Posted on 09/20/2005 4:24:28 PM PDT by SJackson
For instance, let's say your nation practiced a limited form of human sacrifice. On certain high holy days, or before sending ships off to war, you sacrificed some children. That sort of thing looks pretty evil to us.
On the other hand, in previous times that same nation used to take its neighbors captive and slaughter every man, woman and child ~ and then eat select members.
Going back further, we discover that the nation made a practice of eating its weakest members, or any stranger who happened to come along in their territory.
So how is it this bunch of barbarians came up from savage cannibalism to a state where they had written law, trained and compassionate judges, and a dramatically reduced practice of occasional ceremonial human sacrifice?
Who told the way to escape from their savage past? Did Satan do that? Or, did God actually communicate with them in some limited but real way?
Obviously modern Christians and Jews, armed to the teeth with thermonuclear warheads of immense power are far removed from their ancestor's cannibalistic and savage pasts. But does God attempt to communicate with us and teach us how we may be better?
I agree with you! By the way the name of the player, who goaded the chaplin, is Ryan Church of Washington Nationals.
A genuine Christian could say that Jews, as Jews, are not doomed to Hell. The final disposition of souls is a matter for God alone to decide, and a genuine Christian can assert that God does not dispose based upon the physical race of the body He made as a vessel for a given soul.
BTW, some of us have visited the place, eh!
It would be interesting if his replacement was asked the same question, what would his answer be? This is a Chritian ministry, Baseball Dhapel, we are talking about.
Come on, Ryan Church, ask this question again.
In the same way as believing that Christ is the redeemer is hate, I suppose.
Yes,its logically impossible to believe all religions are correct.
So HOW do we know for sure who is right?.I tend to lean more to the Judeo-Christian theology,perhaps because of the cultural forces in my life.
But the natural skeptic in me has this voice that whispers
"Are you SURE?"
Absolutely. That's the core of Christian belief anyway.
That's interesting; I actually had a debate with a friend about a similar topic recently. It's probably a minority position among Christians, but it does have some good points. Ultimately, I guess, the judging is up to God.
I've also been on the receiving end of snide anti-Jewish remarks, from people who clearly did NOT know I'm Jewish.
I don't fall into the trap of thinking everyone is an anti-semite, but at the same time, I do know that there's bigotry out there.
That said, I LOVE AMERICA, and there's no place on g-d's earth I'd rather be, and no people I'd rather dwell amongst.
Of course He does!
Indeed, if we care to look, we see the providential hand of God in traditional Islam.
Consider the origins: a man, Mohammad, spoke to an angel in his tent. That angel told him many things: that Jesus was not God, that there was no Trinity, that those who say either thing were infidels, that all infidels are to be put to the sword, etc. The angel who talked to Mohammed spoke some fair words and true, but he laced them with the most vicious attack on Christianity, and prescribed bloodshed to all ends of the Earth. Thus the Koran.
But look what happened to Islam by the time of the Ottoman Caliphate and the four schools of the law? The Muslim traditions, taught by the schools, had completely defanged the Koran and reversed all of the blood-demanding impositions. Islam itself, by the time of the Caliphate, had indeed - through its traditions - become something of a religion of peace, law and order.
Now, how do we suppose THAT happened?
I think we know the name of that angel who spoke to Mohammed in that tent.
But how do we explain the gentling, even the complete reversal, of all of the brutal edicts of the Koran into a religion of relative tolerance, peace, that had every legal and traditional argument and explanation to defang the Koran?
We know, if we reflect, that God did not let Satan simply walk off with the Muslim world. Satan may have set up the structure of the anti-Christianity, but he did not keep command of it. Indeed, traditional Islam, legal Islam, became something bordering on Judaism in its sophistication and its unwillingness to resort to the bloody sword.
Which is why, of course, all of the wild-eyed terrorists are not traditional Muslims at all, but focused on the harshest form of straight-Koran fundamentalism. The traditions gentled the religion. The book was dictated from darkness, but God used the traditions to turn it to light. Darkness seeks to reassert itself and pull everything back into the book.
God does not forsake His children.
Still, you can encounter it here and there in modern theology, and, if you know what you are looking at, you'll see it in the Old Testament.
It's one of the reasons the more informed religions advocate that their practitioners recruit new members from among the more primitive groups rather than just go in and exterminate them.
Sorry, but Christ can be their Lord and Savior, even if they do not fully comprehend it.
God's grace does not require mouthing of concocted forms (such as "I accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior"). What it requires is that Jesus, who is the One True God, extend His grace upon a soul. How He does that is not know to us. Nor can we force Him to do that by mouthing some magical incantation which binds him by rules. Nor can we wave around our book and forbid God to save anyone.
There are, indeed, many who are trusting in their religion and by doing so are trusting in the grace and love of the Lord Jesus, even if they do not realize it.
Over 100,000 Jewish immigrants from in the vicinity of Vienna and Prague simply disappeared into Southern and Central Indiana in the mid-1800s.
Wanna' see some pictures of a peddlers wagon. They'd take these out 3 days, and return 3 days, arriving on Friday evening. These people even continued the old practices of "arranged marriage" (Heaven forfend!!!!) ~ the fact that European Jews were melting into the MidWest was cause for concern to Jacob Schmiddlapp (and several other spellings) in Cincinnati. He was encouraged to literally finance the creation of Reformed Judaism. Of course, 100% of his closest blood relatives became Methodists and Quakers ~ guy spent all his time making money and pushing "church" ~ definitely a combination to alienate just about anyone.
For those who care what one religion thinks about another, remember that there are Hindus who believe cows are sacred and that you are going to be reincarnated as a cow. Do you agree with that belief? Probably not. Are you offended by such a (according to you) mistaken belief? I doubt it. What do you care what Hindus think will happen to you after death. Similarly, why would a Jew care what Christians think of what happens to them after death?
I find it rather interesting that some people think it's they who decide who will go to heaven and who will go to hell.
Personally, it seems to me that will be G-d's decision.
There, you are going to turn into a barbeque ~ end of story!
Yes God is the creator, sender and recaller of souls.
And we do have the Bible, which can be helpful to us if we don't go too far and make an idol out of it.
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