If God can do anything, can he make a rock so big that he can't move it?
"...nonsense remains nonsense even when we talk it about God" - C.S. Lewis
Isn't it amazing when otherwise intelligent people become self-contradicting lunatics when we talk religion? Why does that happen? I've got a couple of thoughts.
First, often in religion, what I say/believe is tainted by what I want to be true. Now that's not the case in Mathematics. In Math, I'm not tempted to believe 2+2 is 5 because I want it to be 5. It simply doesn't matter to me what 2+2 is as long as I can learn the answer. But with religion we're different. I may believe the man is to be 'head of the house' because I read that in the Bible, but it just simply isn't true that I have no vested interest in the outcome of that study. I want it to be true. "Ah-ha! See, it must not be true that the man is the head of the house then", says my wife, "You just think that because you want to believe it!" Do you see the complication here? She doesn't want to believe it, and I do want to believe it. So is it true or not? "Well", someone says, "it is true for you, and not true for her". This is nonsense . Truth does not change from one person to another, unless it is truth about opinion. Either God says the man is the head of the house, or he doesn't. [To see His answer, read Ephesians 5:22-32]
Recently my daughter was writing a persuasive paper for a college class. Her thesis was that "Blue is a better color than red". Oh really? That may be true for me, and not true for you, because that is just a matter of opinion, or context, but it is not true in the greater sense of the word truth. The complexity comes when we forget that something isn't true or untrue "just because I want...
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...ou believe your verse, I'll believe mine." or in other words, there is no Truth, just opinion. In actuality, the verses are all true. You must believe, repent, and be baptized.
My final witness in this post is John 14:6 where Jesus claimed "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the father except through me". Either that is true or it is not true. Is there any other way to the Father except through Jesus? To say yes is to call Jesus a liar. Contradictory, mutually exclusive things can only be true simultaneously if they are opinion. In Christianity, many things are left to our opinion, (ie. celebrating religious holidays - Romans 14), but many things are not, and the things that are not...are not.
Pay special attention that you don't try to keep peace by spouting nonsense, and that you never, ever excuse your own nonsense by charging God with it!
Jesus proves to us in this gospel that he does not believe in any form
Man knows that the Gospel is God’s power to save, that the truth purifies the heart and the truth sanctifies the heart; for, that information has been revealed through His Word by the Holy Spirit. (Rom. 1:16; I Peter 1:22; John
the Holy See will search for the most fair and peaceful solution in pursuit of a safer
... as to allow sin to be a part of their lives, but they are deceived. Jesus has made it very clear, “I am the way, the truth and the light.” He also tells us “no one gets to the father except through me”. This cannot be made any clearer.
In the monotheistic religious traditions of Christianity and Islam, one role of God (or Allah) is to limit or control aggressions among humankind. In these religious traditions, God establishes an ideal or standard for the righteous use of force by followers of the faith. These standards, or just war traditions, address details of when to use force to solve disputes, to what extent the force should be employed, and whose blessing is required to insure that the use of force is appropriate in the eyes of God. If a situation satisfies the just war tradition in that culture and the aggression is carried out for religious reasons, the action can be further classified as holy war. Many Americans connect the concept of holy war only with Islam. In fact the Christian crusades during the middle ages were just such a holy war being waged by Christians against Muslims. Whether a particular situation qualifies as a holy war or not, the focus of the just war tradition is to ask God for approval. “Appeals to ‘holy war’ or ‘religious crusade’ in one or another tradition are one type of appeal to divine authority regarding the use of force.” In recent history numerous conflicts, border skirmishes, battles and wars have arisen in which governments have decided to apply military force to varying degrees. Inevitably, politicians, policy-makers, religious and military leaders seek divine authority on which to base the struggle of their population and the loss of life. Have religious ethical values or theological aspects of the just war tradition influenced the nature of these military actions? Have the prevailing religious values kept military actions any more humane than they might otherwise have been? This paper will examine the theological roots of the just war tradition in the Christian and Islamic cultures. In addition, it will try to ascertain how religious ethics, and the just war tradition in particular, has been used between the “war” on terror and the United States. Finally, this paper will dem...
...ts of the Bible and do not believe in others. By doing so, one is lead to an entirely different interpretation that strays away from the truth of God’s words.
Islam and Christianity both come from a common foundation as religions of peace, both of these religious traditions share the foundational element of peace of their beliefs. In both the sacred texts of Islam and Christianity peace is a virtue and is seen more as a sense of wellbeing than just the absence of conflict and violence. Overall peace is found in unity with God, for Christians and Muslims are taught to live a life a life of peace with others, not only in their own communities but the entire of human society. The Qur’an in Islam and the New Testament in Christianity are respectively the principal sacred texts for these religious traditions. The Qur’an and the New Testament both express the importance of peace and peacemaking as evident in Jesus’ Beatitudes “Blessed are the peacemakers”. The search for inner peace is the core message of the Qur’an and the New Testament and the adherents of both traditions are taught that inner peace will come through faithfully devoting yourself to God.
That is what all of the disputes are about, the interpretation of the religion the God had intended. So many people listened to it and heard it in a different way, that is how we get so many different religions. We as people all think differently, we have different views of life and religion. That doesn’t make a single person wrong in their faith or what they believe, it just means that they listened and interpreted it differently than you. Romans 1:19-21 says “19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” It means that the truth about God is seen by everyone because he has made it to be that way, but because they wont accept the truth about God they seek their own way of
Throughout the bible believers and nonbelievers are challenged not to blindly accept religious dogma. A fact is something that can be proven true. The purpose of this research paper is to adopt the biblical challenge to prove all things. It is the responsibility
The best example is: everyone knows you can’t get milk from cotton. But, if you take the cotton and soak it in milk first then you can squeeze the milk from the cotton. In the same sense the Trinity doctrine is like this. Before you can begin to see the Trinity doctrine, someone has to tell you about it and then go to scripture to prove it as fact.
...the other cheek or demand a tooth for a tooth, but what decision you come to wont be because you are following the instructions laid out before you word for word. It is because you will look through the bible and pick out the passages that support the beliefs you already hold(Sinnott-Armstrong).
Ronald Nash’s book Is Jesus the Only Savior? seeks to explain or shed light on this question that has puzzled many in previous generations as well as ours. The resounding answer that comes forth from his arguments is “yes,” Jesus is the only savior of humankind. He starts by taking into account the three schools of thought associated with this controversial question. These are Pluralism, Inclusivism, and Exclusivism. The first six chapters of the book deals with Pluralism, which can be said to be the belief that all major world religions are equal and there is no religion that is superior to the other. Pluralism also emphasizes that all these religions lead to salvation and to God. In the last five chapters of the book, Nash deals with Inclusivism, which entails the belief that one religion is paramount but salvation is possible through other religions. However, all through the book, Nash sets up a strong argument in favor of Exclusivism, which is the belief that salvation can only be found through one religion. It states that one religion is superior to the others . The religion that exclusivists mostly refer to is Christianity, and they base their arguments on Christ’s statement that “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life” found in John 14:6.
...s beliefs are not reflected in their conduct. As a result, people do not truly understand the doctrines they hold dear, and their misunderstanding leads to serious mistakes.
... for personal reasons you to are using exegetical approaches to the scriptures. We do this every time we read something or hear it spoken. The Bible is no different besides that you have to decipher it correctly. By reading other commentaries on that book or verse you can form your own exegetical hypothesis, but make sure it is a biblical one.