Posted by Only temporary [Bibleman] on November 18, 1999 at 10:52:53 {KEdmzBXaT6MRXA6xmpscslyACFuF8c}:
In Reply to: Unity posted by Beaver on November 18, 1999 at 06:24:28:
These issues were raised and the disunity in the spiritual realm was allowed for a while, but this is only temporary.
After Satan is destroyed in the lake of fire along with all other non-conformists, there will be complete oness of mind and complete unity. But still FREE MORAL AGENCY.
Now you might like this concept, Beave.
Think of it this way. You want people to like you and to choose you for their own reasons. That's what free moral agency is about. Anybody can make a robot and have them do as they are programmed, just like all animals are. They are just robots basically, following their programming, with limited choices. Not like man who can make moral decisions.
The problem is though, if you allow free moral agency, what about those who don't want to accept your views? They are going to rebel.
So...
Given the choice of having a lot of robots doing what you want because of their programming, or having people join you because of their own free will, you choose the latter which is better. Because then these people will be truly happy.
But... the only way you can really do that is by accepting that some will choose not to serve you. So you accept that.
The LOGISTICS in creating a world of willing and happy comformists, however, is a simple matter of the law of averages. That is, if you want 1 million willing people to serve you willingly and happily, and your program only appeals to say 1 out of 3, then it is simply a matter of creating a pool of 4 million free moral agents. Since out of those 4 million at least one million will choose your style and your program williningly. Then you just get rid of the other 3 million that don't like program.
The final end result is that you have 1 million people who are truly happy because they chose your program willingly. They are not robots. Unfortunately, you had to go through 4 million people to get that choice willing 1 million! But, that's the price you have to pay for excellence. You have to dig through a lot of dirt before you find the gold.
So that is one concept of what is going on with the universe and mankind and all this crime in the world right now. In order to get the really quality people, he had to create a sieve through which he put everyone. As a result, those who survived the "testing" are now not simply diamonds in the rough, but fine polished stones now. Those that did not survive the 'fiery" test, were not made of anything but "cumbustible materials" anyway.
So what am I saying? I'm saying that probably God knew he had to sacrifice some free moral agents in order to gain others who would freely worship him, not as robots. That's the price had had to pay, but so what? What he got in the end was the quality gemstones of incredible brilliance.
In the end though, you have people who actually are truly "happy" because they CHOSE this God and his ways and would have been unhappy otherwise. The persons who are destroyed are simply the ratio of persons in a general population who had to be tested in order to get the desired number of faithful ones.
So I don't know if you followed this. But in a way, God gets to have his cake and eat it too. That is, he wanted everybody to worship him but he wanted them to be happy and to do it willingly, not by force. He knew though, that a certain percentage would always choose him willingly. Therefore, it was just a matter of making the pool large enough to meet the number of worshipers he wanted.
So in the end he gets to have his cake and eat it too because he still has his ideal world with worshipful "robots" only they are high-quality "free moral agent" robots. Much better than the programmed kind!
Isn't that amazing! Isn't God manipulative? He never said he wasnt....
Now chew on that with your two new front teeth!
:>
Have a nice one....
Bibleman