Comments on: Polygamist Sect Encouraged Fear
Children At Texas Compound Were Told That The Outside World Is Hostile And Immoral
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What is this way out of our predicament? First, we must understand that the offer of reconciliation with God is extended to us as a gift (Romans 6:23). A gift must be accepted for it to be of any use -- otherwise it remains a perpetual offer. A gift cannot be earned because then the gift is no longer a gift -- it becomes wages for a job done (Ephesians 2:8-9). We must approach God individually in humility to accept the gift God is offering to us.
To accept the gift of reconciliation that God offers us we must understand that we are imperfect sinners who cannot save ourselves (Romans 3:23). Also, we must understand that God, as the determiner of all truth and morality, is just and true. As sinners, unless we reconcile ourselves with God then we will die in our state of sinfulness and will be punished eternally (because our offenses are against an eternal God) as the just treatment for our state of sin. Yet, while God is just and must punish us for our sins He is also merciful and has extended to us the gift of salvation.- Reply to this comment
- trust it to tell us the truth about worlds of which we do not know. Therefore, the Bible must be open to scrutiny to prove its trustworthiness. As those seeking truth with an open mind, we have examined the Bible and found it to be perfect and without error. Therefore, since it has no errors we read it as the source of all truth and study it to learn what we must know about both God and life on earth.
With the Bible as our guide for life and morality we know how we must submit to God and how we must act in order to live a life that pleases him. In the Bible we read that mankind has chosen to separate themselves from God because we humans have failed to meet His standard of behavior and conduct (Romans 3:23, Isaiah 59:2). This failure is called "sin" because of the Old English archery term. In archery contests if an archer failed to hit the mark the judge of the contest would yell out "sin". Thus, whenever we sin we fall short of God''s standard for us -- perfection (Matthew 5:48).
Since no one is perfect morally we seem to have no hope. In fact, we as humans could not rectify this situation, no more than a drowning man can save himself by pulling on his hair to lift himself out of the water. Yet, God extended mercy to us by making a way for us to be saved out of this situation (1 John 4:9-10). - Reply to this comment
- As people searching for truth with an open mind, we must conclude that there is a source of truth which is bigger than the universe and which gives meaning to all of life. This source of truth must also be personal. We know the source of all truth to be personal because the universe in which we live had a beginning. Having a beginning, the universe must have been caused because it obviously had a starting point. If the universe had a beginning it must have had either a personal or impersonal cause. Since there is no such thing as spontaneous generation (an impersonal cause) the universe must have had a cause which is personal. This personal source for the universe and the truth within it is God Himself.
If God exists and if He gives meaning to the universe then we as His creatures must submit ourselves to him. Fortunately, we have not been left groping in the dark for information about this God, as some would claim. Instead we have the Bible, a book which claims within itself to be the truth of God. If this is the case we must also question the Bible in our search for the truth. If the Bible, which claims to speak to us of realities beyond this world, is true then it must be internally consistent and unable to make any mistakes. If there are any inconsistencies in the Bible concerning the truth of this world then how can we trust it to tell us the truth about worlds
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- Voltaire!
People must approach life with a desire to seek out truth and an open mind to honestly judge the truth value of what is real. Truth is here defined as that which corresponds to reality and that reality is that which is perceived by all people, not any given individual''s perception of truth. For example, if any person can, through their senses, determine that the computer you are viewing this on exists then it is real and it exists in truth. A Christian must also be someone who will seek truth in reality.
In a search for the truth, one must realize that if there is no source of truth which is larger than the universe itself then there can be no truth shared by all people in the universe. In other words, if there is no source of truth bigger than the universe then all truth is merely that which can be perceived by any given individual or group of individuals. The belief that there is no truth larger than the universe itself is the philosophical system known as relativism. If everything is relative then all of society and all of life falls apart because there is no basis for ethics, morality or cooperation between human beings. What may be true for one person may not be true for me. Taken to an extreme this philosophy decays all of society because there is no means for stating that any action is right or wrong. A person can kill if they so desire because it is true for them.
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- Only the firstborn of the egyptians were slain because pharoh refused to heed the warnings of Moses.
. . . A lesson for those who refuse God,s warnings,
Listen and obey, or it will cost you dearly.
Posted by jankebenz at 04:21 PM : Apr 12, 2008
Actually, on further reflection, I guess another lesson to learn here is that no matter whether you act morally or not, you might be struck dead based on something as fortuitous as the choices made by someone you have absolutely no control over, so there really is no fear-based reason to act morally.
