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aball1035
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How do we know that God is all good, powerful,wise, merciful, etc?
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Timbothefiveth
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Because of the bible, which details stuff He personally told the Hebrews, and the life of His Son.
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davidv
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He revealed Himself to mankind throughout history.
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teachccd
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Through His Word who became incarnate and is the perfect revelation of the Father. That’s one way and then we can just look around us and take in His creation.
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aball1035
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Can someone give me a few Biblical quotes?
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davidv
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diggerdomer
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Because of God’s revelation.
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geometer
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Each person must get to know God through his own experience.
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Hobble
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Well, we don’t know, some think they know, I choose to live with the unknown. The God of the bible is inconsistent. in some cases of the old testament God orders or commits evil, yet at other times God is all loving, there’s too many holes and contradictions.
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Chiral
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I just cobbled together a couple quotes after “googling” various “God is…” phrases from your post, just to give a slight Scriptural basis for our understanding of God. These attributes are also obtained through reason but Revelation is our definitive “proof” and also the most likely to be rejected by non-believers. Oh well.
1 John 4: 7Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son* into the world that we might live through him. 10This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for[c] our sins. 11Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another…**
Psalm 107: 1Oh give thanks to the LORD, for He is good, For His lovingkindness is everlasting…
This chapter and much of Psalms goes on to glorify God in His attributes - it is a Scriptural witness to us of God’s goodness and power. It’s a good read. Enjoy.*
1 John 4: 7Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son* into the world that we might live through him. 10This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for[c] our sins. 11Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another…**
Psalm 107: 1Oh give thanks to the LORD, for He is good, For His lovingkindness is everlasting…
This chapter and much of Psalms goes on to glorify God in His attributes - it is a Scriptural witness to us of God’s goodness and power. It’s a good read. Enjoy.*
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tonyrey
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The Bible is a collection of writings which have to be interpreted in the light of their historical background. There is a vast difference between Genesis and the Gospels…
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Bill_Cherry
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Personally? I liked the concept. I begged for proof. I got it. I do not know how to explain it. I guess that is why they call it ‘faith’.
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geometer
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Well, if you received personal proof from God, you should tell us a little bit about that…
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fireproofpoodle
Guest
God has made his revelation, and is making his revelation, through four means:
- Philosophical and theological proof
- Our own personal experiances of him and those which we witness: his own work within our lives.
- His work within the church and saints like Padre Pio.
- Most importantly, his revelation of his own nature throuh the coming of his son, Jesus Christ.
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Bill_Cherry
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hmm…
I am afraid that would fall under the category of personal revelation. And many folks could easily brush off [my] evidence as either coincidence, hallucination or vain imaginings. However, there are too many ‘coincidences’, visions (during prayer and dreams) and just in the things people say and do that correspond directly to my questions/petitions during prayer and just ‘luck’ (for lack of a better word)… I just could no longer ignore it. Also, embarrassingly enough, there is the absolutely overwhelming experience of the Real Presence which I can not deny without being overcome with grief for my transgressions. I really wish I could offer some concrete tangible empirical evidence. It took me a long time to accept it. I felt maybe I was going insane. I discerned for a contemplative life for a very long time. But, the Lod introduced me to a very wonderful Catholic woman who allows me a ‘cell’/prayer closet. She reckons that other wives have husbands who carouse and hang out with their buddies. She is glad that I am a Jesus/Mary Freak. And quite frankly,… so am I.
That is a little off topic I suppose…Anyway, that is why I said ‘Faith’- the evidence of things unseen…unexplainable.
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Socrates4Jesus
Guest
I suppose that God is the only answer to the question of perfection. If there is no God, then what is the object of our ideas of what is imperfect? I mean, if we know that something is imperfect, then what is the flawless one to which we compare that flawed person, place, or thing?
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aball1035
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Couldn’t somebody counter that by saying that we just make up a perfect being and call it God?I suppose that God is the only answer to the question of perfection. If there is no God, then what is the object of our ideas of what is imperfect? I mean, if we know that something is imperfect, then what is the flawless one to which we compare that flawed person, place, or thing?
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Bill_Cherry
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nah…Then your no better off than the folks who buy a lovely little statue of an earth goddess and walk around professing to have majickal powers. I think that really experiencing it for real is much more convincing than just making it up. If you are struggling with this and really want to be convinced of the reality of God,… then ask him to prove it to you. Just straight up tell him. He’s a lot more understanding than some folks would have you believe…
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PJM
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The question, What can we know about God is amongst the most important and most profound questions that we are capable of asking.
