Part 39 of Post Your Tough Questions Regarding Christianity

Part 39 is a continuation of Post Your Tough Questions pertaining to God/Jesus/Holy Bible of the Christian faith and I will do my best to clarify and make sense of it to those who are unaware...I still have questions and comments I haven't responded to in Part 10 thru 38.

I don't want my intentions to come across as converting you or whatever lol... but rather clear up things regarding the Christian religion/faith..etc... so ask away.

Also I don't want people to feel like I'm ignoring your question/questions/comment/comments, like I said I'm still answering questions on Part 10 and so yes, I'm really far behind. And so when your question/questions/comment/comments comes up and if it they're coherent enough in my view I will then answer them.

Sometimes I do answer questions out of order by responding to questions/comments on the current thread I'm on but for the most part I answer them as I'm going through the threads. Ok thanks for your understanding & patience!...so again ask away.

 

My point should be obvious...Our Lord Savior Jesus Christ was not a myth, not a made up character, He existed but of course as I've already mentioned, various internet atheist haunts still try in vain to resurrect the charge that Our Lord Savior Jesus Christ was just a myth, a made up character who never lived.

What Bruce said I wholeheartedly agree with. I mean if you're an incompetent scholar you would be one to deny the historicity of Our Lord Savior Jesus Christ but no competent scholar would.

Here's why no competent scholar would. The Bible itself of course can be considered a source of evidence for the existence of Our Lord Savior Jesus Christ. There are hundreds of references to Him contained in the New Testament.

We have Christian as well as non-Christian scholars who (the vast majority of them) grant the Epistles of the Apostle Paul were in fact written by the Apostle Paul in the middle of the 1st century A.D., less than 40 years after Our Lord Savior Jesus Christ's death. This is extraordinarily strong proof of the existence of a man named Jesus in Israel in the early 1st century A.D. in terms of ancient manuscript evidence.

Even though the New Testament proves beyond the shadow of a doubt that Our Lord Savior Jesus Christ actually lived, it is by no means the only historical evidence available.

Around the year A.D. 94, the most famous Jewish historian by the name of Flavius Josephus in his Antiquities he refers to James, “the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ.” There is a controversial verse (18:3) that says, “Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man. For he was one who wrought surprising feats....He was [the] Christ...he appeared to them alive again the third day, as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him.” One version reads, “At this time there was a wise man named Jesus. His conduct was good and [he] was known to be virtuous. And many people from among the Jews and the other nations became his disciples. Pilate condemned him to be crucified and to die. But those who became his disciples did not abandon his discipleship. They reported that he had appeared to them three days after his crucifixion, and that he was alive; accordingly he was perhaps the Messiah, concerning whom the prophets have recounted wonders.”

About 20 years later, Tacitus, a Roman historian, wrote a book surveying the history of Rome. In it he described how Nero (the Roman emperor) “punished with every refinement the notoriously depraved Christians (as they were popularly called).” He went on to write that “their originator, Christ, had been executed in Tiberius’ reign by the governor of Judea, Pontius Pilatus” (Annals 15:44, emp. added). Even though Tacitus, Josephus, and other historians from the first and second centuries A.D. were not followers of Christ, they did have something to say about Him.....and they even verified that Our Lord Jesus was a real person Who was so famous that He even attracted the attention of the Roman emperor himself!

Julius Africanus quotes the historian Thallus in a discussion of the darkness that followed the crucifixion of Christ (Extant Writings, 18 )
Pliny the Younger, in Letters 10:96, recorded early Christian worship practices including the fact that Christians worshiped Jesus as God and were very ethical, and he includes a reference to the love feast and Lord’s Supper.

The Babylonian Talmud (Sanhedrin 43a) confirms Jesus' crucifixion on the eve of Passover and the accusations against Christ of practicing sorcery and encouraging Jewish apostasy.

Lucian of Samosata was a second-century Greek writer who admits that Jesus was worshiped by Christians, introduced new teachings, and was crucified for them. He said that Jesus’ teachings included the brotherhood of believers, the importance of conversion, and the importance of denying other gods. Christians lived according to Jesus’ laws, believed themselves to be immortal, and were characterized by contempt for death, and renunciation of material goods.

Mara Bar-Serapion confirms that Jesus was thought to be a wise and virtuous man, was considered by many to be the king of Israel, was put to death by the Jews, and lived on in the teachings of His followers.

