doubting_tommy Posted February 17, 2011 Group: Nonbeliever Followers: 1 Topic Count: 1 Topics Per Day: 0.00 Content Count: 264 Content Per Day: 0.05 Reputation: 11 Days Won: 0 Joined: 11/19/2010 Status: Offline Share Posted February 17, 2011 It is recorded in Scripture there were places Jesus could not perform miracles due to the lack of faith of the town. This assumes that all amputees live in unfaithful towns or themselves are unfaithful. I doubt that. Our whole society lives in doubt. And "lack of faith" is not "unfaithful" - the word "faithful" means trustworthy. The word "faith" means to put strong trust in. One is character, the other is action. Skepticism breaks the connection fro the physical dimension to the spiritual dimension. Isn't it strange though that God never seems to heal amputees? He is credited with healing all manner of other diseases, after all. God does not want to affect our free will to choose Him. If He did a miracle like that, or, for instance, transfer mount Everest to New Jersey, or something else really supernatural, then He would make Himself so clearly present to the world, that we would not have any free choice to refuse him, anymore. He loves us so much, that He does not want to deprive us from the gift of free will: free will to choose Him and be saved, or reject Him and be lost. This is the greates freedom a human can have. Therefore, miracles cannot be too "spectacularly divine", they must still retain a degree of doubt whether they were, indeed, miracles. Only then, we can still retain our free will to choose the Lord, or to reject Him. But how can you have free will to choose something, if you don't believe in one of the options? If my choice is between wearing a red shirt and a blue when I get up in the morning, but I don't think I actually own any blue shirts, then it's not really a choice to wear red, is it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest man Posted February 17, 2011 Share Posted February 17, 2011 But how can you have free will to choose something, if you don't believe in one of the options? If my choice is between wearing a red shirt and a blue when I get up in the morning, but I don't think I actually own any blue shirts, then it's not really a choice to wear red, is it? If the only color shirts you own are red, then you would be right. But if you have a variety of colors to choose from, you're free to choose whichever one you want to wear. If you insist on wearing blue, you will have to add a blue shirt to your collection before you can choose to wear it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rainy Posted February 18, 2011 Group: Advanced Member Followers: 1 Topic Count: 8 Topics Per Day: 0.00 Content Count: 216 Content Per Day: 0.04 Reputation: 8 Days Won: 1 Joined: 08/27/2010 Status: Offline Share Posted February 18, 2011 I never believed in Santa Claus. My parents felt that if they lied to me and my siblings about that then we would think they were lying about Jesus! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doubting_tommy Posted February 19, 2011 Group: Nonbeliever Followers: 1 Topic Count: 1 Topics Per Day: 0.00 Content Count: 264 Content Per Day: 0.05 Reputation: 11 Days Won: 0 Joined: 11/19/2010 Status: Offline Share Posted February 19, 2011 But how can you have free will to choose something, if you don't believe in one of the options? If my choice is between wearing a red shirt and a blue when I get up in the morning, but I don't think I actually own any blue shirts, then it's not really a choice to wear red, is it? If the only color shirts you own are red, then you would be right. But if you have a variety of colors to choose from, you're free to choose whichever one you want to wear. If you insist on wearing blue, you will have to add a blue shirt to your collection before you can choose to wear it. But the point was that you cannot choose between two options if you don't believe a choice exists. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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