Sharing your beliefs about God and man

[Fuzzy Bear 12]

Ed,

A perfect Being makes perfect choices, nothing less.

FB

[John-in-KC 311]

Your questions are in caps. My responses are mainly from the NIV. My personal comments are underlined.

 

WHY ARE WE HERE?

Genesis 1:26-28

26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."

 

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

 

28 God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."

 

God intended us to be the stewards of His creation. That's my interpretation.

 

WHY IS THERE EVIL?

Genesis 3:1-19

1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"

 

2 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.' "

 

4 "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. 5 "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

 

6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

 

8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?"

 

10 He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid."

 

11 And he said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?"

 

12 The man said, "The woman you put here with meshe gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it."

 

13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?"

The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."

 

14 So the LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this,

"Cursed are you above all the livestock

and all the wild animals!

You will crawl on your belly

and you will eat dust

all the days of your life.

 

15 And I will put enmity

between you and the woman,

and between your offspring and hers;

he will crush your head,

and you will strike his heel."

 

16 To the woman he said,

"I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing;

with pain you will give birth to children.

Your desire will be for your husband,

and he will rule over you."

 

17 To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,'

"Cursed is the ground because of you;

through painful toil you will eat of it

all the days of your life.

 

18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,

and you will eat the plants of the field.

 

19 By the sweat of your brow

you will eat your food

until you return to the ground,

since from it you were taken;

for dust you are

and to dust you will return."

 

Evil at an earthly level came about when mankind deliberately disobeyed God. We'll save discussions of Lucifer/Satan and the battles in Heaven for after I decide to get my divinity degree.

 

WHAT HAPPENS AFTER WE DIE?

John 14:1-4

1 "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. 2 In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going."

 

John 3:16-18

16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.

 

Revelation 20:11-21:

11 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. 13 The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. 14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. 15 If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

 

 

1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."

 

1 Corinthians 15:12-28

12 But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. 15 More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19 If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.

 

20 But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. 23 But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. 24 Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death. 27 For he "has put everything under his feet." Now when it says that "everything" has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. 28 When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.

 

I am a Christian. God created - man erred; God provided a partial covenant. God decided (He has that right, he's God) to expand the covenant, and to make it Grace based, not our works based. God's offer is finite. When we die, His offer expires. When God decides it is time for the Final Judgment, His offer expires.

 

I can be awfully lazy . Seems to me that Christianity is the simplest and easiest way to God ... He's done the sacrificing for us; all we have to do is accept that fact, love Him (which He helps us do), and know He blesses our actions because He is the great "I AM."

 

As for others: You have the right to choose your path. If you want to try works to salvation, I wish you well.(This message has been edited by John-in-KC)

[Kahuna 172]

FB: I would not feel comfortable in sharing my answers to your questions (and they would not necessarily be the same as any other Buddhist), but I want to thank you for posting them. They made me think and read a bit about what I believe the answers are.

[Fuzzy Bear 12]

Kahuna,

Please forgive me for making you feel uncomfortable. It was my intention to motivate us to look deeply into questions that perplex us so as to increase our knowledge about truth and what we believe to be true. I am not a Buddhist but each Tuesday evening I meditate with a group and then we talk after listening to a prepared subject. As my clarity of thought has increased, I have connected to more insights concerning my own confusion about things that appeared only at a great distance.

 

These questions are a mental exercise that is a spin-off from another poster, Trevorum. He posited that religion answers these three questions (and many others) while Science would not attempt these. It is my contention that answers to these kinds of questions are the basis to ones belief in God. Since most of us are Scouters and have confirmed a belief in God, I felt that by sharing truth from our sacred literature and from our own pathways to God that it would bring revelations to us individually and as a group which in turn would assist us to be better leaders.

 

I am now in the middle of a study that has taken me into the Bible to look closely at information that has bothered me for a long time. If no other person were to share, the information that this exercise has generated in my own life has been well worth the asking.

 

Thanks,

FB

 

 

FB

 

[acco40 95]

God may make it difficult for us to approach Him in order to increase our eventual reward.

 

Him? That sounds like a Her to me! I didn't know God played hard to get.

[evmori 11]

Ed,

A perfect Being makes perfect choices, nothing less.

FB

 

Perfect by who's standard? Yours or God's? Remember, they aren't the same.

 

Ed Mori

Troop 1

1 Peter 4:10

[Kahuna 172]

FB: No problem, you didn't make me uncomfortable at all. As I mentioned, I took the exercise in the spirit it was meant, I think. Those are important questions for each of us to understand in our own lives and I benefitted greatly from looking at my own beliefs.

 

BTW, we do about the same thing at our center on Tuesday nights. It's one of those you never know who will show up sessions, and we meditate and then have a reading from dharma. We do the same on Thursday nights and Sunday mornings, but I am not as regular in attendance as I need to be. I do, however, make it a point to meditate for a few minutes every day. It does indeed help us with clarity of thought.

[stlscouter 10]

FB

 

One of the great books worth reading and understanding is LUTHER'S SMALL CATECHISM with explanations. Got me and has supported me on my road of faith.

[Fuzzy Bear 12]

acco40,

 

God may be making it difficult to approach Him/Her and yes it may be to increase the reward but I suspicion that it is mankind that makes it difficult. As for the reward, one second with God must be something like being with my family here on earth but I really can't think of anything better, so it must be very good.

 

FB

[Fuzzy Bear 12]

Ed,

 

I have no idea what perfection is and I agree that God is beyond that idea. So I am at a loss for comparisons.

 

FB

[Fuzzy Bear 12]

Kahuna,

 

I wanted to say earlier that I would be thinking of you this next Tuesday night during meditation but it will be a shared experience instead. Distance has little effect on reality.

 

FB

[Fuzzy Bear 12]

Stl,

 

For the last two trips to the used book store, I have gazed at several volumes on M. Luther. I now know the reason. Thanks for the direction.

 

FB

[Fuzzy Bear 12]

John,

 

Thank you for your carefully studied reply. Your chosen verses are insightful and filled with exploratory temptation.

 

FB

[Kahuna 172]

FB: None at all, in fact! Time and space are only relevant in dealing with airline travel. Or perhaps more on a bus trip with 30 Scouts.