God throughout the Bible spoke through his prophets to prove he was the only god. He always foretold the future through them to verify who he was, to prove to the people that those who spoke were true prophets, and to draw mankind to worship him only. The 100% accuracy of the hundreds (possibly thousands) of prophecies in the Bible that came true are proof Yahweh is the God of truth. Not even Nostradamus can match this record! Here are ten of those prophecies and the years they were fulfilled:
- Predicted ca. 855 BC: The prophet Elijah predicts Jezebel would be eaten by dogs upon her death in Jezreel. (1 Kings 21:23)– Fulfilled ca. 841 BC: Jezebel is killed in Jezreel and dogs eat her body (2 Kings 9:36).
- Predicted ca. 760 BC: Amos predicts Israel would be restored as a nation and would never be uprooted again (Amos 9:15)–Fulfilled in 1948.
- Predicted ca 732 BC: Isaiah predicts the Medo-Persian empire will conquer Babylon [Isaiah 13:17-18] and Babylon would become a wasteland.–Fulfilled in 538 BC when the Medes took over Babylon and 275 BC when the Seleucids forced all of the inhabitants to leave.
- Predicted ca. 732 BC: Isaiah says Egypt and Ethiopia would be conquered by Assyria (Isaiah 20:3-5).–Fulfilled ca. 673-670 BC when Assyria conquers the northeast African nations.
- Predicted ca. 701 BC: Isaiah claims Israel will be taken captive by the Babylonian empire (Isaiah 39).–Fulfilled ca. 597 & 586 BC: Babylon takes captives and sacks Jerusalem the first time then totally destroys Jerusalem about 10 years later.
- Predicted ca. 589 BC: Ezekiel tells about the fall of the great city Tyre, claiming that the Lord “will cause many nations to come up against thee,” (Ezekiel 26, 27).–Fulfilled in 586-573 BC: Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon lays siege against the city. Fulfilled in 370s BC: a king of Cyprus conquers the city. Fulfilled in 332 BC: Alexander the Great conquers the city. Fulfilled in 315-316 BC: Antigonus, who served under Alexander, attacks and conquers the city. Fulfilled in 1124: The city falls to the Crusaders. Fulfilled in 1291: The city falls to the Muslim armies of the Mameluks.
- Predicted ca. 543 BC: Daniel tells of a great Grecian king who would conquer the Persian empire but would have his kingdom divided four ways after his death (Daniel 8).–Fulfilled in 330 BC when Alexander the Great defeats Persia and 281 BC after the Greek generals who succeed Alexander reach an agreement after years of war to split the kingdom four ways.
- Predicted ca. 536 BC: Daniel prophesies that the Greek empire would not go to Alexander the Great’s heirs (Daniel 11).–Fulfilled ca. 323-281 BC after Alexander’s death when his generals fight over the kingdom while shutting out (and killing) his heirs.
- Predicted ca. 430 BC: Malachi prophesies that Yahweh’s name would be honored by the Gentiles (pagans) (Malachi 1:11).–Fulfilled 1st century AD to the present: Pagans worldwide have forsaken their paganism and have confessed that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
- Predicted ca. 30 AD: Jesus tells his disciples that they will be persecuted and hated by the majority of the people on the earth because they follow him (Matthew 24:9).–Fulfilled 1st century AD to the present: Ever since the gospel of Jesus Christ has been preached, millions of true Christians worldwide have been mistreated or killed for the faith.
“I am God, and there is none like me. Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:” (Isaiah 46:10-11).
For various prophecies that Jesus Christ predicted that have been fulfilled see Events predicted by Christ that have really happened.
–posted by Harry A. Gaylord–
Additional Fulfilled Prophecies (Note: As I continue to study the Bible & discover even more fulfilled prophecies, I’ll mention them here.)
Predicted ca. 588 BC: Ezekiel prophesied that once Egyptians would return from Babylonian captivity after 40 years to inhabit Egypt again, they would be the “basest of the kingdoms” and would “no more rule over the nations.” (Ezekiel 29:15) — Fulfilled in 548 BC when an exiled pharaoh struck a deal with the reigning Babylonian king that allowed him to return with his people to Egypt (Source: Nebuchadnezzar Inscription, annals of the Babylonian kings). From 548 BC to the time of its annexation in 30 BC into the Roman Empire, Egypt slowly diminished until it no longer ruled any nation, including up to today.
Predicted ca. 586 BC: Ezekiel 37:22 predicts that after their Babylonian captivity, Israel would never be divided into two nations again as it had been in the past with a northern kingdom (Israel) and a southern kingdom (Judah). — Fulfilled in 538 BC & again in 1948: Both times that Israel has returned as a nation, they have never been two divided nations.
Predicted ca. 690 BC: The prophet Isaiah predicts in a Messianic prophecy that the Chinese would come to the Messiah, when he says, “Behold, these shall come from far: and, lo, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim,” Isaiah 49:11. The land of Sinim is China. Fulfilled ca. 4 BC & again in late 60s to early 70s AD to today: When the wise men came from the east (an approximate 2 year journey that probably included men from China) in 4 BC to worship the toddler Jesus and again later when the apostle Thomas visited China from India to spread the gospel before he was martyred in India in AD 72. Proof from Chinese tombstone carvings dating back to AD 86 depicting Bible stories from Genesis to Jesus confirm Christianity reached China’s shores in the first century and today the Chinese church is booming.
Predicted 6th century BC: The prophet Obadiah prophesies the following about the Edomites, who helped Babylon destroy Jerusalem: “For thy violence against thy brother Jacob shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for ever. … And they of the south shall possess the mount of Esau …” (Obad. 10, 19). Fulfilled 70 AD: The Edomite/Idumeans become extinct after Rome annihilates them in the Jewish Wars when Roman armies destroy Israel. After the Jewish Wars, the Nabataeans possess the mount of Esau. They were Arabians, people to the south of Edom, and the Arabians have inhabited it ever since. Today it’s the southern region of the nation of Jordan. [added 8-31-2014]
Predicted 487 BC: Zechariah prophesies that by the time Jerusalem will be restored to the holiness that God intends for it during Christ’s Millenial Reign, no Canaanites would be left living in Jerusalem or in Judah. (Zech. 14:21) Fulfilled 70 AD: The last remaining Canaanites who had assimilated into living among the Jews in Jerusalem died when Titus sieged against and then razed Jerusalem. This race of people is now extinct. [added 10-12-14]
Predicted ca. 10th century BC: Psalm 120:5-7 predicted that the Russians (Mesech) and the Arabians (Kedar) would be a people that hate peace and embrace war. Fulfilled in 600s AD to the present for Arabia: When the Arabian prophet Muhammad spread his new religion of Islam, he used wars to do it and his followers have been warring ever since. Fulfilled in the 9th century to the present for Russia: Warring Slavic tribes slowly expand territory until the fall of Constantinople in 1453 when they declared themselves the heirs and successors of the Eastern Roman Empire, expanding their lands even more to what we know as Russia today. And they continue to war today. Their ultimate war will come in the future as prophesied in Ezekiel 38-39 when they will lead a group of nations to fight Israel. [added 2-23-15]
Predicted ca. 545 BC: Daniel predicts that four major kingdoms/empires would rise up with prominence before the return of Jesus Christ, the Ancient of days. The first was like a lion, the second like a bear, the third like a winged leopard, and the fourth a beast with iron teeth. Fulfilled: The first is Great Britain, the second is Russia, the third is the Germany/France alliance. The fourth will be fulfilled in the future as the revived Roman Empire. [added 4-2-16]
Predicted ca. 630 BC: God told the prophet Zephaniah, “From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia my suppliants, even the daughter of my dispersed, shall bring mine offering,” (Zeph. 3:10). Fulfilled late 1970s–present: Starting with the administration of Israeli Prime Minister Menachim Begin in 1977, thousands of Ethiopian Jews began migrating to Israel and continuing up to today, Ethiopian Jews have migrated to Israel with Israel’s help. Many of them are Christian and although that group has had many hardships in Israel, many of them remain devoted to the Lord. [added 4-8-16]
Predicted 95 AD: John tells us in Revelation 11:8 that by the time of the great tribulation, Jerusalem will be spiritually known as “Sodom and Egypt.” — Fulfilled 1988–present: Israel legalized sodomy in 1988 and now has one of the most progressive gay rights agendas in the world. Jerusalem now has large gay pride celebrations on a regular basis. [added 5-7-16]
Predicted 95 AD: Revelation 13 predicts that a mandatory system will be set up where people will only be allowed to participate in commerce if they have a mark in their right hands or foreheads. Partially fulfilled 2000s–present: Systems are now in place that allow humans to implant microchips in their bodies, setting the stage for the future mark of the beast John predicted in Rev. 13. [added 5-22-16]
Predicted 10th century BC: Asaph the seer in Psalm 83 predicted a conglomerate of nations (each one specifically named) would start a war with Israel to destroy them as a nation. Fulfilled May 1948: When Lebanon (Gebal), Syria (Tyre), Iraq (Assur), Egypt with Saudi Arabia’s help (Ishmael, Hagarenes), and Transjordan (Ammon, Moab, Amalek) all joined forces as soon as Israel was declared a Jewish State in an attempt to annihilate them. The prophecy will be fulfilled again at a later date. [added 3-8-17]
Predicted 7th century BC & 1st century AD: Habakkuk the prophet (ca. 620 BC) and Jesus Christ (ca. 29 AD) prophesied that the end times would be marked by the commonality of all types of rape and homosexuality (see Habbakkuk 2:14-16 and Luke 17:28-30). Fulfilled late 19th century and 1962 to the present: The ubiquity of rape and forced sex trafficking was acknowledged in the late 19th century when international legislation in the U.S. and Europe was drafted to fight it in the early 20th century and it has continued to be a greater problem up to the present. The modern gay rights movement began to gain prominence in 1962 with a march in Philadelphia to push for LGBT acceptance and the movement has made such behavior more common and accepted up to the present. [added 6-9-17]
sunandshield.wordpress.com 
i think some of these are a stretch. some of these are thousands of years apart – is that really a fulfilled prophecy, or just a guess that had time and the odds on its side?
also, to say israel will never be uprooted is not a certainty at this point.
and the dating on a lot of the prophecies is not a certainty either.
and when the witness himself is the lone confessor of the facts about fulfillment (ie, the bible prophesies, and then the bible says it came true), one has to wonder about that validity, too.
most of the disciples – especially peter, and later paul – expected Jesus’ return in their lifetimes. and yet the ‘end times’ have been claimed by every generation since Jesus left the earth.
i saw a book in the cbd catalog yesterday: the title was something like “what you can do to speed up jesus’ return”. you didn’t write that, did you? 🙂
this kind of scripture handling is why my m. div. sits on my shelf. we christians need to spend less time trying to ‘prove’ the faith and let our living it provide any proof anyone needs. i read the first nine chapters of acts the other night; man, are we out of sync.
“by this will all men know you are my disciples – if you can outline all the right doctrines and command a great apologetic skill.”
at least that’s how most christians remember the verse…
mike rucker
fairburn, ga, usa
http://mikerucker.wordpress.com
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Actually those who are practicing christianity they are pagans by practicing religious holidays that have long been held high by the crete’s and the druids and other sun and moon, mo lech, astarte, baal, zeus, jupiter and nimrod worshipers… Even the statues at the christian vatican and all of its obelisks are nothing but pagan with new names given to them. The word je-sus is pagan as is g.o.d. but lets not forget that the bible was stolen from the Israelite people when it was called its true name “TORAH” and “TANAK” just before they would begin to be AS the heathen gentile and later be carried off to slavery here in the U.S. of A. YAHWEH and YESHUA are the true names just in case you wanted to know. The Father and the MOST HIGH is the NAME and his Son YESHUA is the WORD so it might be a good idea to stop using the wrong names now that you know they ARE wrong concerning the etymology of the names contained in scripture. Also read Leviticus 26 if you wanna know what it is everybody that says they love YAHWEH ought to be doing and what has and will happen if you do not do this.
Be Blessed
All Praise Be To The Most High YAHWEH!!!!!!!!!
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I agree that religious holidays are of pagan origin. But I don’t agree that the Vatican is “Christian.” They’re only thought of as being Christian because they’ve marketed themselves under that brand for centuries when, in fact, they are a cheap imitation of the true church of God.
The word Jesus is not pagan as you claim. You’ve been horribly misinformed. The New Testament (NT) was originally written in Greek and the name “Iesous” is the Greek version of the name “Yeshua.” Jesus is the English version of the name “Iesous.” Just like Peter is the English version of the NT Greek name “Petros.”
The word “God” is not pagan either. In Genesis 1:1, God is called “Elohim” in the Hebrew. And in Exodus 20:2-3, God identifies himself to the Hebrews as “Yehovah,” or “Yahweh” thy “Elohim.” Then he commands that they shall have no other “elohim” before him. So the word “elohim” can refer to the one true God or a pagan god, depending on the context. In the same way, the word god can be used with a capital G for the true “Elohim” or small g for an idol, depending on the context of scripture.
I can tell by your being hung up on the Old Testament that you are into trying to fulfill Mosaic laws to reach salvation. Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which the Hebrews were not even able to bear? [Acts 15:10]. You can be in bondage to the law if you choose, but I choose the freedom of the New Testament which was established by the blood of Jesus. Yes, I said JESUS.
Using the name “Jesus” can cast out devils just like using his Hebrew name “Yeshua” can. If God makes no requirements as to using the Hebrew over the English version of his name in casting out devils, who are you to try to require such a personal preference on the believers in Christ?
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To correct you. Roman Catholics not the same as Christians. It is true that the Catholics’ doctrines are mixed with those of the pagans. To prove this, they worship Virgin Mary as if she is a god. The Bible never told us to worship Mary. The original worship of the MOTHER AND CHILD image came from the worship of SEMIRAMIS and NIMROD (the first image of the Anti-Christ). Search the internet so you could know that. The LORD God told us not to have any other gods other than him(Exodus 20:3 “You shall have no other gods before me.). To add some more spices, their worship of the cross also breaks one of the Ten Commandments(Exodus 20:4 “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.). As what you can observe on pagan customs, they use idols to represent nature and worship them – bow, touch, pray, and kneel towards them. There are many things that we need to know in the Bible in order for us to really worship our Almighty God, our Creator. The Bible is the single book that can teach us the identity of our God.
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Jeffrey– words well spoken. Thanks for pointing out the facts.
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Terry Zeyen, in one of his responses indicated that Gog = Russia. I believe this is (after some research) a generally held belief, however the Bible itself was written by people from the Middle East, about the lands of the Middle-East. God’s people are descended from Seth, down through Noah and Abraham to Jacob whom he named Israel. It’s all about Israel isn’t it? So shouldn’t we first be looking for a land in the localised area north of Israel as seen from Ezekiel’s perspective? Even today, 2000 years later, all the religious wars and terrorism are centering around that same area. To be fair the Bible does say ‘all the earth’ or the ‘nations’ many times, but the meaning seems simpler to me if we update those phrases with the word ‘lands’. The meaning then deals with the lands and nations around Israel from the perspective of those in the time and place to whom the prophecies were given, as does all of the Bible. To Ezekiel, God said, “Son of man, set your face against Gog, of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal, and prophesy against him, and say, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, I am against you, O Gog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal”’” (Ezekiel 38:2-3). God sets himself against Gog, the Antichrist, and Meshech and Tubal are in Magig. Both of these lands are today identified as being in Turkey, which was part of the biblical Middle-Eastern lands. Magog is also identified in Revelations as being the place of Armageddon where God will cause a lake of fire to burn the remains of the dead, with Magog being placed squarely around the place where Christ will dwell with HIS people, the people of Israel. So Magog cannot be in Russia. I don’t know where Rosh is but are we really basing Rosh on Russia because it sounds similar and because Russia is also north of Israel, when the other evidence points to lands closer to the home of the Bible as it was in Ezekiel’s time. I myself come from Melbourne in Australia, but it doesn’t mean I’m a U.S. Citizen because there happens to be a Melbourne there. It makes much more sense to me that God’s Anti Christ, God’s opposer will be from the lands that even today are Anti Christian. Russia is certainly not anti Christian, it is still today a 95% Christian nation.
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Sharon,
You must compare scripture with scripture before coming to a concrete conclusion. There’s more than the scripture in Ezekiel to consider. Daniel 7 speaks of Russia–> https://sunandshield.wordpress.com/2015/03/28/last-of-the-great-empires-daniel-7-the-bear-with-three-ribs-in-its-mouth/
I also cover more on the Ezekiel passages here–> https://sunandshield.wordpress.com/2008/03/25/an-unholy-gathering-of-nations/
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Harry, I am confused, I have indeed browsed the links to your website as suggested.
The conclusions you postulated in your article of 2011: Origins and Appearance of the Beast (Antichrist) actually do coincide with what I suggested, i.e., that the Antichrist comes from the Middle-East out of the Seleucid lands and you yourself named the kingdoms and beasts of Daniel 7 in this article.
The Bible verses I have compared this to are:
[Rev 17:10…And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.
11 And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition]
Knowing that the Romans were the ruling kingdom, or beast, at the time of the bible, the Romans equate to ‘the one that is’. So, working backwards, the 5 Kingdoms that came before them were: The Greeks, Persians, Babylonians, Assyrians and Egyptians. They all were anti Christian type empires and anecdotally, each of these Kingdoms attempted to destroy the Jews in one way or another. That being the definition of all the beasts. The ruling religion at the time of the prophecy, the Romans, are still the same empire of today, as The Roman Catholic Papacy although outwardly their religion has changed. And the Roman beast of Biblical times persecuted both the Jews and the Christians. Going back to the text, the ‘one yet to come’ is I believe Islam. Not merely because of the behaviour of the extremists, but by simple numbers. The growth of predicted Islamic births over Christian births will see the people of Islam equal the number of Christians worldwide within four decades, less than a generation. After that Islam will overtake Christians and will be the leading religion and culture (Kingdom) in the world. As Islam is both anti-Semitic and anti-Christian they can be said to be the same as the ‘beast that was’, and as this new Kingdom is still leading up to become the leading culture it is also the beast that ‘is not’ (yet). The eighth beast, the one that will go into perdition is the same as the seventh, in other words Islam again, but the eighth will be led by the Antichrist, also named in the Bible as Gog.
Russia, however, (or Magog as you suggest it is) does not fit the text and is not any of the 5 Kingdoms that have already fallen, nor could it be described as the ‘one that is’, either now or in the times of the bible. Whilst Russia has had its antisemite undertones, it is a Christian nation and could not be described as anti Christian as Gog the AntiChrist must be. Gog is named as being the prince of Meshech and Tubal, which although you make a very good case for being in Russia, many scholars now believe to have been located in Turkey as part of the Seleucid empire in the time of the bible. In Daniel, true enough, only 4 beasts are mentioned not all 7 and that might be a bit odd, except that none of the prophecies contain all the elements of the big picture until Revelations.
Your article about the origins of the Antichrist that I mentioned at the beginning does uphold the above, including the beasts of the lion, bear and leopard relating to the old empires and regions of the Middle-East and does not seem to disagree with what I stated about all the Kingdoms from the Bible texts.
In your later articles however, posted in 2015, you state that the Bible tells us the nations represented by the 4 beasts of Daniel are those matching the flags of Russia, America and Britain. Quite good arguments actually, but it later degenerates, such as the German Panzerkamfwagon of WWII being the Panther symbol for the Leopard where even you seem unsure if this is actually what the Bible is alluding to. It does seem very tenuous. As does the argument for the four wings of a fowl that might be France with the possibility the wings may be four periods in France’s history. There is no supporting scripture.
Additionally I have not found that your proposition that the AntiChrist could come from a Christian nation is scripture anywhere in the prophecies. Would such a glaringly big clue be left out of the Book of Revelations? You advised me to compare scripture for scripture, which I believe I have done as above with Daniel and Revelations. So can you then show me where scripture states that the Antichrist is a Christian or from a Christian country? Otherwise your premise that the Leader of Russia, an orthodox Christian who will declare that he is God, blaspheme God’s name, perform false miracles, and with the 4 Christian beast nations of Daniel 7 that you stated in your link as Britain/America, Russia, Germany and France, will persecute Christians and Jews alike simply doesn’t hold up. I can’t make it work.
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Sharon,
Sorry. My intent was not to confuse you. The point I was implying by giving you those links was that your assumption that the Antichrist has to be the equivalent of Gog may not be the correct stance to take. The Antichrist himself will indeed come from Turkey, however this doesn’t mean that Gog and Magog have to be Turkey. The version of the Bible you’re using may be confusing you. Here’s what the kjv says in Ezek. 38:
2 Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him,
3 And say, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal:
Gog is a land, a region. It’s part of the land called Magog (v. 2). In v. 3, we find out the region of Gog in the land of Magog is the chief prince within the land where Meshech and Tubal exist. The term “chief prince” is “rosh” in Hebrew. Russia was originally called Kievan Rus’, a term related to “rosh.” The “Kievan” was eventually dropped and it was renamed “Russia”, keeping the Rus’ part of the original name. Magog, Mechech, and Tubal are probably the three ribs in the bear’s mouth in Daniel 7 that tell the bear to go out and conquer.
The Antichrist, or beast, has the feet of the Russian bear in Rev. 13:2. The Antichrist is not only an individual, but he represents a conglomeration of nations and his main backers are the leopard (Germany), the bear (Russia), and the lion (Great Britain) as we find out in Rev. 13:2. We see today how influential all of those nations are, even though the U.S. is proclaimed to be more important. Somewhere along the way, the U.S. will become less significant, if it has any significance at all. But we know that the Antichrist will eventually rule the whole world (Rev. 13:7-8) and he pops up from Turkey. Having the feet of the bear means that Russia provides the beast with the means to move about–to go out so he can conquer.
As he arises, 10 regions of nations will be established. He will conquer 3 of them to make his start.
Ezekiel 38 makes a clear distinction between Turkey (Togarmah, Ezek. 38:6) and Russia (Magog, Meshech, and Tubal, vv. 2-3). Togarmah will have a lesser role than Russia, but backs Russia, exactly as they do today. Russia is chastised for providing the means and encouragement to the Antichrist’s multinational forces to attack Israel in the future.
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You’re retarded. Pagans hate christians you dumb a**.
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The bible making prophecies so far apart is the point the fact that only God can do this becaause he is the creator the beginning and the end with that being said it should remind you of Gods truth just because you don’t understand what he is saying doesn’t make it false it means people need to wake up and ask someone who does understand like a preacher or biblical scholar
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mike,
[some of these are thousands of years apart]
The fact that they’re thousands of years apart doesn’t take away from their validity. God is sovereign and works on his own timetable. If you knew the Bible, you’d know that.
[to say israel will never be uprooted is not a certainty at this point]
And what are you basing your opinion on? Let me guess–you’re one of those Christians who hates Israel.
[the dating on a lot of the prophecies is not a certainty either]
Actually, the dating on the prophecies is pretty accurate. The manuscripts which record many of the Biblical events have been verified by other ancient sources that have recorded the same events. I’ll grant you that 100% of the events in the Bible have not been verified yet, but the amount of them that have been show how accurate and truthful the Bible is. And none of them have been shown to be lies yet although plenty of people have come up with unproven theories to try to knock the Bible.
[the ‘end times’ have been claimed by every generation since Jesus left the earth.]
