JulieB

But God didn't create Robots...where does free will come into it? eg. A child may grow up to be a violent criminal, despite the best efforts of his parents The Bible says God created the first human's perfect ... but they had a choice to obey him or not...they chose to listen to a spirit creature, who questioned God's right to rule mankind....he then made himself a liar or a "Satan" by coveting God's rulership over mankind. God could have destroyed all of them, then and there...but he chose not to..because the question of whether the Creator had the right to give his Creation guidelines would have remained unanswered. Instead the Bible says God chose to let mankind get on with ruling themselves. So for allowing mankind the freedom to rule himself for such a long period of time. and the world is now in such a mess....some are arguing ..there is NO God....and if there is....Why does he allow bad things to happen? Can't win!

That's the point...but maybe it's just easier to blame God or say neither exist..it's just the natural order of things, how they Evolved. People never seem to remember that according to the Bible, Satan offered Jesus ALL the Kingdom's of the Earth if he would do one act of worship to him...How the heck could the Devil do that if he didn't have enough influence on the way things run down on planet Earth? Surely this just might be a clue as to why we're in such a mess... Jesus called the Devil after all "The ruler of this world"...but he also said that situation would not continue indefinitely... Well I've tried to give a response to this in the statement above... To give a specific example.... If anyone visits the British Museum and more specifically the room that contains the artifacts from Canaan area...you will see amoungst the items a bulls head attached to a conveyor belt with a handle that turns. This apparently was used by the Baal worshipers in their sacrifices to their God Molech. The Canaanites made each family sacrifice their firstborn child by placing the baby on the conveyor belt, turning the handle and dropping the poor little mite into the fiery furnace below To hide the screams a band would play loud music. Apparently what is so revolting is that the mother of the baby had to stand and watch all this without showing any emotion or begging for her child not to be sacrificed. If she dared to show emotion, in anyway the sacrifice was nullified and the family had to give the next child willingly, until the lust for the firstborn blood was satisfied. This heinous practice was condemned outrightly by the God of the Jews. It shows how common place this practice was in the nations that surrounded the Israelites because God saw fit that it was specifically condemned within the Law covenant given to Moses. (Leviticus 18:21) . . .“‘And you must not allow the devoting of any of your offspring to Mo′lech. . However the Israelites disobeyed this command and even Kings like Manasseh allowed their children to be sacrifced to Molech. This can be seen from (Jeremiah 7:30-31) 30 ‘For the sons of Judah have done what is bad in my eyes,’ is the utterance of Jehovah. ‘They have set their disgusting things in the house upon which my name has been called, in order to defile it. 31 And they have built the high places of To′pheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hin′nom, in order to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, a thing that I had not commanded and that had not come up into my heart.’ Therefore this "jealous" God as Risso calls him specifically states that burning children or adults for that matter had not even come up into his heart! Which is a good argument to consider when trying to reason a God of love would ever burn people in hell after they die. However that's another argument entirely... The point is that God didn't want children to die....he forbade his people from even considering it! So how could God be blamed for what nations who followed other Gods did or indeed his stated followers chose to disobey and follow those same dreadful practices? People can make their own minds up as to whether they consider the worship of Baal had more to do with worshiping God or a Devil. Of course if you choose to beleive that the Bible is a book of fiction and it's all stuff and nonsense, then of course that is your absolute right.

Hi Julie,A few pages back I asked you a question about your understanding of evolution and how you couldn't reconcile it with the complexity of nature. You've probably missed it - but I would be interested to hear your answer if you've got the time. Thanks. Sorry, I'll have a look back and respond but football is on soon and I'm going to a friends house for dinner and to watch it hopefully.

He didnt. What is in the bible is, as I said above, a metaphor for his name. his name was actually a closely guarded secret, known only to a select band of priests. He may have revealed his name to Abraham, but back pre Moses he was only a bog standard God, not an Elohim,and so may have been less picky about his name being known .the Bible is written in Ancient Hebrew, which contained few Vowels...it is also written in Aramaic..and also common Greek Koine. George Howard of the University of Georgia wrote in Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. 96, 1977, p. 63: “Recent discoveries in Egypt and the Judean Desert allow us to see first hand the use of God’s name in pre-Christian times. These discoveries are significant for N[ew] T[estament] studies in that they form a literary analogy with the earliest Christian documents and may explain how NT authors used the divine name. In the following pages we will set forth a theory that the divine name,( יהוה and possibly abbreviations of it), was originally written in the NT quotations of and allusions to the O[ld] T[estament] and that in the course of time it was replaced mainly with the surrogate ? [abbreviation for Ky′ri·os, “Lord”]. This removal of the Tetragram[maton], in our view, created a confusion in the minds of early Gentile Christians about the relationship between the ‘Lord God’ and the ‘Lord Christ’ which is reflected in the MS tradition of the NT text itself.”

