Part 30 of Post Your Tough Questions Regarding Christianity>>>MOD ALERT<<<

Part 30 of Post Your Tough Questions Regarding Christianity. The topic of the thread.

The recent debates have been nothing to do with the subject. Just a combat of wills between 2 posters over something no-one else is interested in.

In fact the whole thread has been practically a sham. I've asked many hard questions and recieved no answers. I've posted alternative views using Hebrew interpretation - which some modern Christian students are beginning to accept - again no reply.
Many answers to other posters have been mainly through quotes from various Christian websites - not necessarily the website 'owner' who is supposed to be the experienced Christian.

After all that's been allowed on this thread I'm quite happy to leave it for pastures new.

 

Perfectly acceptable in Christianity because there was only one human sacrifice done, and this sacrificial lamb (Jesus) resurrected from the dead 3 days later. But yes, what those sinful men did to our Lord was indeed barbaric but it had to be done to save the world from its sins.

 

Exactly WR! It was the aggression of Muslim invasions that triggered the response of the Crusades. These Crusades were more defensive than offensive in nature.

 

Obviously both of you have not understood and have not appreciated this sacrifice by our Lord Savior Jesus Christ. First of all let's not forget this human sacrifice was only done once to save mankind from our sins.

We must also not forget that God does things His way and who are we to question God's way as if we know better on how things should be done.

We read in Scripture, "My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,&#8221; says the Lord. &#8220;And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine."---Isaiah 55:8 NLT

"He is the Rock; his deeds are perfect. Everything he does is just and fair. He is a faithful God who does no wrong; how just and upright he is!"---Deut. 32:4 NLT

So God's plan of salvation is perfect and just and none of us could have come up with a salvation plan that is even better.

Scripture tells us the punishment for sin is death. Our first parents Adam & Eve sinned by disobeying God in the Garden, God had to punish them. Death is God's just consequence for sin. And since the sin in the Garden, every human has been guilty of disobeying God's righteous laws, we all have sinned, we all deserve punishment for our sins.

We read in Scripture, "For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God&#8217;s glorious standard."---Romans 6:23 NLT

And so we all deserve punishment, we all deserve death, we all deserve eternal separation from God in hell.

But because of God's love, He promised to send a sacrifice to take the punishment we all deserve. This sacrifice required an innocent death.

God sent His Son Jesus Christ as the one who could atone for the sins of His people.

We read in Scripture, "For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God&#8217;s glorious standard. Yet God freely and graciously declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. "---Romans 3:23-25 NLT

In the Old Testament, the prophets foretold Jesus' death. This sacrificial Lamb was propheseid to come, the Messiah who would shed His innocent blood to wash away the sins of mankind.

We read in Scripture, &#8220;For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.

&#8220;There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God&#8217;s one and only Son. And the judgment is based on this fact: God&#8217;s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants."---John 3-16-21 NLT

So in summary we see that Jesus died for our sins, in that He took the punishment that we deserved, He paid the penalty for our sins, instead of us being punished in hell Jesus death on the cross shedding His innocent blood paid the sin debt for us and so now whoever believes and accepts the payment Jesus made for them on the cross they will not be punished in hell for their sins but they will gain entrance into paradise, into God's Kingdom of Heaven and live with God and all others who are saved for all eternity.

Jesus was the only one who could die for our sins because He was innocent, sinless, not deserving to die but He sacrificed Himself to die for us to save us from punishment in hell.

We read in Scripture, "He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.&#8221;---Rev. 21:4 NLT

 

That was way better than my response, obviously, mine got deleted. But said the same thing. This thread has turned into nothing but twisting of peoples words, misquotes, etc. And continues on.

 

This series of threads has been that way from the get go and could not be anything more, it is unlikely the thread creator or indeed any of the usual Christians here actually have the answers let alone wish to deal with the realities they would present.

 

MITT QUOTE

THERE IS NO REFERENCE TO JESUS ANYWHERE IN THE TANAKH. NOT IN THE PSALMS, ISAIAH, JEREMIAH OR ANY OTHER PART OF THE TANAKH. JUST EARLY CHRISTIAN MISINTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE.

Christianity took the Tanakh and wove the story of Jesus into it.
This is the same way that the Jews wrote their supposed history around places and supposed heros.
'Abraham' and his journeys. 'Lot' and the ruined cities of the plain. 'Moses' the righteous lawgiver and the Exodus. 'Joshua' the hero and battles for Jericho etc. And so on.
The story of brave Daniel and the lions den and his prophecies was written centuries after the supposed events and the prophecies had occurred. Have you read Daniel chapters 13 and 14? Similar stories appear there. Of course these 2 chapters are not in the Protestant Bible. They are in the Septuagint and in the Catholic Bible. So which one is right Mitt? Which one is right WarRen?

At least we have evidence of the era of the Kings until the exile. Then, later, the Maccabean period.

This thread has produced a lot of information for which I am grateful to Margot and others with regard to archaeology, ancient texts etc. Regretably nothing on the spiritual side.

 

Anything written after the fact is not prophesy. There were many prophecies in the Old Testament regarding the Messiah to come in the future, this Messiah we now know was our Lord Savior Jesus Christ! (Read the Book of Isaiah)

Prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah delivered messages to the people that came from God.