Judging by your statement, you sound like the scoffers spoken of in 1 Peter 3:3-4 who say “Where is the promise of his coming?” You can read 1 Peter 3 for yourself to find out the mindset we’re supposed to have about the Lord’s return. But based on your comments, you sound like someone who claims to be Christian, but you really don’t believe what God’s word says, so that probably won’t help you.
[this kind of scripture handling is why my m. div. sits on my shelf]
First of all, I seriously doubt God has ever been, or will ever be, impressed with such degrees, so an m. div. is worthless when it comes to matters of God’s truth. What matters is what relationship a person has to Christ.
I make no apologies for my handling of the scriptures since my goal is to glorify the true and living God who is blessed forever. God established a principle in Deuteronomy on how to tell liars from those who are true prophets representing the true God. “When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.” Deuteronomy 18:22
He also said in Deuteronomy 13:1-4 that if a prophet or dreamer predicts a sign or wonder that encourages people to turn away from God and their sign or wonder is fulfilled, we shouldn’t listen to that prophet or dreamer. So making a note of God’s fulfillments, as I’ve done in this post, is exactly how God wants us to know that what he spoke through the Spirit-filled men of the Bible is the real deal.
Furthermore, how could anyone have known or figured out that Jesus is the Messiah if he didn’t fulfill God’s messianic prophecies?
I can only conclude by your smug comments that you have a hardened heart that resists the truth of God’s word because you really don’t believe it. You pick and choose from it what you’ll accept by leaning to your own understanding. Is your doubting of God’s word a by-product of your religious education or of your using a weakened Bible version? I wonder.
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harryagaylord doesnt know anything. “God is sovereign and works on his own timetable. If you knew the Bible, you’d know that”. Christians say anything to justify what they believe. Thats why its funny when christians argue amoungst themselves
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Wow, that’s interesting…An anonymous person leaving a comment claiming I don’t know anything.
If I don’t know anything then why would you waste your time leaving a comment? Could it be that something I’ve said struck a nerve? I hope so.
[Christians say anything to justify what they believe]
Maybe some will, but not all of us do. But I’ve noticed that those who aren’t Christian will say almost anything to justify their sins. What lies have you told yourself to justify your wrongs? I wonder.
I’ve heard people say all kinds of things to justify cheating on their spouse, stealing from their employer, cheating on exams, cursing out their young children, physically or sexually abusing other people, and the list goes on. At least most Christians are trying to make the world better, unlike unbelievers who mostly tend to be self-serving, which is one reason why our economy is the way it is right now.
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Harry,
As a Christian man I am really offended that you would stereotype unbelievers as bad people. I know plenty of Christians who are worse than the Atheist/Agnostics that i know, just because we, as Christians, know that we are sinners, and have accepted the sacrifice Jesus made for us does not make us better people than unbelievers. Comments like that steer the lost away from us, and is not our goal
You can almost hear the footsteps of the Messiah
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Tannert,
I can’t speak for you, but I know I came to accept Jesus Christ as my Lord because I realized I was sinful & evil–a bad person. When someone genuinely comes to Christ, there should be some repentance going on. Repentance means one realizes they are headed in a bad direction, are sorry for it, & desire to change for the better. All of this is based on the acknowledgement & understanding that one is bad. That’s the main purpose the Bible was written, starting with Moses writing Genesis which explains the origins of our evil. Two of the 7 basic doctrines Jesus taught were repentance from dead works & eternal judgment based on one’s belief system. These address the evil of unbelievers.
For you, then, to state that my comments steer the lost away is incorrect & you are deceived. It is people who presume ideas like you’ve made in your comment that steer the lost in the wrong direction because you make the claim they are fine as is & are in a better spiritual state than Christians. This is nothing but encouraging unbelievers in their sinful, evil, God-forsaken, hell-bound behavior, regardless of how “nice” they portray themselves to the naked eye. Man looks on the outward things, but God looks at the heart and all humans’ hearts are born with utter wickedness that can only be put out by the cleansing blood of the Lord Jesus.
The accomplishments of atheism since the late 19th century up to now have been nothing but destructive to humans. From Darwin & his theory of evolution (which racists have used to shore up their hatred towards other people groups) to Marx & Engels’ Communist Manifesto, both of which inspired Hitler and Margaret Sanger (Planned Parenthood founder) and their colleagues in eugenics. Then of course there’s Lenin, Stalin, & other Soviet Union leaders and Madalyn Murray O’Hair, who used the Supreme Court to get teacher/administrator-led prayer out of school which put American schools in a downward trend academically & morally that continues today. Destructive behavior spawning destructive results for all mankind is the heritage of atheists & agnostics.
Christians, on the other hand, do missionary work to aid the poor by building homes, digging wells, building orphanages & church buildings, healing the sick, and most importantly, preaching the gospel to save people from going to hell and giving them the ultimate positive purpose of serving God while here on Earth. If my speaking these truths offends you, so be it.
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‘At least most Christians are trying to make the world better, unlike unbelievers who mostly tend to be self-serving, which is one reason why our economy is the way it is right now.’
‘I’ve noticed that those who aren’t Christian will say almost anything to justify their sins. What lies have you told yourself to justify your wrongs? I wonder.’
I don’t think thats quite fair.. I consider myself to be of a united faith, unaware what to believe in anymore. If its not the ‘more holy than thou’ Catholics, its Christians grasping at their bibles spouting off their interpretation of it all and looking down on those who havent chosen a ‘side’. Whats so wrong with just living life as a an individual? are we to be damned because we don’t share your specific point of view? that to me seems sinful in its own. Can you tell me that Christians do no wrong? All non- believers are going to hell? Come on now. Its all in the way we live. People should just live their lives being compassionate to the needs of others, respecting one another as well as listening to their conscience and stop putting labels on it!
Im sick of religious types looking down on good people simply because they are not of that particular faith. Non believers are just as deserving as anyone on a regimented religious diet, to whatever comes after this life if they are good people.
But I bet if feels nice to be able to place the blame somewhere instead of accepting responsibility as a nation.
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LJ,
No man who is born into this world is naturally righteous or good. All of us are conceived and born in a sinful, evil state. Many of us may be “innocent” by man’s laws, but we are all evil in God’s eyes.
You’re trying to push a false religion that claims we can be saved by our works. The word of God says that no man can stand justified (righteous) before God by the works of any law. We can only be considered good or righteous by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
You are comparing yourself to the standards of men–how you stack up to your fellow man. This is not wise since all of us have sinned and come short of the glory of God. You can sit there and try to knock Christians and Christianity by your distorted views all you want, but God holds us accountable to what he commands in his word. Each of us is obligated to find out for ourselves what God is saying to us in the Bible. Your comment shows that you have hardened your heart against the true and living God and you’re not willing to listen to him, so you try to justify your sin by attacking Christians.
You can attack Christians all you want, but this is not going to let you off the hook for your own sins. Whether you believe it or not, everyone of us will have to stand before Jesus Christ to be judged to answer for our own actions. You will be judged by what he commands in his word, not by how you think things should be.
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Logical proof of Monotheism & Pantheism.
Syllogisms that I submitted in 1998, which were recognized by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights – Dr Mary Robinson and the Hon. Justice Michael D. Kirby AC CMG of the High Court of Australia.
Time must exist before matter can be created, and only an animate entity can conceive of space-time. Time must be a stabilized and uniform condition before matter can form, thus Monotheism is a Truth.
The Universe consists of space-time; which is functionally active and growing but remains stable. These combined characteristics are indicative of an animate entity only, thus Pantheism is a fact.
As a consequence, all mortals’ behaviour and attitudes become conspicuous by our Creator.
Reality is the dream of a Universal sentient being. Sensations of all mortals are merely light flashes within elongated fractal crystals, flowing in a white mist which is time itself; ensconced within a beige coloured and velvet textured Pearl, that is, a holographic Universe.
If all electrical particles were in different time zones – matter would not form, thus time is a controlled electromagnetic radiation (energy) E = mc2.
To be perfect – one must know the past, present and future, there is only one, the one that created Time.
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John,
Pantheism is the belief that God = the forces and laws of the universe. Forces and laws of the universe are inanimate things. God is a being, a spiritual person. Therefore, since he is a person, he is animated. Pantheism, then, cannot be true. God is the being who created the forces and laws of the universe.
Pantheism also says that man should worship a host of gods and that it doesn’t matter which gods they are. Jehovah in the Bible proclaims and proves that he is the only God and that it is not acceptable to worship any other gods.
Reality is not “the dream of a Universal sentient being” as you stated. Reality is that a Universal sentient being exists who is not a dream, and his name is Yahweh. Your take on a person’s senses and your explanation of time are off as well.
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hey harry we should talk ..I would love to have someone knowledgable on the word and humble to talk with …..God bless
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You’re more than welcome to correspond with me by sending me a comment via this blog. If you don’t want your comment to show up on this website when you correspond with me, just let me know and I’ll send a response to your email.
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Way to stand for the truth Harry! God Bless!
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Dear Editor,
In 1998 I produced a thesis on an environmentally based economy [Gaiaism] for a one-world community, to which – the UN’s Dr. Mary Robinson, PM’s Blair, Clark (NZ) & Lee Kwain Yew (Singapore), as well as the Hon Justice Michael Kirby AC CMG of the High Court of Australia and five chiefs justices sent me positive responses… but since then, there has been no affirmative action!
“In a polar region there is a continual deposition of ice, which is not symmetrically distributed about the pole. The earth’s rotation acts on these asymmetrically deposited masses [of ice], and produces centrifugal momentum that is transmitted to the rigid crust of the earth. The constantly increasing centrifugal momentum produced in this way will, when it has reached a certain point, produce a movement of the earth’s crust over the rest of the earth’s body, and this will displace the polar regions toward the equator.”
Albert Einstein From The Path of the Pole by Charles Hapgood.
God help us?
John Berbatis Perth, Australia 11th July, 2009
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John,
Your concern over the environment is admirable, but mixing it with the New Age belief of Gaiaism is idolatry. I really couldn’t care less about what person from whatever man-made organization thinks of your theories and beliefs. If your beliefs are based on worshipping the Earth (Gaiaism), then you should probably be more concerned about your spiritual state than whether or not polar regions are headed for the equator.
If you were to turn away from your sins and accept Jesus Christ as Lord, God can help you correct your scientific mistakes and point you in the direction of scientific theories or reveal scientific facts that are greater than what you believe currently.
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I may disagree with you on a few tiny points but I believe your views and trust in God are right on target. I admire your strength in standing up to unitarianism. Sin is sin. We shall all soon see the truth.
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It’s sickening and yet frightful that people will ignore prophecies come true out of scripture (being as no other sacred writ can hold a candle to the biblical prophets) and yet today people engross themselves in hoo-doo and mumbo jumbo like Nostrodomus, Astrologers, Runes, Meteorology (as we all know the weather man is WAY off so very much) and etc…
Now what about the prophecies of the return of the Watchers in Genesis 6 and Enoch, how many people do YOU know that see spooks, ghosts, UFO’s and other strange stuff?
What about the prophecies of men wearing more beautified clothing, makeup, and jewelry than a woman? Hmmm, I moved to the country for a reason people…
What about the prophecies that Yahuah Elohim’s NAME would be replaced by Baal’s name? (Baal means Lord, Adonai comes from Adom/Woden/Oden, also meaning Lord, LORD is a derivative of Loki, Jesus comes fom Iosus the son of Zeus when Messiah’s true name was Yahushuah Englisised as Joshuah, and Chist comes fom Circe).
What about the Prophecies that say in the last day there will be wars and famine and pestilence? Seriously, even the talking heads on your TV can’t be asleep to the birthing pains!!!!
Wake up ye of little faith and common sence!
Sholom!
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Your arguments about where the names of God in the English Bible came from are totally untrue. Adonai, for example, is Hebrew while the forms of Oden are Nordic. The word “Christ” comes from the Greek word “chrio” which means “anointed” and has nothing to do with Circe, the word “kirke” in Greek.
Maybe you should do more research on your etymology.
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Harry,
i appreciate the fact that you have taken the time to list some prophecies that have been fulfilled, this is good “evidence” that what the scriptures state are true and come to us from a super-intelligence (the only true God) and not just from men, for there is no other which with 100% accuracy declares to us what will happen before it happens.
Having said that I would, however, object to two of your 10 fulfillments, points 2 and 9:
Firstly you state: 2) Predicted ca. 760 BC: Amos predicts Israel would be restored as a nation and would never be uprooted again (Amos 9:15)–Fulfilled in 1948.
However, as mikerucker mentioned above, this is not a certainty at this time. In fact, he is biblically correct. The scriptures clearly predict that Israel will at least once more lose possession of the land, when overrun by the antichrist. It is only when Messiah Yeshua (Jesus) returns that the land will be fully established as a permanent possession to Israel:
“Behold, a day of Jehovah comes, when your spoil shall be divided in the midst of you. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city” (Zechariah 14:1–2). This text tells us that in the future, during the Great Tribulation, just before the visible return of Messiah Jesus, all the armies of all the nations will gather against Jerusalem. So at least once again, Jerusalem will fall into Gentile hands, and half of the Jewish population will be taken into slavery while the other half will be allowed to remain in the city to await a later fate.
Secondly you state: 9) Predicted ca. 430 BC: Malachi prophesies that Yahweh’s name would be honored by the Gentiles (pagans) (Malachi 1:11).–Fulfilled 1st century AD to the present: Pagans worldwide have forsaken their paganism and have confessed that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
However, the entire text actually says, “For from the rising of the sun even to its setting, My name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense is going to be offered to My name, and a grain offering that is pure; for My name will be great among the nations,” says the LORD of hosts.”
Incense and grain offerings are not offered in “every place” at this time and the name of the Lord is not recognized as “Great” everywhere. So although the Name of the Lord is being taken to all the world since the death and resurrection of Messiah, nevertheless, this process is far from complete and there certainly are not “grain offerings” and “Incense” being offered “everywhere”. So, again, this is another prophecy that will only be fully fulfilled when Messiah Yeshua returns and establishes the Millennial Kingdom.
These two prophecies (of the ten you list) have not been fulfilled at this time.
In conclusion, therefore, only eight of the ten you listed have already been fulfilled. It is important to be very careful and biblical in our claims regarding prophetic fulfillment so as not to leave ourselves open to criticism or ridicule due to poor exegesis of scripture.
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Thanks for your observations, Terry. However, you overlooked some prophecies about #2 on my list that tell us about how things will unfold when several nations come against Israel. Where Zechariah’s prophecy mentions taking Israel into captivity, the prophecies in Ezekiel 38 & 39 and Revelation 16 & 19 don’t mention captivity as their purpose. During the Great Tribulation, these nations will seek to wipe out Israel, but Jesus Christ shows up to totally thwart their plans.
These nations will not even get to the point of taking any captives from Israel because God will stop them cold. Ezekiel 39 even mentions that the Israelis will come out of their cities to bury their enemies for seven months and burn their enemies’ weapons. So both Ezekiel and Revelation state clearly that Israelis will be occupying Jerusalem and Israel throughout the tribulation period. That’s why a temple will be built in Jerusalem. So #2 is correct and is fulfilled.
As you have stated, it is important to get exegesis of scripture correct. And concerning my #9 on the list, I believe that I’ve gotten it correct. One thing that you have to understand about prophecies is that part of a prophetic statement can be fulfilled without the whole thing being fulfilled.
For instance, when Jesus stood up and read from Isaiah 61 in Luke 4 and proclaimed that he was the fulfillment of it, he quoted only part of the scripture because the whole thing wasn’t fulfilled. Sometimes unfulfilled parts of a scripture in the Old Testament are quoted alongside the fulfilled parts of it in the New Testament. In Matthew 12:15 when Jesus healed many people, he told them not to broadcast who he was. Then Matthew quoted Isaiah 42:1-4 to say Jesus had fulfilled it. But Jesus only fulfilled the part that said he would do his works in a quiet manner, not the parts that talked about Gentiles trusting in him.
By quoting Malachi 1:11, I have followed what Jesus and his apostles did. Jesus’ name is, in fact, great in every place, because John tells us in Revelation 7, which occurs after the Rapture, “After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;” [Revelation 7:9] This means that the greatness of Christ’s name precedes Christ’s 1000-yr. reign.
I believe that just as Elijah was unaware of the thousands who had not bowed their knee to Baal when he felt like the only one, there are thousands in every nation that are Christians that we don’t know about. So I’m sticking by #9 also as being correct.
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sooner or later it will be fulfilled..
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Greetings Harry,
Thank you for your gracious response. You responded:
“…you overlooked some prophecies about #2 on my list that tell us about how things will unfold when several nations come against Israel. Where Zechariah’s prophecy mentions taking Israel into captivity, the prophecies in Ezekiel 38 & 39 and Revelation 16 & 19 don’t mention captivity as their purpose. During the Great Tribulation, these nations will seek to wipe out Israel, but Jesus Christ shows up to totally thwart their plans. These nations will not even get to the point of taking any captives from Israel because God will stop them cold. Ezekiel 39 even mentions that the Israelis will come out of their cities to bury their enemies for seven months and burn their enemies’ weapons. So both Ezekiel and Revelation state clearly that Israelis will be occupying Jerusalem and Israel throughout the tribulation period. That’s why a temple will be built in Jerusalem. So #2 is correct and is fulfilled.”
Unfortunately Harry you are confusing two different invasions here. You have attributed the invasion of Ezekiel 38 and 39 as taking place at the same time as the Zechariah invasion (which takes place during the last 7 years There are a number of problems with your view. The key objection lies in the clear distinction between the Ezekiel 38–39 invasion and Armageddon. First, in Ezekiel there are definite allies mentioned and they are limited in number, while other nations stand in opposition. In the Campaign of Armageddon, all nations are allied together against Jerusalem without exception. Second, the Ezekiel invasion comes from the north, but the Armageddon invasion comes from the whole earth. Third, the purpose of the Russian invasion is to take the spoil; the purpose of the Armageddon Campaign is to destroy all the Jews. Fourth, in the Ezekiel invasion, there is a protest against the invasion; in the Armageddon Campaign, there is no protest because all the nations are involved. Fifth, the Ezekiel invasion is destroyed through convulsions of nature; the Armageddon invasion is destroyed by the personal Second Coming of Jesus the Messiah. Sixth, the Ezekiel invasion is destroyed on the mountains of Israel; the Armageddon Campaign is destroyed in the area between Petra and Jerusalem. Seventh, the Russian invasion takes place while Israel is living securely in the Land; the Armageddon Campaign takes place while Israel is in flight and in hiding. Furthermore, this view fails to solve the problem of the seven years spoken of in the Ezekiel 38-39 prophecy, since this 7 years would have to continue into the Millennium to be accomplished. Again, this is inconsistent with other revelation regarding the Kingdom, which starts out with a thoroughly cleansed earth upon the visible return of Messiah and only a 75 day interval before ushering in of the Millennial Kingdom
The Gog, (Russian-led confederacy of nations) invasion will occur before the Tribulation actually begins. From the text of Ezekiel 38:1–39:16 we understand that First, Israel is established before the Tribulation and is dwelling securely. Second, the Russian confederacy invades Israel during this time of security before the Tribulation. Third, the confederacy is destroyed in Israel before the Tribulation. There are several points which confirm this. First, the description of Israel found in this passage fits well with the nation as she is now, established before the Tribulation. Israel is a land brought back from the sword (38:8). After 1900 years, 46 invasions, and the War of Independence, the Land is Jewish again and free from foreign domination. This nation is gathered from many nations and peoples (38:8, 12). The Jews in Israel today come from 80–90 different nations. The continual waste places are now inhabited (38:8, 12). The Israelis today are rebuilding the ancient places and turning them into modern towns and cities. They dwell securely (38:11, 14). This has often been misconstrued as meaning a state of peace, but this is not the meaning of the Hebrew root batach. The nominal form of this root means “security.” This is not the security due to a state of peace, but a security due to confidence in their own strength. This, too, is a good description of Israel today. The Israeli army has fought four major wars since its founding and won them swiftly each time. Today Israel is secure, confident that her army can repel any invasion from the Arab states. Hence, Israel is dwelling securely. Israel is dwelling in unwalled villages (38:11). This is very descriptive of the present-day kibbutzim in Israel.
Second, Russia today, in spite of the fall of communism, is still a major world power before the Tribulation. Her rise to this position coincided with the reestablishment of Israel following World War II.
Third, this addresses the issue of the seven months and seven years. Putting this invasion in the beginning of the Tribulation presents no real problem with the seven months, but it does have problems with the seven years. This would put it at a time when Israel would be in flight and would not have time to finish the burning of the weapons. If you try to place this Russian-led invasion in the middle of the Tribulation then there are problems with both the seven months and the seven years. The seven months would extend into the second half of the Tribulation, a time when Israel has to worry about her own dead, let alone the Russians. The seven years would extend throughout the rest of the Tribulation and 3½ years into the Millennium, making it inconsistent with the biblical view of the Millennium. Furthermore, Israel would need these weapons in the second half of the Tribulation. If you placed The Ezekiel invasion at the end of the Tribulation then there is a problem with both the seven months and the seven years, since both would extend into the Millennium. If you try to place the invasion in the interlude between the return of Messiah and the beginning of the Millennium there is a problem with both the seven months and the seven years, since both would extend into the Millennium due to the fact that according to the Prophet Daniel the interlude is only 75 days. The end of the Millennium view has problems with both seven months and the seven years. The seven months of burial seem pointless when there is a resurrection after the invasion. The seven years would have to extend into the Eternal Order, an impossibility since there is a whole new earth created. Therefore, the before the Tribulation view is the only one which has no problems with either the seven months or the seven years. The Jews continue to dwell in the Land after this invasion and remain there until the middle of the Tribulation. Hence, the seven months of burial is no problem. The seven years also create no problem since they would begin before the Tribulation and can extend as far as the middle of the Tribulation if at all necessary. According to this view, this invasion must take place at least 3½ years or more before the Tribulation starts. All of these facts force us to understand that this Russian-led Ezekiel 38-39 invasion is the only view that is consistent with the Scriptures. The Ezekiel 38-39 Russian invasion is another birth pang that will occur before the Tribulation begins and before the prophecies of Zechariah 14:1-2, the loss of possession of the Land, the attack by the Antichrist and accompanying holocaust and death of two-thirds of the Jews while only one-third escape to Petra to be supernaturally protected by God for the last 3 ½ years of the Great Tribulation.
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[You have attributed the invasion of Ezekiel 38 and 39 as taking place at the same time as the Zechariah invasion]
No, Terry, I didn’t say or imply that Ezekiel 38-39 and the invasion mentioned in Zechariah take place at the same time. My comment was pointing out the fact that Zechariah and Ezekiel were talking about two separate incidents.
Your rather lengthy comment is going off on a tangent. I was simply defending the fact that Israel is established forever now as a nation and they will not go into captivity again. You can argue all you want about timelines when this battle or that battle occurs, but #2 on my list is accurate and correct, according to the scriptures. Furthermore, just because Ezekiel 38-39 and Revelation 16 & 19 have slightly different details does not mean they are necessarily different occurrences. God has many times given different details about the same occurrence throughout scriptures that are hundreds of years apart. And don’t forget that one prophecy can refer to more than one incident in history.
