The Soda Shop Message Boards

Have any questions about the Bible? Ask them here and I will try my best to answer them.

1: If God is totally sovereign, and all humans have free will, how is it possible that God has any physical effect on the universe as we know it at any given time? If human's have free will, that shouldn't be possible, because we'd have the ability to control our surroundings.

2: Why were all "believers" held to the standards of the OT law in the Old Testament, but not in the new?

3: Why is it that out of all the historical documents written during the times recorded in the bible, only 66 were chosen to be in the Bible as modern Christians. Were the rest contradictory? Or were they just irrelevant.

Aaron Wiley wrote:3: Why is it that out of all the historical documents written during the times recorded in the bible, only 66 were chosen to be in the Bible as modern Christians. Were the rest contradictory? Or were they just irrelevant.

Hey Aaron, so I am no expert on this, but I read something about this in one of my textbooks this year. So the books that are included in the Old Testament at least were considered written by God and given to humans (to write) with divine authority. So basically they are the words of God written by humans as revealed by God. Also, some books, like the Apocrypha, were excluded from The Old Testament because they never claimed to be the Word of God. I will look for more info.. But that is what my textbook says about it.. Just figured I would share.

Oh, I already know the answers, I'm simply given these to him to see what he has to say on the subjects.

And Wooton, I have a few more:

- Why did Jesus Have to die? If God is all powerful, couldn't he just choose to forgive our sins?

- Can God do anything? If so, could God create a rock so big that he couldn't lift it? Explain.

Oh gotcha.. then carry on haha

Aaron Wiley wrote:1: If God is totally sovereign, and all humans have free will, how is it possible that God has any physical effect on the universe as we know it at any given time? If human's have free will, that shouldn't be possible, because we'd have the ability to control our surroundings.

2: Why were all "believers" held to the standards of the OT law in the Old Testament, but not in the new?

3: Why is it that out of all the historical documents written during the times recorded in the bible, only 66 were chosen to be in the Bible as modern Christians. Were the rest contradictory? Or were they just irrelevant.

1.Humans do have free will, but God has planned out the universe before he created it. He knows what is going to happen.

2.I'm not sure I understand the 2nd question.

3.Just as OF said.

4. God made Jesus die on the cross to show his power. Everything God does is for his glory. God planned out before the creation of the universe that Jesus would die on the cross.

5. Yes, God could make a rock so big that he can't lift it, but why would he want to. That would mean making something more powerful than himself.

Umm, I disagree with your answer to #5. God can't do everything. He can't sin. He can't lie. We see that in the Bible. Omnipotence means that God can do anything He wants to--everything that is consistent with His nature. Sinning is not consistent with His nature; it is not something He wants to do.

In the same way, creating a rock that He can't lift isn't something He wants to do--so it's actually something He can't do! But He doesn't need to do it, so it doesn't matter. I know that may sound weird at first, but I think it makes sense.

Pretty decent answers Wooton.

The first one is a bit of a tuffy', so I don't mind that your answer was vague and inconclusive, because that's just about all we have. An environment of absolute sovereignty and absolute freewill can not co-exist logically, so really, it's just something that's impossible to fully understand.

The second question was basically asking, why did we have to abstain from certain foods and make all sorts of sacrifices before the New Testament, but not after?

My real question from #3 is that I'm wondering why they're considered "The works of God". Who gave them that title? How do we know that they aren't just a set of books that different people wrote, and then somebody put them all together in one big volume?

The answer to 4 is incorrect. Jesus had to die on the cross to pay for our sins. If Jesus never died, we'd all be [censored]. We all deserved totally [censored], and we're only made righteous and holy enough to go to heaven through the fact that Jesus suffered that punishment for us.

The answer to 5 is also incorrect. God can't do anything beyond logic or against his own word. God cant create a rock too big to lift, because that just impossible, god has infinite power, so no matter how big of a rock he made, even if the rock was infinitely big, it wouldn't be too big for him to lift. God creating a rock too big for him to lift would be like him creating a married bachelor. If the man were married, he couldn't also be unmarried at the same time, that's not even conceptually possible.. God follows the rules of logic that he invented.

God can do everything, but sin basically.

Ok. Those were really good questions.

Does your church have a statement of faith that you could share?

What is your stance on the Nicene Creed?

How often does your church take communion?

What do you think about 'pre-destination vs. free will' -I don't mean to put you on the spot…