Why take such a stand against homosexuality?

[BigBadWlf]

Why exactly would an angel decide to stand in the way of God, to fight Him in a war that the angel knows would be completely unwinable? It just doesn't make any sense to me. Further, why would this angel be allowed back into Heaven, and instead of God doing anything about it, God simply asks, "Where have you been?"

I know what you mean. God and Satan seem awful chummy in Job. Hanging out on the patio together, doing tequila shots, inventing ways to make Job miserable and betting on how soon he cracks.

 

[b&wpac4]

I know what you mean. God and Satan seem awful chummy in Job. Hanging out on the patio together, doing tequila shots, inventing ways to make Job miserable and betting on how soon he cracks.

It's probably the best book for me to get the idea that Satan isn't against God, but God's agent to test mankind's devotion.

 

[LightHorseman]

I love my girl friends, and that love is called friendship, but if I touch them in a defiling way, that is wrong. Who am I to touch another member of my own sex that way and still call it ok? Should I then run out into the streets proclaiming that I touched a girl and I liked it?

Whats wrong with touching a woman you love in an intimate fashion?

I mean, specifically? If all you've got is "The Bible sez!" please don't bother.

 

[psalm1:3]

Why exactly would an angel decide to stand in the way of God, to fight Him in a war that the angel knows would be completely unwinable? It just doesn't make any sense to me. Further, why would this angel be allowed back into Heaven, and instead of God doing anything about it, God simply asks, "Where have you been?"

You have to understand that God knows all things. He knew that Lucifer would become corrupt. Once he did, he found that this was the perfect way to teach his children about right and wrong. If there was an opposition, then they would be given the chance to choose, instead of God telling us what to do. It is like a mother who home schools her children because she doesn not want them to experience pain. Is she truly giving them all that she wants for them? If they do not experience pain and suffering, then how will they learn to appreciate happiness? And if you think of it, after you found out that everyone who didn't follow you were to receive earthly bodies and treasures of knowledge beyond belief, wouldn't you want to take as many down with you as possible? Satan is the definition of evil itself. Revenge is placed in this category. He created it. He is taking revenge, and many of us are listening to his lies! We are allowing him to win over our lives if we continue to ignore God.
Why would you choose someone who deceives you for his own gain, when you could have miracles work in your life, and experience great joy from the one person who wants to save you from this monster?
This is Jesus. His father, God, gave his only son to help us. How much more love can God show you? The ultimate sacrifice. Even if no one loves you in this world, then rest on this. God loves you. You are as personal to him as a Father to a son. Why else has he given us the Bible, shown us miracles in our lives, given his son, inspired people to come to him, ect. The list goes on. He is saying by his acts, "Hello, if I didn't care, I wouldn't have tried all this time! I am here, and I will never abandon you."

 

[psalm1:3]

I know what you mean. God and Satan seem awful chummy in Job. Hanging out on the patio together, doing tequila shots, inventing ways to make Job miserable and betting on how soon he cracks.

yet, Job was put to the test, and he won. Are we not all tested? This is the reason we are here, after all. We have to show God that we choose him.
But if you kept reading, God gave Job 10-fold what he had in the beginning. He wasn't proving anything to Satan, he was giving Job knowledge. Knowledge that you cannot buy in a store, or create yourself. Even if God took away all that I had, I would follow him, because I would know that I was being set up for something greater than I could ever imagine. And I wouldn't miss it for the world.

 

[b&wpac4]

You have to understand that God knows all things. He knew that Lucifer would become corrupt. Once he did, he found that this was the perfect way to teach his children about right and wrong. If there was an opposition, then they would be given the chance to choose, instead of God telling us what to do. It is like a mother who home schools her children because she doesn not want them to experience pain. Is she truly giving them all that she wants for them? If they do not experience pain and suffering, then how will they learn to appreciate happiness?
....

