Results 21 - 35 of 35
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Results from: Answers On or After: Thu 12/31/70 Author: userdoe220 Ordered by Verse |
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Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
21 | Jesus' early years? | Luke 2:52 | userdoe220 | 10564 | ||
There are a number of accounts written about Jesus' early years; However, most of them were written 150 plus years after his birth and are very fairy-tellish in nature ex. one account has Jesus as a little boy making clay pigeons, touching them and turning them into real pigoens. Other than the fairy-tellish nature of these accounts, I have a few other problems with them: 1.) The accounts usually paint a dramitically different picture of Jesus than the gospels paint: Some paint him as very ascetic (legalistic)person, others make him out to be a phantom type ghost, and one account even says he went to India to learn the Budhist philosophy and bring it back to Israel. Where is the historical evidence to support that is the greatest mystery! 2.) The next problem I have with these documents is they were all (well most of them) claimed to be written by one of the original apostles. They bear names like the Gospel of Thomas, The Gospel of Barnabas when they were written way after the deaths of the apostles. If it starts out as a lie, why would I believe the rest of the accounts? If you are a strong believer in Jesus and not easily swayed, I encourage you to get a book on Gnosticism, read it and check out the references in the back of the book. They usually qoute their sources and provide a little background information. You can also purchase a book entitled the "lost books of Eden." I would never buy this from a bookstore because I would never give my hard-earned money to support such nonsense. I picked mine up at a used bookstore, 75 percent off books, for under 5.00. The stories make for some very amusing reading, but I wouldn't put a pennies worth of stock into its historical accuracy. I hope this helps |
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22 | How could Jesus increase in wisdom? | Luke 2:52 | userdoe220 | 14532 | ||
This is a very good question and one that the church has wrestled with for many years. The typical response is: Jesus (Phil 2 passage) voluntarily set aside some of his divine attributes when he chose to become a man. The question philosophers in the Church have wrestled with is how could God give up any of his attributes and continue to be God? After all, God by definition does not change, knows everything and is everywhere at all times etc., If Jesus lacked any of these qaulities, how could he continue to be God? The solution to this problem was that Jesus just chose not to operate in some of his divine privieleges: Omniscience/Omnipresent/. He did not give them up, but rather chose not to utilize or take advantage of certain aspects of his divinity. There is more than one way to look at this issue. I am just supplying one I know you have probably heard of a million times. A number of these problems deal with our presuppostions about God that have been passed down through the church. The early church fathers, in an attempt to make Christianity relevant to the Greek culture, interpreted scriptures about God through the lens of Plato. Some of the concepts we have about God are more Platonic than Biblical! In fact, many scriptures are explained away by the church fathers as being anthromorphic and being written that way for the "dumb" saints within the church who couldn't comprehend who God really is. I am chasing rabbits so I will sign off for now. |
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23 | No one or no thing? | Luke 8:13 | userdoe220 | 9736 | ||
I am not moving from someone to something. Re-read my post. You have not even dealt with my content | ||||||
24 | When did the day of worship change? | Acts | userdoe220 | 18685 | ||
As Christianity spread beyond the borders of Palestine/Israel, the church became increasingly Hellenistic. Up until 65AD the Roman Government treated the church as just another sect of Judaism--Kind of like the Essenses/Pharisees etc. Why did they do this? Because they: 1.) Used Jewish scripture to affirm what they believed about Christ. 2.) Preached a very uniquely Jewish concept of a Messiah. 