Not all Jews were forbidden to use God's name and Jesus and the 1st century Christians appear to have used the name also. In later times some of the Jewish hierarchy condemned people from using it though it's true. Why would God reveal his name to Abraham and have it used in the Bible almost 7,000 times if it was too sacred to use? Seems daft to me! interestingly enough....Jesus condemned the scribes and the Pharisees for making the word of God invalid and said their traditions and doctrines made them honour God with their lips, yet their heart was far removed from him. Jesus DID indeed preach to non Jews. He was not supposed to talk to the Samaritan woman at the well..he preached to her just the same as anyone else. He made the point that the news he came to bear..... was a free gift to everyone. Jew or otherwise. It's in the Book of Mathew. What about the parable about the Samaritan lying on the road injured and that he was to be considered as a neighbour and aided just the same as anyone. The Jews hated people from Samaria. Didn't the curtain of the temple rip in two when Jesus died and wasn't that a sign that a sign of God's disapproval that Caiphas and the Jewish hierarchy had decided to have Jesus put to death at the hands of their Roman occupiers? Paul WAS a Jew (Saul) and a Roman citizen who condemned the Christians outright...he was even in attendance when Stephen was stoned. Once he converted he spoke to everyone about his faith, Jew, Greek, Roman whoever. There was indeed heated debate between the Jewish Christians about the Gentile Christians...did they need to be circumsized etc... However this was settled and Peter stated quite clearly in Acts "At this Peter opened his mouth and said: “For a certainty I perceive that God is not partial, but in every nation the man that fears him and works righteousness is acceptable to him"

The Ancient Hebrew name for God is YHWH..and you're quite correct without the vowels it's hard to know the exact pronunciation. . In the Hebrew language it is written .יהוה These four letters, called the Tetragrammaton (or literally meaning "having 4 letters") , are read from right to left in Hebrew and can be represented in many modern languages as YHWH or JHVH..... The divine name in the Tetragrammaton form actually appears 6,828 times in the Bible.... In many modern translations these letters are now replaced with " LORD"( in capitals), or "the Lord" or "Adonai" (Sovereign Lord). it could be Yahweh...or Jehovah or something slightly different, however my thinking on this is that the Romans/Greeks pronounced it Iova or Jehovah so presumably, they had heard this name spoken and said in the traditional manner from Jews and first century Christians.. Jehovah seems to be the more accepted pronunciation as shown in the following different languages given as examples:- Awabakal - Yehóa Bugotu - Jihova Cantonese - Yehwowah Danish - Jehova Dutch - Jehovah Efik - Jehovah English - Jehovah Fijian - Jiova Finnish - Jehova French - Jéhovah Futuna - Ihova German - Jehova Hungarian - Jehova Igbo - Jehova Italian - Geova Japanese - Ehoba Maori - Ihowa Motu - Iehova Mwala-Malu - Jihova Narrinyeri - Jehovah Nembe - Jihova Petats - Jihouva Polish - Jehowa Portuguese - Jeová Romanian - Iehova Samoan - Ieova Sotho - Jehova Spanish - Jehová Swahili - Yehova Swedish - Jehova Tahitian - Iehova Tagalog - Jehova Tongan - Jihova Venda - Yehova Xhosa - uYehova Yoruba - Jehofah Zulu - uJehova The shortened version of the divine name "Jah" is also used...such as in "Hallelu - Jah" However whatever you argue about pronunciation, nevertheless the Bible says God has a name and is a person. As for the meaning of the divine name ie the tetragrammaton YHWH is thought to be "He causes to become"...The name is a form of a Hebrew verb ha·wah′ )הוה meaning “to become,” Whatever anyone concludes for themselves is up to them...., I happen to believe there IS a Creator and he cares about the planet, it's future and mankind!.....if anyone wishes to say that I am any less well read or any less scientific because of that tenet, then so be it...we're all entitled to our opinion, i'm not going to take offence.

