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Misc All Things Religious

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A point of fact to the beginning of the universe, science does not state there was nothing before the big bang, there are lots of theories out there about what state the universe was in prior to the big bang...but nothing is a commonly accepted one


The reason none is accepted, there is no natural possibility! It must be SUPER NATURAL ( DIVINE ) ! Bless your heart!
 
A point of fact to the beginning of the universe, science does not state there was nothing before the big bang, there are lots of theories out there about what state the universe was in prior to the big bang...but nothing is a commonly accepted one
You sure about that?
 
You sure about that?

Yeah for the most part science admits it does not understand the universe state prior to the big bang and there are a lot of theories out there as to what the universe was prior to the big bang but science also says it is beyond the ability of science to know what was occurring....this article touches on some of them briefly and I have seen lots of others....but nothing is not a prevalent one.

 
You gotta stop with this condescending stuff. It’s showing your immaturity


I apologize if I come across as condescending. it should be quite the contrary. I know I'm not as smart as most people, so it's frustrating when the obvious is so hard to see. You guys are too intelligent to blindly follow what you do.
 
LOL....I don't understand it so it must be magic sky daddy who did it.....


It's not I don't understand, It is you are trying to justify a belief system (religion) that has a terrible flaw. It is one that runs out of gas when it get's to the part it has to make logical sense. It is a belief that everything naturally occurs, but the natural laws of physics say no way. even the made up pseudo science of natural evolution needs super natural help. You really can't see that?
 
Yeah for the most part science admits it does not understand the universe state prior to the big bang and there are a lot of theories out there as to what the universe was prior to the big bang but science also says it is beyond the ability of science to know what was occurring....this article touches on some of them briefly and I have seen lots of others....but nothing is not a prevalent one.


Science does not understand a lot of things that are nevertheless taught--shall we say--as religious dogma.

With regards to the universe before the Big Bang, I think you’re playing a bit of semantics. The universe did not exist as we know it--and most believe what became the universe was contained in one subatomic particle--that's basically nothing.

Either way, my original point still stands. The Bible and science share much common ground if one is willing to admit it--and that goes for people on both sides of the divide.
 
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With this ... Dear brothers, I bid you goodnight ...

Small wheel turns by the fire and rod
Big wheel turns by the grace of God
Every time that wheel turns 'round
You're bound to cover just a little more ground ...
 
What year is it? Why is it dated two thousand and twenty?

well that depends on who you ask. The world agreed to use the Gregorian calendar for simplification and since it is the closest to a actual revolution of the earth around the sun however there are numerous other active calendars......the Gregorian for instance is based on the Julian calendar which is currently on year 2773. The Hebrew calendar is on year 5780, China is on 4718 ( year of the rat ), the Muslim calendar is on year 1441....these calendars are all still in use...

 
well that depends on who you ask. The world agreed to use the Gregorian calendar for simplification and since it is the closest to a actual revolution of the earth around the sun however there are numerous other active calendars......the Gregorian for instance is based on the Julian calendar which is currently on year 2773. The Hebrew calendar is on year 5780, China is on 4718 ( year of the rat ), the Muslim calendar is on year 1441....these calendars are all still in use...

Oh good grief,...... you know what he was referring to.
 
I do but the reason they use that calendar isn't Jesus.....which is what he was referring too.

Are you saying that Jesus is not the basis for the year 2020? It may not be important one way or the other, but that just isn't the case. Even though the world has jettisoned B.C./A.D. for B.C.E/C.E. (Before Common Era/Common Era), the dividing point is still Jesus. Sure, there are other calendars, but the VAST majority of the world recognizes that we are in the year 2020.
 
Are you saying that Jesus is not the basis for the year 2020? It may not be important one way or the other, but that just isn't the case. Even though the world has jettisoned B.C./A.D. for B.C.E/C.E. (Before Common Era/Common Era), the dividing point is still Jesus. Sure, there are other calendars, but the VAST majority of the world recognizes that we are in the year 2020.

