Where does God live?
- Thread starter bobcat
- Start date
I don't think you mean that by having the Creator within you means you share in creation? But by saying "...that my soul and our creator are one and the same....." you mean that the Holy Spirit of God is within you?
We are all God. Each one of us that exists--anywhere--are a part of God, each making up the whole of God. That's why Jesus also said to love thy neighbor as thyself. If you hate your neighbor you're hating yourself.
VaughanJB
Scrappy VIP
Yeah, the whole "he always was" thing will never make any sense to me. If you can believe that, then personally I consider you can believe anything, and therefore aren't entirely reliable. One might simply claim the universe always was. Humans always were. And so on. It's a nonsensical statement.
As for Satan - isn't God more powerful than Satan? As such, what Satan does is irrelevant, isn't he? In fact, what kind of God - a God that demands worship - even give man the option to not worship him? What is the point of free will? What does it achieve? What person would choose hell over heaven, if not for the fact that a God gave them the option? Why bother with the option?
".......Yeah, the whole "he always was" thing will never make any sense to me...." Okay, well since He is, how then did He come about? Oh, He doesn't exist. Hmmm, how did ANY THING come about? Seems that to you this subject is much ado about 'NOTHING'.
He's not alone, but it's not nothing. It's been the driving force of Western Civilization.
VaughanJB
Scrappy VIP
In that case, the question is, "what is nothing"?
There's a misapprehension that "nothing" is literally "nothing". Zero. Zip. But I'm not aware of any scientific theory that says we literally came from nothing. For example, the Big Bang depends on there being something to expand. Then chemical processes take place which creates what we know and see today. The honest answer to the "what came before" is - we don't know. Simple as that.
Of course, one could simply throw out - "well, it always was". Sounds simple. But it's not very satisfying, is it? As I've said, if one can accept that as an actual solution, then there seems to be no limits on what one can believe. It's such an open ended response.
Hence my opinion that He simply isn't.
VaughanJB
Scrappy VIP
The organization, the doctrine, the control - has been a driving force. In yes olde days, it also was the major wealth. Hence why so much early research, writing, and philosophy was funded from church confers.
Warrigal
SF VIP
- Location
- Sydney, Australia
Well, Joey, that is speculation, just like the whole story could be called. Aside from Gospels, no written witness accounts have ever been discovered, if they exist at all.
VaughanJB
Scrappy VIP
While the evidence points towards Jesus being an actual person, that doesn't necessarily confirm much else.
Knight
Well-known Member
Where does God live? Some post in all of us.
A mystery to me. Why are verses ignored?
Bible verse that discuss God working in us:
Philippians 1:6: "God Will Finish His Work in Us"
That verse might explain
Voices that talk to you. They encourage you to kill yourself, stab somebody or contemplate how to kill yourself. This is reality for 1 of 100 people. Most often they do not know that the voices are not real, and 1 in 4 actually try to commit suicide. 2020 Novo Nordisk Prize recipient Merete Nordentoft has dedicated her life to studying suicide prevention and schizophrenia. Merete Nordentoft hopes for the future that the people at risk can be identified and helped when they are still children.
The quest to save people from the voices that kill
If we are all God's children then what happened?
A mystery to me. Why are verses ignored?
Bible verse that discuss God working in us:
Philippians 1:6: "God Will Finish His Work in Us"
That verse might explain
Voices that talk to you. They encourage you to kill yourself, stab somebody or contemplate how to kill yourself. This is reality for 1 of 100 people. Most often they do not know that the voices are not real, and 1 in 4 actually try to commit suicide. 2020 Novo Nordisk Prize recipient Merete Nordentoft has dedicated her life to studying suicide prevention and schizophrenia. Merete Nordentoft hopes for the future that the people at risk can be identified and helped when they are still children.
The quest to save people from the voices that kill
If we are all God's children then what happened?
David777
Well-known Member
- Location
- Silicon Valley
No. And no one will be able to prove he didn't. Sorry, none of us gets to have "certainty". A great way to separate the wheat from the chaff. Well done God!
