This is your most critical error. Jesus is alive and is life itself - the only hope for your own everlasting life in heaven. As he said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No man cometh to the Father, but by me." (John 14:6)
If you pray with a sincere heart to know him, he will come to...
Encourage your daughter to get back into vaping. I know first hand as a former long-time smoker that it can take awhile to completely give up cigarettes. At least part of that is just the psychological attachment to the habit. But vaping gets better and better with some effort and...
Demons have certainly been reported as taking the form of black dogs to harass people. In most of the accounts I have read about it, these people were especially devout. Saint Faustina is one of those who experienced it in her earthly life, as well as other harassment by demons and by Satan...
John 5:25 - Amen, amen I say unto you, that the hour cometh, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live.
and
1 Peter 4:6 - For, for this cause was the gospel preached also to the dead: that they might be judged indeed according to men, in...
The innate knowledge of God's existence is a property of the soul. It's what Saint Catherine of Genoa described as the "Beatific Instinct." As she explains, it can be suppressed into dormancy in the earthly life, but has a great reawakening after physical death.
In any case, this inborn...
The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. He is thought of as the personification of love between Father and Son.
Jesus died a physical death only. He descended to Sheol at that time to deliver the gospel of salvation to the dead before resurrecting on the third day.
He is in whichever form he chooses, both in heaven and when it suits him, on earth as well -- actually, in all places at once in whatever form he chooses. The "how" is that he is God. He is not restricted within the parameters of time, space, physiology, natural laws, or any other limitation...
Hi Stalwart, and welcome. You're definitely right about the opportunities available in these forums to practice apologetics. As target-rich environments go, this place is a gold mine. Almost nobody outside of the Catholic DIR will agree with you on anything theological, but many will engage...
There is one God, and the one God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is the central mystery of the Christian faith, a "mystery" of faith being something that can not be known except that it is revealed by God. And it remains a mystery even after he reveals it because he only reveals to the...
Christianity began as the one universal Church established by Jesus Christ himself. He made Saint Peter the first visible head of it. "Thou art Peter (Petros, rock) and upon this rock I will build my Church" (Matthew 16:18). Jesus founded a world-wide Ecclesia, but he did not establish...
Pete, you have misquoted Christ and changed the meaning of his words to the point of blasphemy. I think you should read John 8 again to acknowledge and confirm for yourself what Jesus really said to the Pharisees. For the sake of your salvation, I hope you will study all of the New Testament...
I don’t want to get too far beyond the topic of this thread, but here are a few basic facts, some of which pertain directly to it, and some indirectly:
Jesus confirmed the validity of the Old Testament by teaching and quoting from it (and that includes the books of the Greek Septuagint that...
I see the logic of what you’re saying, as it suits your purpose. If you could prove that the biblical God of Abraham was actually just a mortal man, then the integrity of the whole Bible would be compromised. All sorts of new arguments against scripture, faith, and God’s existence could be...
But “creation stories” in the plural are not the singular creation story of the Bible, which was written down by Moses in the same book as the Abraham story.
It is impossible to prove that Abraham never existed or that his covenant with God never occurred. So you present an alternate explanation of the text in Genesis; that "the story of Abraham is actually that of an earthly covenant made with a powerful ruler and that the God of the Bible evolved...
JesusBeliever, thanks for the feedback and kind words. I think that passage from Isaiah is a perfect fit for this thread. It's excellent from the point of view where I have been, and evidently from where you have been, since you included it. The part that jumps out most at me personally is...
Since you don’t know where you’re going with it, and I don’t know where you’re coming from, then I’m not sure this response will do, but I would like to offer it as something to think about because it might be of some value to you, later if not now. I learned it from a theology professor in a...
He absolutely did not concede his divinity. At no time did Christ ever stop being God the Son. In Philippians 2, you're probably talking about these verses:
5 Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: 6 who, existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with...
We are creatures of God. He is our Father in that way and we are his children in that way. And we, as human beings, are intended to be forever united with him, which us why he made us in his own image and likeness, unlike other earthly creatures. But the one God, who is Father, Son, and Holy...