How do I determine what God requires of me?

[McCulloch]

I have posted what I think is the single most important issue to debate.

To me, the second most important issue is this. If there is a God, how do I determine what God requires of me? If your answer involves something that is from human agency, a book or an organization, then the question remains, "How do I know that the book's authors or the organization's leaders authoritatively speak for God?"

How do I determine what God requires of me?

[olavisjo]

McC asked for a reason why it is not a pipe dream.., you don't seem to have one.

The Kingdom of Heaven has been promised 'soon' for the last 3000 years...why is your time so special hat it will come for you.

Join me, together we will make it happen, let us start here and let us start now. We will bring all the people in the world together, and the Kingdom of Heaven will be established.

I'm a bit disappointed that there is nothing here about why it is not a pipe dream.

What would it take to convince you?

[Fallibleone]

Forgive me but I am not asking that you convince me. Another member had asked for a reason why it is not a pipe dream. All I personally would like to see at this time is an answer to his question.

[Goat]

Join me, together we will make it happen, let us start here and let us start now. We will bring all the people in the world together, and the Kingdom of Heaven will be established.

*rasping voice * "Luke , Join with me, and we can overthrow the emporer and bring Order to the galaxy"

[McCulloch]

Give me some reason to believe that this is anything more than a pipe dream.

It is not a pipe dream, the Kingdom of Heaven is going to be established on Earth very soon, even if I have to usher it in all by myself, which I don't have to do. I have many, many brothers and sisters all working night and day to make this a reality. And it will happen.

What do you mean by very soon? I know that it is a somewhat vague term, but you should be able to narrow it down to an order of magnitude:

• Before the end of this week.
• This month
• this year
• within ten years
• within your lifetime
• within a 3-4 generations
• 2000 years
• 12 million years

I used to attend Stone Church, near Bloor and Young at 45 Davenport Road, it would be a good place for you to go, if you really want to find a reason to believe. If you are waiting for someone to say something that would give you reason to believe, it will not happen like that. God must place the reason directly into your mind and heart, you just need to create a place for him to insert it into.

I have such a place and God if he exists knows where it is.

[ST_JB]

I have posted what I think is the single most important issue to debate.

To me, the second most important issue is this. If there is a God, how do I determine what God requires of me? If your answer involves something that is from human agency, a book or an organization, then the question remains, "How do I know that the book's authors or the organization's leaders authoritatively speak for God?"

How do I determine what God requires of me?

If there is a God and you believe that He exist… the need to acknowledge His ways is inevitable to knowing what He requires of you. That is to say to acknowledge His representatives speaking with authority from Him otherwise believing in a God that has no authority nor has no representative (messengers, prophets, apostles, disciples, et al.) is like believing in an inanimate God who doesn’t have authority nor association to His subjects. And your believing would be in vain.

[McCulloch]

If there is a God and you believe that He exist… the need to acknowledge His ways is inevitable to knowing what He requires of you. That is to say to acknowledge His representatives speaking with authority from Him otherwise believing in a God that has no authority nor has no representative (messengers, prophets, apostles, disciples, et al.) is like believing in an inanimate God who doesn’t have authority nor association to His subjects. And your believing would be in vain.

Yes, if I were to become convinced of God's existence, it would seem to be an important thing to know what that God wanted from me, if anything. How does a believer discriminate among the thousands who are presented as god's messengers? I think you have restated the question very well.

[olavisjo]

What do you mean by very soon? I know that it is a somewhat vague term, but you should be able to narrow it down to an order of magnitude:

• Before the end of this week.
• This month
• this year
• within ten years
• within your lifetime
• within a 3-4 generations
• 2000 years
• 12 million years

I wake up every day expecting this to be the day, so that I am always ready, not to be caught off guard. But when it will happen is hard to pin down, but looking at the signs of the times, I would choose

• within our lifetime

32 Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:

33 So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.

34 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.

Forgive me but I am not asking that you convince me. Another member had asked for a reason why it is not a pipe dream. All I personally would like to see at this time is an answer to his question.

When I can see a group of people that come from all races and all religions and all sorts of backgrounds, people who used to be filled with hate, come together and love one another then I know that it is not a pipe dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeche ... adream.htm

[Zzyzx]

.

If there is a God and you believe that He exist… the need to acknowledge His ways is inevitable to knowing what He requires of you.

Agreed. IF there is a god and a person wishes to worship, it seems axiomatic that knowing the requirements would be important.

That is to say to acknowledge His representatives speaking with authority from Him

There are thousands or millions who claim to be “representatives” of god or gods.

Are they all “true” or “official” representatives or are some of them misguided, mistaken, deluded, or deceitful?

Unless all are true, some means of distinguishing which, if any, ARE true is essential.

What is the means of distinguishing a true “representative of god(s)” from a false representative, with CERTAINTY?

Have official representatives been appointed by god(s)? Aren’t representatives typically self-appointed or appointed by each other?

otherwise believing in a God that has no authority nor has no representative (messengers, prophets, apostles, disciples, et al.) is like believing in an inanimate God who doesn’t have authority nor association to His subjects. And your believing would be in vain.

How can mere mortals KNOW that god is not inanimate?

There are hundreds or thousands of different “sacred” or “holy” manuscripts – all touted as being “true”. There are hundreds of different English language versions of the Christian bible. How can anyone know which of the competing manuscripts and versions is “true”?

[Goat]

What do you mean by very soon? I know that it is a somewhat vague term, but you should be able to narrow it down to an order of magnitude:

• Before the end of this week.
• This month
• this year
• within ten years
• within your lifetime
• within a 3-4 generations
• 2000 years
• 12 million years

I wake up every day expecting this to be the day, so that I am always ready, not to be caught off guard. But when it will happen is hard to pin down, but looking at the signs of the times, I would choose

• within our lifetime

People have been expecting it in their lifetimes for 1900 years. Look at matthew 23:36, and it said that it would happen in THEIR lifetime (it didn't, so I guess that Matthew is false scripture)

[olavisjo]

People have been expecting it in their lifetimes for 1900 years. Look at matthew 23:36, and it said that it would happen in THEIR lifetime (it didn't, so I guess that Matthew is false scripture)

I think that you picked the wrong scripture, this does not talk about the end times.

1 Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples,

2 Saying The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat:

3 All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.

4 For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.

5 But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments,

6 And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues,

7 And greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi.

8 But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren.

9 And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.

10 Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ.

11 But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant.

12 And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.

13 But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.

14 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.

15 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.

16 Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor!

17 Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold?

18 And, Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever sweareth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty.

19 Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift?

20 Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar, sweareth by it, and by all things thereon.

21 And whoso shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth therein.

22 And he that shall swear by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereon.

23 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.

24 Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.

25 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.

26 Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.

27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.

28 Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

29 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous,

30 And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.

31 Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets.

32 Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.

33 Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?

34 Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city:

35 That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.

36 Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.

But there are places where Jesus talks about the generation and it is not clear about which generation he was talking about. To get a clear answer we would have to go into the original languages of the bible to see what it means. Since I don't know those languages I have to defer to someone who does.
In the mean time lets not be caught unawares.

3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,

4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.