3.) Spent time in the synagogues—Even Paul would go to the synagogues in the cities he evangelized in the book of Acts and try to persuade them in the truths of Jesus. The one thing I want to say from the start, is the early church was a mix bag of ideologies. There were those in the early church—Marcion comes to mind—that hated anything Jewish; Therefore, I think you would be hard pressed to find anything from Marcion that promoted the Sabbath as the Christians' only alternative to worship. He would not even consider the O.T as being part of the new Christian Canon and many of the Gospels because they contained O.T quotations. But for the most part, very early on in the churches development you see the church focusing more on the Lord’s Day (Sunday) in honor of His resurrection and less on Sabbath worship. You see the pattern beginning in the Book of Acts and by 65 AD most of Christedom was using Sunday exclusively as the Churches’ day of worship. The Didache, which was a document in circulation around 60 AD, already had the church meeting on Sunday’s. “But every Lord's day gather yourselves together, and break bread, and give thanksgiving after having confessed your transgressions, that your sacrifice may be pure. But let no one who is at odds with his fellow come together with you, until they be reconciled, that your sacrifice may not be profaned. For this is that which was spoken by the Lord: "In every place and time offer to me a pure sacrifice; for I am a great King, says the Lord, and my name is wonderful among the nations."” Although the Didache is not scripture, it does provide us insight into the thought process of the early church in regards to this matter. I think in the church, the closer you got to Jerusalem the more Jewish Christians hung on to Jewish traditions. The further you got away from Jerusalem—and as Rome began to take center stage and Jerusalem lost its importance—the more those traditions were looked at as optional and discarded. I hope this provides a little insight into how the early church viewed this issue. I will let others argue weather the church was right in adopting Sunday or wrong. schwartzkm |
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25 | A Wonderful Plan? How do you know? | Rom 1:18 | userdoe220 | 20314 | ||
First, the verse you throw out—and probably most that you use to backup that God as micro-managed the universe—refers to a nation not to a particular individual. Isa 14:21-32 This passage reverts more particularly to the fall of historical Babylon in 539, and the permanent extinction of her power and posterity. As a confirmation beforehand of this promise concerning Babylon, the Lord foretold the more immediate disaster to the armies of Assyria (the suzerain of Babylon at the time) in Palestine (v. 25), which took place upon Sennacherib's invasion of 701 B.C. All these disasters to neighboring nations would demonstrate the irresistible power of the one true God, the God of Israel (vv. 24,27). (from The Wycliffe Bible Commentary, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1962 by Moody Press) God can have evil/good plans in store for a nation and bless individuals within that nation He is judging. Look at Jeremiah’s life. He was mightily used of God (Great plan for his life), yet suffered the fate of exile with his brethren, Israel. Second, if the Gospel is for all people—I am one that believes it is—than God does have a wonderful plan for those who choose to bow their knee to the Lordship of Christ! That plan (pre-determined destination in life Eph 1) is ultimately the changing of that individual into the likeness of Jesus Christ. What better plan can be promised to an individual? So, yes, I can with full assurance tell someone on the street that “God does have a wonderful plan for their life.” |
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26 | Women speak in church? | 1 Cor 14:34 | userdoe220 | 9338 | ||
I think we should interpret the passage literally. However, we have to understand what it means to "interpret the Bible Literally." Please read Gorden Fee's book, "How to read the Bible for all its worth.: Now, your question. I find this passage of scripture a tough one to deal with. It def., in my mind, should belong in one of those "Hard sayings of the Bible" books. The reason is many-fold. 1.) Just two chapters prior (1 Cor 11)to the passage you are citing, Paul encourages women to Prophecy! I will admit there are some qualifications BUT if all the qualifications are met, Paul gives women free reign to "prophecy" in church. Now the problem...Can someone prophecy (proclaim) and not speak? No. (I don't think they had sign-language back than.) So, what did Paul mean in chapter 14? Or was Paul senile and forgot what he wrote a couple of pages back? 2.)What about Galatians? Paul seems to destroy the very barriers that divide us in Christ (Gal 5 T"Here is neither Male nor female, circumcision nor uncircumcision..."). If God sees us as one in Christ, why can’t women speak in church? Are women inferior to men? Why are social barriers ripped down only to erect new ones? 3.) In the book of Acts it records that Stephen had 7 young daughters that...Prophesied. I believe to prophecy you have to be able to speak. (I have many more examples, but I will rest at just three.) Now, some would say they were allowed to "prophesy", but they couldn't do it in the sancturary. I have a couple more questions for that line of reasoning. 1.) Did the early church meet in a nice church building, or someone’s house? If they met in someone’s house and worshipped in their main-room, would the wife of the house be prevented from talking in that room even if a service was not going on? If not, what makes 11:00 am on Sunday morning so special? 2.) Why does NO church faithfully practice this teaching? Even the Southern Baptist church allows women to be missionaries. Are we in America so holy that we can't have women preachers, but people overseas can? Looking at the list Americans are number 1 at, I find that statement hard to believe. 2.) What makes the "sancturary" of 1st Christian church in Plano, Tx more holy than a Sunday School classroom located in the same facility? Are we not the real sancturary? Do I have the answer? No. But I do have an idea what Paul was talking about. Yours in Christ |
