Results 41 - 60 of 645
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Results from: Notes Author: JCrichton Ordered by Date |
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Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
41 | Reincarnation, scripturally founded? | Heb 9:27 | JCrichton | 150803 | ||
Hi, NYP! Scripture does not tells us that Elijah died... he was taken onto heaven as his servant Elisa watched... Moses and Elijah appeared with Jesus, again there's no mention of Elijah's death... Reincarnation is a premise of a soul/spirit jumping into another person's body, at birth or a metamorphosis into a different existence (man to animal or plan or thing) due to a spiritual growth or punishment... in either case it is divorced from Christ's Incarnation and Resurrection which promises that we will be risen in our existing condition (man as man, woman as woman) into a glorify existence (spiritual being)... Elijah, as Enoch, was taken into Heaven... what happened then?... it has not been clearly revealed, but we know from Jesus' Transfiguration (Matthew 17:3-6) and His post resurrection appearances that our bodies will be changed into a spiritual being--not a thing or animal or sharing another person's body... Now, are Elijah and John the Baptist one and the same persons... only God knows... He does have the power to have placed him into the womb of Elizabeth: And do not think you can say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. (Matthew 3:9) 1 The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. 3 He asked me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" I said, "O Sovereign LORD, you alone know." 4 Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones and say to them, 'Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! 5 This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. 6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.' " 7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. 9 Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.' " 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army. (Ezekiel 37:1-10) God Bless! Angel |
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42 | How do we understand these words? | John 6:63 | JCrichton | 150796 | ||
Hi, Aixen7z4! The struggle goes on... When we ignore Christ's command to be humble it is, in part, because we we get immersed in ourselves... we fail the first Commandment and we put God not above our ego but below it, we are then able to choose ourselves instead of Christ! "But how can we know if we are sufficiently humble?" The fact that we must constantly check ourselves is a clear gauge of our capacity to be sufficiently humble--we can never be humble enough! Though this is not because humily is so beyond our understanding or spiritual awareness or willingness to serve Christ... rather, it is because we abide in the flesh and Satan, that ole embodiment of pride, assails our weackest link: our ego. Was it pride that prompted you to share your experience at the meeting?, I think not! I think that it was determined by your desire to demonstrate that ecuminsim is possible for Christians, even when the Body of Christ is represented by a diverse group of Believers. There's no pride in demonstrating that we can be one in Christ! "Yet, in some ways, I am identified with them." Here's where we tread beyond humility... there's a fine line between rejoycing in Christ for Christ's sake and rejoicing in ourselves or our "accomplishments;" if the focus of contentment/pride is in ourselves/congregation (I/we did this or that; I/we have done more or outdone him/her/them...), we have left all humility behind and have embraced pride! Conversely, when we move in Christ and for Christ we will be able to remain humble (2 Corinthians 5:20-21; James 4:6; Romans 12:16)... even when we err, we would be receptive to the Holy Sprit and we will quickly repent from our transgression as we humble ourselves to Christ! Can we be humble enough?... no, pride wont let us! But we are humble in Him who died for us; Him who was raised; Him who sits at the Father's right Hand, always interceding in our behalf! So, if we humble ourselves to God, He will lift us up--both exaltation and eternal life! "The standard, after all, is our Lord Jesus Christ (Matthew 10:35)" I do not follow you on this example... could you clarify? "Someone pointed out at a recent meeting that we can become proud of our humility. Isn’t that amazing?" True! Society has conditioned us to appeal to the world in false love and false humility... it could easily be that by professing to be humble we may be expecting acknowledgement of our "sincere humility"--Jesus spoke on this to the disciples when He warned them not to imitate the Pharisees and Sadducees! God Bless! Angel |
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43 | The Bible, Creators word or what? | 2 Tim 3:16 | JCrichton | 150629 | ||
Hi, Kate! Glad to be of service! God Bless! Angel |
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44 | Homosexuality, sin or not? | Lev 20:13 | JCrichton | 150625 | ||