That's not what I was saying, I am saying that the world did not decide to all get on the Gregorian calendar because it uses Jesus's birth as the starting point for the common era....that's all I was saying, the world deciding to use that calendar has nothing to do with Jesus birth.

Lots of other parts of the world also recognizes other years as well, especially places like the China and Israel for instance, they still rely and use their calendars alongside the Gregorian one...

Maybe I read to much into NCSNOW post, the point I thought he was making is the year 2020 is because of Jesus and that is correct but that is not why that calendar is the one we use.
 
That is why I know this is all BS, there is no god if there is a god it certainly isn't the Abrahamic one....A person could take a whole class to address this one sentence but without a creator God there would be some serious issues with how matter and life even came to be. Numerous scientific principles and laws would have to be violated, such as matter coming from no matter, life coming from no life (biogenesis), statistical imposibilities (such as the odds of all the correct proteins lining up on a DNA strand in the right order at the right time just to form the simplest bacteria (the odds would be considered statistically impossible by scientific standards, though "science" states it happened anyway by chance alone), the multiple issues with natural evolution, etc. The Abrahamic God is a creator and personal God, which would be necessary. The universe would have to be created, as it could not create itself, and God must be outside of that universe. God is suppose to be perfect yet he creates imperfect beings, then punishes them for being imperfect.... this is not the correct way to understand "punishment." We were created because God is creative in nature and wanted to have relationship with part of his creation (similar to how we feel about our children on Earth). Sin (and acts of sin) create a seperation between us and God. Why? Because sin is anything that is against the nature of God. This separation can ultimately lead to complete and eternal separation, which is what we call Hell. The first people chose to go against the nature of God and so all people are born into a sinful (seperated) world with a tendancy (nature) towards sin. Hell is a consequence of that seperation. Despite that, we at least see the possibility of God, but many do not to want a relationship with (and thus remain seperated from) Him. We either seek that relationship or we don't, but God loves us too much to force us into His presence eternally against our will. unless you worship him and constantly asking him for forgiveness for making us imperfect. The purpose of worship and prayer are to grow our relationship with God, help us learn more about him and ourselves, and say thank you. Forgiveness is about cleansing hearts and minds, being freed from the bondage of hurt and sin, and experiencing emotions like love and grace. God does this for us and we are suppososed to do it for each other. Oh and God wont prove he exist you just gotta have faith and believe if you fail to do those things then well off to hell with ya....I understand the frustration here but the faith part is essential. If God was sitting on a mountain somewhere many would just say, "yeah there's God over there so I believe it but that's enough" I think God wanted us to choose to love him, because forced love is not really love at all. Faith brings in things like intention, selfless love, desire for knowlege and connection. If some people only pursued those because they see him on a mountain would it be genuine? However, God provides plenty of evidence, many just don't want to see it. do you really think a eternity in hell ( eternity for crying out loud ) is a "just" penalty for someone like me.....should I burn in hell forever, do my sins really equal that kind of punishment. Hell does any crime really deserve that kind of punishment.....well I can think of a few but really its ridiculous. I touched on some of this above. Hell is total seperation from God. No love, no growth, no comfort, no relationship, no anything that is part of the nature of God. Take all those out of our expereince and one gets the picture of a pretty dismal place. But we're all born with this seperation from God. Unless we choose something different (finding relationship with God) there's no other place to go to. It's not so much of a "punishment" as it is a natural consequence. Being "good" has nothing to do with where we go. The whole reason for Jesus is that you cannot earn your way out of Hell. Only God's love, grace, and a relationship with Him can do that.

Just adding my two cents in blue above. You have some very valid questions and I think you are wrestling with some of the fundamental issues surrounding life, death, and the possibility of God. There are some wonderful resources if you really want to find answers to some of your biggest questions. Check out a guy named Ravi Zacharias on Youtube, he is a very compassionate and wise speaker. Norman Geisler and Frank Turek are two others.
 
