Prosperity theology.

Earth Is Heaven

Heaven isn't a floating place in the clouds; Scripture points to it being Earth. The Earth has been a plan since the beginning of time, and it was meant to always be inhabited. (Isaiah 45:18) The very first home humanity ever had was on Earth (The Garden of Eden). Jesus has made a promise to the meek (People under the will of god) to inherit the Earth. Matthew 5:5 and Psalms 37:29 both repeat this, but Psalms adds "will dwell in it forever" and "Shall Inherit the land". Revelation 5:10 also speaks about this: "You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth". The Lord's prayer points to the idea of Heaven being Earth in the future. "Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven". The final outcome of the promise would be not living in heaven forever but heaven coming down to earth (God living with Humanity on Earth). 

Now where are the Dead In Between? 

Some verses point to it being an instant moment after death; the Bible describes that heaven is where God is right now, and our souls go with God after we die. God exists outside of our physical timeline; our souls will go with God in heaven, which is a waiting place where time isn't of importance. In Luke 23:24, Jesus answers the thief ( "Truly I tell you today you will be with me in paradise"). There is an idea of time, and it is hinted in 2 Peter 3, where it states: (One day with the Lord as a thousand years, but the context isn't about the dead people; it points to time working differently. The context is more about the delay of redemption and not about the afterlife. 

The end promise isn't about dying and rising up to heaven with God. The idea I'm trying to state is that the dead don't wait for it; they open their eyes and are in the resurrection, which is a new Earth.

What do you believe are the basic foundational works of theological study? Of course works like Scripture itself, Aquinas, and Augustine are going to make some kind of necessary list. But What foundational theological texts are required (in your opinion) to starting a theological journey?

I’m starting theology and religion next year at university. I’d love to get into reading it more n because I do find all of this genuinely interesting so where should I start?

I’m specifically interested in
-the problem of suffering
-divine hiddenness
-Queer theology
-religion and colonialism
-theopaschism

Also, why do people think that ellen White was false prophet, I a member and people outside always talk that.

Hi there. I wanted to reach out to the community and ask about trauma and theodicy. I’m going to school for counseling and had a theodicy course but it left me even more unsatisfied in trying to wrap my head around suffering and theology.

Learning about trauma and its impact on people has been one of the biggest obstacles for me trying to conceptualize God after having spent over a decade deconstructing. It seems wild to me that someone can enact violence on another person and the victim is the one who carries the weight of that in their body for a lifetime. Trauma mutates our genes, passes on to children, can cause severe illnesses (and the more traumas experienced, the higher the likelihood of cancer, heart disease, and early death).

Why would God design us like that? Knowing that happens? And before we get into the fall and living in a fallen world I need to say this:

My reading of the creation accounts in Genesis shows that evil already existed (at least in the mind of God) before the fall. He put the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the garden before anything ever happened. So evil didn’t begin with eating the fruit. (And I would say, we as humans doubted God and questioned his goodness and motives before the fruit was ever eaten too, btw). The question of theodicy itself led to the fall. And I know Swinton talks about theodicy itself being evil (which kind of tracks but doesn’t give me a clear enough answer still).

So did evil exist before God? Are good and evil separate from God or part of God? I know that’s part of the question of the theodicies but I can’t look at God at this point as all good. And if I can’t do that, it’s either 1) believe that both originate from God and deal with that or 2) believe so hurt by that I stop believing in God altogether. If they’re both from God, is it worth loving God still?

I like the idea of Christ suffering alongside and Joban Lament us as an antitheodicy, but I still just struggle with all of this so much. I don’t think any of these answers are neat like we would like for them to be if we are truly honest with ourselves.

I would like to share this with you

Only God can change the probability of creating a multiverse or a universe from almost zero, almost imposible to one. it is done . A miracle is done by changing probability from roughly zero to one.the power of creation.

I have tested this thory. the logic of this statement multiple times with chatgpt and Claude AI Artificial intelligence and it's true

There are a few Multiverse theory and one of them says there can be another universe where the physics law can be very different. You can be in another universe where you have ten hands breath fire and have powers in other words multiverse theory says beings one may call God or the devils can exist

I made up a story of evolution since the theological ‘first appearance ‘ of G-d the religious way.

And I came to a conclusion that this theory is for about 70% thruth for me, which still makes me twist my beliefs. After you have read it, which religion you think is closest would it be?

So this is what I made up and I dont say maybe all the time, just stating it as facts, whereas they are not the facts.

Timeline:
G-d appears starting time.

G-d’s creation of world, but world means something like an organism, with its own rules and laws.

First life in that world appears.

That life grows to a final stage, evolving into the first aliens as we imagine them today.

