How strong is your faith

TransmutingSoul · Mar 6, 2020

We Never Know said:
Who believes your life is already planned, laid out, and what happens will happen because God controls it all.

I see my end in this world is known by God and what God has put in front of me will aid in the choices I have been born to be able to make.

Knowledge of an action, is not the cause of the action. In the end, we stand must up for those choices and accept what we have done with them.

Regards Tony

TransmutingSoul · Mar 6, 2020

We Never Know said:
Sounds like you're speaking of freewill.

If lightning strikes you and kills you, it has nothing to do with freewill.

So was it already planned by God or just a freak accident that God couldn't control?

I see we can change events, but God already knows what we will ask for and allows the consequences to unfold. Tragedy is part of life and the greater Love knows there is more than this life, thus gives and takes according to God's plan.

This thought from the Quran verse part 8:30 ".....But they plan, and Allah plans. And Allah is the best of planners".

Regards Tony

74x12 · Mar 6, 2020

We Never Know said:
If we chalk it up to it's a completely random event only shows it's not controlled by an all powerful God.

Like I said, He makes room for random events. I guess you could say He programmed them in. So just like you could write an algorithm for random occurrences.

Like this simple website:
RANDOM.ORG - Dice Roller

Basically a limited randomness does occur in life.

Windwalker · Mar 6, 2020

We Never Know said:
"Things simply are as they must be"

What makes them as they must be?

John lives to 102 and little Chuck dies at 1 year of age? Why must things be that way?

Short answer? Ask God.

blü 2 · Mar 6, 2020

We Never Know said:
Who believes your life is already planned, laid out, and what happens will happen because God controls it all.

I've never found a way for will to be free in biology. The brain makes its decisions by complex and interacting chains of biochemical and bioelectrical cause+effect, perhaps sometimes affected by incidents of quantum randomness, though that's not certain.

Theology can't offer any credible alternative to that.

Moreover, once God is declared to be omnipotent, theological free will is ruled out anyway ─ nothing in the universe can happen except exactly as [he] perfectly foresaw and intended it before [he] made the universe.

And even were [he] not omnipotent, there would still be no account of how a brain or soul could make a decision without a process, nor how that process could be 'free' yet neither the result of chains of cause+effect, nor merely random.

robocop (actually) · Mar 6, 2020

I don't believe in free will or time, but I believe in God and making decisions.

Just personally.

My faith is pretty good... feeling the Holy Spirit now.

iam1me · Mar 7, 2020

We Never Know said:
Who believes your life is already planned, laid out, and what happens will happen because God controls it all.

God gave us freewill to choose to do good or evil.

Deutoronomy 30:11-19
Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. 12 It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” 13 Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” 14 No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.

15 See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. 16 For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.

17 But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, 18 I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.

19 This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live 20 and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Kenny · Mar 8, 2020

We Never Know said:
Sounds like you're speaking of freewill.

If lightning strikes you and kills you, it has nothing to do with freewill.

So was it already planned by God or just a freak accident that God couldn't control?

You had the choice not to be outside for lightning to strike you.

Kenny · Mar 8, 2020

We Never Know said:
Who believes your life is already planned, laid out, and what happens will happen because God controls it all.

I think God controls the end but gives people choice in between. He plans our life and then lets us choose whether we want the ride.

Like a GPS - God's Positioning System - always recalculating when we miss the exit to get us back on track.

We Never Know · Mar 8, 2020

KenS said:
You had the choice not to be outside for lightning to strike you.

He could have been walking to the church on Sunday where God wanted him.

Kenny · Mar 8, 2020

We Never Know said:
He could have been walking to the church on Sunday where God wanted him.

Did you know that even Jesus missed a church service?

After all... God did give us a brain to use that says "Don't go walking outside when there is lightning".

Samantha Rinne · Mar 8, 2020

We Never Know said:
Who believes your life is already planned, laid out, and what happens will happen because God controls it all.

Why does fatalism equal "strong faith"?

Fatalism is crap.