 

Jesus isn't mentioned in the OT........ You know that there were schools for prophets.. and they were more like commentators than fortune tellers... and they did prophecy after the fact most of the time.

The Old Testament mentions a school of prophets in 1 Samuel 19:18&#8211;24 and in 2 Kings 2 and 4:38&#8211;44 (some translations say &#8220;company of prophets&#8221; or &#8220;sons of the prophets&#8221. Also, the prophet Amos possibly mentions a prophetic school in stating his credentials (or lack thereof) to King Amaziah: &#8220;I was neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet&#8221; (Amos 7:14).



Read more: http://www.gotquestions.org/school-of-prophets.html#ixzz3UIL9WnxW

 

Exactly WR! Good post! Yes, there aren't any solid facts/evidence only theories and guess work and so that don't cut it whatsoever!

 

ISAIAH HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH JESUS. ONLY BY TAKING THINGS OUT OF CONTEXT CAN THIS BE DONE. ISAIAH IS ALL TO DO WITH THE 'SUFFERING SERVANT' ISRAEL. BY TAKING THINGS OUT OF CONTEXT YOU CAN PROVE ALMOST ANYTHING.
WHY DON'T YOU DO A BIT OF GENUINE STUDY.
Of course! You can't risk learning the truth.

 

How astute! And if a duck quacks like a duck and looks like a duck it's a duck not a man.

 

Yes, exactly WR! We humans are of a different species from apes. And that's why it can't be true that we humans and apes shared a common ancestor, that theory that some cling to is all so wrong! Till this day no one has explained who this common ancestor is, how it looked, what it ate, etc.

 

There is no difference, to say we are one taxonomic family is essentially saying whoever is in the family are all of one species.

Humans are in the human family, apes are in the ape family, thus we are not one taxonomic family. The word "taxonomic" is a senseless, made up word created by scientist who believed in evolution.

 

Are you really claiming that the long heads are over 65 million years old? Do you have any relevant sources for that? Please share.

 

As I see it.

Of course some type of humans and dinosaurs lived at the same time. When the dinosaurs had eaten all the humans they died out of starvation. Then about 8000 years ago man suddenly appeared again, only to be nearly wiped out by a gigantic flood. Since then a miracle has occurred. 8 people, all of the same appearance has turned into 6 billion, multicoloured, multifeatured, multilanguaged beings, following a multitude of gods. someone came along and said 'there's only one God, ours'. Later someone else came along and said 'There is only one god, but in three personalities'. A third person came along and said 'The one god is ours, only we have another name for him'.
So you see it's all quite simple. If there is a god he must be more confused than we are. It is reported that there is a little planet just to the right of Alpha Centaura and god is taking a million year sabbatical on its beaches. WHERE THERE ARE NO HUMAN BEINGS.

Of course I might be wrong.

 

A question.

If a God is considered omnipotent - living outside our time/space continuum (a necessity if God is to create our Universe) then wouldn't the act of creation be a redundant exercise for such a being?
I mean, omnipotent beings would know the entirety of action throughout the span of said universe at the very instant it was conceived - watching it unfold would be ... well... incredibly boring for said being. There would be no surprises. Every possible variant already imagined.

If you believe in an omnipotent God - then for such a God to actually bother creating a universe makes no sense, does it?

 

Actually, you are mostly correct. The planet in question is known as Plerbius and Seven Gods currently inhabit it along with several thousand Slatian Ornades. Ornades are universally accepted as the finest foot rubbing toe lickers available and serve a mean cocktail to boot. Unfortunately one of the gods (Allah) has decided to return from vacation early and he had a terrible hangover which put him in a very bad mood. He even rescinded the 72 virgin clause and decided not to tell anyone.

 

You are assuming that such a creator would indeed share and be limited to the same sentiments that you as an individual would be confronted. Perhaps there is more to the nature of that creator than what you can imagine.

 

In your thoughts it would be incredibly boring but please note you're not an omnipotent being and so what makes you think it would also be incredibly boring for an omnipotent being?

God does things His way, and His way is not our way, and His thoughts are not our thoughts.

We read in Scripture, "My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,&#8221; says the Lord.
&#8220;And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine."---Isaiah 55:8 NLT

How does it make no sense? What makes no sense is that the universe and everything else in existence accidentally on its own came into existence, it caused itself to come into existence for no apparent reason. Our brilliant scientists have informed us that the universe had a beginning and so it is not eternal as once believed.

Think about that...does it make sense to you?

Or does it make more sense that an omnipotent being who by definition has to be eternal, who has no beginning, who has no end, who is omniscient and omnipresent besides being omnipotent must be responsible for causing the universe and everything else to come into existence?

 

If such an entity neither shared any of our sensibility or sentiments, what need for such a creator to make humans - let alone want to spend eternity with the "good" ones?

 

Why does it have to make sense? You just said God's mind is unknowable so why would anything such a being did have to make sense?

Even if I were to say that the universe was absolutely created, it would get you no closer to the who or why.

 

Might I recommend you refrain from attempting to comment on things you seem incapable of understanding?

Seriously, I am embarrassed for you.

 

That didn't make any sense.
Can you give a better interpretation?

 

Well, how about His own personal delight (for a lack of better terminology... regardless of whether or not it is applicable)? That is a possibility....