Thats it! I've had it! Answer me this regarding Spirituality!?

Question

Don't answer this question until I have "DONE" at the end...because I might have to add additional details.

I like hearing peoples views on my questions. It's just pure CURIOSITY. However, I am SICK of people telling me I'm creating my own "god" to my liking. NO. That is NOT TRUE. I"m basing my beliefs on pure common SENSE.

God does not condone hatred. He is said to be a loving God who loves his children depsite their differences. So it wouldn't make any LOGICAL sense for to him to HATE gays or send them to hell or send ANYONE to hell because they don't read the Bible or go to church. To be granted into the Kingdom of Heaven, you have to have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, which I have done, and you have to faith in God, which I do.

God is loving, so in return, I am loving and I'm loving towards all those who are different despite their lifestyles and beliefs. And how can you possible think God would want to us to believe in the Bible when it's been edited...

so many damn times! It's impossible to believe what the Bible says is true. At least with Jesus, we have physcial proof that he died. (I saw it on the Discovery Channel people, so don't try to contridict that). It's just plain common sense. So therefore, I'm not making God into something to my liking. I thinking in common sense. Why would anyone want to worship God if he had hatred towards gays and wanted to send them to hell just because they sleep with the same sex? I mean seriously it would make NO sense.

I might be adding additional details regarding your responses so watch for them. :)

DONE

Yes, proof on the Discovery Channel...sounds stupid, but there's been other scientific proof as well regarding his existence. :)

The question is obviously why do you think I'm creating my own God when I have commons sense to back it up. :)

alright, so my temper got the best of me here. To get a full description of what I believe, you can go here

http://phantomzangel.myblog.com/

Click on "Spirituality and My Beliefs" :)

Answer 1

Oh how all that bibble-babble has twisted and poisoned the minds of our youth.

If you want to find "God" dear, simply look within yourself!
Because it does not exist externally!
...and stop saying "HE"!

Answer 2

Well, that's the difference between religion and spirituality. You have a personal understanding (spirituality) that so happens to agree wtih a group understanding (a particular organized religion) in general. The problem is that some organized religions don't like when an individual has a personal understanding (can think for themselves)... because then there is a problem with their ability to be an "authority" and "control" your behaviors for the "social good." There is fear that thinking for the self will result in "chaos," and a breakdown in social structure. That is what religion is all about, social controls.

It's really interesting that in America, there is the idea that we were created "on religion"... yet we also hold dear the idea that individualism is king. Such a contradiction. We are too far removed from the revolution to remember that the whole argument was about church interference in private life... yet so many insist religion must "rule" again. Dangerous ground, that. Here's a short history primer... It used to be such that the church was "the law," and the King was ordained by God to rule. One way to heal the rift is to allow spirituality to co-exist with religion again, if one chooses to participate in religion at all... It sounds like you are doing just that. ;) This is what the forefathers envisioned after all. This is why religion is mentioned a gadzillion times in the Constitution, but spirituality is not. Religion is a public institution (as a group understanding), one that used to have the place of "law" and the ability to dictate societal "norms" for the good of the whole. When America was born, religion was replaced with secular law, and that replacement had to be put in writting to make it a "law," to put controls on religion. However, spirituality is a private matter, a personal understanding, an inside thing, rather than external like religion, and therefore exempt from law. Spirituality simply cannot be "controlled." Thus, spirituality does not have laws dictating how you can practice it... but some religious leaders object because they can't control personal understanding... thus, the observation you have that some accuse you of "creating your own God." Of course you are, based on your own personal understanding... based on your spirituality. And there is nothing wrong with that at all.

The God of your belief system does not condone hatred, you are correct, because that is what you believe. But the God of the bible does, if the bible were to be taken literally. There *are* Christian denominations out there that think and believe as you do... seek them out, and let the Christians of other denominations that take the bible too literally do their own thing. You have an inherent right to both spiritual and religious practice if you so choose... good luck!

Answer 3

Again, there might be a difference between the way certain Christian act and the teachings of that faith. Read the Gospel and you will see that you are right about not judging and not hating others who are different. I don't think one should believe so much in the Bible as much as in the God who inspired the Bible, and that would mean coming to understand that one cannot read the Bible in a fundamentalist way, but rather one must be guided by the light of tradition.

