Are all religions worshiping the same God?

[bienkie]

Hi everybody

The way I see it, is that God is so merciful and He loves us so much, that He orchestrates life in such a way that sometime or another, each and every person on earth will be put before a choice, God or the world.

The people who already has a personal relationship with Jesus will know what I am talking about. For those wondering about God.... why not ask Him to show Himself to you ? You will be surprised and blessed!

I have also learned that sometimes God uses the most painful experiences in life to get your attention. I always say that during those difficult times God teaches you lessons that no money can buy. I lost someone very dear to me when I was only 21years old and God gave me this promise:

"I will give you the treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the Lord, the God of Israel who summons you by name" Jes 45:3

So if bad things happens to good people, God can even use that to His glory and to fulfill His purposes in someones life.

Blessings

[Nilo]

Hi ya all

I have been reading this post and went away and came back and decided to put in my 2c worth.

I believe that the only measure in the Bible to judge if someone is a "Believer" is Do you believe in Jesus Christ the son of God and that He died on the cross for you?

Tracy I don't think you will have any problem. As I understand Christianity Muslinism and Catholasizim are from the same root, so for that matter we do believe in the same God. Just doing it in a different way.

Well thats it from me.

Love

Nilo

[moegeploeg]

I believe that the only measure in the Bible to judge if someone is a "Believer" is Do you believe in Jesus Christ the son of God and that He died on the cross for you?

You nailed it there Nilo. I also believe that the Bible is Gods word, therefore everything in there is the absolute truth. Sometimes we humans just try to interpret things in different ways to suit us, for whatever reason. If the Bible say that God made the earth in 6 days, that is what I believe. Makes my life much simpler In the end, your personal relationship with God is what counts. Not what church you attended, what you did for the poor etc. etc. Christianity is different from all religions in that you do not have to perform tasks to redeem yourself. Jesus died on the cross for you and me, all of us, except Him. To get back to gods from other religions, NO it is not the same god.

[Nilo]

Hallo Moeggeploeg

The FACT that Jesus died on the cross for me is so important to believe, if one don't it will make what Jesus went thru on earth for us trivial and I will NEVER do that! What Jesus did for us was HUGE!!!!!!!

Lets say for arguments sake that there is no God, cause there are some people that prefer to believe that! Then believing in God and that Jesus died for our sins, and having hope faith and love has taken nothing away from the people that do believe. But if there is God those that did not believe will be loosing out big time.

Nilo

PS: Without God in contoll of our lives this immigration thing would have been much much much more difficult.

[Dax]

I feel rather diminutive in this thread with a stupid question going back to the title of the thread "are all religions worshipping the SAME God?"

I am going into a Catholic environment.

Does this mean the God I will be involved with is different to the one I got used to as a "non-Catholic" (if you know what I mean?)

This is quite a heavy burden on my mind.

Just to say I have saved both of these pages to read later as there's LOADS of good stuff to ponder.

Thanks to all!

I hear what you say. Your dillemma is real as well as very complex.

In the end everything boils down to dogma. In the Judeao-Christian tradition (that includes the Roman Catholic Church) al are serving the same God. What may differ from denomination to denomination is the perceptions of God as well as traditions and dogma that are appluacble to specific denominations.

So, I would suggest that in your future work environmentm tread carefully, have an open mind and learn as much as possible as soon as possible. There will be an expectation that you support the Catholic Ethos of the school. But you should be OK - the Roman Catholic schools throughout Oz does an excellent job and are very supportive of their students and staff alike.

I understand your anxiety however. I for one will never slam teh Roman Church as such, but one has to keep in mind that when Maarten Luther nailed his 95 thesises against the door of the catherdal in Wittenberg, he did so with a very firm conviction...

Maybe one have to use the comparison of people going to a Braai, some go there on a Kawasaki, Some go there on a Suzuki, others rockup in a Honda, a Ford or a Toyota, but in the end they all go to attend the same Braai. (The Judeao-Christian crowd, that is. Islam, Hinduism, Shinto, Buddhism etc. really don't fit into the Judeao-Christian mould, at least that is only my opinion.)

