Despair Over the Future

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For God to show mankind the greatest extent of His love, and so be glorified to the fullest extent, He would need to die for His creation...greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends..
 
Cameron143 said:
For God to show mankind the greatest extent of His love, and so be glorified to the fullest extent, He would need to die for His creation...greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends..
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Woe to that man by whom the son of man is betrayed. It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.

Indeed, I daresay it would've been better if none of us had been born.
 
HistoryPrincess said:
My point is that being a Christian does not make you a better person, nor does it make your life in this world at all better (if anything, it just makes it worse). All it is is that it's an afterlife contract, nothing more. People don't genuinely change. They only find excuses to behave. The longer I live and the more I see, the truer that gets.
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You are going into areas that are certainly worth exploring, but the answers you find will never satisfy you if you don't first begin with God and His motivation.
You are clearly dissatisfied with the answers you have found to this point, I'm merely trying to give you an alternate look.
 
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Cameron143 said:
You are going into areas that are certainly worth exploring, but the answers you find will never satisfy you if you don't first begin with God and His motivation.
You are clearly dissatisfied with the answers you have found to this point, I'm merely trying to give you an alternate look.
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I did originally begin with God and his motivation. And it didn't satisfy me. To return to my analogy, no matter how much good I did in the world, if I knew a worldwide bomb was gonna go off, and I had a button in front of me to press to turn it off, but didn't, I would be labeled a war criminal, and rightly so. I would be hated, and rightly so. I would be blamed for the deaths and suffering of millions, and rightly so.
 
HistoryPrincess said:
All I've seen is that Christianity has not made the world a better place. It's only given us an excuse to behave. No matter how much we work to cure people, or try to stop human trafficking, death and desire still remain supreme, and they always will.
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Not for much longer. Rapture of the Church coming at ya.
 
HistoryPrincess said:
I did originally begin with God and his motivation. And it didn't satisfy me. To return to my analogy, no matter how much good I did in the world, if I knew a worldwide bomb was gonna go off, and I had a button in front of me to press to turn it off, but didn't, I would be labeled a war criminal, and rightly so. I would be hated, and rightly so. I would be blamed for the deaths and suffering of millions, and rightly so.
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Your analogy fails with God for a number of reasons. You rightly say that if you did those things you would be culpable. But you are a created being subject to a higher power. God is free of culpability because He has noone to answer to.
Secondly, God is not to blame for the actions of others anymore than you are. Third, God never acts outside of His attributes. In fact, it is impossible for Him to do so.
 
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HistoryPrincess said:
Woe to that man by whom the son of man is betrayed. It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.

Indeed, I daresay it would've been better if none of us had been born.
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In fact Judas had myriad opportunities and the best opportunities to repent.
Yes he refused to do so because he did not want Jesus as his God.
So it is with all wicked men.
 
HistoryPrincess said:
I did originally begin with God and his motivation. And it didn't satisfy me. To return to my analogy, no matter how much good I did in the world, if I knew a worldwide bomb was gonna go off, and I had a button in front of me to press to turn it off, but didn't, I would be labeled a war criminal, and rightly so. I would be hated, and rightly so. I would be blamed for the deaths and suffering of millions, and rightly so.
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I would refer you to my original post. Perhaps finding out who God really is might help.
 
HistoryPrincess said:
My point is that being a Christian does not make you a better person, nor does it make your life in this world at all better (if anything, it just makes it worse). All it is is that it's an afterlife contract, nothing more. People don't genuinely change. They only find excuses to behave. The longer I live and the more I see, the truer that gets.
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That's definitely not my testimony. The apostle Paul sure changed for the better too. The Bible and history are filled to overflowing with similar testimonies.
 
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HistoryPrincess said:
My point is that being a Christian does not make you a better person, nor does it make your life in this world at all better (if anything, it just makes it worse). All it is is that it's an afterlife contract, nothing more. People don't genuinely change. They only find excuses to behave. The longer I live and the more I see, the truer that gets.
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I agree with that to a very large degree. For example, when I entered the world of dating, I found myself constantly being encouraged to let go of my "christian principles" about behavior. The girls were very eager to take the relationship into the bedroom; and I was ridiculed for standing up for what I believed in. It would have been easier to give in, and just do what the girls wanted me to do, and I'd probably be married now with a bunch of children running around the living room. Instead, I stood up for what I was taught as a Christian, and the girls said "okay, if you won't do it with me, then you don't love me, goodbye". So here I am, alone, and lonely. Did I do the right thing? If I did, then why do I have nothing but loneliness?
 