Then we have all the Gnostic writings (The Gospel of Truth, The Apocryphon of John, The Gospel of Thomas, The Treatise on Resurrection, etc.) that all mention Jesus.
In fact, we can almost reconstruct the gospel just from early non-Christian sources: Jesus was called the Christ (Josephus), did “magic,” led Israel into new teachings, and was hanged on Passover for them (Babylonian Talmud) in Judea (Tacitus), but claimed to be God and would return (Eliezar), which his followers believed, worshiping Him as God (Pliny the Younger).

So there is overwhelming evidence for the existence of Our Lord Savior Jesus Christ, both in secular and biblical history. Perhaps the greatest evidence that He did exist is the fact that literally thousands of Christians in the first century AD, including the twelve apostles, were willing to give their lives as martyrs for Him. People will die for what they believe to be true, but no one will die for what they know to be a lie.

Still another obvious reason to believe that Our Lord Jesus was a real person is because our entire dating method is based upon His existence. The letters “B.C.” stand for “before Christ,” and the letters “A.D.” (standing for Anno Domini) mean “in the year of the Lord.” So when a history teacher speaks of Alexander the Great ruling much of the world in 330 B.C., he or she is admitting that Alexander lived about 330 years before Our Lord Savior Jesus Christ was born.

Even though all of what I have presented here is only a sampling of the evidence relating to the man known as Jesus, it is enough to prove that He was a real person, and not just some imaginary character. We do not accept His existence blindly....it is a historical fact!

And so yes, as Princeton professor Bruce Metzger wrote decades ago, "Today no competent scholar denies the historicity of Jesus."

You can only show me lies from uncreditable/unreliable sources. But hey, I'm not stopping you from believing what you want to believe. You are exercising your gift of free will that Our Creator Almighty God has given each and everyone of us. You can believe in Him or not believe in Him, the choice is yours to make.

 

Yeah, so what?

A religious sect -- specifically the Essene sect ---wants to wrest control from the Pharisees.

They concoct a scheme to have a guy die then come back to life, and everyone abandons the Pharisees and Sadducees and puts the Essenes on a pedestal.

Jesus is the guinea pig.

So, Jesus is hanging on a cross on Thurfriday -- yeah, we have to invent a new day of the week because Matthew, Mark, Luke and John can't agree on whether it was Thursday or Friday -- and Jesus gets fed opiates.

How do we know? Because opiates -- which had been in use in the region for 5,000 years -- are alkaloids and alkaloids are bitter and your very own texts say Jesus was given bitter water whilst on his cross.

Jesus is feeling no pain and because opiates depress heart rate and respiration, it looks like he's dead, but he really ain't dead.

He's take off the cross, but there's no autopsy and no doctor to pronounce him dead, not that it matters, because in 33 CE, if you looked dead, you probably were.

Jesus gets taken away to a safe place where he's fed atropine to counter the opiates. Atropine is made from any member of the Nightshade family which grows all over the Middle East and people had been using atropine for 5,000 years.

Jesus wakes up. He's bit groggy, but otherwise fine, except for the fact that he's scared to death because the Revolution failed.

That is why Jesus hides and never once shows his face to anyone who could ever possibly do him harm, because if he did, they would kill him for real.

Jesus did venture out once and only once, but according to Luke, he was wearing a traditional headdress to disguise his face so no one would recognize him, and he overhears two guys talking in town about how the Revolution was a total massive catastrophic failure.

He removes his headdress so the two guys can recognize him, and then they leave.

Later, like a common criminal, Jesus flees to Damascus where no one would know who he was and wouldn't kill him for real.

That's actually more plausible than the fantasy claim that Jesus died and came back to life.

 

Or an even more plausible scheme: They learned after the fact about a man named Yeshua who had claimed along with many others to be messiah and who was killed on a cross and whose body went missing. And they then built stories around that.

 

That is an interesting spin that is plausible.

I think Joseph of Arimathea got the corpse and ate it, thinking that he would gain eternal life.

 

It is rumoured that when put upon the cross Jesus shouted "bite me!", and that is how the eucharist got started.

 

Again, sorry but that's not Christianity. This Day of Atonement you speak of is a Jewish tradition, first started during the time of Moses as written in the Book of Leviticus Chapter 16 of the Holy Bible.

But because you haven't done any research regarding this "Day of Atonement" as it is done by the Jews of today you have made yourself unaware of the fact that this tradition is without blood sacrifice and so Jews have no lawful way of atoning for their sin.

If you had done some diligent research you would have discovered that the Jewish practice of animal sacrifice ended in AD 70, the year that the Romans destroyed the temple in Jerusalem. With the temple gone, there is no longer a place for the sacrifices to be offered according to the Mosaic Law.