I don't think you are necessarily creating your own God, rather that you are turning your back on a faith based not on the faith itself, but based on the actions and beliefs of some of those believers. If your church is very bigoted, try changing churches. Or pray for the gift of discernment so that you might see the difference between condemning a person and condemning an action. For example, homosexuality is a sin and should be disliked like the sin of hypocrisy, judgement, self-righteousness, pride, etc. That doens't mean one should hate sinners... Check out Luke 15.

Answer 4

I think some people think that a belief in God has to be tied to an organized religion, and that, I think, is from where a lot of problems come. Do any of us really know what God thinks concerning "other" kinds of people? Doesn't God love everyone, and want a close relationship with everyone? So, who are we to decide that God doesn't love someone based on whatever it is that we don't like?
Maybe people don't like your wording of "common sense," and take offense that you aren't basing your beliefs on faith. Just a thought. Sounds like you are for sure following the Golden Rule, and aren't we all supposed to do that?

Answer 5

What God said he hates ( hebrew word; saw nay meaning to stand against) is disbelief. In the Old Testament he makes it quite clear that he hates all sin. So the revelation of the New Testament is that Jesus Christ made the covering for sin. There is no other way except by him because none of us can live to God's standard of perfection-- sinlessness and perfect faith in him.

So you are describing an amorphous disbelief in the Bible, you can if you want to. Without being specific about anything, you have just discounted the whole thing.

I would be agreeable with you to love the Gays and the whoevers out in the world who are shunned. Yes, God wants us to love people, especially the downtrodden, but to disregard the Bible becaue you think that it has been rewritten "so many times" is not common sense. It's made up history that you are stating. So the problem that I see with your explanation is that you throw the baby out with the bathwater, as if Christian Fundamentalism is what the Bible says to be; well, it isn't. It's only how certain people see what the Bible is saying.

To say that God does not condone hatred is to ignore certain parts of the Bible. What that tells me is that you don't know enough about the Bible to make an educated assertion about it. If you will humble yourself a bit more you may find that your assessment of the Bible was premature. So if you reapply yourself, you may find that you are not far from the kingdom. But that remains to be seen.

And you said something rather fatal in your arguements; " I saw it on the Discovery Channel". I see things on the Discovery Channel too. And I sometime research what I see on the Discovery Channel and History Channels. What I find is that their "EXPERTS" are sometimes members of the Jesus Seminar. If you listen to them as if you are listening to someone who is pro Bible, you will suffer the consequences by adopting anti Christian ideas. So tainted in view to begin with.

Answer 6

God doesn't hate gays...where did you get that idea? God doesn't hate anyone. But homosexuality...is a sin. That is also in the Bible and it's against nature. There are 4 sins that "cry out to heaven for vengeance" and homosexuality is one of them.

But when people tell you that you are creating your own god..they mean you are fitting him to your ideas of what is common sense and your ideas of love etc. You are putting him in a box. You are not perfect and therefore your basis for what God should/would do is flawed. But you are not alone in this. Many, many people do and base entire religions on this thinking. God is perfect, and everything he does (even if we do not understand it) is perfect. He cannot make a mistake.

God does not "send" people to hell, it's more like people choose hell by rejecting God and his commandments. Love and obedience go together. If you love someone you want to do what makes them happy...you want to obey them.

So, we need to turn from sin out of love for God.

Answer 7

God don't hate people. He hates their sins. God is holy, and cannot allow sin into heaven. When we accept Him as our Savior we are to turn from our sins. If we say we have accepted Him, and don't leave the sin behind then did the person really accept Him. There are many people out here who do it just for show, or to make someone happy. God gave us all a choice to follow Him, or follow self which leads to hell. We can't save ourselves from sin. Only through the shed blood of Jesus. God never sends anyone to hell. They chose to go. They chose to accept His offering to live with Him for all eternity. They will not accept Him for who He is. He is a loving God, but also a Just God.

Answer 8

Have you ever stopped to think that God might be glorified in his reprobation of sinners to Hell? We're guilty anyway, since the fall of Adam, and God would be completely righteous in destroying all of us.

Loves His children? But hated Esau, who was circumcised like his brother Jacob, by the way, both supposedly part of the covenant. So which children but the predestined, the foreknown from before the foundations of the world?

So homosexuals aren't acceptable...ok, you sin, I sin, and homosexuality is identified as something to struggle with. I don't judge gays, that's up to God, but I do know what the Bible says, and Christians love His law.