So if there was no penalty of hell would you go around murdering and raping people, steal from your neighbors etc? To be blunt, many, MANY people throughout history have done exactly this, and largely because they had no moral comapss or didn't think morality existed at all. If there is no God, how do we come up with a moral standard to say muder and rape are wrong to begin with? Do we use what you or I think is "moral and good?" Do we use what 3rd century Egyptians thought? Do we use what Hitler thought? Mother Teresa? There have been plenty of people and cultures that thought rape and murder was perfectly moral, even desirable. Animals do it all the time and we don't judge them by a moral standard. Science says we are just animals. If morals are just what we as a current collective culture think (ie. laws against muder and rape) then those things aren't wrong or immoral, or even bad, they are just illegal. To say it another way, if there is not absolute morailty then we really have no basis for jugding something as "immoral' or "bad" and have no "right" to punish people who are acting based on what they think is right for them. Is your belief in God the only thing that prevents you from doing all those things? Well, even people who don't believe were created in His image and have Gods' morality "written on their hearts" (They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus. Romans 12:15-16) but becasue of our separation from God that has been corrupted by us and many choose to ignore it. Even so, if there were no God, our deeds would have no morality and wouldn't untimately matter anyway.

Also I am not messed up nor am I desperately in need of redemption....at all. I don't need to believe in a god to be a good person....I don't need the promise of everlasting life or the threat of eternity in hell to do the right thing. Remember that "being a good person" or "doing the right thing" has no meaning unless there is a standard to measure it against. The standard has to be outside of you, me, or culture for it to have any real meaning. A good person today might be considered a bad person tomorrow or in another culture. I agree that most people have a general sense of "good and bad" or "shoulds and shouldn'ts" (CS Lewis in Mere Christianity) but they fall well short of God's standard.

Just wanted to add a couple of thoughts on this one as well.
 
Just adding my two cents in blue above. You have some very valid questions and I think you are wrestling with some of the fundamental issues surrounding life, death, and the possibility of God. There are some wonderful resources if you really want to find answers to some of your biggest questions. Check out a guy named Ravi Zacharias on Youtube, he is a very compassionate and wise speaker. Norman Geisler and Frank Turek are two others.
I really like that guy. I listen to him weekly on BBN.... Super intelligent and quite the speaker.
 
LOL....I don't understand it so it must be magic sky daddy who did it.....
"plata o plomo", translates from Spanish to "silver or lead", meaning "money or bullets"..... so simple, the biggest decision one can make in life. Heaven or hell. You say for a fact (99.9) there is no God. But, you and I can not prove it. Yet, you just want it to be true ( most likely you don't like to follow rules or the idea that you have to obedient). I understand, but, how silly of a risk and reward choice is it? Very poor reasoning in any angle you look at it. You over think things and can not see the forest for the trees. Plata o plomo for eternity, choose wisely.
 
"plata o plomo", translates from Spanish to "silver or lead", meaning "money or bullets"..... so simple, the biggest decision one can make in life. Heaven or hell. You say for a fact (99.9) there is no God. But, you and I can not prove it. Yet, you just want it to be true ( most likely you don't like to follow rules or the idea that you have to obedient). I understand, but, how silly of a risk and reward choice is it? Very poor reasoning in any angle you look at it. You over think things and can not see the forest for the trees. Plata o plomo for eternity, choose wisely.

LOL ok...…I cant prove there is no god no more than you can prove there is....I don't need a god to live my life "right" or do good things. Its like you guys think I should pretend to believe in god in case there is a hell? I mean how do you even do that....I am 100% certain that the Christian god does not exist, or any other god conceived by man.....I leave that .01% chance out there simply because I cant prove it, I as a realist and objective person acknowledge there could be that miniscule chance of some kind of creator higher power whatever.....even if that thing does exist it is not God/Jesus etc.
 
LOL ok...…I cant prove there is no god no more than you can prove there is....I don't need a god to live my life "right" or do good things. Its like you guys think I should pretend to believe in god in case there is a hell? I mean how do you even do that....I am 100% certain that the Christian god does not exist, or any other god conceived by man.....I leave that .01% chance out there simply because I cant prove it, I as a realist and objective person acknowledge there could be that miniscule chance of some kind of creator higher power whatever.....even if that thing does exist it is not God/Jesus etc.
Just saying, .1 is all it takes. Forever... Silver or lead.
 
