Is Truth Relevant? True and False are opinions. - True or False?

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hies

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Where are you getting your standard of morality from to call everyone evil?
God's nature, like I said. Anything that deviates from perfection is imperfect.

Jesus taught us that it is godly behavior to love our enemies.
What then should God do with his enemies?
Exactly what he did with them like he told us to. He loved them to the point of death. He set the example for us.
Vengeance is his, like he said.

But what should he do with them ultimately? Destroy them, obviously. Like he said he would do.
 
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St. SteVen

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St. SteVen said:
The topic question is whether truth is relevant.
Then I can ask is that a relevant question?
If you say yes, then you've answered your own question.
If you say no, then your question becomes irrelevant and meaningless.
The relevance is relative.
It may be relevant to me and irrelevant to you.
It doesn't have to be the same for both of us.

It seems that it was irrelevant to you, but here you are discussing it.

The best way to expose a contradiction is to flip the question on itself.
That's actually good advice. IMHO

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St. SteVen

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God's nature, like I said. Anything that deviates from perfection is imperfect.
If he created us imperfect, why are we being punished for his shoddy workmanship?

Exactly what he did with them like he told us to. He loved them to the point of death. He set the example for us.
Vengeance is his, like he said.
What is the purpose of vengeance?

If vengeance is a sin, why would God commit it?
Does he operate under a lower standard of morality than he holds us to?

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St. SteVen

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But what should he do with them ultimately? Destroy them, obviously. Like he said he would do.
This why I asked you: "What is the purpose of vengeance?"
The thief comes to kill, steal, and destroy. Why did Jesus come?

There are three differing biblical views of the final judgment.


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hies

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If he created us imperfect, why are we being punished for his shoddy workmanship?


What is the purpose of vengeance?

If vengeance is a sin, why would God commit it?
Does he operate under a lower standard of morality than he holds us to?

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He operates on the same standard he holds us to. And he has appointed a judge in our place. Then he will repay perfect justice on our behalf.

Vengeance is not a sin. It just belongs to God, who is the perfect judge. Since we are incapable of perfect judgement, it is therefore rightfully his.
 

St. SteVen

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Vengeance is not a sin. It just belongs to God, who is the perfect judge. Since we are incapable of perfect judgement, it is therefore rightfully his.
Why would a perfect judge choose destruction instead of mercy?

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hies

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If he created us imperfect, why are we being punished for his shoddy workmanship?
He didn't create us imperfect. Adam and Eve were without sin, but they freely chose to sin. Sin came into the world through Adam.
Love cannot exist without free will. Love has to be freely given, otherwise it's not love.
A consequence of true free will is that some will choose to sin.

However, again I remind you of the C. S. Lewis quote:
This doesn't have to be the best possible world. It just has to be the best possible world that leads to the best possible world (heaven, a place where creatures freely chose to love the creator).
This world being imperfect doesn't mean that God is imperfect. Rather, this is just a temporary and imperfect place that leads to the perfect place. God could not create free creatures who didn't ever choose to sin given an infinite amount of time. He can't make a square circle. He can't contradict his own nature. However he did create a temporary place that allows evil to exist so that it could lead to a world where all of the creatures in it freely choose to love him and would continue to freely do so for all eternity.

Please watch all of this video:

The Problem of Evil: A Christian Response

I know it is long, but I guarantee it will answer almost every question you have.
 
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St. SteVen

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He does offer mercy, but also justice, which all takes place on the cross.
How does justice take place on the cross?

If you had the choice between a day on the cross, or eternity in hell, which would you choose?

Justice?

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hies

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How does justice take place on the cross?
That's a very deep question that I won't be able to answer fully. But Jesus takes the punishment we deserve. Similar to how you're in a court of law, if someone pays your fines for you, you're free to go. Jesus paid the fine on our behalf. The wages of sin (payment for sin) is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

Jesus, in his very nature God, chose to humble himself down to the role of a servant. He even partially limited his omniscience and power, and became fully man, fully God.

It wasn't the physical torture that hurt him so much, but it was the wrath of God beating down upon him on that cross. He was separated from his Father, whom he had been with for all eternity. That spiritual separation was pure agony. He even sweat blood before going on the cross, because he knew just how agonizing it would be to be separate from his Father, and instead of receiving his love, he would receive his wrath. The wrath that we deserve.

He freely chose to be punished in our place. So that all we have to do is repent of our sin, and trust that he took our well-deserved punishment and separation from God. In believing he died for us, and choosing to live for him, we ourselves are crucified. We die. But he makes us alive again. That is why we must be reborn to enter the kingdom of heaven. He lives in us. And we live for him.

If you had the choice between a day on the cross, or eternity in hell, which would you choose?
Jesus' atonement for our sins was of infinite value, as he is an infinite being, who emptied himself out into nothing (Philippians 2:7). So he doesn't need to spend an eternity in hell on our behalf. It was already paid in full through his sacrifice on the cross.

Now you might ask how is it fair for us to receive eternal separation for a single action or sin?
But isn't it fair to want eternal separation from your spouse because they cheated on you only once?
And transgressing against an infinite being has infinite consequences.

Another good C. S. Lewis quote is:
“There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, in the end, "Thy will be done." All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. Those who knock it is opened.”
 
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St. SteVen

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He didn't create us imperfect. Adam and Eve were without sin, but they freely chose to sin. Sin came into the world through Adam.
Adam and Eve did not freely choose to sin, they had to be deceived. A trap allowed by God.
And did they understand the consequences? Did they know what sort of death they would die in the day they ate thereof?
Were they even real, or figurative?

Love cannot exist without free will. Love has to be freely given, otherwise it's not love.
Do children have the free will to receive love from their parents? Seems that parental love exists despite the will of the child.

