Summations Only

I too believe that JC manifested God as did Budda and every other universal messenger of Gods message. It was not until the writting of the Gospel of John that the author began to fully deify JC as "God" himself. The kingdom of God is within you.
To me that means we all manifest God. Like an ocean is to God what waves are to mankind and the universe. Every wave is different but all come from the source, and all return back to the source. Just a thought.

Hi Brian,
No I was not aware of that Budda teaching. And no I was not refering to the Biblical Christian fire and brimstone god.
I am sort of in a transitional phase in my beliefs. I realize that Santa claus and the Easter bunny do not exist, I just not ready to give up on God yet. But thank you for your response.

Not without being circular.However, one need not be a theist to suffer from delusions.
Of granduer or beautific.
The mind is fertile ground for all manner of claptrap be it religious or not.Edited by 1.61803, : spelling

Satan lizard laughs.

According to the Bible at least this passage.
God created both good and evil.

quote:

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I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.Isaiah 45
  —God

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As far as angels are concerned they are as it was once explained to me by my priest refering to the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas in the Summa,
"creatures of pure spirit and intellect."One could ask how could such a intelligent spirit choose to be evil? Lucifer's blashphemy in thinking he could be as God is was what was characterized as evil. So the propensity for evil was created by God but was perpetuated by Lucifer. Well did not God create Lucifer?
And hence the evil that he perpetuates? Yes. Do we know why?
No. It is a mystery. As usual I was left just as confused as ever.
But this still does not get around evil being created by God.

Changing the word does not make it any more palatable. calamity noun \kə-ˈla-mə-t\ : an event that causes great harm and sufferingI am still unable to reconcile omniscient and benevolence in the face of human suffering.

How then to reconcile the punishment of the innocent?
In addition, if they are wicked, are they not still God's creations?
And in so being merely being punished for being created as such? One may engage in apologist calisthenics all they might but the duplicitous contradiction remains to be adequately explained imo.