Topical Index

Bible Study and Apologetics

If you read Job 1:8 without reading the rest of the book, you can easily get a distorted impression of what is meant.
... it appears that you are trying to understand God's relationship to the human race by comparing it to a legal contract among humans.
... when Christians say that all of us are sinners, we are talking about God's judgment of us, not about our own human opinions of each other.
The Christian view of Jesus is not based on any human judgment of him.
I don't deny the existence of an oral tradition.
Earlier I said: ...
The reason why the people in this group haven't been able to explain what the purpose of life is from an earthly perspective is that the things of this earth don't have any purpose or meaning of their own, apart from God.
Christians believe that God is the source of everything that is good.
We also need to recognize, however, that Christianity itself, when rightly understood, is not based on human opinions or personal preferences.
I am often a bit uneasy about using the word "supernatural" at all, because I know a lot of people regard it as you do.
As I understand the story, there is no reason to think that Adam and Eve had any children before they were placed in the Garden of Eden ...
... it is possible in theory that God could breathe life into a computer also, but there is nothing in Scripture to say that He has any intention of doing so.
I agree, of course, that greed and lust are evil, but you haven't explained how you know that they are evil.
Isaiah 43:3 - 4 does not prove that God didn't love the people of Egypt, Ethiopia, and Seba.
Numbers 16:35 speaks of an instance in which God sent fire to consume 250 men who were rebelling against the authority of Moses and Aaron.
There is a "red letter" edition of the New International Version of the Bible, in which the words of Jesus are printed in red.
It may surprise you to learn that I actually have spent quite a lot of time thinking about problems like the ones in the list you quoted.
The idea that we know at the gut level that we can't be good enough could be seen as the starting point in what I was trying to say ...
Jesus did bear the burden of sin on the cross, but it was the burden of the sin of the rest of the human race, which he voluntarily took upon himself.
Based on your experience of human nature, do you honestly think you ever will meet an ordinary human on earth who can follow the teachings of Jesus perfectly?
I can neither confirm nor deny what you say about the dates of the manuscripts, but in any case ...
When I say that the Bible is inerrant, I don't mean that it tells us everything about God.
As far as I am aware, scholars no longer have any of the original biblical manuscripts, but they do have ancient copies that are reliable, even though there are some inconsistencies among them.
What do you mean by "my version" of Christianity? There are many denominational differences within Christianity, and yet there are also some core beliefs about which Christians agree in general.
I agree that there is only one ultimate reality, one truth, one heaven, and one God ...
What is the Christian concept of meditation?
You are sure that you have experienced certain things within your own psyche, but ...
The right of individuals to read the Bible for themselves and to form their own honest interpretations of what it means is widely recognized within the Christian community.
The well known Christian statement that Jesus is God is true, but overly simplified, because he actually is both God and man.
When Jesus prayed on the night before he was crucified, he already knew that it was necessary for him to go to the cross.
I recognize, of course, that there are many Christian denominational groups and that we don't all agree about everything.
Jesus' prayer on the night before he was crucified was not an example of choicelessness.
The word metanoia is unfamiliar to most Christians ...
The first human sin did indeed involve self will.
When Christians say that all of us are born with original sin, we don't mean that there is nothing of any value in us.
If you really want to discontinue this discussion, that's ok, but I'm disappointed that you don't want to stay around.
You say that the Christian view of sin and hell causes emotional turmoil and leads to manipulation of people by making them feel fearful and guilty. That depends entirely on ...
Christians do experience the presence of God (the Holy Spirit) within us, but that comes only after we have accepted Jesus as our Saviour and Lord.
If it's a lie then it's not noble.
I think we agree that not everything about humans is evil.
If pure water is added to the glass of contaminated water, the contamination is diluted.
The Bible was written down by fallible human writers, but the ideas in it came from God.
It violates common sense to say that all moral distinctions are arbitrary.
What you are describing here sounds like what the New Testament calls being a slave to sin.
In Matthew, chapter 18 ...
The core beliefs ...
There is an important difference between hating a person's attitudes or actions as opposed to hating the person.
Very briefly, Good Friday is the holy day set aside each year on which Christians commemorate the death of Jesus, and Easter is our holiday for celebrating his resurrection from the grave.
It is clear from the news article you quoted that the defendant in the case began reading the Bible more seriously shortly before she confessed her crimes, not shortly before she committed the crimes.
Christians do believe that Christianity teaches universal truths that apply to everyone.
Our argument hinges on what we believe about sin.
Christians should take your accusations about Christian condescension and pride seriously.
