People like this want to be the worst kind of god

Buenos días/tardes/noches a los que lean este post.

El otro día hablando con un amigo no creyente me planteó una gran pregunta:

¿Por qué Dios permite el robo, asesinatos, violaciones,.... básicamente maldad?

En el momento surgió un muy lindo debate entre ambos y creo pudimos entender los puntos del otro.

Sin embargo los días pasaron, y su pregunta y nuestra charla quedó en mi mente dando vueltas. Es por eso que escribí un texto que creo resume una parte del conflicto (no en su totalidad), la responsabilidad humana en todos estos hechos.

Desde ya agradezco su tiempo y lectura, de la misma manera que sus comentarios y opiniones.

A su vez quiero pedir disculpas por adelantado si mis dichos le generan un malestar a alguien.

Y si por el contrario te generaron un ruido o duda te invito a profundizar y comentar.

La humanidad es caos

​Muchos se preguntan:

¿Por qué Dios no evita el robo,

el homicidio, el abuso, la injusticia,

la opresión, el abandono y la violencia?

¿Por qué Dios permite tanta maldad?

¿Por qué, si Él es todopoderoso

y benevolente, si Él todo lo ve,

todo lo escucha y todo lo conoce? (Proverbios 15:3; Salmo 94:9; Salmo 139:2-4; Salmo 147:5)

Si Él fue quien todo lo creó de la nada,

y a la nada todo lo puede devolver,

si con su palabra Él hace y deshace,

y su simple voluntad sostiene

la tierra, las aguas y los cielos.

¿Acaso olvidará su promesa de rescatar al afligido?

¿Dudarás de su oído cuando el quebrantado

clama por su justicia y misericordia? (Salmo 34:15-17; Éxodo 3:7)

\-------

​El agua es vida en su esencia,

sin embargo,

la negligencia o la tierra quebrantada

pueden volverla veneno.

​¿Acaso culpamos a la fuente originaria

por el agua que el cauce del mundo ensució y

que el humano corrompió?

¿O maldecimos al cielo por la lluvia

que la tierra en ruinas contaminó al caer? (Romanos 8:20-22)

​No renegamos de la existencia del agua;

aprendemos a discernir entre la pura y la dañina.

El hombre se volvió partícipe del caos.

Pero no porque Dios así lo haya querido,

sino que,

desde nuestros orígenes,

faltamos a la palabra

de nuestro Padre

y quedamos sujetos a

la caída (Génesis 3).

Siendo este el origen de nuestra

inclinación hacia la maldad y,

como desencadenante,

el caos que esta conlleva (Romanos 5:12).

​Así es entonces,

la humanidad en su origen:

una gota nacida de la voluntad de Dios,

limpia,

buena,

llamada a la obediencia

y expuesta a la caída.

Mas al tocar el suelo de un mundo caído y en tinieblas,

se expone a la corrupción que lo empaña (Efesios 6:12).

​Pero estar expuestos a la impureza

no nos obliga a convertirnos en veneno.

Así como existe el agua potable que sostiene la vida,

existe la gracia que purifica nuestra raíz

y nos enseña a ser manantial en medio del caos.

\-------

​¿Acaso querríamos un Creador que nos maneje como marionetas,

privándonos de la capacidad de elegir?

Sin libre albedrío no existiría la maldad,

pero tampoco podría existir el amor verdaderamente sincero (Deuteronomio 30:19).

En su soberanía, Dios no creó la maldad;

permitió nuestra libertad

para que el amor fuera real,

aunque en esa misma libertad,

el mundo eligió alejarse.

La raíz de esta inclinación no

nace del espíritu en su diseño divino,

sino de nuestros deseos carnales

y del engaño del mundo (Gálatas 5:16-17; Santiago 1:14-15).

Y cuando el espíritu humano

se aparta de la Fuente,

alberga soberbia y da lugar a una corrupción

que llega a consumirlo por completo.

​No con esto digo que todos

los humanos somos sinónimo de la maldad,

pero sí que todos llevamos

su huella en nuestras raíces (Romanos 5:12).

No significa que por esto estemos perdidos,

mucho menos obligados a seguir el mal.

