I agree with you, most of the time pretending is not a good thing; however, every so often it can be fun.

And sorry about my word choice, I was tired after work before going to bed when I wrote it.

Where there is no science, one must rely on faith. But here is a finding of science. The placebo effect works even if you tell people upfront it is the placebo. That is scientific proof that people are saved by their faith stat the forces of the universe are on their side. Isn’t it refreshing when science confirms what one believed by faith?

Faith guides relationship with the forces of nature. Knowledge is good when one has it, but faith is needed regardless. One can not spend but so much time studying the exact nature of things. It is there and one must have faith that it is there. Faith shapes how we understand God’s world and workings. It also shapes how we live our life.

And who’s to say pretending is not a good thing anyway? I mean a fire drill is pretending and that’s important training.

Sir! Can't believe anyone likes to pretend or be hypocritical.

After all, a pretender (hypocrite) is a person who wants to appear different from what he really is; who says one thing and does another.

Let me tell you a story.

There is a message in the Bible about such a person. His name was Ananias.

Member of the early Christian congregation in Jerusalem. After Pentecost 33 C.E. e. Christians worked together to provide for the urgent needs of the believers who stayed in Jerusalem for a while. For this purpose, a general fund was established. It was replenished by donations from members of the congregation, who, selling a field or a house, gave the money received. Ananias sold the field and gave part of the proceeds to the congregation. However, he said he donated the full amount. His wife knew about it too. Ananias undoubtedly wanted to receive praise and respect in the congregation. Peter, thanks to the special gift of knowledge that was given to him through the spirit, recognized his pretense and denounced that he had lied to the holy spirit and God. Then Ananias fell and died. When those who had buried him returned about three hours later, they saw that his wife Saphira, who was at the same time with him in this pretense, was also dead. Ac 5: 1-10 (New World Translation).

This story shows that pretending is not very fun, this dangerous business has unpleasant consequences, up to and including death. God doesn't like pretense and those who do it.
 

And you will forgive me if I offended you.

Of course

Made me a little nervous but it did make me think.

I understand you. Glad to chat with you.

For the record, I never thought you were pretending to begin with.

It was nice talking.

Thank you for not thinking so. It's nice to communicate when people are sincere. Maybe we'll talk sometime else.

Elena, thank you for your input. I see the nutcase Mr.Brown is deactived. People learn by reading and listening. he did neither.

Hello, Butterfly7! I'm very sorry I don't know your real name.

Thank you for your feedback. And I always thank God for letting me know about him and his plans.

I didn’t know that Mr. Brown deleted his profile. I'm sorry, but maybe he'll come back?

For hundreds of years people have been wondering: is there a God or not?

I looked at my life and thought - what can I? Very little, because my options are limited.

Let me tell you a story.

I started smoking in 80 of the last century. And she smoked for 32 years. I really wanted to quit this bad habit, but I couldn't.

When I started studying the Bible, I was taught to pray correctly (to whom and through whom). I prayed to God through sobs and tears to help me get rid of the smoking habit. And soon I stopped smoking, I don't even have the desire to take a cigarette. This month it will be 7 years since I smoke. And this is not the only time when I see the hand of God in my life.

I am writing this to the point that God not only exists, he is ready to help each of us. You just need to ask for help and see how this help comes.

Look closely at your life and you will see the hand of God in it!

Jeremiah 10:23 (New World Translation) says: "I well know, O Jehovah, that man's way does not belong to him. It does not belong to man who is walking even to direct his step."

Only God with His unlimited possibilities can really help people.

Billbrown857 wrote:
Billbrown857:

The fact is that the Judeo-Christian Bible is not just any book and that it was not merely written by humans. Rather, it was written by men who were inspired by Almighty God to write. What they wrote was not their personal thoughts but Jehovah's thoughts.

Proof that the Bible was divinely inspired is seen by the fact that it contains some 2,000 accurately fulfilled prophecies, many of them written hundreds of years before the prophesied events occurred. The accurate fulfillment of some of these prophecies have been confirmed by secular history. For your information, secular history has nothing to do with religion. Yet, secular historians confirmed the accuracy of many Bible prophecies.

Now, suppose you explain to those reading this thread how mere humans could accurately prophesy future events 2,000 times. Keep in mind that humans sometimes have a problem predicting the weather.

I will watch for your reply.

NeutralZone

________________
"That people may know that you, whose name is JEHOVAH, you alone are the Most High over all the earth." ~ Psalms 83:18

WE are the ones with the pretty sweet gig. God loves us all.

If God is within us, then we have free will.

What need would God have to be WITHIN US? Biblically, it means that God is AMONG US. Such as "the Kingdom of God" is within you, meaning AMONG YOU.

That would be the deterministic point of view on it, which is actually a better description of reality. And more biblical. The spirit of free will within us is a much smaller part of the whole.

I am not sure how important faith is as a practice. It is very important, at least, as some thing to be aware of, because it is mentioned all over the place in the Bible. But as a practice, it seems like believe would be safer in terms of growing and the word. People learn information and know how they know it.

If one relies on faith, it is too easy to be snared by false Prophets and fall guilty of idolatry, the highest sin.

This is the biblical definition of faith:

[Hebrew 11:1] Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Faith has all to do with NOT seeing or knowing and still believing. Because for us living in the natural world, seeing is knowing and the evidence of existence, which takes away our doubts.
Faith becomes strong when there is "hope and expectation" behind it.