Part 38 of Post Your Tough Questions Regarding Christianity

... because it is what I believe. Yes, I admit that I do not know. That just means that I am not a fundamentalist.

 

Well gab I've pondered over those quotes but still I just can't come up with my own personal interpretation of them. Have you made your own personal interpretation? If so, can you share it?

I know St. Francis was a Catholic and so his quote I would imagine has some sort of religious/spiritual hidden meaning/message behind it.

I haven't done any research into Lao Tzu but I would presume he might have been a Buddhist monk, or perhaps a philosopher.

In my perspective/opinion, Lao's quote appears not to be as vague as St. Francis's quote.

Anyway it would be interesting to know what exactly did they mean by their quotes.

 

You don't even know what the real Ten Commandments are so how can you be trusted to interpret the biblical fairy tale?

 

Since you don't actually believe in the Jesus character, why do you keep yakking that you do? You can easily prove your faith. Walk outside and command the nearest tree to uproot itself and to jump into the nearest body of water. If it does as you command then you will be the only person in history to have ever had faith in the Jesus character. But if the tree doesn't do as you command you lack faith as everyone has lacked faith or else the Jesus character was a liar. BTW, I know how your experiment will turn out.

As a modern intelligent educated person of the 21st Century, why do you believe in ancient ethnocentric Jewish religious fairy tales from thousands of years ago? Are you incapable of rational thought or are you just gullible?

You are so foolish! Why do I say this? Because as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15 the dead do not rise, therefore the story about Jesus rising is a lie and your belief is worthless. It is obvious that someone has used his magical powers to make you forget that the dead stay dead forever and never, ever, return to the land of the living.

So, walk away from First Century superstitious beliefs and walk into the reality of the 21st Century. You will be a better person if you do that. Set yourself free from superstition or go sacrifice a goat.

 

They are accepted within the church, I mean after all everyone who goes to church are sinners themselves, so they are no different than the others in that respect.
But I guess there must be some churches that have a problem, I wouldn't be surprised at all, I mean there are hypocrites everywhere....yes, even in churches.

And no, God didn't make them the way they are (gay). Gays & lesbians are not born to be gays & lesbians. It's a life-style they have chosen. There are many other perverted sexual sins, homosexuality is just one among the many others. Let me present just a few more to make a point.

There is the perverted sexual sin of bestiality. So are these people born perverted to have sex with animals? The answer is no, they have chosen to engage in a sinful sexual perverted act with an animal/animals.

There is the perverted sexual sin of incest. So are these people born perverted to have sex with their own flesh and blood family member/members? The answer is no, they have chosen to engage in a sinful sexual perverted act with their own flesh and blood family member/members.

Just accept the fact that we human beings are a bunch of sinful people, that's why we need a Savior to save our souls. And by golly God Almighty has provided such a Savior. His name is Jesus Christ...Our Lord Savior!

We Read in Scripture:

10 As the Scriptures say,
"No one is righteous—not even one." Romans 3:10 NLT

Our Lord Savior Jesus Christ said,

16 “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.

18 “There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son. 19 And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. 20 All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. 21 But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants." John 3:16-21 NLT

 

OK - Either you believe that God is all powerful - or at least in control of this experiment - or he is not. The ancients discussed this conundrum - w/r to rooting out religious logical fallacy.

If you Choose A) All Powerful - then God created both Evil - and Homosexuality - and Transgender folks .. Nature that we see around us creates the whole spectrum

This introduces the concept of Free will - but note - that means we have granted the above - as to not do so is to live into hypocrisy - live into a walking contradiction.

You are trying to support an OT - One off "supposed" claim on behalf of YHWH -- War God - Son of Enlil - aka "the Most HIgh" "Creator" "Father" - and God of Abraham "Elyon, El Shaddai "

Tell you the God that honest Abe didn't know - YHWH .. Abe never heard of that name - The Most High God of Abraham's name was not YHWH ... but Enlil .. God of Gods .. head of the Divine Council .. Chief of the Sumerian Pantheon .. God who dwells apart .. in the Mountain.

Now these sons of the Most High "u.bni -Olium" literally "Sons of the Supreme one" in Psalm 82 "Sons of El" who is mentioned by name in this passage - https://www.scripture4all.org/OnlineInterlinear/OTpdf/psa82.pdf

Everyone knew who these folks were - Each Town had a Patron God - El had 70 Son's .. and he apportioned the nations to each .. YHWH's portion being Jacob Deut 32:8 - as per the Bible Prior to the MT sanitized Edition composed roughly 700-900AD

The rest of your post raged on about sins unrelated to "homosexuality.

A) God is All Powerful = God made homosexuality - caused it to exist ... Get it - Got it - Good .. !?

