Edwards’ mind was so clouded with trying to scare these people witless, that he just contradicted himself. He took his reference, twisted and bent it to fit his own desires and didn’t think anything of it. You don’t change God to suit you; you change yourself, to suit God. He is the higher power, so He obviously has
This is seen in the Bible when miracles occur and also when god punishes the world. This suggests that this concept of god may be subject to change and that he is affected by the world. God is also changed by prayer as he is happier with his creation when they live peacefully, and they pray to and worship God. The Prime mover contrasts sharply. He is self-contemplatory therefore does not think about the world and is transcendent, hence he is not subject to cause and effect.
For example, on Damascus Road, Saint Paul’s religious experience transformed his moral outlook. It would appear that all religious experiences demonstrate a revelation of truth, but one could argue that this does not indicate they are true. As Freud would argue that religious experiences are a way of externalising deep, repressed personal truths. In such a view, religious experiences are unverifiable and cannot be thought to prove the existence of God, as they are merely manifestations of the human subconsciousness. A transient experience short, and cannot be sustained for a long duration of time.
One of God’s greatest desires is to have relationship with His creation, man. He wants nothing more than to be loved and believed. Our love and belief is demonstrated through worship and godly lifestyle. Many people have a form of worship, but with no substance or true understanding of what it is all about. Many minimizes worship simply as the singing of songs, or leaving it up to the worship team to “set the atmosphere”, without any participation from the congregation.
We don’t do things for a reward in heaven but we do them because the sign of Heaven is already inside of us. With faith and works we need to not do it for salvation but do it because God is working inside of us. The works that we do is the outworking of the faith that is inside of us. By not doing good works that we have been called to do we are potentially pushing down the work of God that is inside of us. Lewis’ view here is so true.
In the quote below Rand explains why she rejects religion outright, and she believes man himself deserves the attention: Just as religion has preempted the field of ethics, turning morality against man, so it has usurped the highest moral concepts of our language, placing them outside this earth and beyond man’s reach. “Exaltation” is usually taken to mean an emotional state evoked by contemplating the supernatural. “Worship” means the emotional experience of loyalty and dedication to something higher than man… But such concepts do name actual emotions, even though no supernatural dimension exists; and these emotions are experienced as uplifting or ennobling, without the self-abasement required by religious definitions.
Contrarily, Christ was already a perfect person, one who could not be improved upon, who had a history of healing and rehabilitating others. In the ‘Christ-story’, the “scapegoat” is the only way to eternal happiness, but only when recognized, loved, and honored. On the contrary, it was unthinkable of the people of “Omelas” to behave in the manner that their “scapecoat” behaved. Simply bases on this one area in which I disagree, I feel that the areas in which Jerre Collins was referring to, his correlations were weak and
But, God knows every thing, so even before we are tempted, God warns us. The people, hurts, situations, circumstances, we would avoid if we would just heed His way or His voice. In wanting to grow in God and fulfil Destiny It is so important to select people that will heighten your view for the positive, provoke you to strive for excellence, and help propel you to greatness. Proverb 11:14 says: Where there is no counsel the people fall; but in the
"'The assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1) Faith is a powerful thing. Without a persons life is empty and depressing. In the bible is clearly states that a Christian must have faith in the lord and his works. Without faith a person is doomed. I feel that the lord only reveals as little as he can of himself and the rest is up to us, we must have faith to make it into the kingdom of
This train of thought cleverly warrants the evocation of faith, or belief without physical proof or empirical knowledge. Appropriately so, Anselm opens the chapter of Proslogion discussing Divine existence with a meditative prayer in which, he modestly supplicates such highly pertinent concepts including wisdom and faith in order to better understand the existence and character of God. With such faith and understanding, Anselm boldly asserts his beliefs about God’s nature, existence, and attributes before even finishing his central argument in an attempt to comprehend what he genuinely believes to be true about his higher power. While my own personal convictions are comparatively nowhere near as bold as that of Saint Anselm, his approach epitomizes what I believe to be an authentic and selfless demonstration of faith. Ideally, I believe that unconditional faith of this