Quote:
Originally Posted by Villages PL
But that wouldn't explain all the different forms of worship from the beginning of recorded history, like sun worship etc. What good is instilling a need with no focus? We have the Jewish religion that believes Jesus was just a philosopher and the Christian religion that believes Jesus was the son of God. Did God plan it that way?
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kittygilchrist
If man wants to know God, he comes as a seeker who does not know, but longs to.
It is God's work to reveal himself...it is beyond man's ability to force an intellectual meeting with the Almighty on a field of challenge that man chooses.
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While I cannot provide a definitive answer to the two questions that VPL asked, if I understand what kitty is suggesting, and that being that man has blocked his “approachability” with denial or a heart that disallows God’s entreaties, then the result will be something other than God’s intended goal.
God’s freewill gift to us is both a blessing and a curse. The blessing is that we can choose faith or no faith. The curse is that we can choose faith or no faith. Two or more people, each having shared identical experiences, will rarely, due to filtering through their own personal histories, end up with indistinguishable conclusions; similar, perhaps, but rarely identical. Our freewill (and what a powerful and liberating gift [except for its simultaneous curse]) is perhaps one of the most valuable gifts that God has given to mortal man, second only to His Son which delivered, to us, Grace. We can choose. We can choose right or wrong. We can choose life or death. We can choose to have faith or not to have faith. We can choose to believe or not to believe. Or can we?
I believe in God. It is comforting to know that the Triune has been forever. It is comforting to know that the Triune will be forever. While I must admit that it is a challenge for me to comprehend, before the Big Bang, that there was no time and that there was nothing but an infinite singularity, there is some comfort in knowing that there was/is “something out there” that is greater than mankind. I believe that something to be God.
I am additionally pleased that it is not up to me to judge the belief of others nor is it up to me to judge the unbelief of others. I do think it is sad that the non-believers have no source or no anchor on which to lean when their worlds are falling apart. The opposite of that is also sad; to whom do they turn when they want to thank “someone” for the extraordinary lives that they may be living: or do they think that it is all of their own doing? (Sadly that used to be me. Gladly that used to be me).