It’s true: God does manage to draw wonderful outcomes from the foolishness of men. It is also true that the glory of God’s power and wisdom is frequently on display in human affairs in spite of our choices, not because of them.

If I get behind a wheel drunk, I or someone else will likely die. However, God may be able to make the most of this event by bringing family together (during the funeral).

dfnj · Mar 9, 2020

We Never Know said:
Who believes your life is already planned, laid out, and what happens will happen because God controls it all.

We have no control over the choices presented to us. Yet at the same time we can create new choices for ourselves. I think it's 50/50 split. It's a bit of a feedback loop of choices combined with conscious awareness changing what is being observed.

God's plan is the complete realization of His omnipotence. This means the Universe is cyclical and we are just living in one instance of a infinite number of choices being played out. Yet, every sequence of choices is an essential piece of the plan.

People use a computer simulation metaphor for reality all the time. If you've ever played a video game with NPCs you know they eventually become boring because they are so predictable. Games where you play other people over the Internet are much more interesting. This is because human beings as created by God use their consciousness to continuously create unimaginable possibilities in reality (or virtual reality). What happens in reality is never like NPCs in a virtual world. What happens in reality is always interesting and unpredictable. This is what makes life so interesting and fun. God may have a plan, but God's plan is not boring.

Muffled · Mar 13, 2020

robocop (actually) said:
I don't believe in free will or time, but I believe in God and making decisions.

Just personally.

My faith is pretty good... feeling the Holy Spirit now.

I had a Mormon missionary tell me the Holy Spirit was saying something contrary to what the Holy Spirit said to me. His was self oriented while I had no reason to alter the message to my own predilections. When there is a difference someone has to be wrong. The danger is not just thinking your own thoughts are God's thoughts but the greatest danger is an evil spirit masquerading as the real thing. There is a scene in one of the episodes of Joan of Arcadia (TV series now on Utube) where the priest says the same thing. It confuses Joan because up to that point she thought she could only hear from God.

Muffled · Mar 13, 2020

KenS said:
You had the choice not to be outside for lightning to strike you.

I was on the golf course once when an electrical storm arose. I went and hid in the trees. I figured out in the open I was the tallest thing there but among the trees it was a crap shoot as to which tree the lightning would hit. At any rate if God wants you He can find the right tree.

Muffled · Mar 13, 2020

We Never Know said:
He could have been walking to the church on Sunday where God wanted him.

I often wonder about that in reference to Pearl Harbor taking place on a Sunday. How many sailors saved their lives by getting off a ship to go to church?

robocop (actually) · Mar 13, 2020

Muffled said:
I had a Mormon missionary tell me the Holy Spirit was saying something contrary to what the Holy Spirit said to me. His was self oriented while I had no reason to alter the message to my own predilections. When there is a difference someone has to be wrong. The danger is not just thinking your own thoughts are God's thoughts but the greatest danger is an evil spirit masquerading as the real thing. There is a scene in one of the episodes of Joan of Arcadia (TV series now on Utube) where the priest says the same thing. It confuses Joan because up to that point she thought she could only hear from God.

Yeah... I'm well aware of the fact that the Holy Ghost seems to tell people different things.

Kenny · Mar 13, 2020

Muffled said:
I was on the golf course once when an electrical storm arose. I went and hid in the trees. I figured out in the open I was the tallest thing there but among the trees it was a crap shoot as to which tree the lightning would hit. At any rate if God wants you He can find the right tree.

LOL.... True... He can find you... but I don't think He is into striking people with lightning at this time;.

Trailblazer · Mar 15, 2020

We Never Know said:
"Things simply are as they must be"

What makes them as they must be?

John lives to 102 and little Chuck dies at 1 year of age? Why must things be that way?

Because God decides our fate.... if you believe in that omnipotent God.

We Never Know · Mar 15, 2020

Trailblazer said:
Because God decides our fate.... if you believe in that omnipotent God.

Here's some irony. Some churches are cancelling services due to the corona virus.
The irony is "why cancel church, don't they have enough faith that god will save them?"

How strong is your faith

Does God control it all

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