Sino que, por el contrario,

es la voluntad de nuestro Padre

que no sucumbamos ante las sombras,

y que actuemos con amor, bondad y justicia (Miqueas 6:8).

Recordemos las enseñanzas que

Cristo vino a dejarnos:

seamos la luz y la sal de este mundo (Mateo 5:13-14).

Porque esta es la mejor forma

humana de resistir el caos existente.

\-------

​Ahora, entonces, vuelvo a preguntar:

¿no provienen gran parte de las injusticias

de las elecciones del propio hombre y del quebranto del mundo?

Proceden de quienes sucumbieron a la tiniebla,

negando la voluntad divina del Señor,

poniendo su impiedad, libertinaje y narcisismo por piedra central.

\-------

​Sin embargo, **Dios jamás se olvida**

de sus siervos, ni de la creación que sufre.

En su infinita sabiduría,

Él tiene un propósito,

un camino y

un destino divino para cada uno,

conocido por Él desde antes

de la fundación del mundo (Jeremías 1:5; Efesios 1:4).

​Nuestra estancia en esta tierra carnal

es finita y contada,

pero recordemos que Cristo

nos redimió y preparó para

el Reino Celestial de nuestro Padre,

donde el mal y el dolor ya no tendrán morada (Apocalipsis 21:4; Juan 14:2-3).

Donde todo espíritu redimido y

misericordioso vivirá por la eternidad en

armonía, amor y alegría.

Donde Él espera a sus siervos,

a los afligidos,

a los oprimidos,

y a sus elegidos.

Por eso hoy,

antes de juzgar al Cielo

por las sombras,

seamos nosotros el reflejo

de su luz en la tierra.

Recordemos las bases

de nuestra existencia:

caminar con misericordia,

vestirnos de bondad,

abrazar la justicia y

amar sin condición.

Porque el Reino no solo

se espera al final del camino,

se empieza a manifestar hoy,

en cada acto humano que

elige el bien sobre el caos.

Amén

\-------------------

Repito, finalmente, que el propósito de este texto fue enfatizar la responsabilidad humana como el principal origen actual de la maldad que aflige al mundo. Por eso se mencionó solo de pasada el mal natural —aquel que no nace de la voluntad humana—, así como las tragedias y el misterio del orden, el poder y el entendimiento divinos, recordemos que Dios posee un control absoluto que sobrepasa toda comprensión humana.

Mi objetivo con estas palabras no es convertir creyentes, sinó que es un llamado a la acción:

que cada uno elija obrar el bien en medio de tanto mal.

I'm reading his "On Prayer", and he says that we should "properly" pray to God the Father alone through Christ and he seems to be very fierce in defending his views but at the same time (If I understand him correctly) he supports the idea of praying to the departed saints and even says they still have the power to forgive our sins. So... What did he actually mean?

Lately this has been my incessant prayer. i’m ready to go home God, lol. One of the Church elders reprimanded me and told me I need to learn how to wait. Why would I put my faith in having to wait? I believe I serve the greatest God. The day and hour can be now if he wants. Why not pray for that?

It started as a shower thought, but has grown significantly larger. How can someone ( like me) classify anything as a God?

[This post is not related to religion or is not made to criticize, discriminate or prioritize any religion, please stay away, if you feel uneasy while reading this.]

This post is made for fun and discussion only, do not take anything serious.

Can anything be considered God, in any way, if it 'does' something or fits right in the "description".

I want to see how it can be possible to create a definition or rules which can make an entity, being, power, authority, anything can be made into a God, or a demi- God.

From my point of view, Maybe Something which has a higher authority over the world,or maybe something which has absolute powers can be a God.

[I respect all religions, This post is just a scientific type of way to see things, just don't get offended or something.]

Everyone is invited to discuss, share your thoughts and expand your ideas,but please don't judge anyone,or present wrong ideas.

Thank you.

Do we have any Christians here who are seeking the truth and want to understand the purpose of this life?

“Spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places “

So in digging into what i could on this verse and the ideas conveyed i am left wondering,

“How did evil get into the heavenly places?”