 

No I will not accept your hate filled claims of religious nonsense that humans are naturally evil.

First prove your zombie god exists.

 

I know it hasn't but how do you know about it? Has it only revealed itself to you? If so, you're like Moses. God revealed Himself to Moses by way of the burning bush. That's pretty much of how God's revelation to man started. So in what manner has this flying unicorn with purple ears revealed itself to you?

Not true about believing without question, if that were the case then it would be "blind faith" The Christian religion is not built around "blind faith".
Our faith is based on knowledge of God’s nature and character, the promises He made in the Scriptures, and from our personal experience walking with God every day.

We Read in Scripture:

11 And the people of Berea were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, and they listened eagerly to Paul’s message. They searched the Scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were teaching the truth. Acts 17:11 NLT

 

Thanks Much for your honesty!! Seldom does anyone here or elsewhere say the words "I don't know".
When St. Francis says...."What you are looking for...is already where you are looking from."
....where are you looking from at this very moment? I'm not referring to a country or room in your house...
I mean what is it that see's and interprets the words of St. Francis? And where is it located?

 

Down right despicable/atrocious/heinous/immoral act for them to do. Just goes to show you even the so called religious groups were/are prone into committing such acts....you might ask why? Well because again, human beings are sinful people, no matter which side of the totem pole you're on. However at least we Christians freely admit, we are all sinners, we have all transgressed against God's written commandments/rules.

We Read in Scripture:

10 As the Scriptures say,

"No one is righteous—not even one." Romans 3:10 NLT

 

Here's the problem. Homosexuality isn't a choice. It seems you can't differentiate between a sexual orientation and a sexual fetish. Fetishes are choice, orientation is genetic (a wiring issue).

And as for perversion, sex between two consenting adults is none of anyone's business other than theirs, unless they try it in public. One man's perversion is another person's delight. Gotta say I am disgusted by beastiality, but its like Fox News, each to his own.

I am truly sorry that " Love thy neighbor " requires the neighbor to qualify based on your perceived morals and prejudices.

The bible means many different things to many different people depending on their needs, desires and belief.

 

Well yes I agree but I go a step further to say our morality stems from God, I mean God is the source of our morality.

We Read in Scripture:

Building on a Solid Foundation

24 “Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. 25 Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock." Matthew 7:24-25 NLT

 

Don't worry I won't get you started. I'm appalled by the Catholic church blind eye, it was like they were condoning what these immoral priests were doing to these young innocent boys...so shameful indeed!

Obviously the leaders of the Catholic church were pardoning and forgiving these immoral priests for their sins. Part of it was also because they didn't like what the exposure would do to the church and so for many years they kept it a secret, until they couldn't keep it a secret anymore...they got busted.

Lastly, the unbiblical thing about the Catholic faith is that they have priests forgiving people's sins...that is not biblical because Scripture tells us only God can pardon/forgive sins. Since God is our Creator, who is sinless and all human beings are sinners, then only God can forgive our sins. So it would be unbiblical/illogical/blasphemy for a sinner (a priest) to forgive another sinner's sins.

We Read in Scripture:

5 For, There is one God and one Mediator who can reconcile God and humanity—the man Christ Jesus. 1 Timothy 2:5 NLT

7 “What is he saying? This is blasphemy! Only God can forgive sins!” Mark 2:7 NLT

21 But the Pharisees and teachers of religious law said to themselves, “Who does he think he is? That’s blasphemy! Only God can forgive sins!” Luke 5:21 NLT

 

Sorry Gift but I didn't "get it" because to be very honest with you it was all nonsense, nonsensical, and so I just left 3 words to remain in your quote? I had no idea what you were saying because everything you said was incoherent to me. Your equation at the end has no logical sense. You're saying because God is powerful, He created homosexuality...what kind of nonsense is that? That's ok no need to answer cause I know you're just going to spew out more nonsense.

 

Interesting that you are replying to posts made 8 years ago but not to posts made yesterday, could it be that you are just another Christian here to preach not debate!

 

'I did not say what you claim .. and so what you are saying is nonsense.

It is very simple logic - a question asked by the ancients for millennia - no need for a doctorate in Philosophy or Math.

1 - Premise: If God A) All Powerful and B) is the Creator of Humans .. this means that C) God could have created humans with what ever characteristics he wanted..

Do you disagree ? do you believe something other than this ? Is A or B not True ? or does C not follow from A+B ?

 

So you're suggesting or have this opinion that only gays have this genetic wiring issue. Again there are many other perverted sexual acts that are not normal, are not accepted behavior, homosexuality being one of them.