You have to accept Christ to be granted into Heaven? Gotta disagree with you there too, salvation is not a business transaction with receipts involved, you simply believe courtesy of the work of the Holy Spirit within your heart -- or not believe courtesy of your own sin nature that God is not required to save you from.

God is loving, you're correct, but don't think he's required to be the little kitten you can control and dictate your decrees to. I think that the Bible is there as evidence of His glory, I don't think it's a telemarketing tool for God to plead with us to come to Him. Edited? In a sense, yes, different councils have defined what is scripture and what is not, and have clarified their beliefs accordingly. But to say that none of them have an ounce of correctness is throwing out quite a bit of scholarly work for -- your own independent beliefs, which you are entitled to, but scholarly exegesis does hold a decided amount of credibility for me.

Answer 9

You cannot pick and choose certain characteristics of God out of the Bible that you supposedly don't believe in.

Where did you hear about this loving God? If it wasn't from the Bible, where did He come from? Give me the source of this God!

Either you made Him up to fit your liking OR He is the God of the Holy Bible. If He is the God of the Bible then you have to accept everything about Him.

God HATES sin. Read it and weep honey. He hates it. He loves people and He wants the best for all of His people. He wants you to come to a place in your life where you realize that you have to repent of your sin and follow Him so that you have the most abundant life you can imagine.

However, until you ask Jesus to wash away that sin in your heart, it ain't gonna happen.

Your make believe, based on your common sense, God isn't going to make a way for you in heaven.

Answer 10

If you believe Trinity (The Father, Jesus Christ, and Holy Spirit) then you have to be aware that we are just humans. There are things in this world that we can't easily separate as logical and not logical.

For example 1: people know that smoking is bad for our health, but why some people they don't care?...they just keep on smoking. As a non-smoker that's doesn't make any sense - they know it is not healthy but they don't stop smoking.

Example 2: if we are right now living in the society that makes it a right thing to steal somebody belongings then if we are not stealing we are wrong in that particular society. If we are not stealing, are we wrong?

Example 3: It's logical for God to send gays to hell because they are created by God and they purposely rebelled and violated God's rules about husband and wife relationships...while some people like you say it's not logical at all because our Father is a loving God.

So the conclusion is that what is logic or not logic can be still be debated. Who is right? our views can be sways but God's opinions can't be wrong. He knows us better than we know ourselves. We need a universal rule for our lives. For Christians like us our universal rule is The Bible.

It's true that The Bible can be considered as a set of ancient books compiled by the experts. It's true also that the books in The Bible are written by the God prophets and Jesus disciples. The Bible's translators do not edit the messages in The Bibles they just translate the language in English and other languages so that we who lives in this civilization can understand the meanings.

For me God is like my very big boss & my father. He knows what's best for us. He set rules so that we can live in harmony with each other and ultimately with Him - the creator. When we are naughty He warn us or punish us that's because He loves us. He wants us to know his love for us to prosper and live a happy life. He doesn't set rules to limit our freedom but to protect our freedom.

For example about smoking: smoking is a bad habit simply because it limits the freedom to be healthy; it limits the amount of money one can spend on other things; it limits one's life span. Is this what's called freedom? I don't agree at all except freedom to die miserably. Smokers' lives controlled by tobacco and not vice versa...that's not what I called freedom.

So back to the question why our loving God hates gays and lesbians...because it is a sin. As it was in Sodom, they violated God's rules ...and they persisted that they were right...they were just being logical (common sense)...at the end God had the final answer for those rebels.

God doesn't simply send people who do not go to church or read The Bible to Hell. There are things that are also considered by Him - remember God searches not only our actions but also our hearts too. Remember the story of Jesus telling his disciples about a poor woman who just gives a few cents for God's Kingdom has greater reward than the people who gives much money.

His judgments are just and unknown to us, we only know His commandments. I am not going to be logical about His judgments...because I am not God.

Loving towards others despite their lifestyles and beliefs are good. That's what God want us to do - not only spreading The Gospel but also let others know that our lives are overflowed with God's loves. We are God's lamps in the world.

Answer 11

First I didn't know that the discovery channel was such an authority that I couldn't argue with it. I agree that it doesn't make since if you look at it from the point of view that god would be angry at these things. I think it becomes much more reveling if you look at it as a social collective doesn't want you to do these things and uses god and religion to get it's way.