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27 | What is your idea? | 1 Cor 14:34 | userdoe220 | 9346 | ||
I believe if in one place Paul is telling women it is all right to speak in the church (1 Cor 10-14 deal with order in the worship service: communion, role of women in the church; gifts of the spirit etc.) and in another place he is completly forbidding them he must have been addressing a specific situation. I am not exactly sure (and if somebody claims to have the answer they are really not being truthful) what it was that caused Paul to issue this statement. I tend to lend towards dis-orderly comment/questions directed towards their husbands in service. But I would not argue this point because the scripture is silent. The one thing that disturbs me about this whole process, is I ahve never, never, never seen a church practice what I have seen posted on this forum. Every church I have been into allows their women to speak in the church and their women do not even wear hats on their heads. If they really beleived what they are spouting off on this message board, there would be a gag order. Women would not be allowed to speak at all in church. And, sad to say, the children would suffer the most. |
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28 | What is a generatonal curse? | Gal 1:9 | userdoe220 | 11516 | ||
I do see "learned patterns" of behavior passed from Grandfather, Father, and finally to son in every day life. Alcoholism is a classic example in American culture. Usually when I counsel a person who is an alcoholic I can almost guaruntee that his father had a drinking problem as well. This pattern does appear even in the lifes of the O.T. saints we read about: Look at Abram's lie contrasted with Jacob's lie (Abram told a 1/2 truth about sarah being his wife and jacob did the same thing)! The million dollar question is, "are these patterns of behavior 'generational curses' that plague families?" What do these people mean by "generational curses?" If they mean learned behavior patterns, put me in their camp...I believe in them. If they mean some satanic spirit follows a family around and makes sure they are addicted to alcohol/anger problems/lust (which by the way the Apostle Paul attributes to the flesh not to Satanic powers) and God's salvation provision is not enough to break the hold, I can't buy into it. Usually people who tout this belief say that those who do not believe in generational curses are un-sympathetic to Christians that struggle with sin. That is the furthest thing from the truth. What we do not do is give them a "devil made me do it" ticket to get out of the responsibility of their actions. In American society we love this free ticket of irresponsibility and we would love to blame our shortcomings on some external, uncontrollable force that prevents us from doing good--Hey that means, in the words of Rocket Man (funny movie), "I didn't do it!" That is all I have seen in the fruit of this type of counseling--Being a part of the charismaniac movement for well over 15 years, I speak as a somewhat authority on this subject. As far as a fad goes, I agree with glory777. This is nothing but another fad that floods the charismaniac/TBN airwaves. Give it another couple of years and another fad will come down the shoot--and if you don't fully embrace the upcoming fad, you will have another label placed on your head by those that do. Hope this post helps. |
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29 | Muselim Religious | Eph 2:8 | userdoe220 | 21175 | ||
The qoute I have heard was the Islamic faith is the fastest growing religion in America--not the world. I don't want to take away from that stat or attempt to be-little the stat in any way, because that alone is impressive in the eyes of man. why is the Islamic faith the fastest growing faith in America (maybe the world)? I have a few ideas about that. 1. We offer a concept that Arab nations do not--Freedom of Religion. They can freely proseltize in the entire world and we as Christians cannot do so in Arab dominated parts of the world without the fear of death and imprisonment. This puts on at a real dis-advantage when it comes to the numbers game because a large percentage of the world is under Muslim dominated Governments. Which, by the way, has me a little concern with the above stat. Will Muslims, if they become the majority in America, enact the same type of laws here as they do in the countries they came from? I would hope the answer