PostmodernProphet
fully immersed in faith..
never underestimate the ability of an idiot to find more like him.......
Understanding Christianity - Questions for Christians
- Thread starter Stelakh
- Start date
Leonthecat
Racism Watchdog
I know. They all congregate, once a week, in magic houses, called churches.
PostmodernProphet
fully immersed in faith..
do you go, looking for a BuyBrain?......
If you choose to make that assumption, that's up to you. I will say, however, that you are incorrect.
I literally do not understand certain things when it comes to Christianity and today's "Christians" and what they do and do not take as "gospel truth."
As someone who does not believe that the New Testament is the word of God, and who sees the Jesus of the New Testament as simply not the person prophesied to be the Messiah, I seek to understand why it is that Christians find it so easy to gloss over the issue, and to understand the idea that the New Testament somehow negates the Old when, from my point of view, beliefs and research, it certainly doesn't.
Everything was fine, and you were happy to participate, not suspecting that I had any ulterior motive for this thread, until postmodernprophet decided to act like an imbecile, saying that the fact that there are more than 600 commandments is a lie (which is patently untrue; I'll say it again and then I'll move on: There are 611 "Commandments," plus the first two of the ha D'varim ("Statements" or "Sayings"), to make a total of 613).
Now, with that hopefully settled, if you would like to continue with an actual conversation, I am certainly open to that.
If not, I hope that you will let others continue the conversation without interruption.
evince
Truthmatters
hey hey hey
I have known some brilliant wonderful people who were devout.
Religion does a lot of people a lot of good.
people who believe these myths have a right to do so with our respect.
When they begin to disrespect us because we are not joining them in these beliefs is when we have to come down on them.
that means they want to control everything.
It is none of anyones business If I speak to god or not.
It does not make me of less value to the world.
Myth believers need to set that in their spines forever or they make themselves the enemy of mankind
In essence, yes, the Roman Catholic Church, which emerged as the dominant Christian religion in about 250 CE.
But more specifically, I'm referring to the canon changes that took place in 170 CE in the Muratorian Canon (which actually established the first biblical canon), then again in 363 CE at the Council of Laodicea, then again at the Council of Hippo in 393 CE, then again at the Council of Carthage in 397 CE.
That one's actually pretty easy.
According to the Prophecies, the Messiah should be:
• The direct scion, through is father, of David - and this will be absolutely irrefutable.
• Mortal, born from a normal man and woman, conceived the old-fashioned (and fun) way.
• Extremely righteous (meaning that he will follow the teachings of the Torah to the letter)
• He will be what would be considered the very best scholar of the Torah, knowing all of it and being very well versed in it.
• He will become the ruler of Israel and all of its people (all 12 Tribes).
• He will have a son (at least one) who will become King after the Messiah dies from a normal death, having lived a very long life.
• He will support and strengthen the Torah, and it will not be changed.
• The oppression, slavery, bigotry and hatred shown toward Jews by others will be gone. Hell, NOBODY will be being dicks to anyone else, regardless of faith/nationality/etc.
• The complete and full body of the Law will be restored by the Sanhedrin.
• The Messiah comes around once - there is no "second coming." Everything he seeks to accomplish according to propehcy he'll do without having to swing back around.
Things Jesus did that say he's not the Messiah foretold:
• Die on the cross (regardless of the reason)
• Challenge the Torah and its laws in any way whatsoever
• Rise from the dead
• Ascend into Heaven
• Redeem people for their sins
• Have a 'second coming"
• Be born of a virgin
• Be the son of God
• Remain a virgin
• Had no son
No, I mean since the first time I joined. This is my second time registering for this forum (with the same name) - necessitated by coming back after a long absence due to being in an automobile accident and finding that my account no longer existed (I'm guessing due to inactivity).
evince
Truthmatters
do you think your belief makes you better than others who don't share your beliefs
evince
Truthmatters
glad to hear of your recovery
Have you ever had a conversation in your own head? One where you're just kind of doing some mental or intellectual exercise? Or when you're imaginitively having a conversation with some other person because you're wrangling an ethical or moral issue and - even though that other person in your head is giving answers supplied by you - you're just bouncing thoughts off that "other" and thinking things through? You know, you're just trying to convince yourself one way or the other?
I'm sure we all have done that at some point.
How do we know, when we're having the holy spirit impart something to us, that it's not just us answering ourselves and not any divine truth?
I posted succinct explanations to your question- with links, you chose to ignore that, and instead dig into an opportunity to be a smart ass to PMP, who rightly saw through your pretenses.
But, OK, you can carry on your farcical way.
It doesn't really matter what I see as much as it does that the Messiah as foretold is not the same person as Jesus. The requirement of being a Scion of David isn't something I came up with, it's what was written, as is the idea that the Messiah will bring about a change that ends the oppression and persecution of the Jews.
If you are pious and righteous (and as I mentioned in my opening post, I'm a "bad Jew", because frankly the whole prohibition against bacon is ), then you live your life according to the Law. Is there free will within the confines of the Law? Good question. I'd say that if you're going to be an adherent to a strict set of codes it limits your free will.
But whether or not everyone sees it that way is up to them. Some people may say they're expressing their free will by adhering to the Law. I suppose that's as fair a statement as anything else, at least to the person that makes it.
I am a big picture Christian. I don't think Christ was bothered much about premarital sex, or taking the lords name in vain kinda stuff. Christ was concerned about how we treat others and how we understand ourselves.
Primarily Christ came to provide a bridge between humans and God, a way of accessing truth and spiritual deliverance without the need of a priest or what has become the "Church". It can be boiled down to the idea that while we are all human and thus make mistakes, we can access spiritual everlasting life even if you chose to live outside the governmental, societal, or even religious structure of the time.
Primarily Christ came to provide a bridge between humans and God, a way of accessing truth and spiritual deliverance without the need of a priest or what has become the "Church". It can be boiled down to the idea that while we are all human and thus make mistakes, we can access spiritual everlasting life even if you chose to live outside the governmental, societal, or even religious structure of the time.
Actually, if you would care to re-read the thread, it was postmodernprophet who went on the attack. Regardless of how you try to paint this, I think you'll find that I responded with fact to being called a liar by someone who was simply wrong.
And then I told them to stop acting like an obsterperous ass (which they were), to act like an adult (which they weren't) and suggested they engage in an adult debate/conversation or bow out.
Whereupon you called the veracity of my intent into question, and now assume (erroneously) that I did not visit the links you provided.
But with or without links, I didn't ask for links to outside sources, I asked the people here for their opinions and answers; because it is more important to me to actually speak and have a dialogue with people than it is to read an article written by someone that I cannot have discourse with.
christiefan915
Catalyst
Glad you're doing better. What happened is that the board crashed back in November and 18 months'-worth of posts were lost, also lost were the people who registered in that time period.
To answer your question; no.
How will you know ? Only you and God know your heart. You will know if you were sincere in your request for understanding. I think it's easy enough to know the origin of one's understanding.