HistoryPrincess said:
Simply stated everyone, as I've stated before, the longer I remain a Christian, the harder it is for me to defend the popular/traditional concept of God in which a world of mass rape, genocide, slavery, etc. could possibly be allowed to exist. Do not give me that BS heretical doctrine of original sin. That was an invention of Augustine. People are not born evil. They learn it. I know it, and you know it. Nor can you blame Satan. He doesn't force people to sin.

I want to love God, but I don't like the way he runs the world. It's easy to defend him when you don't have to deal with what victims of the previously mentioned crimes have been forced to endure. Trying to defend God in this fashion is like trying to defend someone who could've pressed a button to stop a world destroying bomb but simply chose not to. All of the good they did does not erase the fact that they allowed that to happen.

Then again, I supposed I'll just be denounced by everyone here and maybe even by God himself as nothing but a proud b*tch.
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The victim mentality syndrome does not impress God and being sorry for yourself is pathetic before God who gave up his only begotten Son for you.

We are living in the days where the wicked and lost will become more wickeder and more sinful (killing one another) as God turns his back on this soon to be destroyed generation. Only those whose names are written in the book of life will be saved.
 
lonelysummer said:
I agree with that to a very large degree. For example, when I entered the world of dating, I found myself constantly being encouraged to let go of my "christian principles" about behavior. The girls were very eager to take the relationship into the bedroom; and I was ridiculed for standing up for what I believed in. It would have been easier to give in, and just do what the girls wanted me to do, and I'd probably be married now with a bunch of children running around the living room. Instead, I stood up for what I was taught as a Christian, and the girls said "okay, if you won't do it with me, then you don't love me, goodbye". So here I am, alone, and lonely. Did I do the right thing? If I did, then why do I have nothing but loneliness?
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If I may offer something that helped me.

Until we are satisfied in God, no relationship will prove satisfying. We were made to find our satisfaction in God. When we don't find it in Him, our longings don't go away. We merely look for substitutes to find our satisfaction. Since only God can truly satisfy, these substitutes will fail. In relationships this is particularly harmful because we are in effect asking another to do something only God can do. We remain unsatisfied and we tend to blame the other person for their failure to meet our needs. This is why so many people are in unhappy relationships and marriages fail.
Psalm 23 is about finding in God all we need...The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall NOT WANT.
 
Cameron143 said:
If I may offer something that helped me.

Until we are satisfied in God, no relationship will prove satisfying. We were made to find our satisfaction in God. When we don't find it in Him, our longings don't go away. We merely look for substitutes to find our satisfaction. Since only God can truly satisfy, these substitutes will fail. In relationships this is particularly harmful because we are in effect asking another to do something only God can do. We remain unsatisfied and we tend to blame the other person for their failure to meet our needs. This is why so many people are in unhappy relationships and marriages fail.
Psalm 23 is about finding in God all we need...The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall NOT WANT.
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Fact of the matter though is not everyone is satisfied with God, however hard we try or whatever we do. I tried it all. I did it all. And I ended up with nothing. There are plenty of people who are satisfied without God. To say they aren't is to delude yourself.

I'm sorry but I find the Bible to be full of overinflated promises. We live in the modern world and we need modern solutions. We don't need to hear, "Well, Paul did this." We're not Paul. We're ourselves. We all have different experiences.
 
And indeed, if the rain falls on the just and the unjust, why try to be just at all? What's the point if bad stuff is gonna happen to us all anyway, regardless?
 
HistoryPrincess said:
Fact of the matter though is not everyone is satisfied with God, however hard we try or whatever we do. I tried it all. I did it all. And I ended up with nothing. There are plenty of people who are satisfied without God. To say they aren't is to delude yourself.

I'm sorry but I find the Bible to be full of overinflated promises. We live in the modern world and we need modern solutions. We don't need to hear, "Well, Paul did this." We're not Paul. We're ourselves. We all have different experiences.
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God is all that He says and it is possible to be fully satisfied in Him. I would encourage you to read Psalm 23 and ask God to be all He says He is to you.

But before you do, know that God resists the proud but is near to those who are of a broken and contrite heart.
 
Cameron143 said:
God is all that He says and it is possible to be fully satisfied in Him. I would encourage you to read Psalm 23 and ask God to be all He says He is to you.

But before you do, know that God resists the proud but is near to those who are of a broken and contrite heart.
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I have. Nothing happened.

Except those of broken and contrite hearts could be considered proud simply because they didn't gladly accept the undue punishment dealt them.
 
Cameron143 said:
God is all that He says and it is possible to be fully satisfied in Him. I would encourage you to read Psalm 23 and ask God to be all He says He is to you.

But before you do, know that God resists the proud but is near to those who are of a broken and contrite heart.
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All I'm saying if the benefits of being a Christian only happen when you die, what's the point of trying to act like one in this life?
 
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