jay_a2j wrote:
God is all-knowing. He knew your moment of birth, moment of death and everything in between 10 million years ago. And to those who will reject Him, He still draws to Himself so there will be no excuse accepted for that rejection. I believe in a literal interpretation of scripture. God split the Red Sea not some nearby stream as I saw on the History Channel. That the men who God chose wrote down exactly what the Spirit of God led them to write.
Ok! Thanks jay, I appreciate your response. I have some more questions, though, keeping in mind the above.
jay wrote:God is all-knowing.
Using logic, if one is all-knowing, then one knows what to do in any given circumstance, correct?
If so, looking at the bible which you say-
Jay wrote: I believe in a literal interpretation of scripture
there are several passages in the bible that logic dictates that God may not be so all knowing as it seems. One specifically is Genesis 18:17
Then the Lord said "Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?" You know the story, God is deciding if he should tell Abraham that Sodom is going to be destroyed.
In this passage we see God thinking, not knowing for sure exactly how to proceed. He wondering, should he or should he not tell Abraham what is going to happen.
He comes to a decision, obviously. But why did he have to think about what to do with Abraham?
And is God alone in this all knowing ability? Who is the "us" that is often referred to in the bible that God converses with? As in
Come, let us go down and confuse their language* and when he created man-
Let us make man in our image** *Genesis 11:7
**Genesis, 1:26
I'm just asking, Jay, not trying to really say anything either way, just asking questions is all.
I have some other questions, more for fun that you may enjoy conversing a bit about.
My favorite book of the bible is John. In John there is the famous story of "cast the first stone". We all know the story, a woman who was accused of adultery is about to be stoned. In an attempt to trick Jesus he was asked if she should be stoned. Jesus saw through the trick and began writing in the sand while the Pharisees and the crowd kept pestering Jesus about if the woman should be stoned to death or not. And then Jesus stood up and said the famous "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her".
And so the crowd went away, the woman was saved and Jesus turned the trap around on the Pharisees. It's an outstanding story, which resonates to this very day in many ways.
The questions I have-
1. Who was the woman?
2. What did Jesus write in the sand?
And for one extra bonus question, the nature of sin.
It is said, sin in in one's heart. Sin is actions and thoughts we have. But in the bible there is one place, one time where sin is described as an actual
thing, with form, substance, a body, not just a concept. It only happens once in the entire bible, this particular characterization of sin.
Do you know where that is in the bible?
And what is the significance of this rather strange way of describing sin?
Anyway, I ain't bashing ya at all, I'm just conversating with ya because you may actually conversate back instead of troll like all the God haters here.
I would warn against reading into the bible too literally, though. Even Jesus had a problem with people taking things too literal (see Luke, 22:36-38). That kinda made me laugh, Jesus just curtly shutting the disciples up with "That is enough" and not another word after. Hahaha! Jesus had to be curt with them at that moment because the disciples were missing the point of what Jesus was trying to tell them. But they'd learn soon enough I guess, and it's a lesson you should know well, Jay, considering the some of the responses you've gotten in this thread.
But the same mistake the disciples made, is easily made again today taking things too literally.
Peace
