How does faith in God brings us freedom

[arunangelo]

How does faith in God brings us freedom
Most people are enslaved by anxiety, worries, thoughts of revenge, hate, jealousy, feeling of inadequacy and selfishness. Lack of faith in God’s love is the common cause for all these enslavements. When we have doubts about God’s love we get anxious and worried. This makes us selfish. Furthermore, when we do not have faith in God’s love, we try to solve our problems by ungodly or hateful ways- such as: law suites, war, divorce and revenge. On the other hand, if we trust in God’s love; we know that His love can solve all the problems in the world. We will, therefore, solve our problems by forgiveness, mercy, compassion and self-sacrifice. Furthermore, if we believe that only God’s love in our heart is the true treasure we have; and also believe that no one can take this treasure away from us; then, we will feel secure and be free of anxiety, worries and selfishness. Furthermore, if we trust God we can be generous with our time and resource in helping others, because, then, we would not be worried about our own needs.

[C-Nub]

One of God's laws has to do with saving the lost souls such as mine, something you are failing horribly at.

Jesus was pretty big on, and this is paraphrasing here, respecting your fellow man, and I definitely don't feel a lot of that coming from you.

And you "Moved The Goalposts" a bit there by saying you're now achieving your goal of life after death by obeying his laws while alive. Not to mention its pure conjecture and hope, and not an actual, evidenced progression towards spiritual achievement.

[Grand Pbuh]

One of God's laws has to do with saving the lost souls such as mine, something you are failing horribly at.

Only Jesus saves, believers point the way, unbelievers do what they want. You're ultimately responsible for yourself.

Jesus was pretty big on, and this is paraphrasing here, respecting your fellow man, and I definitely don't feel a lot of that coming from you.

I can respect you as a human being without respecting your doctrine. Jesus was also pretty big on correcting people when they were wrong.

And you "Moved The Goalposts" a bit there by saying you're now achieving your goal of life after death by obeying his laws while alive. Not to mention its pure conjecture and hope, and not an actual, evidenced progression towards spiritual achievement.

Not at all. Afterlife is a goal, having goals keeps us focused on tasks at hand like observing God's Laws to receive afterlife, and there is the enjoyment of fulfilling them. It all works together nicely.

[Fallibleone]

Ah yes, the enjoyment of fulfilling your goal to obtain an afterlife. So how was it for you when you realised you had obtained an afterlife?

[byofrcs]

One of God's laws has to do with saving the lost souls such as mine, something you are failing horribly at.

Only Jesus saves, believers point the way, unbelievers do what they want. You're ultimately responsible for yourself.

.....

I think you'll find that Jesus did this for himself to get back into the godhead which he was ejected from. Selfishness is still that no matter the platitudes it's wrapped in.

[OnceConvinced]

I guess Fred, you have probably tucked tail and run by now, but just in case you do return:

I'm suggesting it. Like if I point to buried treasure and tell someone "DIG" and that person just stands there chanting "I don't see anything" without digging, the refusal to dig doesn't prove there's nothing. It just proves that the person doesn't feel like digging. So there it stays.

What you are suggesting is that we dig and dig in the same place over and over. Many of us have dug and dug for many years and found nothing. So if someone tells me to dig in the same place I've dug many times before I'm going to look at them incredulously. Sooner or later everyone is going to get sick of digging in that same place when all they ever find is junk.

If a person doesn't do what is required to obtain and examine evidence of our God then that person is not qualified to make any objections.

There's that fallacy again. The belief that you have to have succeeded in doing something before you can be qualified to talk about it. Just as well all sports teams don't require coaches who have "been there, done that". Sometimes those who have "been there, done that" are the last people you want as coaches and teachers as some of those people just don't have the ability to convey that knowledge and skill onto others. It's why in war times you have people specially trained as officers, rather than taking a guy from the trenches and making him a general.

Like if I invite you for a game of golf for your first time, and you insist on using a baseball bat for the golf club and a football for the golf ball because you think you know better, then complain to me you don't like the game...you aren't really qualified to comment on the game of golf because you never tried to play it properly.

It would be fair to complain if we were asked to use a ball that we can't see.

