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I have some deep question about God, help!

Trailblazer

Trailblazer

Veteran Member
Maximilian said:
God glorified his name in the ancient past during his dealings with the Pharaoh of Egypt. He said, "the Egyptians will certainly know that I am Jehovah when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out from among them." -Exodus 7:5 (Emphasis mine.)

Even to this day we remember how Jehovah God freed Israel from the clutches of the evil Egyptians!
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As far as I know, it was Moses who freed Israel from the clutches of the evil Egyptians. I believe that God worked through Moses because Moses was a Manifestation of God. Now you are saying that God did that Himself, but how did God do it?
Maximilian said:
Jesus prayed to his God, Jehovah: “Father, glorify your name.” In response, God spoke from heaven, saying: “I have glorified it and will glorify it again.” (John 12:28)

Now, does any of this sound like Jesus was actually talking to himself or that he was addressing, not an actual person, but some all pervasive, ineffable force?
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Can you explain the point you are making?
I do not have time to guess.
 
Trailblazer

Trailblazer

Veteran Member
Maximilian said:
You've certainly presented your passionate opinions, no doubt, but how do I know you're actually telling the truth?
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You would have to check it out for yourself. In the Baha'i Faith, that is called the independent investigation of truth.

“The first principle Baha’u’llah urged was the independent investigation of truth. “Each individual,” He said, “is following the faith of his ancestors who themselves are lost in the maze of tradition. Reality is steeped in dogmas and doctrines. If each investigate for himself, he will find that Reality is one; does not admit of multiplicity; is not divisible. All will find the same foundation and all will be at peace.” – Abdu’l-Baha, Star of the West, Volume 3, p. 5.

“Bahá’u’lláh asked no one to accept His statements and His tokens blindly. On the contrary, He put in the very forefront of His teachings emphatic warnings against blind acceptance of authority, and urged all to open their eyes and ears, and use their own judgement, independently and fearlessly, in order to ascertain the truth. He enjoined the fullest investigation and never concealed Himself, offering, as the supreme proofs of His Prophethood, His words and works and their effects in transforming the lives and characters of men.”Bahá’u’lláh and the New Era, p. 8

“What does it mean to investigate reality? It means that man must forget all hearsay and examine truth himself, for he does not know whether statements he hears are in accordance with reality or not. Wherever he finds truth or reality, he must hold to it, forsaking, discarding all else; for outside of reality there is naught but superstition and imagination.” – Abdu’l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 62.
 
Trailblazer

Trailblazer

Veteran Member
ratiocinator said:
No, that's blind faith and circular reasoning 101. Where is there any reason to think that this god exists in the first place? That's where we started and you have provided no reasons at all. you have provided no evidence, and such 'logic' as there is, assumes the conclusion before it starts.
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I did not assume God exists BEFORE I looked at Baha’u’llah. The only evidence that God exists are the Messengers of God, what Baha’is normally refer to as Manifestations of God. Other than them, there is no reason to believe that God exists, unless you consider Creation evidence. But Creation is not good evidence because there are other possible explanations for Creation, whereas there are no other possible explanations for the Messengers of God and what they were able to accomplish, and the effect they have had upon humanity. They accomplished what no ordinary man has ever accomplished.
ratiocinator said:
So, this god isn't omnipotent.
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Unless God used His power to override human free will choices there would be no way to prevent corruption of the messages. God could do that because God is omnipotent but God chooses not to do that because an omnipotent can choose not to do anything He does not want to do.
ratiocinator said:
I know quite a lot about Christianity due to my background but you still haven't given any sensible reason to think there is anything in any religion. What objective reason is there for anybody to take any religion seriously?
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Here is the reason:

“The greatest bestowal of God in the world of humanity is religion; for assuredly the divine teachings of religion are above all other sources of instruction and development to man. Religion confers upon man eternal life and guides his footsteps in the world of morality. It opens the doors of unending happiness and bestows everlasting honor upon the human kingdom. It has been the basis of all civilization and progress in the history of mankind.” Abdu’l-Bahá, Bahá’í World Faith, p. 270​

You can read all 10 pages of this chapter here: RELIGION AND CIVILIZATION.
ratiocinator said:
So what is the approach? Just look at your religion? Guess what? That's what they all say!
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I told you to go and look at the other religion and compare. Everyone has their own way of doing research and making choices.
ratiocinator said:
Once again begging the question (assuming your conclusion).
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If God exists and is Omniscient then God knows more than any human, because no human can know everything. I do not believe in a God that is not Omniscient, and I am not even going to entertain that possibility because it makes no sense.
ratiocinator said:
But your faith has a different god-idea to the ones of most other faiths. Just claiming that yours is actually behind all the religions if they hadn't been corrupted by people, doesn't make any logical difference to the fact that your idea of god is different to the ideas of the gods of those other faiths. You've got just as much of a separate god and a separate religion as any other faith.
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There is only One God but ideas about God abound, because humans take God’s revelations and corrupt them. If you look in the Torah, the Bible, or the Qur’an you will see that the God referred to in those scriptures is the same as the God Baha’u’llah revealed. Other major religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism had other ideas about God but that is because they became corrupted and/or they misinterpreted what was in their scriptures.