Hi, Fox! Again, I find that you are seeking to accommodate Scripture to your personal wants and desire... from your logic it could be said that domestic violence is a prudent Christian behavior since Scripture has nothing explicit against it... it could also be claimed that craking a few vials of crack-cocaine and inviting friend, families and acquaintances to partake of the banquet also falls within good Christian conduct... What don't you understand from these passages?: 24Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. 26Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. (Romans 1:24-26) EVEN THEIR WOMEN EXCHANGED NATURAL RELATIONS FOR UNNATURAL ONES. IN THE SAME WAY THE MEN ALSO ABANDONED NATURAL RELATIONS WITH WOMEN AND WERE INFLAMED WITH LUST FOR ONE ANOTHER. MEN COMMITTED INDECENT ACTS WITH OTHER MEN, AND RECEIVED IN THEMSELVES THE DUE PENALTY FOR THEIR PERVERSION. Anyone and everyone has the right to choose to ignore God, to choose to reject God, to choose to disobey God! No one has the right to disobey God, reject God or ignore God and demand to be accepted as he/she is! God will not be moved to bring such a peson into His Realm... those who claim that they are Christian and reject the Word of God or choose to ignore it or choose to transgress it, they are calling upon themselves the WRATH of God not His LOVE. So please do not deceive yourself, God will not accept you (or any of us) on your own terms: choose life in order that you may live! God Bless! Angel |
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45 | Homosexuality, sin or not? | Lev 20:13 | JCrichton | 150621 | ||
Hi, Fox! Ever heard the expression practice makes perfect? Jesus said it better, though, He said that from the abundance of the heart man speaks (acts, believes, functions)... He also said... "those who have eyes, see; those who have ear listen" And He told His contemporaries religious elite that they were blind leading the blind! If you choose to ignore Scripture or to rationalize it or to circumvent it, I cannot show you enough proof that homosexuality is wrong! I can't even proof to you that the Jews are descendants of Abraham! Here's your problem: you seek to make homosexuality an accepted sexual practice... you do not seek to give homosexual rights... you seek to make homosexuality a simple choice that is sanctioned by God! You will only convince yourself (and any homosexual that deceives him/herself into thinking that God created them so and that God desires all to be happy with their personal choices)... These men which you so vehemently choose to protect for the wages of sin quickly gathered around Lot's house seeking to have homosexual sex with the men Lot was hosting... since they knew Lot before this particular incident, they knew that Lots daughters had not been married (being from such a devoted household they were clearly virgins); yet there was no interest in having an orgie with Lots daughters... and there was no mention of their desire to attack/bed Lots daughter prior to the incident nor during the incident... their whole purpose was to have homosexual intercourse with the men in Lot's care... Did Lot think that having his daughters raped and sodomized by these men was a good thing? Apparently you read the Bible in an effort to find errors not in an effort to understand God (for God so loved the world that He gave His only Begotten Son!)... Jesus tells us that a true friend would give his life for a friend... this is not knew to God's people... it is the code of conduct expected and demanded of them by Yahweh! Lot volunteered his hospitability to these extrangers that came into the city... he was obliged to do everything that he could to secure their well-being; yes, including giving his own life for them... did you not notice that? Lot went out of his house to fend the eminent attack on the strangers! He appealed to them to allow free passage for the men inside his home... he reasoned with them that he had extended his hospitability to them... he pleaded with them to take their lust out on his daughters in an effort to spare the shame that these foreigners would suffer at their onsluaght... he offered to them what he could... but their homosexual appetite was greater than their natural sexual desire to possess a virgin woman and they rejected his offer! Further, since he insisted on keeping them from the object of their conquest, they threatened Lot with sexually assaulting him even more so than they would his guests! If you still insist on reading Scriptural proof that homosexuality is a perverted sin against God and nature, read Romans 1:18-32! God Bless! Angel |
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46 | Homosexuality, sin or not? | Lev 20:13 | JCrichton | 150507 | ||
Hi, Fox! ...yeah, me again... here's what Paul tells us about how God sees sin with the special notation on homosexuality (which includes both homosexual, male, and lesbian, females): God's Wrath Against Mankind 18The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. 21For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. 24Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. 26Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. 28Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. 29They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them. (Romans 1:18-32) Did you see it?, verses 26 and 27: homosexuality is shameful, unnatural, and indecent perversion! There are no two ways about it (couldn't help the pun), homosexuality is a transgression against God and all transgressions lead to death (spiritual, though sometimes physical and moral too)... (Romans 6:23) God Bless! Angel |
