If God gives us free will, what do you make of the Ten Commandments? [Spirituality & Religion]

@Sarabee doesn't a commandment thwart free will?

@JovialPlutonian not at all you have good advice in one hand n you have the other🤔

@Sarabee it's not advice, it's a commandment.

@JovialPlutonian it was until god gave us Jesus ❤️

@Sarabee oh ok so the Ten Commandments are irrelevant now some how. Is that the same with how homosexuality is ok now, that your religion can simply alter its teachings whenever and however it sees fit?

@JovialPlutonian no homos aren't accepted but we do love n pray for them ,just because it is not needed to follow doesn't mean we've abandoned them we still follow ❤️

@Sarabee but many Christians would say the religion doesn't have a problem with homosexuals. Could this be another branch of the religion forming?

@JovialPlutonian I'm independent baptist and I know what I believe🤔❤️❤️

@JovialPlutonian You asked "doesn't a commandment thwart free will"? If obedience to the commandment is forced, and there is no option available to NOT obey, then yes, but only because free will has been removed. If free will remains, then there remains both options, to obey, or to NOT obey the commandment.

@ms20182878 all I'm getting at is the term undermines the free will giving, it should be the ten commitments.

@JovialPlutonian I looked up the definition of "commitment" to try to understand how that might work. Are you saying that what God gave to Moses and the Hebrews was His commitment to them? While that is very true in may ways, it doesn't seem to be a correct description of the words that He wrote on each of the stone tablets.

@ms20182878 yes the true text would be ten commitments, if God had anything to do with it. It's a complete purposely made misleading of the church over its ppl to control them.

@ms20182878 thank you, you are the first person to openly acknowledge what I'm saying.

@JovialPlutonian I'm a bit confused by what you wrote "It's a complete purposely made misleading of the church over its ppl to control them." Can you kindly explain what you mean?

@ms20182878 look at the demands of the church of its followers. Does God need to make demands on anyone? And if so what for? This is a lesser God. God needs nothing of you or anyone else, it's your church that needs you.

@ms20182878 sorry I may have written my response as if it applies to you, I don't know if you are of any religion.

@JovialPlutonian I am a follower of Jesus. I try to avoid any other labels because they come with so much additional baggage attached these days... 🙂

Definitions are important. "The church" is a term that is commonly attached to religious organizations, and it is then often assumed that all of those organizations have common attributes... especially those attributes that are viewed as negative. That's a broad assumption that is clearly not true, based on my personal life experiences in several different faith communities. But it is exceedingly difficult for me to ever convince anyone that there may be faith communities out there that are different than what they have personally experienced in their own life. For some reason, they believe that there can be no faith communities out there that differ from their own personal experiences. I know that I have only experienced a very small subset of different faith communities, and there are many that are very Biblical in their beliefs and life actions. Having said this, the definition of "the church" that is the Biblical definition is: the group of all true believers. It is not about any particular religious organization, as we would typically think of one. But it is all about the group of people, throughout time and geography and ethnic background and everything else, that are true followers of the God of the Bible and who believe that His Son, Jesus, died in our place to pay the penalty for our sinfulness and thereby redeem us, clothing us with His righteousness, so that we might be adopted into God's family, by His grace and through our faith. Those true believers are "the church". As members of "the church", we are to bring God's message to the world, making disciples and teaching them to be obedient to God's Word. So... as a member of "the church", we do have responsibilities... which you might label as "demands"... but which true believers will naturally do as a response to the immense love that has been shown them by God.

@ms20182878 how can you claim making others be obedient isn't thwarting their free will? I'm not denying many if not most of the followers are sincere in loving and doing good for others but those at the top are still controlling them. The church is ridiculously rich and you still have homelessness. Oh and just so you know, a message from God, there's nothing you have to do to get into God's family, as we are already in God's family.

@JovialPlutonian I am saying that there are probably very few instances where someone can actually "make others be obedient". Throughout history, there are many instances where people have chosen to be killed instead of choosing to obey. The human will can be quite strong when you decide to not do something that you are told to do. If you can actually figure out how to make someone obey and force them to do something when they do not want to do it, then I suppose you have "thwarted their free will". But it seems that this scenario is pretty far outside of the context of the covenant relationship established between God and His people on Mt. Sinai.

It is important to remember that the church, as defined in the Bible, is the body of true believers. The true believers are not tasked with accomplishing things like overcoming hunger, disease, and homelessness. We are to be about making disciples as our primary mission. We may make progress in helping with the physical needs of people along the way, but we will never overcome the major issues of the world.

When you wrote "there's nothing you have to do to get into God's family, as we are already in God's family", can I ask who the "we" is and what you mean by "are already in God's family"?

@ms20182878 we means everybody and already in God's family is exactly that as we're already that which is risen (God's offspring)

@ms20182878 what does God say about overcoming major issues? Only that this is what we choose to do with the free will God has given us.

@ms20182878 I think you'd make a lot of disciples if you're helping to cure hunger or disease. Jesus did that in his example and he has many followers. Not that jesus even meant for you to physically follow him but to follow in his example in that we are no different to him, all sons and daughters of God. You can see how misinterpreted his followers are of his teachings.

@JovialPlutonian So, based on your response of "we means everybody and already in God's family is exactly that as we're already that which is risen (God's offspring)", can you explain who you believe Jesus is? Do you believe that He is your Savior? And, what happens to you when you die?

@ms20182878He is a son of God with conscious awareness beyond that of most human beings. I believe by saviour, it means to follows his teachings would bring you to God but it's not the only way to God and Jesus was not perfect either (God's words not mine) he just knew how to manipulate energy. And when I die which all of us have done before, our souls leave our physical bodies, like it does every night when we sleep, to the world of the absolute, where there is no duality, and we reside there until we choose otherwise to have another life.

@JovialPlutonian Oh, OK. So then you believe in a God who is different from the God of the Bible.