The Evangelical Universalist Forum

Rejecting God

What is it? And what would it look like?

I hear this all the time, but most of the time it seems that people who reject God have rejected the person who is making the accusation.

You just said, you don’t know what it looks like but then you go on to say, “that people who reject God” therefore it looks to me that you are creating a loophole by taking the blame off the rejecter and putting it squarely on the “accuser”. That is your presupposition as I don’t see that in scripture, however what I do see in scripture is an individual or individuals who don’t believe.

(Matthew 23:37)
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!

(Luke 16:29)
29“But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ 30“But he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!’ 31“But he said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.’”

My point is, and maybe you realize it, is that its easy to say a person is rejecting God when they reject us. In other words a Mormom might say I reject God because I reject Mormonism, (my wife is watching Sister Wives :laughing: ) JW’s might accuse me of rejecting God because I reject them. I might be accused of rejecting God because I refuse to believe in speaking in tongues, or being sprinkled instead of submersed; you get my drift. There are people who have walked away from organized Christianity because they refused to accept some of our particulars. This doesn’t mean that they have rejected God. There are people who have went back into the jungle because they didn’t want to change their clothing or language. This doesn’t mean that they rejected God.

So again what would you say is “rejecting God?”

Calvinst reject a God who wants to save every person, Arminians reject a God who can save everyone. Others reject a God who wants to save everyone, has the ability to save everone and will save everyone. I reject a the small god of my upbringing but the God that I now know Is Bigger, more Merciful, and more Powerful than I ever imagined. Do you reject my God?

I gave you the answer. To reject God is to reject scripture (Moses and the prophets). We all bring our own presuppositions to the table but there is only one truth and we can’t all be right. The truth of scripture brings us to God on His terms and religion brings us to God on our terms. God Bless! :slight_smile:

You are painting strawmans then go to present a loaded question. My answer is I reject a god not in scripture. I do not accept a god of someone’s own choosing and making. I embrace the God of scripture. Those basis you gave are the results of rejecting scripture. God Bless! :slight_smile:

You said: “there is only one truth and we can’t all be right”. That doesn’t prove who is, though!
I’m not a universalist so keep the gun in the holster, pardner! :frowning:)
God Bless!

It’s a good question–one of those phrases you hear all the time, and I at least, never really thought about it, so I don’t have a ready response. Now and then a saying that I’ve always taken for granted will suddenly strike me and I’ll start asking: “What does that really mean? Does scripture really talk about it like that?”

I guess God is the only one who can really judge if He’s been rejected or not. Can anyone reject Him who has not met him? Rejection implies a knowledge of something.

I agree with you that people are quick to accuse another of “rejecting God” when really it’s the person’s message that they’re rejecting. I’ve seen it done several times recently in discussions relating to the Rob Bell thing. But it seems like we should be very careful to make such an accusation–even the archangel is circumspect when accusing Satan!

Jesus said that people who spoke against him would be forgiven–and I take that to be “rejection”, but rejecting the Holy Spirit–the Spirit of truth–would be grounds for punishment. The example in that context is calling something evil when it is of God. A similar example that comes to mind is what the Pharisees’ meeting after the raising of Lazarus, where they say, “This man is doing all these signs–we can’t let him go on like this or everyone will be believing in him!” Even if they weren’t sure if he was the messiah, they knew something was up and wanted to squash it. That seems like a blatant example of rejection!

To know the Truth and know it is the Truth and turn aside from it for something lesser-- that’s how I’d define rejecting God.

Sonia

I never said, who was right. I only said, there is only one truth which is God’s truth therefore we can’t all have different “truths” and all be of God. God Bless! :slight_smile:

I rejected God, but God didn’t reject me :slight_smile:

Actually they didn’t as nimblewell never once appealed to scripture.

I don’t see how my username has any relevance? furthermore I never said what my view of the afterlife was only that rejection of God is rejection of scripture and the bible will support me on that.

Sounded like a very intelligent man. It’s about presuppositions but looking at scripture it doesn’t end there as the question still remains whose presupposition is the truth as your salvation could depend on it. God Bless! :slight_smile:

Hi Oxy

I don’t think I made myself very clear.

What I was trying to point out was that you said you ‘do not accept a god of someone’s choosing’.
But you ‘embraced the God of scripture’ (doesn’t that mean you chose the God of scripture)? So didn’t you make a choice just like anyone else? So you ‘do not accept the god of oxy’s choosing’?

My logic is probably flawed.
I appreciate your thoughts.

God bless you

PS would you say that you accept the Bible as the final authority?

I did not, but Calvinists and Arminians do and their views on scripture are diametrically opposed to one another. They reject the others view of God. Yet most, if they are one or the other, would never accuse the other of rejecting God.

Do I really need to list scripture that shows that they think differently? I can and would be glad to.

I base my UR views on Scripture, I can list them to. Would you reject my scripture? I have a suspicion that you might.

Explain the following verse without changing the Words: We’re putting our trust in the living God, the savior of all men, especially believers.

Now don’t you reject this scripture as it is written? If you do then you reject the God the I believe in. So using your logic you reject the God of scripture and I don’t for one second believe that you reject God.