LaParkaYourCar

No you don't. That's what man has said you had to do. God gave a pretty straight forward way of being forgiven and man made it legalistic like that.

God set it up so we had the choice whether or not to fail or not and we chose to fail. Regardless we will sin, but that doesn't mean we'll fail. Not when we can be forgiven of those sins.

If God made us perfect we would be mindless and have no choice in the matter.

but we're not screwed if we are saved. All you are saying does seem grim if there were not a way out. God may know what we're going to do, but that doesn't mean we know it. I don't mind that God knows what I'm going to do cause I still don't know it.

there's no guarentee that we'll turn around and be punished. Sometimes we choose to do good. The whole deal behind the story of Jesus is that even the worst sinners can be saved because of Jesus' blood. Yes we'll sin, but Jesus' blood will keep it from damning us. It's a story of loss and redemption.

He knew they would that's why he had a plan for those who choose to do good to be rewarded. If Adam and Eve hadn't done it someone would have. He knew Adam and Eve would sin.....he also knew that there would be good people. Nowhere does it say that Adam and Eve are damned. They sinned, but so do we.

There is still the possibility that I might turn around. And if I'm not warned that there's something there then I get punished without knowledge of my choice.

God told Adam and Eve about the tree as a warning. It would have been worse if he never told them at all about it and they ate of it and were punished. It was put there so that they had the choice to live the life of evil if they wanted to. God had the decency to warn them about it so they knew what their choice was plain and simple.

I still have the choice whether or not to do it. If you had never told me not to look behind me and I did anyway and was blasted with something then I would be mad that you didn't warn me.

If he didn't do any of those things then we would be mindless. We would do whatever we were told to do and we would have no choice. I'll take having a choice over mindless robot any day. Isn't that what's been stressed by today's society? The Freedom of Choice?

In order for free will to work there needs to be a set right and wrong and reward and punishment. Good or Evil. You choose one or the other.

If he didn't then neither choice would be labled good or bad. Both would be fine and it would give no reason to choose one over the other. We get what we deserve for our actions. If our actions are good we are rewarded if our actions are bad we are punished. It's a truth that everyone knows regardless. Choice is a conscious thing that you do. You know that making that choice will have effects.

If he hadn't put things on the earth for man to choose instead of him it would be undercutting the free will from the beginning. Pretty much it would be giving man free will, but not giving him an alternative to choose...thus making free will useless. That is a thought process from me...doesn't mean I think that rock solidly....more thinking out loud really. See what you think.

It's not set up just to fail. It's set up to either pass or fail. The decision is up to us. That's why he offered a way out of failing.

I call that giving man choice. The choice to live his life the way he chooses. God did not wave the apple in Adam's face and go nah nah nah nah. He gave specific, easy, orders and left the choice up to man. Just as he has done with us.

That's a little big of a number. We don't know who's going to hell. All we know is what we're asked to do and one of the things we're asked to do is to spread the word to as many people as possible. So frankly it's partly our fault if we sit on our lazy butts and don't get out there to spread it. Which scares me sometimes cause that could lower the number of people going to heaven.

Would you rather he made us mindless robots? And God does not tempt you. Satan is the one that wants the Bible to be skewed.

Well he did say narrow is the way and few are those who follow it. Maybe that's why he asks Christians to get off their lazy butts and go spread the word because so many will skew it. But do we do that? No a lot of us are lazy bums.

God doesn't want to take away our free will. Exactly! I don't want to sound crazy by saying this, but the film Bruce Almighty displayed this in a cool way I thought. At it's heart, it really said a lot about Christianity in a good light. You're right. That's why I'm so buying Bruce Almighty when it comes out on DVD. I was highly pleased with it.

I don't know what God is thinking. Sometimes we're so lazy about spreading his word that I worry he'll turn the tables and let those who never heard in to punish us for keeping the word to ourselves.

God doesn't want to take away our free will. and RRR just because people twist the words that are written doesn't mean the words themselves are wrong. Most people don't ever look in the Bible to see if what they're hearing is right or not and that's why so many follow error and use words they've only heard sparingly against others.

No of course not. If God got pissed everytime someone had a question then we'd all be in trouble. The Psalms are full of doubts and questions. It's what helps us grow in knowledge.

You also got to remember that the Bible isn't the full collection of writings so who said it wasn't written down? There are hundreds of writings that didn't make the final cut of the Bible.

Well when we get to heaven let's ask God why he didn't do that. Sometimes I just have faith that he knows what he's doing far more than we ever will.

No I think Humans have just made it seem clumsy by twisting it around and making it seem complicated when it really isn't.