Passover is still observed, but without the sacrifice. The Day of Atonement is still observed, but there is never an offering made for sin. The stipulations of the Mosaic Law remain unchanged, but the Jewish people cannot make things right with God...they cannot find forgiveness...without an animal sacrifice.

So the modern day Jews now believe that forgiveness of sin is obtained through repentance, prayer, and good deeds. But this Jewish belief that they have now is not aligned with the Christian faith.

And the fact remains that there is no forgiveness without the shedding of blood.

We Read in Scripture:

22 In fact, according to the law of Moses, nearly everything was purified with blood. For without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. Hebrews 9:22 NLT

The animal sacrifices of the Old Covenant (Old Testament) have been replaced by the once-for-all sacrifice for sin given by Our Lord Savior Jesus Christ, the Messiah.

Our Lord Savior Jesus Christ established the New Covenant (New Testament).

We Read in Scripture:

15 That is why he is the one who mediates a new covenant between God and people, so that all who are called can receive the eternal inheritance God has promised them. For Christ died to set them free from the penalty of the sins they had committed under that first covenant. Hebrews 9:15 NLT

The Jewish temple was destroyed in AD 70 as I've already mentioned, which was within a generation of Our Lord Savior Jesus Christ's sacrifice, the need for animal sacrifices no longer existed, for Our Lord Savior Jesus Christ had fulfilled the righteous requirement of the Law.

We Read in Scripture:

Our Lord Savior Jesus Christ said,

Teaching about the Law

17 “Don’t misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose. Matthew 5:17 NLT

Animal sacrifices were merely a type of the perfect Sacrifice.

We Read in Scripture:

Jesus, the Lamb of God

29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! John 1:29

The sacrifice of Our Lord Savior Jesus Christ paid the debt of sin for all mankind, both Jew and Gentile who believe in Him.

We Read in Scripture:

16 For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes—the Jew first and also the Gentile. Romans 1:16 NLT

12 With his own blood—not the blood of goats and calves—he entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever.
13 Under the old system, the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer could cleanse people’s bodies from ceremonial impurity. 14 Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our consciences from sinful deeds so that we can worship the living God. For by the power of the eternal Spirit, Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins. 15 That is why he is the one who mediates a new covenant between God and people, so that all who are called can receive the eternal inheritance God has promised them. For Christ died to set them free from the penalty of the sins they had committed under that first covenant. Hebrews 9:12-15 NLT

So no Mircea, your belief that one's sins are forgiven by the high priest on the Day of Atonement is not true anymore.

It was true in the past but not anymore as I've thoroughly explained why it isn't anymore in this post of mine.

One finds forgiveness of sins only through Our Lord Savior Jesus Christ for there is no other way.

We Read in Scripture:

Our Lord Savior Jesus Christ said,

6 Jesus told him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me." John 14:6 NLT

 

And that story about Yeshua was able to eliminate pseudo gods and human sacrifices, and eventually became so powerful that it ended up splitting the world into BC and AD.

Wow! What a story can do.

 

Prove it

 

Prove it

 

No, so sorry but you're wrong, go back to my previous post which is #7 where I explain in great detail as to why you're wrong.

No, actually I just admitted that you are in error because you have no idea what you're saying which is not surprising. I mean since when has unbelievers understood anything when it comes to what Our Creator Almighty God has revealed to us in His Best Selling Book of All-Time the Christian Holy Bible. No sense reading the Bible on your own because unbelievers have a really bad habit of misinterpreting/misunderstanding what they read, and so I suggest you attend Bible study classes to get the proper interpretations/understandings of what is written in the Scriptures of the Holy Bible. Oh and stay away from those atheist sites who steer you in the wrong direction.

I'll leave you for now with a powerful message from Our Lord Savior Jesus Christ.

We Read in Scripture:

Our Lord Savior Jesus Christ said,

6 Jesus told him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me." John 14:6 NLT

 

Since Jesus is God's Word in Flesh, and the Bible is God's Word in Print, then Jesus and the Bible has to be one and the same - as would be the Cross which is Christ's redemption for our sins.

So if someone belongs to another faith such as Islam, and can't profess it outwardly, yet follows the teachings of Christ in their heart without accepting Jesus fully as the Son of God, then they are following Him.

The reason I'm saying this is because I like to watch Pater Demetrios of Saint Isadore Church on Lykavitos in Athens, and He said that the Cross he holds in his hand and places on people is Jesus.

Once a man came to him and asked him to place the Cross on him. He told him he didn't have the Cross, since he has to be well prepared with fasting and prayers before taking it in his hands.

