“our father, who art in heaven…”
what?
“OUR FATHER, WHO ART IN HEAVEN”
what?
“God damn it”
OK.
Why couldn’t (or wouldn’t) your God hear/accept repentance so that it was necessary for Jesus to die? What bizarre set of circumstances did your God allow to happen that set that shit up, and why?
Well, first there was this garden and 2 newbies -and a tree with some really neat fruit - you know, the kind that allowed you to know what good and bad was - then god allowed a snake to talk to the girl - said it would be ok to eat that fruit - I mean, its a fucking talking snake - it was just a voice before that talked to them telling them one thing, why not believe a talking snake - after all, if you don’t know what good and bad is, how would you know which was which or that dieing was this bad thing?
Then god said - you idiots, now you know stuff and you might become like us - I curses you my precious - and all your kids - for all eternity - and then the kids did what kids do - and had alot more kids that disagreed on what good and bad was so god said “fuck it, lets flood the place and start over” so he did - but he started over with the kids from the first set and told them he would never do the flood thing again, because it was like really harsh and shit - and he gave us rainbows.
then he sent his son to make up for all that crap - and after he died he gave a stoner some big revelation about how he was gonna destroy everything in great big ball of fire and start over - because, well, it aint a flood.
I’ve always thought that was incredibly stupid. Did he actually expect them to behave differently? Even I could have told him that was a bad idea. You’d think he would have known better, being god and all. :smack:
What Christian sect do you follow, and which Bible guides you?
I’m a non-denominational Christian. Many sects of Christianity aren’t needed to explain Jesus’ message and only seem to cause confusion and divisions. One sect believes that there aren’t any modern prophets, another believes that speaking tongues doesn’t exist anymore, and then another does not believe in tithing etc etc. I believe that both modern day prophets and speaking in tongues both exist in this day and age and I also believing tithing as well.
No specific bible guides me because they all pretty much say the same thing but I do read the KJV and NIV versions the most.
I don’t think he was asking about translations* but rather, actual different collections of books that get called “the Bible” by different Christian groups. For example, some groups include the various books called “Maccabees” in their collection, while some don’t.
There are at least four different such collections I know of.
Which one do you consider to be the right collection, and how do you know it?
*Or maybe he was, I don’t know.
**jesusguy **I’d really like to try to understand the issue raised by **Snowboarder Bo **and **Simster **above. How come God had to kill Jesus to be able to hear our repentance?
How does that work exactly?
It’s like John Doe said in Se7en. If you want people to listen, you can’t just tap them on the shoulder. You have to use a sledge hammer.
At least, that was his justification for his psychopathy.
Jesus was the perfect sacrifice for the atonement of our sins. Jesus had to die to restore our relationship with God because sin(we’re all sinners) seperates us from God. James 5:16 says the prayers of the righteous are powerful. Keyword is “righteous”. Sin is unrighteousness which prevents our prayers or repentance from being heard. Accepting Jesus as our savior makes us righteous in God’s eyes.
What is this “James 5:16” of which you speak? I am very interested in reading this profound new revelation, and would have done so already had I not been frustrated in my attempts to find a source.
Why does God need sacrifices when he supposedly already owns everything?
Why was Jesus “perfect sacrifice”?
What is “sin”? who/what decides what a ‘sin’ is?
Couldn’t God, since he created these ‘rules’, simply have changed the rules without requiring a human sacrifice?
Doesn’t God getting pleasure from killing himself(albeit very temporarily) remind you just a bit of autoerotic asphyxiation?
Wait, so only the prayers of the righteous can be heard. The righteous are those who have accepted jesus as their savior. So anyone who has accepted jesus as their savior has powerful prayers? What’s the difference between powerful prayers and the regular kind? Cuz it looks an awful lot like prayers get answered in the same way across the board: whenever god feels like it.
What about god’s plan? That oddly undefinable thing that gets invoked whenever someone doesn’t want to have to explain why their prayer wasn’t answered. What if the prayers go against it? What about the powerful ones?
You have to pray in ‘accordance with gods will’ or that ‘his will be done’ - which basically means that your prayer doesnt matter, since God will do what he wants anyway.
Which is in direct contradiction with “whatever you ask for in my name you will get”…
The fanwank for that is to get picky about what “in my name” means.
Exactly-“You can have whatever you want…as long it is something that I want too”.
Cite.
So in other words you make it up as you go as you go and change it when it is convenient for you.
That sounds like a typical Christian denomination to me.