All other perverted sexual acts, in your opinion, do not have this wiring issue. What is your opinion based on? Was there some kind of study done to determine this?

Why couldn't bestiality be an orientation and homosexuality be a fetish? Actually all these perverted sexual acts are orientations and I guess you can say they are all fetishes too. There is actually really no difference because they are all abnormal, perverted, unacceptable sexual behaviors, furthermore those behaviors are the choices that people make, and not because they are born that way and have no other choice but to engage in their abnormal, perverted, unacceptable sexual behavior.

Your definition of orientation is flawed, because it doesn't mean genetic wiring issue, you've made that up. Orientation can be defined as: "familiarization with and adaption to a situation or environment." So a person's sexual orientation, for example, a gay's sexual orientation is the familiarization with and adaption to a situation or environment of having sexual relations with another person of the same gender by choice. Similarly, a pedophile's sexual orientation is the familiarization with and adaption to a situation or environment of having sexual relations with a child by choice.

Here's a sample/part of an article coming from my favorite Christian website that I subscribe to, that answers the question: "Can a person be born gay?" Click on link below if you want to read the article in its entirety.

In 1993, Dr. Dean Hamer, a pro-gay activist, made the astounding claim in his research that there may be a gene for homosexuality. His team of researchers began a series of gene linkage studies, in which families with several homosexuals underwent genetic analysis to determine if any chromosomal variants could be found in the family and if the variant correlated with those individuals who displayed the homosexuality. Although Hamer’s study sample was very small, he found a significant linkage between gays and a marker on the maternal X chromosome, Xq28. Additional studies with larger sample sizes produced conflicting results in the linkage to Xq28. It is important to note that Hamer’s experiments have never been validated; in fact, other groups of researchers have discredited Hamer’s work as non-replicable or even fraudulent.

https://www.gotquestions.org/born-gay.html

We Read in Scripture:

22 "Do not practice homosexuality, having sex with another man as with a woman. It is a detestable sin." Leviticus 18:22 NLT

 

No, homosexuality is accepted behavior by normal educated people, you need to understand that you are the perverted one here with your interest in what other consenting adults do in bed. Please get yourself treated for this abnormal interest in what others do in bed. Take a cold shower or something.

 

Yes my definition of orientation is flawed. We are dealing with a human condition and human behavior and the origins of that behavior.
I grant that its not entirely biological (genetics, brain chemistry/neurology). Neither it is entirely a choice of lifestyle or triggered by malnurture.


What I do know is that homosexuality and sexual practices in all their manifestations are part of the human condition. And I know that "perversion" is wholly subjective. What you think a perversion, I see as a harmless kink that if I was into, I wouldn't be advertising.

What I object to is people who wish to deny another human recognition as a person because of their sexual orientation. That is religious bigotry and personally I am offended when the religious attempt to impose their notions of "morality" on everyone else. Such misguided self righteousness as created some of the most shameful incidents in modern history.

 

Well it's because I truly and honestly do believe in the Son of God, Our Lord Savior Jesus Christ. I trust and have 100% faith in Him.

It's a wise decision for anyone to believe in Him. Anyone who doesn't believe such as yourself Gawd is making an unwise decision...to be more blunt...they're making a foolish decision. We read in scripture that only fools say in their hearts, "There is no God."

We Read in Scripture:

1 Only fools say in their hearts, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, and their actions are evil; not one of them does good! Psalm 53:1 NLT

 

There you go again, misinterpreting what is written in Scripture. So here I go again explaining what you're not understanding. And I know in the past I explained it to you but it appears you forgot all about it so you get another detailed explanation again. This time please copy and paste my post and keep it for your notes/reference somewhere on your PC because I'm going to give you a test in the future to see if you're learning anything....lol

Lots of people make the mistake of picking out certain verses, (so it's not only you Gawd) disregarding everything else in context only to come away with an incorrect interpretation of what they had just read. Sometimes things are to be taken literally other times it is not to be taken literally.

Let me give an illustration of this, I'm going to use the passage in Matthew 21:21-22 below:

21 Then Jesus told them, “I tell you the truth, if you have faith and don’t doubt, you can do things like this and much more. You can even say to this mountain, ‘May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen. 22 You can pray for anything, and if you have faith, you will receive it.” Matthew 21:21-22 NLT

Here Jesus is not to be taken literally, for He is not saying you can literally move a mountain into the sea by praying for it.

Removing mountains, and rooting up of mountains, are phrases very generally used to signify the removing or conquering great difficulties or getting through perplexities.

So, many of the Rabbins are termed rooters up of mountains, because they were dexterous (having or showing mental skill) in removing difficulties, solving cases of conscience, etc.

