I never have understood this...

[selenau837]

I think there is alwas more to people than what meets the eye.

Of course, and in this arena, it is hard to get a full view of the individual.

 

[ShaneMan]

Col/Rich/anyone else on the "other side of the pond", how is religion "organized" over there? How many different choices do you have? Col, you were saying you spoke to many different vicars and that they were all condescending towards you, were they from different faiths? I know you have the Church of England, is it state-run? It seems like here we have so many different churches to choose from...Catholic, Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran, yada yada yada that someone (almost) always can find a church/pastor that "speaks" to them in a way that others don't. I was just wondering if it was the same over there.

As far as your other comment with your mother and the reformed nasty guy, I've posed that same question to a minister myself and it's one of the things that I have a hard time reconciling with my faith at times. I don't want to believe that good people will be punished for eternity because they didn't find God, and I'm not convinced that a loving, caring God would punish one of his children like that. So I'm with you on that one particular point.

Hey Mrs. Gorilla,
You live in my home state. Heading there tonight after work, as a matter of fact.

This is a tough subject and I think also has some tough answers. Too many to really do the subject justice, but a thought that I would like to throw in. I think the teaching of the Bible, on what makes a individual gain heaven, is not based on someone's goodness. It's based on someone's righteousness and that righteousness doesn't come from us. It comes from Christ. The finished work at Calvary accomplished several things and one of those was, His righeousness imputed to believers. A person can be "good" but not necessarily righteous. If a person receives Christ righteousness then they should become "good." Sort of like the verse says, "Old things pass away all things BECOME new." A process. Like I said, tough subject.

Shane

 

[MrsGorilla]

Hey Mrs. Gorilla,
You live in my home state. Heading there tonight after work, as a matter of fact.

Really? What part of the state? And how did you end up in Texas?

 

[ShaneMan]

Really? What part of the state? And how did you end up in Texas?

I'm headed to The City tonight. That's where my Dad lives. I was born in Duncan and raised all around the southwestern part of the state. I ended up in Texas, years ago, because of the construction industry slowing down in Oklahoma. I was an electrician at the time. After I got here my Mom started a business and needed my help. I've been stuck ever since. I just intended on being here a couple of years and then going back. That's why my nickname is "BadOkie" Any Okie that has been Texas as long as I have is a bad one.

 

[Rich]

Selena:

I no longer call myself a Christian, because I have found many hypocrisies in the Christian faiths.
Lisa

Don't worry about it, oddly enough I've found most athiests to be more Christian than most so called Christians

 

[Rich]

Why is it that when someone does something wrong we try and figure out what society did to cause it?

That's always assuming that we had responsible parents to teach us right from wrong in the first place and even then it's not guaranteed

 

[Rich]

I know there is a God. I live today as does my daughter by the grace of God. We were both suppose to die in childbirth, but I'm still here. I thank God everyday for my life.
.

So should those who's children are stilborn thank God too, how about those how died in the Holocaust, who should they thank?

 

[Rich]

BTW, prophecy is not taught, in the Bible, as being evil. Fortune telling is something different. There were/are 600 prophecies of Jesus's first coming over an 800 year time span.

Mmmn, 800 years, they weren't very accurate, were they
and if these people who can see into the future really exist, why can't they see next weeks lottery numbers?

 

[MrsGorilla]

I'm headed to The City tonight. That's where my Dad lives. I was born in Duncan and raised all around the southwestern part of the state. I ended up in Texas, years ago, because of the construction industry slowing down in Oklahoma. I was an electrician at the time. After I got here my Mom started a business and needed my help. I've been stuck ever since. I just intended on being here a couple of years and then going back. That's why my nickname is "BadOkie" Any Okie that has been Texas as long as I have is a bad one.

It seems I used to know someone from Duncan, but I can't remember. Maybe it was Durant.

My sister ended up in the Dallas area for about 10 Years and hated it the whole time. I think a majority of that was just being far away from family though...

 

[selenau837]

So should those who's children are stilborn thank God too, how about those how died in the Holocaust, who should they thank?

That I don't know Rich. They say God has a reason for everything, but I have a hard time with that. Why does he allow innocent people to die of cancer, but allow criminals to live nice long lives.

I wish I knew.

 

[Rich]

It's based on someone's righteousness and that righteousness doesn't come from us. It comes from Christ.

I see, so Christ supports the death penalty?

 

[MrsGorilla]

I see, so Christ supports the death penalty?

Of course!

 

[Rich]

That I don't know Rich. They say God has a reason for everything, but I have a hard time with that. Why does he allow innocent people to die of cancer, but allow criminals to live nice long lives.

I wish I knew.

Doesn't the Bible tell us why, it supposedly tells us everything else?

 

[Rich]

Of course!

I just wonder why we don't put to death those who lay down with a beast, as instructed by the Bible?

 

[ShaneMan]

I see, so Christ supports the death penalty?

I guess I don't understand the logic in this question/statement/sarcastic remark, if there is any.

Shane

 

[ShaneMan]

Mmmn, 800 years, they weren't very accurate, were they
and if these people who can see into the future really exist, why can't they see next weeks lottery numbers?

They weren't accurate? What part of everyone of them came true did you not understand? Over an 800 year time span, there were 600 prophecies of Jesus birth, birthplace and etc. and all of them came true. It wasn't a matter of them seeing into the future. They repeated what had been told to them. Why can't they see next weeks lottery numbers? What purpose would it serve?

 

[ShaneMan]

Doesn't the Bible tell us why, it supposedly tells us everything else?

I think it does, but you would argue or belittle the answer.

 

[ShaneMan]

It seems I used to know someone from Duncan, but I can't remember. Maybe it was Durant.

My sister ended up in the Dallas area for about 10 Years and hated it the whole time. I think a majority of that was just being far away from family though...

I've been in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area for over 20 yrs. now and have wanted to go home the whole time. I think it's mainly two things. I don't like big cities. I was raised in small country towns. 2nd, it's not Oklahoma. I'm not running Texas down. I've made a good living here. It's just not home.

 

[ShaneMan]

I just wonder why we don't put to death those who lay down with a beast, as instructed by the Bible?

You don't ask questions to get an answer. You ask questions to see who's pig tails you can pull the hardest.

 

[Rich]

You don't ask questions to get an answer. You ask questions to see who's pig tails you can pull the hardest.

Not a very constructive answer, is it?