by Undecided 21 Replies latest jw friends
I'm wondering about God lately. Is he really in touch with the earth at all? How much trouble would it be for him to bring a rain in Colorado to stop the fires and save the houses of those people? Oh, well, if He's going to kill them all, I don't guess it makes any difference anyway.
Ken P.
Godd question, I often poder in a similar way. I think gid put us here to do what we wish, Honestly I think he doesn't care, or maybe he lets things like thi happen to remind us that we are a bunch of morons sometimes. I just try to do my thing and not bother anyone else, If i see a wrong, I try to right it. I also try to keep an open mind to everything.
I dont know where god went to? He seemed to be somewhere near once. I took a bible study to "take in more knowlege", followed the "requirements" and in my efforts to get closer to him...........he vanished!
HI GiantJason,
If we are morons, who made us so we would become morons. If 1/3 of the spirits rebelled and almost all humans are bad, what does that say about the inventor?
Ken P.
Yes, I believe God does care. But where is the proof of such a statement?
Ask yourself, why wouldn't God wish to protect and preserve what belongs to Him? That is a reasonable conclusion. The physical universe, particularly the planet earth, animal life, plant life and mankind are all His creation. Therefore, why would He not wish to preserve life, in some way. Even now, we have evidence that He continues to sustain life. I think it would be reasonable to at least conclude God has a "vested interest" in life, as we know it and see it today upon earth.
However, the big problem we all face is a lack of UNDERSTANDING of His purposes today. The question of why things happen the way they do, continually becloud our vision.
God's Word (and faith in that Word) helps us here.
Isaiah 55:8-11 says,
"For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,"
declares the Lord .
9 "As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
10 As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. (Isaiah 55:8-11 New American Standard Bible)
When we come to understand God's purposes as revealed in scripture, we begin to see things as He sees things, since "His thoughts are higher", His thoughts superior to our own. Then, the perplexing things around us that formerly were hard to understand, finally start to make sense.
" For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope." (Romans 15:4 New American Standard Bible)
Why not check this link out for more details.
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/forum/thread.asp?id=30424&site=3
bjc
If we are morons, who made us so we would become morons. If 1/3 of the spirits rebelled and almost all humans are bad, what does that say about the inventor?
I think most people start off with the wrong premise re: GOD .... He created a prefect world, Adam and Eve screwed it up and now we're all dealing with our first "parent's" mess.
If God is all-knowing (which I believe He is) than He would have known Adam and Eve would Fall...and have to leave His presence. So that must mean that was part of "The Plan". And if that's part of a plan, then what's the real purpose of life, if we must live here removed from God? There must be something that we as individuals can do/learn that we couldn't by being around Him. Now this is just a supposition (and for all of those that don't believe in GOD, it is a moot issue), but one that make more sense for an all-knowing and all-powerful God. In other words, He is well aware of us - it's part of His Plan for us to make of our lives what we will, whatever hand is dealt. Along the way He gives us clues to His existence and how He fits into our lives. Without a doubt, our lives are on a quest to find truth...and this board testifies to that.
Edited by - Double Edge on 18 June 2002 20:41:54
HI BJC,
What you are saying is just quelch your brain, have faith in something that can't be explained and be happy? I would like an explaination rather than say God thoughts are just so elavated to ours that we can't understand. Didn't he say we were made in his image? What did that mean?
Why does he want his servants killed and persecuted, I don't understand why this would please him so much, even his own son had to die to please him. How does this show so much love? Maybe the devil does it all, but can't God control the devil? My wife looks at me and says I had better be careful questioning God, or I will be beyond hope of forgiviness. Maybe so, but I just can't be satisfied any more by being a zombie of some religious faith.
Ken P.
Undecided, being made in the image of God means that he perceives himself through man's consciousness ie you are both the seer and the seen. It cannot be any other way because God is all.
Hi Undecided:
If I understand you correctly, you are wondering about all of the "pain and suffering" in the world?
Ecclesiastes 1:18 tells us:
"...he that increases knowledge increases pain."
This means "knowledge" and "pain" go hand in hand. As they say in the world, "no pain, no gain." This means, all forms of "knowledge", all newly acquired "knowledge" is gained through the "trial and error" method. This is how we learn new things.