The man insisted so Pater took the Bible and placed it on him. The man was cured of whatever ailed him, and thanked the priest. "But I didn't place the Cross on you, I placed the Bible". The man replied: "But it's the same thing, the Bible is also Christ" - and of course Pater agreed.

 

So well said...exactly!

Is this someone you know? Or are you just making a general statement?

What is the website address where you watch Pater Demetrios? I'm assuming that his sermon's are in Greek, so you speak/understand the Greek language then...right?

Wow! What a fantastic story! Well we all know the healing powers that Our Lord Savior Jesus Christ possesses, it is just so amazing how the Lord displays His Divine Power to believers!

 

Why would I claim Our Creator Almighty God has changed His mind when I know He has told us that He doesn't change His mind. He is not like us humans, because He is not human, so He doesn't lie, nor does He change His mind. When you say wishy-washy of course you have to be referring to us human beings...lol

We Read in Scripture:

19 God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so he does not change his mind. Has he ever spoken and failed to act? Has he ever promised and not carried it through? Numbers 23:19 NLT

The real issue here is that you're not understanding Scripture so it's really your problem. I've said it numerous of times before, the Holy Bible is certainly not a Book for the interpretation impaired. Unbelievers have a hard time understanding the Bible because satan/devil has blinded their minds. You need to first get him out of your mind.

We Read in Scripture:

4 Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God. 5 You see, we don’t go around preaching about ourselves. We preach that Jesus Christ is Lord, and we ourselves are your servants for Jesus’ sake. 2 Corinthians 4:4-5 NLT

 

It's a general statement because I know of Muslims that are more adherent to Christian morals and compassion than baptized Christians, and yet they are not baptized. So in that sense, wouldn't they be followers of Jesus. I don't want to mention specific groups so as not to endanger them.

Greek was my first language, but that's not saying much. Their vocabulary is very extensive, but I can understand Pater Demetrios when he speaks. It's very interesting what's going on. He had Leukemia when he was young and the doctors gave him no chance of survival. His mother began taking him to Saints and shrines, and kept getting messages that he will live - yet he couldn't see, couldn't stand straight, was skin and bones and couldn't speak from all the medications he was takin

Wow! What a fantastic story! Well we all know the healing powers that Our Lord Savior Jesus Christ possesses, it is just so amazing how the Lord displays His Divine Power to believers![/QUOTE]

 

I want to correct my previous post because I didn't realize it was posted before I was able to complete it. My computer is a little nutty.

 

Yeah I hear ya, I had my share of the nuttiness of computers having endured lots of issues in the past.

Hey thanks for providing the address of that website. I took a tour of the site and for the first time in my life I heard the spoken language of the Greeks. I was just amazed and fascinated by hearing the Greek language even though I understood not a single word they muttered out of their mouths, everything was just Greek to me as the saying goes...lol

I then began to think about Our Creator Almighty God who has the ability to understand and speak all of those thousands upon thousands of languages that is out there, I believe over 6,000 languages world-wide if I'm not mistaken...whoa!!..simply awesome!!..such Divine Power indeed!!

Talk about being multi-lingual eh...lol Almighty God wins the grand prize with ease!...lol

Just goes to show that there is nothing impossible for Our Creator Almighty God to do, nothing that is contrary to His own character and nature that is.

We Read in Scripture:

Our Lord Savior Jesus Christ said,

27 Jesus looked at them intently and said, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But not with God. Everything is possible with God.” Mark 10:27 NLT

 

I have not ever heard of your nonsense you are spewing out...thank Almighty God for that!

Obviously you are just making up things that's why they're nonsense. You can't even back up what you're saying by using the Scriptures of the Holy Bible to verify. Well again it's because you're making up things that's why they're nonsense.

Let me repeat once again. I guess the more I repeat it, it might finally sink into your head one day...lol It is not at all complicated.

Christians do not spend eternity in the fiery pit because they are saved from eternal punishment. Just unbelievers go to eternal punishment. It's all there written in the Scriptures of the Holy Bible. It is not me proclaiming this but it's what Our Creator Almighty God has revealed to us in His Best Selling Book of All-Time, the Christian Holy Bible.

We Read in Scripture:

Our Lord Savior Jesus Christ said,

25 Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. 26 Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?” John 11:25-26 NLT

28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me, John 10:28 NLT

16 "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." John 3:16 NLT

6 Jesus told him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me." John 14:6 NLT

The Narrow Gate

13 "You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. 14 But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it." Matthew 7:13-14 NLT

 

Sorry but Our Creator Almighty God does not contradict Himself...people yes, they contradict themselves all the time but Our Creator...never!!

