ppp
Well-Known Member
No, we don't. We all know that Shakespeare's writings are fictional. If you are claiming that the Bible is likewise fictional then sure no problem with that.
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Why do you accept Jesus as Messiah?
- Thread starter loverofhumanity
- Start date
Even the most careful historian can make mistakes and many are biased.
The only way I know is to use all my intelligence and my whole heart. Our intelligence can evaluate whether something is reasonable and holds together. It can look for signs that someone is honest or hypocritical. Our heart, our intuition, can ideally sense the nature of a person.
Of course, being imperfect, we make mistakes. So the final step is to practice - to live according to our understanding and see the result.
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If belief in Jesus was right, why were there so many wars and tortures in His name? Even in modern times, knowing that God told us to turn the other cheek and not kill, we went to war with Iraq (and warned not to in Revelation).
I believe that the religion is fine (thou shalt not kill). But, those who attempt to follow the religion fall prey to fear (911 attack, if we don't attack them soon, and on their own soil, we'll be sitting ducks, rather than letting God handle the terrorists in his own way).
But why don't we trust God to take care of terrorists? I think that it is for the same reason that we don't walk down a busy freeway or leap off of a high building....we know that God wouldn't protect us if we used our free will to do something stupid. So, though everyone knows what God expects of them, they don't sufficiently belief in God to obey him without question. This is why the world is in such a mess today.
That is a great answer. You have the capacity for great love, and that love guides you. That is obviously what God had intended.
Perhaps that is the ticket to heaven? While the stone cold hearts can't make it into heaven, using pragmatic logic to deny the existence of God, your warm heart can cut through the haze and see issues clearly.
That kind of judgement doesn't hold up in courts....they demand evidence. Yet, I know of few other ways to really know and understand God. It seems that religion is an art, and we have to feel our way to salvation.
The path to salvation is a lonely road. Generally we can't walk there in a crowd because, quite frankly, I don't think that most people will end up going there. We can't, for example, rely on PhD theologists because they, too, are sometimes wrong, particularly in these end times. For example, Reverend John Hagee said that we have to pray to Jesus to win the war in Iraq. Really? Kill more effectively with the help of Jesus? If we attempt to follow the teachings of Hagee, we may never get to heaven. Free choice is a lonely path, filled with temptations, filled with more educated people (especially in theology), and that makes it difficult to walk the path alone, as we are supposed to.
We're supposed to read the bible (not a condensed children's version of it), understand it, and use it as a guide to the afterlife.
Yet the norms and mores taught in the bible(s) seem good. For example, "thou shalt not kill."
When I express an opinion, I sometimes need a 10 foot pole (safer that way).
I think that the bible is largely true. It has, indeed, been used to locate long lost cities. However, there are certain passages of the bible that I suspect are misinterpreted. For example, I doubt that Jonah lived in the belly of a whale. I suspect that the correct translation is that he was walking through the desert and was hungry and God produced a miracle in the form of a beached whale, and he "sustained himself in the belly of a whale"....meaning ate whale meat....but it came to mean that he was swallowed by a whale.
RestlessSoul
Well-Known Member
With practice, and guidance, intuition can become a working part of the mind. Like reason, it of course has it's limitations. Logic and reason alone will not bring us to God, intuition alone will not bring us to right thinking and understanding. But if we are sincerely searching for God, it is in our hearts and not our heads that we are most likely to find Him. When we need Him enough, and humbly open our hearts without demands and without expectations, he will enter there. That, at least, has been my experience.
stvdv
Veteran Member
That's easy. Sai Baba told us "if you repeat God's Name (the one you like) and think of Him (the one you like) then He (the one you like) will appear".
Key to have the Lord appear to you, is to have the correct "stamp" (image of your beloved form) and "address" (name of your beloved form). Hence one pointed concentration is important if you want to draw the Lord near to you (in the form of your chosing)
God can assume any form, but we must decide which form we choose.
Aupmanyav
Be your own guru
I do not believe even in the existence of any God since I have not come across any evidence to support that idea. So, believing in any prophet / son / messenger / manifestation / mahdi is out of question; whether Adam, Noah, Zoroaster, Moses, Jesus, Mohammad, Joseph Smith, Bahaollah or Mirza Gholam Ahmad.
stvdv
Veteran Member
First we need to choose: formless God or God with form
Some choose "formless God", of course God will honour your choice and you will get no visions.
When I started my Spiritual Quest, I liked advaita best. Only God is real, I am Divine etc. I am not the body, mind, emotions , so the formless God.
I even told God (mentally) "I don't want visions and voices, those people having them are sometimes so full of themselves, it's better I don't have those".