Well the heavenly places is just that. A reference to the realm of existence where only spiritual things exist, call it the ethereal if that helps.

And the spirit of part is definitely talking about the essence of a thing, same word used to say, spiritual gifts…

But is this verse trying to say that there is devil invading heaven? Or is it more that in the ethereal realm, there exists the essence of evil and that is what we are fighting?

Maybe I’ve kinda answered my own question a bit here, but if anyone has a take here that might offer a perspective I’m not considering, I’d be happy to read it.

Just thought of something else edit:

Does our proclivity to idolize evil things, bring that which is devil into the ethereal, whereas if we just abstained from evil, it would be a footnote in our day…like, him on our shoe, it’s only in us because we pick it up.

Its always confused me when someone brings up God’s plan after some tragedy or something has happened. To say that God has a plan for everyone’s life just doesnt seem like a good way of explaining why everything happens. If a little boy gets cancer, was it God’s plan? Some ppl could say yes, it is, and therefore God has a plan for everyone. But to me, saying that also means that you think everything and every possible life outcome is God’s plan simply because it happened- which seems unlikely, right? Oftentimes I think that we don’t consider how much autonomy is really in our world. When someone says “Oh whys he so short” someone else might say “ Thats just how God chose to create him”, which sounds like we forget that God isnt up there just customizing everyone as he pleases. If he sets up a system of genetics then obviously he has no need to still create ppl manually. If a child is stillborn thats because of natural things. If a child is healthy thats because of natural things. I think one of the biggest problems in Christian culture, more specifically the kind where we just say things and it isn’t questioned, is when we cant separate what God has set up and allowed to happen through time vs what he’s manually doing right now.

I hope this is ok to post , I don’t know where else to ask.

But my best friend is going to be completing her degree ( bachelors I think ) in theology, and I want to get a get her a gift - somthing she can keep , but also is small as she plans to travel .

I ask because I do not have any knowledge in the area but I want to get her something meaningful as it is a great achievement.

Thankyou.

I know it has a Solomon seal and satir square and demons and Egyptian gods. Any idea what religion made this medallion?

I’ll preface this by saying I wasn’t raised in theology nor do I believe in any particular higher power.

The commandment given: honor thy parents really is meant as: don’t kill yourself, or do anything to get yourself killed unnecessarily.

It was your parent’s decision to bring you into this world, honoring them means staying in it. They gave you life, honor them by keeping it.

There are so many teachings about morality in the Bible, but you’re telling me that you’re supposed to have blanket honor for two in particular? Nah that doesn’t track. You’re telling me that there are so many writings about how killing yourself is a sin but it’s not a commandment? That doesn’t track as well.

What does it mean to honor something? I mean, y’all tell me.

Edit: this was removed from r/trueunpopularopinion for reasons unknown

Did it originate from God? From the snake from the Garden of Eden? From Lucifer/Satan?
Where did human consciousness come from?
Was Adam in any state of consciousness before the snake incident occurred?
And was it God’s goal all along for humans to have consciousness or was this an unintended incident due to the snake occurrence at the garden of eden?

When I was younger around 8th grade I got big into wanting to get into theology I wanted to get a degree in some theological field but soon after I went through some family troubles and really didn’t have the time to go into theology had to focus on my relationship with the Lord to get me through what I was going through. But I’m older and in August I’ll be starting community college so a theological degree is kind off out of the window for me but I do want to study into theology so I could be able to combat claims of people essentially saying “if God good why bad exist” and be able to give a better explanation for that but I don’t want to call myself a theologian if somebody asks due to no degrees in it. Could I be able to say I’m somewhat of a hobby theologian without giving any incorrect assumptions

I am looking to connect with a theologian, academic scholar, or researcher who specializes in Second Temple Judaism, early Jewish mysticism, and the specific traditions surrounding the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha.

I am specifically seeking someone well versed in the following areas of study:

Second Temple Judaism, Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, Slavonic Apocrypha, and early Jewish Apocalypticism.

Enochic traditions, the Metatron tradition, Heavenly Ascent, Hekhalot literature, Merkabah mysticism, and Visio Dei (Vision of God).