LOL ok...…I cant prove there is no god no more than you can prove there is....I don't need a god to live my life "right" or do good things. Its like you guys think I should pretend to believe in god in case there is a hell? I mean how do you even do that....I am 100% certain that the Christian god does not exist, or any other god conceived by man.....I leave that .01% chance out there simply because I cant prove it, I as a realist and objective person acknowledge there could be that miniscule chance of some kind of creator higher power whatever.....even if that thing does exist it is not God/Jesus etc.
Did you ever ask yourself the question "What if I am wrong?" What will happen to me when I die?
 
Did you ever ask yourself the question "What if I am wrong?" What will happen to me when I die?

There was a period in my teens when I was questioning everything and feeling guilty and all that, I would legit lie awake at night worrying about just that.....if I am wrong I will burn in hell blah blah..... it took a while for me to shed all the conditioning that I had been pumped full of for 15 yrs.....

I have not worried about going to hell for 30+ years since I know such a place does not exist.
 
There was a period in my teens when I was questioning everything and feeling guilty and all that, I would legit lie awake at night worrying about just that.....if I am wrong I will burn in hell blah blah..... it took a while for me to shed all the conditioning that I had been pumped full of for 15 yrs.....

I have not worried about going to hell for 30+ years since I know such a place does not exist.
How do you know? Sounds to me like you are just in denial. When you are on your death-bed, you will feel differently.
 
How do you know there is a god? I am far from in denial, I wont feel any different on my death bed....
You say that now, but one day, your feelings will change. I can assure you of that. I am not trying to be mean, I just know that you can't possibly tell me how you will feel when you are staring death in the face.
 
Now would be a good time for the rapture, come Lord.

The great thing is, amongst all this uncertainty, I know where my future lies.

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:38‭-‬39 NIV
 
So the complexity of everything around us just happened. You can believe that a Timex watch is taken apart completely and placed in a plastic bag and then all on its own all the pieces came together and it kept time perfectly. The fact is, if there is a design, there is a designer. Each one of us are uniquely made and we have a creator that loves us with an unconditional love. Yes, there are things we do not understand, but we all live in a sinful word. Look around at the beauty that God has created. Read his word and allow him to change you. For it is by grace that we are saved and what a wonderful gift it is.
 
MATHEW chapter 24;
24 Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. 2 “Do you see all these things?” he asked. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”

3 As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”

4 Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. 6 You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of birth pains.

9 “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. 10 At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, 11 and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. 12 Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13 but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

15 “So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’[a] spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand— 16 then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 17 Let no one on the housetop go down to take anything out of the house. 18 Let no one in the field go back to get their cloak. 19 How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! 20 Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath. 21 For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again.

22 “If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. 23 At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. 24 For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. 25 See, I have told you ahead of time.

26 “So if anyone tells you, ‘There he is, out in the wilderness,’ do not go out; or, ‘Here he is, in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. 27 For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 28 Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.

29 “Immediately after the distress of those days

“‘the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light;
the stars will fall from the sky,
and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’[b]
30 “Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth[c] will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.[d] 31 And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.

32 “Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. 33 Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it[e] is near, right at the door. 34 Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. 35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

The Day and Hour Unknown
36 “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son,[f] but only the Father. 37 As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 39 and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 40 Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.

42 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. 43 But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. 44 So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.

45 “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? 46 It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. 47 Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 48 But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, ‘My master is staying away a long time,’ 49 and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. 50 The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. 51 He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
 
Hopefully god would judge me on my actions and not whether or not I believed in him or not.
Unfortunately if we were judged soley on our actions NO ONE would make it to Heaven. Everyone of us would fall miserably short. The reason belief is important is not for the sake of believing, or because God needs it from us, its because only faith can drive us to choose to pursue a relationship with Jesus who bridges the chasm between us and God.
 