Cheers,

Dax

[Dax]

Sorry, but I like this subject and to stir a little (and I am no expert myself)

Haai Moegeploeg, yep you stirred a bit, but I like the way in which you do it. You seem lik eth eidealperson for a chat around a Braai.

Also, the same with me, not an expert, only very much interested in these things myself.

Yeah, I’m not very sure myself of earth’s position in the universe – the thing is I’m not sure if the universe has been quite mapped in such a way that one can pinpoint the centre of the universe. I, on the other hand have once read a dissertation describing the position of Earth as:

“An obscure planet in an insignificant solar system on the periphery of a rather mediocre galaxy.”

I hear what you say about the empty centres of explosions – but I think that the Big bang was something different than any explosion ever witnessed by human eyes. It makes sense that the ”centre” of the universe might be on helluva big (spherical?) area of empty space. But then, observations does point out that about 95% (I’m not sure of this figure) of the universe is just that: - empty space!

Also keep in mind that the Big Bang was nothing like a TNT explosion – it could be described as a violent, radiative event to the extent that matter and radiation was separated only about 300 000 years after the Big Bang.

One has to believe in one of two things – a steady state universe or an expanding universe. I choose to go with the latter as there are enough evidence for it, especially Stephen Hawking’s well documented confrontation with Fred Hoyle, a steady state cosmologist. (Hawking, as a young post grad student, sort of high-jacked and crashed a steady state lecture of Hoyle’s during which Hawking provided proof for an expanding universe. That event was quite a milestone in cosmology, if not Hawking’s career.)

Carbon dating… yeah there are some anomalies. But then, consider the Antarctic ice cap – 1000 metres thick. Glaciers like that don’t form in a span of 4000 years. One also just has to look closely at rock formations in a place like Meiring Poort. Those formations were formed deep underground under intense heat, and not during the last 4000 years. In geological terms 4000 years is a very, very short time.

You mention a theory that the moon is moving away from earth, but I’m not very sure of the physics involved (i.e. the moon and earth almost touching 250 000 years ago). Newtonian physics simply don’t allow for that – the mutual pull of attraction between two objects is proportional to the mass of each object and inversely proportional to the square of distance between them.

Earth and the moon would either have collided, or, more likely, earth’s gravitational push would have “booted” the moon away towards the outer reaches of the solar system.

The sun don’t burn like a campfire, it’s a process of hydro-nuclear fusion – Note, fusion, not fission. It is likely that our solar system was formed due to matter flung out from the centre of our galaxy. Therefore our sun in its initial stages would have been larger that at present until it accumulated enough hydrogen (the most common element in the universe) to contract into the steady class B yellow star that it is at present, and will remain so for the next couple of billion years. So, I don’t think the sun is burning smaller and smaller in time, rather, when its at the end of its life, it will start to expand into a red giant after which it will collapse into either a white dwarf or a black hole.

Yep, Black Holes are not to be discounted. They do exist, at least we know of the one observed in the Cygnus constellation (Cygnus X-1) There are a few believed to exist close the centre of our galaxy, but I don’t worry too much about them. They have not bothered earth since its creation and they are unlikely to bother us now.

On a lighter note with black holes; if a guy like me gets sucked into a black hole it should actually seem funny. As I am a tall guy, and I go into the black hole feet first at the speed of light (a very constant 300 000km/per second), to an outside observer I will be come taller and taller and taller. By the time ( a very small fraction of a second) my feet reaches the centre of the black hole, my head will be just disappearing into it, emitting a helluva lot of X-rays in the process.

And at the end of it, I believe in the God of the Judaeo-Christian tradition. I don’t know how and why he have done it, but I believe that HE “flipped the switch” to create EVERYTHING. I believe the Bible, but I also believe there are things outside the Bible that also underpins and demonstrates the greatness of God. (If one really wants to see the greatness and grandeur of HIS creation, just look though a telescope or a strong binocular towards the centre of our galaxy, preferably on a cloudless night far away from artificial light interference.)

