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From: jnelson@trwrba.UUCP (John T. Nelson)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re:  Nichols on Maroney (A Ba'laam Blessing?)
Message-ID: <1088@trwrba.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 6-Nov-84 10:14:30 EST
Article-I.D.: trwrba.1088
Posted: Tue Nov  6 10:14:30 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 8-Nov-84 12:02:58 EST
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		[Someone]
		The only  way I could consider Ken's posting as a
		rebuttal to Tim's article is by assuming a double
		standard - one standard for god and another standard
		for the rest of the universe.  Does it imply that what
		we recognize as a low moral standard (e.g. killing
		innocent people) is reversed when it is applied to god?
		When God bears the responsibility for the death of the
		innocent, is he to be judged as having high moral
		standards?

	[Larry Bickford]
	Not a double standard...God IS the standard, and man doesn't
	even come close. Someone may be innocent when only humans and
	human standards are considered, but when God and His standards
	are brought into the picture,

[John T. Nelson]
In other words, it IS a double standard.  I see NO change when "God and
His standards are brought into the picture"... only a deeper chasm between
the truth and what Ken Nicholls and Larry Bickford prescribe.

God does as he pleases.  Why shouldn't he?  He is accountable to no one.
As a result he can condemn millions to eternities of punishment for the
most trivial of crimes and yet turn around and wash his hands of the blood,
claiming to be a Holy and righteous God.  If God cannot manage to adhere
to the laws that he has set up for his creations, then he is by no means
better than us... only different from us.

You might argue that these laws were created for man here on earth,
but no that doesn't wash because the things that we learn here on earth
will also be applied in heaven.  That's why this hypocritical theology
that Larry Bickford and Ken Nicholls percribe as the panacea to all our
ills seems so patently false!  Any God that wishes us to be perfect so
that he can commune with us had better clean up his own act.

Sin is sin no matter WHAT lame hand-wave you use.

	This was one of Tim's major fallacies - trying to put God on a
	human level.  However, Isaiah 55:6-9 clearly puts God on a
	distinct level above us.

God fails the test by human standards... how can God's actions possibly
be condoned by his OWN standards?

Notice how the evidence Mr. Bickford and Co. always show us is (for
the zillionth time) chapter and verse from the Bible.  But if the Bible
is inspired or written by God (as many believe) then can we be expected
anything BUT justification of God's actions?  What totaly cyclical
logic!


					- John