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To: Greek
We say, "there is a God, and we know Him personally." If we know Him, we can logically say He exists.

Hi Greek. This is kind of tangential to your post, but I hope you (and anyone else who's interested) won't mind indulging me in the following (it's been a few years since I've looked at philosophy, so I'm not going to do the syllogism thing):

To positively affirm that the God of the Bible exists because you know Him, does this not imply one of the following :

(a) The God that you know is finite, as opposed to the omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient God of the Bible. In fact, His limits coincide exactly with yours or are circumscribed by your limits.

(b) You are omniscient, if not also omnipotent and omnipresent along with God?

If you do not possess omniscience yourself, then how can you affirm that the God that you know is the same God, limitless in His knowledge, power and presence, to Whom you devote your Worship? If you are going to "logically say" that you know Him, must you not also admit the caveat that the entity which you know could possibly be a lesser entity than the almighty God of the Bible? To truly know that something is without limits, the knower must be without limits himself, or he must admit that the "knowee" could possibly have limits at some point beyond his (the knowers) own limits.
107 posted on 12/05/2003 1:31:35 PM PST by GETMAIN
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To: GETMAIN
"There's something that we human beings can do that God cannot do. We can do evil."

I would contend that sending a good person to eternal damnation in Hell just he didn't believe in you is evil."


God does not send any one to Hell. People choose of their own free will to go there. His hope is that all choose Him and go to heaven. Say a man jumps into the river and is drowning, you hold out your hand to save him, and he refuses to grab it and be saved and then drowns. Did you cause the subsequent drowning?
414 posted on 12/08/2003 10:09:01 AM PST by Greek
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To: GETMAIN
We say, "there is a God, and we know Him personally." If we know Him, we can logically say He exists.

"Hi Greek. This is kind of tangential to your post, but I hope you (and anyone else who's interested) won't mind indulging me in the following (it's been a few years since I've looked at philosophy, so I'm not going to do the syllogism thing):

To positively affirm that the God of the Bible exists because you know Him, does this not imply one of the following :

(a) The God that you know is finite, as opposed to the omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient God of the Bible. In fact, His limits coincide exactly with yours or are circumscribed by your limits.

ANSWER: NOT AT ALL. WHY WOULD THE SUBJECT OF A PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP BE LIMITED TO MY SHORTCOMINGS? LET'S SAY I KNEW JOHNNY UNITAS. I CAN PASS A BALL ABOUT 5 YARDS. DOES THIS MEAN HE CAN ONLY PASS 5 YARDS?

(b) You are omniscient, if not also omnipotent and omnipresent along with God?

ANSWER: MY POINT WAS THAT A UNIVERSAL POSITIVE ABOUT GOD'S EXISTENCE IS AT LEAST NOT ILLOGICAL ON ITS FACE, LIKE A UNIVERSAL NEGATIVE CLEARLY IS. I AM NOT SAYING I AM OMNISCIENT, I'M SAYING THAT THEW STATMENT, "THERE IS A GOD" IS NO ILLOGICAL.

If you do not possess omniscience yourself, then how can you affirm that the God that you know is the same God, limitless in His knowledge, power and presence, to Whom you devote your Worship? If you are going to "logically say" that you know Him, must you not also admit the caveat that the entity which you know could possibly be a lesser entity than the almighty God of the Bible? To truly know that something is without limits, the knower must be without limits himself, or he must admit that the "knowee" could possibly have limits at some point beyond his (the knowers) own limits.

ANSWER: THERE ARE SERVERAL WAYS TO AFFIRM SOMETHING BY WAYS EXTERNAL TO OUR OWN PERSONAL KNOWLEDGE. DO YOU DISPUTE THAT KENNEDY WAS SHOT IN THE HEAD AND KILLED? HOW DO YOU KNOW? IN THAT SAME WAY, WE CAN AFFIRM GOD IS THE GOD OF THE BIBLE BY SEVERAL EXTERNAL FACTS. TAKE THE PROPHECIES OF HIS SOM FOR EXAMPLE, FULFILLED TO THE LETTER. THE HISTORICITY OF JESUS AND HIS FULFILLMENT OF PROPHECY IS NOT SERIOUSLY DEBATED. THERE IS LEGION OF EXTERNAL EVIDENCE OF HIS VIRGIN BIRTH, CRUCIFICTION, AND RESURRECTION. READ "EVIDENCE THAT DEMANDS A VERDICT" OR "HE WALKED AMONG US" OR "MORE THAN A CARPENTER".
416 posted on 12/08/2003 10:19:56 AM PST by Greek
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