Many people seem to believe that we humans will eventually be able to solve all of our own problems.
For one thing, God has shown his mercy by not wiping all of us off of the face of the earth, when we actually deserve it, but that's not the best example.
The first thing Christians need to remember about the blood sacrifices in the Old Testament is ...
God is both just and merciful.
Non-Christians usually view the Bible from the perspective that the ideas in it came from the minds of the human biblical writers, rather than from God.
When we say that the Bible is the Word of God, that doesn't mean that the humans who wrote it down were sinless.
It isn't necessary to mention every plant and animal species in order to get the message of creation across.
... I highly recommend "How Now Shall We Live?" by Charles Colson and Nancy Pearcey.
You haven't upset me. I learn a lot by interacting with non-believers in this newsgroup.
I'm beginning to wonder whether or not you are serious about this discussion.
In order for us to be able to see God physically, He would have to reduce Himself to the level of living with the physical limitations that humans have to live with.
Sharing opinions here lets all of us learn about how others think.
I can agree with you that God is responsible for allowing evil to exist, and I think we also agree that that is not the same thing as creating evil.
If you believe that everything in the physical universe as we experience it now still operates according to God's laws, then ...
All of us have our ups and downs and distractions.
... it is not true to say that all religions are equivalent.
Violence in the name of religion is certainly not what Jesus taught.
... God is continually sustaining His creation ...
... Mark 16:7 does imply that Jesus appeared visibly after his resurrection.
Pliny the Younger did say ...
... Mark 16:1 - 8 ...
We need objective evidence, because...
... about Mithraism ...
... we do need to have a solid intellectual basis for our faith.
... similarities between Christianity and Buddhism ...
Thomas Aquinas, as you have described his work, is defining some terms rather differently from what I am accustomed to.
As I interpret them, Jeremiah 49:37 and the other verses you quoted are about justice, not about the cause of the existence of evil.
... the sin of apostasy, which is the equivalent of ...
If you don't see the sinfulness within yourself, the Holy Spirit will do His best to show it to you.
I'm not a Catholic, although in general I agree with the Catholics about the big things and differ with regard to some secondary things.
The wedding banquet described in Matthew 22:1 - 14 does not represent the Western countries. It represents the kingdom of God.
... a few suggestions about where to look for the intellectual basis for our faith.
Although Paul did use the idea of crucifixion metaphorically in Galatians 2:20, it is still clear that he regarded the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus as actual historical events.
... That resurrection and that judgment do not apply to animals.
It makes sense that an animal should be put to death if it has killed a person, and verse 5 includes that idea, but notice also verse 3, which says that animals are given to people for meat.
... the whole creation will be restored to its initial state of perfection. And that "whole creation" of course does include animals.
... I thought you intended to say, in an earlier post, that there is anthropological evidence that argues against the idea that our first parents were initially perfect.
God does very often bring good out of evil situations.
... a clear difference between animal behavior and human moral choices.
... absolute authority ...
... The God of the Bible is the only absolute authority, but that does not make Him a tyrant.
The human conscience isn't a compulsion or inhibition that forces us to act in a particular way.
I think what we are getting at here is that the Scripture does make a distinction between the soul and the spirit.
I don't think psychology even has the capability of inhibiting all of the wrong behavior that human beings are so prone to engage in ...
Love, by its very nature, must be voluntary.
There's a difference between limiting our ability to carry out our evil desires as opposed to limiting our freedom to choose whether we desire good or evil.
The serpent's temptation suggests that if the humans eat the forbidden fruit, they will become godlike.
Refusal to love isn't just passive neutrality.
It is our souls that are fallen, and it is our souls that commit sins.
If animals had souls, then we would need to baptize them and to pray for their salvation, but no one does that, and the Scripture does not tell us to. That's why I believe that animals do not have souls.
... We conclude that the Bible is true (including its statements that it was inspired by God) on the basis of ...
With regard to the differences between Christianity and Islam ...
Chapter 15 of the book of 1 Corinthians offers some insight on the resurrection of the human body.
... If you don't like the anthropomorphic images that Christians sometimes use to describe our relationship with God ...
The primary distinction between humans and animals is spiritual.
... God's original creation was entirely free from all forms of evil ...
One of the things we can get a picture of from the creation accounts in Genesis is that human beings are qualitatively different from animals.
The worship of Jesus as God began long before the year 325.
... I don't consider the material world to be an illusion.
... made in the image of God.
... if you have an interest in philosophy you might want to read something by G.K. Chesterton.
Search the web for articles by Phillip Johnson and William Dembski.
