rethorically asks "then how can God judge me" and answers "who are you to question God" - which in my honest opinion is a totally cop-out answer. But of course, my opinion can't grasp God's character and will etc. But I can't understand how God can first decide that you are to, say, persecute the people of Israel, and then later judge you for doing it. Perhaps we'll get the answer to that beyond the grave.
God's "plan" has always been perfect, from it's inception to it's response to sin.
That's what I think too. And that's why I'm beginning to see the fall of Adam as God's plan as well. Because it's not like God, creator of the universe and all, couldn't make a world without this horrible potential for sin, or like He didn't know what Adam would do. So these days I'm trying to read the bible with that possibility in mind.
It's a dillemma, of course: either God
couldn't stop the holocaust, or He didn't
want to. What's worse? It may be that God has some reason, an ultimate purpose, for people to enudre all this happiness and torture strewn out in history seemingly at random.
You can't say it doesn't "sound right" and then propose that you came to your conclusions Biblically. You've just given an admission that it's purely your feelings you're judging upon.
It doesn't sound right because of what I read in the bible, I should probably have pointed that out. Stuff like "man devises his ways, but the Lord directs his steps." All the mentions of God controlling the forces of nature, animals, even sending evil spirits into people, it's all at best limiting to the idea of our famed "free will." And it doesn't seem to fit in with the idea of God being good and/or all-knowing, so my guess is that the understanding I grew up with is wrong.
Now, to find the right understanding...
What questions do we dare not ask? It seems to take more courage to accept the truth about God than it does to white-wash Him over with empty sentiment.
One of the questions I didn't even dare to ask before, was: "why do I believe in God?"
Or, "what if christianity isn't the right faith?"
I was so scared to ask some of the tough questions for fear of losing my faith. I was afraid to question the doctrine of hell because I was scared of hell. In short,
fear kept me from seeking the truth (I may not have found it, but at least I'm searching). How many muslims would there be if they could feel comfortable questioning their own faith without repercussions from Allah and/or their fellow muslims?
Too often I'm met with the explicit "oh, we'll never find the answer to those questions," or the implicit and much more dangerous "you shouldn't be asking these questions, they might destroy your faith (and thus send you to HELL FOREVER)."
I know what your'e getting at, "it's God's fault". Your position simply isn't tenable.
I'm not saying it's His "fault," rather I'm suggesting that maybe it's His
will.[/QUOTE]
The sin of man is nothing like stealing a candy bar. It's rebellion against a Holy, righteous and perfect God.
But the only sin a person may ever get to committ, is stealing that candy bar. A lot of people die young. If a person has spent eighty years cursing and/or denying God against better knowing, I could see the argument for severe and long lasting punishment. But an eternity in conscious suffering because you stole candy once?
Well, yes, unless you want him to cease to be God.
You haven't got a theological solid-ground. All sin is punished, either upon Jesus or the sinner whom rejects Him unto death.
Jesus said "forgive them, for they know not what they do." When the lambs were sacrificed, their blood covered the people's sin. On other occasions, God merely forgave or, like with Abraham "counted his faith as righteousness." I don't see "God's perfection demanding justice (revenge)" in those situations.
I don't think God is subject to anything, including His own perfection. People used to think God was "too perfect" to have anything to do with gentiles or sinners in general. But the perfect God, infinite and holy and all, washed people's feet and ate with prostitutes and tax collectors. Had it happened today it may have been child molesters and drug traffickers. People still talk about God as if He is somehow "too holy" to even come near sin, but God Himself became flesh and died naked on a cross, the bible even says "he
became sin." If He hadn't dealt with sin before, He did it then, once and for all.
You have to accept His payment in order for it to count. Rejecting Christ is a choice.
It strikes me as strange that God would make that sacrifice knowing it would only "count" for a few of us. That He would punish ALL sin on the cross, but then punish AGAIN those who for some reason didn't get "saved" during their lifetime.
I think it's more likely that, just as none of us chose to be sinners but were
born sinners since we are children of Adam, we all will be saints because of what Jesus did. In fact, the bible says "how much MORE" about Jesus' work compared to Adam's. And it figures that when God Himself recitifies something, it's ramifications are greater and more encompassing than when a human messed it up.
I'm not a universalist, just thinking about those things, trying to figure out what the bible acutally says.
No, I don't, and I'd rather have you tell me instead of speculating.