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47 | Homosexuality, sin or not? | Lev 20:13 | JCrichton | 150499 | ||
Hi, Fox! I understand that you like to share... True, in America (North America) we have the bill of rights, etc... in a Bible Study group we share Scripture and the values taught in Holy Scripture... however, sharing an opinion and making it a Biblical fact is not what we are about... So I like to share my response to Liberty Belle: I am not sure if you have come back to view the various replies that your post originated... some are clearly supportive of the people that erroneously detracted truth from the Holy Scripture and replaced it with their version of God's Word... Here is Genesis description of Sodom: 12 Abram lived in the land of Canaan, while Lot lived among the cities of the plain and pitched his tents near Sodom. 13 Now the men of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the LORD. (Genesis 13:12-13) There's no room for interpretations: Sodom, bad! Genesis 18:16-33 describes Abraham's intercesion on behalf of Sodom... it got to the point that Abraham asked God if He would desist from destroying Sodom if there were to be found in it at least 10 innocent/righteous people... the Lord said He would--Sodom was destroyed! "(sorry, I don't have the scripture)" There's no Biblical Scripture that anyone can use to promote or exonerate homosexuality... the least passage would be the one which I suspect was used, with their own twisted spin: 1 The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. When he saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground. 2 "My lords," he said, "please turn aside to your servant's house. You can wash your feet and spend the night and then go on your way early in the morning." "No," they answered, "we will spend the night in the square." 3 But he insisted so strongly that they did go with him and entered his house. He prepared a meal for them, baking bread without yeast, and they ate. 4 Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom—both young and old—surrounded the house. 5 They called to Lot, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them." 6 Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him 7 and said, "No, my friends. Don't do this wicked thing. 8 Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them. But don't do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof." 9 "Get out of our way," they replied. And they said, "This fellow came here as an alien, and now he wants to play the judge! We'll treat you worse than them." They kept bringing pressure on Lot and moved forward to break down the door. 10 But the men inside reached out and pulled Lot back into the house and shut the door. (Genesis 19:1-10) When we read the Holy Scripture we can clearly state that: A) The angels were guests of Lot, no one else needed to extend their hospitability to them--so clearly there is no sin against inhospitability here! (Genesis 19:3) B) The men of Sodom were up to no good as they mobbed Lot's house (19:4) C) The men of Sodom were if not completely homosexuals they were at least bisexual--and they were out of control... it was not a proposition of or or two who found Lot's male guests desirable... it was the whole mob (19:5) D) Lot attempts to persuade them not to commit such wicked act (having sex with his male guests) (Genesis 19:7) E) Believing that he should protect his guests at all costs, Lot offers his virgin daughters so that they may do anything that they wanted (sexually) to them in exchange of leaving his male guests in peace (19:8) F) They would not have it! These men were not interested in having sex (forced or otherwise) with anyone other than Lot's male guests... they were so incensed that they rushed the door (to break it down) while threatening that they would do worst things to Lot (another male person) than what they had planned to do to his male guests (19:9) There's no way that homosexual intercourse was not what these men were lusting after... they even passed up the opportunity of having sex with two young ladies who had never had sex (virgins) before... they were ready to break down the door so that they could perform their homosexual acts on Lot's guests... An avocado may be a fruit, but no amount of twisting and coaching can make it so that we can bake an apple pie with it: homosexuality, BAD! God Bless! Angel |
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48 | EX 32:14 THE LORD REPENTING? | Ex 32:14 | JCrichton | 150314 | ||