I've spent a lot of time studying all this stuff, really I have. I have reached my own conclusions on the issues and on what I believe. I do not discredit anybody's belief or understanding, as I am just a man and I cannot know everything. I only know what made sense for me and what I believe. I don't feel like I am "following the devil" or anything like that. I don't wish to debate who is correct and who isn't so much, even if I do get drawn into it from time to time. I'm glad what you believe makes you happy. What I believe and what I am going to follow makes me happy.

 

[UncleHermit]

People can say God tells them anything.

Interesting...

The objective direction from God is generally found in religious texts which have stood the test of time.

What, God doesn't like personal communication?

 

[LightHorseman]

Bump

I contend that if homosexuals were given equal rights and accepted in society, they wouldn't have such parades either. Those parades are about raising their issues and heightening public awareness. Personally, I find them fairly distasteful, but it is a tactic to promote equality. If you think it is merely because homosexuals define themselves thusly, I rather think you're missing the point.

Consider, if YOU were a member of a villified minority with a history of being persecuted by an uncarring society that traditionally looked the other way, do you think possibly YOU might try to raise your public profile or social awareness? And if so, would that mean you therefore defined yourself by your membership in that minority?

As for your claim that there aren't "heterosexual parades", just what do you think New Orleans Mardis Gras and Rio's Carnivale are?

 

[psalm1:3]

It's probably the best book for me to get the idea that Satan isn't against God, but God's agent to test mankind's devotion.

how can you say that Satan is his advocate? He tested God in the first place. But God had a better plan. He made Satan think that he was giving into his test, but actually, God had something big planned out for Job. After all this life passes, it won't matter how many wives we had, or how many riches we had, or even how many sheep we had in the pen. What will remain is the knowledge God provides us. And that is what God gave to him.
You can only see the pain that Job went through. Should you pitty the baby bird that the mother boots out the tree - yet see him flying high above his nest moments later? Should you curse the mother who sends her child to college - only to find that the child became a doctore - saving hundreds of lives? Would you curse God for giving his only son to die for our sins, just because he died a horrible death? - only to find that this was the greatest love God could have shown?

The message of life is LOVE! God loves us, and so sometimes, yes, we have to go through hurting times, but it is for our own good and for our experience, that we may excel to our greater purpose through Jesus!

 

[b&wpac4]

how can you say that Satan is his advocate? He tested God in the first place. But God had a better plan. He made Satan think that he was giving into his test, but actually, God had something big planned out for Job. After all this life passes, it won't matter how many wives we had, or how many riches we had, or even how many sheep we had in the pen. What will remain is the knowledge God provides us. And that is what God gave to him.
You can only see the pain that Job went through. Should you pitty the baby bird that the mother boots out the tree - yet see him flying high above his nest moments later? Should you curse the mother who sends her child to college - only to find that the child became a doctore - saving hundreds of lives? Would you curse God for giving his only son to die for our sins, just because he died a horrible death? - only to find that this was the greatest love God could have shown?

The message of life is LOVE! God loves us, and so sometimes, yes, we have to go through hurting times, but it is for our own good and for our experience, that we may excel to our greater purpose through Jesus!

I feel as if you misunderstand me, but that's fine. Please read my previous post.

 

[psalm1:3]

b&wpac4

Do not feel like you are being dragged into this whole idea of Christianity. Immerse yourself in it. Take it in for all it's goodness. You do not need to spend one more day confused. What will make you happy is not just studying the scriptures, but allowing the scriptures to study you. The Holy Bible is the only book on earth that when you read it ... it reads you. Why? because it speaks to our heart and our spirit.

We were meant for more than this (meaning life). You were meant for more than this.

I know you feel content with the path that you have chosen, but you would not believe the joy that you experience when you choose to follow Jesus. He takes all the burdens you carry away from you. He takes all the shame that people have given you. Through life, all the people who have said, "Shame on YOU!" He comes along and says

"Shame off you."

Takes you in his arms and says, "I accept you as you are. Walk with me and I will show you greater things than you could ever know. Follow me."