is no, but the track record is rather bleak. I hope I am dead wrong about this. 2. In America a large number of Blacks are now choosing to abandon Christianity for the Islamic faith. In Dallas, Texas where I live, there are "Black Muslims" who stand on almost every intersection in certain parts of town handing out literature (Most of it is VERY Racist). Basically, they feel that Christianity is a white man's religion and because the literature is not to keen on Jews, it does not help to point out that Jesus was Jewish and not white. This creates a very powerful tool of pursuasion: "An us against them" scenerio. Also, a number of black professional athletes are following the course of Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) and not only converting to Islam but activly criticizing the Christian faith. Since atheletes are role models for kids, they are naturally having a negative impact upon those who look up to them in this regard. These are my observations on your post. What can Christians do about it? We need to support missionary efforts both in the states and abroud. The church in America, when you look at the wealth we produce, can do a whole lot more in fullfilling the Great Commission. The church needs to stop equating Christianity with the Republican party. Social programs are birthed from people who care about others--You might feel that care is mis-directed, but nevertheless the motives are good. When you make statements like this one, you alienate yourself from a major portion of our population. Serpent stole my point three. I would recomend reading his point. I hope this helps. |
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30 | Muselim Religious | Eph 2:8 | userdoe220 | 21248 | ||
Suprisingly, there is an article in the Dallas Morning News Religion section on this topic. One thing that is interesting is that each person converted because they appreciated the "disciplined life" that muslims lead. Wow! What an indictment to Christians. I think Foster's book, "the celebration of discipline", needs to be read from the pulpits. I would use this to bring up the one of the practical ramifications in the calvanits/armenianist debate but I will refrain. |
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31 | Who will claim the reward? | Col 1:1 | userdoe220 | 19224 | ||
As long as he is the judge and jury in the competition he is safe and his money is in no danger. I could make the same statement (opposite his beliefs) and as long as I was the judge and jury, I would make sure my money was safe and sound. You might ask how? 1.) Throw me a scripture in the O.T. concerning the Sabbath I would take a dispensational approach and nullify it. 2.) There are no passages in the N.T. that enforce Sabbath worship for N.T. believers. If you show me one, I will just say it does not apply. Money safe, period. Claims like those carry no weight with me. |
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32 | What is the point? | 1 Thessalonians | userdoe220 | 9348 | ||
Your comment that you are "no-rapture" does not make any sense. The rapture plain and simple is Christ coming for his church. How can you deny that without denying scripture? Well, unless you allegorize those passages which a number of theologins do. |
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33 | Can I trust this Pastor? | Hebrews | userdoe220 | 16920 | ||
I don't think this alone should be a test as to weather you should trust him or not. I know a number of fine Bible teachers who firmly beleive that Paul wrote Hebrews. | ||||||
34 | Could Jesus sin? Explain. | Heb 4:15 | userdoe220 | 14534 | ||
If Jesus COULD NOT SIN, how could he be tempted like we are today? If there is NO CHOICE--the option to sin--like we have today, how could he sympathize with our weakness? If Jesus was God how could he be tempted to sin? If God is totally Good, How could he be tempted to perform Evil? Another good question the church has wrestled with for years. |
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35 | An Arminian Consensus in the Forum? | 1 John 2:2 | userdoe220 | 19304 | ||
Armenianists are not Universalists. The only point, as an armenian, I would accept would be the first one. No Armenian that I know teaches that: 1.) Christ's death results in the forgiveness of all men. 2.) Christ's death results in the forgiveness of every man of all sins except one. 3.) Christ's death results in the forgiveness of all men, but they will stile go to Hell if they don't believe. I have never heard an Armenian teacher or Theologin teach the above three points. Armenianist do teach teach that Christ's death extends the offer of forgivness to all men not just to a few. We do not believe that Jn 3:16 is Jesus "speaking in terms so that the unlearned can understand" but, Jesus meant what he said..."The Whole World." Christ's sacrifice is offered to everyone and everyone has the ability to accept or reject this offer. The last three points hint of universalism. |
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