Adam's recent posts

Recent public posts (showing 1-8 of 61).

Hey RC,

In your post above you wrote "There is no reason you have to accept this premise, as Jesus himself rejected it." I was just curious what you meant by this, was there a verse where Jesus said sin orginated from somewhere else ? I couldn't recall reading anything to suggest that which is why I'm interested to see if that's what you meant ... either that or I'm not interpreting what you said correctly.

Thanks Dan,

Looks like I need another Coffee, it should read:

I agree that God does good things and not bad things, but the bad things are allowed to happen.

Hey Dan,

Perhaps I am one of the few Christians that don't agree with the statement "Everything happens for a reason."

I think that God can use any situation to his and our advantage and helps us through hard times, often we learn lessons in these times.

I agree that God does good things and not bad things, but the bad things are allowed to happen. But I don't agree that it means only humans can do evil. I know that you guys don't believe in God but I know that you are not evil. Sure there is a part in all of us that sins and that is the evil part but there is a lot of good in everyone. I think at times we don't give Satan enough credit for the evil things he does.

I'll vote 1 too.

It looks lime we are confusing God's plan with him knowing what will happen. It's God's plan when he intervenes. Otherwise God knows but the event was not made to happen as part of the plan.

For example if my car broke down on the way to work today I would not think it was part of God's plan. If I ended up talking to the tow truck driver about faith and he was in a bad situation then I might think it was part of God's plan.

If I got a promotion, it may or may not have been part of God's plan, but also it's possible it just happened.

I don't mind buddy Christ but perhaps we need something more generic ? Otherwise we might discourage Muslims, Buddhists e.t.c ?

Or maybe I'm just over thinking things.

Hey Rick,

Sounds a little like you wanted Jesus to do magic tricks. He was sent to help the Jews understand that there was to be a change in the way things were, that they were no longer condemned by the law but saved by him.

So he was sent primarily to prepare the Jews for a new way of living which would send them to teach the Gentiles instead of avoiding them.

He could have done the things you mentioned but it would not have helped with his mission, and perhaps if he did you would claim that somebody had edited the text to account for his knowledge of Pi. So in any case the sign may have been ignored.

Hey Dan,

Just wanted to share some of my views on praying, thought it looks like the type of praying we are talking about here is praying for things we want.

With your point 'a' I think this comes down to your belief in fate or not. I believe that the decisions we make are for the here and now and that we make history every moment we live. A lot of people just cruise by in life on the assumption that all that will happen will and there is only one way things can turn out.

So I believe that the world and God present me with challenges everyday and it's up to me to decide how to face them. I do also believe that when we pray for things we don't change God, I don't think that I can give him a good argument which makes him do things for me. Rather what happens is when I pray I deepen my desire for things and increase my faith in that which is not seen. By doing so I can bring things into reality through what I believe. We are told that by faith we can do these things.

This sort of faith however is not limited to Christians alone, I have heard of a Japanese religion called 'Soka Gakki' which has successfully healed cancer patients. We believe that this is possible because these people can influence the world in a similar way that we can although not through God but through Satan.

For 'b' I think that God knows all and yes he has a plan for us. So I think that God will know what is going to happen no matter what we choose and I know that often we don't choose the path which God had hoped we chose but that is the way things work out if we are to have free will.

For 'c' we can get what we want even if we don't pray for it assuming we take the proper Earthly paths. The way I see it, there are two ways to get things, Earning them in society or praying for them. The praying manipulates the Earthly way to bring it into reality.

For 'd' Yes I do, He can over-ride our prayers at times to give us something that he deems more beneficial for us. Other times he gives us what we asked for even if it's not best and we can learn a lesson from these times. A friend of mine for Church was told she couldn't have children and tried for 8 years, then she prayed for patience and got a child with ADHD. Perhaps not the way she intended to have paitience.

I know that it's really hard for people when they pray for someone who is ill and they do not recover but remember that we can't live forever in this world. No matter what you believe one day our time will be up. A lady from our Church died from Cancer a year back and despite all the Church praying for her we could not save her, but she was amongst other cancer patients suffering with them and sharing the good news of God to them.

I think there are cases like this where there are certain diseases that you simply cannot understand the gravity of the situation until you are in it. I think that she would not have been able to effectively minister to them without being able to relate to them in this way. Her husband having seen her go through this is now a Chaplain at the cancer ward and he has talked to a lot of people who consider what life is all about in their final days.

That does not mean that I think God gave her cancer or that I am happy this has happened to her and her husband. I do think that God used her where she was and turned a bad situation into a better situation. The type of cancer she had would have made her life very difficult if it had stretched out her life.

In response to the final sentence Also, why would God, if he is so loving, not just do whatever's best for you whether or not you pray for it I would like to say God never promised Christians that life would be easy. He told us he'd be there to help us through the hard times. We know that through suffering we develop perseverance and character. So he allows us to endure the trials of this world so that we may have a stronger character.

I'd also like to point out that this is what I believe as best as I can express it and perhaps other Christians would disagree with me. I know one point I and other Christians disagree on is whether if I needed a car I could pray for a sports car or a family car. I believe that we are entitled to ask for nice things not just the bare minimum for our requirements as long as we don't let these things corrupt us.

Cheers all.