Quote:
Originally posted by Fljotsdale:
Um. No, the earth wasn't a Paradise, Yorick! Just one bit of it was! Check out Genesis 1:28; 2:8,15; 3:17,18,23. It even seems to have had a hedge or fence round it since an angel was placed 'at the entrance' to keep them out when they were banished. 
The christians who just 'leave god to fix it' that I spoke of, Yorick, are not present-day christians as you would realise if stopped feeling angry long enough to read my post properly! Gosh, you do get angry a lot for a christian, don't you, lol! No worries - I know it is only because you feel strongly about it, and (maybe?) you think I am trying to twist things, and mislead people. But you ought to know by now that I would not do such a thing. 
And, yeah, a god outside time certainly could know mankind would fail. But there is another way of looking at it: that your god could choose to 'wait and see', rather than looking. After all - he did NOT KNOW that Abraham would actually go the full way and sacrifice Isaac, did he? Not until afterwards?Remember? "NOW I DO KNOW... etc". He didn't beforehand.
New Heavens and a New Earth. Yes. But new in what way, Yorick? Is god going to destroy the earth and the heaven he lives in and replace both with new ones? I think not. Remember: 'The earth is standing even forever'(Ecclesiastes 1:4) 'He did not create it simply for nothing, he created it even to be inhabited'(Isaiah 45:18) (see also Proverbs 2:21,22; Psalm 37:9-11,29; Isaiah 65:17,21,22,23)
The book of Revelation is largely symbolic, so 'New' heavens and earth is meant symbolically, too.
Wanna discuss it?
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Fjlotsdale, I don't need a bible to tell me the earth was paradise. I just have to go over Pittwater in Sydney by boat to the opposite side of the Barenjoey Peninsular and lie on the sand looking up at the trees, hills, rocks and birds feeling warmed by the sun to know that I am in Paradise. Then I go back, sit in the middle of a traffic island surrounded by noisey cars, fume choked air, drug addicts and haunted crazies sleeping in excrement, rats and garbage, and I'm in comparitive hell.
And no I'm not going to discuss the other stuff with you Fjlotsdale, because you will pull verses out of context of the larger picture. "Now I know" does not necessitate a removal of omniscience when viewed in the larger picture of Abrahams actions. It created a degree of trust and reliance in Abraham. The action was for Abrahams benefit, and our knowledge of Gods character, not Gods knowledge of events.
A new heaven and earth being metaphorical? Of course, how can we adequately conceptualise that which we have no experience of? Who knows what the afterlife will entail. It certainly will not be here, in this body, with these limitations.
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I am the walrus!.... er, no hang on....
A fair dinkum laughing Hyena!