Hi, Danny P! I think I understand what you are saying... When we read the Holy Scripture we find that Jesus is God and that in God there is no sin (nothing wicked or impure)... The Holy Scripture as a fountain of knowledge and doctrine it is excellent... but it does not capable of containing God--that is, it does not create a margin for God to Be and Do... Looking at Genesis 3:15: And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel." Notice how God speaks to the Ancient Serpent, Satan, and reveals to us that the children of the woman and the children of the Beast will be adversaries... we also find the underlined battle is truly between Christ, the offspring of the woman, and Satan, the Serpent... it is also revealed that Jesus will be victorious and that Satan will be defeated! Throughout the Holy Scripture we will find that battle described in various form... we even witness Satan leading a direct assault as he attempts to derail Jesus from being the humble Lamb of God... in Revelation 12 we find the battle discussed with both prequel and sequel segments... the assault on Christ is verified by the dragon's attempt against His brethren... We also understand this battle as both Satan an his minions already having been Judged and sentenced to that place created for him and his minions... yet, the final draft is still to happen... When we read that God had a change of heart/mind or repented from doing something or from allowing something to happen... it is not that God is thinking of sin or acting in sin... His Divine Plan has been placed in motion (as Jesus said, "it is finished")... everything is done according to His Will... remember Jonah... he did not want to preach/warn the sinners at Ninive; his main concern was that God would forgive their sins if they repented... destruction was looming over Ninive; it was inevitable that sinners would perish... but part of God's Plan allowed for his prophet, Jonah, to intercede on behalf of their Salvation... God repented (changed His mind) from the ominous fate that hanged over the Ninivites--their repentence of their sinful lives and their return to Him made this possible... it was part of His Salvific Plan, as Jesus tells us, "those who believe, even though they are dead will Live!" (John 11:25) Notice too... that God never changes His mind about Salvation: we go to Him and in Him we have Life! We find Moses pleading for the people of Israel, for Aaron, his brother, and his sister-in-law... God passess a sentence not to destroy us but to bring us into perfection (humble obedience) and He provides for us those who, as Christ-type, would intercede in our behalf... remember Peter's denial of Jesus... Jesus did not reject Peter's weakness, instead He commanded him that once he would repent and turn back to Him, that he strengthen the other disciples... (Luke 22:31-37) God wants our love and loyalty... He does not repent from offering us the Gift of Life... but within the Salvific Plan He has encorporated prophecies and puhishments to do away with sin and the effects of sin (death)... God pronounces that which is to come so that we may heed His Word and seek Him with all of our heart and might... so that we may choose Life! God Bless! Angel |
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49 | Was Jesus God? | NT general Archive 1 | JCrichton | 149784 | ||
Hi, cayra! Perhaps because I am truly bad at self-editing I could not see the forest for the tree... Had you not quoted me I would not have understood both your original post and this one... It is with great regret that I offer "mia culpa" or in today's poor excuse "my bad." I can only surmise that the error came in part due to fatigue (as it happens often, I end up working into the early morn hours and my brain is coasting almost at automatic... sometimes at sleep-walking... though in my mind I was thinking peace... the homonym typed was piece and when editing the post (as I am sure happens with many people) my mind was reading the words that I had thought were part of my composition instead of the actual words that I typed... ...I read through several Bible versions looking for what I thought was your query (why Prince of peace?)... I am glad you clarified the issue--left to my own means, it is quite probable that it would have escaped me for years! Thank you for your patience and your assistance! God Bless! Angel |
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50 | Can moderators block objectionable text? | Bible general Archive 2 | JCrichton | 149782 | ||
Hi, Hank! I agree with you totally! There's a limit to what man can do (given authority and power) without getting caught up in that biased business... and, complete automation would require extensive and expensive equiptment/programs that do not always work as prescribed (there are some currently in use where a constant response (a or b) is given no matter how the query is composed... even googles and others have their crunching errors and supply everything but the correct response to the search!); that is why I said that it would be nice to have the capacity to remove/block offensive text... As it is this forum has a great variaty of people (age, experience, religious affiliations...) and it is more homogenous than many special interest forums that I've experienced... Like you my computer skills are minimum... had I the knowledge I would offer to create and install a program that would block out text or remove posts that the general members would deem offensive--this I would do free of charge, of course... But as you noted, as long as the general populace continues to curb and educate the few whose agenda is to violate the forum's guidelines or to expound their anti-Christian rhetoric we will continue to have an excellent Christian Forum! Finally, I must concurr with you, our prayers will do more than all the monitoring (automated or otherwise) in the world! If we continuously invit the Holy Spirit to guide and protect the forum and its members, the Hand of God will accomplish all things! God Bless! Angel |
