Awen, concerning some of your comments to PSac, you write:
In the Bible we are reminded time and again that it's through God's grace that we are deemed worthy of Him.
The Bible doesn’t say that. Where did you get that? We are never deemed “worthy” of Him. We are blessed by Him, yes. We are granted mercy by Him, yes. We are granted forgiveness by Him, yes. We are granted undeserved kindness by Him, yes. We are granted relationship with Him and His Son, yes. We are granted many things by Him, but “worthy”? Never. Where did you ever get that?
Yet we as a race have been waiting for 6,000 years for Him to act.
No we haven’t. Where did you ever get that the human race has been waiting that long for Him to act? Very little of the human race has ever known of the Most Holy One of Israel. If any can truly be said to have been waiting, it would be Israel, but certainly not the human race. You are talking out of your emotion (and making absurd assertions) not from facts.
I say "god" isn't worthy of us.
Whoa!!! When I read or hear statements like this, or similar to this, I think how arrogant they sound. How blasphemous they sound. If there is an almighty God who exists (and I do believe there is), to say such things is extremely arrogant, pompous, and most supercilious.
Many of us served god whole-souled with every bit of our strength, love and mind yet never received an answer to our prayers. We received no intervention in our lives. It has to be within God's will for him to help us.
You write that “[m]any of us served god whole-souled.” Did we? Did we, in fact? I am reminded of the biblical text where Paul is supposed to have said of the Jews: “They have a zeal for god but not according to accurate knowledge.” Many who claim to serve God with all their ‘strength, love, and mind’ may in fact be doing so in order to establish their ‘own righteousness’ rather than seeking God’s righteousness or trying to determine “How does God want to be worshiped”? You state: “It has to be within God’s will for him to help us.” Okay . . . and? Isn’t this also true of any parent? Really? You live in your parents’ house. Do you live by rules pertaining to Johnny’s parents or Susie’s parents on the next block down the street or do you live by YOUR parents rules?
What parent would treat their children like this?
Interesting . . . this question presupposes that we ARE children of God from the get-go. The biblical text says that the vast majority of mankind are not children of God. The biblical text does state how to become children of God but prior to DOING THAT, we are not children of God. You believe that all mankind are children of God, in all probability, because you were told this error. But those who told you these things either were lying to you or didn’t know themselves. You seem to have been a JW for some years (I do not know) and, if so, why do you not know what the biblical text says concerning this very issue on how one isn’t a child of God from the get-go or how one does become a child of God. You seem to imply that all humanity make up children of God and you couldn’t be in more error on this.
What human parent would allow their child to suffer only so that the parent's name could be magnified?
Please see above. ARE YOU a child of God simply because you are human? If so, how do you know this?
How unscrupulous is that? There is not a single parent that I know of, who when their child is sick wouldn't do everything in their power to ease their child's pain. Yet we get.....nothing.
Again, you assume that all of us are children of God. Your assumption is in error and thus your questions lack standing. There are those here on this board who do claim to be children of God and who will tell you that God often answers them. But because you don’t seem to get answers from God, shouldn’t that tell you something? Shouldn’t that make you examine whether or not you are a son or daughter? And, if not, find out how you can become one? It would me.
So to me god is like an abusive parent.
How sad for you, how very very sad.
One could say that because god created us we owe him.
One could say that, couldn’t one.
But even us lowly humans realize that you can't make someone love you if they have no love to give. Many of us have dealt with abusive parents and no matter how hard we tried there was no pleasing them. We were never good enough, faithful enough or whatever. God's silence all these thousands of years seem to be indicative of the same thing.
But, Awen, it’s only a seeming silence to those who are not His children, to those who arrogate sonship to themselves, to those without God. (Ephesians 2) God declared Himself to be the Father of Israel, declared Himself to be the God of Israel, and while, yes, other people of the nations could “come” to him, and be welcomed by him, if they approached according to His laws, he did not make them (those other nations) to be a “special property” or a “holy nation” or a “people for special possession,” or “sons” as he did with Israel and now as he does with His true “chosen ones” whom He takes in to become his “sons and daughters.”
What made the Hebrews in the Bible so good
Nothing. Where did you ever get the impression that the Hebrews were “so good”? Seriously?
(even though God called them stiff-necked) that God would appear in a burning bush, or part the Red Sea, speak from a windstorm?
Even you yourself admit that He called them stiff-necked. He not only called them stiff-necked, be He also called them hard-hearted, obstinate, and said that living among them is like living among scorpions. Where did you ever get they were “so good”? Again, have you NOT READ the biblical texts that answer your questions? No, seriously? How long have you been a JW and have supposedly read and/or studied the Bible? Have you NOT READ the texts that answer your questions?
These are just stories with no factual basis.
So you say.
There is no place where a "miracle" occurred that we can go back and say "look God was here." The stories in the Bible are just myths like every other religion. Almost no one serves the Egyptian gods or the Roman ones, or the Greek. Christianity is still young and I think eventually it will go the way of the Dodo bird. I say good riddance!
Why is it that people “require” a miracle from God? Require a “sign”? ‘A wicked and adulterous generation seek for a sign.’ And who says that “Christianity” is the true religion? Christianity as it has existed throughout the centuries has NEVER been the true religion. Duh! Relationship (think: father, son, daughter, brother, sister, mother), however, with God and His Christ is another matter entirely.
