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jester
Where is the freedom in "either do as I say or you gonna burn buster". That is not freedom that is coercion. I would agree that our decisions affect some of those around us. That is perfectly natural. It seems to me that God's plan is not so detailed. He wants what is best for man. "He is not willing that any should perish." As far as ancient prophesy goes it was about the time of the prophets and not about some distant time in the future. Anderson, "Understanding the Old Testament"; Borg, "Reading the Bible Again For the First Time"; Bible translator J. B. Phillips in commentary pages in his translation of the New Testament. The Character of God is well summed up in Matt 22:34ff and Micah 6:8 and Matt. 25:31ff. That is the character of God as far as we humans can grasp the essentially unknowable.
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Its not coersion, God sets out his love for us ten fold over the warnings with negative outcome, part of his charcter is that he does not go back on his word, what he has declared he has declared, dont waste your time with your commentators, rewite it in your own words I wont bother to look them up, I don't listen to scholars I lsiten to real men that live the life, such as yourself, ones that I know and can speak to, not ones who write a book and make statements.
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When it comes to war and atrocities there is a point of view that does explain it. If we turn to Paul's second letter to the Corinthians 12:9 we read "Christ's power is made perfect in weakness." In 2 Cor12:10 we read "I am content with weakness, for when I am weak, then I am strong." and in 2 Cor 13:4 "Christ was crucified in weakness." Because of God's love for his creation being so strong it has qualified strength. He has given us free will and to interfere is to take away that free will. Thus when Deitrich Bonhoeffer was suffering at the end of the Nazi rope 3 days before liberation God was there suffering with him and giving him the strength to go on. God has chosen his love over his strength. It is called agape.
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I cannot necessarily agree with you here either, I think there is balance in perfect love towards us, but not at the expense of Gods Justice, every part of God is met out in perfection towards us. Paul is emphasizing Grace on that I agree with you.
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You asked "where is the rest of the world?" We in the west who are supposedly Christian are called to serve the impoverished and those suffering injustice. The western world uses some 80% to 90% of the world's resources. The western world controls the vast majority of the world's wealth. The western world lives quite high. We have more than enough food. We have more than enough money. We have more than enough resources to assist the third world. Our lack of actions speaks louder than do our wonderful religious words. We as a culture are not doing what we are called to do and yet we have the gall to call ourselves Christians. What retired CEO is worth a pension of 50 million dollars a year. What person needs millions a year to enjoy living. As a western society we rape the world and wallow in our wealth. And at the same time we are aiding in the total destruction of the human race.
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Yep pretty much, no disagreement there. But dont poke the stick solely at us, its a big big world and many other coudl havehelped to and did not.
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In short, we as Christians fail to follow in the footsteps of our Lord. I don't mean you personally or anyone else including myself but corporately we fail miserably. Because other Christian areas of the world would appear not to does nothing to exonerate us.
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Agreed, we deserve to be judged by God corporatly as well as individually for our corporate and individual actions, or lack of action.
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jester
I have nothing but admiration for you and your work with the UN. You served the cause of peace in one way or another. Blessings for that.
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I do thank you for that, but I hate the UN with a passion, they are the worst orginization in the history of the world in terms of corruption and hipocracy, worse than any of the malitias I fought against in a dozen or more places.
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I cannot, however, believe that some little innocent child was suffering probably unto death because these people rejected God. They were suffering because of human greed among a small minority. Where were we, corporatively?
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Liek it or not you just got done saying above that we are judged corporatly as nations for our actions, how do you now say not so? Our actions is visited on our children. If I choose to commit a crime that sends me to the electric chair my children grow up fatherless.
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Why do I have to watch a commercial, on TV, presented by the Canadian Leprosy mission. They plead for money to buy some antibiotics for the children. Meanwhile our drug companies continue to make obscene profits. Our countries continue to build up arms. It has been estimated that 5% of the world's arms money would feed all of the starving children in the world. This, of course, pertains to all nations and not just a few.
It may sound a little crass but much money is spent on trying to save their souls while they are starving to death. That is a sin. That is an atrocity.
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I cant disagree with you here at all, well said.