After I told God this, whenever I closed my eyes it was pitch black. Even when sitting for 30min, I got no vision of God, pitch black. I was amazed how black. Sometimes people in a group did visualization exercises, I tried a few times, but again pitch black. Took me a while to remember God Granted what I asked Him for (no voices and visions).
stvdv
Veteran Member
Advaita is not easy. Believing "I am Divine" means you need no doctor even. Can there be any doctor better than "the Divine"?
Sai Baba made it very clear, that you can not start Advaitha without having been a devotee of God first.
So, my choice of Advaita was "pure" ego. Because, when I got major challenges like cancer and pain, the belief of Advaita "I am God" did not work for me.
So, I changed to God with form. Please Sai Baba, I need You. You are my Doctor, I don't go to hospital doctors. Tell me what diet I should do and "let food be my medicine"
I still love Advaita, but also still having challenges like cancer, so I decided to stick to "God with Form; Sai Baba Form". Works miracles for me
The Day Jesus appeared to me, was during a 10 hour chanting in a Christian Church with all Christian hymns. I did do my mantra Sohum (I and God are One), and after ca. 6h continuous chanting, Christ appeared. Bright, full of light, visible like I see other people.
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Messianic Israelite
Active Member
Hi loverofhumanity. Good morning. I believe in Yahshua my Savior for several reasons. The first reason I believe is because he has fulfilled the prophesies concerning him. They are many scriptures that indicate a Messiah would come and save His people such as Genesis 3:15; Genesis 49:10; Micah 5:2; Isaiah 7:14; Isaiah 9:6; Isaiah 40:3-5; Psalm 69:8; Isaiah 11:10; Psalm 31:13 etc. Therefore the Word of Yahweh harmonizes completely from Genesis to Revelation. This beautiful harmony of the scriptures is proof that Yahshua, originally a spirit-being, took on human form, to be the sin-bearer of Yahweh's people.
The second reason is the content of what Yahshua taught. He wasn't teaching anything unscriptural. As I mentioned on another thread, Yahshua came to magnify the law and make it honorable (Isaiah 42:21). He came to at a time when Judaism needed to be reformed. Judaism was going astray, putting their traditions which they had formulated above the Law of Yahweh such as in Matthew 15:2. They had failed to show love to Yahweh and their neighbor as commanded in the Hebrew Scriptures. The third reason is that from my own personal experience, following Yahshua and keeping the commandments has produced good fruit in my life. I can see that by following Yahshua we can bring our lives to a state of perfection pleasing to the Father (Matthew 5:48).
The fourth reason is that it makes sense. Yahweh sent His son, the one who pre-existed with the Father in the Hebrew Scriptures and was known as the Angel of Yahweh, to save us from our sins. He showed to Abraham what he would do at Mount Moriah when it was told to Abraham to offer his son as a sacrifice there, and Abraham called that place Yahweh Yireh meaning Yahweh will provide. Yahweh has provided wicked sinners a way out. A way to have their sins cleansed through baptism (Isaiah 1:18) so we can have access to Yahweh.
Bible Gateway passage: Genesis 22:13-15 - American Standard Version
We know from the Word that sins (or transgressions of the Biblical Law we read in 1 John 3:4) separate us from Yahweh (Isaiah 59:2). How then would the nations, or anyone, whether home-born or foreigner, have the chance to be saved except their sins were forgiven by miraculous intervention? The problem is, when you sin, the more you sin, the less chance you have of having your prayers answered, of having a healthy relationship with Yahweh and making it in to the Kingdom. It's a vicious cycle ultimatly leading the sinner to a destiny of never recovering from their predicament. But Yahweh Yireh. He provided the sin sacrifice so anyone who thirsts for righteousness could enter in to the Kingdom and find a place in Yahweh's grace.
Such a literalist.
Yes, but not on the original site. The original site is still basically a
bare rock, even today. It has been excavated. The rock Tyre stood on
lies just off the coast. The causeway which led to the city which
Alexander used to destroy it is now gone. There is a city called Tyre,
but it is not at the site which was destroyed by Alexander. There is an
older book out there which is pretty thorough in the Tyre prophecies. It
is Evidence That Demands a Verdict (Josh McDowell). I do not necessarily
recommend that book in general, but it is good on the Tyre prophecy.
John Oakes, PhD
ppp
Well-Known Member
Why are you talking about Alexander? Is Alexander the secret identity of Nebuchadnezzar?
Is Alexander Batman?
ppp
Well-Known Member
I don't. But it doesn't matter. If it turns out that that the plays were really written by Amanda Jenkins from London, it would be a really interesting historical discovery, but it would not be crucial to our application of the plays as either entertainment or literature. OTOH, if it turns out that Amandia Jinkius of Londinium wrote the New Testament...or even just the books attributed to Paul...would be a really interesting historical discovery and Christianity would be hosed.
Because I think his teachings are good and truthful. And also, because I think he lived as a person who is worthy to be called my king.
syo
Well-Known Member
Forced educational system. And the snitch christian neighbor.
Plus the government and local authorities. All christian.