It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
In the judgment men will not be condemned because they conscientiously believed a lie, but because they did not believe the truth, because they neglected the opportunity of learning what is truth.
White, Ellen G. Patriarchs and Prophets - Chapter 3, The Temptation and Fall, p. 55
Originally posted by JesuitGarlic
How might this principle impact people who gloss over contradictory evidence presented on the forums here to save face in discussions?
Originally posted by smyleegrl
This is my main problem with religion....condemnation without regard to circumstances.
Does this guiding principle show fairness to people from all walks of life no matter their religion/belief of their upbringing or reflect a desirable characteristic of the one who is to judge our fate?
34“Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.35‘For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in;36naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’37“Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink?38‘And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You?39‘When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’40“The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’
Originally posted by smithjustinb
reply to post by EnochWasRight
Therefore, God does not judge.
There is no free will. I didn't choose this. Even when I choose something, I don't choose it. God chose this. The universe chose this. I'm just a passer by. Here today gone tomorrow. The plan was set in motion before I got here and ever since I arrived, I've been carrying out this plan that precedes me. If i had made the plan myself, it might could be said that I have free will, but since I didn't, them I am not the planner. I am the plan.
Unless I am the planner.
Love is for the plan to cope with not being the planner. Love for the planner makes you special and much is rewarded to you.
There are two things I can do in this life: I think and I move. The quality of those two things produces the quality of my life. I can move to a new job, think good thoughts and love my family with purpose. There are many things I can do to produce my own world or destroy it. The sun will still shine. Seven years of tribulation will still happen. Christ will still return. The bankers financial tables will still be flipped. I can echo the fact it will happen, but I cannot change the story God tells us.
A truly benevolent being is incapable of true judgment. It takes a certain amount of conceit to judge something, and love doesn't pander to conceit.
Any god that judges someone whom it designed from birth unto death is a conceited god
Obviously the statement from the OP is in relation to the Christian idea of God. How does your views on conceit play out when Jesus came to this Earth to experience a complete human life, to be exposed to what we are exposed to so His decision is not based on any kind of lack of knowledge about human experience?
How does conceit come into the mix when Jesus knew He would be unjustly humiliated, punished, tortured and killed by incarnating Himself in human form to come down to Earth?
What would be the outcome, given human nature, for a benevolent god to design a world for us to experience that had no in-grained rules and thus no ability to judge morality by. Given the testimony of what occurs in the world under conditions of freewill, would you want to live under conditions of lawlessness? Please explain how this would be better if so?
How could anyone hold you accountable for believing what you were taught as a child?
How many of us believe zero-tolerance policies are indicative of loving guidance and mercy? Yet, isn't that exactly what some religions claim?
How does love come into the mix when "God" knew ahead of time that all this would be necessary, and didn't bother to push the restart button?
Originally posted by tinhattribunal
hmm ...
judgement sounds like a legal term.
methinks the bible is a law book.
In the judgment men will not be condemned because they conscientiously believed a lie, but because they did not believe the truth, because they neglected the opportunity of learning what is truth.
E. G. White prophesied the world would end in 1843, 1844, 1845 & 1851: "Now time is almost finished, (1851) and what we have been 6 years in learning they will have to learn in months." EARLY WRITINGS p. 57 (Source)
Originally posted by JesuitGarlic
reply to post by adjensen
To answer your post properly can I say that your standard of truth is the Word of God, and that God would not put contradictions into his Word so that we can be confused, the confusion you be in properly understanding the meaning of a passage of scripture and not the scripture itself.
Is that a fair statement?
as well as a salvation that is rooted in works (adhering to Judaic Law as regards the Sabbath) and works alone.