Obviously the issue here is you not understanding/interpreting Scripture correctly.

No, actually you are. You are essentially saying He made promises but then broke them when He made a New Covenant by making the Old Covenant obsolete.

You are not understanding that the Old Covenant was primarily for the Israelites while under the leadership of Moses and others after Moses passing. It was Mosaic Law that the Israelites had to abide by including foreigners who lived among them at the time.

We Read in Scripture:

Punishments for Disobedience

20 The Lord said to Moses, 2 “Give the people of Israel these instructions, which apply both to native Israelites and to the foreigners living in Israel. Leviticus 20:1-2 NLT

It was God's plan all along that He would eventually establish a New Covenant when the time was right and make the Old Covenant obsolete. This New Covenant was going to be introduced to the whole world, not only to Jews but to Gentiles as well. This of course was the 1st coming of the Messiah, Our Lord Savior Jesus Christ. The New Covenant was prophesied in the Hebrew texts (Old Testament)

We Read in Scripture:

31 “Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, Jeremiah 31:31 NASB

Furthermore Scripture tells us when God speaks of a new covenant it means He has made the first one obsolete.

We Read in Scripture:

13 When God speaks of a “new” covenant, it means he has made the first one obsolete. It is now out of date and will soon disappear. Hebrews 8:13 NLT

And Scripture goes on to say that Jesus is the one who mediates the new covenant between God and people.

We Read in Scripture:

"You have come to Jesus, the one who mediates the new covenant between God and people, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks of forgiveness instead of crying out for the vengeance like the blood of Abel." Hebrews 12:24 NLT

So essentially this New Covenant is telling us that one has to accept Our Lord Savior Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior in order to be saved.

No wrong. Oh and how disrespectful you are referring to Our Lord Savior Jesus Christ as a "thing". He was God incarnate, meaning He was God in human flesh who came into the world to save mankind from its sins. Please have some respect when referring to Our Lord Savior Jesus Christ.

I have no idea what you're saying because it's incoherent...it's nonsense...it's ludicrous!

But anyhoot in closing, with all what I have presented, the New Covenant that Our Creator Almighty God established basically tells us that one has to accept Our Lord Savior Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior in order to be saved and in no way does it contradict earlier promises made by Our Creator Almighty God as you wrongly seem to think Mircea.

Now respond back to me by rejecting everything I have presented that is backed up with Biblical support...lol

 

The story of Jesus holds many remarkable similarities with the earthly existence of deities of a number of other religions of the time - virgin birth, miracles of various natures, resurrection from death, betrayal, general philosophy, etc., etc. The Jesus version really does tick most of the boxes laid out at the time.

It's rather surprising to think that there could have been so many gods roaming that one particular region of Earth within a short number of years - and at the same time that there were gods in so many other regions that didn't have that close communication.

 

Ever notice the compulsion with citing scripture? If we read it in scripture it must be true. And God won't simply make us know whatever he wants us to know. He needs us to read a book.

 

I think this is an important point in that there are so many religions throughout the millennia where they did not have that book.

Those of the Americas, of the vastly varying locations in Africa, in the highly different regions of the Asian continent, first man walking out of Africa - the majority of those on Earth were informed by the religions of those various regions and times.

A few of these had written philosophies, but it seems pretty outrageous to point to one book and claim THAT is the only book in the world for ALL TIME that informs us of the one and only god.

And, that all others throughout the ages are liars.

That just doesn't sound like "god" to me. It sounds like "man".

Surely a god, if such exists, would be speaking to all people - NOT just to those living at the end of the Mediterranean Sea some number of thousands of years ago.

So, just one of the problems is that the overall picture simply doesn't make sense.

 

An all powerful version of a God (which isn't all of them) wouldn't even need to speak to anyone. Such a God could simply have everyone know whatever it is the God wants them to know. I think the mere existence of the Bible is evidence against its claims.

 

Yes, interesting point!! And, I absolutely do see the Bible as not being evidence of there being a god.

 

The old covenant required following Mosaic law.

Under the new covenant, that wasn't good enough anymore.

You have to admit that was a change.

On top of that, there was an additional performance requirement added, spelled out in detail in Matthew 25:31 to end. That required that followers of Christ must perform acts in addition to merely being believers.

That does seem like an addition to the old covenant, too, as I don't remember the old covenant including performance requirements such as those that Jesus stated in Matthew 25.

I'd also add that I really don't see many Christians carrying out this requirement of Christianity. But, that doesn't mean it isn't a requirement, of course. We're all sinners, right?