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51 | Can moderators block objectionable text? | Bible general Archive 2 | JCrichton | 149690 | ||
Hi, Hank! My comment was in regards to the material already posted... though I did not check the site, it is my understanding that justme did and was shocked by its content... From several past exchanges, I understood that the Forum does sanctions/terminates habitual abusers... still, it would be nice to not only restrict abusive posts but to also remove/block out text that is offensive or that offers links to offensive sites... God Bless! Angel |
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52 | Was Jesus God? | NT general Archive 1 | JCrichton | 149689 | ||
Hi, Cayra! If I understand you correctly you are seeking an explanation for the title "Prince of Peace..." The best I can give you is that there are various translations (transliterations) of the original Scrolls... some would have it as "The Prince of Peace," others "Prince of Peace." If I did not understand your query, please expand... God Bless! Angel |
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53 | 12 apostles? why? | Ex 28:21 | JCrichton | 149687 | ||
Hi, Searcher! Part of reading the Holy Scripture is that we reason out God's Word... the only connection to the twelve disciples is the twelve tribes of Israel... Revelation 4:4 speak on the twenty-four thrones, that sorround the Throne of God, where twenty four ancients/elders sit... these twenty-four represent the twelve tribes of Israel and twelve Apostles... I understand your concern about having Biblical text explaining something... but sometimes it is just not there... remember how Jesus trained/taught the disciples about the Church? He told Simon that he was Peter and that on that rock He would build His Church and that not even the powers of Hell could destroy the Church (OK so I did not quote Jesus' ad vadum--I chose to paraphrase...); outside of that He simply said that the Holy Spirit would reveal the fullness of Truth... and it was not till Antioch that those of the Way or the Name would be known as Christians... this was never previosly revealed in Sacred Scripture (Old Testament, the Gospels and the earliest exchanges of the Apostles)... well unless we account for John's revelation where Jesus speaks of those that will receive a new name--still the name would preceed John's redactation and circulation of the vision he experienced... Now, you say that the twelve tribes of Israel are not the twelve sons of Jacob... have you read the Old Testament thoroughly? Jacob, Israel, was the recipient of the Promise made to Abraham his forefather... the twelve tribes of Isarael are named after the twelve sons of Israel... true, changes emerged and there were some substitutions made... yet, these substitutions were made by God and still revolved around Israel's twelve sons (Joseph and Levi were interchanged with Ephraim and Manasseh... on the final count (Revelation 7:1-8) Levi was reinstated, Dan dropped, and Ephraim replaced with Joseph--all in all: twelve tribes: twelve direct descendants of Israel--eleven sons and one grandson)... I know it takes a leap of Faith to allow God to reveal or change things according to His Plan without giving full account of the reasons why... Perhaps if the Holy Scripture would reveal everything in a systematic and crystal clear basis we would have gotten bored with the study of the Holy Scripture... also, there's that dependency on the Holy Spirit to reveal God's Truth to mankind! God Bless! Angel |
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54 | Can moderators block objectionable text? | Bible general Archive 2 | JCrichton | 149683 | ||
Hi, Searcher! Thanks for the info! I was simply wondering, due to the recent exchange... justme trusted on another person's words; only to be shocked by the findings... since I noticed that the individual continued to post the website in question, I wondered if there could not be a way to either block the address or remove the post from both general list and the restricted list... And, since justme mentioned that the problem was reported, Hank clarified that it was a taxing task to perform (not all systems have access to the same tools), and Lockman has restricted the thread... there's not much else to do... God Bless! Angel |
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55 | Can moderators block objectionable text? | Bible general Archive 2 | JCrichton | 149682 | ||
...guess I should have continued reading... :) | ||||||
56 | Can moderators block objectionable text? | Bible general Archive 2 | JCrichton | 149681 | ||
Hi, Kalos! This was exactly my concern... I've been in other forums where administrators are able to edit/block/remove individual posts... Though I've been here for a while, I am not familiar with much of the forum's formats and functions.. Thanks for the clarification! God Bless! Angel |
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57 | . | Job 31:1 | JCrichton | 149576 | ||