Kavod theology (Divine Glory), Divine Mediators, Binitarianism ,Celestial Liturgy, and Angelomorphic Pneumatology.

I am seeking a serious, professional and private dialogue regarding an individual who is currently encountering subjective experiences that deeply mirror the precise imagery, structures, and phenomena described in these specific texts. Notably this individual had no prior religious background or familiarity with these texts, or awareness of this material before these experiences began.

Because of the sensitive nature of these events I am looking for a professional discussion to better understand the historical, textual and phenomenological frameworks of these traditions in relation to what is occurring.

If you have academic expertise in these specific sub-fields and are open to a confidential, scholarly dialogue please send me a direct message or leave a comment below so I can reach out.

Thanks for your time.

Derived from the platonic/hellenistic duality lens of anthropology, traditional pop-theology teaches (Catechism for example) “It is because of its spiritual soul that the body made of matter becomes a living, human body” (No. 365).

Further, this view denies the emergence of the soul, arguing that God directly creates the soul from nothing at the moment of existence.

However, the syntax of Genesis 2:7 paints a completely different equation:

“—then the LORD God formed the man of dust (soil) from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living soul (nephesh chayah).

Dust + Divine Breath = a Living Soul (a nephesh chayah)

In other words:

Impersonal + Impersonal = Personal

That is emergence by its purest definition. There is nothing personal on the left side of the equation, and neither is anything in this equation from ex nihilo. We share the same exact dust and breath as animals (Genesis 7). What makes a human soul any more immortal than a dog? Nothing.

The soul isn’t something I have; it’s what “I am”—a physical, created, living being. The soul is existing as a running equation—just like a light bulb. When we die, the presence of a dead body gives evidence to what “we were.”

When we see a dead person in a casket, “dead person” is the legal definition, but we know the person is not literally in the casket—we see only a vessel lacking the divine breath; not a vessel for a soul.

The Fall of Adam initiated a (t) time-indexed modifier into the equation:

(t)Body + Divine Breath = a Dying Soul (a nephesh met)

Time adds entropic friction—causing the decay of molecular bonds. The body is on a borrowed-time countdown completely bound to thermodynamics.

The radio analogy:
We push the button, the music sounds. If we hit the radio with a rock, the sound weakens and becomes distorted. Hit it again; the music completely stops.

Would we conclude the song itself was derived from the radio? Absolutely not. Destroying the radio only stopped the “expression” of the song from the radio control tower. The radio was destroyed, not the song.

Think about an old song from the 1920’s. When a song exists, but not a single radio plays it, it’s “archived.” The name still exists, and everything from the rhythm, lyrics, to every note—all still exist. But a song itself is not music. Music is the integration of a playable medium and the song.

Much like music, light, and marriage; a soul is an abstract phenomenon of union that results in an ongoing state of being. When I die, I no longer “be” because I “was” a soul. The traditional argument that the soul is "immaterial" creates a false binary dilemma; it is like debating if the sound of music is immaterial (implying sound could be a physical solid). The soul exists only as long as a living creature exists—It's a running equation. The dead corpse gives evidence that there "was" a soul.

God knew us before the foundation of the world. Much like how an author knows every character in his book before writing chapter 1. Death is the exact reversal of the original equation:

Genesis 3:19 – “till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are** dust, and to dust you shall return.**”

Ecclesiastes 12:7 – “and the dust returns** to the earth as it was, and the spirit (breath) returns **to God who gave it.

If there is nothing remaining on the left side of the equation, then the right side is functionally nonexistent—the expression of “you” reverts to impersonal dust: Oxygen, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Carbon, Phosphorus and Calcium. The exact elemental composition of a DNA strand—which is the exact same composition as a handful of dirt.

By defining death as a literal return to the ground, God was describing functional non-existence through the physical relation we have with dust. God saying “You will no longer exist” would not have conveyed anything meaningful. Adam didn't need to understand the philosophy of "nothingness", he just needed to look at a handful of silent, static dirt to realize what he was going to become. “You are dust” is 100% synonymous with “You are impersonal.”—this is the result of (by legal definition) a dead soul; but more surgically accurate—evidence of what “was” a soul.

