Posted on 05/19/2013 12:21:32 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck
Edited on 05/25/2013 2:44:13 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
"Where were You, God?" The question arises daily as news of tragedies abound, and even from time to time as the tragedy involves ourselves. Servicemen die in a bungled military defense operation that should have been a cake walk, and no government official has credible answers. A son is shot dead in his prime by a wanton criminal. A wife dies decades too soon from a deadly disease. A busy mother dies unexpectedly from a sudden heart attack. Maybe you were emotionally abused when a child and have been saddled with a destructive habit that you acquired in an effort to escape from the torment by the only means you knew, and prayer -- once you realized you were in a trap -- seemed scant help or comfort. In these myriad situations the bitter questions often arise: "Oh Lord, where were You? Dear God, why did You roll over for this? Almighty Father, I've always heard that you are righteous and omnipotent, so why did You not act when it would have been so simple for You to stop it from happening? Oh, the heart-rending woe! Why did You lose, God?"
This is not a modern question, and it was not discovered by modern atheists, agnostics, or freethinkers. It arose many thousands of years ago to a man named Job (pronounced with a long "o") who kept a tender conscience towards God about what he did, and as a result displayed a very upright life, and was blessed with a large, loving family and many earthly riches. And yet without warning this man's world came crashing down upon him. It began with the destruction and theft of his great riches, and was topped by the loss of most of the lives of his dear family. Then, the trouble soon escalated with an inexplicable illness that covered him with sores. His wife, in an apparent hint that God was fickle and undeserving of love, in great disgust told him to curse God and die. His friends, who initially wisely comforted him in silence, then began to lecture him sarcastically about how he must have done something terribly wrong to provoke God's wrath, and his agony grew as a heated argument erupted and Job insisted he had done nothing to deserve the tragedy. Finally a wiser friend suggested that Job look to God's sovereignty, and then God answered Job from a whirlwind, challenging the limitations of Job's knowledge about what God can do. With a deeper appreciation of God's capabilities, Job stopped complaining, and soon God blessed Job twice as much as he had been blessed before.
There is a simple enough answer to the question, at least to the mind: by allowing the world and even our selves to fail so dramatically at times, God highlights His capacity to save, a faith in which we sometimes are sorely lacking, and even if we know it in our heads, our hearts are slower and lag behind that and need to be taught. For God is not merely solving complex intellectual problems. He is solving problems that encompass our entire beings that He has created and bestowed with capabilities that are an image of His own.
So man people do not realize that Creeds are virtually the same, with some having little minor changes.
Thank you.
You are quite wrong that the Bible condones rape in any situation.
What does the Bible say about rape?
http://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-rape.html
But one thing I have learned about atheists, is that they will not believe it even when the errors they promulgate about the Bible are shown to be false. They will continue to persist in believing and spreading the errors they hold to.
“Lady,” who changed the times?
Where are these freethinkers coming up with their improved moralities for, in your view, Christianity to adopt?
No, the death penalty was for adultery. If you raped a virgin who was not betrothed, all you had to do was marry her. If you had sex with a married woman, both man and woman were put to death. If the woman could convince them she was raped, she would be spared, but his punishment didn’t change because it was rape.
John 3:16 is enough of a door to salvation for a whole lot of people. The rest (as a Jewish sage once put it) is commentary....
Not in all cases, but definitely for rape.
However, not all sex outside marriage warranted the death penalty.
If a man rapes a single woman and is rewarded with her being given to him for life, this seems very much like “condone” to me. You want a woman and she won’t marry you? Rape her. Then she has to. It’s almost Islamic. And why? Because the same culture produced them both: the Middle East.
Jesus took on the punishment for all our sins. Whatever the worst we can imagine, multiply times infinity, and Jesus bore that for us all.
Every generation rebels against its parents. That's how we get change. Sometimes it's for the better and sometimes it's for the worse (see the 1960s.) And every generation claims that God is on its side. Have you noticed how loudly Democrats claim that Jesus would be a socialist?
You apparently have a faith that all “rebellion” is in the direction of good. Like what took Russia from the Czars to godless Communism, maybe?
You better read my post again.
And it’s silly to say would Jesus be a socialist or a Democrat or a Republican or whatever category we know today. Maybe an independent, non union carpenter? This is God on a special mission. If you meet God, prepare to have all your categories, and your mind itself, blown. In a good way. You’ll have met the Master of Heaven and Earth.
So what leads you to believe that even “enough” is for the good? How do you even get an idea of good? It’s all blind sprawl with nothing to orient it up or down, to you.
I was also raised Catholic and never felt accepted by the God I was raised to believe in in Catholicism.
It wasn’t until I hit rock bottom that I finally started talking to God. Nothing fancy, just talking, like I would with a friend.
In a moment of despair, I turned my life over to God. I told Him that if He could straighten out this mess of a life of mine, He could have it. I’d do anything He wanted, even become a missionary and go to Africa, (the most desperate thing I could think of), because I’d rather be happy doing what He wanted me to do than to keep on going the way I was.
He took me up on it.
God doesn’t want you to perform. It’s not a matter of being *good enough* because nobody can. He wants a relationship with you. He doesn’t need you to do anything for Him. He’s God.
But He wants your heart. You don’t need to be perfect and you never will be and He knows that and He’s OK with that.
It hasn’t always been easy. God never promised us the health, wealth, and prosperity that some who call themselves Christian claim, but He does promise us eternal life with Him and to be with us and lead and strengthen us.
I don’t know that I will ever be able to eat most food again, but what He has done in me through this affliction, was worth the cost.
BB is far from perfectly healthy herself.
And there are others who are dealing with hormonal issues as well.
God calls us to abide by his Word.
a) God and Jesus have never broken any rules.
Matthew 5:17 “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.”
b) Female Judges - First, a Judge is a civil government role, not an ecclesiastical (Church) role. Deborah as the only female judge among 13 male judges, so it is not normative. As far as church government, the Old Testament and New Testament are consistent in permitting only males as leadership of the Church (this would be the priesthood in the Old Testament, and elders in the New Testament).
c) Female prophetesses - Prophets are a case of special revelation, the choosing of these women does not set any normative standard in ancient Israel, it simply shows us that God can and does speak through whom he pleases; in the Old Testament this was through the Prophets. There was only Huldah, Deborah and Miriam, so they were far more the exception than the rule, even as prophets. The fact which has bearing on Church leadership is that none of them were priests; Miriam was a prophetess and the sister of Moses and Aaron.
d) The woman with five husbands: Jesus did not send her; he simply told her who he was. Not only did she not preach, she was so astounded that she was unsure if she had indeed spoken with Christ:
John 4:29 “Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?”
This hardly qualifies as a teaching role.
e) Mary Magdelene did not teach either.
Providing a report of events that one has heard or seen or felt is most definitely not teaching on the subject of Scripture, it’s just relaying an eyewitness report.
True Biblical teaching is only done by those who are ordained to do it throughout the Bible.
Evidence for male-only headship:
The amount of Scripture that implicitly and explicitely contradicts women functioning as Church elders or teaching elders is great indeed, and the New Testament, in setting up the model for the Christian Church, is quite clear.
I leave the research of all that scripture as an exercise for the reader, with the simple hint to start in Timothy, and the strong suggestion to find quality commentary on the subject to use as a study guide.
Let’s freak everybody out and have a Roman Catholic and a Reformed Presbyterian both say the Apostles Creed.
______________
:-)
Focusing on what we share.
You are not reading what I wrote.
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