Only read parts of this and NEED to jump in with replies!
1. Scientific theory = "what we take to be fact". It doesn't mean "we think it's probably right." Therefore, evolution is seen as FACT and not some airy-fairy theory. It's the theory of gravity too, remember. Theory in science is different to theory in common parleance. Just as in science you don't weigh something in kg - weight is in newtons and is a force, whereas mass is a constant and is in grams. Or a scientific cell is different to a monk's cell - and in fact two different things depending on if you are into physics or biology.
2. The Bible and Evolution work together very well. Things evolve in the same order that the Bible states they were made. Why not use evolution? It seems a pretty nifty way of doing things. I'm not a literal 7-day person; I am not one to think that my 24-hour day is one that God is constrained by.
3. Predestination. Just because I know how a film will end doesn't mean I predestine it. (Yes, predestine is a word.) Just because God knows everything doesn't mean I am a puppet dancing to His string-twitching. God gave us free will. He pre-destined us ALL to be saved, all we have to do is accept it. God didn't pick who will and who will not accept their salvation: salvation is for ALL, not just a few. He chose, or pre-ordained, that we would have the choice and we could all choose to be saved. Just cos we don't doesn't mean God is picking for us to go to Hell.
4. Who is God? He is the Almighty. And yes, I believe that the God we know in the Bible is the God of Judaism (bit thick if I didn't think that, what with having the Old Testament telling me that!) and the God of Islam. Who is Jesus? I'll go back to my Anglican upbringing and recite from the book of Common Prayer: the vicar will say this
Also a set response is:God so loved the world
that he gave his only Son Jesus Christ
to save us from our sins,
to be our advocate in heaven,
and to bring us to eternal life.
Jesus is clearly not the Father, who we know to be the almighty God. Yes, he is the Son of God and, if we think in terms of species, he's the same species as God (like we're humans and there are angels... and there is God. And His Son, who logically has to be god too, but isn't the same person, just as I'm human and you're human but we're not the same person.) but isn't the same person.We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is,
seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father;
through him all things were made.
Also just read other posts here, this is something I was brought up with and always believed. How is Jesus seated at the right hand of the Father (something I sang every other week in my late teens) and also the Father? Doesn't make sense. I do believe in Father, Son and Holy Ghost - so in that sense believe in the Trinity - but it's more a species thing than same person thing. Species with the same personality, but just cos we don't have it on Earth doesn't mean that the most perfect of beings wouldn't be the same, personality wise.




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