The Bible is rather simple, but you seem to only be trying to cause confusion with your comment and God is not the author of confusion. If you were more concise with your explanations as opposed to being verbose, it would be easier for those who are not as advanced as you in your knowledge to have a better understanding of your point. Not everyone who reads this blog is a Bible scholar with multiple letters after their name. That’s why I try to keep my commentaries and explanations as simple as possible. I may not always be successful at it, but that is one of my goals when I write.
Also in your studies, please don’t forget this pertinent piece of information from Revelation 12:
“And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman [Israel] which brought forth the man child. And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent. And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood [of persecution] after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.”
If God was not interested in preserving the present nation of Israel, why was Israel able to defeat her enemies who attacked her in 1948 when she had just been re-established and again in 1967 during the Six Days’ war? Especially since they were outnumbered and outgunned both times.
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Do anyone know what the Bible defines “Sin” as? I’m not sure as you are talking about doing bad things as that is sin. The bible gives a very specific defintion of sin in 1 John 3:4. You all should read it and it may change the way you think and believe. True Christians abide by what Jesus said and he didn’t destroy the law as the fake Christian church teaches (ref. Matthew 5:17-19).
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@Lacressha,
[True Christians abide by what Jesus said and he didn’t destroy the law as the fake Christian church teaches (ref. Matthew 5:17-19).]
I discuss the purpose of the Mosaic law in this post –> https://sunandshield.wordpress.com/2010/10/03/what-was-the-mosaic-laws-purpose/
However, you omit part of what Jesus said. He said he didn’t come to destroy the law but to fulfill it.
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You didn’t reply to God’s definition of sin in the Bibld.
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Doesn’t Revelation 12 say by your own posted admission that “the dragon went to make war with the remnant of her seed, WHICH KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS OF GOD, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ?” Do you still say we aren’t supposed to keep the law? How do you explain this scripture then?
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@Lacressha,
[Do you still say we aren’t supposed to keep the law? How do you explain this scripture then?]
Not sure where you’re referring to and in what context I supposedly said not to keep the law, so I can’t sufficiently address that part of your question.
However, the scripture in Revelation 12 refers to living in obedience to Christ after having been saved by grace through faith. It’s referring to the part of God’s commands dealing with the morals of one’s heart. After salvation, the saved give proof of their salvation by doing godly works in compliance with God’s moral laws.
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So you are interpreting what you think God meant when he said to keep his commandments as what you call moral law, right? I will not assume anything but will ask you straight out. Do you keep the commandments as Jesus commanded us to do? Jesus said the only way to inherit eternal life is to keep the commandments in Matthew 19:17. You don’t do it to gain salvation but you do it out of obedience to Jesus. Jesus told you in John 14:15 that if you love him then you will keep his commandments. So if you don’t keep the commandments, then you must not love him. After all, it was Jesus who gave the commandments to Moses at Mt. Sinai but mist people don’t know that. They think it was Father God. They don’t consider that Jesus told us in John 5:37,”And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. YE HAVE NEITHER HEARD HIS VOICE AT ANY TIME, NOR SEEN HIS SHAPE.” If nobody has heard or seen the Father, then it had to be the Son at mt. Sinai that Moses saw his back parts and all Israel heard his voice. 74 people actually saw the God of Israel in the wilderness so it couldn’t have been the Father in the time of Moses and the prophets. Many of them saw and spoke to their God.
Oh, I will answer your other response about me leaving out part of Matthew 5:17. You said Jesus came to fulfill the law. What part of the law did Jesus fulfill as he didn’t do away with the Royal Law or the Prophets. You can read Hebrews 10 and it will tell you what law was done away with. It was the sacrificial law that was done away with. Why do you think Jesus had to die as the Passover Lamb? He died on Passover evening as prophesied in the middle of the week and rose on the Sabbath three days and three nights later. Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath! He didn’t die on Good Friday and rise Easter Sunday morning. That would make Jesus a liar as that is not 3 days and 3 nights as Jesus said he would be in the heart of the earth in Matthew 12:40. Remember, God starts his day at sunset. Genesis tells us that the evening and the morning makes a day. We know Jesus died in the evening. If he died Friday as they falsely claim, then let’s see if that is 3 days and 3 nights. Friday evening to Saturday morning is ONE DAY and ONE NIGHT. Saturday evening to Sunday morning is TWO DAYS AND TWO NIGHTS and that’s being generous as it was yet dark when the Mary’s came to the tomb and Jesus was already gone.
Question for you: Where is the 3 days and 3 nights that is the sign that proves Jesus is the messiah? If the Sunday church is correct that Jesus died on Friday and rose on Sunday, then he is NOT the Christ, the Son of the living God. Trust me, I am not questioning whether he is the Christ because I know he is and scripture proves he was in the grave 3 days and 3 nights.
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@Lacressha,
Why exactly are you trying to stir up an argument? All you’ve done is ramble and jump around from subject to subject contradicting yourself and only giving partial information about what scripture says.
[So you are interpreting what you think God meant when he said to keep his commandments as what you call moral law, right?]
No. That’s just an assumption you made with the hopes of purposely setting up a premise just to have an argument. I said what I did about Revelation taking into account the following context of Revelation:
This brings us to your keeping Jesus’ commandments & Matthew 19 comments. Here’s what John 6 says:
This is what Christ and God the Father commands, which is directly tied to this statement in Matthew 22:
Jesus said this is one of two commandments that all the law and prophets are based on. Therefore, his command to obey the Son by believing in the Son is the fulfillment of this command. Since the rich young ruler disobeyed Christ’s command to sell all he had & give it to the poor, he violated this primary command from God, placing his material goods above God the Son.
When one believes in the Son by grace through faith, one has obeyed his commandment by grace through faith, which results in the following as explained in Hebrews 10:
God’s laws/commands are written on the hearts of those who have by God’s grace through faith believed in the Son, so they are moved by the Holy Spirit to obey his commands by doing good works which are the result of salvation. Furthermore, 1 John 3 says,
Keeping his other commandments (like not committing adultery, not stealing, etc.) are part of the fruit (good works) we bear which are the result of his salvation in us by his unearned favor toward us. They are NOT a means to earn his salvation. His salvation cannot be earned–i.e. it isn’t based on merit. That’s all I have time for. If you can’t understand these basic things and just want to argue, I’m not interested.
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Greetings Harry,
You say you were not confusing Ezekiel and Zechariah, but then you again seem to be defending the fact that the passages refer to an invasion which takes palce at the very end. I have demonstrated that the Armageddon invasion is at the end and the Ezekiel invasion precedes Armageddon. Enough on that. It seems to me you are the one confusing things here Harry. However i will conclude my remarks on your blog by pointing out that you quote Revelation 12 which tells us that because of the attack on Israel by the antichrist the woman (Israel) is forced to flee into “her place” in “the wilderness” for 3 1/2 years. Other passages tell us that it is only 1/3 of the Jews who escape the persecution and escape thus (2/3s perish), and this “place” is Bozrah (modern day Petra in southern Jordan) where the 1/3 which escape will be supernaturally protected by God for the last 3 1/2 years of the Great Tribulation. So again, this passage is also another passage which affirms the fact that Israel will lose possession of the Land at least one more time. In regard to your question about why did God protect Israel in 48 and 67, the answer is because He wanted to, He is sovereign. He can do as he pleases. This in no way takes away from the fact that Israel is prophecied to lose possession at least one more time. These are still the times and empires of the Gentiles – from the empire of Babylon to the return of Messiah. According to Daniel the earth will be ruled by 4 “gentile” empires leading up to the return of Messiah. Although it is possible for Israel to take “temporary” possession of the land as has happened several times (like under the Macabees, 1948, etc.), until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled (when Messiah returns) it is always temporary.
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OK, Terry.
I looked back at my first reply to your first comment and said there would be no captives taken in Israel’s war with the whole world. I also said Ezekiel and Zechariah were separate incidents in my second reply to your second comment. On these two points, I was mistaken.
Ezekiel and Zechariah and Armageddon are all the same incident. There are a whole host of prophecies which give the same details or varying details about this battle. Joel, for instance, calls Armageddon the “valley of Jehoshaphat” and the “valley of decision” in Joel 3. Zechariah 14 tells us only 1/2 of Jerusalem will be captives when all nations come against her while the other 1/2 remains in the city. Then the Lord will arrive with his saints on the Mount of Olives to fight for them. So in this battle, the people of Israel still inhabit the land.
Rev. 16 tells us how the Antichrist & his false prophet start Armageddon–“And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.”
Then Rev. 19:17-21 gives us more details about Armageddon after Christ returns with his saints–“And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great.
And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army.
And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.
And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.”
The language used here about Armageddon tells us that Ezekiel and Zechariah and Revelation speak of the same battle. Ezekiel says in 38:19-20 there will be a great shaking in Israel and mountains will fall. Zechariah 14:4 also says mountains shall be moved and removed, which of course will cause the earth to shake. Rev. 16:18 also talks about a great earthquake occurring during Armageddon.
In the same way the angel in Rev. 19:17-18 calls the birds to feast on great men and their horses, Ezekiel 39:17-20 says “And, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord GOD; Speak unto every feathered fowl, and to every beast of the field, Assemble yourselves, and come; gather yourselves on every side to my sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh, and drink blood. Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bullocks, all of them fatlings of Bashan. And ye shall eat fat till ye be full, and drink blood till ye be drunken, of my sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you. Thus ye shall be filled at my table with horses and chariots, with mighty men, and with all men of war, saith the Lord GOD.”
As you can see, same language, same battle.
So here is a general summary of events:
–Israel makes plans to build a temple (Jesus speaks of this holy place in Matthew 24 and Paul talks about it in 2 Thessalonians 2)
–The Antichrist establishes some peace agreement with Israel to help build the temple and/or to gain access to the temple.
–He enters the temple and exalts himself as God (2 Thessalonians 2:4)
–Jews who know about what Jesus prophesied in Matthew 24 about the abomination of desolation flee into the wilderness.
–Other Jews openly reject the Antichrist’s claims of being God and refuse to worship him (this is the time of the two witnesses in Revelation and the time when some of God’s remnant will be protected from the dragon’s persecution in Revelation 12)
–The Antichrist gets fed up with the Jews’ refusal to worship him and gathers up the armies of the whole world to destroy them.
–The Antichrist is only allowed to conquer a portion of Israel before Christ returns with his saints to wipe him and his armies out.
All in all, Israel will lose some of their land but will keep possession of about half of it, according to Zechariah. So based on the prophecies, #2 is still correct.
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Harry,
In my July 24th response to you I enumerated seven specific biblical reasons that the Ezekiel invasion and the Armageddon invasion cannot possibly be the same battle, as well as supplying significant additional biblical evidence. It almost seems like you didn’t bother to read the points I established in that post and you didn’t respond to any of those points, yet you accused me of being verbose. I really think we have gone over this more than adequately at this point.
Therefore, in closing, I encourage you to carefully and prayerfully work through the pertinent biblical issues which have been raised which simply and clearly biblically establish that the two battles are different invasions with the Ezekiel invasion preceding the Armageddon battle.
Specifically for your further and more concise biblical understanding of bible prophecy I highly recommend to you the preeminent volume on the subject written by Messianic Jewish Scholar Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum entitled “Footsteps of Messiah – A Study of the Sequence of Prophetic Events”, Revised Edition – http://www.amazon.com/Footsteps-Messiah-Sequence-Prophetic-Revised/dp/0914863096. This volume not only addresses the few issues we have raised here but gives a scholarly and rock-solid biblical exposition of the entire sweep of bible prophecy from Genesis through Revelation. The work addresses and responds to all of the objections we have talked about here and much, much more. There is no other work which even comes close to this volume in terms of solid and concise biblical exposition of the subject. You can also find additional study materials at the Ariel Ministries website at http://www.ariel.org
Meanwhile, may God continue to richly bless you as you grow in grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus the Messiah.
I remain your servant in Jesus the Messiah,
Terry
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Terry,
Thanks for a lively discussion/debate. I did read your July 24 comment but chose not to go point by point about it. Although I’m glad you made our discussion interesting, I don’t agree with all of your views. My opinions differ from yours in that I believe it’s clear that Ezekiel is the same as Armageddon because of the finality of the language used in the prophecy.
Ezekiel 39:20-22 God says that after the battle he describes “…I will set my glory among the heathen, and all the heathen shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid upon them. So the house of Israel shall know that I am the LORD their God from that day and forward.”
This speaks of how Israel will come to a saving knowledge of the Lord and will accept him as Lord which they will not do until the very end of the tribulation. He will set his glory among the heathen by establishing his Millenial kingdom which is when all heathen will see his judgment. So this clearly says that the battle in Ezekiel occurs at the end of the tribulation just as Armageddon does because Ezekiel’s prophecy is about Armageddon.
The battle in Ezekiel may mention definite allies, but this is only to highlight those nations that give the largest support to the Antichrist and Russia is leading the charge. This list is not an exhaustive list of allies since it is commonly believed that Psalm 83 also speaks of Armageddon and it lists different nations than the ones Ezekiel mentions. Sheba, Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish were not opposing the invasion when they asked Gog (Russia) about the invasion. They merely wanted to know the purpose of the invasion.
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I wish I could be as faithful as you.
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I don’t know if you’re saying this as a believer or unbeliever, but those of us who believe struggle with our faith sometimes. When we still possess a sinful nature living alongside our new godly nature, there will constantly be struggles of one nature versus the other, which is why it’s so important to read, study, and meditate on God’s word with prayer. The more we do these things, the stronger our faith becomes because “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
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Well I must humbly submit that actually, the scriptures teach that those who have truly been born again (believers) only have “one” nature and NOT two. The new and ONLY nature of the believer is the “new” man — new nature, new creation — in Christ Jesus. He “is” a new creation (not a “new” and an “old” creation):
”Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he IS a new creation. THE OLD HAS PASSED AWAY; behold, the new has come.” (2 Cor. 5:17)
The scriptures establish that for the believer, the “old” man (that is the sin nature inherited from Adam) has “passed away” forever and was “crucified” (in the past, with Christ) and it is now Christ (through the new nature) who lives in us:
”I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me…” (Gal. 2:20)
However, it is true that “sin” still dwells IN OUR FLESH, but that “sin” is no longer our “nature” since we ARE now (by NATURE) only new creations in Christ). Nevertheless “sin” (that is the “power of sin”) still dwells in our mortal flesh. This is an extremely important doctrinal point to understand. As the Apostle Paul establishes for us:
”Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. SO NOW IT IS NO LONGER I WHO DO IT, BUT SIN THAT DWELLS WITHIN ME. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, IT IS NO LONGER I WHO DO IT, BUT SIN THAT DWELLS WITHIN ME.” (Romans 7:16-20)
Again, the “flesh” is NOT our “nature” now that we are in Christ: but is sort of an “external” enemy (that is, external in regard to our “inner” new spirit man). But “sin” still resides and is active in our mortal “flesh” bodies, and so we experience a battle that seems to be “within” us (because it is actually happening within our “bodies”.
”For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.” (Gal. 5:17)
Thus, while the believer lives in his mortal body the “flesh” (sin in the flesh) wars against the “spirit” (our new nature) and “spirit” against the “flesh”. Yes, there is a struggle; nevertheless the bible teaches that it is not two “natures” the believer has warring, but rather “sin” in the flesh warring against the believer’s one new nature in Christ:
“For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.” (Gal. 5:17)
Finally, the scriptures assure us once again:
”But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” (Romans 8:9)
I hope this helps clarify the matter.
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Thanks, Terry, for sharing your insight.
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Praise the Lord for someone who speaks the truth. “cast not your pearls before swine” . I have a great respect for that scripture.
We have to live the way the Lord Jesus said for us to. The 10 commandments, and to love one another. So much bickering. Love and forgiveness is the greatest of the things we are to do. Rather than to argue the scriptures, go help someone in need. Windows and orphans, there are so many people in need of help. AS Christians we need to do what we can. Our work is to bring as many into the fold as we can while we are here. Anything else is a moot point.
God Bless you all
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[Rather than to argue the scriptures, go help someone in need.]
Actually, our Christian walk has many facets and responsibilities. Yes it’s very important to help people in need, but in addition to that we are to “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine,” [2 Timothy 4:2-3]. The words “reprove” and “rebuke” by definition mean that those who share the word correct faulty ways of thinking and this at times means arguing the scriptures. Even Jesus, Peter, Paul and other disciples in the Bible argued the scriptures with people who had wrong ways of thinking.
[Our work is to bring as many into the fold as we can while we are here.]
Yes this is what Christ commanded us in Matthew 28. But in order for them to come into the fold, people have to have faith, and “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God,” [Romans 10:17]. Furthermore, “How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent?” [Romans 10:14-15]
And wherever God sends preachers, controversy will follow as shown in the book of Acts. Although the evangelists and apostles were not looking for arguments when they preached, since there were resisters of the truth wherever they went, arguments became inevitable. Arguments come with the territory when one is trying to reach people for Christ. That’s why Christianity is now even being openly attacked in the U.S., which was founded on Judeo-Christian principles. Therefore, discussions to try to increase understanding of Biblical doctrines are not moot if they go beyond just the basics of getting people saved or helping widows and orphans.
But I’m saying this in love, not to slam you.
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actualy, the greek name breaks down to the english name “joshua”! and in hebrew, the name joshua is “Yeshua”. no “jesus” anywhere till pagans took over christianity. YOU RESEARCH YOURSELF. think about it
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Actually, anonymous, YOU should probably do more research. Yeshua in the Greek is “Iesous” and the English form of “Iesous” is Jesus. The New Testament was written in Greek and the name of our Lord was translated into the English “Jesus” from Greek scripture.
The Old Testament was written in Hebrew and the name Yeshua is “Joshua” in English. Therefore, when translaters translated the Hebrew of the Old Testament, they used the English “Joshua” for the Hebrew name. Just in case you missed my explanation, I’ll break it down in a simple equation: Yeshua=Iesous=Joshua=Jesus. So your argument falls flat. And using the name Jesus helps us distinguish between Jesus of Nazareth and Joshua in the Old Testament or any other person with that name.
Furthermore, the English name for our Lord, Jesus, is still the name that can be used to heal people and cast out devils.
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Atheist here… was researching about prophecies.
Nothing too interesting, as I was somewhat expecting. Why people 2.5 milenia ago considered these prophets “real” is understandable, however it’s a mystery to me why they are still considered to have received information from “god”.
And why so vague and not specific prophecies? Totally unconvincing, if you ask me.
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Vlad,
Well, as you said, you’re an atheist and I wouldn’t expect you to be convinced since you people think you’re always right even when clear evidence proves how incorrect you are.
Your argument that prophecies in the Bible are vague proves that you really haven’t read it. As usual, you atheists are just accepting without question any lies you’re told by the God-haters who you embrace as mentors. Too lazy to do your own research I guess.
The prophet Daniel specifically named Medo-Persia as the empire that would overtake Babylon. Then he specifically named Greece as the kingdom that would overtake Medo-Persia. He named them in 543 BC when those kingdoms at that time were considered too weak to even be considered as overpowering mighty Babylon and yet Daniel’s prophecies, which God gave him, came true. These facts are not only in the Bible, they’re backed up by unbelieving secular historians who kept records in those times.
Jeremiah the prophet was told by God that when Babylon would take the Jews captive and destroy Jerusalem, there would be 70 years before any Jews would return to rebuild Jerusalem. And you know what? The Jews were in captivity for 70 years before they returned to rebuild Jerusalem.
So the prophets were very specific. Only a fool would be unconvinced when the facts are so obvious.
“The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.” [Psalm 14:1]
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Wait a minute.. Atheists “think you’re always right even when clear evidence proves how incorrect you are”? We’re not the ones who believe in the sadistic guy-in-the-sky here. Oh, and, FYI quoting a BIBLE passage isn’t going to convince us to change our beliefs.
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Atheists do think they’re right even when the evidence proves them wrong. In my previous reply, I gave examples of this. And now you want to try to blow smoke about atheists not being the ones who believe in a God who, in your unfounded opinion, is sadistic. Yet you offer no proof whatsoever that your views are correct, just unfounded opinions.
Here’s some historical proof for you that atheists are the ones who are sadistic. Ever heard of Joseph Stalin? He was leader of the Soviet Union, an atheist, and a murderer of millions. Or let’s try Mao Tse-tung (Zedong). Ever heard of him? His atheistic lust for the preservation of Communist power in China led him to kill millions of Chinese because they disagreed with him, or were too sick to work, or were in the “wrong class” of people in his opinion. Then, of course, we have the nut of North Korea, Kim Jong Il. This atheist leader has also killed thousands if not more, especially if they don’t agree with his views or if they worship anyone other than him. And let’s not forget Pol Pot, Dr. Kevorkian, and Jeffrey Dahmer. But there are also atheists like Carl Sagan on history’s pages. He claimed to be a brilliant scientist but made such errors as predicting that the burning oil fields in Kuwait in the Persian Gulf War would cause something like a nuclear winter all over the globe.
I could go on and on, but the point I’m making is that you love to attack Christianity and the Bible, but atheists do evil things. You people hate to admit you’re wrong or evil, which is a clear sign of evil pride. You think you’re superior to non-atheists, but you’re human and fallible just like everyone else, although you’re never honest enough to admit it. Therein lies the real danger with the atheist.
The legacy of the atheist is the hatred of human life, especially when they are in power. In making it your goal to hate God and anything that resembles him, you have fulfilled what he said about those who hate him and you’ve proven that God is correct–“…all they that hate me love death,” [Proverbs 8:36].
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Daniel
Unfortunatley for you, nobody even knows who wrote the book of Daniel, (though it was likely an amalgamation of several disjointed anonymous writings) and scholars are beginning to lean strongly toward the idea that the book was written in the 100-200 bc era…Of course, anyone interested exclusively in blindly perpetuating their own belief system would have no interest in mentioning that. I reitterate – the truth is most effective when given in it’s full form. If you feel the need to leave things out, or dress it up, it’s probably not the truth you are preaching.
“He named them in 543 BC when those kingdoms at that time were considered too weak to even be considered as overpowering mighty Babylon and yet Daniel’s prophecies, which God gave him, came true.” — this sentence is strictly wrong and ridiculous in several ways. Gimme a break dude. Where did you recieve your christian education/indoctrination? Serious question. It certainly wasn’t from any scholarly or academic institution. Is this the kind of stuff they are teaching in seminary?
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Aeon,
You were so quick to try to tear down the book of Daniel that you overlooked some profound facts that prove its validity. For example, the Septuagint, or LXX, the Greek Old Testament with apocryphal books, has the majority of the book of Daniel in it and the Septuagint dates back to 287 to 247 BC. It names Daniel as the author of the book of Daniel. Then we have the works of Flavius Josephus, the meticulous historian, who had records back in his day (1st century AD) that stated Alexander the Great was given a copy of the book of Daniel as he approached Jerusalem in 331 BC. Then we have the book of Ezekiel, which critics admit dates back to 586 to 538 BC, and Ezekiel names Daniel in Ezekiel 14.
But wait, there’s more! The Dead Sea Scrolls contain the book of Daniel which matches what is in our Bibles today. That manuscript has been confirmed by experts as dating back to before 165 BC. That proves the prophecies were really prophecies since Alexander the Great got to see ahead of time what would happen to him and his Greek Empire and the Roman Empire, which wasn’t a force to be reckoned with until Julius Caesar (100 BC-44 BC), didn’t even exist when Daniel was written and Daniel talks about Rome in Daniel 2.