Because the older religions corrupted and misinterpreted what was in their scriptures, Baha’u’llah described God in a fresh new way but it is really the same as we see in the other Abrahamic scriptures.
 
Trailblazer

Trailblazer

Veteran Member
Maximilian said:
I'm not saying anything, the Bible is. Go ahead and read Exodus for yourself.
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I could but then I might interpret it differently than you do, no doubt.

What Christians do not understand is that there is more than one interpretation of the Bible. More than one interpretation can be correct but sometimes one is correct and another is incorrect. So it is not as simple as "go read the Bible."

“Know assuredly that just as thou firmly believest that the Word of God, exalted be His glory, endureth for ever, thou must, likewise, believe with undoubting faith that its meaning can never be exhausted. They who are its appointed interpreters, they whose hearts are the repositories of its secrets, are, however, the only ones who can comprehend its manifold wisdom. Whoso, while reading the Sacred Scriptures, is tempted to choose therefrom whatever may suit him with which to challenge the authority of the Representative of God among men, is, indeed, as one dead, though to outward seeming he may walk and converse with his neighbors, and share with them their food and their drink.” Gleanings From the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, pp. 175-176

Baha'is believe that Baha'u'llah was the Representative of God among men, so if He interpreted the Bible we accept His interpretation over all others. His appointed interpreters were His son and great grandson, Abdu'l-Baha and Shoghi Effendi. We consider their interpretations authoritative.

That said, they have not interpreted the whole Bible, hardly, so the rest of up for grabs. :)
However, what they did interpret makes it easier to understand what the rest of the Bible was intended by God to mean.
 
Trailblazer

Trailblazer

Veteran Member
Maximilian said:
We can pick this back up when you're not in such a rush :)
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I am almost always in a rush, because I post on another forum and I have my own forum as well. ;)
I work full time and have a three hour bike commute, but I am on vacation now and I am still in a rush. :eek:
I own 3 houses and have 10 cats to take care of so maybe you can imagine.... :(
 
Maximilian

Maximilian

Energetic proclaimer of Jehovah God's Kingdom.
Trailblazer said:
This Trinitarian is a Protestant, not a Catholic. He believes that Catholics are heretics.

Which raises another point; what is a genuine Christian? All Christians believe they are the genuine Christians but because they do not all have the same beliefs, that is logically impossible. Moreover, the fact that different Christians interpret the Bible differently means that there can be more than one interpretation, so how can anyone know which interpretation is correct?
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With the code of conduct he supplied his loyal ones with, Christ drew a bright line and then announced that absolutely everyone on the other side is not a Christian. (John 13:34, 35; Matthew 5; 12:30)

So wholly devoted to this code would these be that all non-Christian world-views/conduct would be effortlessly recognized. (Malachi 3:18 cf. Titus 1:16)

These preach the gospel, and if necessary, use words.

Meaning that, just as we are able to distinguish genuine legal tender apart from Monopoly money, any sincere person can make a distinction between a Christian and an Anti-Christian (Satanist).

So where are all the Christians? Here they are.
 
nPeace

nPeace

Veteran Member
dybmh said:
The truth is... This is not a nice response.
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Reading this article helped me learn the symbols for the Good, and Featured. The symbol shows to the right of the title. If those two symbols don't show, them they apparently are not checked for accuracy. I saw a skull symbol on one article, but I don't know if that represents Death. :eek::D
Click the links to see the symbols.

Wikipedia:Academic use - Wikipedia
...Wikipedia can be edited by anyone at any moment. Although when an error is recognized, it is usually fixed. However, because Wikipedia cannot monitor thousands of edits made everyday, some of those edits could contain vandalism or could be simply wrong and left unnoticed for days, weeks, months, or even years.
However, it can be noted that Wikipedia's Good Articles and Featured Articles are some degree more advanced, professional, and generally more credible than an article not labeled Good or Featured.
 
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Maximilian

Maximilian

Energetic proclaimer of Jehovah God's Kingdom.
Trailblazer said:
I am almost always in a rush, because I post on another forum and I have my own forum as well. ;)
I work full time and have a three hour bike commute, but I am on vacation now and I am still in a rush. :eek:
I own 3 houses and have 10 cats to take care of so maybe you can imagine.... :(
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Perhaps you could simplify things so you can make enough time to carefully perlustrate critical spiritual truths?
 
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