Where Did Your Faith, If You Have Faith, Begin?

Discussion in 'Faith & Religion' started by Jack Roberts, Aug 3, 2021.

  1. Samual Yoder

    Samual Yoder Very Well-Known Member
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    When I was a wee lad I asked my dad where was God?
    He took me out to the farm pond where we kept fish and told me if fish were religious, the water is their God, the same for us, God is not somewhere he is every where we can not get away from him any more than the fish can get away from the water.
     
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  2. Faye Fox

    Faye Fox Veteran Member
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    God is everywhere for me because I believe God is the universe and everything in it.
     
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  3. Hal Pollner

    Hal Pollner Veteran Member
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    Now you're talkin', Faye! :D
     
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  4. Joseph Carl

    Joseph Carl Very Well-Known Member
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    God is the universe and everything in it? Forgive me if I'm misinterpreting this statement, but it sounds like a pantheistic view - one that counters all reason and scientific evidence.

    In addition to disputed alternative dimensions, is the universe not proven to be comprised of time, space, and matter?

    Do not the vast majority of scientists and theologians now accept the mathematical and scientific evidence that the universe is not infinite, that it had a beginning?

    Do not our strongest scientific laws of physics relating to causality and thermodynamics determine that the universe could not have created itself?
    Such is the materialistic/naturalistic observations and condition of our universe. To date, the only explanation for our universe that's compatible with the evidence is a supernatural cause - a creator, god, or being of some sort with certain characteristics. And for this to work, that being would have to be outside of the time/space/matter universe that he created.

    Believing that God is in everything or everyone may feel nice, but it counters science and logic and represents a religious view with no sound foundational support. I'd suggest that something as important as religious views should be carefully considered and based on evidence. Doing so will logically lead one to the God of the Bible. He may be everywhere, with even his Spirit dwelling inside some of us, but the Creator of the universe and all life as we know it stands apart from the creation. Otherwise, people end up worshipping the creation rather than the Creator.
     
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  5. Shirley Martin

    Shirley Martin Supreme Member
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    Where did God come from?
     
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  6. Samual Yoder

    Samual Yoder Very Well-Known Member
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    Sounds nice, but there is no evidence that can support any of those questions, it is a religious belief and those who believe are doing so on faith and faith alone with no evidence to support those beliefs but most do not need evidence.
     
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  7. Bobby Cole

    Bobby Cole Supreme Member
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    Joseph and Samual have both made good arguments which is why I posted a like on both of them.
    In context, I can see what they’re both writing and I also understand the framework of each side.

    On one hand, if we experience and see the many works of God then in a way yes, we get a glimpse of the realities and evidence of God’s presence without actually seeing Him for indeed, His works and He are separate but faith is made of such things. Hebrews 11:3 leads us to that conclusion.

    On the other hand, if indeed I were to explain the existence of God to a child, I might use the directive that Jesus used and paraphrase it in the direction of His works and say, if you have seen His works then you have seen the Father for the Father is in His works and by His works you will know Him.
     
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    Last edited: Oct 11, 2021
  8. Hugh Manely

    Hugh Manely Very Well-Known Member
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    But Samual, realize that even though what you say is true, it is not a "blind faith". There is a basis for the faith. Not to go too far afield, but look at the reliability of God's promises and predictions (or should I say prophecies). There are far too many to talk about, but here are a few, and many like them form, for me, a reason to believe the validity of scripture.

    The Israelites were warned by Moses around 1400 B.C. (Deut 28:58-68)that if they did not serve the Lord and keep His commandments, He would scatter them around the earth. (which happened)

    in 70 A.D., Titus, the Roman general, invaded Israel and finally Jerusalem, destroying the temple, just as Jesus predicted (Mark 13:30), and that it would happen “before this generation passed.” (It was so)

    In Jeremiah 31:35-37, God says the Jewish nation would be intact as long as there were the sun, moon, and stars, and He would establish them as a nation, as promised to King David. (this has been true)

    God had promised Abraham “all the nations on earth would be blessed through him (referring to his descendents)” (Genesis 18:18). This has proven to be true, with such persons like Jonas Salk, Albert Einstein, Alexander Graham Bell, Enrico Fermi, Niels Bohr, Ernst B. Chain (penicillin), and too many others to list.

    God promised that He would bring back the Israel people in one day! Never in the history of the world had this happened. This happened in 1948 when Israel became a recognized nation as President Truman gave word that the U.S. recognized the Jewish state. At midnight, David Ben-Gurion, head of the Jewish Agency, announced the establishment of the State of Israel. ( Ezekiel 37:21, 22)

    There are too many fulfilled prophecies to list. Look at what we’re enduring today. Yes, Jesus told us this would happen. He said in Luke 21 that nation will rise against nation, there will be wars and rumors of more to come, along withgreat earthquakes, famines and pestilences as we come nearer to His return.

    Also, what’s in the future. God warned us many times in scripture that we should strive to have such a relationship with Him that we would be worthy to escape the coming wrath upon the earth. Yes, just like every other prophesy, this rapture event will transpire, and it could happen at any moment. Just get ready! (don’t wait as the population did in Noah’s day, and it was too late when the rain came). So, every prophecy has come true, so far. And there's no reason to think any of them (over 500) will not.
     
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  9. Samual Yoder

    Samual Yoder Very Well-Known Member
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    Since you put so much emphases on prophecy, you miss what Paul said, the rapture can not happen at any moment, two things must happen first before the rapture...
    "
    Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him ( what you call the rapture), That you be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day (the rapture) shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition" 2 Thessalonians 2:1-3
    Here it says two things must happen first before the "rapture" a falling away (which is happening now and has been for some time, and the man of sin son of perdition (what you believers call the "anti-Christ", so Paul clearly points out the rapture can not happen at any moment.
    There are too many prophecy's and scriptures fulfilled to statistically rule out divine intervention like the description of Christ's murder in the Psalms. I did not say I did not believe in God, a supreme being, I said we can not prove God exists, we live by faith and faith alone. If we could prove God exists then he would not be God.
     
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  10. Bill Boggs

    Bill Boggs Supreme Member
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    I hope he finds his way but I fear he is lost. I think he forgot where he left us. "Come back, God, come back. We love you."
     
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  11. Hal Pollner

    Hal Pollner Veteran Member
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    God is in someone else's mind.

    H.P.
     
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  12. Jeff Elohim

    Jeff Elohim Very Well-Known Member
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    It began in heaven, the source of all that is good being the heavenly Father.

    Related Torah Blessing and Curse - Blessing and Curse always, or almost always, were given together; a blessing to those blessed, a curse to those of unbelief.
    Audio Reading for those unable to read the screen:
    https://torahportions.ffoz.org/torah-portions/allportions/nitzavim/
     
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