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Date Posted: 17:39:42 07/22/07 Sun
Author: Neysa
Author Host/IP: user-2inik9g.dialup.mindspring.com / 165.121.81.48
Subject: How can we believe in a God we can not see ?
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Faith. -- Joan, 05:13:36 07/23/07 Mon [1] (ip68-0-253-131.ri.ri.cox.net/68.0.253.131)
Isn't that an annoying answer? lol
I don't have a better answer for you. I think people look for ultimate causes for everything, so why not for human existance and the meaning of life?
People seem to be made to search for God, whatever they might believe about him (or her, or them) or call him.
Joan
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Re: How can we believe in a God we can not see ? -- Catie, 06:34:33 07/23/07 Mon [1] (h166.243.213.151.ip.alltel.net/151.213.243.166)
The hardest thing I have had to conquer as a Christian is understanding the concept of a loving God who allows pain and suffering of good people.
When someone you know, someone you love, dies from a disease that's ravaged their body with pain, stripped them of dignity and prolonged their suffering as well as the suffering of those who love them as they helplessly look on, it's easy to question everything. Yet through it all, I can't help but believe in a loving God. Some would say believers are brainwashed. Some would say they're crazy. For who has seen God? Who, living today, can say they know for a fact he/she exist? It all boils down to faith. We have a choice. We can choose to believe in a loving God who is in control or we can believe we are here by chance, left to our own devises. I always go back to the scriptute in Job. After all the terrible things happened to him, afer everyone turned their backs on him, they asked how a loving God could afflict so much pain on one person, he said matter of factly, "It rains on the just and the unjust. Let the rain fall where it will." That man had faith. That's all I have too, Faith. I believe that God "hung the world on nothing".
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By the way -- Catie, 08:49:31 07/23/07 Mon [1] (h166.243.213.151.ip.alltel.net/151.213.243.166)
(left to their own "devises") was meant as a play on words.
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Re: How can we believe in a God we can not see ? -- Neysa, 10:02:07 07/23/07 Mon [1] (user-38lcicj.dialup.mindspring.com/209.86.73.147)
It really does come down to faith. I don't think God has appeared to anyone, like the apparitions of Mary.
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Neysa -- Catie, 10:47:49 07/23/07 Mon [1] (h166.243.213.151.ip.alltel.net/151.213.243.166)
Moses saw the "back" of God. He was blinded by the sight.
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Catie....................... -- Neysa, 12:54:02 07/23/07 Mon [1] (user-38lciej.dialup.mindspring.com/209.86.73.211)
As I stated before I don't know the bible. When did Moses see the back of God ? Was it when he was given the ten commandments, or when he came down from the mountain after receiving them, and the people were worshipping a golden calf?
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Neysa -- Catie, 13:30:39 07/23/07 Mon [1] (h166.243.213.151.ip.alltel.net/151.213.243.166)
It was after Moses came down from Mt. Sinai (aka Mt. Horeb)with the Ten Commandments, and he went back up to renegotiate for the Jewish people. Prior to that meeting, God had been known as El Shaddiah, God of the Jewish People. After that meeting, or rather I should say at that meeting, God made himself known to Moses as YHVH, God of the world. Why this is so significant is that it shows the "love" of God for his creation. Hebrew interpretation is basically saying, God told Moses, the world had not known him, but after that day, Moses would know him. The term "know", in Hebrew, had only been used one other time previously in the Torah in that manner. Where Adam "knew" his wife Eve. Now I'm saying God would know Moses sexually, of course not, but in a very deep, almost mystical and personal. Gosh, I love the story of Moses so much... Actually the entire Pentateuch! Can you tell? lol I could go on for hours about it. But don't worry. I won't. LOL
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I'm not sure, I need to ck, but El Shaddiah might not have ah "H" on the end of it. Sorry. -- Catie, 13:31:57 07/23/07 Mon [1] (h166.243.213.151.ip.alltel.net/151.213.243.166)
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Catie.......... -- Neysa, 15:06:50 07/23/07 Mon [1] (user-2inikfg.dialup.mindspring.com/165.121.81.240)
Did you take a course in Judaism ? You are very knowledgeable on the subject. I'm learning so much! I never saw the word for Yeshuah written in Hebrew before as YHVH...at first I thought it was a typo. Pentateuch is the
first five books of the Hebrew Bible. I thought the Torah was the Hebrew Bible ?
I love the song El Shaddai, by Amy Grant
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Neysa -- catie, 20:19:48 07/23/07 Mon [1] (h166.243.213.151.ip.alltel.net/151.213.243.166)
The Pentateuch is part of the Torah.
Over 30+ years ago I took some bible classes in college. Remember, I mentioned in a previous post? I mostly did it because the most eligible guys on campus were taking those classes. :) So that gives you a fair idea of how much I actually took in. Silly me. I missed a lot and retained little! I have never liked the idea of sitting back, taking another's word for something as important as my eternal salvation. I like finding it for myself. I have many books on the bible, some I have read and retained. Others not so much. However, now the Internet offers a world of studies to choose from for all of us. I really do enjoy discussing the Old Testament. As far as being knowledgable, I have no doubt that everyone here know as much and most likely a lot more than I. You come across as knowing a good deal yourself, in spite of your protest.
I just tell it like I see it, have learned it and feel it to be so. :) Obviously we here are not going to agree on 99.9%- as I said before, I'm not here to be won over, nor to persuade anyone of what I believe. Just tossing out stuff and sharing. :)
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Catie................................... -- Neysa, 21:40:08 07/23/07 Mon [1] (user-38lci7k.dialup.mindspring.com/209.86.72.244)
When I was in Catholic school in the 1970's and 1980's, reading the bible was not part of my Catholic upbringing. Sure the nuns read us bible stories in 1st and 2nd grade. I've never read the entire bible. I cannot quote a page of it. I live in the same town that my family has lived in for four generations. When my parents were growing up neighborhoods were very ethnic. Irish lived in a certain block, Germans, Italians, Ukrainians, Polish all had their sections. I still live where my dad grew up and 99 % were Catholic. When I was growing up it was still very Catholic. When I was 8 years old a family moved in the neighborhood who were Baptist. I became friends with the oldest daughter Barbara. I and all the other kids on the block who were also Catholic, would sit on Barbara's front porch as she would quote passages from the bible. This was new to us Catholic kids. We were just mesmerized and kept asking Barbara, to please quote more. There used to be a Rabbi and his wife who had a their own TV program and I also learned a lot from watching their show.
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