Quote:
Originally Posted by sam";p="
Again, I apologize for taking so long to respond and hope you will forgive me for this brief reply.
|
Hey, no problem. I'm not in a hurry.
Quote:
|
The reason for the miracles during Moses’ time was because that was how God decided to reveal Himself to His chosen people.
|
But why then, and not now? Does He really expect peoples' memory to be that long? The Israelites needed a demonstration 4,000 years ago, and it wasn't a one-time deal, either; it went on for a long time. Then we got another big demonstration 2,000 years ago -- although a lot of people who were around then seemed to have failed to notice. But since then, nothing.
Quote:
|
If you think about it, the fact that Israel is a nation today provides incredible proof of God’s existence.
|
Since God created the whole world, don't you think it a little odd that he would then choose a "chosen people"? I mean, were the Israelites better humans than, say, the folks living in South America or Africa?
Why would God play favorites?
Quote:
|
Any statistician surely must be awestruck by the perfect correlation between Israel being attacked, or conquered, by an enemy and the eventual demise of that enemy.
|
Nothing lasts forever; wait long enough and you'll get revenge. Show me *any* civilization that was around back then that is around now. China, maybe.
Besides, what a great deal: being His chosen people doesn't mean you won't get conquered or enslaved; it means your far-distant descendants will get to live in the same place -- after a couple of thousand years of diaspora and shortly after a few million of them are slaughtered, of course.
If the contract were phrased like that, nobody would sign it. Heck, I'd rather be Chinese. Maybe God is a Confucian?
Showing that any of us have God's favor, as reflected in material, physical things, doesn't really work. I'm an agnostic and I have all the material things I want. That doesn't make sense in your theology. Of course, I'm happy with my inner life, too, and that doesn't make sense, either. But I'll accept the usual argument that I'm just deluding myself.