No matter the circumstances or what this world throws at us, God will never forsake us. Amen!

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
Psalms 23:4 NKJV
 
Today is proclaimed a National Day of Prayer

And this is a good one. Anne Graham Lotz is an amazing prayer warrior




Father God,

In a world of famine, floods, and fire; disease, death, and the disruption of our everyday activities, on this day when the President has called for a National Day of Prayer, we choose to look up…from our knees. We see You seated on the throne of glory, in control of all things.[1] All things. We know that You are a God of mercy, of grace, of faithfulness, of loving-kindness.[2] So we reject fear of the coronavirus and its impact on our lives, and instead, place our faith in You. You have said that Your ears are open to our cry,[3] that Your eyes are upon us,[4]and that Your arms are long enough to reach us[5] and strong enough to hold us.[6] Hold us now. Hold us close. Quiet our racing hearts. Breathe Your Spirit of peace into the fear and turmoil within us.

Even as I pray for Your peace, I wonder…could this wicked, insidious, evil virus be the trigger that sparks a spiritual awakening in our beloved nation? Are You trying to get our attention, demanding that we wake up in our relationship with You? I know we desperately need to wake up.

We have legalized defiance of Your institution of marriage; we celebrate relationships that contradict Your instructions; we exterminate life that You created and that bears Your image…for our own convenience; we have become so secularized we don’t even acknowledge You exist, much less reverence or obey You.

You have my attention. Therefore, like the prophet Daniel of old, I turn to You in humility and shame as I confess on behalf of America some of the national sins that come to mind…[7]

  • I confess national addiction to sex. To money. To pleasure. To entertainment. To pornography. To technology. To drugs. To alcohol. To food. To television. To popularity. To ourselves.
  • I confess our foolishness of denying You as the one, true, living God, our Creator to whom we are accountable, living as though our lives are a cosmic accident with no eternal significance, purpose or meaning.
  • I confess our greed that has run up trillions of dollars of national debt.
  • I confess our arrogance and pride that has led us to think we are sufficient in ourselves.
  • I confess to believing that the prosperity of our nation is because we are great while refusing to acknowledge that all blessings come from Your hand.
  • I confess that we depend upon our military might and our weapons systems to protect us from harm and danger while denying, defying, and ignoring You.
  • I confess that we have succumbed to the pressure of pluralism in our desire to be inclusive so that we honor other gods as though You are just one of many.
  • I confess that we have allowed the material blessings You have given us to deceive us into thinking we don’t need You.
  • I confess that we live as though material wealth and prosperity will bring happiness.
  • I confess that we have marginalized truth and mainstreamed lies.
  • I confess that we have become one nation under many gods, divided and polarized, with license to sin and justice that no longer follows the rule of law.
Holy Spirit of the living God, convince us of the need to turn away from our sin and get right with You.[8]

Lord God, have mercy on us! As we repent of our sin and return to You, return to us! There is no one like You to help the powerless against this mighty disease. Help us, O Lord our God, for we rely on You and in Your name we come against this vast, invisible enemy.[9]

Once again, we hold You to the promise you gave to King Solomon. You said, When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land, or send a plague among My people, You said if My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, You said then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. You said, Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to the prayers…[10]

We hold You to Your word as we plead with You. Hear our prayer. Forgive our sin. Heal our land. We are standing in the gap for our nation.

We pray in the name of the One who is Our Deliverer. Our Beautiful and only Savior. Lord of the nations. Son of God and Son of Man. The living, reigning, soon to return Lord of lords and King of kings, Jesus Christ.

In His name and for His glory we pray,

Amen



[1] Isaiah 6:1

[2] Ephesians 2:4; 2 Corinthians 9:14; Exodus 34:6.

[3] Psalm 4:3

[4] Psalm 33:18

[5] Isaiah 59:1

[6] Psalm 139:7-10

[7] Daniel 9:1-19

[8] John 16:8

[9] 2 Chronicles 14:11

[10] 2 Chronicles 7:13-15
 
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