If one denies God, ignores God or rejects God, one does so at great personal peril because through the Incarnation, personal knowledge of God is made evident in way’s not known to earlier generations, who too were obligated to know God, but seldom were privileged with a personal relationship with Him.
While God spoke to Chosen leaders of Israel, Adam, Noah, Abram, Moses, The Prophets, none of them saw God “face to face.” Indeed the relationship was founded as much on fear and respect. They witnessed powerful manifestations of God’s wonder and Awe, God’s unlimited power and might. They came to understand Yahweh God as all Powerful and Just. But most were unable to detect, to comprehend the very Essence of God, which we can know today as Love. They seemed more aware, due to unfaithfulness and God’s “teaching moments,” where God made evident that “Vengeance is mine” say’s the Lord, [Psalm 94:1, Duet. 12:19, Rom: 32:35] of God’s justice than God’s Love.
One can ask today if they were really any slower in understanding the wrath of God then we are? “Fear of the Lord” was as important then as it is now. They seemed to understand it, and I am perplexed that so few seem to understand the need and consequences of our actions today? With the evidence of Adam. [Gen. 3], Noah, [Gen.9] the Exodus Plagues [Exo. 5-7] and Sodom and Gomorrah Wisdom of Sol.1]. The lesson was hard learned.
The key to understanding God it seems to me is an understanding of we ourselves, who are Created in His image. [Gen. 1:26-30.] In what way, and why seem to be the two revenant questions?
We are similar to God, although we are imperfect, while God is Perfect, in that like God humanity possesses a mind, an intellect, a freewill and a soul. These “God-like” attributes are what make us unique, indeed, no two human beings throughout history were, or are identical in every way. Not only are we unique but we are superior by virtue of the “God-like” abilities. These attributes mean that humanity is Created of both Matter, which are physical things, and spiritual things, which are not physical things.
Perhaps the most astounding fact is that man uses these very “spiritual, non-physical” Things to deny, ignore or reject the very source of their origin.
God’s being and presence seems logically proveable?
What is, is
What is not, is not
Something can only be what it is
Something cannot be what it is not
Something can only give what it has
Something cannot give what it does not possess
One can proclaim that man’s physical self evolved somehow, which has yet to be proven, but spiritual THINGS cannot come from a physical source, but only from a spiritual source. God is Spirit! One may choose a different nomenclature than “God” but it defies logic to not attribute these gifts to some sort of higher, greater being. We choose to call God.
So why do we have these spiritual THINGS and what does it tell us about God and ourselves? The ability to LOVE is thee most important possible consequence of proper application of “the gifts.” Followed by the ability to reason, to understand, to calculate, to consider options and freely choose one, and finally the ability to see and appreciate Nature.
If as I suggest the ability to LOVE is the greatest and most important of “the gifts” it seems reasonable that very likely it is somehow related to its source of origin. While biblical evidence of this is clearly evident in the first of the Ten Commandments, as well as [Isaiah 43:7 and 21, and Eph. 1:12] , I am of the opinion that one can reach the same conclusion by introspection of that which we are able to love, and asking ourselves, why we are able to love?
If we use this short explanation of who and what “God are”; “God is everything and only everything good, perfectly,” it is immediately knowable that God is and HAS TO BE “God is all good, powerful, wise, merciful, etc?” God can only be what and whom God’s Divine Nature permits. So He can be Loving, Just, Fair, but not mean or hateful. He can be kind and merciful, but He cannot be unfairly judgmental.
Because God is “all good” He must allow, permit, and make available to every human creature the grace necessary to know Him, and in the present time, “After Death,” to have a personal relationship with God, whom man has seen “face to face” by virtue of the Incarnation, and by the fact that Christ chooses to remain physically in our midst today in catholic Holy Communion.
Humanity, by virtue of “the gifts” has the potential, the ability to know of God through the majesty of Nature, with its unheralded complexity, Wonder and Awe. All of which are mirror reflections of our God.
It is precisely because of Nature, “the gifts” and the ability to appreciate them and assign their origin to a Higher being, that every human person can know of God, and develop this knowledge into a personal relationship with God.
So why don’t they?
Love and prayers
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Hobble
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Hence why it’s inconsistent. In genisis God is ordering genocides, plagues, the slaughter of women and children, and so many other crimes. And than suddenly he’s all loving? It doesn’t make much sense, if it’s the same God than he’s a very in consistent God, which is dangerous if he’s the real God. And other things, like it says incest is bad, yet how did Adam and Eve’s family grow? It says murder is bad, yet God orders Moses to slaughter a whole society of people and take their land. I could go on and on, there’s just too many holes.
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