Atheists, like myself, who act morally because it''s the right thing to do, don''t need scary examples like this to convince us to treat others as we would want to be treated. As for declaring god "supreme," I really don''t get that, does god have an inferiority complex? - Reply to this comment
- Only the firstborn of the egyptians were slain because pharoh refused to heed the warnings of Moses.
. . . A lesson for those who refuse God,s warnings,
Listen and obey, or it will cost you dearly.
Posted by jankebenz at 04:21 PM : Apr 12, 2008
Actually, on further reflection, I guess another lesson to learn here is that no matter whether you act morally or not, you might be struck dead based on something as fortuitous as the choices made by someone you have absolutely no control over, so there really is no fear-based reason to act morally.
Atheists, like myself, who act morally because it''s the right thing to do, don''t need scary examples like this to convince us to treat others as we would want to be treated. As for declaring god "supreme," I really don''t get that, does god have an inferiority complex? - Reply to this comment
- Pretty easy, the difference between the 2 testaments is that in the n.t. a new era arrives when God sent his son Jesus to preach the good news (gospel)and to die for our sins (an ultimate sacrifice of love). . .
Only the firstborn of the egyptians were slain because pharoh refused to heed the warnings of Moses.
After 10 plagues of warning and loosing his son,pharoh finally relented and declared God as supreme.A lesson for those who refuse God,s warnings,
Listen and obey, or it will cost you dearly.
BTW,the events of what happened to the egyptians are documented by hieroglyics on various monuments and stones in Egypt
Posted by jankebenz at 04:21 PM : Apr 12, 2008
Okay, but you haven''t explained all the contradictions between the Old and the New Testament, which can only mean that God is not perfect because he changes his mind about morality.
Furthermore, I have no use for a god who kills innocent children because of something a pharoh does or refuses to do. Not only is it silly and stupid, it''s just plain cruel, so the "lesson" here, if there is one, is that god is arbitrary, capricious, and at best, stupid. - Reply to this comment
- then why''''d he pull the ol'''' switcheroo between the Old and the New Testament? And, how do I know he isn''''t still trying to make up his mind? Further, the following doesn''''t seem to me to be a sign of someone with perfect character, but I''''m sure reasonable minds will differ (not): "And at midnight the LORD killed all the firstborn sons in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn son of the captive in the dungeon. Even the firstborn of their livestock were killed. Pharaoh and his officials and all the people of Egypt woke up during the night, and loud wailing was heard throughout the land of Egypt. There was not a single house where someone had not died." (Exodus 12:29-30 NLT)
Posted by Voltaire333 at 03:08 PM : Apr 12, 2008
Pretty easy, the difference between the 2 testaments is that in the n.t. a new era arrives when God sent his son Jesus to preach the good news (gospel)and to die for our sins (an ultimate sacrifice of love).This event was predicted to occur throughout the old testament.
Only the firstborn of the egyptians were slain because pharoh refused to heed the warnings of Moses.
After 10 plagues of warning and loosing his son,pharoh finally relented and declared God as supreme.A lesson for those who refuse God,s warnings,
Listen and obey, or it will cost you dearly.
BTW,the events of what happened to the egyptians are documented by hieroglyics on various monuments and stones in Egypt - Reply to this comment
- i wear a thong, does that make me a *********
Posted by bdrlnt4rl at 12:47 PM : Apr 12, 2008
Well, that depends, you may have grown up from a ***-puppy to a ho-dog - Reply to this comment
- faith comes by righteousness, although miracles often confirm one faith.
Posted by jankebenz at 02:55 PM : Apr 12, 2008
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Are you so tunnel-visioned that you believe that religious people have a monopoly on righteous? Are you so naive to believe that only religious people have morals?
Why is it that the majority of the U.S. cities with high crime rates are in republican (moral?) states? Three of those cities are in Texas, a very republican and extremely religious state. LOL... Maybe that''s why the polygamists relocated there.
Why is it that the majority of the U.S. cities with low crime rates are in democratic (low or no morals?) states?
Why is it that so many "religious figures" such as Ted Haggerty, Jimmy Baker, Jimmy Swaggert, et al, are so easily corrupted by sin?
I would think that if god is so omniscient and omnipotent that no religious person would ever DARE to step off the line.
Duh... Omniscient and omnipotent are mutually exclusive terms. If god is "all knowing" why doesn''t she do something about all the "bad" things? - Reply to this comment
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