Hi, justme! I did not know that he was seeking to profane the Bible site... still, I felt the need to respond to his recent post... sometimes Satan is just about to swallow a person whole and the Holy Spirit, through our efforts can ignite in him/her and convict him/her of the Truth! God Bless! Angel |
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58 | holy spirit vs. holy ghost | NT general Archive 1 | JCrichton | 149500 | ||
Hi, rgb! Thanks for the encouragement! God Bless! Angel |
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59 | holy spirit vs. holy ghost | NT general Archive 1 | JCrichton | 149371 | ||
Hi, rgb! I am not saying the contrary... Scripture speak of both the Holy Spirit as a Person of God and as a power/gift that teaches, guides, enhances the Christian... My reference to grammatical accident is because some people get caught up in definitions and roots... the Jehovah Witnesses love to dismantle John 1:1-2... they teach the concept of Logos as though Scripture is expressing a spoken energy and not the second Person of God... they are also quick to point out that Jesus stated that the Father is greater than He--their take on this is that Jesus is some how a secondary/alter ego to the Father; thusly, they express how Jesus is not the Almighty God, but just some lesser being... again, a grammatical accident (statement) cannot deny Jesus' Divinity when there are oh so so many Scriptural passages that demonstrate or tells us that Jesus is God. The beauty of the Holy Trinity is clearly manifested to Paul as He tells us that we cannot serve Jesus but through the Holy Spirit and that those who have the Spirit of God cannot deny Jesus (1 Corinthian 12:3)... it is God who sets the prerogotives--in the Old Testament we find that Moses' son was struck down for presenting a strange fire, and Oza for touching the Ark... it is unavoidable to serve God in His determined manner: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit! So you see... when we scrutinize Scripture and rely on only etymological sciences, we will always fall short of discovering the Holy Spirit and Jesus as part of God's essence... (secretly, I hope that the Jehovah Witnessess and others like them read through our exchange and rediscover God as God wants us to know Him!)... God Bless! Angel |
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60 | holy spirit vs. holy ghost | NT general Archive 1 | JCrichton | 149279 | ||
Hi, rgb! Grammatical accidents are to Scripture like wedding bands on a married couple: they clarify the relationship but they do not establish the relationship! Take for example one single passage: John 4:24; while some translations have "spirit," others have "Spirit;" yet, still others have "a spirit," while others still have "a Spirit..." Could Jesus Christ be saying that God is a force, a power or is He saying that God is a being which is a Spirit or spiritual being? The only concern that the Watchtower has is to strip the Holy Trinity of the Son and the Holy Spirit... they are a blind fellowship the purports to being Christian (the object of fellowship and worship) while still denying that He is God! Don't they realize that we cannot serve two masters? If we call Jesus our Master (Lord and Savior) and if He is not God, are they not in essence practicing polytheism: they serve Christ, who to them is not God and they serve God! As confusing as that is, you will find that they always excuse any Scripture that speaks of Jesus or the Holy Spirit as God... ie: in the Old Testament God's prophets spoke and set prophecies... the language in the Old Testament is almost always: the Lord said/says... when we read through the New Testament we find that the statements attributed to the Lord are attributed to the Holy Spirit (as in David's: the Lord said to my Lord)... I remember a couple of people rejecting that Jesus is God because they could not understand how the Word could be God and be with God all at the same time... yet, when reading Isaiah they reject God's own statements about His Son, the Immanuel (God-with-us) whose titles include Mighty God and Eternal Father... They manipulate Scripture so that they even refuse to see simple values transfered from the Father to the Son as in Isaiah 8:14-15 Romans 9:31-33; 1 Corinthians 1;23 and 1 Peter 2:3-10... Selective reasoning and etymology can obfuscate the Truth rather than set it free... and, if we relay on half-truths, how can we be set free? Paul spoke of the incredulous and the "geniuses" as those who were far from God: 21For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. 22Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength. (1 Corinthians 1:21-25) This, of course, does not mean that we should not search Scripture and dig into origins of words... however, our task should not be to limit God but to discover deeper understanding into His revelations: The Father and I are One; all sin is forgiven except blaspheming against the Holy Spirit... these are solid statements that reveal that the Father and the Son are both God and that the Holy Spirit is God... no amount of study/manipulation can render anything other than that truth--unless the Word of God is ignored, circumvented or its meaning altered! God Bless! Angel |
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