Why is it that sometimes you say I am a child of God, and sometimes, you say I must believe in him to be?

Question

In this question, when I asked why a parent would choose most people going to Hell (and giving their child free will) over their child having a guaranteed eternal life in Heaven (without being given free will), you told me that God is not my parent because I am not a child of God until I believe in him.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AsY4qfB6RXCNc7aHmFf20Afsy6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20070913141944AAXLaPw

But, just moments later, when I asked what I am to be considered, if not a child of God, you told me that I am in fact a child of God, after all:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Ak5wrIVRO3LFQnQMGHyyfVrsy6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20070913143609AAsR4LW

Why the discrepancy?

Epaphras: Okay, I will go back and read your answers specifically. While I realize not EVERYONE answered this way, you must admit that I described the majority of answers on each question. Also, I appreciate the email you sent me and I'll reply shortly.

Answer 1

You can find any answer you want in the bible. You can twist it to fit anything. It just depends on the moment.

Answer 2

Everyone was born a child of God in my opinion. Our spirits came from him i believe. Remember the parable of the son who ran away from his father and spent his inheritance. Later he came back. But what of those who never do come back. They are run aways and have abandoned their father. Same as some angels chose to follow Satan and others did not. Once the barrier is crossed of no return the choice is made. This is also why innocence such as children return to God most likely as God knows they have not officially abandoned him. There is not original sin per say. Rather it is that we are born into a body that desires things other than Gods will but we are born innocent. No pain no gain,no struggle no muscle mass growth but we we just give in to every lazy desire we grow weak and useless. No one knows the mind of God perfectly so can not say this is the judgment God will make. I just know God in a personal manner and know his goodness. I trust him because I know he is good and there for trust his judgment will be good. God is as far beyond humans as 3d objects are beyond 2d objects in my opinon and I like him to my extra-dimensional father in which was born my uniqueness (my personality, preference, unpredictability, or spirit or being) likely existing by intermingling with this dimension and the other by a connection of quantum mechanics. Possible Oxygen and the brain. Not sure exactly just speculation.

P.S. Everyone has free will. Even the angels had free will. Other wise some would not have chosen to follow satan. You can not worship God with out free will. Those who worship God must worship him in spirit and truth. You can not worship God in truth if you are forced to do so. You must love him for who he is. You must build a relationship with God and his son is how we can over come our flesh so that all may return to him I believe from what I know of the Bible and God.

Answer 3

Understanding the bible takes effort and can't be placed in a paragraph or two. But I'll say this If you are an OBEDIANT child of God you will believe or at minimum instinctively understand and listen to what God is saying to you. God’s laws are “written in your heart” and nobody has any excuse. You already know what God requires, will you obey is the question? The bible is full of examples of God's children not obeying Him and even forgetting Him.

Answer 4

The discrepancy comes because of the fact that many people believe something they are told is in the Bible when it isn't. Many people hear all their lives, for example, that we are all God's children when the Bible actually says different. That is why it is important to read the Bible for oneself and not rely on anyone else, even a minister or priest, to tell us what it says, alto their commentary is certainly worth listening to.


Sending you a smile to help pick up your day.

Answer 5

There is a certain sense in which all human beings are children of God, because all are descended from Adam, who was the direct creation of God.
That is why Paul, (quoting a Greek poet) said to the Athenians "for we are also His offspring" (Acts 17:28)
However in another sense the Bible speaks of all men being alientated and estranged to God through sin, and a child or son of God is only one who manifests a like nature to God.
That is why Jesus said to the Jewish religious leaders:

"You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. "
John 8:44

In Ephesians, speaking to believers, Paul states that this was the plight of all men before being born again:

"And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,
in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.
Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. "
Ephesians 2:1-3

Sin so corrupts the nature of man that it estranges him from God and creates a sense of hostility of mind against God. This is abundantly evident on this forum. The only thing that can change this is a radical transformation of nature which the Bible calls being "born again". The only way one can be born again is when the Holy Spirit convinces the heart (not the head) of a person that the God who created the universe really did manifest as a human being and suffer terrible agony on a cross to reconcile His estranged creatures to Himself. When this simple truth is embraced, it destroys the Satanic power of illusion that holds sway over the greater part of mankind, and restores a proper perception of the true nature of the Creator, thus reconciling sinners to God.

Answer 6

You'll never hear me call an unbeliever a child of God. If you don't believe that Jesus, who is God, died for your sins on the cross and rose again, then you're not a child of God, no matter what anyone says. This is what the Bible says.

Answer 7

We read in God's Holy Lawbook the Bible:
Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me. (Psalms 51:5)
The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies. Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear. (Psalms 58:3-4)

Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. (1 Corinthians 6:9-10)

We read in God's Holy Law Book the Bible in John 3:5-7: Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. (John 6:44)

Be born a Christian, be born a Jew, be born a Muslim, be born a Buddhist, be born a Hindostan ect. you must be born again, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. See John 1:13

The Bible teaches that at the end of the world all the wicked will come under eternal punishment in a place called Hell, and this time may be very near. There is much Biblical evidence that points to the fall of 2011 as the end of the world.
Please contact Family Radio for the free book: TIME HAS AN END by Harold Camping A Biblical History of the World 11.013 BC - AD 2011 http://www.familyradio.com

Answer 8

I am a Christian saved by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross.....
We are all children of God because He made us...
Like our earthly parents we can choose to listen to them and
do as they say and be good children or we can ignore them get ourselves into trouble.....
God gives us choices too...
We can choose to read his Word and learn how to act and do the correct thing, or we can choose to ignore Him and
end up losing our immortal soul.....
We are His children and we do have the 'choice' to follow Him....

Answer 9

You are God's creation. When you acknowledge that TRUTH then you are a "child of God." When you blaspheme God s your Father you are not His child but rather A CHILD OF REBELLION.

Rebellion against our Father is NOT a good thing to do. You like playing games I see. God hates games.

Answer 10

Kinda like how Jesus was the son of God sometimes, was also God other times, and was the son of man other times.

Answer 11

Cormac McCarthy, :"Child of God"
Wacky book for ya.