According to scripture in multiple places, after he was resurrected, Jesus purposely only appeared to followers so uncertainty would remain in those evildoers who had not believef and who instead demanded witnessing him performing miracles. Saul ironically, was the exception and instead because of his high level of Greek and Jewish education, became a great tool the uneducated Apostles were not capable of, I greatly appreciate.
Of course, those that wanted absolute proof for centuries have been greatly frustrated and angry they cannot rely on certainty. I love how evildoers and non-believers have been left out in the cold with uncertainty. They deserve it.
Suggest you read the Book of Acts. You won't get useful answers from most members because it is obvious so few have actually read, much less studied, the New Testament books but rather rely on bits of non-scriptural "inspired" church dogma, cherry picked out of context scripture, and nonsense they have heard by others attacking belief.
And many non-believers absolutely hate the possibility any of this is true so work to condemn anything otherwise. There is plenty of useful scholarly discussion about these issues on the Internet today. But one needs to be capable of web searching, reading, and understanding. Something I doubt many have the patience, education, intelligence, and skill to do even if they tried, lost in noise.
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It's always going to be a matter of perspective I guess. Don't let one (purportedly severely edited) holy book be your guide. There are many viewpoints in the world. Read, read, and read some more. Meditate. Find your own answers, but always look at them as 'tentative' answers, because they'll always evolve.
".......If we are all God's children then what happened?........" Some 'divorce(d)' themselves from Him and chose to make their own decisions of how they wanted to live their lives (and screw(ed) up in the long run.)
Christ was stabbed in His side and bled profusely, while He hung on that cross. I believe that finished Him off. (His earthly body).
VaughanJB
Scrappy VIP
This really doesn't work for me either. If I were convinced of a heaven and hell, then I'd do anything I could to avoid the latter. Meaning, I'm not making any choices to "divorce" myself from a God. I'm just being me. But as the doctrine seems to read, I'm gonna be going to the hot place.
This whole follow God thing - doesn't it all feel a little..... Kim Jong Un?
Knight
Well-known Member
Sounds reasonable if you don't believe in bible verses.
This one in particular.
Jeremiah 29:11 is a Bible verse that states, "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future".
Pretty specific. Can you explain if the plan is not to harm you & to give you hope and a future" why would a loving omnipotent God deviate from wanting to give hope and a future" to a select portion of his "children" ?
The typical reply is Freedom of Choice but that conflicts with the plan of "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future". Either there is a plan or there isn't it can't be both ways.
Magna-Carta
Senior Member
- Location
- UK
Maybe that is the answer to the title of this thread, "Where does God live?" -- in the equivalent of North Korea? A celestial version of North Korea, where literally everlasting praise is given to the eternal "Great Leader", along with praise to his son, the "Dear Leader". A place where everyone is the property/children of the state.
I believe that North Korea promotes itself as a utopia to its citizens, a better place to be than any other country in the world. Propaganda shapes how people perceive their own country and other things. Perhaps propaganda shapes how some people perceive heaven or some similar place. A place of a supernatural dictatorship, from which there might be no escape -- you are there forever.
Whether North Korea or Heaven, are we allowed to cherry pick the propaganda, or should we 'consider' accepting it all or be damned? If we can cherry pick, or feel the need to, then it seems to me that there is a flaw in a religious system. If an ideology only works when taken in small selective doses, should we question its validity as a whole?
Someone in this thread mentioned the resurrection. I wonder, what am I 'allowed' to believe and what am I 'allowed' to dismiss, and at what ratio? I wonder if I can cherry pick and embrace this. "And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, And came out of the graves after his [Jesus] resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many." Someone is having a laugh.
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rbtvgo
Member
- Location
- Absecon, new jersey
Bottom line is that satans only defense is proving God wrong one time. Therefore he is not the God of the universe.
He has not proved that, nor will he ever prove that.
He has not proved that, nor will he ever prove that.
Mitch86
Member
- Location
- Connecticut, USA
Christ comes to take us when we die. However, He must be very busy since EVERYONE dies. He must go from one person to another super fast to reach all the dying simultaniously.