Bad Korea, Bad

[pianistimo]

i know i get carried away - but i am excited about the fairness of God for everyone.  not everyone can experience freedom now.  but in the kingdom - there will not be rich/poor -free/slave - everyone on the entire earth will be free - literally from bondage to money - or dictators - or bad situations - the lame will walk, the blind will see, the handicapped and all who have sufferred tremendously in this life will be able to jump and run.  why would children not like that?  i think of my own children and they have a lot of joy with their friends to run and play and just not worry about problems.

also, fathers and mothers will be able to be taught how to be better parents.  elijah, the prophet (whoever comes to warn us of Christ's return) 'will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest i come and smite the land with a curse.'  it must be important to God that we show love to our children if he would be angry that parents are neglecting their children.

[pianistimo]

hell is earth right now.  there is no place that mentions anything but the beast and false prophet being tortured.  they will be filled and led by satan who is a spirit being and cannot die. 

in revelations 20:6 ' blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first ressurrection; over these the SECOND DEATH (dying completely the second and last time - after judgement of not accepting Christ) has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years...'

i was taught that after the thousand years (a chance for the ressurrected people that never heard of Christ to learn about him) that all would be in all.  That God would change this physical world to a 'new heavens and new earth.'  no death would enter the picture again.

as i see it - satan wants us to be fearful of his OWN judgement.  it is in revelations 20:10 'and the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone (hmmm - sounds like what he wants us to believe will happen to us), where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. 

perhaps when we realize the extent to which satan has tried to make the world a miserable place (torture, senseless killings, terrorism) then we will realize that God's judgement is entirely His to make regarding beings that he created to serve him.

[freakofnature]

the lions will lie down with the lambs.

lions will turn into vegetarians? interesting thought... or does that sentence mean interspecies intercourse??? I hope they marry before...

[pianistimo]

very funny.  yes, i always have this picture of lions with dentures for some reason.  for you it's sexy lambs.  i don't fully understand this picture yet.  anyway - it sounds better than being eaten anymore by wild animals.  i used to live in anchorage - and there are brown bear and all - that people are constantly worried about.  children would have nothing to fear from animals or people (pedophiles and the like). 

to me, i take things literally.  if God says it.  it is.  it will be. 

when sin entered the world, that's when i understand sin and death did.  yet, throughout time there is nothing in creation that harms christians.  every hair of our head is counted.  nothing can separate us from the love of God.  even if we are martyred or killed - the idea of death is really already non-existant.  our next moment will be with God.

[freakofnature]

Okay, pianistimo, believe what you want to, but stop preaching! I don't care for your god, I don't need him (or better, a (boring) story called 'The Bible') to know what's right and I prefer to enjoy life before it's over...

[pianistimo]

what is there to enjoy in life that will not fade away?  even love becomes more understood over time.  you choose to love - and not necessarily are 'in love' every moment.  the seasons for everything are there.  but, they are finite.  every spring, every summer, every fall, every winter.  the repetitions until you are 70 or 80.    then what?  what will you have for your journey? 

i say love is the purpose we are here.  if you know war is wrong - don't fight.  if you know someone's hungry - feed them.  if you can afford to adopt a child and take care of them in the best way possible - adopt them.  if you take care of the environment - teach others (esp. children).  i think there are so many things that we can do positive.  but, noone talks about positive things as much because 'news' isn't supposed to be positive.  what if, in the milleneum all we heard was 'good news.'  would this be bad?  or do you think people would actually like it?  i think they would.

[freakofnature]

to me, i take things literally.  if God says it.  it is.  it will be. 

the problem is that these aren't the words of god, these are the words of the men who wrote the bible. The bible was written some hundred years after the alleged appearence of 'Jesus Christ' - not a very valuable source for the words of someone called 'god'.