... essays at http://geneva.rutgers.edu/src/christianity are very good as an introduction to the main teachings of Christianity.
... material derived from the Q document ...
God is doing something about the evil in the world. If you want evidence of that ...
I certainly do not accept the idea that truth is relative.
... an appearance of the resurrected Jesus to hundreds of people at the same time ...
The things that all Christians agree about are a lot more important than the issues we disagree about.
I don't think it's true to say that the non-believing world ignored Jesus.
The Bible includes nearly all of the documents that tell of the life of Jesus that were known at the time when the Biblical canon was being established ...
When earthquakes and eclipses occur today ...
In addition to telling us that a crowd of hundreds had seen the risen Jesus, Paul also wrote that ...
The scholars themselves disagree and keep changing their minds about the dates of the written accounts of the life of Jesus, including his miracles.
Suppose there had been other ancient documents that described the events of the life of Jesus, including his crucifixion and resurrection, in addition to the accounts of these events that are included in the Bible.
Your happiness, safety, and hope for the future all depend on the choices you make about what you believe.
... just one document that was preserved.
Paul wrote down the account that tells us that a crowd of hundreds saw the resurrected Jesus ...
What about the occasion when the resurrected Jesus Christ was seen by hundreds of people at the same time? It's not likely that all of them were having hallucinations simultaneously.
Jesus promised to send one Comforter, not many, and the Scripture tells us that that Comforter is the Holy Spirit ...
If an event recorded in the Bible is similar to one described by a non-Christian writer, then critics say that ...
Encourage your non-Christian friend to read the Bible itself, starting with the Gospel of John or the Gospel of Luke, and the book of Romans.
If any person tries to urge us to ignore the evidence for God that is there for all to see, we should raise serious questions.
... a distinction between the emotions and the soul.
The idea that God can't stand the sight of evil is based on Scripture ...
I don't believe that we are going to be completely disembodied spirits in heaven.
... I agree with you that the Biblical canon has been completed and closed.
... there is plenty of evidence in the universe to show us that there has to be an intelligent Designer.
Near the beginning of the eighth chapter of Romans, there is a discussion of the contrast between the spiritual and the carnal
If a person witnesses a miracle and recognizes it to be a miracle, it is difficult for that person not to become a believer.
... why the historical reality of Jesus Christ matters to believers.
... a group that uses a non-standard translation of the Bible is likely to be distorting the meaning of it.
... In theory, it is possible to take the position ... that we simply don't know and leave it at that, but in practical ... everyday life that doesn't work.
Different posters in the newsgroup have claimed substantially different dates for the Gospel manuscripts.
The Apostles' Creed ...
I think it is more plausible that when early humans were afraid, they reached out to the God who is really there ...
... We are seeking real immortality and redemption from sin, not just a nice comfortable warm feeling within ourselves.
... reasons why different people have concluded that the Gospel manuscripts are, or are not, valid accounts of real historical events.
... He does not allow anyone to be lost if there is any possible way to save the person. He can do that without reincarnation, however.
... prove that Jesus existed ...
If humans had never sinned, God would not have needed to split the human race up into different language groups
As for the sons of God who took human wives ...
Although Adam and Eve did not immediately die when they ate of the forbidden fruit, I believe that that was the moment when they became mortal.
If we say that the Gospels were written early, for example around 40 A.D., then we can either conclude that ...
I agree that God wants to save all of us, but He does not need to resort to reincarnation in order to do that.
When someone tries to re-define most of the terms and to change the major doctrines of Christianity radically, it doesn't make sense to claim that the result is still the same religion.
Reincarnation is a non-Christian idea ...
Acts 11:26, Acts 26:28, and 1 Peter 4:16 all use the word Christian or its plural ...
Yes, Tacitus could have heard the Christians talking, but
The Annals of Tacitus are available online. Search for the word "Christians" in book XV ...
... ancient Christian documents ...
Regardless of the high or low probability of any particular sequence of letters, these codes still have nothing to do with the meaning of the Scriptures.
It is reasonable to believe that those who persecuted Christians during the first century would have destroyed any Christian documents that they could get their hands on.
Just get a good translation of the Bible that is accepted by many denominations of Christians, and take it at face value.
... if a document is to be considered a prediction, it has to ...
... the earliest documents describing Jesus ...
Luke 12:47 - 48 suggests that God considers both our actions and our degree of knowledge of His will when He judges us.
I think the idea of reincarnation can be dangerous, because ...
... I still believe that the idea of reincarnation is contrary to the Bible.
The Bible does describe people who were resurrected, or who returned or will return to earth to fulfill specific roles in history, but that is not what I meant by the word "reincarnation".
