When god supposedly speaks

[Mandy]

I was just thinking and I’m wondering how Christians distinguish when someone is telling the truth about god speaking to them or telling them to do something.  Is it even their place to try and figure out if another fellow Christian is sincere in their claim?  

 

I mean when I was infected with the god virus aka had faith aka believed blindly I most always thought people were batshit crazy when they would say god spoke to them or told them something.  It was one of the things that first made me question the whole god thing.  

 

The Bible says that god has told people to do things like sacrifice their children.  If god told someone to do this once, I think it occurred several times actually, what’s to say that god hasn’t told someone to do that in modern times?  I mean other than the fact god doesn’t exist.  How, however do Christians determine this?  Plenty of people have killed their children only to say god told them to.  Why aren’t the Christians supporting these people claims?  Instead they refute them and say god wouldn’t tell someone to do this.  Would he not?  Has he not already and was it not recorded in the Bible?

[TheRedneckProfessor]

The bible says to "test the spirits to see if they are of god."  What this essentially means is that christians are granted Carte Blanche to cherry-pick what they want to believe/accept/agree with, and what they don't.  They simply have to decide that they agree with what "god" is saying.  If "god" told a particularly depressed and stressed-out single mother to kill her children, it probably wasn't god.  On the other hand, if it were about killing Muslim children, then, yeah, god definitely said that.

[mwc]

     God said a bunch of shit way back when?  That definitely happened.  No question whatsoever.

 

     God says stuff today?  Not so fast.  God kind of stopped talking roundabout jesus' time.  So if god says anything today it's more in the vein of little hints and nudges.  And it's almost always something really good (or bad to warn you off something but that's still good).  So god would nudge you to be a better person by leaving little clues in your life.  No real words but maybe a message from someone or something that mentioned god or something of god so you know god is telling you something.  But god wouldn't actually speak.  He's done with that.

 

          mwc

 

[◊ DestinyTurtle ◊]

It really depends on the denomination/theology, but for the most part it seems to me people arbitrarily choose based on what works for them. Also there's a huge variation by what people even mean by "talking to God". Sometimes it's just a colorful way of saying "consulting one's conscience" and other times it might actually be in the "literally hearing voices" realm. 

[nontheistpilgrim]

And sometimes it is pure selfishness. The clergy in an area I know quite well are struggling with one of their number who says things like 'god told me to do this or that and I want to be obedient to him' (always a male god!). Everyone else can see what is happening except him and the congregation who worship him. If anyone challenges the clergy person they are accused of frustrating god.

I always understood that personal revelations should be tested by corporate wisdom. But real life isn't like that, is it? Which turns people off church and off god. Sometimes Christians are evil and selfish in their behaviour towards each other.