ProphetPX -> RE: God, Darwin, and Kansas (8/17/2006 5:29:30 AM)
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Suddenly a big loud obnoxious buzzer goes off ... *ERRRRRRTTTT!!!* hi, I know I am new to this discussion but up till this point I have not had much of any active role in any of the forums, and I thought this would mark a perfect opportunity to just "jump right in" ... so please excuse me if I might sound just a bit rude because IT IS NOT MY INTENTION to be nor to sound so. Forgive me if you would .... This reply is hereto addressed to Lady Ellen (being that her post / reply was the first I happened to set my eyes upon :-) 1. To believe in Jesus the Christ, is also to believe in what is said BY him and ABOUT him, in the Gospels. 2. Which in turn, is to believe that what is said, IS the truth ("all scripture is divinely inspired and God-breathed" etc etc ... as is said somewhere else in the NT). It was said about Jesus in John 1:1 that "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." that is specifically speaking about the beginning of Creation, if not even before the Creation ... at the least. Granted, those are John's words, but being that John was inspired by the Holy Spirit to write them, the Holy Spirit being the instrument on earth in this present day to carry along the Word of God which Jesus IS, one can also say that Jesus himself is saying it, via the Holy Spirit, with the very words and pen of John himself. Jesus actually DID build up, the whole time he was on the Earth in his earth-bound ministry, but HE ALSO did come to "bring a sword" in order to separate the wheat from the chaff (the believers from the unbelievers), and not to establish his Earthly Kingdom right away (so in a sense you are 1/2 correct :-) the "creation myth" as you put it, was started with Judaism, yes. But remember, Jesus and ALL of his apostles (his closest circle of disciples) WERE Jews, and Christianity was never to negate anything that was already established in the Old Testament. Jesus' coming was not to negate, or to stop anything that had started in the old ancient times of the OT, but to FULFILL and COMPLETE, which is not the same as negation or stopping of any of it. so when you say that "he had no need to because what he brought to mankind did not depend in any way on traditionally held beliefs or cultural reference" ... I disagree, strongly. Because everything he said, had a STRONG JUDAIC basis, I can't think of even 1 thing that was said in his earth ministry where there were not already roots laid by earlier Jew prophets and priests, or basic followers of God in times past. Everything he did HINGED on how he was going about in FULFILLING ancient prophecies. EVERY STEP he made, every deed he did, every word he said, was FULFILLING prophecy, second by second, day by day, year by year .... etc etc ... So what you said there, unless I misunderstood your context, then I would say it is wrong. And then when you said, "All that was required was faith in what he preached as son of the Jewish God, directly from that God rather than through the interpretations of man which was what had gone before." Faith was not the only thing required, OBEDIENCE to God was a GIVEN REQUISITE from the very Ancient of Days (cf: Old Testament times) and it was a genuine intricate and integrated part, and sign, of having faith in the first place. Nobody who does not believe is going to do a work because what good would they think of it? Therefore, if someone did a work, they must have faith, otherwise why would they think good of it in the first place? Just the same, "Faith without works is dead." Yet works alone cannot save us. Actually you can say it in any number of ways because they both go hand in hand: "works from faith" (because of?) or "faith through works" (obeying God can strengthen your faith from confirmations, etc ..), "works of faith" (faith which produces miracles, the works we do, when we cannot even see the outcome so soon as we do them, yet God takes where we started and may finish a task miraculously) ... I could go on and on ... The interpretations of man? I don't know what you are speaking of there, but any instruction God had ever given either came from his own Voice, or through the voice and writings of the Prophets. To call the direct voice of God in the Old Testament times (which you seem to refer to) to be only a mere "interpretation of man" is to be just a bit ignorant of what and how exactly the role and duties of the prophet and scribes were to undertake. Word for word, jot and tittle, the smallest jot of an i, the smallest dash through the t (to paraphrase, since in Hebrew there were no such phoenician concepts of lettering, but a consonant-only system of 22 letters with a vowel accentuation which was altogether different than what we use today for English or any other modern character based language of Latin descent) And my most strongest disagreement would be where you say "Basically, all of that former stuff could be thrown away because God was here and telling it how it is. " I am sorry, but that sounds like big time ignorance on your part. I know I do not know you, personally. I cannot and will not judge you. But I am sorry, that is simply not true and is quite horrifying for a christian (as myself) to read. :-( "all of that former stuff" CANNOT be just "thrown away" because JESUS CAME TO FULFILL all of that former stuff, since without all of that "former stuff" there would never be anything to FULFILL, much less to point ahead in the future to even further typifications of further fulfillment of THE SAME and MORE prophecies which even to this day are either BEING CURRENTLY FULFILLED in our own real-time, or are yet to be fulfilled and mark out their own circumstance. How can anyone throw the "former stuff" away?? I really cannot understand your line of reasoning there because the Bible just IS NOT the Bible without the Old Testament. You cannot only have 1 and not the other. To get rid of 1 is like throwing out the Baby with the Bathwater .... Seriously. The Old Testament and the New Testament are inseparable, and NOT mutually exclusive of the other. --- quote ---- I dont see how salvation through faith in Jesus Christ (ie Christianity) depends to any degree on believing in Biblical creation? Jesus came not to build up, but to tear down according to my Bible - indicating a total break with Judaism, which must necessarily also include a break with that entire tradition including the creation myth. It is notable that Jesus didnt comment on the creation in the Gospels in the Bible - he had no need to because what he brought to mankind did not depend in any way on traditionally held beliefs or cultural reference. All that was required was faith in what he preached as son of the Jewish God, directly from that God rather than through the interpretations of man which was what had gone before. Basically, all of that former stuff could be thrown away because God was here and telling it how it is. E ---- PPX edit: only my own post, spelling and emphasis corrections
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