Go to Seeking Limits of Mankind, and Limits of God
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- Go to Daniel and The Angels... 21 Days of Stalemate in the Bible
Dr D
Thanks for reading and for your thoughtful comment. Your point is well-taken, that God helps us weather the storm. We should always ask for, and humbly receive, any help from God and his appointed helpers, whether spiritual or human. We are told that we must ask for help, that we must knock on closed doors, and we should always do that.
My point is that if God's highest angels can be ambushed or waylaid for 21 days on an important mission that ended up in the Bible for us to ponder, then perhaps we should reconsider the nature of "omnipotence", and perhaps we should realize that the war between Good and Evil is actually a real war, with horrific casualties and victims, with an uncertain outcome..... or at least an outcome less certain than is generally believed. This is all speculation of course, but the indicators in the Bible itself are fascinating.
posted by
GoldenMean
on February 18, 2016 at 7:49 AM
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I stopped reading as the angel told Daniel that he was going back to fight with the kings of Persia. I will read the remaining the next time. It is a good synopsis of the book of Daniel. As far as God allowing Daniel to actually be condemned is revelant to some of us today. We, and myself as well have gotten right to the point of acyually being in a spiritual storm, even though I was already praying because I had seen it coming, I still get caught in it. The point is that God does help us weather the storm. He makes the waters spiritual and bring us right on out in a very dry state of mind.
posted by
drdianne
on February 17, 2016 at 11:09 PM
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Actually, it would be great if we could have both, the pre-emptive plot foiling and the spectacular rescues. They are both strategies to defeat Evil and preserve Goodness. Bring em on, I say! We should welcome both, and the more the better. We need all the help we can get.
posted by
GoldenMean
on January 27, 2016 at 10:38 AM
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Krisles
Thank you, that is a brilliant point.... considering the audience of the day. Also a great point that if God had foiled the plot against Daniel, we would not have the spectacular angelic rescue to grab everyone's attention. I am sure that news of the angelic rescue spread far and wide, through Persia and beyond, and hopefully most who heard it were duly amazed and impressed. Others were no doubt skeptical, and dismissed it as a fairy tale for gullible people.
But what troubles me is that such rescues are far and few between in history, in current events. The vast majority of the time, the evil plots succeed, the good guys are slaughtered, and there is no rescue. We have to chase the criminals after their horrendous crimes. We have to fight minor and major wars to stop political and religious tyrannies that have gotten way too strong.
So, personally, I would prefer more frequent pre-emptive plot foiling, to save a nation, instead of the occassional token spectacular rescue of one man.
Actually, I do think that pre-emptive plot foiling is happening all the time, directed by God, as best He can, and still we have the world in a state of continual war and crime.
posted by
GoldenMean
on January 27, 2016 at 5:35 AM
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Golden
I suppose there's no chance God was thinking of the audience then, much more likely to be impressed by an Angel appearing on behalf of Daniel in a den of lions...lions being unable to best Daniel, etc. I mean, the audience of the day would have no way of knowing if God simply saved Daniel from ever having been imprisoned...we are looking from the perspective of a story told in retrospect. The angel in the lion's den makes a heck of a dramatic tale. I am not remotely an orthodox believer - nor an orthodox anything, lol! While I think you make some great points for consideration, I just get argumentative anytime anyone makes such definitive, conclusive statements about areas I consider open for interpretation....even when I have absoluely no opinion on the matter myself! Bad habit....sorry....good post.(although, I admit I got quite lost in all the angelolog!)
posted by
Krisles
on January 26, 2016 at 7:26 PM
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