Posts by lriddle80

168

Moral responsibility.

by nicolaou in

no subtlety here, it's going to be obvious where i'm going with this.

please consider the following scenario.. you're seated on a railway platform bench waiting for your train.

a high speed intercity is about to hurtle through without stopping when you see a small child running to the platforms edge!

I can't get behind universalism. I do see some places that could say that but then there is : only a handful saved in the flood, not everyone made it to the promised land, descriptions of a narrow road, and many places that say if you deny him he will deny them, sheep and goats

God set life and death before Israel. He said choose life. They didn't. (But he said some Jews will be saved and we're seeing this happen!)

God sets life and death before us in Christ and many people get mad at the choice and choose death.

But why not choose life in Christ? I think it's pride that keeps people from getting saved. I see people that think (delusionally) they are better than God. Much more moral and right thinking. And while you think that you can never at the same time bow down to him because you see him as inferior. When I got saved, my pride was on the line and that's why i was crying so much. It killed me. And I was given new life. So it's a life and death cult.

168

Moral responsibility.

by nicolaou in

no subtlety here, it's going to be obvious where i'm going with this.

please consider the following scenario.. you're seated on a railway platform bench waiting for your train.

a high speed intercity is about to hurtle through without stopping when you see a small child running to the platforms edge!

lriddle80

I heard Jeffrey Dahmer's testimony of getting saved and baptized and read the book by the pastor who had bible studies with him and I was blown away by the similarities in thought that led me to Christ. But other people and Christians that hear his story are mortified! They can't fathom that they could share eternal life with a murderer such as that!

Also, David Wood, a Christian apologist, former atheist, is a psychopath and tried to kill his dad with a hammer and did other heinous, violent crimes and the thoughts he had and the thoughts that led him to Christ were very relatable to my thoughts and I believe his story and see the transformation. But a lot of Christians hearing this story, it doesn't "sit right with them" and they don't believe it.

Or that God would allow Hitler to be saved from drowning knowing what would happen later.

Or allowing children to go through immense suffering or getting aborted before they even get a chance at life or killed

All these things are very unfair and they make no sense and I see that life is complicated.

Maybe I hear Jack Nicholson yelling at me, "you can't handle the truth" and I understand what he means. Life is amazing and heartbreaking.

168

Moral responsibility.

by nicolaou in

no subtlety here, it's going to be obvious where i'm going with this.

please consider the following scenario.. you're seated on a railway platform bench waiting for your train.

a high speed intercity is about to hurtle through without stopping when you see a small child running to the platforms edge!

lriddle80

I heard part of an interview with Richard Dawkins in what WOULD make him believe in God and he finally said..nothing. Because he said if God spoke to him or if Jesus physically came back he would say delusion. If a message was written with the stars it would be trickster aliens.

And why do us Christians care so much and we go back and forth with you? Because we see you as that boy on the platform about to get hit by that train.

168

Moral responsibility.

by nicolaou in

no subtlety here, it's going to be obvious where i'm going with this.

please consider the following scenario.. you're seated on a railway platform bench waiting for your train.

a high speed intercity is about to hurtle through without stopping when you see a small child running to the platforms edge!

lriddle80

When I was a child I felt bullied by my sister and a few years ago I was sobbing in my therapists office about it and I didn't know how to feel better. I couldn't undo anything, i wasn't a child anymore. It wasn't fair! No the scriptures didn't help me either. You're right. She told me that I should consider forgiving her. I didn't know how at first. I felt so much pain about it still and when I tried to talk to her about it she just told me I was a whiny crybaby. I started reading about forgiveness and I started to try to see things from my sister's perspective and I found some empathy for her and I have forgiven her. She was just a child too and had gone through the same trauma as me and took it out on me. (And this is not the same as you, I was just sharing some of my journey.)

I don't think we can ever know why things happen. We can trace our trauma to people and they have their trauma which caused them to hurt others and the cycle goes back and back and back. We just have to stop the cycle of abuse and try not to hurt others. That's all I can think to do....

168

Moral responsibility.

by nicolaou in

no subtlety here, it's going to be obvious where i'm going with this.

please consider the following scenario.. you're seated on a railway platform bench waiting for your train.

a high speed intercity is about to hurtle through without stopping when you see a small child running to the platforms edge!

lriddle80

I always thought this scripture explained suffering to a certain extent...

Hosea 6:1-3

Come, let us return to the Lord;
for he has torn us, that he may heal us;
he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.
2 After two days he will revive us;
on the third day he will raise us up,
that we may live before him.
3 Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord;
his going out is sure as the dawn;
he will come to us as the showers,
as the spring rains that water the earth.”

168

Moral responsibility.

by nicolaou in

no subtlety here, it's going to be obvious where i'm going with this.

please consider the following scenario.. you're seated on a railway platform bench waiting for your train.

a high speed intercity is about to hurtle through without stopping when you see a small child running to the platforms edge!

lriddle80

I always think of this scripture in 1 Corinthians...

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 5 For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.

But, that might not satisfy people who want solid answers.

168

Moral responsibility.

by nicolaou in

no subtlety here, it's going to be obvious where i'm going with this.

please consider the following scenario.. you're seated on a railway platform bench waiting for your train.

a high speed intercity is about to hurtle through without stopping when you see a small child running to the platforms edge!

lriddle80

He did intervene with Jesus. Some have said that if God never did a single thing except die on a cross and resurrect for their eternal salvation that is enough for them.

168

Moral responsibility.

by nicolaou in

no subtlety here, it's going to be obvious where i'm going with this.

please consider the following scenario.. you're seated on a railway platform bench waiting for your train.

a high speed intercity is about to hurtle through without stopping when you see a small child running to the platforms edge!

lriddle80

Paddythebaddy

Actually Hitler as a 4 year old was on his way to drowning and a priest saw him and saved him.

168

Moral responsibility.

by nicolaou in

no subtlety here, it's going to be obvious where i'm going with this.

please consider the following scenario.. you're seated on a railway platform bench waiting for your train.

a high speed intercity is about to hurtle through without stopping when you see a small child running to the platforms edge!

lriddle80

Think about this, too. Let's suppose I was so terrified of the train and the situation that I didn't act and the child dies. How would I live with myself? Everyone would condemn me, I would condemn myself? But then someone tells me that Jesus can forgive me and give me a new heart and so I am so grateful I spend my life saving children. It wouldn't bring that child back to life, but I wouldn't want to kill myself and then those kids that were saved because of that forgiveness would die. And then 1 of those kids that I saved grows up to be a firefighter and your house catches on fire and saves you. And you're so grateful you do something wonderful that ends up saving someone else. Maybe that kid that died originally was going to grow up and murder tons of people. We can create scenarios all day.

168

Moral responsibility.

by nicolaou in

no subtlety here, it's going to be obvious where i'm going with this.

please consider the following scenario.. you're seated on a railway platform bench waiting for your train.

a high speed intercity is about to hurtle through without stopping when you see a small child running to the platforms edge!

lriddle80

God had to do certain things in order for his master plan to come to fruition. Specifically that Jesus could be born into the world and go to the cross to save mankind and now I think that all the dominoes have to fall for the rest of his plan to take place. His will is for everyone to get saved, so we're in this grace period where anyone who calls on his son can receive eternal life, and we wait and try to get as many people on the rescue boats, so to speak.

Also.

When we were children and our parents, who had much more knowledge than we had, gave us rules or instructions what did we do? We threw a fit and cried about how unfair they were. We may have assumed they were cruel and didn't love us. But then we grew up and realized they were right and we didn't fully understand the way the world works. I think it is similar with God and us, his children.