Your arguments fail. You should quit while you’re ahead–or in this case you should quit while you’ve been left in the dust by the truth.
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Hi am studying to be a defender of the truth just as you are! and there was a man who approached and tryd to shake my faith!
He told me the greek bible was stolen from this book called “per em heru”, populary known as egyption book of the dead! He proclaims that hell is not a physical place but contrasted it to affliction & like this he does not deny the bible is true but he calls everything spiritual.
For instance he says heaven is a mindstate of higher thinking no a physical place. He also says that all angels are just messengers of god, the streets of gold is symbolic for wisdom, and he claims the pearly gates are symbolic as well, when i used several scripture to counter against these lies of satan, he replied by calling my scripture symbolic or restating that the bible was tampered with when it was tooking from by this book of dead & translated to greek.
Can you plz help me? I need to be able to prove the greek bible does not come from this “per em heru” & it would be hepful to know more about the inegrety of this book (why it is false & where it came from) it would be greatly appreaciated by your brother in the faith, who serves the true living God, Our Saviour JESUS christ the anointed one!
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Lee,
I have never done thorough research on the Egyptian book of the dead, but I’m aware of these arguments since I have a cousin who believes in such false teachings which he has shared with me before. But what this guy said to you goes back to the philosophies held by Alexandrian scribes in Egypt who created manuscripts that are the foundation of newer versions of the Bible. I cover their beliefs in my post “war of words: saints & scribes” if you want to read it.
I bet that if you ask this man for specific examples where the Bible has the same words as the book of the dead, he won’t be able to show you any examples or if he does have examples, they won’t match what is written in the Bible. People often make such statements but rarely give the hard evidence to back it up. Since he’s the one who made the claims, it should be his burden to prove it. If I were you, I wouldn’t waste my time since the Bible has had so many prophecies fulfilled that no one can dispute it’s accuracy and the fulfillment of the prophecies prove that God is true to his word.
From what I’ve read about the book of the dead, ancient Egyptians never considered it as divine and allowed for its words and meanings to be changed over time to accomodate the change in beliefs of the scribes who were influenced by their culture. The true Bible (KJV) has not changed in what it says or what it means. So if similarities do exist between the Bible and the book of the dead (which I seriously doubt if there are any), it is more likely the Egyptians copied from the ancient Hebrews.
For more information on the reliability of the Bible’s origins, click here: Is Today’s Bible the Same as the Original?
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thnk u so much brother, gobless you!
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WOAH, woah, woah! Wait a second! Prophecies were made IN THE BIBLE which were later confirmed….IN THE BIBLE?! Ummm…
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Veer,
Yes, they were prophesied and confirmed in the Bible. Although people such as yourself either hate to admit this or you haven’t done your research about this, the Bible is the most reliable recorder of history on Earth. The Bible told us about the Hittites centuries before the Hittite empire was discovered by archaeologists. Archaeology (Amarna tablets of Egypt) has also proven that the conqests of the Hebrews over the Canaanites actually took place just like the Bible said centuries before this was confirmed. Ruins from the ancient city of Ur where the biblical Abraham was born have also been found in Iraq. The Moabite Stone found 20 miles east of the Dead Sea was a discovery from the ancient world that confirmed a king named Mesha was king of the Moabites and told of his wars with king Omri of Israel and with Omri’s son, king Ahab of Israel, just like the Bible said.
A 9th century BC seal has been discovered in Israel with the inscription of Queen Jezebel, proving that she existed and the seal has pagan symbols on it, confirming she was a pagan, just like the Bible says. Since the Bible has proven to be historically and scientifically accurate and truthful, we can easily draw the conclusion it is spiritually and prophetically accurate. Now here I am stating all these facts and historical proof against your argument. So now it’s your turn. Where’s YOUR proof that the Bible is historically unreliable?
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The Bible never contradicts itself like people try to say it does either.
When you take it in it’s entirety, comparing scripture with scripture old and new testament you find its accuracy 100% correct without fail. Having completed it a few months ago for the first time, I am now a third of the way through the second time.
I am studying with Les Feldick on the web and tv everyday, and he is teaching me how to compare all scripture as it relates to one another. He points out areas that people say are inconsistent and shows you how they are totally accurate. It is so amazing and awe inspiring to me, and a wonderful comfort to know how amazing our God is, how perfect is his plan, how infallible his word.
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
Be not therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord,nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God;
Who hath saved us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace,which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Timothy 1:7,8,9.
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Glad you made it through the whole Bible Allison. As you said, it is amazing to see how God works things out. When you read the whole thing, it’s clear that the Bible is consistent from start to finish and it’s obvious that over the thousands of years that it was written, the whole Bible had to have come from one mind and one spirit.
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Hey Harry,
Isaiah 13:20 says that “(Babylon) shall never be inhabited, Nor will it be settled from generation to generation…”. Isn’t Babylon present-day Iraq though?
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Danielle,
Yes, Babylon is present-day Iraq. The prophecy in Isaiah 13:20 speaks of the capital city of the kingdom of Babylon, the city of Babylon where the kingdom got its start. Many end times teachers claim that the city of Babylon will be rebuilt as the seat of the upcoming one world government, but this prophecy in Isaiah is convincing proof that the literal Babylon will not be rebuilt and Babylon in Revelation is symbolic of the literal city because it is like the former Babylon in its commerce and religious leanings.
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there is no god. all gods came about from astrology. people would study the stars and make names and stories up to go along with them. if christianity is true then why are the same exact stories that are in the bible written down in other places well before any jesus christ or the thought of christianity came about. and why do hundreds of religions share the same exact story of the virgin birth, a star appearing upon the birth of the new king(jesus), the death of that king, a 3 day period of being dead then being resurrected. most of these religions appear in history well before christianity. in fact this entire story has been found on the walls of the temple of luxor and it was drawn out 5 centuries before Christianity. its because the story comes from studying the stars. your jesus christ is none other the the sun you see in the sky every day, (the light of the world, the giver of all life on earth). tihink about it….. and just because some theories that were written in the bible came true, doesn’t make the entire bible true, you would be stupid to think that. that would be like you reading a fictional story and you read something in that story that is true and all of a sudden everything in that book also has to be true. very bias and thick headed.
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mike,
Yes I’m biased in favor of God’s truth, but thick headed? Hardly. Only a fool would say in his heart that there is no God. Why? Because God has shown that he exists by many infallible proofs and only a fool would overlook and ignore this obvious fact.
But let’s start with your arguments. You make statements and then don’t give any sources of where you get your information. What people where studied the stars to make up names and stories and what sources back it up? What other places are the Bible stories written down before Christianity and what sources told you this? What virgin birth stories are you referring to?
The Bible isn’t based on theories, it’s based on fact. When something is predicted and then it comes true in exactly the way it was predicted, it ceases to be theoretical. Don’t you know what the definition of theory is? Obviously not. The Bible has hundreds of fulfilled prophecies and no other religion on Earth comes close to such an impeccable record. The fact that the God of the Bible shares what he knows before it happens is proof positive that he is truthful and reliable. But let’s look at other facts besides prophecy in the Bible:
It is now scientific fact that the universe had a beginning and that it sprang into existence out of nothing, as is noted in the Big Bang Theory. Then there is the 2nd law of thermodynamics which shows that the amount of energy and matter in the universe is finite and is running out. We also know the universe is expanding. Scientists have also discovered radiation particles that were left over from the Big Bang that are like seeds and could be used to form galaxies. And finally there is Einstein’s theory of general relativity which proves that space, matter, and time began from nothing. Scientists from the late agnostic Robert Jastrow to Arno Penzias, Robert Wilson, George Smoot, and others have admitted that this whole body of findings shows how true the Bible is in that none of these things could have occurred on their own and that an Intelligence had to have designed it for everything to have started and continued with such precision.
Genesis 1 says God created the universe from nothing. Isaiah 44:24 says God stretches the heavens (proven by the fact the universe is expanding). The Bible says in Genesis 15:5 and Jeremiah 33:22 that the number of the stars and the sand of the sea are so vast that they cannot be numbered and scientists have proven this true because every so often they increase their estimates for the number of stars and grains of sand that exist. Psalm 8:8 says that there are “paths of the sea” and based on this information, Matthew Fontaine Maury discovered and mapped out the ocean currents in the 1800s to revolutionize the seafaring world. Job 26:7 says the earth hangs on nothing before scientists figured this out. Isaiah 40:22 said the Earth was round and the oldest manuscript of Isaiah dates back to the 100s BCE, long before the European explorers found this out.
Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and Joshua talk about how perverted, violent, and evil the Canaanites were. Then clay tablets were found in Ras Shamra, Syria in the early 20th century giving ancient eyewitness accounts kept by the Canaanites of their societal “norms” that confirmed what the Bible says. The New Testament, written in the 1st century AD, tells us Pontius Pilate was the governor of Judea and an ancient limestone building dedication stone was found in 1961 naming Pontius Pilate as prelate (governor) of Judea. Archaeologists have also discovered the bones of some of the apostles like Peter and James in Jerusalem. The Bible says a Hebrew named Joseph ruled over Egypt who was second only to Pharaoh and coins have been discovered from ancient Egypt with Joseph’s inscription, title, and likeness on them that confirm what the Bible says.
The idea that Jesus of Nazareth rose from the dead is historical fact and all four gospels and the writings of Paul agree. Even skeptical historians don’t have any evidence to disprove it. Ancient writers like Polycarp and Clement of Rome confirmed that Peter, John, and Paul were all in agreement with their accounts of the risen Lord.
I could go on and on, but there is so much overwhelming evidence that the Bible is true and that God exists that only a fool would be stupid enough to deny the obvious. So as far as the temple of Luxor goes, that has nothing to do with Christ. The only reason people like you believe that the hieroglyphs at Luxor talk about Christ is because that is the interpretation of the hieroglyphs that has been promoted by atheists such as Samuel C. Sharpe who made it up as a way to try to tear down the truth. Atheists are liars. They have to be in order to try to deceive people into following their false religion. And unbeknownst to them, they are really following Satan in spite of the fact they say they don’t believe Satan exists. That is why they are so easily manipulated and duped by their prince of darkness. The Bible even surpasses Darwinist thought in its accuracy. Darwinists have had to correct themselves time after time after time with their theories and their interpretations of the fossil record because new discoveries they make continue to show how off-base they are. The Bible, and by that I mean the kjv and textus receptus manuscripts, hasn’t had to correct and revise its meaning or what it says although the fallible men who teach it have had to revise their understanding of it.
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well the astrology explanation of the story of the bible is far to long to explain on a blog, but this website (http://members.cox.net/solarmyth/index.htm) explains it all in step by step and very detailed explanation. now just to clear someting up, im not saying everything in the bible is false. some predictions may have come true. however, you say the bible predicted things exactly like they happened. not true. the predictions in the bible are vary vague and could mean several different things. take one of your examples, psalms 8:8. it says “The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas”. your trying to say this one verse is the prediction of the oceans current? who says thats what it means, it could mean anything. the same thing goes for all the other predictions as well. there all very vague and people like you try to make it mean what you want it to mean in order to prove your belief.
now as far as the story of jesus and the virgin birth, death and resurrection appearing in other relgions, lets start with one of the most famous.
Horus- Greek god 3000 BC
-born Dec 25th of the virgin Icis
– his birth was accompanied by a star in the east
– 3 kings followed this star to locate the new born savior
– at 12 he was a prodigal teacher
– at the age of thirty he was baptised by Anup and began his ministry
– he had 12 disciples who he traveled about with performing miracles
– after he was betrayed by Typhon, Horus was crucified
– he was buried for 3 days and then resurrected
Attis of Phrygia- Greece 1200 BC
– born of a virgin
– born on Dec 25th
– crucified, dead 3 days and then resurrected
Krishna of India- 900 BC
– born of a virgin
– star appeared in east upon his birth
– performed miracles
– upon his death he was resurrected
Dionysius of Greece- 500 BC
– born of a virgin on Dec 25th
– traveling teacher who performed miracles
-refered to as king of kings, alpha and omega
– upon his birth was resurrected
Mithra of Persia- 1200 BC
– born of a virgin on Dec 25th
– had 12 disciples
– he performed miracles
-died and dead for 3 days then was resurrected
– known as the truth the light etc
– even the day of worship was Sunday
point is hundreds of religions share this same story. they share the same story because they all originate from the study of the stars, as it is explained in the website i gave you. now as far as scientific evidence of the universe being formed from nothing is false. its states in the big bang theory that there MAY have been nothing, hardly proof. i dont even believe scientist have any idea where we came from, how we started or when we will end. the fact is no one knows. and who says it has to be either the big bang theory or your god for the reason we are here. there could be billions of reason for why or how we exist. no as far as sources, the religions are the sources. look them up.
now some other stuff in the bible that is else where before the bible. take a look at chapter 125 of the (Egyptians) Book Of The Dead, its a list of this you could not do in order to get into the after life, sound familiar, (ten commandments). how about the story of Moses, this story can be found in the myth of Sargon, 2250 BC. the story consist of his mother have a secret birth, she then set her son in a a basket and set him adrift down a river. he was then picked out of the water by a royal family and was raised as one of there own and became a king. even the story or Noah and the ark can be found in the epic of Gilgamesh (2600 BC) where it talks of a great flood commanded by god, talks of an arch that would save animals and even the release of a dove.
there is much much more. i just think before you base your life off something you should research all sides of the stories, not just one.
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mike,
The website that you give above is not authoritative. In other words, there is no mention of who put that website up and no explanation of who the Maria Shaune is from whom they copied the info. When a website doesn’t mention the person or group responsible for creating it and maintaining it, it is unreliable and is therefore not authoritative. That’s Research on the Web 101. But I guess that doesn’t matter since atheists will grasp onto anything as long as it promotes their false beliefs since they “will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears,” [2 Timothy 4:3].
And the info on this website is centered around Catholic traditions. Catholicism isn’t Christianity. Christianity was established by Jesus of Nazareth. Catholicism didn’t start until the 300s AD when Constantine the Great, who was weary of the Roman Empire being divided along pagan vs. Christian lines, decided to unite them under the umbrella of his worship of the Sun god Baal, also known as Sol. He gave his pantheon of deities Christian names. Venus became Mary. His sun God Sol, or Baal, became Jesus. He thought this would bring peace to the Roman Empire, but true Christians saw through his deception and refused to join his church and continued to be persecuted by the Roman government and by pagans. The book “Fifty Years in the Church of Rome” by Charles Chiniquy gives some of the history of Catholicism’s pagan practices.
The predictions in the Bible aren’t vague. They’re very specific. Genesis 15:30 talks about Abram’s (Abraham’s) offspring through his son Isaac being enslaved for 400 years and the Hebrews, Abram’s offspring, were enslaved 400 years in Egypt. God told Jeremiah in Jeremiah 29:10 that Israel would be in captivity in Babylon for 70 years, and Israel was in captivity in Babylon 70 years. Both are verified historical facts. The prophecies I mentioned here show how specific God was. It’s unbelievable how atheists attack the Bible when they haven’t even bothered to read it from cover to cover for themselves to find out the facts and instead of doing their own original research they search out pseudo-intellectuals who attack God’s word and just accept whatever pseudo-intellectuals say since they are too lazy to do their own research because they want to hate God, looking for anything to justify their hatred. They don’t even consider that pseudo-intellectuals with fancy titles would lie. They are blind leaders of the blind and all of them have fallen into the ditch.
Your lack of knowledge is obvious when you refer to Psalm 8:8 as a prediction. Psalm 8:8 is a statement of fact that paths of the seas already existed, but man’s knowledge caught up with the fact in the 19th century. It wasn’t a prophecy of what was to come. You people are so quick to criticize that you can’t even get your facts straight. And the meaning of the words is clear but you people don’t want it to mean what it obviously means so you have to raise weak arguments to try to get the words not to mean what it clearly means for your own evil purposes.
Anyone who claims that Jesus didn’t exist is ignorant and uneducated. There are plenty of historians in ancient times that testify that he existed and that his apostles gave accurate accounts of the life of Jesus. Obviously you haven’t done your research. Those historians include Josephus, Tacitus, Suetonius, Julius Africanus, Thallus, Pliny the Younger, Lucian of Samosata, Mara Bar-Serapion, and Celsus.
And all the names of the people you spout off that the story of Jesus supposedly was copied from you don’t give sources for. What authoritative sources (i.e. scholarly books by real named people) do you have that show where these stories came from? The website you gave me is not a valid source as I mentioned before. Anyone can put up a website and say anything. That doesn’t make it correct. So I would like to have sources that provide their real names and gives the sources from which they got their info.
As far as the Egyptian Book of the Dead is concerned, you obviously haven’t done original research on that either. If you did you would have known the Book of the Dead is not a valid resource. The Egyptians changed many times what was written in the Books of the Dead to update them so they would reflect the practices and beliefs of whatever time period they lived in (and yes, there were more than one of them). They added to them and deleted from them whenever they considered it necessary over the centuries of their existence as a civilization and adopted some of the beliefs of the various religions they came in contact with. So it wouldn’t be a surprise if they copied from Hebrew scripture since there was a lot of international trade in the ancient world. Furthermore, individual Egyptians created their own personal Books of the Dead and the extant papyrii are not canonized. That makes them unreliable. Wikipedia gives a good general sense of their history with some good sources to consult about it. But I’m sure you probably won’t consult Wikipedia because your arguments would become weaker than they are.
Gilgamesh was taken from Noah and is a paganized version of it. As a matter of fact, there are a great number of cultures worldwide who have a story about a worldwide flood or a massive-sized flood in their legendary histories that were told long before they came in contact with the Bible. This shows that Noah’s descendants passed the story down to the following generations and when they strayed from God at the Tower of Babel, their versions of Noah’s story were changed to pagan babble. Noah’s story has already been shown to be more believable and accurate than Gilgamesh. For example, Gilgamesh’s boat was a cube. Scientists have done studies that show his cubed boat is not seaworthy and cannot withstand turbulent waters. But when reconstructing facsimiles of Noah’s boat, it has been shown to withstand the severest of conditions. And many of the boats constructed today are similarly proportioned to how Noah’s boat was constructed. This reliable information can be found at: http://creation.com/noahs-flood-and-the-gilgamesh-epic. And notice how this web resource has the name of the person who wrote it with the sources he consulted for his reliable research.
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you know your doing all my work for me.all your doing is confirming how much alike other religions are, proving none of them are original . and you would think that if someone gave you evidence that what you believe could be a complete hoax, that you would take the time to research it yourself. just because there is no one claiming the information as you say, doesn’t make the information any more untrue that what you claim for the bible. but you want names, scholars who wrote on this subject. well lets start with Charles François Dupuis (1742-1809) who wrote The Origin of All Religious Worship. chapter IX on page 214 is titled “An Explanation of the Fable, in which the Sun is worshipped under the name of Christ.” this book even goes on to explain the Solar Mythology explanation of the Book of Revelation.
how about Constantin François de Volney (1757-1820) who wrote “The Ruins; or, Meditation on the Revolutions of Empires” which also explains the solar mythology. what i presented you in the website is not new information. in fact it has been around for hundreds of years, Christians just choose to ignore this information. and the Noah ark issue is bull crap. it is still being debated today weather the structure is even possible to make from wood. not to mention the time it would require to not only build the ark but to gather two of every animal in the world would take hundreds of years. the stories in the bible are crazy and unrealistic, and your only argument is “the bible says it happened so it happened.” you try to use the bible to prove itself and you just cant do that. you cant use the source your trying to prove to prove itself.
as far as the sources i gave you, it doesn’t matter how many i give you. you are going to believe what you want to believe and until you do the research yourself you will continue to believe a lie. you say im not educated on the bible but i am. i grew up going to a christian church. i spent my first 20 yrs going every Sunday morning, Sunday night Wednesday night and even sometimes on Friday night going to church. and not once in those 20 yrs did i hear or see anything that made any sense at all. then i came across the astrology portion of religion and it all came very very clear, im sorry your just to stubborn and bias to research other explanations. now if your interested in more sources i will gladly provide them.
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mike,
You’re right about one thing. No matter how many sources you give me, I’ll believe what I want to. Just like no matter how many sources I provide for you, you will believe there is no God. The difference is my belief system is based on indisputable historical, scientific, and spiritual facts whereas your belief system is based on blind faith and fairy tales conjured up by sinful men who hate God like you do.
The fact that you attended church for 20 yrs. means nothing. There are people who attend school from K-12 that have that same type of testimony–they didn’t hear or see anything that made any sense to them at all. They may have graduated but were still ignorant and uneducated. Why? Because they didn’t apply themselves in school just like you didn’t apply yourself in church. You weren’t seeking after God with humility. God resisteth the proud but giveth grace to the humble [1 Peter 5:5]. He that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him [Hebrews 11:6]. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned [1 Corinthians 2:14]. You were like the Jews of Jesus’ day who went to synagogue but whose hearts were hardened against God. You were a spiritual zombie.
You are the fulfillment of 1 John 2:18-19, “Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.”
Going to church doesn’t mean someone has read the Bible cover to cover. You talked about going through religious rituals but never mentioned anything about reading the whole Bible for yourself. So you have chosen to be ignorant and after your own lusts you have heaped to yourself false teachers, having itching ears that prefer to hear false ideas. Just because you had a bad or non-existent relationship with your dad or Christians that crossed your path doesn’t mean you are justified in hating God because of those things.
The info I shared in my previous reply is not doing your work for you, nor does it confirm what you said. My points highlighted that the worship of the sun in Catholicism isn’t Christian, and that’s what you and your sources are basing your false conclusions on. I was also pointing out that false religions, which are all spawned by Satan, are set up to deceive people and often steal ideas from the truths found in God’s word for the purpose of making people think their bad religion is good. Worship of Jehovah, God of the Bible, is the original religion that began before the Earth’s beginning in heaven. Then Satan and his sinful spiritual children among the human population conspired against it to create every false religion from agnosticism to astrology to atheism to Islam to zoroastrianism and everything in between.
False religions have no part of Christianity whatsoever and your attempt to tie them together is like someone accusing Gucci or Microsoft of being responsible for their illegal Chinese knock-offs and counterfeits that are sold on the black market. That’s just how foolish your arguments are.
That website you’re in love with promotes the idea that Jesus wasn’t a real person when it is a known fact accepted even by historians that hate Christianity that Jesus of Nazareth existed and that the events recorded surrounding his life really occurred. So just because the info you share has been around for hundreds of years doesn’t mean its valid. Murder and stealing have been around for hundreds of years, but does that make the thoughts behind murdering and stealing valid?
I noticed how you failed to comment on all the historical and scientific facts I presented previously. You had every opportunity to dispute what I presented but you avoided addressing them. Is it because you know that those facts are indisputable? I assure you I’m not too stubborn or biased to research other explanations. The fact that I’ve researched things thoroughly and that God has revealed indisputable truths to me to grant his humble servant wisdom are the reasons why I’ve been able to tear down your arguments so skillfully.
