I stand corrected on 'new earth'.
No, I am not an Atheist.
No worries, all good.
Revelation 7:3 "Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God. 4. Then I heard the number of those who were sealed: 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel." It then goes on to name 12,000 from each tribe of Israel.
You're in complicated territory here now. Because your confusing meanings of verses. So let me clear this up for you in 10 mins from someone with a PHD of the subject.
Those who actually study approved works written by apologists.
Faith in a religious context means willful ignorance.
Why do you equate faith with religion? Who chooses to be ignorant. The God of the bible demands his people test everything to know its from him.
1John 4:1 - Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
Faith requires one to believe the Divine to be an angry, jealous, vain, incompetent, vengeful psychopathic deity.
Now your heading into Gnostic territory. God clarifies why he is a jealous God. He hates sin, he hates destruction, he hates losing his creation. You are not forced by God to love him. You are not forced to want to go to heaven. Everyone who goes to hell rather be there than with God
Where do you get the psychopathic deity from? That I am intrigued by.
If you are unable to comprehend that the above attributes contradicts the belief that our Creator is perfect, beyond error, then you clearly don't have a clue.
Please clarify this statement. Give me some context to measure it against here
None will be lost for eternity. ALL will be 'saved' eventually.
That is counter-biblical. No scripture based.
John 6:39 And this is the will of God, that I should not lose even one of all those he has given me, but that I should raise them up at the last day.
My father is/was a lay-preacher, my mother a scripture teacher & so religion & church was the central influence of my childhood.
Nearly every Sunday we'd have lunch with clergy &/or missionaries from various denominations.
Although my parents were C of E they were Pentecostals at heart & it was extremely fortunate for my siblings & myself that they didn't gravitate in that direction until later in life.
My understanding on what Christians generally believe is rooted in that upbringing & influences.
Many Christians decide not only to interpret the Bible to suit their attitudes, many will also make excuses to defy Biblical edicts.
A good example is why do Christians break the commandment to keep the Sabbath holy?
Too long a story to relate here but Emperor Constantine gathered all the early Presbyters together & ordered them to agree on a set doctrine that they could all agree on.
The only direct influence that Constantine had was to order that worship be conducted on the first day of the week, Sunday, in honour of Mithras.
When my own brother was bragging about annoying the prostitutes & druggies in Kings Cross (What he & his delusional buddies called 'Power evangelising', lol) I reminded him that he was defying the teachings of Jesus himself who said that as one would not 'Cast pearls before swine', one should not evangelise but rather to live by setting an example of the right way to live ' 'Live your life like a shining light so that others may be drawn to you' (Or words to that effect)
My brother angrily responded, "That's just an excuse for wishy-washy Christians not to evangelise." smfh (That was over 25 years ago & he hasn't spoken to me since)
So as you should know yourself, Christians beliefs on a point is not always in agreement with what the Bible says.
There's plenty of hard cold facts that prove evolution. If one chooses to ignore the facts then my repeating it isn't going to change that attitude.
The Theory of Evolution does not necessarily contradict the concept of a Creator.
Evolution nicely explains the process of Creation & makes a lot more sense than a big bearded guy in the clouds saying 'Abracadabra'.
Many Christians believe that Revelations is the most important book in the Bible & that it's the inspired 'Word of God'. Therefore, according to 'Gods word', only 144,000 JEWS will of the 'Seal of Protection'. Everyone else will suffer from Gods wrath & destruction.
How could God "hate" anything if He/She is pure, perfect, without error?
If God hated this or that then why were we given free will?
Regardless of what the Bible says, as a child whenever an adult was asked a reasonable question that they could not answer, we were told that 'One must have faith. Without faith one will go to the bottom pit of Hell'. Questioning the Bible or church doctrine was actively discouraged.
In fact I was flogged for 'Attempting to undermine anothers faith'.
Even today, when Christians can't answer a logical question, I hear the same thing, 'One must have faith.'
It is in this context that faith = willful ignorance. (thanks for the verse btw. I've written that one down)
"Gnostic"? Gee you guys love labels. I prefer to call it logical thinking.
How do we know that 'God' explained why He/She is a "jealous God"? Besides the fact that jealousy is one of the Deadly Sins, it contradicts the fact that the Divine is perfect.
There is only one God, regardless of whatever label/appellation that man applies. So why would God be jealous of something that doesn't even exist? (Other Gods that is)
If "God hates destruction", then why did he destroy every living creature on the planet (except for a pair of each & Noah & his family) with a great flood? (Where btw, did the water come from if the entire planet was under water? Where did the water go when the flood receded?
Which leads us to the idea that God is a psychopath. Have you not read the OT? What sort of lunatic would command a man to murder his son? What sort of incompetent would create us so flawed, give us free will, then blame us for following our basic nature, then wipe everyone out in a gigantic hissy fit? How does that make sense?
Then when that didn't turn out so well, God could think of no other solution than to have his own son slaughtered then hold us all responsible? How does that make sense?
According to the Bible, God is jealous, vain, angry, vengeful, judgemental & a cold blooded killer. These are all negative human qualities.
A deity who is pure, perfect, without error, none of these qualities could possibly apply. It can't be both.
Mother Church created the doctrine that we were created flawed, that we needed an intermediary between ourselves & the Divine, that they the church was the only means of 'salvation' so that the masses would be dependent on them.
The church ruthlessly slaughtered anyone who disagreed & destroyed any writings that contradicted their doctrine of the day.
Up until the modern era this worked to their benefit but is the very reason why the church is becoming increasingly irrelevant.
For Christianity to survive, the church needs a reformation where they come clean & admit to their crimes & manufactured falsehoods. It's as simple as that.
