Hi
Uncle J
That seems like a very insecure "god" to me and really doesn't make much sense.
He's an awesomely powerful God, but His testimony to us does seem to explain that He has feelings and emotions of love and concern similar to ours. He is not insecure, but He does care for us. And I think maybe I should explain that God has promised that the eternal life will be one of joy, peace, satisfaction and love for one another as we live upon the new earth. The purpose for God's separating the wicked from the righteous, isn't because of His insecurity. It's because that's how He will provide that eternal existence that He has promised us. He has to separate the wheat from the chaff, as the Scriptures describe it, so that there won't be any unrepentant sinners. The people for whom God is going to provide the eternal life that Jesus describes for us is going to be those who have believed Him. Everyone else will be set somewhere else. A place that Jesus describes as being an existence of torment. Not by the hand of God, but by virtue that we'll be living an existence with all of the wicked and, if we believe the Scriptures, all of the demon angels.
So, it's not some insecurity in God's nature that He's going to do this separating. And it's not some insecurity in His nature that He's going to save those who accept His offer of grace and forgiveness. It will be His fulfilling that for which He created this realm
Look, God started out in the beginning making man. He told man to go forth and multiply and as things went along He told us of our nature to sin, but that we could overcome the penalty for that sin, by trusting in His Son. The baby that He prepared for us as His servant to come and testify to us who his Father (God) is and what his Father wants for us and how His Father wants us to live. Then, in accordance with the requirement of his Father that some sacrifice had to be made for our sin to be washed away/overlooked however you want to put that, he made that sacrifice for us. God used the very hands of His own people that He had raised up and for some 1500 years had had them performing the Passover observance. Those Jews that were trained in the Passover, then completed the final Passover requirement for our eternal destination.
If you read the Scriptures, where it talks about the law when Moses was giving it to the people, there was no mention that keeping that law would give them eternal life. No, the rewards for keeping the Mosaic law were all merely blessings to be received in this life. It wasn't until Jesus paid that ultimate sacrifice that the Jews had been practicing for 1500 years that anyone would be found worthy to be saved. That, my friend, is why it's called 'the new covenant'. It is not going to be like the old one when He brought them forth from Egypt. God says that!! That exact explanation is in the Scriptures.
He is not insecure. He is working out a wonderful plan to save some of us. It's available to all of us, but the Scriptures are pretty clear that not everyone is going to take advantage of it.
Flat-earthers can say the same thing. Heck, anyone who believes in anything, no matter how bizarre or contrary to observed reality, can.
No, flat earthers just think that somewhere in there, in God's choice of metaphorically speaking of the earth, He has used metaphors that represent flat things, but they're just metaphors and it is only to describe a certain character of the creation. He speaks of the four corners of the earth, to make a metaphorical expression to denote that He's speaking of the whole earth. Flat earthers have grabbed on to that and claim that means the earth is flat because God speaks of it having four corners. And there are a couple of other similar uses of metaphorical language that do point out a flatness, in the metaphor. But God's word never says that the earth is flat and in Job we read that the earth is a circle suspended in the universe. And we have pictures to deny that reality. Not so on this issue of the creation, do we have any pictures that we can take of the creation event. It's done! It's over. But we can still look at the earth and see that it isn't flat.
They're confused and without understanding. And it's sad, the damage that they do to the cause of Christ in looking so silly. And I imagine that you could say the same thing about me. But I don't believe the statement, "For in six days God made the heavens and the earth and all that is in it." is metaphorical.
So please, I hope you don't liken my testimony as being the same as the flat-earthers.
Any faith that teaches that knowledge is bad isn't for me.
Right, I understand that, but that does appear to be an understanding of God, and God does know that it's going to happen. In fact, one of the notations of things that will be happening as we get closer to the end is that knowledge will increase greatly upon the earth. Now that's knowledge, not wisdom. The knowing of things. And yes, if the account of the Garden and the tree that sits in the middle of it is true, God did have some resistance to Adam and Eve gaining that kind of knowledge. For now they know of good and evil and we must not let them eat from the tree of life any longer.
Now, if that's a personal issue with you, that you feel it's wrong that you can't spend your life searching to know everything about everything that you can bring to your mind or desire. then so it must be.
Nope, I sure don't. My default setting with most things is to doubt it until I see sufficient evidence to conclude otherwise. As soon as I hear "you have to have faith", that's usually enough to make me walk away.
Got it.
God bless,
Ted