Thomas Edison, one of the greatest inventors of our modern times said,
"GENIUS is one percent INSPIRATION, 99 percent PERSPIRATION."
How true. Its all about "trial and error".
Here's what I mean in another way.
Simply put, if you tried to describe to a small child, one always reaching for things that he shouldn't, the word "hot" for the first time, would he understand what you were saying? He might repeat the word every time you said it, like saying "hot," "hot", everytime you say the word "hot" to him, but would he understand the real meaning of the word "hot", without the inevitable, much dreaded EXPERIENCE itself. Every child, everyone goes through this. We get "burned". Still, it seems we invariably just have to "experience" the word "hot", and learn the meaning THE HARD WAY for ourselves, don't we? And when we do, and we burn ourselves on something hot, like the stove or a hot ironing instrument, we don't repeat it often. Now, we really know what the word "hot" means now! We know and understand exactly what our parents was trying to tell us. Next time hopefully, we will listen more carefully.
So, there are two ways to learn from God.
(1) Listen to His Word, benefit from His "knowledge", and save yourself the "hot" experience
(2) Experience the "hot-ness" for yourself by "trial and error" -- get "burned".
Either way, its the same to God. Because we learn, either way. Of course, He would prefer we "listen" though. But that's up to us.
As you know, Adam and Even chose the latter way by eating from the "tree of knowledge of good and bad". They "chose" also for their offspring, such as we are, just as human parents today, choose the path and particular style of upbringing they wish to employ for their offspring. And of course, the offspring of this "particular style of upbringing", will either benefit or suffer the consequences associated with this parental decision. Something we had nothing to do with ourselves. Nevertheless, we gain or suffer, depending upon what the parent decides for us.
In the same way, Adam and Eve decided to learn everything about life, through "experience", independent of God's advice. They pushed God totally out of the picture. Therefore, we today, are living the results of their decision for ourselves, each and every day of our lives. The decision was made for us, by our parents.
This is not a good situation to be in, I agree. But even so, mankind can still learn much from this "tree" of experience, that we have been "eating from" and living out the results thereof, for close to 6,000 years now. Because of deadly war, rampant famine, and incurable disease and affliction, all worldwide epidemics, clearly show us, helps us to learn this one fact: WE NEED GOD. Mankind cannot do without Him, for continued existence on this planet. That's the big lesson to be learned from all of this suffering. We learn that man's rule, no matter the type of government employed, if it does not include God completely, fails miserably.
And how did we learn these things? We learned everything we know today, all of it, by the "bitter hand of experience". God knows this too. Therefore, Jehovah knows that when He does finally decide to fully INTERVENE into man's affairs, and completely take over, we will be quite happy that he did. His timing will be most critical in this. And at this time, after mankind's "hot" experience is terminated, God knows man will be very happy to take HIS WISE ADVICE, listen to Him implicitly, rather than try and "experience" everything for ourselves and learn the hard way. We will be ready and willing to "listen" to the Word of God instead, and save ourselves the "experience" of it all. This is the value in God timing His Almighty Intervention in mankind's affairs, at the most appropriate time. He times it.
The moral of the story: The very best way to learn, is to listen to God. Listen to His Word and value His unlimited "experience", rather than feel the "heat" of the experience for ourselves. 6,000 years of man's rule proves this.
However, in the meantime, we can do something positive in our lives and benefit ourselves. Even now, God offers us the benefit of His experience. He teaches us to "benefit ourselves" even now. (Isa. 48:17) He has done this by providing His written Word. Everything we need to know, is found there. Why not check the link I provided above. I think that thread touches on the real "meat of the matter" and describes the "mystery of God" in succinct and clear fashion.
bjc
Edited by - bjc2012 on 18 June 2002 23:6:58
bjc, Perhaps God sustained life by simply giving all creatures the ability to procreate. He also made all creatures so that they had a limited life span, including us, so that species would number in the vast millions over a long history. If he gave everlasting life to us and any other species, then there would be a finite limit to the number who would get to live, since the earth would eventually fill to its limit. Perhaps God decided to limit our life span, so a much larger number of people would get to live. Perhaps, all the writings of mankind in different religions regarding everlasting life is just wishful thinking with no foundation.