A consequence of true free will is that some will choose to sin.
Isn't this a religious construct? Did some (of their own free will) choose not to sin?
How do we know that there is a free will not to sin, since no one has chosen it?
Seems to be a purely religious construct. Something like this...

God is good > God punishes evil > everyone is evil > therefore everyone will be punished > because God is good (no one else is)

What would we call a human that behaved this way?

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hies

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Adam and Eve did not freely choose to sin, they had to be deceived. A trap allowed by God.
And did they understand the consequences? Did they know what sort of death they would die in the day they ate thereof?
Were they even real, or figurative?
They had enough knowledge to trust in God. But they desired what God had told them not to, because they didn't trust him. Their distrust in God's promise was actually the first sin. Please watch this:

Do children have the free will to receive love from their parents? Seems that parental love exists despite the will of the child.
There are different types of love. If love was merely a feeling we couldn't possibly choose to love our enemies. The greek word agape (ἀγάπη) is the ultimate form of love. Self-sacrifice for the betterment of the other. That is a choice. And that is the ultimate form of love that God gave to us. "Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends." - John 15:13

I highly recommend you read Mere Christianity and The Four Loves. C. S. Lewis answers all of this much better than I could.

Isn't this a religious construct? Did some (of their own free will) choose not to sin?
How do we know that there is a free will not to sin, since no one has chosen it?
Seems to be a purely religious construct. Something like this...
Because we have a conscience. A moral law written on our hearts given to us by God. We can either choose to obey it or reject it. We know that some choose not to sin because they have chosen to accept Christ. Yet we all stumble. The difference is repentance. Do you choose to continue sinning and enjoy it? Or do you hate the fact you sometimes stumble?
 

hies

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That is not justice. It's an apologetic to white wash an eternity in hell.

Did Jesus die to save us from God?

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When you cheat on a spouse, they are completely justified in wanting eternal separation.

Jesus died to save us from our sins.
 

St. SteVen

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They had enough knowledge to trust in God. But they desired what God had told them not to, because they didn't trust him. Their distrust in God's promise was actually the first sin.
I don't see how that could be shown to be true. As I wrote before, they were deceived. They did not go looking for trouble. Trouble found them. And God didn't step in to protect them. What we would call bad parenting.

If your children decide to go play in the freeway does a good parent stand aside and say, "Well, it was their choice, my hands are tied."

We know that some choose not to sin because they have chosen to accept Christ.
They were sinners before and continue to sin. The human condition.
If you believe every religious construct.

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hies

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I don't see how that could be shown to be true. As I wrote before, they were deceived. They did not go looking for trouble. Trouble found them. And God didn't step in to protect them. What we would call bad parenting.

If your children decide to go play in the freeway does a good parent stand aside and say, "Well, it was their choice, my hands are tied."
Hey, if I'd first told them "don't play in the freeway", and they chose to anyway, that isn't my fault! And they wouldn't have had free will if the choice were not there. They indeed chose to trust the serpent whom they barely knew over the creator who had given them paradise. He literally couldn't have given them anything else without interfering with their free will!

They were sinners before and continue to sin. The human condition.
If you believe every religious construct.
They had the ability to sin yes, as do we all, and as does any truly free creature, but they weren't sinners until they chose to sin.

Being deceived isn't an excuse when they had been rightly told by God!
 

St. SteVen

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They indeed chose to trust the serpent whom they barely knew over the creator who had given them paradise. He literally couldn't have given them anything else without interfering with their free will!
They had been given paradise? What did they have as a comparison? How would they know it was paradise? Compared to what?

And the consequence of disobedience. Death? How would they know what that was? Compared to what?

What kind of death was it? Were they mortal, or immortal? Had they eaten from the Tree of Life?
If they were already mortal, why was death a consequence?

I love the unanswered question. "Who told you that you were naked?"

https://soundcloud.com/user-426611522%2Fdevil-talkin
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hies

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They had been given paradise? What did they have as a comparison? How would they know it was paradise? Compared to what?
Hey man, I don't need to eat a burger made of dog poop in order to know what a good burger tastes like. Light does not require dark to exist. Rather, darkness is the absence of light. C. S. Lewis also touched on this in Mere Christianity.

And the consequence of disobedience. Death? How would they know what that was? Compared to what?
There's good reason to believe Adam and Eve knew what death was. They had to eat from a tree in order to live. They were to rule over all animal life. And animals were killing each other: Did Death Occur Before the Fall? - BioLogos
But God was referring to spiritual death.

Even if he wasn't though, he could have just said "I will take away your life". Perhaps they didn't fully grasp what he meant, as we're also incapable of fully understadning what it would be like to not exist anymore, but that's still no reason to distrust him.
 

St. SteVen

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Being deceived isn't an excuse when they had been rightly told by God!
Had they?
The command was given before Eve was created.
Adam misinformed her. That's why the serpent went to Eve first, while Adam stood by doing nothing.
Here's what should have happened. IMHO

--- PARODY ---

Serpent: Did God really say... ?
Eve: He said don't eat and don't touch.
Adam: Oops, my bad, I said don't touch.
Eve: What?! God didn't say that? !!!
Adam: No, I added that because
I know you like to touch things without thinking.
Eve: So, you don't trust me? !!!
Adam: I'm looking out for our best interests. My job.
Eve: I see.
Serpent: Are you going to eat, or not? !!!
Eve: Let me check with the boss. - LOL
Adam: Scram serpent!
Serpent: Hiss... (walks away dejected)
Eve: Hey, let's check out that other tree.
Adam: Good idea!

Indeed.

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St. SteVen

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I don't need to eat a burger made of dog poop in order to know what a good burger tastes like.
If you were raised on dog poop burgers nothing else would taste as good. What's the comparative?

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