IBIJ thank you for your reply.I take as a compliment.I feel that i have to convince myself in accepting the message of the Bible or of religion in general.I think the reason is that the human brain refuse to accept notions that are not justifiable or real as for instance 2 and 2 are 4 etc. Now take the concept of the TRINITY or the RESURRECTION of the BODY or The RESURRECTION of Lazarus end many more happenings of the kind and we find ourself in a position to have difficulty in believing .,This is the time when we rely on the POWER of FAITH.So Faith is the key to accept the mystery of religion.After all NOBODY ever has come back to tell Us what it is like!!So WHO is right.????????

..To, francodi: If you {or others}, are Only are willing to believe, what your 5 senses tell you is 'real'; then you would be discounting, all "6th sense," premonitions..{of which there are Many documented cases}, the "red-shift" {expanding universe}, which we wouldn't know about, were it Not for the "infra-red" electro-magnetic spectrum; which isn't, for the most part, one of our 5 sense abilities; barring our ability to feel heat... as opposed to actually "seeing" it; as certain species, {bees, etc.} are capable of.
 
.. In a 'nutshell,' even educated 'dyed-in-the-wool' atheists, would admit, {or perhaps, even tell you}, that there is More to the universe, than we can taste, touch, see, smell or hear; but it stands to reason, that Any conclusion of, especially of, any atheist; and for the most part, most agnostics; whose best attempt of a "spiritual encounter," is analogous, to a blind man describing an elephant, by the sense of touch; will Not otherwise lead one to a belief in God.
 
.. It has been said, that even the simple repetitive act of sitting down on a chair or couch, perhaps.. is demonstrating a Very elementary form of 'faith'; since, as most of us know, all physical matter is composed of mostly empty {if, in constant motion}, "space"!
 
.. Just as now, {and for the past thousands, {or even tens-of-thousands} of years; it has Not been universally acknowledged, {by, everyone}, that, "Faith, cometh by hearing, and hearing cometh, by The Word of God," {"King James" passage-version, of Scripture}; I would think that that concept/world-view, Will.. One day, be Universally acknowledged!; in the same vein, of the Scripture reference,{referring to a future point-in-time}, ".. and Every knee shall bow, both, in Heaven and earth, and under the earth, {the latter, presumably referring to, the Now former disbelievers}, that 'JC,' Is Lord"!! {fini}

My knee won't be bowing . Another bible error.

grevillea, You wouldn't happen to be a 'planted foil,' {unbeknownst, to I}, that makes my various expressed points, seem that much stronger?! ..

No.

Hi Grrrr
 
There is one thing I have learned about the word "never", that being such a word spoken most always leads the other direction. For whatever reason you choose to paint an evil God, you do so only half heartedly. There's that nagging part of you that will continue to wonder until the day of Damascus arrives.
 
Never-the-less, let's hypothesize that there was a perfect God with a perfect Son named Jesus Christ who watched as man turned away through concious choices of sin some 6 thousand years ago. Rather than leaving humanity in their mire they decided to come to earth, live a perfectly sinless life, and be crucified to redeem humanity back to an everlasting life.
 
Can you tell me how the above sinerio, if played out would not be an act of love?
 
Further, I'd enjoy hearing specifics on contradictions that you deem upon the Word of God. I'm betting you'll gravitate toward the "forever" thoughts for at least a portion of your answer. I've explained how this all plays out and you have chosen to reject the concepts. That's not a contradiction of Scripture, but a blatant refusal to accept the obvious.
 
In closing, you are responsible for your choices; not HOM or myself. HOM may continue to encourage you toward his beliefs and doctrines. I on the other hand will not be detered in pointing the way to God's Word and God's Word alone.
 
Happy Sabbath
IBIJ
 

Yeah, that makes sense. The God and Father of all creation who gave us His Word to start with is not at all capable of bringing it down through the generations to us today. The funny twist on this whole conundrum is that the NIV was largely written by the Catholic church. Thus we find here a Catholic denouncing His churches writtings as flawed. LOL
 
Happy Sabbath
IBIJ