im goin to start this by saying i may overexagerate some things in this post, but i hope it is to help partially get across what i hope to say.
i am reading a book called the church awakaning by chuck swindoll. at the start of the book he talks about one summer as a child he went to his grandfathers cottege on a cliff overlooking matagorda bay, which leads to the gulf of mexico. his grandfather told him that the cliff erroded away a bit every year. they placed a marker some distance from the cliff edge and measuerd. the next year when chuck visited, they measured again, sure enough, 8 inches were missing due to hurricanes and other factors and he would never have noticed right away if there was no marker to judge how much errosion had taken place.
now i am not done the book yet, but i want to ask, how much errosion has taken place not only in christianity as a whole, but in our churches, and in our individual lives, and what are we using as our marker to determine that? one thing i have noticed on some (or many) of these forums is the "im right, your wrong" attitude and in some cases both sides are using the bible to support this civil war.
one thing that bothered me before i became a christian (and it still does) is the lack of true biblical unity among christians. i mean, have we strayed (or erroded) that far?
i am going to use the whole calvanist/armanian argument as an example here mostly cause that was the last thing i read before posting this, but this can be applied to everything. now both calvanists and armanians both throw scripture and various other stuff around to try to prove that they are right. one thing i ask is that, what if they are both right to some degree. now i am not trying to compromise or harmonize or whatever else, but take a look at ALL of scripture instead of taking the ones that prove you point. i find that most of the arguments not only in this situation but any situation stems (usually, not always) from ignorance of certain scriptures. one thing that i heard awhile back is that scripture always interpretes scripture. basically meaning, if it doesnt make sense, seems to teaching something different or seems to contradict, it may be explained better elsewhere, cause remember, the bible may be 66 different books by 40 something different authors, but they all support one another perfectly.
part of the reason that much of these arguments and stuff take place, is because a vast majority of christians listen to sermons, read books, watch shows etc. about these topics but never dig any deeper than that. they get brainwashed into believeing what these people are saying. the bible talks alot about not being suckered into false doctrines and teachings which lead people astray.
im going to end with this quote "old testament pictures are new testament principles", which basically means, most (if not all) the old testament events are reflected in some way in the new testament. and i do apologise for this long post, i know people dont like reading them so i tried to make it short and to the point (although i dont know how well that worked) and believe me trying to write this with my attention span the way it is and with what is running through my mind right now, it is brutal.
is it just me, or does it seem like whenever life dumps you in the ditch, noone ever seems to be around to help pick you up and out of it? or in some cases there is someone to help, but they ditch you soon after for some reason or another.
i was listening to a sermon online and the pastor made a very interesting analogy. he was talking about how the sea of galilee is teaming (spelling may be off) with life and flourashing (again spelling) because water is flowing into and out of it, but with the dead sea, water is flowing into and staying put (until evaporation). he made this comparison to christians in that generally the christians that seem to be the most full of life are the ones that take in the water and let out the water so to say, where the ones that arent so much are the ones that take in the water but let it evaporate (the water being the word of God). it maked me take a look at myself and wonder, which am i, and which do i want to be? i also ask this of everyone else, which are you, and which do you want to be? is the water of God flowing through you or just into you and evaporating? just something to challenge you all with.
Whatcha think about God and the big bang all being one in the same?
Posted : 26 Dec, 2010 11:58 AM
it would have come close to filling up this page so i didnt bother cause i know with myself, i dont have the attention span to read articles that are that long so im not going to make other people suffer with it as well so i figured id send u that link instead. they mostly deal with evolution vs. creation, but they do have some stuff on what this topic is about
Whatcha think about God and the big bang all being one in the same?
Posted : 26 Dec, 2010 09:52 AM
i was going to post a reply, but then i realised that it would be way to long and it probably wouldnt make much sense, mostly because it is all over the place, lol. there is a good website to go to that talks about this sort of stuff called http://www.answersingenesis.org/
Whatcha think about God and the big bang all being one in the same?
Posted : 25 Dec, 2010 07:39 PM
in genesis, the order of creation is
day 1: light/darkness, day/night
day 2: the firmament (atmosphere)
day 3: land/plants
day 4: sun/moon/stars etc.
day 5: water dwelling creatures/flying creatures
day 6: land animals/humans
(this is just a quick overview)
my question then is how can millions/billions of years happen on earth when the order of creation is this way. plants would have froze and would not have been able to reproduce due to lack of heat from the sun/no insects to pollinate.
im going to go off a bit with what margo said, Jesus hung out with tax collectors and sinners, but he was neither a tax collector or a sinner. i think part of the reason for this post (ive only skimmed through it quickly, and this is my take on it) is why are christians nowadays hanging out with sinners and acting like the sinners around them? i mean like watching/listening/doing/saying/believing the same things that they are. if we are called to be so different then why arent we? i have noticed that the world/culture has influenced the church (by church i mean the people mostly) alot (and very subtle in some/most cases) instead of the other way around. and yes there have been major christian impacts on the culture now and again, but they tend to last for a few generations before it goes back to the way it was (or worse).
