Encouraging scriptures for the day (page 10)

Kosonen

Thanks Caleb for your explanation, I see that we have very different approaches to God and the holy scriptures. I don't think I can change your look at the world. So I wish you the best.

Kosonen, what is your approach to God? Despite my occasional snarky comments I'm still someone who has believed for longer than I've disbelieved. I had a personal relationship with God and it was important to me.

Are you open to a brutally honest discussion about the God you worship?

EasyPrompt

If you don't believe God exists, Nicolaou, then why are you wasting time here on a thread about "Encouraging Scriptures"?

KalebOutWest doesn't believe in God, but claims to read the Bible for the sake of tradition. To follow in that course would be to encourage slavery to empty ritual. What a waste of time!

Kosonen believes in God and reads the Bible out of faith. When he shares scriptures it is for the purpose of encouraging others, for the sake of love.

If you don't believe in the God of love, Nicolaou, then why are you trying to destroy the faith of someone who does? Do you have anything better to offer? If you are an atheist, then you believe in nothing. Why waste your time here? If you really think it is foolish to believe in God, why are you wasting your time with fools? But if your God-given conscience is bothering you, no wonder you are here trying to destroy the faith of others so as to ease your own pain. (It won't work. Consciences are there for a reason. You can be mad at everyone else who has faith, but it's really yourself you are angry with.)

Here's the thing: you cannot destroy real faith with fire, either literal or figurative. You end up just burning yourself.

Song of Solomon 8:6

"For love is as strong as death is,

And exclusive devotion is as unyielding as the Grave.

Its flames are a blazing fire, the flame of Jah."

Nicolaou, I am sorry you are in pain, but trying to hurt other people is not the answer. It's not God's fault that some dumb people in a religion hurt you or lied to you. Jehovah's the only one who can fix it, and He's not a bad parent. Wake up!

Kosonen

Hi Nicolaou, you are welcome to ask questions, maybe I can answer. But basically since I was a child I have been sad that Adam and Eve took the fruit they were explicitly told not to do. That disrupted the expansion of the paradise that Jehovah God created. Everything would have been so good on earth if people had not become disobedient to Jehovah God. Jehovah God made everything so well and nice in the beginning. So I am eagerly waiting for God's original will to take place here on earth. And I want to do my part in contributing that to happen. Maybe that is me in a nutshell.

KalebOutWest

EasyPrompt wrote:

KalebOutWest doesn't believe in God, but claims to read the Bible for the sake of tradition. To follow in that course would be to encourage slavery to empty ritual. What a waste of time!

You are incorrect. I merely said I was a Humanistic Jew.

You do not understand what it means when Humanistic Jews say they do not believe in God as Orthodox Jews do, in other words, as a literal, divine supernatural being described in the Scriptures.

Most Jews, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionists, Secular, Humanistic, etc., do not accept the narrow view of Orthodox rabbinical Judaism because of the teachings of Maimonides, Spinoza, and Mordecai Kaplan.

Since the Middle Ages, most Jews follow the view of Maimonides and do not believe the description of God in the Scriptures since those terms are anthropomorphic (describe God as having human features and qualities like idol gods). Maimonides taught that Jews should view God as ineffable, something too high to grasp by the human mind.

Thus many Jews, when they believe in God, are not claiming a belief in the "God of the Bible" like Christians do. Others do not see God as an entity or person but as "Something," far greater than a "being." Because the concept of "gods" is a human one, some Jews reject the concept altogether and will not use it to describe the Creator of life and the universe. This is NOT the exclusive view of Humanstic Judaism, but the majority view outside of Orthodox Judaism.

So when some Jews claim to be Secular or Humanist or say they are Jewish "without God," this should not be used to mean that they do not "believe in God," per se.

I am something known as "ignostic" in Jewish terms, which does not exclude a belief in God.

This term includes the view that debates regarding "what is God/belief in God" are generally a waste of time because parties cannot first come to an agreement on what might constitute "God" in the first place (if such a thing as "God" exists).