It’s no mistake you came to this website. You were drawn here for a reason and although you thought it was to tear down what I’ve said, you’ve failed at that. So have you considered that it was for another purpose? Have you considered that because of your Christian relatives and the prayers that have been whispered to God on your behalf that God drew you to a place where one of his servants is not afraid to engage you in intellectual thought and point you to spiritual truth? God is reaching out to you in his unconditional love. Will you repent and turn away from your sins to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as the only one who can cleanse you from all unrighteousness? If you are honest with yourself, you know deep down inside that your atheism has only given you emptiness and has not resolved your deepest fears or answered your ultimate questions for your life’s purpose.
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Hello Brother Harry,
I realize that these posts are several years old, I was doing some research to help a friend understand why I don’t subscribe to ancient African religious beliefs, i.e. Egytology, when I stumbled on this site, I read the 10 prophecies fulfilled and have spent over an hour reading your conversations with unbelievers and believers alike, and honestly, I’m so thrilled to hear a Berean, so unapologetically contend for the truth!!!! I can really appreciate your conversation with mike. I pray that you recieve my post, Being a woman of so called African descent in these last days is trying, so many of my friends, even my dad reject the bible and Jesus with claims that He’s the white man’s god, and christianity is the white man’s religion, and on the continent we had the true religion stolen from us and twisted. BUT, these ppl have never studied, nor read the bible (kjv), nor seeked God humbly, I’ve asked, the answer is always…..”.well, no……but……”.Reading your gracious but firm response to God’s critics puts me in the mind of Paul!! May God bless u, I pray that you’re still contending for the TRUTH and winning souls for the kingdom of heaven! Hope to see u soon when we’re gathered together to be with our Lord, Maranatha!
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Thanks, Alicia, for your uplifting comments. I, too, as a person of African descent, have heard the same ridiculous statements from others of African descent that you have. They really need to get over themselves and their racial issues, in my opinion. For me, it’s Christ and his truth first–not culture or skin color. Yes, I am still trying to win souls for the kingdom with God’s help. The Holy Spirit is always prompting me to do so, and since Jesus bought me with his blood, it’s the least I can do. I can’t help myself but to. May God continue to bless you with the wisdom and knowledge that his truth brings.
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Interesting discussion. Harry, several times you mentioned historical facts in the Bible which can verified by outside historical sources. Do you know a couple outside authoritative sources which back up the historical dates and events you mention in the ten prophecies and your comments?
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Dan,
For the last two prophecies, since they’re such recent history they are evident in any recent news source from the 20th century up to today. For the rest you can consult wikipedia to start and many times wikipedia is good for pointing to more reliable sources. An unabridged version of Encyclopedia Britannica has good historical facts. The works of Flavius Josephus are good sources. And for historical facts on the Assyrian Empire, you can consult Georges Roux’s book called “Ancient Iraq” published in 1992.
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Any rational thinking human being would realize the idea of Jesus as your god is false. The bible is full of nothing but contradictions.
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Any rational thinking human would look @ all the factual history, science, and spiritual truths to see that everything the Bible says is the truth. You make false statements & don’t back them up with any proof. In addition to the proof of these prophecies, there’s the proof that Jesus actually rose from the dead since no one has ever found his body. Jesus even predicted the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans decades before it happened in Luke 19:41-44. He predicted there would be an increase in wars, uprisings, and earthquakes and other natural disasters and we now live in times where a record number of disasters are happening just as he predicted.
Revelation 16:9 talks about the sun scorching people in the last days, centuries before it was discovered the sun has periods of heating up and then cooling down. Genesis 15:5 says the stars cannot be numbered and modern science proves it.
Isaiah 40:22 says the Earth is round and the universe is expanding. It was written centuries before sciences caught up with what the Bible says. The Bible says in Leviticus 17 that “life is in the blood” and it was written in the 14th century BC long before science discovered it was true.
With all of the overwhelming proof that what the Bible says is true, only a fool would try to dispute the facts, including the fact that Jesus is the Lord God who reigns from heaven.
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There are a lot of philosophical arguments against God that seem to make sense to me ( struggling teenage Christian) but many of these prophecies are undeniable… Thank you for the fervent defense of God, Harry.
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Glad you stopped by to leave a comment. Struggles are part of life because of our sin nature that resists what pleases God but as long as we continue searching him out he makes himself known in circumstances & situations.
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Dude, (I mean Harry), you better continue on to show thyself approved, brother. I am truly amazed at how you defend the Word. We are surely living in tough times and our faith as Christians is continually being tested. I pray you stay strong and continue on in the Lord, until the very day of the return of Jesus-Christ. Amen.
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Thank you.
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Harry, I’ve been through a lot family wise, i am a christian and i have some spiritual problems as well that i have been fighting off for a little more than 5 year (teenage christian). truthfully I have a lot of “higher class” that puts rational thinking (in their eyes) into perspective. And honestly I’ve started to lose my faith, and question everything about God, but much more about Jesus. It is a lot easier for me to believe in God, rather than Jesus. I hope that Jesus respects what I’m saying and reveals himself to me. I have many playful argument with my atheist and agnostic friends at which most times I leave on a good point, but their philosophies drains on me, and makes me think. I constantly research, and find that their conclusion are flawed, but I have a strong emotional hold that pulls me away from the alleged truth. I’ve even seen first many undeniable miracles that the rational side of myself can’t compete with, and it constantly pushes them aside like they never happened. It attacks areas I’m weak on. I am basically fighting against myself all the time. It easy to believe in a Satan without any solid evidence, a little harder to believe in God, and very hard to believe in Jesus (in my thinking time). I search for God for a time, with no answer, and continue doing what i was doing before. There are 2 strong “truths” that lie within me. The christian side and the rational there is no God or at least Jesus is not the savior side. Could I be going through a spiritual battle, or have I developed a double personality that use facts to fight each other. It is wearing me down, and this “rational higher-level thinking classes” don’t help even though we partake in debate where I normally help the weak christian who is assaulted my contrasting philosophies on the display. Let me just remind you that I am having a big sinning problem in one area for 5 years, and have a lot of family problem. I going through series of anxiety and depression followed by joy is is followed by depression again. I’m losing my faith even though deep down I know it is the truth. Please help me!
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Jeremiah,
Thanks for sharing what you’re going through. Your doubts about Jesus aren’t unusual even for Christians. Even John the Baptist questioned if Jesus was the Messiah and sent his disciples to Jesus after Herod threw him in prison to ask Jesus “Art thou he that should come? or look we for another?” [Luke 7:19]. I think it’s a good sign that you still want Jesus to reveal himself to you. In order for me to help you, which I do, I’m curious as to what specific doubts you have. Can you give me some examples of the types of questions you have?
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Well, I only have a little doubt in God, but my mind is basically made up that there is a “God the Father”. Though I’m not so sure about Jesus. He did many miracles that other religions have records on. If other religions have have the same miracles to based your belief on them, then how can you tell the difference. And if Christianity has true power (which I believe) how can I be sure it is not demonic powers in disguise keeping people a way from the true religion or relationship with God. When I had to fight through my problems, it seem that I had no success (emotional, physical, and spiritual battles). I’ve had contact with Islam and I thought there was a possibility for that but I threw that off. Sometimes I think there just isn’t a religion, but a relationship that you have to grow out on your own. Sin has also been a big part of my life, though I hide it so well that many people think I’m a sort of “goody, goody, two shoes”. When people pray for me I don’t feel any power of the Holy Spirit or on rare cases I do. I constantly ask God to save me, and I see people prophecy, praise God, know words of knowledge, but I don’t even think I had a glimpse of that. Even through the problem I’ve been going through I used to go to church a lot and hope one of the prophets would call me up for a deliverance or a blessing, but its seems that they choose everybody but me. I feel ignored, and not good enough. Many people say that they could both see me as a prophet or a pastor, which hurts because they see that in me but I don’t, They say that but I feel so lost, how could I ever make it there? I just want Jesus/the Father/the holy spirit to reveal something to me that would make both his love and existence undeniable
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Jeremiah, thanks for sharing more info. This gives me a better understanding of your situation. Let me start by saying that I love you with the love of the Lord Jesus. The counsel I’m offering you on some points may be hard for you to accept, but I believe in speaking the truth in love for your benefit because my prayer is that God will be glorified through you.
It could be that the reason you’re having trouble with the fact that Jesus was God in the flesh is because you may have never had anyone explain to you why we Christians believe what we believe & you may not be spending enough time reading or studying the Bible. Other religions don’t have the evidence of someone rising from the dead like Jesus did. Jesus’ miracles surpassed those supposed miracles of other religions and there is historic proof of those miracles. And Jesus fulfilled hundreds of prophecies about the Messiah that were mentioned in the Old Testament. It sounds like your questions center around the reliability of the Bible. I did a post on the Bible’s manuscript evidence that I would encourage you to read. I also did a two-part post on the truthfulness of the New Testament and why we can trust what it tells us. If you click these links they’ll take you to the posts.
Don’t be discouraged if you don’t feel any power when people pray for you. Most times I pray or have someone pray for me, I don’t feel anything either. Our focus as Christians should not be on “feelings”, but on faith in what God tells us in the Bible. “Feelings” can often deceive us. As long as you’re alive, you will have spiritual battles. You’ll win some and you’ll lose some. The important thing is that when you fall, get back up, dust yourself off by telling God you’re sorry, and keep moving forward. Proverbs 24:16 says “a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again.” Psalm 34:19 says, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all.” That means when you’re determined to live to please God, life will be hard, but God will come in our darkest hours to deliver us.
As far as prophesying in church is concerned, don’t let that be your focus. Each Christian can go to the Father for themselves. If you get in the Bible on your own and pray to God in the name of Jesus on your own, God will reveal to you personally what he wants you to do. Isn’t it better to go to the Creator yourself instead of waiting on a word from a human that may or may not come. It sounds as if you got caught up in this church’s focus, which seemed to be that one has to wait for a human who is placed on a pedestal by other humans to be exalted in front of the congregation. You, like the other people in the church, wanted to be popular and get attaboys from others. This can’t be our focus as Christians. Jesus’ life was the perfect example of the dangers of this mentality. People are wishy-washy. The same people who cried out to Jesus “Hosanna glory to God in the highest!” when he entered Jerusalem, just a few days later cried out “Crucify him! Crucify him!” So we should not let the praise of humans be our focus.
So as I said before, get into reading the Bible. Since you have questions about Jesus, I would suggest you read the four gospels–Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, especially John, to find out more about Jesus. If you find my links above helpful & you would like more information on what I discuss, I can send you a copy of the ebook “I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist.” If you’re interested, let me know and I’ll send the ebook to your email.
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Thank you, I would like to say that I do understand why Jesus is God in the flesh, and I used to read the bible when i was younger but at that time it didn’t make sense to me. But yes, I believe that I am having trouble with the reliability of the Bible, especially the New Testament. And on the prophet s that occasionally come to the church, I was originally looking for the answers myself to some of the problems that I was/am going through, not really on getting a reward. It’s just when I wasn’t answered at the time I waited for the lord personally I looked for a person who is more experienced in Christ to guide me. When I didn’t receive any words of encouragement or direct prayer (though I would prefer them in private, not in a congregation where everybody is there to here) I wondered if God was ignoring or giving me a sign to something else. And when a person of great spiritual strength does come I have a type of nervous and tension in my stomach that I might get caught, so in turn sometime I go in a battle of avoiding them or completely opening up to them. And yes I would really appreciate the ebook “I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist”….thank you
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Jeremiah, it’s great that you used to read the Bible when you were younger. But I’d like to point out that reading the Bible has to be an ongoing thing in one’s life if one truly wants to understand their relationship with God. There could be two reasons why it didn’t make sense. 1) You were too young to comprehend all of the topics it covers or 2) Maybe you weren’t giving the Holy Spirit time to help you understand it through prayer and meditation (by meditation I mean thinking about passages in the Bible over & over in your mind & talking in your mind to God about them). Now that you’re older & are more experienced & you seem to have a hunger to know God better, this is the perfect time for you to get back into it. The word of God is the primary way God reveals himself to us. If you really, really want to understand the Lord Jesus as you’ve said, that’s where you need to begin. If you are truly saved like you said you were, then God has a covenant with you and part of that covenant says God will help you understand his word, both the OT & NT.
As far as your nervousness & tension go about being found out, it sounds like you need to confess your sins to the Lord and accept his forgiveness. Proverbs 28:13 says “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.” The “not prosper” part of that verse means he will not mature and move forward in the blessings God has for him. But if you have truly confessed and repented of the sins you’re nervous about, then there’s no reason to feel guilty or nervous since God has forgiven you. 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
I’ll try to get that ebook to you sometime today. If you have the faith to match the facts it tells you, it will help you with your questions. And I’m keeping you in my prayers.
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I am loving the discussion. I am a Christian but to say I was a good Christian would be false. I didn’t read the Bible and my family stopped going to Church. I kept getting this pull to go to Church so I went on Sunday to a new Church. I worshipped and recieved a message that day from the Pastor. God through his Holy Spirit will reveal himself to you. Now after I heard this message we were singing another worship song but I kept being directed to a former Christian Church I once attended. I was like that is strange why am I thinking about that place. So all week I was getting this pull to go to that Church. On Sunday morning my family was sick but I felt I needed to go that church. So for the 1st time in my life I went to Church by myself. Wouldn’t you know the message was about marriage that day. They were talking about 1st Peter and how you must have a strong relationship with God in order to have a strong marriage. Also to honor the wife. My wife and I were fighting alot and we went to councelors but there was no change. So I went home and made the commitment to God and thus my wife. I started to read the Bible again. I used to read the Bible but it was confusing but I made a commitment to God that I will build a relationship with him through his word. I began reading the bible and by week 2 to say the Holy Spirit lit a fire under me is an understatement. All I want to do is read the bible. It’s like a eagerness I can’t explain. I just read the Old Testament from Genesis through Part way through Ezekiel. I plant to read and pray and learn about our Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit. My walk is only beginning but I will tell you this I am a changed man. I guess you can say I was born again and my marriage is flourishing. 🙂 Atheist will never understand the Bible because God prevents them form seeing. Only those with eyes and ears open can hear. So trying to convert them can be quite a challenge. Just know that believing in the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ means you are saved and there is no better thing than that.
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Rac2873,
Thanks for sharing your testimony. Sensitivity to the Holy Spirit makes a world of difference in a person’s life. One correction though. Atheists fail to see God because they harden their hearts along with allowing Satan to blind their minds.
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Ok i may have asked some of these before but have forgotten where i posted them anyway i need your wisdom. Ok number one
1. what are some ways i can prove to athiest jesus historical existence and in addition if possible his ressurection and power.
2. What is your opinion on shacking up?
3. What are your thoughts on dating vs quartship especially in the christian community?
4. do you believe the rapture comes pre, mid or after the tribulation.
5. What is your opinion on peircings and tatoes?
6. Is it a sin to marry a divorced woman?
7.should christian listen to secular music
8. Is it not trusting god for christians to bear arms?
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Lee, here are my answers:
1. Check out my post on manuscript evidence backing the New Testament at this link.
2. Shacking up is the PC phrase for fornication. 1 Corinthians 6:9 says fornicators will not inherit the kingdom of God.
3. It depends on what a person’s understanding of what dating & courtship are. If it means going out with a person of the opposite sex to start a non-sexual relationship with the possibility of marriage, then that’s not a problem IMO.
4. I believe in a pre-tribulation rapture based on Isaiah 26:19-21, 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17, 1 Thessalonians 5:9 (since the tribulation is the time of God’s wrath), the fact that he saved Noah from the flood before he destroyed the Earth, and the fact he saved Lot & his family from the destruction of Sodom & Gomorrah.
5. I personally don’t like tattoos since they have pagan roots according to Leviticus 19:28. I personally don’t mind piercings that don’t attempt to re-shape body parts like the ones that stretch the earlobes.
6. I agree with Matthew 5:32 & Matthew 19:9.
7. It depends on the individual. Sometimes it helps to keep an eye on what the enemy is promoting in music to speak against it. If a secular song makes a weaker believer do some sin the song promotes, then they shouldn’t listen to it. The secular music industry is overrun by people into witchcraft & secret societies, so each individual must listen to what the Holy Spirit is telling them about it.
8. Jesus let his disciples know that personal protection would sometimes be necessary when he told them to buy swords in Luke 22:36. If someone breaks into my house to potentially hurt one of my loved ones, you can best believe I’ll defend my family however possible while calling on the Lord for help.
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I read half way through the debate/ argument with harryagaylord and got bored -.- anyway I believe we have a loving faithful God who so loved the worlds gave is son for are sins. A lot of unbelievers are not bad people but when i talk to a lot of them and my very own friends, most of them seem to be self-serving and some are frankly a bit heartless when it comes to issues that do not concern them, e.g. i told my friend i had just given 50 pounds to a christian charity who go to asia and performs medical help to little children and i got shot down by them saying “why the h#!^ did u waste so much money”. Fun times…… and way to say that Israel is not a certainty at this point, i say with great conviction that the GOD of abraham, isaac and jacob, will never allow Israel to fall again, as seen in many times since the formation of israel in 1948. We as Christians have to wake up and support GOD’S people, the people who GOD gave the promised land to.
GOD BLESS YOU ALL AND PLZ DONT SHOOT ME DOWN 🙂
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Hello.. I started to read the bible last month. (Sorry for bad english) Now I’m still in genesis. My problem is that I’m having difficulty understanding some of what written there. I don’t know if some words should be interpret literally or as metaphors etc. For example, the story about Cain.
Then the Lord replied to him, “Therefore, whosoever slayeth Cain vengeance will suffer vengeance seven times over. “— What does it mean??
And then I read one book title is ” A bible Story”, it is written there that the Garden of Eden is in United States? Is it true?
I know you can answer me because you rely in bible and is very knowledgeable about it. I still have a lot of question about the bible and I hope you answer my queries. Thank you.
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Arisa, regarding your questions about Genesis, it can be taken literally but there are figures of speech in it. When it comes to the Cain story, the vengeance for those who will harm Cain as being seven times over simply means they would suffer much worse than Cain did if they harm him. God established that because he had already pronounced his sentencing on Cain & Cain was essentially serving his time, therefore for anyone to add to what God, the highest judge, had sentenced would be going against God’s wishes.
The Garden of Eden was never in the United States. Genesis 2:10-14 tells us the location of where the Garden was. It was where four rivers originated. Those four rivers were the Pison, the Gihon (it surrounded Ethiopia), the Hiddekel, and the Euphrates. This means the Garden of Eden was in either Africa or Asia.
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I pray one day that I can be as well versed and speak in such an authoritive manner concerning the Word of God as you do Harry. I am currently aspiring and educating myself toward my Masters in Pastoral Studies while continuing my educational pursuits in the medical field. Praise God that I came across this site!
I have just come home from a late night movie with an atheist friend of mine. Whom, I have been witnessing to. However, tonight he asked what has come true in terms of Biblical prophecy. I must admit, I know of such events but cannot recite Biblical scripture to prove my point. I told him to perform research on his own since my words would not convince him. Such people I have found, to only understand and come to a type of reconcilliation, when they feel all their resources have been exhausted and there is nowhere else for them to look. They constantly and consistently search for answers and thrive on the pursuit of that knowledge but never obtain it. A sense of purpose, if you will. However such a purpose, such a fulfillment; is only found in the Word of God, peace found in the arms of Christ, and love beyond human comprhension found in God the Father. Without whom we are absolutely nothing. I truly believe I am the lesser of everyone, made worthy by the sacrifice of Christ on Calvary. I only enter through the Father by the shed blood of Christ.
I admit, I struggle daily in my obedience to read and study the Word daily but must also admit I have grown exponentially in Spiritual Maturity within the past 3 months. I am still lacking but continue to fight on. By the grace and strength of God I will succeed! My victory has already been won, afforded to me by my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. I no longer fret over such battles because I fight with the strength of God. I operate by his wisdom and understanding and lean not on my own. I walk in His light struggling everyday to become a better witness, a better Christian, a better man of God as he has called me to be. I rock because He is my rock! Case in point, thank you for giving me something to show my friend. Thank you for inspiration.
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Christiansoldier, I’m glad your hunger for God’s word continues to grow even in the midst of struggles. May God continue to bless your endeavors as your understanding of his word & will increases.
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I’m a young christian and I have to say that I am in awe of your dedication Harry. You have obviously read the bible many times. Reading your counters to the atheist has been a pleasure while at the same time refreshing. It seems like atheists are taking over the web and its just sad. They always attack the bible and mock us every chance they get. Atheism is on the rise as well. Slowly but surely the persecution will increase against us here in America. Hold tight onto the faith my brother and please don’t let the devil deceive you with atheism. I hope to meet you in heaven! God bless you.
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Armani, thank you. It was because I had a professor in college back in the early 90s who attacked the Bible that I became more dedicated to the Lord than I had been previously. The atheists’ arguments can seem so convincing until they’re placed under a microscope of truth from the Bible, science, and history. A closer look at their philosophy with prayer and insight from the Holy Spirit along with some critical thinking shows that atheism is pure nonsense. You’re right that persecution will increase since we’re living in the end times, but greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world. Even when it seems like we’ll lose, we’ll eventually win it all. God bless you and I hope to see you in heaven also, if not before.
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I have been reading most of wot the bible is saying but y so much hurt I see number 11 all the time and so lookking for answer is it good is it bad .so wot I’m saying is y is hate all ways there and not peace see my god is king I don’t go church but I do belive in him
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This world is the way it is because of man’s choice. God gives us free will. We choose to do wrong. He then responds based on our choices. But here’s a video addressing some of your concerns:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtx5GyP7i7w]
And if you want more explanations, I addressed this issue with a previous commenter at this link.
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Hello Harry, I may be named after the first apostle but I am very disappointed in myself for being so green on bible study. I believe there is God, this wonderful world bears this testimony. I believe that the bible is a true account of history and it is the Holy Book of God we should live by. I seek to understand issues you may consider very basic and mundane: 0. How do I get the wisdom and intelligence to understand the ways of God? Why am I (and others too) so ‘imbecilic’ on HIS ways. Wish I had an iota of truthful, unquestionable and valid understanding of God, and what HE wishes of us. 1. There is so much execution, advocacy and prompting to violence in the old testament on the part of God e.g. the flood, the plagues, death in the desert and the pillaging of all cities conquered on God’s orders. There is wanton destruction of life. In my mind, it doesn’t seem match to God. 2. There also seems to be ‘non-protection’ of the ‘naive man’. e.g. God is omni-everything, HE thus knows what the tree in Eden would lead to; wish the tree never existed. The tendency of man to commit sin is certainly the DEFAULT setting of man. Sin in thought, speech and action is synonymous to man. What chance do we have? Cain, Solomon, David, Judas, … while fulfilling their role in this great epic, what chance did they have to resist sin? Why are we so weak? So useless? and HE knows. Strange that PERFECTION could wrought such imperfection in us. 3. The mere consideration of God and the devil makes me feel so puny, so tiny, so helpless on a lunatic express that I never choose to get on; that I have no control over; and from which I will soon be thrown off unceremoniously. A pawn, on a board full of trap doors, suffering, anguish… e.g. what lessons am I supposed to learn from ‘needless death’ of children… ain’t there better teaching aids? 4. Man being so wicked… why does God wish for any association, praise and worship from us? Do we only exist for this? To finally and eternally suffer in some revelation wars, lakes of fire OR to eternally sing praises and worship God… why paint God as so vain. 5. Is there a 3rd option? i.e. I was not here a short while ago, I at times feel I do not wish to participate in this Herculean battle of good over evil in any way, (I do not believe I will be comfortable in Heaven while other human beings suffer in hell as described in lakes of fire forever, and I certainly do not wish to be in Hell) May I just go back to where I was before I was born?…. I will keep reading the bible, I will keep seeking for HIM, I hope I will find God sooner, deep down I know HE is there somewhere, but I am terribly scared and cry due to pain and suffering that, I and/or others have and will have go through in life. Why did it have to be this way? If, this way a must, why can’t I see the large picture? How do I become a child and have blind faith?