1. the prosperity gospel generally generally revloves around our earthly desires (eg. health, wealth, comfortabliltiy etc.) and generally turns God/Jesus/HS into nothing more than a "vending machine" of these things (per se) if we pray/belief hard enough.
2. the gospel of Jesus tells us to give up everything (including our health, wealth, comfotablility etc.) for the sake of others. a good question that i`ve heard is (and im putting it into my own words) "if Jesus, His disciples and the early church lived lives of poverty, uncomfortablility and persecution, then why shouldnt we? what makes us so different/special?" another quote that ive heard (and this time its exactly what was said, not me paraphrasing) is "if the gospel is more true in one part of the world than another, then it is not the true gospel". the author was saying that the gospel should have the exact same message no matter where in the world you go. and if you notice, most polaces that the prosperity gospel is being preached is in north america (maybe elsewhere as wel, but because im from canada i wouldnt know, lol).
3. and like ncwestie said, if all they talk about is about how much we "deserve" things instead of needing salvation and the grace of God, then i wouldn`t really rely on that preacher giving/telling the actual truth of the gospel
i saw something about this somewhere else on the forums and i cant find it for some reason (maybe cause its farther back in the archieves, and this probably isnt the right place to put this topic anyways, but anywho).
it was talking something along the lines of wether or not there is "the one partner" for us or if we can choose whoever we think is right for us. ive been thinking/wondering about it before and after i read this forum (the one i cant find) and wondered if God wants everything in our lives (meaning He wants full control, even though that is easier said than done) wont that also mean He has control/choice in who we marry? i know that we have free will and all that, but as christians, isnt our life supposed to revolve around Gods will, not our own? the bible talks about taking up our cross daily, dying daily, presenting our lives as living sacrifices etc. and any honest christian will admit that we all get off the alter/take control of the wheel and walk/drive our own way from time to time (or many times like i can). something that always seems to come up in these topics is whether or not we may have missed our chance with getting "the one" that God may have for us. i believe that if God can give us a second chance with life then He can give us second chances (or third or fourth or fifth etc.) with anything and everything else including getting the one that He wants for us. i know the bible says that God will give us the desires of our heart, and if we pray we will recieve and all that, but then my question is, what if our prayer/desire is out of earthly selfishness, not a holy desire to serve and glorify God? i dont think that God will answer. even in the Lords prayer it says "...THY kingdom come, THY will be done, on earth as it is in heaven...." how often do we knowingly or unknowing change it to "......my kingdom come, my will be done on earth as it is in heaven...." (i am half joking/half serious by saying this cause sometimes when i stop and think about what i am about to pray for/about i realise that i am pray in the latter instead of the former). 1 thessalonians 5:16-18 says "rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you". i know this verse can be used in many different ways for many different things, and the reason i use it is because how often do we REJOICE? are we PRAYING WITHOUT CEASING? are we GIVING THANKS TO GOD IN ALL CIRCUMSTANCES? i mean its easy to look around at all the dating/engaged/married couples and feel miserable and lonely, but we are not supposed to, we are told to rejoice and be thankful because rejoicing/thankfulness takes our focus off of ourselves on puts it onto others and to God. how often do we go to God in prayer about finding a partner? more importantly, how often do we ask for Gods will to be done in finding a partner (wether it is yes, no, or not yet). do we just do a 30 second-2 minute prayer once a week/month about it, or are we honestly serching/seeking Gods will in the matter. how thankful are we in all of our circumstances (good bad and ugly)?
i just want to finish by throwing this out (as off topic as it might be). feelings like joy, happiness, anger, love etc are states of mind and heart. our minds and hearts are intertwined emotionally. for example, we can look at our situations (in this case because it is a dating site i will use being single as an example) and we can either feel lonely/longing, or we can rejoice and be thankful.
anywho sorry for a long, possibley random, off topic post (with possible spelling/grammer errors, its 3 am and its taken me about an hour to type this, as im about 75% asleep). there is probaly more i wanted to say but oh well, off to bed.
adam and eve would have had other children between cain/abel and seth, how many, who knows. it must also be remembered that the world looked totally different before the flood. mountains are formed when 2 plates of the earths crust collide forcing one to fold up into mountains and the other to sink beneath, which can only realy happen if the earths crust is soft, otherwise is would shatter and break like in earthquakes (not that i have ever been in an actual earthquake, but i have felt a couple of termors). in genesis 7:11 it says that the fountains of the great deep were broken open and the windows of heaven were opened up. during creation God created water under the crust, on the crust, and possibly over ther earth (some debate about this last one but i wont get into it) so most of the water came from under the earth. that is where we get most of (if not all) the fault lines today is the from the water shooting to the surface. when the water shot up it would have broken up the earths crust into the plates that we see today therfore changing the entire landscape of the earth (creating mountains and valleys during the entire time it was happening). when the water receded it would have wased out many places and changed the earth that much more (good example is the grand canyon, it would have been a natural dam for a lake that was created after the flood water receded, the canyon was the "break through spot" (for lack of a better term at the moment) for the water). so it is not likely that the rivers where in the same place as before the flood with all the turbulance of the earth at the time.