Sure it does, people can be happier and healthier with goals and something to look forward to.

I would suggest that it also makes people more complacent, lazy and apathetic. For many it has made life on Earth a test only, an inconvenience. It has been deemed unimportant and expendable, because all that matters is what's to come in the afterlife.

C-Nub wrote:

You can't experience success, or the chemical impact on your brain as a result of that success (and the ultimate reason goals are good) when your brain is dead.

I get that by being successful in observing God's Laws, which is part of the ultimate goal. So it is a benefit now when I'm alive.

That is because that is your present goal, to obey God's laws. However unlike a non-Christian, when you fail to obey one of God's laws you are going to feel more condemned for doing it, while most likely a non-Christian will not be affected at all, unless they have hurt someone else in the process.

Jesus was also pretty big on correcting people when they were wrong.

Yes. But note the key words "When they were wrong".

[Jura]

How does faith in God brings us freedom
Most people are enslaved by anxiety, worries, thoughts of revenge, hate, jealousy, feeling of inadequacy and selfishness. Lack of faith in God’s love is the common cause for all these enslavements. When we have doubts about God’s love we get anxious and worried. This makes us selfish. Furthermore, when we do not have faith in God’s love, we try to solve our problems by ungodly or hateful ways- such as: law suites, war, divorce and revenge. On the other hand, if we trust in God’s love; we know that His love can solve all the problems in the world. We will, therefore, solve our problems by forgiveness, mercy, compassion and self-sacrifice. Furthermore, if we believe that only God’s love in our heart is the true treasure we have; and also believe that no one can take this treasure away from us; then, we will feel secure and be free of anxiety, worries and selfishness. Furthermore, if we trust God we can be generous with our time and resource in helping others, because, then, we would not be worried about our own needs.

what you are getting at is known as peace of mind, calmness, stress relief, fortitude, that sort of things
faith in a god is good at that, also it is good at giving hope and helping people cope
with life in general, even owercome seeminly imposible ods and acomplish amazing things, yes
but this is merely one possible method, out of the potentialy countles, and one that has numerous flavs and causes problems that are as critical as all the colective and individual benefits combined

you have also described partial loss of ego
all this combined points to the basic results of deep prayer and/or meditation, as it
has been reported by countless sources troughout known history of practically all
cultures, meditative states cause a more or less common set of simptoms, usualy seen as positive, such as relaxation, inner calm, general peacefulness, increased ability of concentration and focus, developing further into general relaxation of the entire biological being, gradual reduction of most emotions seen as negative such as hate or fear, development or increase in feelings usualy described as tolerance, empathy, compassion, etc., a feeling of psychological lightness, sometimes described as happines or peace of mind, as well as reported epifanies, such as usefull conclusions on problems that one had much trouble figuring out a solution for, or realisations on personal issues, but also hallucinations of all kinds, from simple optic delusions, to complex and elaborate visions and aparitions sometimes believed to be miraculous, but vich are mostly discarded as unvanted nusproducts
as the the meditator or prayer reaches furtehr or deeper states of mind, nearing or entering trance, the concept of self becomes more and more relative and gradually a state described as ego-less or self-less is reported to be achived
simultaniously the meditating person usualy develops a worldviev that is holistic and universal, seeing all phenomena him or herself included as unified into one comperhensive reality, borders betveen things or persons are said to be blured or
dissapear, and general disasociation and loss of interest is often seen
these last can be seen by some as negative effects
however these are simptoms conected to states of deep meditation, not easily achived

in most people that practice meditation or deep prayer on a regular basis the results seen are mostly positive, sugesting that meditative states are beneficial primarily to mental relaxation, increase of focus and concentration, and stabilisation of metabolism, all reducing chances for disease, and increasing mental and cognitive performance, as well as the ability to cope with stress, deal with obvious facts, better short and long term memory, control emotions such as anger or fear, and function optimally on less sleep and food

all this said, there is nothing to sugest any form of personal belief is necesary to
achive the beneficial effects of meditation
while belief in a god may be helpfull, and faith and prayer a functional substitute,
practically all the same benefits can be derived from techniques of meditation or
relaxation with no religious context

