Why would a God desire to be praised/believed?

[TL15]

I used to have the same argument too and logically sin doesn’t exist and no one should be held accountable, punished and condemned to hell if God as they say knows all and knows the beginning and end of lives. It doesn’t make sense.

God: you’re going to kill a man tomorrow at 4 PM, and you’re going to hell for it

Killer: how do you know this?

God: because I’m God I know all and see all

killer: why don’t you stop me, you’re going to ruin two lives

God: because killing him is going to be your choice, I’m just telling you it’s already going to happen

killer: so you know I’m going to kill someone ahead of time, it’s already going to happen, I can’t avoid it, but you’re telling me it’s my choice

God: see you in hell

 

[Yungin]

Christianity holds that Christ is God. And that Christ is the Redeemer. Therefore, God is the Redeemer. Out of his love, he sacrificed himself to be the redeemer of humanity. You see, sacrifice is an act of love.

I have a question. Is jesus dead (meaning gone and no longer exist) or is he chilling in heaven with God? Think about it, if he’s in heaven with God then that means God never lost “his only son” so what did he sacrifice??? I’m interested in your answer

 

[CodeBlaMeVi]

God: you’re going to kill a man tomorrow at 4 PM, and you’re going to hell for it

Killer: how do you know this?

God: because I’m God I know all and see all

killer: why don’t you stop me, you’re going to ruin two lives

God: because killing him is going to be your choice, I’m just telling you it’s already going to happen

killer: so you know I’m going to kill someone ahead of time, it’s already going to happen, I can’t avoid it, but you’re telling me it’s my choice

God: see you in hell

​

Then some Christian lip service is said “Everything happens for a reason.”

 

[invalid]

Free will is a myth if God is a timeless and omniscient being

if God sees all and knows all, then he knew my fate before I was born. He knew how my life would start and end. He knows if I’ll turn left or right. He knows my last breath.

If he knows all of this than it is predetermined. My life is more of a movie than a video game.

OR

if I have free will and the ability to choose where I go, if he doesn’t know my future because I determine it, and not him, he is not omniscient

The debate about free will and God’s omniscience is a better debate to be had than some of the other things posed in this thread. It shows a more maturity of mind and more of a maturity about the nature of God.

I can’t answer this question with certitude as it’s a debate that is still being debated with great arguments on both sides.

But here are my thoughts on that the line of questioning.

Thought 1 -

If humans exist within the confines of time.

And God exists eternally.

Can we say time really exists?

The answer is both yes and no.

Yes, the existence of time is very real to us.

But it does not exists for God.

Because it does not exists for God, is it right to say that it doesn’t exists at all?

I don’t think we can say that.

If we can say time is a reality that exists for humans and not for God.

Can other things, like free will, be applicable as well?

Thought 2 -

Foreknowledge =/= Pre-Determined
Foreknowledge =/= Pre-Destination

Thought 3 - Future Knowledge vs. Past Knowledge

Because God sits at a vantage that is eternal, is it right to say that:

1) God foreknew the decisions that you would make?

or

2) He knows the decisions that you would make, because, from the vantage point of eternity, you have already made those decisions?

In other words, since God is not constrained by time, he’s the beginning and the end, in his omniscience, does he know what you will do before or after your decisions are made?

I think there is a thin line here.

If I can use another example:

If God knows you will choose B tomorrow, will you choose B because He knows you will? Or will He know it because you will choose it? In other words, will he know it because you have already chosen it from his end vantage?

Human are living a linear progression in time.

God knows the end, because he is the end, and the end has already happened.

We are just living it out within the constraints of time.

Anyway, like I said, those are just my thoughts. I don’t have a finite answer, and again, there are legitimate arguments on both sides.

 

[invalid]

I have a question. Is jesus dead (meaning gone and no longer exist) or is he chilling in heaven with God? Think about it, if he’s in heaven with God then that means God never lost “his only son” so what did he sacrifice??? I’m interested in your answer

What do you mean by ‘lost’?

In the confines of time.
Christ was sacrificed.
He died.
And was resurrected.

Christ is God.
How can God ‘lose’ himself?

 

[Cyrus' Wife]

Regarding free will...God can be omniscient and know how everything is going to end and still let things play out in the same way that a parent might know you well enough to know how you'd react if you - as a rebellious teenager for example - were left alone in the house for the weekend but they still left and let you "secretly" have the house party because they knew the only way you grow as a person is from your mistakes. This actually happened to me growing up and from all the damage done to my house and to my own pride, I learned to be a lot more responsible and careful about who I called friend and who I let in my life (and in my house).

God's ways are higher than our ways and He sees the big picture of everything from the beginning of time all the way to the end of time as we know it. It doesn't mean we as human beings will always understand the Divine ways of God but we know that although He already knows ahead of time what we will do, He still allows us to make choices for ourselves even if He would prefer we go another way. That is the essence of free will and perhaps it's because a lot of times growth and success only happens for the more rebellious humans (like me) after learning from our failures and missed opportunities.

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

It’s wild how much less I believe in god than I did a decade ago and I definitely was an anti theist. I legit forget people still believe in this shyt some times.

 

[Bmezy]

Praise...no not necessarily is it desired.
Belief...yes absolutely it is desired.

God created human beings out of love. He sacrificed Himself for that love and did not spare Himself pain in the process so belief in who He is and how much He has sacrificed for us is a must.

