Do Christians Worship Different Gods?

A statement that can be interpreted in a whole spectrum of ways.What is just? Each man will answer differently. Is it just to stone a man to death for picking up sticks on a certain day? Some men have answered yes. What does Jehovah require of me on this novel moral situation? What is kindness? Is it kindness to deliberately end the life of a terminally ill person who is suffering? Some have answered yes, some have answered no.It is in these kinds of gaps that different versions of gods sharing the same name with the same holy books spring up And the differing views of what constitutes selfishness and selflessness is another example of this. Some people might think that telling Africans that condoms cause AIDS is selfless because it saves them from angering God by using unnatural contraceptives. Others think it is dangerously putting forwards ones own beliefs at the tragic expense of other people, thus arguing that it is a very selfish act (and worse!).Two Christians could easily find themselves at odds on these kinds of questions. Each of them has a concept of god and what it thinks is the kind, just, loving and humble course of action.The examples of moral questions that you gave (robbing a person, failure to return lost wealth) are rather simple; when you get into the more difficult questions, that's where you see people's ideas for what a moral god would want begin to vary.Unfortunately, these are all some of the most important moral questions we can typically have since they tend to involve life and death consequences.

And my point was that we wouldn't on the grounds that people would define 'unselfish' and 'loving' differently. Some say it is loving and unselfish to go to war, when the enemy lives deep in sin. Some say it is loving and unselfish to instead forgive your enemy in that position.It is an extremely incomplete moral theory. It might as well simply say 'be good', or 'be nice' for all the moral teaching it provides.

Not at all. If you want to claim that the way to morality is through God, and the way to understand God's morality is to consult the Bible where it says, in simple terms 'Be moral', that this is ambiguous to the point of uselessness as far as applying it to practical life. I never said anything about the god of the fundamentalists and my criticism applies to anyone that suggests that Bible has anything relevant or useful to say about morality - whether they are fundamentalist or not.It is this ambiguity that leads to different conceptions of who and what god is, even amongst those that agree which source is the relevant one. abe: so yes, it leads to the fundamentalist god and the liberal god and others besides.Edited by Modulous, : No reason given.

No I don't, my last post I thought I made that explicitly clear. I am saying that there are many ways to interpret the Bible, and these different methods of interpretation lead to different god concepts.In your interpretation things are more grey. And it is these grey areas that lead to differences of opinion about what god wants or requires of us. These lead to different god concepts. This problem afflicts the fundamentalists, yes. But it also raises its head in your vision. And I think this proves that your god concept is quite different from that of a fundamentalist and any variety who believe the Bible should be seen as a guidebook of regulations, rules and laws which are to be obeyed.