a wery old method of meditation intales that a person sits in a prefered position,
facing a wall or other inanimate surface, and concentrates on counting exhalations from 1 to 10 in continuous repetition with time this brings more or less the same general results as any other form of meditation or deep prayer, however obviously no faith, belief or religious context are necesary in fact a meditative state can be achived by focusing on complete abstracts, such as numbers or notions, everyday fisical objects, such as a nail or a brick, by rithmically repeating sounds or words, or reciting any kind of sentence, poem, frase, moto, or quotation, religious or othervise

no faith in a god of any kind is needed
furthermore faith or othervise deeply held beliefs need not be conected to a god, or have any religious context whatsoewer, and neider does the zeal, hope and determination that comes from them

on the other hand faith in general does limit individuals, and also imposes limitations on colectives, if a certain set of beliefs is shared and a certain level of faith common, it can have detrimental effects on individual and colective freedom

so while certain aspects of religious faith, if deep enough, can be beneficial, on the
whole there are much simpler, less problematic, and more owerall cost efficient methods of achieving the same beneficial results

When you are dead and conscious of nothing, what meaning will life have for you without an afterlife? I eagerly await your answer.

is that a trick question or something?

Faith in God brings freedom from the pointless, meaningless existence of a life that
ends in eternal death.

so individual life is pointless and meaningless because it ends
if individual life continued forever would it then be meaningfull and with point?

from where do you draw the conclusion life is suposed to have some kind of inherent meaning dependant on individual belief or eventual existance of afterlifes?
how would an individual existance have any meaning other than that given to it by the individual and the colective environment in wich he exists

Supposing that was the case, what's wrong with a sugar pill? I accept painkillers at
the dentist too. Some suggest prayer is also self-hypnosis, but if it works to help
people deal with issues, then it works. Doesn't really matter why.

so are you saying afterlife is useful and as such a good goal even if it dones not
exist, or are you saying afterlife does exist and is therefore a good goal?

No, that's your end result with no afterlife. Doesn't matter what you think of it now.
Like if you put a cake in the oven and right now you see it is baking along nicely,
then you come back later and it's burned to a crisp, who is going to care that you
think it is baking nicely now? In the end it's all burned up headed for the
trash.

well as long as it doesnt matter what i, he, she or we think, i guess theres nothing we can ad is there
what cake, what are you going on about?

What meaning to your life will you have if you are dead forever someday? None. It will all be as if it never happened, a big waste of time, for each of us. Unless there is an afterlife. There's no presumption or arrogance, just facts of the matter.

all things exist in and amount of time and space and eventually expire, are destroyed or othervise disapear as distinct entity

in the time they exist they may be given a meaning or may or may not have a point outside their existance, if there is one

what conection is there betveen the two? are you sugesting meaning depends on
expiration date?
why would a biological entity have meaning that depends on the continuation of some of its hipotetical parts after the death of the whole? or do you sugest the hipotetical
soul is the whole of your being? or perhaps that lord Jesus will eventualy grow you a new one?

how do you personaly define meaning anyway?

They should be declare themselves to be states of the Messianic Kingdom and do what Jesus taught in my view, but that's just my belief.

My doctrine and system of interpretation is superior than anything I have seen from that group, though I believe the Quran is valid as a stepping stone for children of Ishmael to get to Jesus. But that's another topic.

For me it provides a workable way of life consistent with values I already hold, and a coherent plan for humanity from start to finish. I am also a better person when I pray to avoid anger, lust, and other flaws.

how can you rationally defend such fundamentalist views?
not to mention such patronisation of other culture and religion and obvious disrespect for any form of culture that does not "get to Jesus" in one way or another
i mean look at your words; "They should be declare themselves to be states of the
Messianic Kingdom..." ..."My doctrine and system of interpretation is superior than
anything I have seen from that group..." "...it provides a workable way of life
consistent with values I already hold, and a coherent plan for humanity from start to finish..."
man that is almoust proto-fashism
would you be happy in a theocratic state formaly known as the "Messianic Kingdom"?
would it matter what i thought then?
who would you have for a king? Jesus Krist? that would be one great gowerment, why not
add the 12 apostoles as ministers?