Does God Deceive Us?

by JosephAlward 13 Replies latest jw friends

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  JosephAlward

  The Bible says that God's word can be trusted: "Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him. (Proverbs 30:5) But, the verses below suggests the opposite is true:

  "So now the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouths of all these prophets of yours. The LORD has decreed disaster for you." (1 Kings 22:23)

  Then I said, "Ah, Sovereign LORD, how completely you have deceived this people and Jerusalem by saying, `You will have peace,' when the sword is at our throats." (Jeremiah 4:10)

  O LORD, you deceived me, and I was deceived; you overpowered me and prevailed. I am ridiculed all day long; everyone mocks me. (Jeremiah 20:7)

  "`How can you say, "We are wise, for we have the law of the LORD," when actually the lying pen of the scribes has handled it falsely? (Jeremiah 8:8)

  I also gave them over to statutes that were not good and laws they could not live by
  (Ezekiel 20:25)

  Joseph F. Alward
  "A Skeptical View of Christianity and the Bible"
  http://members.aol.com/jalw/joseph_alward.html
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  FrankRaven

  infidels I can feel sorry for;Mentally challenged..I can place pitty upon.but those who have the intellegence to see the full focus of the perfect universe,as Einstine did,are not worth their folly.As for Einstine,,he went from and atheist to theologist.He knew that the universe had a creator.

  Now many of us doesn't have the mind if a genius,but then again there is God.For God does confound the foolish....
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  Gopher

  Joseph,

  I believe this is called "theocratic warfare". As defined by the Watchtower Society, the truth only needs to be told to those who deserve to know it! Otherwise in the interests of the theocracy, people can be, even must be, deceived. (That's the essence of the definition of "theocratic warfare", if someone wishes to supplement or correct that definition, please feel free....)

  So Jehovah takes the lead in deceiving the wicked ones among his creatures, who obviously are so bad and so far beyond help, that they actually NEED to be lied to !!

  That's why we apostates are so obviously screwed up, LOL. Jehovah has sent his spirit of confusion amongst us!!
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  Farkel

  God didn't deceive anyone. How could he? He never has said anything!

  "Bible-God" on the otherhand, is not to be trusted under any conditions.

  Farkel
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  funkyderek

  As for Einstine,,he went from and atheist to theologist.He knew that the universe had a creator.

  Einstein never believed in a personal god. In his own words:

  "It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it."

  [From a letter Einstein wrote in English, dated 24 March 1954. It is included in Albert Einstein: The Human Side, edited by Helen Dukas and Banesh Hoffman, published by Princeton University Press]
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  gumby

  God didn't deceive anyone. How could he? He never has said anything!

  "Bible-God" on the otherhand, is not to be trusted under any conditions

  As ALWAYS ...well said Fark.

  But remember folks....Jesus said to love your enemies. Those enemies are the SAME ones God turned his back on.

  The LORD has decreed disaster for you." (1 Kings 22:23).....but.......you should still love them even though God will kill them.

  He kills those he loves ya know.
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  RunningMan

  There is something beautifully ironic about a theologian quoting "Einstine".
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  JosephAlward

  Funkyderek noted that Einstein did not worship the Bible. Our founding fathers also did not:

  "I have recently been examining all the known superstitions of the world, and do not find in our particular superstition [Christianity] one redeeming feature. They are all alike, founded upon fables and mythologies."---Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Dr. Woods

  "In my opinion the Bible is a gross libel against the justice and goodness of God, in almost every part of it."--Thomas Paine

  Edited by - JosephAlward on 16 October 2002 1:32:33
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  A Paduan

  So now the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouths of all these prophets of yours. The LORD has decreed disaster for you

  The same could be said for the case of the wtbts, but they're decieved by themselves - it's the way that it is expressed. As for loving them, yes, but why make them into robots - that's the problem not the solution. So has He turned His back on them - well, He feeds and clothes them, and sends us to tell them they're idiots. If they still remain arrogant in ignorance, well, what do you do - I'm not sure, but I'm sure He knows.

  When you hear "Ah, Sovereign LORD, how completely you have deceived this people" what actually happened - did the Lord lie, or did He hide? It's how Jeremiah expressed it - He only needs to hide a bit (though even that is actually us turning our head) and men could well do all the rest. It's all expresison, and how you read it. Maybe we could blame it then.

  paduan

  Edited by - a paduan on 15 October 2002 16:57:23
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  Kenneson

  Joseph,

  And here's what some other Founding Fathers said about the Bible.

  John Quincy Adams: "So great is my veneration of the Bible that the earlier my children read it the more confident will be my hope that they will prove useful citizens of their country and respectable members of society. I have for many years made it a practice to read through the Bible at least once a year."

  Patrick Henry: "The Bible is worth all other books which have ever been written."

  George Washington: "It's impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible."