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Can God be persuaded to change his mind?
Topic Started: Monday, 29. October 2012, 18:38 (560 Views)
Gerard

James
Saturday, 3. November 2012, 01:09
Which takes us deeper, Gerry.
Miracles and healings and raising the dead = to what purpose in the end .
It just means you are going to die another day.

"acceptance"
A person may have an incurable illness, and try to accept the spirit at work and accept.
One may pray for a miracle, that may happen - but = the day will still come.
Talking acceptance of a condition . not easing suffering.
James
James,

Healing and suffering are both in the Bible and in the tradition. So much of the NT is about healing that I prefer to go for that in the first instance. Only if suffering is unavoidable would I accept it as redemptive. I do not think we are to look for crosses but to accept them if they cannot be avoided.

Why is healing good - because good comes out of it. Increased faith, increased life, second chances among other things.

Actually there are a couple of times in the NT when Jesus actually tells us why he is heaaling someone. Each time it is to reveal the glory of God. One of these times is the raising of Lazarus.

Gerry
"The institutional and charismatic aspects are quasi coessential to the Church's constitution" (Pope John Paul II, 1998).
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James
James
Thank you Gerry.
Just introduced a few points where some people reading may be suffering without cure.
God does not change his mind - so to speak
People may think it themselves at fault as no miracle happens.
Miracles are few in relation to the suffering and people often wonder why.
I get many direct basic points which are hard to answer.
to what purpose is one blind man made see with hundreds around are not ?
To what purpose raise one person from the dead etc. and etc.

I think you covered point well.

James
Edited by James, Monday, 5. November 2012, 13:24.
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tomais

Just had electronic confirmation from my Catholic Virginian cousins in that US of A that God has jsut lost their election again.
Apart from Sandy of course- that country's legacy!
God Help America! It is all on emphasis!
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Penfold
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tomais
Wednesday, 7. November 2012, 10:16
Just had electronic confirmation from my Catholic Virginian cousins in that US of A that God has jsut lost their election again.
Apart from Sandy of course- that country's legacy!
God Help America! It is all on emphasis!
Actually I was praying for Obama to win, so maybe God did not change his mind just decided to allow the democratic process to take its course, God favours democracy... :yahoo:
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Penfold
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A thought. It is a woman's prerogative to change her mind. If it can be demonstrated that the mind of God has been changed it could be the proof that has always been sought to confirm once and for all that God is a woman. :tc:
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OsullivanB

Penfold
Wednesday, 7. November 2012, 17:19
tomais
Wednesday, 7. November 2012, 10:16
Just had electronic confirmation from my Catholic Virginian cousins in that US of A that God has jsut lost their election again.
Apart from Sandy of course- that country's legacy!
God Help America! It is all on emphasis!
Actually I was praying for Obama to win, so maybe God did not change his mind just decided to allow the democratic process to take its course, God favours democracy... :yahoo:
As is so clearly reflected in the practice of His Church.
"There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance - that principle is contempt prior to investigation." Herbert Spencer
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James
James
Penfold
Wednesday, 7. November 2012, 17:24
A thought. It is a woman's prerogative to change her mind. If it can be demonstrated that the mind of God has been changed it could be the proof that has always been sought to confirm once and for all that God is a woman. :tc:
Or have a woman behind him to change it for him.
Wedding feast of Cana.
Lazarus
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Clare
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Putting the "Fun Dame" into Fundamentalist
This article reminded me of this topic:

Bad Catholic

Quote:
 
...
The Jews were a tribe forever at war, surrounded by civilizations that wanted to beat their heads against rocks and enslave their children. Would a God who demands we “love our enemies” and “do good to those who hate us” fit their image of perfection? No. We were barely ready to hear a God who told us to eat his flesh and drink his blood, and to destroy the temple and watch him raise it up in three days. Indeed, many were not. Our modern conception of God – which, for any one living in the post-Christ world is inseparable from the New Testament – would seem imperfect to them, just as their ancient conception of God seems, at a first glance, imperfect to us.

Perhaps it is not God who is imperfect, but we who have been changed. Allow me an imperfect allegory:

If a father were to tell us how he treats his child without mentioning that his child is 5, not 35, we would certainly condemn his parenting as imperfect. Imagine the conversation:

“To explain photosynthesis, I purposefully tell my son that leaves eat sunlight. When he’s bad, I lock him in his room, or smack him. When he makes me a drawing I pretend to be surprised by how good it is, and when he misbehaves at the table I pretend to be surprised how bad he is. I often rescind punishments just so he knows that I love him. I often raise my voice just so he knows the effects of his action. I often behave just like him, imitating his tone, his mannerisms, and his giggles.”

Now obviously, there is a vast difference between God and a human father, but it isn’t entirely difficult to see that the change in the child defines whether the actions of the father are imperfect — not the apparent change in the father. We would be horrified at the behavior of this father, if his son really were 35. But his son is 5. Hazony, looking at the Old Testament, assumes that God is interacting with people just like us, when in reality, he is interacting with spiritual 5 year olds, human beings rescued from boring idolatry into the idea that there is, in fact, but one God.

The imperfections that Hazony faults God with — His apparent mind-changes, His surprise at our evil, His decision not to force the Israelites into every right action (which, for the record, does not imply an imperfectly powerful God, merely a God who grants us freedom. An army is powerful even if not in battle, and a God may be all-powerful even if he does not exert that power at the expense of our free will) — these are not imperfections, but the perfect method of relating to his people at the time his people lived. The ancients would have not freely followed a God who forcefully directed all actions, could not be approached and prayed to as one who could be reasoned with, and expressed only the words “I already knew you would” at their every misdeed. Sure, God could have forced them to follow him, revealing himself totally and in one fell swoop — but what is the value of forced love?
...
S.A.G.

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Seren

Accidents happen.
I believe that God doesn't plan them, but in the aftermath,
he tries to lessen the fallout by supporting - in many guises - those left behind who have to rebuild their lives.
But accidents just happen....
Edited by Seren, Thursday, 6. December 2012, 19:45.
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