After fully understanding and believing in who God is and God's immense love for us (i.e. only someone who loves/cares for you would submit ahead of time to dying painfully on a cross for 3-6 hours) then you WANT to praise Him for that.

This is just my opinion as a Christian respectfully. I am much more a spiritual person than a religious one so it is my spiritual relationship with God and witnessing Him bringing me through various things (losing my parent at a young age/losing my sibling/suicide of a close friend/homelessness/health issues etcetera) that I can say God is real and I encourage you all to try Him and believe in Him for yourself. No harm in trying. God is real, His sacrifice was real and His love for you is real. He does want you to believe in Him but it is not required that you praise Him because if that was all He wanted then He could easily just create robots to do that all day long but instead God gave us free will to CHOOSE him or to reject him.

Above all God desires for us to have a close relationship with Him because He loves us. Relationship is key not religion. And God also wants us to see our existence in the context of eternal life as opposed to just this short earthly one.

annointed post.. u got the oil brudda!

 

[Bmezy]

@Cyrus' Wife curious to know how you navigate discourse with ppl afflicted with the spirit of reprobation (reprobate mind) or (stony heart)
I reallly love Jesus and get offended easy and can’t hang out in threads like these too long lol .

 

[Cyrus' Wife]

@Cyrus' Wife curious to know how you navigate discourse with ppl afflicted with the spirit of reprobation (reprobate mind) or (stony heart)
I reallly love Jesus and get offended easy and can’t hang out in threads like these too long lol .

Hi there

I usually just lurk on this site but sometimes I feel God prompting me to respond like in this thread so I do and I feel like sometimes it's maybe just to plant a seed that may not bloom until years from now in someone's heart or thought process. But everyone needs to hear and continually be reminded of how much God loves them and sacrificed for them and is wanting a personal relationship with them.

I had the same questions and cynicism that many of the posters here did before I got saved and I have Atheist friends as well so I understand where they are coming from but at the same time I think so many people don't truly understand that God/Jesus is not so much about religion but Relationship with a capital "R". It's all about Relationship and finding out who God is for yourself and not from religion which has been used and misused often for nefarious human purposes. There's no harm in trying a personal relationship with God out in my opinion.

 

[Breh Obama]

the god in the bible is a jealous, insecure murderer


-always worrying about other gods being praised

-sent jesus on a suicide mission, just so he could take credit for it

-killed everyone on earth, in a giant flood

-murdered every firstborn child in egypt


the last one kills me. christians getting self righteous about abortion, when their own god supposedly killed every firstborn child in egypt in one night

Christian's are the absolute dumbest people on Earth

 

[MMS]

Again, like I prefaced my other responses, as a Christian, there is. However, I’m not going to stop you from defining what truth is for yourself. You have that free will.



This is another example of what I mean by remedial within the Christian context.

Edit: I’ve used remedial wrong. It doesn’t mean what I think it means. It sound very negative in the first place and that’s not what I wanted so I went to look for synonyms.

I’m going for a word like infantile, childlike, beginner, can’t really find the world that I’m looking for.

But....



This poster appears to not be aware that God specifically sent Christ to die. There would be no reason for him to do anything about it, because that’s what he wanted him to do in the first place.

This is basic Christianity 101.

How this has been missed by this poster, I legitimately have no idea.

God, when pronouncing judgment on Adam and Eve, in the presence of Satan in Genesis, told them that he would be sending Christ to redeem them.

God’s plan all the way in Genesis would be for Christ to be crucified which is how he would redeem them.

In fact, it was Satan that tried to prevent Christ from being crucified because he knew what that meant for him and for humanity.

This poster (no offense to you @CodeBlaMeVi) is saying that Hinduism, Buddhism, and some other religions ‘sound’ better than Christianity, and he doesn’t even have a solid footing on even the basics at a molecular level.

To be fair, there are a multitude of people that enter seminary school and leave having lost their faith. I have nothing to say to that because I know at least 1) They would proclaim that they thought they had a relationship with God and 2) that they would have done a rigorous and critical study of the faith and adjacent faiths like Judaism and Islam and analyzed historical records, accounts, etc. If you can come out of that process without meaningful reconciliation, there is nothing I can say.

But those who would have considered themselves Christians and are posing infantile/childlike questions around things like the above quote, as an adult, you should have been moved beyond that at this point. I don’t see maturity or even a basic understanding of what Christianity is with these line of questions or objections.

slow down breh

lets digest this scripture first:

Matthew 16:20-28

20 Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ.

21 From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.

22 Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee.

23 But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.

24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

26 For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

27 For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.

28 Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.

What is the purpose of Fate?

if Genesis 1 is true...all things are declared. Meaning the whole of creation was uttered with a single page of text.

 

[MMS]

here is a thought experiment for believers in this thread...if God uttered the world into existence then...

Do we write the word or does the word write us?

the more you meditate on this more you will get closer to true understanding (the word is alive and interdimensional)

 

[Yungin]

What do you mean by ‘lost’?

In the confines of time.
Christ was sacrificed.
He died.
And was resurrected.

Christ is God.
How can God ‘lose’ himself?

How did God “sacrifice” himself??? He’s God…he’s not dead and will always exist so please tell me how and what he sacrificed?

 

[MMS]

How did God “sacrifice” himself??? He’s God…he’s not dead and will always exist so please tell me how and what he sacrificed?

Why did you walk away from religion/god?