In this sense our Lord's words are to be understood. He that has faith will get through every difficulty and perplexity; mountains( great difficulties) shall become molehills or plains before him.

The saying is neither to be taken in its literal sense, nor is it hyperbolical: it is a proverbial form of speech, which no person could misunderstand, and with which no Christian ought to be puzzled.

So no Gawd, I'm not going to do what you're telling me to do to prove my faith, that would be ridiculously silly.

 

Likewise I did not say what you claim...and so what you are saying is nonsense...lol

Yes, A & B both are true but you're saying that God "could have" in C. Either He did, or He didn't so what's this "could have"? So you're not entirely sure, so that makes C invalid. Your simple logic failed here.

You can't be making things about God that is not found in Scripture. The Bible warns us that we should not add anything or delete/subtract anything in Scripture.

We Read in Scripture:

5 Every word of God proves true. He is a shield to all who come to him for protection. 6 Do not add to his words, or he may rebuke you and expose you as a liar. Proverbs 30:5-6 NLT

2 Do not add to or subtract from these commands I am giving you. Just obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you. Deuteronomy 4:2 NLT

 

As it says in Isaiah 41:23 the God character needs to do something to show that he is real. He hasn't done anything so far.

https://classic.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Isaiah 41:23

 

What ? .. If God is all powerful - and God created humans - then who is responsible for creating humans with the ability to do evil - if not God ?

My logic is solid as a rock... it is not about what God could have done .. it is about what God did do...

Obviously God could have created humans as robotic automatons -- who do nothing but praise God all day long - but - this is not what God did. God created humans with the ability and capacity to love a member of the same sex.. A + B = C

 

Short answer: We are responsible for our own actions/deeds

So we can't be blaming God our Creator who created us, shifting the responsibility on Him like it's His fault just because He is all powerful and He created us just doesn't fly no where.

He didn't create us just so we can have the ability to do wrong/evil, there's a couple of other things to consider, one of them is called doing good/righteousness, then there's this one last thing called free will.

So sorry mi amigo, your claim that God is responsible just doesn't fly/work. Here let me thoroughly explain.

God gave us the gift of free will, in other words it's up to us on how we want to use that free will, we can choose to do things that are good/righteous, or we can choose to do things that are immoral/wrong/evil.

God has told us in Scripture the things/actions that are immoral/wrong /evil, (For reference read the Ten Commandments/ Exodus 20) & (read Forbidden Sexual Practices/ Leviticus 18 ) These evil acts are things He does not want us to do. If we do any of them, then we have disobeyed Him and committed a sin.
We can also choose to believe in Him, or we can choose to not believe in Him. So whatever we decide/do, it's our own free will choices that we made.

God does not interfere with our free will choices, if He did then we would merely be His puppets, only doing what He wants us to do which is only doing the things that are righteous but as we know this is not the case, because if it was the case, then nobody would do any evil, being that God is perfectly righteous and sinless He would prevent us from doing anything wrong/evil and only allow us to do what is righteous.

Look around, do you see people only doing good/righteousness? The answer is no, thus we have free will and God does not interfere with our free will choices and so we are not His puppets and we are responsible for our own actions/deeds.

Your logic was flawed yesterday and still today it's flawed. Your last post you were quoted saying, "God could have created humans with what ever characteristics he wanted". But now you're changing it to "God created humans with what ever characteristics he wanted"

So yesterday in your post you weren't sure but now today you're sure? You are not being consistent with your logic. Furthermore, you are making things up in regards to what God did. You don't know what God "did" with respect to what you were claiming yesterday nor do you know what God "did" with respect to what you're claiming today.
So again you're making things up. Where in Scripture is there a passage where God tells us He created humans with what ever characteristics he wanted? and where in Scripture is there a passage where God tells us He created evil?...the answer is there is no where in Scripture where He tell us those things.

And if you bring up that passage in Isaiah, I will explain why people (like yourself) are misinterpreting that passage.

That's right we are not His robotic automatons (puppets). He gave us free will and I already pointed out to you above that He told us in Scripture there are immoral/wrong/evil acts that He does not want us to do. If we do break any of them, we have disobeyed Him and committed a sin.

If you're referring to homosexuality, point out the passage in Scripture where God tells us it is ok to have sex with a member of the same sex. Don't bother to look because there is no such passage anywhere in Scripture where God tells us it is ok.

But He does tell us about these Forbidden Sexual Practices found in Leviticus 18, that He does not want us to do, that I already pointed it out to you above. One of these forbidden sexual practices is the act/practice of homosexual relations.

We Read in Scripture:

22 "Do not practice homosexuality, having sex with another man as with a woman. It is a detestable sin." Leviticus 18:22 NLT