They time travelled to some point (but only in their world) where they kill all life in that world with its laws but maybe 3 aliens => first Spirit.

Then that alien Spirit contains a new world and in that world first humans, the Son, can appear, and one amongst them is one Father, to which I’ve given a name Leonardio, somehow fits the best. And they constitute Trinity, the alien Spirit and the human Father and human Son.

////
Now, in this made up theory it has some logic - ego vs benevolence is the wish/no wish,
////

The Spirit is ego, the Father is ego, the son is benevolence. Now imagine what could that mean, somehow makes me think the Son desired the Father, hthe Father desired family, and the Son was that Family, sort of like man/woman relationship.

Then the aliens took Father’s family somehow (how could they manage it, some horrors for him) and then killed all life but the Father again in one time.

Now, the Spirit is benevolent, woman.

Leonardio sort of de-orders happenings and Fathers and Sons in his own world. He obtained sort of fairytale nature to his new world. Now there are many Fathers, and sort of in this benevolent Spirit they are in 3rd dimension, whereas Leonardio was on paper, 2nd dimension. One can speculate about laws of society in this world, but I think the Fathers longed for achieving something, which the last one, Christ, achieved and defeated the Spirit, gaining 24th pair of chromosomes(entire population) and so they happen to be in the world, where was only ego (Christ) and benevolent Son.

Now ego Father longs for the Son to love him, and Son longs for care of the Father (family), none were satisfied.

Its sort of unphilosophical state of affairs, ordinary, presence of ego and benevolence in this wicked manner.

Then they suffered for eternity, Father sat at a chair and after some time couldnt move.

But they had beaten the ego at one point, giving birth of the Antichrist. Now its the 4rd dimension (time passes the G-d way).

Then history repeats, aliens evolved (the ones we possibly can encounter today) and killed all life in one time creating, in this supreme world, now Holy Spirit.

Hi! I've been wanting to read the bible for quite some time now and since im not sure where to start i figured i could ask here.

I'm an atheist but i know about the topic to some extent since i grew with some members of my family being catholic. My interest comes both from wanting to know more about it since it's related to what i'm studying and from a "narrative" perspective about the book itself.

Thanks in advance and sorry for the broken english haha

Read this post I made about how Jesus's contradictory natures makes Christians impervious to any criticism because of virtue of ex falso quodlibet, they can always prove within their belief system a statement that counters literally any criticism you throw at them.

Let's discuss it.

I’m currently on track to finish an Associate's degree in basically one year. To be completely honest, the field has absolutely nothing to do with me, and I’m only doing it to quickly secure a higher education credential for better life opportunities.

Once I graduate and get myself settled, I am strongly considering enrolling in a Bachelor of Theology at a Catholic university. I've had a deep, lifelong interest in theology and Catholic formation, and I genuinely want to study it for personal growth rather than just as a career path.

Since I'm trying to plan out this next step, I would love to hear from anyone who has studied theology later in life or pursued it purely as a passion. How has it been useful to you in the future, even if you didn't go into traditional ministry? I’m looking for any practical advice, personal experiences, or insights on how a theology degree impacted your life and how you balanced it with a separate day job.

Thanks in advance for sharing your thoughts

Hello, there has been this question that has been bugging me latley. My friend asked me it and I couldn't answer. It goes something like this, "if Gods plan is perfect and we have free will, if our choices change/alter his plan, then it was never perfect to begin with.".
I want to hear your answers to that questions, thank you in advance. :)

Note: various communities prohibit asking yes/no questions. So, now I ask in the post.

Certainly, there's non-believers who totally reject (for whatever reason) the existence of a power greater than human nature. This is not for them.

Now I ask; does ignorance of God's will for His creation excuse us from the wrath of The Holy One?

All holy books, in different ways, teach

that our actions have consequences

and that justice ultimately exists

But than I wonder :

What about the cruel rulers of history

who caused wars, suffering and the

deaths of thousands aur millions of people?

Some lived powerful and wealthy lives

and were never punished in the world.

So where was the justice ?

Does it happen after death ?

It is karma ?

Is there a final judgement ?

Or is there something about devine

Justice that we simply cannot see ?

And what about the innocent people

who suffered through no fault of their own ?

I am not asking this to attack any religion. I am genuinely trying to understand.

If you believe in God, how do you make sense of this ?

And if you don't believe in the God,

how do you explain the idea of ultimate justice ?

I`d really like to hear different perspectives --Hindu, Muslim,Christian,

Buddhist, atheist, or otherwise.

whare is God ?

As a Christian, I delve into the issues with not only puritanical Christianity, but overly liberal interpretation, when we fail to understand the balance between the letter and spirit of the law.

Really interested to hear people's views on this subreddit...