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Andrew,
Some of your questions may be answered by this YouTube video:
I also did a post awhile ago on “Why is there so much violence in the Old Testament” that may help your understanding.
To further answer your questions:
0. Our minds and bodies are finite so while in our present state, there’s no way we can hope to understand everything about our infinite God. While in our temporary, finite state on earth, “…we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known,” 1 Corinthians 13:12. We can only have partial knowledge of God now, but when we receive our glorified bodies through Jesus Christ, then our knowledge will be complete. But God has given us enough of what we NEED to know in the Bible.
The first principle of getting wisdom and intelligence to understand God is this–“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth for ever,” Psalm 111:10. This is why God shared the prophecies in this post with the men who predicted them hundreds or thousands of years before they happened. Fear (honorably respect) the Lord and obey his commands, then wisdom and understanding automatically follow. “He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” Micah 6:8.
1. God is a just and holy God who hates evil and loves good, so he punishes evil and rewards good. That’s also why we have a justice system. When people steal, commit fraud, murder, or physically assault others, we want the law to be fair to us so we expect lawbreakers to be punished to make things right with the victim and/or with our communities. Sometimes that requires lawbreakers to be removed from our presence. That’s all God did, but on a grander scale. The people in Noah’s time were doing all kinds of evil and promoting evil, so God gave them what they deserved. They chose to break his laws and were punished. That’s the same scenario with the Egyptians, the Israelites in the desert, the Canaanites, and other people in the Old Testament. The destruction of those people was therefore not wanton.
2. Actually, Adam & Eve weren’t naive. God told them not to eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. They walked with God every day in the garden and knew how good, kind, and loving he was. They had their own zoo to rule all the animals, they had all kinds of food to eat from all the different plants and they had perfect physical health. So there was no need or excuse for them to disobey God by coveting the one thing out of hundreds that God reserved for himself. All the men you name were all given choices and they could have chosen different paths. All of us have been warned like Cain was–“If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him,” Genesis 4:7. We are all responsible for our own actions. God warned all of them that they had the power to choose what was right. He did not create us to be robots. With freedom comes responsibility and accountability as the video above demonstrates. What chance do we have? We have lots of chances. Each year, each month, each day, each hour, each minute is another chance to do what’s right. If we blow it it’s our own fault.
Then God gave us the ultimate chance to be and do right, by coming as a human to experience what we experience, yet without sinning. He came to pay the ultimate price on our behalf by taking the punishment of the wrong stuff we do by dying for us. All we have to do is believe in Jesus, and all the wrong stuff we do is erased and we don’t have to pay for our own sin by going to hell. Only a fool would pass on such an opportunity or chance to become better. Would you rather God be like the late Kim Jong-Il who commanded North Koreans to laugh on cue, cry on cue, march on cue, torture others on cue even when they didn’t want to? Or would you prefer freedom to choose? God created Adam & Eve in a perfect state. They were the ones who chose imperfection. Creating man with the choice to worship God or not to worship God is not a flaw, it’s LOVE. What makes you feel better– a person who chooses to love you or a person who is forced to love you?
3. None of us chose to be here, but God wanted us to be here for some greater purpose than ourselves. When the guys on the Apollo 13 faced a life or death situation in space that they did not choose to be in, but were thrust into by someone else’s fault, NASA assembled all the experts to come up with a solution to their problems to get them out of their situation safely. God has done the same for us. The Trinity gathered together before any of us was born to establish a solution to get us out of the sinful state we didn’t choose to be born in, to teach us how to cope with suffering regardless how the suffering came to us. That solution is the life, death, resurrection of Jesus that can be discovered in God’s expert manual the Bible. So no one is completely helpless or completely out of control. The one thing we all ultimately have control over to use to genuinely help ourselves is the choice to cry out to God for his help. Even if that doesn’t completely take away suffering, choosing God gives us strength to cope in and through suffering or to be delivered from the suffering by being welcomed into God’s presence in heaven, which is better than being here on Earth. I always find it amusing how many of us complain about the state of the world and why it is the way it is, then when the perfect solution is submitted to us (Jesus Christ, the Bible), we complain about that too and reject it. And by rejecting it, we just end up adding to the problems we were complaining about in the beginning.
All the anguish, needless death of children, and other stuff you complain about isn’t God’s fault. It’s ours. The world is the way it is because evil humans in league with the devil choose to make it the way it is. God sent the remedy 2,000 years ago by his wisdom, the wisdom “which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory,” 1 Corinthians 2:8. The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord, Romans 6:23. We complain about governments bailing out the big guys but not bailing us out and how unfair it is, but when God presents the perfect “teaching aid” when we have a spiritual debt to pay for our sins ( a debt which is more severe than any physical monetary debt) and God gives us a universal bailout from that debt through Jesus, we complain about and/or reject it. So are you really interested in a “teaching aid”?
4. As far as God wanting our praise, it’s what he deserves. There is no evil in God. He’s totally righteous and truthful. And when someone creates the universe, provides us with life and the things we need to sustain life, and always does the right thing, that’s not being vain to ask for praise, it’s expecting gratitude from those who should show gratitude. When you do nice stuff for people, you expect them to say thank you or give you a compliment, so why are you questioning God when he’s a whole lot better than you are? When you work for a boss and you’re looking for a bonus, raise, or promotion from the boss, you praise the boss with compliments and may even kiss up to the boss. Or you may kiss up to parents for an allowance or you may behave in a certain way and obey a teacher/professor for a good grade. That’s vain, but you complain when a holy, righteous God expects praise? Really?
5. A third option? Really? Let’s see–you wouldn’t be comfortable in heaven while people are suffering in hell. Don’t you think that’s a bit hypocritical? People are in hell because they choose to be in hell. People are in heaven because they choose to be in heaven. Your statement is like saying, “Well, I don’t feel comfortable living in my house or enjoying my life of freely going about my business while there are people rotting in prison or jail.” Duh! We have the choice in society to obey righteous laws or break them. You choose to break the law, you get caught and go to jail. You obey the law, you get to roam around freely. If someone breaks the law and they roam around freely without going to jail, does that upset you? If you’re sane, yes, it does upset you, so why do you complain about heaven vs. hell when it’s based on the same exact concept?
And about faith in God–faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, according to Hebrews 11. Faith in God is believing he will fulfill what he told us he would, even when you haven’t seen the evidence that he will fulfill it. In this case the faith that we will be saved by believing in Jesus and will live forever in heaven. But this isn’t “blind faith.” When God commands us to have faith in him, he proves that we SHOULD have faith in him. God predicted things would happen in the Bible, then the things he predicted actually happened. So if he tells us that Jesus will come back again, then even though we don’t see how that will happen, we have faith based on the fact that God has fulfilled his other prophecies. He has given us proof time after time that he will do what he says. That’s not “blind faith”, that’s fact-based faith in someone who shows they keep their word.
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Actually, all of these except one came true before the bible was actually written…
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That happens to be a popular lie that atheists & other critics of the Bible like to promote, but they have no proof whatsoever to back it up.
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Harry, Im very interested to know your opinion on the book ” Heaven Is For Real ” for me it actually did help strengthen my faith. Also when someone – a non believer, throws the arguement of Science out, you know the old one Man from Ape and even brings out that old illustration several stages that man went through from Ape to Man-Theory of evolution.How do you combat that-what would you say to someone who always throws that out there as a reason not to believe.
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Tony, I enjoyed “Heaven is For Real” and I believe Colton Burpo went to heaven. But I didn’t agree with every point made in the book. For instance, toward the end of the book, there is an ecumenical statement made that promotes the false beliefs/religion of Catholicism. Here’s the quote: “A lot of our Catholic friends have asked whether Colton saw Mary, the mother of Jesus. The answer to that is also yes. He saw Mary kneeling before the throne of God and at other times, standing beside Jesus. ‘She still loves him like a mom,’ Colton said.” Catholics teach that Mary is co-redeemer with Christ and the fact they have her standing beside Jesus only promotes the false belief. I was also uncomfortable with their promotion of the Eastern European girl’s painting at the end of what Jesus supposedly looked like.
Regarding evolution, the theory they believe is that man and ape had a common ancestor. They actually don’t teach humans evolved from apes. But there was an interview done recently by the Discovery Institute, which promotes intelligent design, with Dr. Ann Gauger, a biologist. She points out the glaring inconsistencies in the Darwinian theory man & monkeys had the same ancestor. The interview is in two parts and here are the links: pt. 1–http://intelligentdesign.podomatic.com/entry/2012-07-11T17_22_33-07_00 and pt. 2–http://intelligentdesign.podomatic.com/entry/2012-07-18T17_19_04-07_00
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Well mickrucker, you shall see when Jesus returns if that’s a stretch or just a coincidence because it was so far from being predicted but not yet happened.
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Sorry i made a typo of your name MikeRucker,
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Job 16:2-4
2 “I have heard many things like these;
you are miserable comforters, all of you!
3 Will your long-winded speeches never end?
What ails you that you keep on arguing?
4 I also could speak like you,
if you were in my place;
I could make fine speeches against you
and shake my head at you.
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Hi Harry,
I’m really happy I’ve stumbled upon this website. God ordained? More likely. I’ve been debating with atheists online and it seems whatever I say, I seem to always lose. I’ve always lost on the whole “God is a moral monster” argument and beginning to ponder why would God do such a thing. But then I realised that God is God. Like what Job said, the Lord gives and the Lord takes away. They seem to always focus on the “bad side” of God rather than the good things He has done to mankind. They seem to neglect that God gave them life, gave them everything they need in life. Then there’s the crusaders and many killings in the past century, all done bearing the name of Christianity. I think they’ve missed what Jesus said, I can’t remember the reference, He said something like a time will come when people will kill for my Father’s name, but they don’t belong to the Father…. something like that.
The things that has happened in the bible and in the past century all started in Genesis when Adam and Eve gave in to the serpent’s temptation to eat the fruit. If we look into God’s perspective and really dig deep into His word, God has already created us to be LIKE Him. We are created in His image aren’t we? Created to be LIKE Him on God’s terms and not by the devil’s terms. The serpent said, “Surely you won’t die”, its as if he’s making God sound like He’s a liar. I don’t know if you ever picked that up whilst reading that part. He said, you will be like God knowing good and evil. When you look at it, it is in the intent of Adam and Eve’s heart… they want to be like God… BUT they’re already LIKE God before they ate the fruit. You see what’s happening? Somehow Adam and Eve didn’t ponder to that truth, or its probably fresh since they’re newly created. thus Satan taking advantage of them. Its basically battle of the “gods”. We obviously know who always wins…
Anyway, I’ve been reading all your posts and your arguments against some of the atheists here and I’ve learnt so much. I think most atheists like to follow what the previous atheist would say and use that as they’re own reference rather than making they’re own library research. They ask proof but they don’t provide us proof… They like to use “logic” without proving it…
God bless you. Hope you keep this up mate!
Cheers
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Patrikios,
Atheists have a tendency to continue blathering the same arguments even when you present proof to tear down their arguments. It all boils down to them loving their sin. Since they love their sin and don’t want to entertain the thought that they need to change their wicked ways, they have to convince themselves he doesn’t exist. That’s why they argue so profusely. God has placed in every human the deep down knowledge that he exists. That’s why Psalm 14:1 says “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.” They’re fools because they deny the obvious. If one studies their arguments, they can be proven incorrect.
The scripture you were looking for that talks about people killing in God’s name is John 16:2, “…yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.”
Keep on strenghtening yourself. When you discuss things with atheists & it seems they’ve won, just ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance to direct you to the answer and the resource that may hold the answer. As Proverbs 18:17 says, “He that is first in his own cause seemeth just; but his neighbour cometh and searcheth [cross examines] him.” And that works both ways.
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Thanks, I hope that you don’t completely block their replies to you. I’d like to see the common questions that most atheists asks. If they’ve become rude and starts cursing, then I guess you should block them. Other than that, thanks again.
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Hi Harry
I found this site about Judaism and I wonder if you could give your insights about their beliefs. http://www.aish.com/jw/s/48892792.html
And what do you think about “mistranslated verses”? I know nothing about their language so I don’t really know if that is true.
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Arisa,
I took a look at the website and the person who put it up made several errors. Overall, the main reason some Jews don’t believe in Jesus is because of what Paul said in Romans 11:25, “For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.”
But here are some specific errors at the site:
1. The website’s author assumes Jesus did not fulfill Messianic prophecy because he did not bring in world peace & other things on their prophecy list. They claim there is no second coming & any Messiah would have to fulfill those prophecies the first time around. That just isn’t true. There is no prophecy that says Messiah must fulfill all prophecies at his first coming. That’s simply a false assumption.
Zechariah 13:7 predicts the death of the Messiah. Zechariah 13:6 implies a second coming when the Messiah will be asked about the wounds in his hands. Zechariah 12:10 says the Jews will look on him whom they pierced. If he comes to explain his wounds and they look on the one they pierced, then that means he came at some time in the past when that happened and now he has returned with the wounds.
Two appearances at separate times of the Messiah are clearly designated in the Old Testament. Isaiah 9:6 says he will be born as a child. Isaiah 7:14 says he will be born of a virgin and Micah 5:2 gives his birthplace as Bethlehem Ephratah. Isaiah 11:11-12 says outright the Messiah will come a second time–“And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.” Then Daniel 7:13-14 backs this up when he says, “I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.” The OT clearly states the Messiah will come the first time through birth and the second time in the clouds, just like the NT says.
I list some of the prophecies Jesus fulfilled at this link and they are only 20 of hundreds.
2. The author argues Jesus did not embody the Messiah’s personal qualifications, which is incorrect.
A. He claims Jesus wasn’t a prophet and makes this unfounded ridiculous statement–“Prophecy can only exist in Israel when the land is inhabited by a majority of world Jewry.” Not true since Daniel, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel prophesied when most of the Jews were in exile. Deuteronomy 13 & 18 says any prophet whose prophecies fail or their prophecies are fulfilled but they turn you away from God, this is the sign of a false prophet. That’s how true prophecies are distinguished. Jesus both fulfilled hundreds of messianic prophecies but also gave accurate predictions of things to come to turn people to God, so he is a true prophet.
B. The website’s author denies the Messiah will be supernatural, denies the Messiah will perform miracles, and has to have a human biological father. This is proof he doesn’t believe the prophets of the Old Testament and carries on the tradition of rejecting God that the Jews in the Bible did. Isaiah 35:5-6 says the Messiah will heal people. Although the website claims the Messiah has to be a descendant of David through his biological father and gives a string of scriptures, this is not what any scripture says and the scriptures listed have nothing to do with that concept. He has come up with such an assumption by man-made tradition. 1 Chronicles 17:13-14 says the Messiah would be God’s son. It was also understood under Jewish practices that an adopted son held all the rights of any biological son, as in Jesus’ case.
C. The website’s author claims Jesus violated the Torah. Jesus actually fulfilled the law perfectly. He did not fulfill the mistaken interpretations and man-made traditions that Jewish leaders tried to pass off as being equivalent to the law and that is what the website objects to about Jesus by calling him a false prophet.
3. The website then moves on to object to words & concepts in today’s Bible that they claim are mistranslations, such as:
A. Denying the virgin birth. He actually lies about the use of the word “alma” being the word used only for “young woman.” The website at this link debunks this myth rather well.
B. Claiming the suffering servant is the whole nation of Israel in Isaiah 53. But the author takes the scripture out of context. When he refers back to Isaiah 52 as only speaking about Israel coming out of captivity, the tone and focus of that chapter changes in verse 13. Isaiah 52:14 makes a human-to-human comparison by claiming “his visage was marred more than any man.” This isn’t speaking of a whole nation, but an individual. In this case, the Messiah. Isaiah 53 also speaks of the suffering servant as someone who would not have any deceit in his mouth (v. 9) and would be a sin offering (v. 10). This can’t refer to the Jewish nation because they are known for being deceitful and the Torah says God only accepts offerings that have no blemish, so the Jewish nation, which is as sinful as any other nation, cannot be a sin offering for anyone.
4. Personal revelation is rejected by the author and the claim is made that “only Judaism bases its belief on national revelation ― i.e. God speaking to the entire nation.” If that’s true, why did the majority of Israel even in the time of Moses reject what God said? Israel’s history from ancient times to today is full of examples where God gives the nation his prophecies and statutes and the majority of the nation rejects the revelations as being false. When Jesus came, he and his disciples revealed God’s word and Jesus as the Messiah to all of Israel, but they weren’t interested and attempted to kill the whole movement. So the website’s claim about national revelation is disingenuous.
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Jesus is the true God,I Emeka bow before you Yahweh!
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Hey Harry I gota a question people keep telling me where required to keep the sabbath every Saturday, what is the truth? What does gods word say?
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Hi, Lee.
We’re not required to keep such laws. Jesus fulfilled the sabbath on our behalf. Here are some scriptures:
4 Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand. 5 One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. 6 He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. Romans 14
23 And they wrote letters by them after this manner; The apostles and elders and brethren send greeting unto the brethren which are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia.24 Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying, Ye must be circumcised, and keep the law: to whom we gave no such commandment:…
28 For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things; 29 That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well. Acts 15 [notice they didn’t mention the sabbath as a necessary thing]
16 Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: 17 Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ. Colossians 2
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Have you heard of a proclaimed prophet elisbeth or amightywindmi http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPRIptaucLk&feature=youtube_gdata_player nistries? What do you think about this video
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Lee,
I consider those who believe in zombies along the same lines as those who believe in UFOs from other planets–a lot of hoopla, blah, blah, blah, & la-dee-da. There are no such things as zombies. Zombies are supposed to be the living dead. Hebrews 9 says “…it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:” People possessed by devils, like those mentioned in news stories recently who were cannibals, are not zombies.
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‘There are no such things as zombies’
You can’t prove that
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Really, Anonymous?
I can see why you wish to remain anonymous with a comment like that. Here’s a quick lesson from Biology 101 & Health Class 101. When someone dies, their brain is dead and their lungs and heart cease to function. Therefore, a dead person does not have the physical capability of getting up, then looking around for someone to attack, and then overpowering them to hurt or kill them because all of these functions require the brain, heart, and lungs to power thoughts, nerves, and muscles which do not function in a dead person.
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I find this post absolutely hilarious, in a completely ironic, foot in mouth kind of way. Because you do believe in zombies, or at least one zombie. Zombie Jesus… because an old book says he existed.
Yet here you are, dropping some middle school science, trying to disprove the idea that people can rise from the dead… Man, you can’t make this stuff up LMAO.
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Aeon,
Look in the dictionary for the definition of zombie and you will see your use of the word zombie isn’t even accurate. When people are raised from the dead, God restores the use of their brains, lungs, hearts, and other bodily functions. When they are raised from the dead, they come back to life and aren’t dead. Zombies are walking around dead, which is horror fiction, not reality. God raising people from the dead is a proven reality.
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The truth is that most religions, and christianity in particular, are the leash holding back the moral, social, and maybe even the spiritual evolution of mankind as a whole. It breeds a lack of moral responsibility, and self accountability. Would you rather have a child who acts properly because he wants to, or because you are standing behind him with with a two by four covered in rusty nails, ready to pound him the back of the head if he steps out of line. “Now tell daddy you love him…OR ELSE!”…
A man who lives his life in a buddhist monestary, and dedicates his entire life to improving himself, and performing charitable works in the surrounding community is deemed “unworthy,” and tortured for eternity for his “sins.” A lifelong serial rapist/murderer repents on his death bed and “accepts jesus into his heart,” is rewarded with living in a happy paradise for all eternity… You have to be a real SPECIAL kind of person to buy into that sort of thing.
…As i see it, there is no evidence that christianity is accurate. If we accept the things that most christians would call evidence, then we must also accept the things that believers of ALL religions claim to be their evidence, which in turn act as evidence against each other religion.
The bottom line is that religion is… splintering humanity into it’s many warring factions. To claim that you, and you alone have a scripture documenting the infallible, unwavering, and unchanging word of god, and that all other scriptures are imposters, is a perfect recipe for war… You cannot keep us from evolving, no matter how hard you try. We are capable of amazing things, and the potential of the human race is immeasurable. United we stand, divided we fall… And you also know that we will NEVER unite under your religion. It’s just not going to happen.
Now, what we should be doing, at least at the start, is finding the lowest common denominator of things that we can ALL support, leave the rest behind, and build from there.
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Aeon,
If commandments to love your neighbor as you love yourself, to give to the poor, and to be holy and just because God is holy and just, to sacrifice your own selfish desires for someone else’s benefit–if all of these are holding back the moral, social, and spiritual evolution of mankind, then I would hate to see what your idea of a utopia is. What breeds a lack of moral responsibility and accountability is people who hate Christianity, as history has shown us time and time again. This is why we have problems in the Middle East and why Mao Tsetung, Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, and other tyrannical despots rose to power. God created laws for the protection and benefit of everyone in society.
Your scenario of the child who acts as he wants to instead of having someone ready to punish him if he gets out of line is unrealistic because you assume all people are good. Why do you think we have laws in our society enforced by the police and court systems to convict and sentence the guilty to be punished? Our society is less religious, but instead of evolving we’re devolving. Suicide worldwide now accounts for more deaths than murder.
Men in Buddhist monasteries aren’t as innocent and peaceful as you make them out to be. And can you name one rapist or murderer on their death bed who reached that death bed without some kind of well-deserved suffering? And in case you didn’t notice, you’re not exactly the purest person walking this planet. If you want God to prove himself by punishing people immediately for their sin, would you like him to start with you?
But you contradict yourself. One minute you’re proclaiming God as unjust for standing over people ready to punish if they get out of line, then you criticize him for not punishing people when they get out of line like the rapist or murderer. That really isn’t true of God at all anyway.
The reason you don’t see the overwhelming evidence proving Christianity true boils down to two words. Willful ignorance. History proves the prophecies here as being true so it takes a special kind of deceiver and spiritually blind liar to deny them. Even science, which tells us the Earth and universe had a beginning (laws of thermodynamics, general relativity) prove the Bible’s accuracy. Since Christianity has more than enough evidence backing it, this doesn’t mean we automatically have to accept what other religions claim because their falsehoods can easily be disproven as I have done in other posts here.
What really splinters humanity is people like you who make such unfounded, inaccurate, uneducated comments like yours against Christianity to deceive people into believing your lies. Rejection of true Christianity is what causes wars. I refer you back to the historical figures mentioned above as proof. Those who have sought to unite the world have always done so in a manner where they used the rejection of the one true God as their lowest common denominator. We are so capable of amazing, immeasurable things that every time we make technological or other advances in society, those advances are always used to bring out the worst in us. That’s why human trafficking, child porn, suicides, and broadcasting violence have expanded with our use of the internet and other technologies. Your vision of humanity is a pipe dream. Jesus Christ is the only solution for our problems generated by our fallen, evil nature. And the fulfillment of what his prophets predicted, before they actually happened, proves it.