Yes I do.......I didn't used to.... because I was bought up by Agnostics and was never baptised or anything. Always loved nature since I was a little girl and I'm afraid I could never reconcile the beauty and the complexity in nature and the natural world,with evolution and there being no creator. Actually to my surprise as I grew up I learned that even Darwin who started the theory of evolution believed in a Creator, he never said that he didn't beleive in God. Just over time other's made their minds up that the theory of evolution explained away any existence or need for a "Creator" So yes I do believe in God and the Bible says his name is Jehovah, which in ancient Hebrew means.... "He causes to become"

Voted A but im gettin greedy.....I want both!

Actually,I'm looking for a lodger but I'm a long way North from Stourbridge! I've been thinking of letting out one of the bedrooms to someone.

Ground floor flat in a Barn Conversion... It's lovely place and I'm so lucky to have found it! Currently has looked recently more like this!....

I only smoked for a couple of years when I was a teenager.....glad I gave up when I did. Hate it now!

What about rewarding you when you travel regularly from the depths of Northern realms to watch the mighty Villa??!!!

I think Emile will take it all in good spirit whatever Villa fans sing.....he knows he used to play for our fiercest rivals, so would expect a bit of stick! I got a text last night to say that apparently Everton used to sing at him "11 Million Pound for a lazy coon, he likes to sleep in the afternoon, he's soooo tired"

Petrov...can't beleive he's not named in that list....I don't think he's had a bad game for ages and he's done the dirty work in midfield allowing Barry & co to get forward.

I've voted for Petrov! Thought he was great again today.

General as you've only just flown back into the UK you probably won't be aware of the appalling car crash on M6 in Cheshire last weekend where a family of 6 with 4 kids were killed instantly, when their car burst into flames after hitting a lorry. The youngest child being only a few weeks old. The Portuguese driver is in custody following allegations of dangerous driving. The family were apparently travelling back from Birmingham to Llandudno after going to Saturday's game V Portsmouth. I wondered whether the club were aware of this?....as it might be appropriate to pay respects before tonights game. I think everyone seeing the news the weekend and the pictures in todays paper, have been absolutely horrified by what happened.

Ditto...well the bit about being skint is anyhow (not bin paid for weeks!)...so it's Asda's own brand lager (4 cans for 91p) with a dash of lime cordial...

Hi General who should I contact at VP concerning my AVTV World account because I pay annual subscription by DDR and yet all of a sudden I can't log in. I didn't see any of last night's game or the commentary but this has been like this for a few days. I thought it was a temporary fault and would right itself..AVTV is saying I am not registered. An contact or email address would be useful Many tx for all your hard work again. edited:- Hi again General. Please ignore my request. I've managed to get to the bottom of the problem online. It appears the problem may have been caused by me moving house and not updating my card details online. I've now rectified this and made sure the DDR details are filled in correctly. AVTV is now working fine at the moment.

I am LOSING interest quickly, however I probably will watch the game tonight....Yawn!!

Haven't seen the Wire..or Heroes...must catch up...but heck I'm missing 24!

I think MON gives himself about an 8.5 on the OS!! Talented Troops

That's so easy to remember...if we can't think of a whole song for Ashley because no one will remember the words (or can't be bothered to learn some)...then this should surely catch on!! A fellow fan I'm sad to say commented to me on Saturday.when I was bemoaning we had no song for Ashley Young... .how crap Villa fans are... at coming up with new songs.. Like Man Utd and Liverpool think of new ones ALL the time... The only exception to that is the Paul McGrath mi Lord...song, as I pointed out!

Hi General Enjoyed the game...great win. great hattrick..Just a couple of slight moans with catering... no milk at Upper North Stand catering for hot drinks...and the bottle of beer I had was warm! Last time I was at VP for Odense game and it was boiling hot ...the bottled drinks were warm, which on a sunny day is horrid! Just wondered what happened to the Holte End Giant Flag? ..it didn't make any appearance today! Many thanks for all your hard work!

If by the time we play Pool Aug 31st it's clear Barry's staying then it might be good to turn the Torres...Cuellar song against the opposition How about?...................... Barry said he's off to Pool Villa Villa But big fat Rafa's such a tool Villa Villa Martin named the price for Barry But far too much for Scouser Parry So now Stevie G...says he's off to join Chelsea

Has to be the tune for the teeth song...so called Torres Song ....it's the best!