... I've never found any support for the idea of reincarnation in the Bible ...
Let's look at two translations of Isaiah 45:7.
It disturbs me when anyone claims that the Bible isn't the Word of God.
Both of the following ideas are valid: that of the kingdom of God within us and the kingdom of God as an external kingdom ruled by Jesus Christ.
... the works of Shakespeare don't claim to be God's Word, but the Bible does.
... Yes, of course it is presumptuous to put forward our own opinions as if they were God's. So we have two choices ...
Both the Old and New Testaments contain judgments that no one other than God has any right to make.
... Either the Bible is God's Word, or else it is not worth reading.
Some Christians don't think about their faith as much as you think about yours.
Have you ever noticed that some of the most basic moral principles, such as caring about others and telling the truth, are shared by many religions?
God promises eternal life to all who believe in Jesus Christ ...
... some of the things that are said in the Bible express judgments that no one other than God has any right to make.
When I say we should view the Bible as the Word of God, I don't mean to be advocating excessive literalism.
... don't forget what the real purpose of Christianity is.
... words can give us quite a different message when we believe that God said them.
... Reading Scripture as if it were an expression of the human opinions of human writers, instead of reading it as the Word of God, changes the meaning of the message.
Actually God did tell them what the consequences of disobeying Him would be ...
Before they ate of the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve knew that it was forbidden.
... anyone who falls short of perfection will come under judgment unless he or she repents ...
The Apostles' Creed, a statement of faith which has existed throughout almost the entire history of the church ...
Good and evil are actually objective, that is, they are defined by God, but since our human minds are limited ...
As I read Jeremiah, chapter 28, there is clearly a conflict between the ideas spoken by Jeremiah and by Hananiah, but I find no evidence of any personal conflict between the two men.
The English word "generation" is frequently used to mean ...
...The evil in the world came about because of human sin, not because of any flaw in God's original creation.
... what we are really here for is ...
I think God created us so that He could have fellowship with us forever.
If a person speaks the words of a prayer without believing in God or without believing in the power of prayer, that person has not really prayed.
... No Christian would ever deprive a person of the support that comes from being prayed for by others for the sake of a research study.
... the idea of having Christ live in us ...
The Bible does not promise that we will always get exactly what we want while we are on earth.
... if Christianity does not really have the power to do anything more than to give us a little temporary emotional comfort, then we would be better off without it.
... verses about the lying and seduction that the antichrist will do.
"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God ... "
We are forced to make a choice on this issue [whether or not God exists] in our practical, everyday lives, even if we don't make the choice consciously in our minds.
We don't have to choose between science and religion.
If Christianity is not true, then it is dangerous.
I agree that just knowing that something can't be disproven is not a sufficient reason for believing it.
... evidences that may help anyone who is wrestling with doubts.
... it is impossible, that is, NOT possible, to prove that God doesn't exist.
So I take it that you are saying that an "independent confirmation" of the resurrection would be a case in which ...
... If you are struggling with doubts, keep in mind that it is impossible to prove that there is no God.
Suppose someone with no previous interest in or connection with Jesus had witnessed his resurrection or had seen him after he was resurrected. That witness would have four choices ...
In order for the gospel accounts to be independently confirmed ...
I would not expect a secular historian to declare the Bible to be the Word of God on the basis of historical scholarship.
As for the accuracy of Biblical translations ...
With God, last year, the present moment, and the next millenium are all wrapped up together. He is able to transcend time.
Is it really so surprising that we still have some unanswered questions about God?
To find out whether or not the Bible is true, a good way to start would be ...
I'm not familiar with the particular code you speak of, but ...
... passage(s) ... in which Jesus said ... that he loved something or someone.
I also find it interesting that you say you can catch anyone who discusses Christology in a heresy of some kind.
... the other man's reference to him as "good".
I can't believe that Jesus intended any deception ...
... it used to be that the word "man" could properly be used to mean the human race as a whole, including both men and women.
... how sensible the Old Testament health laws are in the light of modern medical knowledge.
... evidence that Jesus actually existed as a historical figure.
... carrying a cross ...
... when we read the Bible for ourselves, ... differing interpretations.
Lewis' argument still has merit even when we recognize that ...
The things that Christians ... agree about are ... more important ...
If you can't accept the teachings of any one denomination, ...
There are so many out there, ... urgently seeking the truth.
This thread started with four topics, ...
...reading the Gospel of John and the book of Romans ... first.
... a Protestant with ... misconceptions about what Catholics believe. ...
If you are a new reader of the Bible, ...