Well said on your part too Merv. But I just can't let myself "off the hook" so to speak and use my genenic coding as justification for my wrongdoing because I'm a "slave" of my Genes. I know in my heart that I make choices, good and evil, and I beleive there's no one to blame but me when I do wrong. And when I say me, I mean my Spirit. I beleive my Brain is no more than an amazing mechanism that performs an interface function between my Spirit and my Body.

It took me along time to understand this very important point but it is confirmed to me again and again as I observe my own actions and the choices I make. I find I do not always make the best decisions, and sometimes willfully make a decisions that goes against the moral code that my belief system teaches me.

After this point I confess my sin to God and ask his mercy on me, a sinner. He then assures me of His forgiveness because of the work his Son did on the Cross on my behalf, taking the punisment for my sin...taking the judgement and sentence of death in my place.

Now you may say, oh, he does let himself "off the hook"...one could look at it that way but there is some shame and guilt that goes along with it and a sense that one is loved by a compasionate and merciful God. This mercy and grace does a work in my heart that draws me into rejecting my bad decisions in the future and forcing myself to go with the better decisions that in the end benefit me and the others around my in ways I can't begin to measure.

I hope this is making some sense because I feel very inadequate to explain it...I just know it in my heart and it makes me glad to have this God who sent his Son to die on the Cross to take the punishment I deserved so that I could be with him for eternity.

Is that the same logic that makes people go to church after they beat up their wifes and kids... just to be forgiven by "God"?

Or the same logic that made the Spanish Enquisition erradicate entire nations in the name of god?

Or by which a murderer expects mercy on his soul, and all is going to be well, because he prayed and asked for forgiveness?

Just curious... as I never managed to understand that hypocrisy... nothing personal, Dan (I am quite certain that you are anything BUT a bad person)... but you brought it up... and it's just something that rubs me!

Especially since we have an imbasil running this country who really thinks he is doing all the crap he is doing in the name of God!

He'll have some explaining to do at the pearly gates, me thinks.

http://www.forumsextreme.com/imgs1/aFi_PunchSaddam.gif

Not sure about the spanish deal I am not up on my history.... But for whatever reason... According to what I have read in the Bible... God has instructed people to eradicate others..... If he owns the place that would be His right. ( Note... I am not defending Bush's actions. Lots of Crazy people have killed in the name of God... Doesn't mean God told them to do it. just stating that if there is a God.. and He made the place, it is His to do with as he chooses)


I am with Dan on this one... Once upon a time I paid for an Abortion.... I have been forgiven... and would never do it again... The essence of true forgiveness is that I regretted my choice... and confessed it.. and have been freed from that way of life.

beating a wife... and making a fake confession is not true Christianity.... regardless of what some do or claim. Chrisianity is being like Christ.



When non riding people find out you are a motorcyclist.... And they think of squids... Do you find that to be an accurate representation of a motorcyclist???

It was the "Inquisition" and it had nothing to do with erradicating nations. Mostly just picking on Jews, Muslims, Protestants, Free Masons, heretics, sodomizers, blasphemers, bigomists, ho's, mo's and the like. Meant to maintain Spainish Catholic orthodoxy. No nations dissappeared.


Um, it's "imbecile" and if you're talking Pelosi here then we're good to go. I have not read or heard Bush admit to doing all the crap he does in the name of God.

... I am talking about Bush! Whereas Pelosi is not all to far behind, yes... ;)

As for the typos, thanks for correcting me... English is not my first language... not even the second one I learned... so, "for god's sake, forgive me" :D

Can't speak for God but you're A-OK in my book Ralf!

Keep it up and you'll let politics and religion ruin a perfectly good forum. Stick to a subject you can get your hands around--motorcycle grips.

'Keep it up and you'll let politics and religion ruin a perfectly good forum. Stick to a subject you can get your hands around--motorcycle grips'

+1
+1
+1

besides, these questions will be answered in a few years anyway:)

You forgot guns as another subject that gets people going.

RB

Yeah, but the two I did mention really get into a death spiral.:D

"Death spiral"... that would bring us back on track to getting killed in a plane crash... Right ? :D

You broke my hidden agenad Bill. We can now move on to why doctors and lawyers shouldn't fly airplanes. People used to ask me if I flew my Commanche in the weather. I would reply "no on purpose--they have to pay me to do that at northwest." :D

Thanks for your reply Ralf...it's very clear that you understand justice and it's something near and dear to your heart.

Yes unfortunately hipocrisy is an accurate term for many who say they are "Christians". It was much the same in Jesus day as he confronted the self appointed religious leaders of the day. The Scribes and Pharisees made a career of misrepresenting the Kingdom of God as Swartzy eluded to. If you note what Jesus had to say to them and of them it was always his most scathing criticism:

Matt 23:23-39 (NIV)
23 "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices-- mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law-- justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.
24 You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.
25 "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.
26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.
27 "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean.
28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.
29 "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous.
30 And you say, 'If we had lived in the days of our forefathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.'
31 So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets.
32 Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your forefathers!
33 "You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?
34 Therefore I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town.
35 And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.
36 I tell you the truth, all this will come upon this generation.
37 "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.
38 Look, your house is left to you desolate.
39 For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'"

I beleive that these persons will be delt with accordingly on the day of Judgement.

Here's another example of what Jesus had to say about them:

Luke 18:9-14 (NIV)
9 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable:
10 "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
11 The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men-- robbers, evildoers, adulterers-- or even like this tax collector.
12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.'
13 "But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'
14 "I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."