Meet Greg from Columbia, A Former Atheist

[Nathon Detroit]

Freewill is what happens inside your head; Freedom is what happens outside your head, when you act upon your surroundings.

So, your body can be bowing and cofessing while your mind is going "what baloney this is!"...

As long as their heart is pure....

Mark 9:24 Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”

 

[allsmiles]

so let's say i'm on my knees before God... he's making me confess myself... first of all, what does that mean? secondly, i can be paying him lip service and still be thinking, "what a tyrant, i hate this god"?

 

[Gerald]

As long as their heart is pure...

No human heart is truly pure.

 

[Real Sorceror]

so let's say i'm on my knees before God... he's making me confess myself... first of all, what does that mean? secondly, i can be paying him lip service and still be thinking, "what a tyrant, i hate this god"?

Hold up there allsmiles, even I have to say that if God showed up in front of me right now, I will have few other thoughts besides "Whoa.......its God." In fact, if just about any god showed up right now, I'd bend the knee and tell him my life story.

 

[allsmiles]

Hold up there allsmiles, even I have to say that if God showed up in front of me right now, I will have few other thoughts besides "Whoa.......its God." In fact, if just about any god showed up right now, I'd bend the knee and tell him my life story.

good for you.

 

[Nathon Detroit]

No human heart is truly pure.

Pure as in "good faith", in other words you are not just paying lip service.

Matthew 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God.

1 Timothy 1:5 Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith,

2 Timothy 2:22 Flee also youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

 

[Nathon Detroit]

so let's say i'm on my knees before God... he's making me confess myself... first of all, what does that mean?

You will get your chance to give your testimony, just like in court. The only difference is this Judge isn't corrupt.

secondly, i can be paying him lip service and still be thinking, "what a tyrant, i hate this god"?

Sure, if you think that will work.

You are free to think whatever you want.

You will be judged fairly.

 

[allsmiles]

Knight, i think i've got a pretty good handle on the freedom/freewill distinction, thanks for your help

 

[Nathon Detroit]

Knight, i think i've got a pretty good handle on the freedom/freewill distinction, thanks for your help

OK, good so you know now that the folks that are sent to hell do not have their freewill removed but their freedom removed right?

You understand that now right?

 

[allsmiles]

OK, good so you know now that the folks that are sent to hell do not have their freewill removed but their freedom removed right?

You understand that now right?

yeah, that makes sense, i think one is useless without the other... but when the almighty's casting you down to hell that sort of thing becomes... trivial?

 

[Gerald]

Pure as in "good faith", in other words you are not just paying lip service.

Matthew 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God.

1 Timothy 1:5 Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith,

2 Timothy 2:22 Flee also youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

Ah, saying it and meaning it.

Well, that colors me hosed.

Now, if I ever come across an event or entity that can be attributed only to supernatural origin, I might change my tune.

As it is, the world I inhabit would be considered by many to be profoundly dull, gray and mechanistic, with no room for the mysterious or sacred.

 

[Gerald]

You will get your chance to give your testimony, just like in court.

What kind of "testimony"?

 

[Nathon Detroit]

Now, if I ever come across an event or entity that can be attributed only to supernatural origin, I might change my tune.

OK... good luck with that.

 

[Gerald]

OK... good luck with that.

I doubt luck will help; my encountering such an entity or event is astronomically unlikely, and lacking any compelling reason to accept the notion of a supernatural dimension to existence, that lumps deities into the same ashcan as pixies, ghosts and unicorns.

 

[Lighthouse]

I'm just curious what the words in Ice Age 2 are...

 

[thelaqachisnext]

Hold up there allsmiles, even I have to say that if God showed up in front of me right now, I will have few other thoughts besides "Whoa.......its God." In fact, if just about any god showed up right now, I'd bend the knee and tell him my life story.

Hi sorcerer,
You are in front of Him [before His 'face'] right now, and in Him you live and move and have your being -and He made you and He loves you cause He made you, and He really wants to have you as His son, in Christ, as you were first written in His book of Life to be, in Adam, before the fall.

Every breath you take is His gift to you, and one day, He'll take it back, and you'll give account for your life lived as His gift while in your body..You can call upon His name now, and He will hear you and make Himself known to you and make you His son in Christ, by adoption and make His word come alive to you by His Spirit.
any old 'god' won't do, however, you gotta call on the Name above every name, Jesus Christ -YHWH in human flesh, as our Redeemer, for His Salvation.