Why doesn't God just start over by flushing the world of sin and ridding the world of all people? Couldn't he just create man again and learn from his mistakes? If he envisions a world that places 100% faith into himself and Jesus' sacrifice, but the world is being drawn further and further away from these religious beliefs, then why can't he just scrap his current plan? In a world where faith is starting to wane, God should be increasingly worried that his word is not being spread as it should. So his only options are to let this all play out, eventually making himself obsolete when enough of the world in the future reverts to a new faith or none at all after some major global catastrophe, or he could scrap his current experiment and move on to the next. "If at first you don't succeed, try and try again."
Dylan, yesterday when I read what was going on in this persons life I felt the need to not just post words of encouragement but also provide a little bit of the word of Christ. The bible verse I attached to the statement came to mind, and in hope that it would reach the op and provide comfort and peace I put it down. What that scripture says is just a tiny seed of faith, can achieve anything..... Its not about praying hard enough, or long enough. Its about having just a tiny but of belief and hope in your heart that the Lord is almighty and that nothing is impossible for him to make a move in your life. Your thread was about " The Power of Prayer". See Dylan, in order to answer this I had to explain what prayer is. Prayer is nothing but communication with the Lord, if you have good communication with the Lord then yes prayer can be powerful beyond anything we have ever seen. No it does not mean a prostitute/drug dealer/ gang member or just someone like yourself will not be heard if they are praying and trully seeking him to end they're sin,struggle, pain. God listens always and he knows if to pour down blessings or if to hold them off, people are impatient thou. They want things now and are not willing to wait, seek God, and then be blessed. "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." Mathew 6:33 Finalsbound.. Have you ever been in Love before? could you explain love? This is where people get confused on why it had to happen with Jesus. God loves us so much but he hates sin, many bible scholars belive that God couldnt even see his own son on the cross because he was carrying all our sins at that moment. He was the sacrifice, the blood of the lamb is what allows us to communicate with God, Jesus was the bridge towards salvation and God himself. We are still sinners, but when we accept the sacrifice and seek God then God no longer sees our sin because the blood of Jesus covers it. No, we cant be perfect but we can all seek God and deny ourselves from sin. If he died on the cross for us, would it hurt to atleast find out who it was that this for us? he resurrected you know. He is alive, just waiting for us to answer his call.
Who says God isn't trying again? Does trying again necessarily have to include the concept of destroying all previous "experiments" as you put it?
He did not make a mistake, we made the mistakes..... He loves us, that is why he does not destroy us. Instead he gave us a chance to save ourselves throu Jesus Christ.
My driving point is that more and more people are losing their faith or being void of faith from the beginning. And I see this as a continuing trend moving forward. There seems to be an increasing number of agnostics and atheists each day. So wouldn't this constitute a failure in his book? He would have to do something truly miraculous to shift the tide back in his favor, because at this rate, he won't be lingering in the minds of many for much longer.
lol, your prayer is never going to be answered with that attitude. faith is the realization that religion isn't just a crutch for your heart. The reason we are supposed to have faith is that we are supposed to let our hearts dominate our naturally logical minds, and not the other way around. And yea, that's hard to do.
Well, I believe God's plan takes into account all the decisions that we as humans can make, as I believe that humans have free will. Starting over wouldn't guarantee that people would make a decision to follow God, based on love, as they could simply choose not to. If He made a people that had no choice in the matter, then it would not be considered following God out of love, but instead out of a sort of biological programming. So how can anyone say that His plan is failing when they don't know what His plan is? No one does. For all we know something drastic could happen tomorrow that "turns the tide in His favor." Or something couldn't. But people thinking that His plan is not working does not mean that it isn't working. And also, in the book of Revelation, it talks of a time when Christians are greatly persecuted near the end, so who's to say that His plan doesn't involve many people falling away from the faith, and those who truly have a relationship with Christ staying? I have faith that His plan has taken into account everything that is happening, so I'm not too worried about His plan failing.
Yes, sadly this trend is moving forward... We are also seeing more horror stories on the news.... Look bro, God is going to do something miraculous... But by then it will be too late for some, the bible talks about the end of times and its kind of scary how things are really starting to fit what the scripture says. Natural disasters, sexual immorality, denial of God, sects and false religions... I cant say the end of times is near, but I can only say that if it happened at this moment that I am ready to face judgement and I know where I want to be.
Why would a Creator care anyways about the number of people kowtowing to him in some form unless he's just another e-penis, internet troll kind of guy? That's kinda missing my driving point though, which is that who's to say that God or the Creator or whatever the hell violated the laws of modern science to form us in the first place hasn't already moved on? Unless He/She/They were feeling particularly dickish, there's no need to "Destroy previous experiments" to start a new one beyond our awareness.
I went to Second Baptist middle school and high school...7 years there. Anytime a faculty member or family member of someone associated with the school got sick, there would be prayer ceremonies and things like that. Half the time the person in question would come out healthy, the other half of the time, it would turn out bad (basically, like basic odds of something happening with or without prayer). When the outcome would be bad, it was because it was in God's will...when the outcome would be good, everyone would go crazy about how prayer works. I mean, seriously? It can just as easily be that when things dont go well, its because prayer doesnt work and when things go well, its because there was a chance for it to go well and it did.
Since this thread is now in this forum, I'll go ahead and put this right here. Seems spirituality = brain damage. http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20100212/sc_livescience/linkstospiritualityfoundinthebrain
I don't think Christians, or any religion for that matter, would be particularly happy knowing that the God they devoted their life to and lived their life according to had "moved on." But for the people believing that we're the only ones in the universe and that the universe is based around our existence, it would be hard for them to believe that God could just "start over" somewhere else. The earth is his only laboratory.
If I wrote down that there would be natural disasters, promiscuity, and false religions, does that mean I could predict the future? Christianity wasn't the first religion to predict the end of the world if people didn't accept their lord as the savior of humanity.
Its not a prediction by anyone, its what the word says to warn us....... And its not that the world will end because we dont accept him, its prophecy..... Its going to happen no matter what we choose to belive in.....
Video: http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/1060011/ Transcript: http://www.rense.com/general69/obj.htm
Sometimes. . .things happen because you beleive they can What is that saying: If you think you cannot do . . you are Right If you think you can do it . . . you are Right Rocket River
I think more along these lines...like when people come together for a cause, its the good energy or karma that makes something happen...not necessarily God making something happen because an extra 10 people joined in and prayed.
No one understands the reasons, but there are numerous scientific studies that show effects on hospital patients from prayer. Here's an example of one: http://www.webmd.com/balance/features/probing-power-of-prayer Another that I read about had family sitting outside a room of a patient and intermittently be told to pray and focus their thoughts on the patient, and there were measurable changes in the body of the patient. Now, that's not to necessarily say it's driven by God or whether humans can have thoughts that have impacts or what other cause there might be, but scientifically, there is a ton of evidence that there is a very real effect.