 

[UncleHermit]

But if you kept reading, God gave Job 10-fold what he had in the beginning.

Sucks to be his children, I guess. What did they get 10-fold? Death?

 

[psalm1:3]

Sucks to be his children, I guess. What did they get 10-fold? Death?

no the chance to be with their heavenly father again. he brought them home. and as followers of Christ, this is all we strive for, is that God will bring us back to him. back home.

 

[UncleHermit]

b&wpac4

Do not feel like you are being dragged into this whole idea of Christianity. Immerse yourself in it. Take it in for all it's goodness. You do not need to spend one more day confused. What will make you happy is not just studying the scriptures, but allowing the scriptures to study you. The Holy Bible is the only book on earth that when you read it ... it reads you. Why? because it speaks to our heart and our spirit.

We were meant for more than this (meaning life). You were meant for more than this.

I know you feel content with the path that you have chosen, but you would not believe the joy that you experience when you choose to follow Jesus. He takes all the burdens you carry away from you. He takes all the shame that people have given you. Through life, all the people who have said, "Shame on YOU!" He comes along and says

"Shame off you."

Takes you in his arms and says, "I accept you as you are. Walk with me and I will show you greater things than you could ever know. Follow me."

Why shouldn't I have any shame for the wrong things I've done? Is shame bad?

 

[UncleHermit]

no the chance to be with their heavenly father again. he brought them home. and as followers of Christ, this is all we strive for, is that God will bring us back to him. back home.

Why doesn't God just kill us all now, then? Sounds like the flood was actually a blessing...Maybe it's Noah who was cursed?

 

[LightHorseman]

no the chance to be with their heavenly father again. he brought them home. and as followers of Christ, this is all we strive for, is that God will bring us back to him. back home.

I'm always faintly amused that the people who not only justify, but somehow revel in God's destruction of children in the old testament because those children get to be with God all the sooner, are invariably the same people who decry abortion as abhorrent. I realise this is off topic, but it is one of those doublethink cases that always strikes me particularly hard.

 

[psalm1:3]

shame does horrible things in our lives. it stops us from having a relationship with god. because god is holy, we feel as though we havn't measured up, so we run away and continue doing these wrong things in our lives, not knowing the root of why we are doing them.

but Jesus came along and gave us the opportunity to release us from our shame.

 

[psalm1:3]

I'm always faintly amused that the people who not only justify, but somehow revel in God's destruction of children in the old testament because those children get to be with God all the sooner, are invariably the same people who decry abortion as abhorrent. I realise this is off topic, but it is one of those doublethink cases that always strikes me particularly hard.

we do not completely understand what happens to these souls after they were destroyed, but understand this. they were wicked people. not only were they disobeying god, but they were having intimate relationships with angels of god. and giving birth to giants. not only this but they were doing all manner of evil continually. they didn't feel shame. but this happened before christ came. today no matter how evil someone is, as long as they come to christ, they will not be destroyed.

 

[UncleHermit]

shame does horrible things in our lives. it stops us from having a relationship with god. because god is holy, we feel as though we havn't measured up, so we run away and continue doing these wrong things in our lives, not knowing the root of why we are doing them.

but Jesus came along and gave us the opportunity to release us from our shame.

Are you saying that if I've done something wrong, I shouldn't feel bad about it?

By the way, welcome to the forums! You should expect a lot of questions, though...

EDIT: I didn't mean you in particular, just that any new person should expect such.

 

[UncleHermit]

we do not completely understand what happens to these souls after they were destroyed, but understand this. they were wicked people. not only were they disobeying god, but they were having intimate relationships with angels of god. and giving birth to giants. not only this but they were doing all manner of evil continually. they didn't feel shame. but this happened before christ came. today no matter how evil someone is, as long as they come to christ, they will not be destroyed.

Wait a minute, it's evil to not feel shame? Why does Jesus remove it, then? Is He making us evil?