[freakofnature]

what is there to enjoy in life that will not fade away?  even love becomes more understood over time.  you choose to love - and not necessarily are 'in love' every moment.  the seasons for everything are there.  but, they are finite.  every spring, every summer, every fall, every winter.  the repetitions until you are 70 or 80.    then what?  what will you have for your journey? 

i say love is the purpose we are here.  if you know war is wrong - don't fight.  if you know someone's hungry - feed them.  if you can afford to adopt a child and take care of them in the best way possible - adopt them.  if you take care of the environment - teach others (esp. children).  i think there are so many things that we can do positive.  but, noone talks about positive things as much because 'news' isn't supposed to be positive.  what if, in the milleneum all we heard was 'good news.'  would this be bad?  or do you think people would actually like it?  i think they would.

You are absolutely right - there are a lot of bad things happening in this world. And yes, everyone should do as good as he can, help people, love one another. And exactly this should be our mission: To make the world a better place. But I think this should happen because we care for each other, not (at least partly) we fear what could happen to us after we die. I don't think of the bible as of the 'word of god'. For me, the bible was a book written in old times to give people hints on 'how to behave' and the tale of a unmeasurable long time suffering in hell if they don't act after the 10 commandments was just a means to strengthen the effect.

I've got one exact question: Why do you think that the bible is the word of god? Why can't it be what I said: A story to help enhance the friendly interaction between people written by people???

[prometheus]

Yes, most stories in the bible make quite poor literature. Very much so compared to some other stories from the near-east.

[musik_man]

Guatanamo was just an example - I know, that there are many more jails where people are hold without questioning because they were at the wrong time in the wrong place... Why would the US stick innocent people in there? Simply because they don't care...

And I completely don't understand how killing people can be in any kind connected to the word 'civilized'... It's true that there are and were kinds of war that were even more cruel than the war on Iraq and Afgh., but thatt doesn't make a war civilized!

Ok lets look at what the worst case scenario for the US would be

1) several thousand people are detained in violation of the Geneva convention
2) A decent sized minority of them are innocent and are imprisoned only due to incompetence and negligence on the US's part
3) The US uses techniques to extract information on these prisoners that some consider mild forms of torture
4) The US engaged in these wars by decieving the public and is only prosecuting them to enrich select corporations
5) The US chooses not to look deeply into incidents where soldiers kill civilians without justification

Now I disagree with every one of these statements, but even if they were all true, it would still be juvenile to compare the US to Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union.

[freakofnature]

Ok lets look at what the worst case scenario for the US would be

1) several thousand people are detained in violation of the Geneva convention
2) A decent sized minority of them are innocent and are imprisoned only due to incompetence and negligence on the US's part
3) The US uses techniques to extract information on these prisoners that some consider mild forms of torture
4) The US engaged in these wars by decieving the public and is only prosecuting them to enrich select corporations
5) The US chooses not to look deeply into incidents where soldiers kill civilians without justification

Now I disagree with every one of these statements, but even if they were all true, it would still be juvenile to compare the US to Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union.

Could you point me to the text where I say that the deeds of the US are comparable to these of Nazi Germany??? I can't remember that I've ever written something like that...

And even if I did and would be wrong saying so - this wouldn't mean that the US government is not to be criticized. It is not without cause that many people of this planet see the US as the biggest threat to peace nowadays...

[musik_man]

Could you point me to the text where I say that the deeds of the US are comparable to these of Nazi Germany??? I can't remember that I've ever written something like that...

And even if I did and would be wrong saying so - this wouldn't mean that the US government is not to be criticized. It is not without cause that many people of this planet see the US as the biggest threat to peace nowadays...

Quick question: Does one have to spent years in Guantanamo without charge, without knowing why one is even there, being tortured by soldiers who think they can play god, to know that modern USA is evil? Does one have to be there when US bombers destroy civilian residential districts killing dozens of innocent people during a war that the president justified by lying to the people of his own country and to the U. N.?

You used the same construction that I used when talking about Nazi Germany and the USSR to call the US evil.  I apologize if I interpreted you wrongly, but I hope you can see that it was a reasonable way to take this post.

[freakofnature]

You're right - I should have said it in another way to avoid misunderstandings...