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Darwin
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I’m so glad that God answers prayer! I find it such a blessing in my life. While my family has no food and constantly goes hungry, we find great comfort in the works of God within our world. It helps to ease my little hungry body to sleep knowing that God has helped so many people awards for movies, sporting events, pass tests, and many other things. I know that my hunger is all part of God’s plan, and it gives me great pleasure to continue living my life for the Lord. I feel I best relate to Job. In my church choir called “The Fish Of Jesus” we’ve been working on a new song called TTE. It’s an african song about being poor but having all you need. You can truly have nothing but at the same time have everything. That’s what gives me hope to keep on trucking. Praise the Lord and bless you all. Thank you for sharing your blog. Reading things like this really lifts my spirit. I’ve learned so much on this trip, especially in the spiritual sense. I can’t wait to share with my family after the summer work program has ended.
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Harry, i have to say that i don’t think you are representing christianity very well in this topic. You are very vengeful and off putting towards anybody who disagrees with you. That is not how jesus taught us to be fishers of men. Putting people down, and trying to “win the argument” is not helping anybody. Maybe reevaluate your tactics here. This isn’t about winning or losing an argument. It is more important than that. God bless.
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I just wanted to say a few things to you people debating on here. First off, I think its great that you guys are interested in the history of religion. That said, all of you have serious unhealthy mental issues that have never been addressed. This is obvious. I grew up in a Christian household. My father has a Masters from RTS. I’ll be the first to tell you that my parents are sick, demented people. They used religion to justify all kinds of violent and mental abuse when I was growing up. When you say “people come up with all kinds of excuses for their sin”, this is true if you think sin exists. However, I am MUCH more afrain of the self-proclaimed “Christian” who does harmful things to others in “god’s name” based on their individual interpretation of the bible. See terrorism, and various horrible cult activities.
One more thing: With all of this “knowledge” that seems to be necessary to know the “real and only true church”, I would think that only rich white people are the ones who would even be able to comprehend half of this stuff, thus being the only ones to get into heaven. How convenient considering reformed Christianity was forced upon so many countries by the threat of death through exploration funded by rich white European nations. You guys need to get over yourselves bigtime. What you have is nothing more than a club that has been forced upon other cultures in a sinful way throughout history since the reformation and before.
What’s worse than using human logic to justify your behavior? I’ll tell you what, using your personal translation of a 2k year old book that is not relavant to modern issues whatsoever to justify damning other people. I believe in the life of Jesus. That the story of his life helps me on a daily basis in living with others. But seriously you people on here are just basically a cult, and a judgmental one at that.
-Thanks for reading and I do not need a response. I’ve heard it all. You are judgmental fools who lead angry bitter lives.
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Brian,
You said
[You are judgmental fools who lead angry bitter lives.]
But your own words reflect a judgmental attitude and bitterness against Christians. You condemn Christians for what you are guilty of yourself. Don’t you think that’s a bit hypocritical?
[I’ll be the first to tell you that my parents are sick, demented people. They used religion to justify all kinds of violent and mental abuse…]
Not everyone who claims to be Christian is Christian. Jesus and Paul warned in the Bible that evil people would be in church as wolves in sheep’s clothing [Matthew 7:15, Acts 20:29-30] and that’s just as true today as it was back then. So, you see, the Bible still is relevant to what goes on today as much as it was 2000 years ago. If what you’re saying is true about your parents, then I’m sorry that you went through what you experienced, but that doesn’t mean the Bible isn’t true. It just means you had bad parents. You can’t blame God for what people choose to do on their own. If you get upset over innocent people being convicted and sent to jail when they didn’t commit the crime they were accused of, why would you think it’s okay for you to blame God for something he didn’t do?
As bad as your parents may have been, which I can’t conclude since I don’t know their side of the story, they weren’t like Mao Zedong, Kim Il-Sung, Kim Jong-Il, Stalin, or Hitler, the infamous murderous atheists.
[I am MUCH more afrain of the self-proclaimed “Christian” who does harmful things to others in “god’s name” based on their individual interpretation of the bible]
I agree. But true Christians aren’t guilty of that. Seems like you’re using that as an excuse to justify your own hatred for the Bible, God, and Christianity. That’s why the Bible commands us to test the spirits to see if they’re truly of God, which is another thing the Bible said 2000 years ago that is relevant today.
[I would think that only rich white people are the ones who would even be able to comprehend half of this stuff, thus being the only ones to get into heaven]
So now you’re playing the race card. Really? You just showed you don’t know the Bible. The first Christians were non-European Jews. The New Testament is full of people from all ethnic backgrounds. Europeans, Africans, and Asians were all present at the day of Pentecost in Jerusalem in Acts 2 when the gospel started to be spread worldwide. Two African deacons served in the church at Antioch, Syria, according to Acts 13 and they were part of the group that blessed and encouraged Paul to become a missionary. Your conclusion is therefore without merit.
[What you have is nothing more than a club that has been forced upon other cultures]
True Christianity is a matter of what one accepts in their heart to have a personal relationship with God. Therefore, it cannot be forced if someone does not truly believe it in their heart. There are instances in history where people who claimed to be Christian, but really weren’t, forced their views on others. In particular, the popes and their papist followers did this, but true Christians never have. But atheists have the same thing in common with those who try to force their views on others. So I refer you back to Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, and Mao Zedong. Today we have their successors carrying out the same murderous force in Russia, North Korea, China, and Cuba. But here’s a fact for you–more Christians were killed in the 20th century for their beliefs than in any previous century and we were persecuted and killed more than any other religious group in the last century. So your arguments don’t ring true.
Hate all you want, but at the end of the day, the Bible still has fulfilled prophecies that prove it’s true and trustworthy. It is proven true by its historical facts and its scientific accuracy. It’s proven true by the fact the Lord has changed and transformed many people’s messed up lives to something beautiful to behold.
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Sweet website you have here. The mods cut/paste/remove whatever parts of your post they disagree with, and replace them with a “…”? WOW! Freedom of speech is very dangerous to those who fear the truth. It’s like the dark ages in here.
Wait, who was responsible for the dark ages again?
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Aeon,
The “…” is called an ellipsis. When one submits letters to the editor of a newspaper or magazine, they are always subject to the editor shortening things when necessary. I reserve the same right at this blog. It has nothing to do with hampering freedom of speech. I’m like Bill O’Reilly in that way. He tells his viewers to keep their comments pithy when they send him emails. If you want your complete comment shown you should try that. I have no fear of the truth since that is what my post here promotes. And it is the truth that has shown how baseless your comments have been. Furthermore, if I feel you are wasting my time or just repeating stuff I’ve already covered in a previous comment, I will more than likely dump it.
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When “necessary,” ok. Am i submitting a letter to the editor? If you are going to edit my posts, because you disagree with them, just refuse to allow them to post at all, as you have with most of the commments i tried to post here. You should clearly display the disclaimer somewhere on every page, that you reserve the right to change and edit people’s posts as you see fit before allowing them to show. Did that really need to be said? Don’t edit peoples posts, man, it’s a really underhanded thing to do. I have literally NEVER heard of something like that online.
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Aeon,
As administrator of this blog, I can edit as I see fit. That’s what happens all across the internet every day when certain comments are allowed, certain comments are truncated, and others are blocked. Facebook does it a lot. So do other bloggers. Therefore your comment that you have NEVER heard of this is disingenuous.
And I won’t be doing any type of disclaimer. Maybe atheists think they run things on the world wide web, but you don’t run my blog. If Facebook and other social networks feel they should squash Christian commenters to prefer atheists & other anti-Christians, then I have the freedom to allow comments that meet my standards and trash those that don’t. My administration of comments is not underhanded, it’s taking responsibility for and being mindful of what appears on this blog.
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Like I said, go ahead and block any post that frightens you (seemingly mainly the ones that provide historical factual evidence that you are spewing falsehoods on this board) but to edit someone’s comment before allowing it to post is despicable.
“Maybe atheists think they run things on the world wide web, but you don’t run my blog.”
Guess i couldn’t say what atheists think, seeing as how I am not one. Your immediate reaction to any alternative viewpoint is to label it and shove it into a box, so that your dualistic paradigm can more easily process it. This is what is known as intellectual cowardice. If you know anything about psychology you would know that this is a useful tool for weak people…people who cannot evaluate other people and situations on an individual level. They need to categorize everything and stereotype it so that it is less challenging to their world view. It’s very common, but not a good thing. Christian/Atheist, Republican/Democrat etc etc. You’re stuck in this sort of obsolete/arbitrary duality. It’s a shortcut to thinking. Think about it.
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@Aeon,
Sure, you’re not atheist. You just believe religion is “splitting humanity into many warring factions” according to your first comment. Even though that’s a statement used commonly among atheists, I was just way off base–SMH. It’s amusing how I presented clear, solid evidence shooting down what you assumed to be true about the book of Daniel, but somehow I’m a coward and spewing falsehoods but your lies are somehow true. Your comment takes me back to what I said about you before–you are satisfied with your willful ignorance. Be blind to the truth. That’s your prerogative. But don’t think I would for a minute back down from an atheist bully such as yourself just because you choose to call lies truth. God has not given me a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and a sound mind to take captive any thought or philosophy that exalts itself against the knowledge of the living God.
Keep on deceiving yourself, but it won’t in any way negate this truth–sin is running and ruining your life and only Jesus can save you from the inevitable destruction that lies ahead for you. The prophecies in God’s word have been proven so solid that no one can tear them down. Since that is the case, anyone who rejects the fact that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life and no one comes to the Father but by him, is in serious trouble and is living an empty life that isn’t fulfilling its true purpose.
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So anyone who does not subscribe to an organized religion is an atheist…maybe you should look up the definition of the word, before basing your entire existence on fighting against whatever you think it is. You are once again blinded by your archaic dualistic world view. Sorry i don’t fit into whatever box you are trying lock me inside of. That would make it alot easier for a small mind to deal with.
It’s really sad that equate morals and spirituality with organized religion.
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Christianity is based on having faith in the Lord Jesus Christ to have a personal relationship with him which makes us part of the family and household of God. For it is by grace that one is saved through faith; and that not of ourselves; it is the gift of God, not of human works, lest any man should boast about how he saved himself and steal the glory from God, who is the only one deserving of the glory for saving lost souls.
Behold, all ye that kindle your own fire of false beliefs, that surround yourselves with sparks of anti-Christian thinking: go ahead and walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled. This shall ye have of the Lord’s hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow [Isaiah 50:11].
So insult me all you wish. God’s word is still true and his prophecies will still stand. What the Bible says about the Lord Jesus will forever be true, for if you believe not that Jesus is the Lord God who died for and can save you from your sins, you shall die in your sins [John 8:24].
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Everything in the book of Genesis, and many other things in the old testament are based on the stories told in Sumerian cylinder scrolls and tablets, far predating the jewish renditions. These stories were the originals, and had nothing to do with the jewish god. We both know you will never investigate this, right?
You made it clear in an earlier post that you are unaware of the innumerable accounts of individuals in history/myth, that have nearly identical stories, miraculous births/resurrection etc, to jesus. You refuse to educate yourself on these topics, correct?
Why are you so frightened?…
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Aeon,
Dude, you’re such a liar. You’ve been lying from your first comment to this one. You started off with a claim that God lets rapists/murderers off scott free on their death beds if they confess Jesus & couldn’t name one example & prior to that criticized the idea of God standing over people waiting to punish them if they get out of line. Two contradictory statements. Then you misused the word “zombie” to refer to those who come back to life. Then you tried to tear down the book of Daniel & I gave solid proof to refute your claim. Now you’re back with this nonsense and lie about me being frightened to explore certain topics when I’ve torn down the major topics you brought up. In reality, you’re the one who’s frightened & miserable inside which is why you keep returning with more falsehoods because you’re afraid to admit your ideas are wrong because if you would ever be honest with yourself, you would have to conclude your life is a spiritual shambles on the path to destruction and more misery and more emptiness than what you already experience.
You’re miserable because of your sin which ends up not satisfying you in the end. But you don’t want to let your sin go even though it makes you miserable so you attack those who aren’t miserable like you with the hope they’ll join you in your misery and fear and emptiness. So sad.
But now to your Sumerian cylinder claims. The most famous story from them is Gilgamesh which people like you claim is where Noah came from in the Bible. However, you obviously haven’t really looked at the facts to determine which one is true. Just because something predates Hebrew writings doesn’t mean we should assume it’s more reliable. That’s your 1st mistake. Why? Because archaeology is not a closed subject & discoveries are still being made. It’s also a mistake because the content in the writings must be explored for accuracy & old age doesn’t automatically mean it’s accurate.
Archaeology has shown that monotheism predates polytheism and Sumerian mythology in the Sumerian cylinders is polytheistic, like Gilgamesh. So the Bible is correct while Sumerian cylinders aren’t when it comes to theism. Scientists have built and tested boats like Gilgamesh’s (a cube) and Noah’s and discovered Gilgamesh’s is not even seaworthy while Noah’s is. Gilgamesh has no genealogies and does not tell how the earth is repopulated, so no one can look back through history to verify what it says, whereas Genesis has a detailed table of nations surrounding Noah and his sons and how they repopulated the Earth. It even goes so far as to name areas his descendants settled. For instance, it mentions Heth, the father of Hittites and where they settled. Ancient historical documents and excavations prove that Noah’s descendants started the civilizations where Genesis says they did. Ham & his descendants in Africa & western Asia, Shem & his descendants in Mesopotamia and western Asia, etc.
Gilgamesh’s flood was regional & not global like Noah’s flood. Ancient traditions of civilizations all over the world about a major flood show that 95% of them agree with the Genesis account, referring to a worldwide flood. Explorers who visited Mt. Ararat where Noah’s ark landed have tested lumber that they found on the mountain and it is dated as 5,000 years old with remnants of tar & pitch, pointing to the accuracy of the details of Genesis.
So it’s really no bother to explore unfounded statements like yours because the Bible always comes out on top. And since the Bible is accurate to the minute details, it’s prophecies and statements that Jesus is Lord are accurate. Which means you are in a heap of trouble, if you don’t repent. You’ve had several warnings, so I’m not going to waste any more of my time with your lies. I have other people to reach with the joyous blessings God has given me.
Source: http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/csgeg/comparison-secular-historical-records
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Hey Harry so my friend tells me again I am required to keep the Sabbath and the bible never said to stop doing it, his argument is even God Sabbath he said there was a Sabbath before earth was even created, he says the only reason makes his comments about the sabbath is becuase the Jews were trying to stop him from helping people. Then he says even Paul kept the Sabbath, I showed him the scriptures you presented to me. and he said Paul was just saying that to tell the Jews not too force their traditions one the gentiles or pass judgement cuz there new believers. He also claims its possible to reach a perfection and to become absolutely sinless as Jesus was. And he says he doesn’t sin, I showed 1 John and he said thats a weak scripture for new beleivers.
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Lee,
At this point, your friend has shown he doesn’t really care what the Bible says. Nowhere in the Bible is there talk about God observing a sabbath before the earth was created. The context of the scriptures I gave you had everything to do with God showing that his salvation is not based on works like keeping the sabbath. Even Peter stated this in the chapter of the Acts scripture I gave you.
Your friend has a pride problem if he thinks he doesn’t sin. Even Paul, who did many miracles by the Holy Spirit and was a great evangelist and wrote most of the New Testament by the Holy Spirit, admitted he had two natures warring within him and that one of those natures prevented him from doing everything sinlessly (Romans 7:14-15). Paul admitted in Philippians 3 that he had not attained or apprehended perfection in the sense of being sinless (Philippians 3:11-21). When the New Testament calls believers perfect, it means that they have accepted Jesus Christ as Lord for their salvation and God sees them as having everything they need. It doesn’t mean they’re sinless. We won’t experience that until the resurrection, which is what Paul mentions in Philippians 3 & 1 Corinthians 15. Usually when people like your friend proclaim they’re sinless, they’re hiding some type of sin they don’t want anyone to know about.
Regardless of what he says, you have one Lord and he isn’t your lord that you should listen to him when you can read God’s word for yourself to find out the truth by relying on the Holy Spirit.
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I ment to say Pharisees not Jews,
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I don’t know why i am here, but i have to say – what i see in this topic/blog as of the last week or so is 2 people arguing and bashing their heads against each other for no reason.
@Aeon – I believe you are truly lost, but god loves you! I hope you will recognize the incredible significance some day. I will pray for you.
@Harry – Harry, these nonchristians have found their way onto your christian website for a reason. God has brought them here. Your need to establish some sort of argumentative dominance over them is so completely counterproductive. I don’t feel any kindness or compassion in your words, or feel the love of the holy father shining through them.. Don’t you think god has planned for them to come here for a seed to be planted somewhere in their souls. Seeds are planted and nurtured with love and kindness, not accusations and arguments. We must be sure that god’s love and mercy shine through us at all times, ESPECIALLY in the face of unbelievers. It’s easy to get caught up in our own egos at times like this, but it really has nothing to with us, we are just conduits for the wisdom of the lord. Please remember this.
I don’t think i will be posting here again, so no need for a response. God bless.
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Oh I’m not listening to him harry I admit I have been slacking on my studying so I couldn’t recall how to respond to his ignorant statements. But I have a new question, there’s this talk of prophets saying the dollar value will go down, and the only expenses we own will be through gold and silver. They claim we should start stocking up can goods and water for this event of chaos. What do you think about these claims?
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It’s good to know that you’re not listening to your friend, Lee. I do believe that those in power are trying to sink the value of the dollar for the sake of pushing forward plans to make people want the one world government that Revelation talks about. That’s why the Federal Reserve pushed out another stimulus last week under the guise they want to stimulate the economy when they did the same thing twice before & the economy is still weak while the banks continue to hoard what the Fed gives them.
However, as David said in Psalm 37, “I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.” In other words, God always takes care of his own. And remember our Lord said in Matthew 6:31-33, “Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”
God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. So I would say if you want to buy gold or silver, that’s fine. If you want to stock up on food, that’s fine. Just don’t do it for fear something catastrophic is going to happen. Precious metals are a great thing to own if you’re thinking of the future and how you want to bless your descendants after you. “A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children’s children,” Proverbs 13:22. But don’t set your heart on such things, “for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven,” Proverbs 23:5. And Jesus said in Matthew 6, “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
God will direct you which way to go when you take all these verses into consideration.
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Harry, I think you’re on the right track. Coddling these people who are just looking to fight would be like Obama going around the world apologizing to people for America. We see what THAT’s done for us!!! Go get ’em Harry! You’re a defender of the faith!
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Thanks, Alfredo, I appreciate that. For some reason people have the false ideas that Christians should never argue and that loving others means you don’t assert your points with boldness or confidence.
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Wow Harry! I agree with your point there! “loving others means you don’t assert your points with boldness or confidence.” Jesus did that many times to his disciples and to Pharisees…
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He sure did, Patrikios. I guess some believers have selective memories when it comes to the scriptures like the ones you refer to.
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Harry, i think jimmy was referring to what sometimes like arrogance, and borderline nastiness to some of these people. He never said don’t be assertive, or bold, but you are literally putting these people and their lives down in some cases, whether you mean to or not. You’ve called people miserable and tried to make them feel inferior. That is a tactic often used by the nonbelievers to belittle christians, but in my opinion should never be recipocated. The second i read his post, i knew what he was talking about. Like i said, some of it just seems angry and nasty. It has nothing to do with being assertive or bold or anything. I too have found that this sort of attitude strengthens the resolve of a nonbeliever, and i am sure that this is not your goal. And no person is beyond saving.
Also, and i don’t want to sound overly critical, because i like some of what you’ve said in here, for sure, but – you have a tendancy to declare your opinions as fact, and others opinions as false, and you do it alot. While you may be familiar with God’s word, you are not God, and seem a bit too quick to pass down judgement and phrase your opinions as if they were coming directly from god, even when there is not a direct scripture to back it up.
My husband and i have been doing outreach work around the world for a long time, and believe me, we have learned that alot of these things do more harm than good, alot of times we learned the hard way.
The meek shall inherit the earth. Carry on brothers and sisters.
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Samantha,
Kudos to you & your husband in your ministry in other lands. May he continue to bless your endeavors.
But I will point out different forums require different approaches, even though it’s the same foundational message re: Christianity. People come here to try to thwart others from accepting the gospel by ridiculing it. What you & Jimmy have deemed arrogance is actually confidence in the facts. Facts are different from opinions in that they are proven. I present facts–historical, scientific, and spiritual–to detractors to expose them for the liars & deceivers they are. That’s in keeping with scriptures like this one in Acts 13:
8 But Elymas the sorcerer (for so is his name by interpretation) withstood them, seeking to turn away the deputy from the faith.
9 Then Saul, (who also is called Paul,) filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him.
10 And said, O full of all subtilty and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?
11 And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a season. And immediately there fell on him a mist and a darkness; and he went about seeking some to lead him by the hand.
Paul’s words wouldn’t be considered “nice” but they were true & God backed up what he said by blinding Elymas, who argued against them. When Paul was in Athens, he called the philosophers on Mars Hill “too superstitious” in their beliefs and went on the give them more sharp criticism. I, too, have shared the gospel, but in American inner cities. People will argue with you & if you show signs of weakness and lack of firmness in what you see, they will regard you as a punk and dismiss what you have to say immediately. When you stand firm, they still may reject what you say, but they mostly are more willing to hear you out.
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Wow, thats a very well researched post. Stumped me on these issues/prophecies.
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all the points on here are simply not true, the bible says things like there will be war doesnt make it true, also most of these predictions are made after the fact or are concluded in the bible in a later passage. this doesnt make sense also israel could fall at any moment who knows when something like nuclear war will happen, its almost happened twice and both times no one in the bible predicted it so stop abiding by your bronze age mythology and start looking at the world around you
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Anonymous,
I find it interesting that you’re so sure of your opinion that you want to remain anonymous. Your comments show that you aren’t really familiar with history. If you were familiar with history, you’d know that the fulfillment of Bible prophecies are proven in the historical record and are still being fulfilled today.
I’ve given specific proof that anyone can go back and verify. You, on the other hand, have just made general statements based on your opinions and unfounded speculations which are based on your hatred for godly things and you haven’t submitted specific facts. For instance you stated, “this doesnt make sense also israel could fall at any moment who knows when something like nuclear war will happen.” Mere speculation. Israel has survived several attacks since it became a nation again in 1948 even when they were outgunned and outnumbered. That’s concrete, historical fact which trumps your speculation that Israel “could fall.” The fact that Israel has survived vicious attacks from several nations that were considered stronger than them is nothing short of a miracle and fulfillment of prophecy.
And your talk about the Bible not mentioning the possibility of nuclear war doesn’t give you proper grounds to dismiss its prophecies. The Bible only predicts things that are the most important things to God’s plans. It predicted the power of the Roman empire, but didn’t predict the assassinations of Abraham Lincoln or JFK. It predicted that the gospel of Jesus Christ would be spread worldwide, but didn’t predict that U.S. forces would kill Osama bin Laden. The Bible wasn’t meant to prophesy every single major occurrence on the planet, only what God considers important for us to know, so your argument is disingenuous and laughable.
