Quasimodo wrote:Well, I assume that the marines are not fighting against God. I was talking about how God perceives free will (as were you, whether you know it or not). Your comment about marines sort of underscores my point.
Let me try this again. Your contention is that there are no coincidences (I think) because God holds all the cards and nothing happens by chance. So God is controlling all events.
If there is free will, then some events must be controlled by those exercising their free will and and not controlled by God.
These two statements are diametrically opposed. I don't think you can have both at the same time. Which one do you choose?
Hello Quasimodo!
It is my belief that eventually every spirit will desire to do God's will because they will discover that God's will is what they want as they have learned through their own experiences that they want the same things as God’s will wants. Most of mainstream Christianity DOES have a problem they do not want to face within their belief system. It is a problem wherein God forces the believer to accept His will, because they believe you only get one chance to accept His will. This DOES effectively create a perception of the removal of a person’s free will, as it is a threat which becomes a battle of clashing wills. It also creates the circumstances of how they perceive “hell”. There are shades of Truth buried in their beliefs; however, there is more Truth which they have not embraced. These additional Truths help to make more sense out of the whole reason we are here on the earth – our spirit being bound inside of a body of flesh.
Inasmuch as the spiritual realm exists in the eternities (as opposed to linear physical worlds), God is always able to see the past, the present, and the future in a never ending and never beginning unfolding. It is a misconception to believe that God takes away our spirit’s free will just because He sees all things; i.e., that He knows what our choices will be before we do. He is still not controlling our free will; we still have control over our decisions. What God does do with His knowing of all things, is like unto that of the Conductor/Composer of a multi-universal orchestration of when, where, and how the musicians (us) will play our instruments. He knows when our abilities have improved; and moves us into various chairs which allow us to progress in responsibility and shows off our accomplishments for the betterment of not only us as an individual; but which also blends the best for the entire orchestra….always then, producing the most benefit for all of the participants. Now, does this indicate that He is the one playing the instruments? Of course not, the musicians (again, this is us) are still the ones controlling our instruments. Are we influenced by those around us and by the circumstances we are in which have been created by the Conductor/Composer? Absolutely; but without controlling our choices on how often we practice learning how to play (or not play) our instruments, or our dedication, or even which instruments we choose to learn, we still maintain our free will. God USES the choices made by man’s free will for the benefit of everyone; but He does not makes those choices for us.
So, what is the deal with how most of Christendom sees death and hell? They do have bits of Truth. What they do not have correct is that a spirit only has one chance. Rather, it is the physical body which has only one chance. That is because the physical body ALWAYS dies; which is the condition for BEING in hell. Currently our earth IS in the lake of fire; thus we ARE now in hell. But mankind makes the choices of HOW hell is experienced. Because mankind makes those choices, they interfere with the free will of others. When man’s will is not aligned with God’s will, the result is suffering. If man steals from another, it is the victim who suffers; eventually the criminal will also suffer, by mankind’s flesh judgment, and eventually through the spiritual awareness of what he has done to another. The same is true of any evil one man commits against another man. If man has compassion on another, both are benefitted immediately. The same is true of any good one man does for another man. Yet both good and evil consequences are experienced in the flesh while our spirit is bound there. Now, until our spirit becomes awakened or aware of this cycle, our learning and experiencing of the consequences of good and evil will not progress. We remain in the cycle of earth’s current physical-ness of existing in hell where death dwells. Once our current earth is re-born, another physical earth will be founded and formed where death and hell have been cast again into the pit of fire.
As long as the physical earth is not spiritually reborn, it remains in the pit of fire where hell and death exist. Now, inasmuch as Christ overcame physical death, we can see that Christendom cannot be correct in how they perceive this. The physical body born in the flesh STILL experiences physical death. How can this be if Christ has overcome physical death? WHY does the physical body born in the flesh still have to face death? What Christ overcame was the CYCLE of physical death which binds our spirit to physical bodies being born in the flesh. Not only did He overcome physical death, He showed US how to overcome physical death. He showed us through the example He set. It takes MORE than accepting Christ with words that we evolve in becoming One with God. It is through following the example of HOW He evolved.
We are taught that we must suffer with Christ. We do not experience “suffering” when we profess Christ as our Savior; rather, we experience an awakening of the hope and faith we have in the path Christ provides back to God. Suffering with Christ means that we still need to experience the suffering of being in bodies of flesh. The Good News is that there will be an end to this suffering; He has taught us the way…doing so of His own free will….doing so even though He was a completely innocent sacrifice. That does not take away our need to suffer with Christ; the Atonement takes away the permanency of eternally suffering in physical bodies which must still suffer physical death. Through the process of repentance and forgiveness, we become awakened to WHO we really are. This awareness also brings with it the desire to be like Christ. Our will becomes the same as God’s will; not because God has taken away our free will, but because we have learned that His will is what WE ALSO want…and we BECOME One with Him. When our spirit becomes completely reborn, we will no longer need to be born in bodies of flesh which will physically die. We finally get out of hell; the baptism by fire is finally completed.
God is not a respecter of persons. This means that if others cause our free will to be taken from us, the choices of others cannot foil His purpose for us. It also means He will not allow our choices to interfere with the free will of other spirits. All spirits will be given as many new physical bodies as are necessary for us to become fully awakened. So, each physical body does only live once and die once. But the spirit is eternal and will continue to be placed into new physical bodies until the spirit no longer needs to be sent out because Christ overcame the sting of death. A physical body has one chance; the spirit has as many as it needs. The condition of “hell” is where physical death dwells. These things called “death” and “hell” exist eternally for the purpose of helping in the purification of our spirit. But the spirit does not have to stay in the pit of fire unless it chooses to stay there (God gives us what we want). We are already in hell where death dwells. What we do here becomes a myriad of consequences of not only our choices, but also the choices of others. Because God can see past, present, and future, He orchestrates when, where and what type of physical body we are born into in each of our incarnations in order that Justice is not robbed by Mercy. Yet Mercy allows for the end of each spirit’s journey in bodies of flesh which die in the pit of fire known as hell.
Blessings,
jo
Yet, you continue to post the Bible, verse by verse.