personally, i feel that people need/yearn to believe in something. be it good or evil. i don't believe God is there to punish us. i believe the devil is a VERY strong entity. there is no way anyone can convince me that God would ever allow a child to be a victim of incest because that child's parents weren't following his teachings or were "bad" people. not the God i know. but to each their own. some people feel we have to be "good" to get into Heaven & so that God will protect us. i don't believe that. my God would never let someone suffer if he could prevent it.

True 4pack!
God doesn't want ANYONE to go to Hell. Thats why he provided Jesus to cover our sins. He says the pathway to Heaven is small. He provided the way, but it's up to each person whether or not they choose to accept God's
sacrifice as payment for our sins.
God doesn't send ANYONE to Hell. They themselves make the choice by their acceptance or denial of His way.
The bridge has been built by God, but it's our free will to cross it or not.
"Being good" isn't good enough according to the Bible. If it was, there would have been no need for Jesus to come to Earth, and to suffer and die on the cross.
Salvation can't be earned, it's a gift from God. But we make the decision of whether to accept His gift or not.

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+1 to this thread!

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You know......it's hard to put my faith out in the open like this. But i look at it this way, if even ONE person comes to Christ because i put myself out in the open, it will be MORE then worth it.
I don't judge anyone........thats not my purpose. I only want people to have the same calmness inside that i do.
I only talk because i care about everyone here.
I don't i might make some people mad, but thats not my intentions at all.

I've been ridiculed because of my beliefs, but thats part of the deal i guess.

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Cheesey, I'm glad that your belief is centered around faith in heaven and not fear of hell. I myself have no fear of death not because of a belief in afterlife but because I choose not to fear what is unknown. Instead I look to it as my final eternal slumber; a place where I can detach from the world, my body and all of life's restrictions to peacefully pursue my dreams. But until that time comes, I might as well enjoy what I have here.

Just got done with my 30 minute per week call with my father.

I decided to bring this discussion, well, this Noahs Ark thing up with him. I told him this crazy Alan (:P) guy implied I shouldn't confuse believing in God as religion and to understand they are separate.

I told him I believe there is a God, but I struggle with religion. He has similar beliefs. However, he believes in God far stronger than I do and claims I need to have 'faith' in what happened.

When I asked him, 'ok, what happened to the water dad? and where did it come from? did God import water in from Mars and export it?' He said 'no son, remember, he's God, he can do as he wants how he wants. theres not alwyas going to be a scientific or logical explanation for things, that's left for faith' or something to that effect.

He to was confused on my question about 'what happened to the sea creatures, they didn't drown'. He agreed and said he wasn't sure about that. (as if he was there in the first place to be sure about the rest, lol)

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Thats why there are fish in almost all lakes, and the seas. Noah didn't have to take fish, whales, sqid and whatever on the ark.

As far as "where did the water go", did you see all the oceans? Plus alot of it, after the initial flood, went back under ground. The pressure had been released, and it flowed back. Just like it does with smaller floods today.

Plus it caused the mountains to rise up. Just check with the scientists. They have found fossilized giant clams on top of mountains all over the world. How did they get up there? They sure didn't walk! They are there because at one time, those mountains were at one time under water. The world wide catastrophe caused an uproar on the entire earth.
The flood is what made the Grand Canyon. It was NOT the little Colorado river that runs through it now, as they try to say it did.

Look at what happened when Mount Saint Helens erupted. It made a small version of the Grand Canyon in a few days. Now consider if that kind of eruption happened all over the world! The amont of destruction, and the way it would change the way the earht looks. That is what happened.
And that is why there are layers, where you find fossalized creatures. Take a jar of water, with stones, sand, feathers, and so on, and shake it up. What happens? It settles in LAYERS.
Yet the evolutionists say these layers took "millions of years". Then why do they find petrified trees, standing upright through whats SUPPOSED to be "millions of years" of layers? Not just in one place either. All over the world they find them. How did they get that way?
Mount Saint Helens showed us that answer too. The lake there filled with trees that were knocked down and pushed into the water after the eruption. They are floating in the upright position, and many of them are buried in many feet of sediment..........in many LAYERS of sediment.
God here allows us to SEE how it could happen, and yet the "scientists" refuse to face what is actually SHOWN to them. They will try to "explain away" anything that has to do with a higher power possibly having a hand in it.

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And where ddi the water come from? There was a water canopy above the earth that was let loose. That, and like i said, the water under the earth's crust came up.
Combine the 2, and you have a worldwide flood.

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There's so many holes in the story and explanation of Noah's Ark from a scientific standpoint that it could sink a ship of Biblical proportions.

Cheesey, since you're in the mood to shed some enlightenment, can you explain kangaroos in relation to the Ark story? I.e. if they existed before/after the flood, how they got to be on Australia only, etc. I am curious how Christians regard science in this regard.

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Alan, where did you learn this stuff from? I've never read this before. I'm not saying its untrue, just wanting to find the source myself.

The more I think about it, the more I can understand the flood. I do struggle with why God would murder so many innocent people. There's no way EVERY single person deserved to die.

Maybe the water from the existing oceans rose over all the land and swept everyone away? Although, I heard the flood lasted 150 days. Maybe it was a bad hurricane? But then we have lakes and salt water oceans?

Alan, I know what you're saying about some things, I'd just like to know more.

I do know that Jesus was resurrected on Sunday, so he could eventually watch the Packers play.

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