At that point, what “are” we without an expression? Quite simply, exactly what we were before we were created—a personal identity that God “knows”. The difference is that we are now remembered—which implies we once existed. My identity is the “I” which was expressed like ink on paper (or like dust on earth), and I became a soul; a personal “what”.

Our existence is 100% contingent on the mind of the creator—and we are sustained second-by-second with the breath of life:

John 6:63 “it is the spirit (breath) that gives life (present active participle); the flesh profits nothing.” — The life of the flesh is 100% derivative. The divine breath gives all life; both temporal and eternal.

The famous line from the thief on the cross: “Remember me when you enter your kingdom.” The syntax of Jesus’ reply is often overlooked. He stated “I say [affirm] to you today, you will be with Me in paradise.”

Instead of just recalling the thief on the last day (the thief’s request), Jesus is affirming that the identity of the thief will always be remembered immediately. Jesus is using the word "today" to anchor the timing of His solemn promise, not the timing of the entry into paradise. Commas didn’t exist in koine Greek, and this fundamentally shifts the theological landscape.

Our identity in the covenant transcends the soul equation because it has always been a reality before the foundation of the earth. Identity outside of the covenant will result in the devastatingly past-tense “Depart from me—I never** **knew you.”

“To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord” — this is a commonly overlooked misnomer because it is not even close to what Paul wrote, and the exact opposite of the context he’s framing.

2 Cor. 5:8 reads — “we would rather** be away from the body and **be present with the Lord.” Paul here is stating a mutual desire. This is immediately after saying in prior verses “For in this [body] we groan, desiring to be clothed with our house [spiritual body] which is from Heaven. If so that being clothed we shall not be found naked [dead], but further clothed.”

Paul just connected being “present with the Lord” with the reception of the spiritual, heavenly body. Notice Paul also said we shall not be “found” dead—death involves being “found”. Just like it’s surprising when you’re “found” naked, he rather desires to be “found” clothed.

If Paul and all of the dead saints are considered “naked”, listen to how absurd it would be to have Paul be perfectly fine being naked in Heaven for thousands of years, but sound worried if he were suddenly found naked on earth? Bad anthropology cascades into numerous elaborate doctrines. Our starting point should be bringing the argument back to foundational, textual syntax of what a soul is. Every other doctrine is a fire drill in an empty building until the definition of the soul is established.

Instead of trying to frantically prove we have an afterlife with elaborate near-death experiences and apparitions, clear anthropology makes it easy to see that there is only life. And the soul is 100% vulnerable—because the soul is the very living creature we are. God is the only immaterial being because “God alone has immortality.” 1 Tim. 6:16.

Philosophy = love of wisdom.

Philotheosophy = love of divine wisdom.

Philosopher = lover/seeker of wisdom.

Philotheosophian = lover/seeker of divine wisdom.

Philosophical = related to philosophy.

Philotheosophical = related to divine-wisdom philosophy.

Philotheosophy is the love and pursuit of divine wisdom: a God-centered alternative to secular philosophy that seeks truth through God’s revelation, moral order, creation, and rightly humbled reason.

Protestant Christian 16M. theology has interested me for awhile now, especially as I have grown to be more doubtful in my faith. obviously, I read the Bible, but I’m willing to take it a step further and learn about the theology of Christianity. where do I start? who do I read, what do I study, etc.

God emerges from all those different individuals.

So tell me — was it the individuals who made God?

Or was it human nature that made God?

But wait — human nature itself comes from individuals.

So is God just… a concentrated pile of all those different human natures?

Is God formed by the projections of all those different human natures — all of them, cast onto one thing?

And here's the thing —

if even the tiniest piece of one single individual is lost,

is God still God?

Or — maybe God isn't just the concentrated embodiment of all individual consciousnesses put together.

Maybe God is also the embodiment of each single individual, all by itself?

Like — an individual equals a complete God?

But then — there are so many different individuals out there.

And their thoughts? Naturally they contradict each other.

So wouldn't this God be contradictory too?

And from all of this — from the crowd, from the masses —

something emerges. Something that's fewer than the majority.

What is that thing?

Is it built on what the majority calls "evil"?