EasyPrompt

KalebOutWest said: "(if such a thing as "God" exists)"

EasyPrompt said: "KalebOutWest doesn't believe in God, but claims to read the Bible for the sake of tradition. To follow in that course would be to encourage slavery to empty ritual. What a waste of time!"

I meant what I said.

KalebOutWest, if you read the scriptures almost daily and you still aren't sure "if such a thing as God exists" and you just do it out of ritual and empty tradition, then I feel very bad for you. If you don't even know if God exists or not, how can you offer wisdom and truth to anyone else? What is it you have to offer?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPPlSkQ1WEQ

Matthew 11:19

"All the same, wisdom is proved righteous by its works."

Luke 6:45

"A good man brings good out of the good treasure of his heart, but a wicked man brings what is wicked out of his wicked treasure; for out of the heart’s abundance his mouth speaks."

KalebOutWest

EasyPrompt, you still misunderstand.

That last part of the quote is about the term "God," not about my personal convictions. (That is why it is in quotes.)

I don't think people can agree on anything when religion clouds the mind and tells people they can start redefining what others are or what they believe when they are not really educated in such matters as the belief system and culture of Judaism.

Religious faith is not equal to a good education.

EasyPrompt

KalebOutWest said: EasyPrompt, you still misunderstand.
That last part of the quote is about the term "God," not about my personal convictions. (That is why it is in quotes.)
I don't think people can agree on anything when religion clouds the mind and tells people they can start redefining what others are or what they believe when they are not really educated in such matters as the belief system and culture of Judaism.
Religious faith is not equal to a good education.

And a so-called "good education" is not equal to religious faith.

Maimonides, Spinoza, and Mordecai Kaplan are dead. Jesus is alive. If you want to follow some dead guys, you have free will. Do what you want. I am 100% confident that Jesus is alive. So is Kosonen. So you can sit here all day and tell us what you want about what you think about the scriptures, but we can see that you don't know what you are talking about because we know Jesus is very much alive and you don't even have a clue.

1 Corinthians 3:19,20

"For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God, for it is written: “He catches the wise in their own cunning.” And again: “Jehovah knows that the reasonings of the wise men are futile.”"

Carry on, KalebOutWest, but know that there is someone else in the room who hears what you are saying, and laughs when you deny his existence.

You read the scriptures every day, KalebOutWest. What do you think this psalm means?

Psalm 52

"Why do you boast about your evil acts, you mighty one?

The loyal love of God lasts all day long.

Your tongue, as sharp as a razor,

Schemes harm and works deceitfully.

You love evil more than what is good,

Lying more than speaking what is right. (Selah)

You love every harmful word, O you deceitful tongue!

That is why God will pull you down once and for all;

He will snatch you up and tear you away from your tent;

He will uproot you from the land of the living. (Selah)

The righteous ones will see it and be filled with awe,

And they will laugh at him.

“Here is a man who did not make God his refuge,

But he trusted in his great riches

And relied on his own evil plots.”

But I will be like a luxuriant olive tree in God’s house;

My trust is in God’s loyal love, forever and ever.

I will praise you forever because you have taken action;

In the presence of your loyal ones,

I will hope in your name, for it is good."

nicolaou

EasyPrompt, I'm not in any pain but thanks for your concern.

Kosonen. You mention Adam and Eve and the paradise that was lost. Can I ask if you consider the rest of Genesis to be historical too?

Duran

Jesus is alive. If you want to follow some dead guys, you have free will. Do what you want. I am 100% confident that Jesus is alive.

@EasyPrompt

Other than saying, 'you believe', 'you think', 'you feel', what proof is there that Jesus is alive or ever even existed at all?

Also, has this prophecy ever been fulfilled?

Isaiah 17:1A pronouncement against Damascus:“Look! Damascus will cease to be a city, And it will become a heap of ruins.

Encouraging scriptures for the day

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