Sometimes I stare at passages in the Bible, and then at equations in textbooks, and my mind BOGGLES. Then I take this recourse:

“I can never know the mind of God, but I am eternally grateful for His mercy.”

Dax

[Nilo]

Hallo Dax

I realy like the way your mind works!

We had a Pastor that became our close friend and he once said "If we could understand God He would not be God anymore" I always recall those words when things happen in my life that I just can't work out. And feel a bit "obstropilous" (family word for upset) about. Like when we lost our father at the age of 66 when my mom passed away 6 years before at 60 and at a time we all needed him as my 38 year old brother became a Crack addict!!!

And I migrated 10 months later!!

Ek mis my pappa hy was my hero my hele lewe lank, maar dis okay ek is mooi groot en will deal with it!!

Lovies

Nilo

[Dax]

Hallo Dax

I realy like the way your mind works!

We had a Pastor that became our close friend and he once said "If we could understand God He would not be God anymore" I always recall those words when things happen in my life that I just can't work out. And feel a bit "obstropilous" (family word for upset) about. Like when we lost our father at the age of 66 when my mom passed away 6 years before at 60 and at a time we all needed him as my 38 year old brother became a Crack addict!!!

And I migrated 10 months later!!

Ek mis my pappa hy was my hero my hele lewe lank, maar dis okay ek is mooi groot en will deal with it!!

Lovies

Nilo

Thanks Nilo,

Yes, I can attest to the same thing, at times we do find ourselves in a position where all our knowledge and learning really counts for nothing, and only One thing pulls us through - our Faith. Despite my belief in Science, there were really many instances in my life when I knew, that Something helped me, and Someone watched over me. Yep, you guessed it, it was God, and not one of those equations that i also love so much !

Also, like you mentioned in an earlier post if you want to migrate, you got to have Faith.

Cheers,

Dax

[Nilo]

Dax,

I truly believe in the "Faith Hope Love" thing! If we don't have faith where would we be. If we don't have Hope everything would be tooo much! If we don't have love, well then all hell would break loose wouldn't it?

I love science and also love phillosiphy and the discussions that goes with that.

[moegeploeg]

Haai Moegeploeg, yep you stirred a bit, but I like the way in which you do it. You seem lik eth eidealperson for a chat around a Braai.

Carbon dating… yeah there are some anomalies. But then, consider the Antarctic ice cap – 1000 metres thick. Glaciers like that don’t form in a span of 4000 years. One also just has to look closely at rock formations in a place like Meiring Poort. Those formations were formed deep underground under intense heat, and not during the last 4000 years. In geological terms 4000 years is a very, very short time.

Dax

Will take you up on the braai (sorry barbie) as soon as I set foot! Lots of things to discuss, will probably have to do a few barbies

I wish I could answer you on all these points now, but I have about 100 hours of video on the subject alone and a lot more like the links I posted. Want to leave you with something. It was a wonderful experience for me to discover all these things, one after the other. Eventually you see the fingerprints of God, in all His creation.

Just 1 more thing.... The lost squadron. A group of planes abandoned near the north pole in 1942. Covered in 250 feet of ice since then. 4000 years, 1000 meter of snow, easy. The Lost Squadron Link

[Dax]

Will take you up on the braai (sorry barbie) as soon as I set foot! Lots of things to discuss, will probably have to do a few barbies

I wish I could answer you on all these points now, but I have about 100 hours of video on the subject alone and a lot more like the links I posted. Want to leave you with something. It was a wonderful experience for me to discover all these things, one after the other. Eventually you see the fingerprints of God, in all His creation.

Just 1 more thing.... The lost squadron. A group of planes abandoned near the north pole in 1942. Covered in 250 feet of ice since then. 4000 years, 1000 meter of snow, easy. The Lost Squadron Link

Thanks for the link - very interesting

Cheers,

Dax