Saved by the Grace of God???

[Confused]

So, this has always perplexed me and I am hoping someone might actually be able to give me a clear and concise explanation. Often, we hear of events that lead to the death of one or more people, yet the survivors are quoted as saying things such as "It was only by the grace of God that I stand here today". Now, to me, this implies the person is somehow more important than those who died. Yet if we are all created equal, then no life is greater than another. Often serial killers murder 3+ people, but the last one gets away which leads to the arrest and conviction of the killer. The survivor, once again, attests to the grace of God being the reason they are alive to tell the story. How does this coincide with this God of the bible?

So for debate:
1) What is the grace of God? Is there some rational reason why some get it and some don't? What does it mean to be saved by the Grace of God?
2) Does the God in the bible really offer grace? Or does He merely offer suffering in this life for eternal rewards in the next?

(Please, if you can't creatively answer this, don't use the generic "God works in mysterious ways".)

[joer]

I've been fine thank you. Hope you have too.

Thank You Fallible

I am not so sure that it can be proven that we are inherently good. The way I see it, we are inherently neutral.

I think it can be shown statistically that overall as a race we have a natural tendency to goodness. (doing what's right)

But then I believe that morality has more to do with social mores and an understanding of what feels 'good' and what feels 'bad' to the individual when it happens to them than with God-given rules.

This makes a lot of sense. I believe it’s the “natural tendency to good” inherently within us that leads us to that development of “social mores and understandings” of ‘good’ and ‘bad’. And from the natural tendency within us we were are to develop those mores and understanding of Good from our understanding of thousands of years ago of what we perceived to be “God’s Rules”. Like the perhaps 10,000 year old “ten commandments”.

So were talking about two things as I see it, Something that’s instinctively within our makeup from “God’s planned design of our development” as well as “God’s Rules”. That develop from our tendency to evolve into culture and civilization with “mores and understandings of good and bad” from an “animalistic state” that had within it primitive and undeveloped genetic patterns of “Good behavior”.

But that will probably not surprise you. The terms 'good' and 'evil' are IMHO not fixed. I have a little bit of a problem with them

.
I agree.

As far as empathy goes, it takes work to become truly empathic. I thought I was pretty good at this, but it turned out I could get much better. Many people like to think they have empathy for others when what they really have is sympathy. From my experience, empathy is not inherent. It's something you have to work on. It's not about saying 'wow, I wonder how I would feel if that happened to me'. It's about saying 'wow, I wonder how that feels for them'. In my world morality, if it comes about the way I think it does, does not necessarily cover empathy. Empathy is the next step. Moving beyond how things feel for me to attempting to understand how things feel for others.

This is an excellent experiential observation Fallible.

You wrote:

But I think I see what you're saying. The ability to choose to become truly empathic would from your perspective be God-given. And I believe that one does choose to become truly empathic, because it is arguably not a 'natural' state.

Empathy and “Choosing Good” generally develops out of that natural inherent tendency we have. But it’s precisely because we have a choice and precisely because we are an evolving species that it is not always 100% that way. So that ability that you describe to become truly empathetic is evolved and learned over a lifetime. Some would say that the fact that atheists can be very good and empathic and moral persons without believing in God indicates that belief in God isn’t necessary. They are right. It’s because God’s influence is already present in our being. BUT if you ascribe to “an expanded spiritual reality of eternal life” belief in God by faith. It is very advantageous in consciously advancing in that reality of Goodness. When you KNOW (by Faith) that is the way you are supposed to be and that you were meant to be it makes it a lot easier to choose to be (Good) just as you were meant too.

"The determiner of the differential of spiritual presence exists in your own hearts and minds and consists in the manner of your own choosing, in the decisions of your minds, and in the determination of your own wills. This differential is inherent in the freewill reactions of intelligent personal beings, beings whom the Universal Father has ordained shall exercise this liberty of choosing. And the Deities are ever true to the ebb and flow of their spirits in meeting and satisfying the conditions and demands of this differential of creature choice, now bestowing more of their presence in response to a sincere desire for the same and again withdrawing themselves from the scene as their creatures decide adversely in the exercise of their divinely bestowed freedom of choice. And thus does the spirit of divinity become humbly obedient to the choosing of the creatures of the realms."

"The mind presence of Deity must be determined by the depth of individual intellectual experience and by the evolutionary personality level. The spiritual presence of Divinity must of necessity be differential in the universe. It is determined by the spiritual capacity of receptivity and by the degree of the consecration of the creature's will to the doing of the divine will."