Well I guess that depends on you to a degree, that is to say what you would be willing to believe is possible or impossible. I'd say just for an example, ask it to raise the dead. As far as I am aware this is something so impossible that neither science nor magic can do this thing, but that only a handful of very faithful people to God in the Bible are recorded as doing.
How to distinguish the true deity from a very advanced technology?
- Thread starter trofimus
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a sci-fi author i'm fond of, Charles Stross, defined a technological level he called 'weakly godlike' by capability to engineer the manipulation of matter & energy generally at will, and process incredible amounts of information incredibly quickly ((in the case of semi-sentient software or augmented sentient beings)) such that knowledge and inference approaches omniscience, but restricted in that at this level whatever culture/being/society/AI is still bound by immutable laws of physics.
God is not bound by physics; He created it.
God is not bound by physics; He created it.
as you might expect, Stross also defined a level of advancement he called 'godlike' - wherein an intelligence was able to bend or defy physical law. that's a more interesting question, because we have warnings in scripture ((Matthew 24, 2 Thessalonians 2, etc)) about false prophets, false messiahs, and antichrist given power to perform 'great signs and wonders' to deceive, even the elect, if it were possible. we have instruction in scripture too, both before and after Christ's advent that if someone comes and performs miracles but leads us after any other god: denies Christ came in the flesh, that we need not pay them attention or believe them.
Answer = The same way we find out if "our" current religion is right, or just man-made... You seek God until he makes the truth clear. It's not about studying the alien, the technology, or the religious teaching... it's about finding the truth about GOD.
If we don't seek God until we find him...(If we're willing to just follow what makes sense to us and/or our limited understanding of the scriptures)...then we're already set up to be deceived.
If you think you can have a correct religion without having a living, speaking, active God...then you've joined a cult. A cult used to be defined roughly as "a set of religious beliefs without the deity to back it up" (regardless of the charisma of the leader). It's about whether GOD is in the church, not the attributes of the leader...or whether the preaching sounds good...it's about GOD. That's why I say if we have doctrines, but God doesn't do stuff, we've got it wrong. We've got to take it to God until HE shows up.
BTW, that's exactly how prophecy worked in the OT, and exactly what the disciples had to do until the day of Pentecost. They had to seek God until he showed up. None of this "I think this is what he means"...they had to seek him until he spoke.... and none of this "I think this is what the comforter is"... it was seek until he showed up.
With love in Jesus,
Kelby
If we don't seek God until we find him...(If we're willing to just follow what makes sense to us and/or our limited understanding of the scriptures)...then we're already set up to be deceived.
If you think you can have a correct religion without having a living, speaking, active God...then you've joined a cult. A cult used to be defined roughly as "a set of religious beliefs without the deity to back it up" (regardless of the charisma of the leader). It's about whether GOD is in the church, not the attributes of the leader...or whether the preaching sounds good...it's about GOD. That's why I say if we have doctrines, but God doesn't do stuff, we've got it wrong. We've got to take it to God until HE shows up.
BTW, that's exactly how prophecy worked in the OT, and exactly what the disciples had to do until the day of Pentecost. They had to seek God until he showed up. None of this "I think this is what he means"...they had to seek him until he spoke.... and none of this "I think this is what the comforter is"... it was seek until he showed up.
With love in Jesus,
Kelby
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