Posted on 02/22/2006 8:38:05 AM PST by SirLinksalot
One God, but many "gods".
So, when someone prays to God, who hears, where does the prayer go? Is there a religion filter?
Why?
When one prays to God, God hears it. When one prays to one of the "gods", the prayer is wasted. There are many places in the Bible, where it tells us to pray to God and also warns about worshipping "gods" as they are worthless and worshipping them relegates the person praying to worthlessness. I'm not sure how many religions worship the God of the Bible, but it would seem most of the major religions do.
Why was he definitely not a Deist?
In my estimation, Washington's accomplishments far exceeded Voltaire's.
If we agree that there is only one God, then there is no God of the bible, or the Torah, or the Quran, or any specific one, there is just God.
If a non-Christian prays to God, how does the one and only God, not hear that prayer?
Bookmarked/later read.
In my estimation, Washington's accomplishments far exceeded Voltaire's.
As a bullshitter?
That was the context.
So9
from page
The God of the Bible is the God of the Torah, but many who worship God are not Christians (most Jews for example). God hears all prayers, but He will not heed those who pray to "gods". The Bible contains a story of a prophet putting a pile of wood out and exhorting them to pray for their god to burn the pile. When they fail, he douses the pile with water and beseeches God to set it on fire, at which time it is totally incinerated.
The main point being, that if prays to God, God listens, if one prays to some idol or other false god, noone hears the prayers.
Have you ever been in combat and heard men crying out for their mothers? They know she can't intervene, but they do it anyway, because it brings them comfort, and it is a natural thing to do. I believe it is the same type of thing with Deists praying.
I think that was inferred from the Josh Speed letters.
Didn't those who worshipped Baal, etc, believe that they were worshipping God? What does it matter how you see God in your own mind, if there really is only one God? God being omnipotent, can easily manifest Himself in any way He may want, to anyone He wants.
I do not believe there really is any way of knowing what God hears...it's just in our faith.
And they go to God's bulk mail folder or trash bin.
Most prayers are silly selfish negotiations, forwards of forwards, scams, or outright spam.
And God doesn't read the prayers of Seahawk fans, He simply filters them straight to trash.
Obviously.
..."Diary and Remembrances" of the Rev. Nathaniel Randolph Snowden, an ordained Presbyterian minister, graduate of Princeton with a degree from Dickinson College. The original is owned by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Mr. Snowden was born in Philadelphia January 17, 1770 and died November 12, 1851. His writings cover a period from youth to 1846. In his records may be found these observations, in Mr. Snowden's own handwriting: ...[snip]
Mr. Snowden, as if to emphasize the piety of Washington sets forth in his records that he often saw Washington, that he accompanied seventy other clergymen to visit him on the anniversary of his birth February 22, 1792. Then Mr. Snowden adds:
"I felt much impressed in his presence and reflected upon the hand and wonderful Providence of God in raising him up and qualifying him with so many rare qualities and virtues for the good of this country and the world. Washington was not only brave and talented, but a truly excellent and pious man of God and of prayer. He always retired before a battle and in any emergency for prayer and direction."
"When the army lay at Morristown, the Rev. Dr. Jones, administered the sacrament of ye Lord's supper. Washington came forward at ye head of all his officers and took his seat at ye 1st table, & took of ye bread and wine, the Symbols of Christ's broken body and shed blood, to do this in remembrance of ye L J C & thus professed himself a Christian & a disciple of the blessed Jesus."
USHistory.org
Cordially,
Pretty self-contradictory assertions there. Deism has always rejected the notion that "God" controls every detail of what happens on Earth, and knows every thought that every person has, etc., and certainly rejected the notion of predestination. But leaving behind a God who is involved in everything from the war in Iraq to what color a teenage girl paints her fingernails for a date, leaves a very wide range of perceptions of the degree to which God may choose to, or be persuaded to become involved with certain affairs on Earth, and to which God may wish to ensure the eventual dominance of one "side" over another in history.
It actually makes more sense for a Deist to pray, than for what is today widely regarded as a Christian. If you believe that God may or may not choose to get involved in particular matters, it's worth praying as a means of drawing God's attention and persuading God to get involved. If you believe that God already knows everything about everything, and perhaps also believe that God has predestined the outcome of every action on Earth, and certainly of the general course of history, praying for God to bring about something or other doesn't make much sense. Both types of believers may engage in prayer in part as a way of listening to God, though people who believe in predestination theoretically have no choice in the matter, whereas a Deist certainly does.
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