Here’s another prophecy for you about Israel which I know you’ll hate since you’re such a hater. God told Isaiah in Isaiah 27:6 that after Israel’s restoration as a nation, it would “blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.” And that’s exactly what we’ve seen. Thanks to Israel, we all enjoy cellphones, pill cameras, voice mail, instant messaging, firewall software, voice over internet protocol (VOIP), and much more, including agricultural innovations and products shipped around the world like (my personal favorite) hummus.
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Hi Harry, you’re right about the Jews had a lot of influence to the rest of the world. The owner of facebook Mark Zuckerberg is actually a Jew, Leonard Cohen who wrote “Hallelujah” is a Jew, Einstein is a Jew, Seinfeld, owner of Westfield, Steven Spielberg, Sergey Brin (Google Owner), Bob Dylan and Sacha Baron Cohen (comedian)
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Wow you really made a believer out of me, I looked back at my comments and I take them all back. I finally realized there is a God and I have come to love him.
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I praise the Lord for the revelation you’ve received.
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wow are you the anonymous who posted way up there on Jan. 09 ??
if so this is awesome. God is great!
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God bless you Harry. Your faith has ignited a new fire in me to be relentless with my faith. I’ve had strong periods of wavering but I’m allowing to not let my feelings or circumstances interfere with my ability to always believe. So recently I shared an article about the catholic church to a friend, the article is very radical and i haven’t checked it for lies but i just shared it with him- & he rejected everything like it didn’t even make sense. how can i explain to him that catholicism is not true Christianity & also what do you make of this article and do u have a better site that I can share. I want to share nothing but the truth and any lie will completely mess that up. thanks in advance Harry. here’s the article: http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/False%20Religions/Roman%20Catholicism/satanism_in_the_vatican.htm
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Hi, Patrik.
Thanks for your comment. There are a few good places on the web with truthful articles about Catholicism. However, if your friend’s heart is determined to be hardened against the truth, it may take time for him to acknowledge the truth. It’s also possible he never will. But here are two links to look at that have several linked articles that you can choose from:
http://www.jesus-is-lord.com/index.htm#rc
http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/cathconn.html
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Harry, I need help with a certain refute. How do you reply when somebody I just met says that Christianity is a book written by men, who through their own psychology build a deity; immortal and immaterial, to rule the divine gods as true ruler. It’s belief based upon no actual fact. Nothing has been discovered that links with the bible. God is capable of killing all life on Earth (Noah’s Ark) is that truly wonderful? The all knowing, immortal, immaterial, and powerful god doesn’t save lives! He isn’t there, he’s just an imaginary friend! I’m trying to look through your replies on this forum and I’ve seen some things that can help. I’ve been thinking of how to reply at this stage, but I can’t. Your thoughts???
Thanks.
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Patrikios, you can say that the Bible was written by ordinary men who were extraordinarily changed by God then used by God to write the Bible. You can also point out how Jesus changes people’s lives–people who were violent stopped being violent, people who used foul language stopped using such language, etc. This can include your own personal testimony, if you wish.
The statement that this person made about no actual facts or nothing linking to the Bible couldn’t be further from the truth. Here are some of my posts that highlight historical and scientific facts in the Bible:
https://sunandshield.wordpress.com/2012/07/26/bible-critics-ignore-the-fact-history-proves-its-very-exact/
https://sunandshield.wordpress.com/2012/05/20/contradicting-the-bible-reveals-astronomers-weaknesses/
https://sunandshield.wordpress.com/2011/01/31/gods-time-capsules-discoveries-confirming-his-word/
You can also point out how Revelation says there will be a one world government in the last days and how the governments of the world are moving towards that today as prophesied in the Bible. If the Bible wasn’t factual then why does it contain all of these verifiable facts?
As far as the Noah’s Ark comment goes, God didn’t kill all life on Earth. That’s why Noah and his family and the animals on the Ark were saved. Then point out how God punishes those who do wrong and rewards those who do evil, just like we do with our laws and justice system. This is why the majority of the people were destroyed by Noah’s flood after they had 120 years that God warned them about turning from evil. You can point out how violent the people were back then and ask the person if they would want rapists and murderers roaming free if they raped or murdered their family or friends. If they consider our laws just for punishing criminals and/or executing them, then why would they object to God doing the same?
If they believe God doesn’t save lives, point out these stories:
https://sunandshield.wordpress.com/2013/02/02/south-african-boy-spared-in-26-foot-fall/
https://sunandshield.wordpress.com/2011/06/16/doctor-testifies-that-he-rose-from-the-dead/
https://sunandshield.wordpress.com/2012/05/19/wyoming-doctor-testifies-of-life-after-death-experience/
But I imagine deep down inside, this person probably fears the Bible is true and doesn’t like the prospect of having to admit they are sinners who need a savior. You can also skip all of this evidence above and argue from the standpoint of Romans 1 that tells us every human is created with the inherent knowledge of God’s existence and tell them that they’re only saying such things because they’re just mad at God because he doesn’t behave the way they want him to. Or ask them why they’re mad at God and hold them to the fact that deep down inside they know God exists even if they won’t admit it.
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Thanks for that. Those links will definitely help me.
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Hello Harry A. Gaylord, I am a pretty made up teenage theist at the moment, but I can not say that I have fully leaned towards the christian belief or any other. I am almost certain that there is a creator, just not that this creator has a son named Jesus, or that Mohammed is his profit. It just seems to me that all religions can say that certain prophecies in there holy books, or whatever they use as there religious symbol have come true. If you ask a Muslim about his religion, he will tell you about it just as confidently as you would tell somebody about Christianity. Can you give me a good solid reason to believe that Christianity is the one true religion.
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Well, Kyle, no man can come to the Father unless the Father, our Creator, draws him to believe in the Lord Jesus. The ones who are drawn to the Father are those who are humble enough to admit they are sinners who need a savior, a superhero, to deliver them from their sins.
[It just seems to me that all religions can say that certain prophecies in there holy books, or whatever they use as there religious symbol have come true]
Yes, they can all “say” that, but can they prove their claims? That would be a no. Only the prophetic claims in the Bible can be shown to have actually come true. Every religious group, be they Hindu, or Mormon, or Jehovah’s Witnesses, or Muslim, or Roman Catholic, have at some point in time tampered with their scripture to make them more acceptable to those who read or hear them–that is, except true Christianity. There are several Bibles on the market that have been tampered with by adding words or taking words away from them, but the true Christian Bible, which is based on the family of manuscripts called the Textus Receptus, has never changed. It is where these prophecies came from.
These prophecies are very specific and ironclad and verifiable. The prophecies from other religions cannot be proven. Not even psychics or horoscope predictions are as reliable as Bible prophecy. Only Christianity tells you that you are a sinner who is not powerful enough to save yourself. All other religions tell you to do good works to get to heaven or to save yourself spiritually, and they’re lying. Only the God of Christianity tells you that you need someone who is sinless and perfect that loves you enough to pay the ultimate penalty for your sins on your behalf. Only the God of Christianity shows that he has power over sin and death and can raise the dead to live again. Only the Lord Jesus died for your sins, because he loves you, and was raised from the dead to show he conquers sin, and death, and the devil for you to reap the spiritual benefits of his power. You can only receive those benefits if you acknowledge you are a sinner who needs Jesus to save you. For there is no other name under heaven given unto men whereby we must be saved. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. No man can come to the Father, our Creator, unless they believe in him. He is the only way to heaven.
If you want to know why you are the way you are and why the world is the way the world is, try reading the first 11 chapters of Genesis. If you want to know the solution to the problems, read the book of John in the Bible. At this blog, I give all kinds of proof to show that the Bible is historically accurate, scientifically accurate, and spiritually accurate. If you don’t take the time to examine the evidence or believe all of the evidence the Bible shows, it just proves what the Lord Jesus said in Luke 16:31–“If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.” The choice and the consequences of those choices lie solely on you. Who will you ultimately believe?
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After looking a little closer at some of your past debates, I see that you have been able to turn an Atheist into a believer. Judging by the fact that my brother is an atheist I know that is a near impossible thing to do. So therefore I congratulate you on that, I just wish there were more Christians that had the intelligence that you possess, then maybe we could rid the world of them once and for all.
I will say that the information you gave me did push me in the direction towards Christianity, I hope that I will be able to push myself forward fully into the belief, for it seems it will be well worth my while.
Thanks
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Kyle,
Thanks for the complement, but I can only attempt to persuade people with the facts. The rest is between them and God. As the Bible says, one person plants the gospel, another person waters it, but it’s God that causes it to increase in a person’s heart. Those who plant & those who water are nothing compared to God.
As far as your brother and other atheists go, what seems impossible to men is possible with God. There are atheists out there who aren’t as strong as they like to think in their atheist positions. And God has the power to bring about the perfect situation that will turn their hearts toward him. But my prayer for you is that you will accept God’s love through Jesus Christ for yourself so you can experience salvation from your own sins. Then you will be able to see life itself in a whole new light and God will give you such a love for your brother and others like him who don’t know Jesus. That love which only God can give you through Jesus will have such an impact that you never would’ve thought and will not only transform your life, but could end up changing your brother as well.
God loves you so much that he gave his only begotten Son, that if you will believe in him, you will not perish but will have everlasting life [John 3:16].
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Hi Harry,
What do you think of all these signs of the second coming?
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I think we should always be ready for the Lord’s return like Jesus said if not for any other reason than the fact life is short & we don’t know if our death will happen before he returns. But Paul did say that the Antichrist would not be revealed until a physical temple is in Jerusalem.
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I thought this video was pretty interesting.
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Hi Harry,
Sorry I’ve been giving you messages lately.
Just another help, how do you connect atheism to communism well? I’m pretty sure it does and many atheists would deny them and would actually prove it.
I’ve checked the Wikipedia about this and said Karl Marx started communism. He has said something about Religion to which many Atheists would like to quote, thus making him an atheist as well.
Even my German friend said that Karl started communism as well because he studied about Karl Marx.
Is there anything can add?
Thanks
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Patrikios,
No need to apologize. It’s true that Communism/Socialism are systems of government that are based on atheism. Marx is known for his quote “Religion is the opium of the people” (some versions say “opiate of the masses).
You can point out what effect this system has had under various Communist leaders including Mao Zedong & Pol Pot of Vietnam. They killed millions. Atheists will tend to claim this wasn’t because of their atheism but they’re lying.
Socialism teaches that the government & its leaders are gods. Hitler, leader of the National Socialist Party of Germany (the word “Nazi” was an abbreviation for this party), was the perfect example of this. This video explains his belief system: http://www.cbn.com/700club/features/churchhistory/godandhitler/
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Thanks for that, well he’s quiet now, now that I’ve mentioned the connection of Atheism with Communism as they like to put all the blame to us on all the violence that has happened in the bible especially during the crusade era and the Holocaust. That seemed to work as it has been 2 weeks since I haven’t had any reply yet from him yet.
He also added the poverty problem the 3rd world countries are facing and he said something like how God is not getting rid of them. How come God didn’t save those children in Africa. I mentioned to him a different perspective which is something like God takes care of the massive universe, and at the same time, God entrusted us planet earth which is a speck of dust compared to the whole universe. Removing poverty should be easy for us. Then he goes on to say that how come I don’t see any Christians doing that etc… I mentioned to him also that there have been many Christian on first class countries that have left their first class experience to be with those on third world countries, but because of his disinterest with Christianity, he’s ignorant or chose to be one and the media hardly cover such stories. So I challenged him also since he’s lived in a first class country, why doesn’t he share the first class experience to those who are suffering in poverty?
But anyway, yeah he’s been quiet and hasn’t replied to me as yet.
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Way to go, Patrikios.
You’ve made him take a look at himself to confront his own hypocrisy. Pray for him. It could be he may not be far from the kingdom.
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Bro Harry,
Thanks so much for answering my question back on March 13. I have a bit of an issue, I’m at a slight crossroads, because I attend a church that does not necessarily believe in Lucifer falling from heaven and being Satan or the Devil: ruler of the underworld, and my church believes that hell is not a literal place of fire but rather it was translated incorrectly and means different things in different contexts of the scripture. I happen to study the bible with several friends who indeed do believe in Satan as the reason for all their temptations as well as Jesus’ temptations on earth, and they believe in everlasting torment in hell if you don’t get saved. They also don’t believe in the baptism of the holy spirit speaking in tongues, ect, but that you receive the holy spirit when you get saved. I have been wrestling with this trying to find more truth because I’m faced with such strong opposition and I want to know if I’m indeed the one who’s wrong so I can be right. Also, one of my friends showed me a video comparing horus the sun God to Jesus christ and his characteristics and that Jesus is really the sun and the Jesus that christians refer to is a man named yeshua. Because I share my faith frequently on facebook, twitter, ect, I’m constantly bombarded with random questions that I don’t always know how to approach. I thank you so much for all that you do to help others in their faith and sorry to bombard you with all these questions. Thanks again God bless you brother.
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Hi, Patrik.
I did a post on Satan at this link: https://sunandshield.wordpress.com/2011/04/30/from-light-to-darkness-how-lucifer-became-satan/. Also, Job 1:6-12 & 2:1-7 shows that God had a conversation with Satan. It was a literal conversation with literal results in the physical world. When people tell you the Bible was translated incorrectly & they can give you the correct translation, dismiss what they’re saying & just ignore it. Let the Holy Spirit give you the understanding.
Just like Satan is a real person, hell is a real place. I also did a post on this at this link: https://sunandshield.wordpress.com/2011/03/25/a-pulpit-a-pastor-and-a-hellacious-controversy/. If your church denies what the Bible says about Satan and hell, they are essentially saying they don’t really believe the Bible, so you might want to consider attending another church.
I wouldn’t worry too much about whether or not your friends believe in tongues or the baptism of the Holy Spirit. You know what you believe & that’s what counts in this situation. I’ve known plenty of charismatic or Pentecostal Christians who say they believe in those doctrines & claim that those beliefs help you be a better Christian, but then they turn around & curse, lie & do other non-Christian things. I’ve known Christians who don’t believe in those doctrines who actually lead genuine Christian lives.
There is no comparison between Jesus & any other god. What you need to remember is that people into ancient Egyptian religion, claiming that Jesus is a copy of Egyptian paganism, tend to be ignorant of the fact that after Jesus came & accomplished what he did, pagans went back & revised their teachings to copy what the Bible said & then made false claims that Christians copied from them. It’s one of Satan’s bag of tricks. This YouTube video covers these myths:
Be blessed.
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Do you no if there are any Roman historical records of Jesus Christs Resurrection?
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Mr. Man,
Jesus only appeared to his disciples after his resurrection, but the historical records reflect what the disciples shared about his resurrection & their lives prove they had to be telling the truth. Not only that, but there’s the empty tomb that serves as proof. The secular historical records show that the details given in the New Testament about Jesus, his disciples, government leaders, and Jewish leaders are all reliable, accurate, and based on eyewitness testimony (as verified in the ancient writings of Josephus, Tacitus, Suetonius, Julius Africanus, Thallus, Pliny the Younger, Lucian of Samosata, Mara Bar-Serapion, and Celsus). Since so much of the info in the New Testament is accurate, the resurrection can be accepted as fact. Here are some links to highlight the historical facts that prove the accuracy of the New Testament and Christ’s resurrection:
http://christiananswers.net/q-eden/edn-t008.html
https://sunandshield.wordpress.com/2010/02/09/is-the-new-testament-truthful-pt-1/
https://sunandshield.wordpress.com/2010/02/13/is-the-new-testament-truthful-pt-2/
https://sunandshield.wordpress.com/2012/02/13/manuscript-evidence-the-new-testaments-firm-reliability/
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Harry A Gaylord, if Christianity seems so certain, then why is it that people of the Islam religion die everyday for there religion. If these people are mistaken, then isn’t it possible that the disciples that died in the name of Christianity could also of been mistaken? And also this may be a strange question, but has anything ever happened to you that would make you 100% certain that Jesus is the son of god. Like hearing the voice of god, or something life changing.
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Mr. Man, you’re comparing two completely different things here. The Bible is proven true by its fulfilled prophecies. Islam doesn’t have any fulfilled prophecies in the Koran. Islam has no association to Christianity so what’s true of one doesn’t mean it must be true of the other.
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And to your question about anything happening to me to convince me that Jesus is Lord–his salvation that changed my life is enough. But he healed me of debilitating migraines and he has revealed things to me in dreams that later were proven to be true.
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May I ask what these dreams were?
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Mr. Man,
I don’t mind sharing a few of them. In 1993, I had a dream that Arab Muslims armed with semi-automatic guns & other weaponry were terrorizing people on a busy street that I was walking on. As they were making demands for people to get face down on the street or be killed, I was about to get down, then at the last minute I lunged at an armed man who was closest to me, then I woke up.
In another dream (April 1994), I had a dream that a pregnant female co-worker of mine was going to have a girl. Two months later, she had a girl. And she chose not to find out the gender of her baby ahead of the birth.
In the mid-1990s, I had a dream about a close-knit family in my church that was headed by three older sisters. In the dream I saw that the eldest sister was standing outside of a brick cabin while the rest of her family was inside the cabin, including her sisters, their kids & grandkids, and her own kids & grandkids. All of a sudden she had an angry look on her face towards her family in the cabin & lit up molotov cocktails. As she lit them, she threw them at the cabin with her family members inside. Immediately in the dream, I rebuked the molotov cocktails in the name of Jesus & called on the Lord and they were extinguished. I ended up telling her daughter about the dream and she confirmed that the family owned a brick cabin where they often had family gatherings (no one in their family had ever spoken to me about the cabin). She also told me that there had been a few conflicts among her mom & aunts ever since their mother had died not long before I had the dream. So I encouraged her to pray for her family and she said she would.
I’ve had several more, but I won’t go into them now.
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I really want to believe, to be POSITIVE that this great God is real, but every time I get close something happens to turn me around. I come across a video showing multiple reasons to believe in Christ, but then I come across another video of Christopher Hitchens saying all religious people are Crazy. I myself have come to the possible conclusion that it is a test of my faith. But then again Muslims believe the same thing when they explode in a crowd of people.
I truly hope that something will happen in my life time that will show me that Jesus is the truth the life and the love. Thanks.
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Mr. Man, Islam isn’t Christianity. Allah isn’t Jehovah, the God of the Bible. The Bible teaches us to love our enemies, not blow them up. I’m wondering–do you have the same questions about people who share Hitchens’ beliefs? Because I can point out the fact that atheists killed the most people in the 20th century. That includes Hitler, Stalin, Lenin, Mussolini, Pol Pot, Mao Zedong, Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, and people like Margaret Sanger, whose sole purpose for setting up abortion clinics was to kill unborn blacks, Jews, and Latinos to exterminate their groups. And if anyone would care to bring the Crusades up like Hitchens did, the Crusades were the work of the Roman Catholic Church which isn’t Christian either. Christians were the first ones who started colleges and universities, orphanages, and hospitals in the U.S. and Canada. So who’s really crazy?
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I never said that I agree with hitchens comments on religious people being crazy, but he does seem to have a nack for science, and like most people that are big into science he’s an atheist. Which in some ways tells me something. I am not an atheist, I am simply dead imbetween at the moment. And I completely agree with the atheists killings tons of people being wrong. But I think the point many atheists are trying to make, is Religion itself has slaughtered millions. But like you said, so has atheism.
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You Know… I have just read over what I have just posted and realized how much of a fool I have just made of myself. And how much of a fool all other atheists are. There is a god, and Jesus is the son of god. He is the truth, for history shows it. He is the life, for he has changed the lives of many. He is the love, for everyday he forgives millions for there sins, and now I hope he will forgive me for mine. It is not Muhammad who does this. It is god, it is the son of god, Jesus Christ.
Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name..
Thy Kingdom come. They will be done in earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day are daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever amen.
I shall now go read my bible.
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Hello Harry, do you know why people of the UK tend to be more atheist, and anti religion?
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That’s probably due to a number of reasons which sprang from people who decided in their hearts that sin was more fun than serving God.
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Hello again Harry,
I’m not sure if your the kind of guy that like’s to debate on Youtube, I’m sure you have much better things to do,but if you have some spare time, I could use some help with these god haters. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcYUimKWz4A&lc=FM76qpT3FHbGiB4Oht2Jq6DbSSVuFboi6mNWoSAAlCs
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Kyle, I think I’ll pass on this one. My summer is a little busy right now.
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what a load of crap!.
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Failed_biblical_prophecies
For every prophecy fulfilled there are many that weren’t. So if this is your evidence for the truth of the bible you are deluded.
As for the atheism killing people, please refer to hitchens, harris talk on the subject.
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Anonymous,
What’s really a load of what you just said is the link you gave to “failed biblical prophecies.” Many of the Bible’s prophecies have yet to be fulfilled because they will happen in the future some time. You’re commenting from the assumption that since the Bible is complete, so are it’s prophecies. This shows your lack of understanding of what the Bible teaches and your lack of historical knowledge, which is common of people in Western society such as yourself. The evidence here is sound and verifiable. The fact that you refuse to research the facts just show that you can lead a person to the evidence, but you can’t make them think.
I’m well aware of Hitchens’ and Dawkins’ and other atheists’ attempts to dismiss the evils that are committed under atheism as not being attributable to atheism, but their arguments are useless poppycock and show that atheists love to lie to further their lies. The murderous despots who I named proudly proclaimed openly their atheism and weren’t shy about saying that they considered themselves gods. It’s also interesting to note from the annals of recent history that Aleister Crowley and Anton LaVey embraced atheism, even though they were Satanists. The prominent leaders behind your so-called “new atheism” are devilish, closeted Satan worshipers. And people like you who don’t do thorough research have become such easy, mindless prey for them. Congratulations! In the words of The Borg, “You have been assimilated and your resistance is futile.”
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how do you know when they were predicted?
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If you were really a student of world history, you wouldn’t have to ask. And if I gave you the sources, you still wouldn’t believe. That’s just how foolish atheists can be.
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Hey Harry, I was just wondering how we know that the bible is actually the word of god, other than prophecy. I recently learned that the bible is really made up of multiple writings of different people over time. So does that mean that god spoke to people at different times?
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Billy,
The Bible is a historical record of what God said to several people at different time periods over a span of thousands of years. If you read it from cover to cover, you will discover its cohesiveness throughout, which highlights the fact that one great mind was behind all of it. The Bible can be tested for its historical accuracy & scientific accuracy. There’s a link to the right on the screen under ‘Christian links’ that gives 101 examples of the Bible’s scientific facts & foreknowledge hundreds of years before they were discovered. Since the Bible is so accurate in its advanced knowledge of these things, it shows that someone with great power & knowledge way beyond man’s had to have been in charge of the many revelations in the Bible. That’s how we know it’s from God.
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Hello Harry,
I was reading through some of your past Comments, and you seem to have a pretty good idea on what your talking about. I know I’m the first to comment on this Page in awhile, so sorry if this is an unwanted comment Lol. But if it’s alright I just had a few Questions about Christianity, that I’ve heard mention by many Atheists. I;ll start with, if the Universe had to be created, then why doesn’t God? And please don’t tell me because the Bible says he’s eternal. You and I both no those responses don’t go well with Atheists.
Also how effective is Prayer? Could it not be that the only prayers that are ever answered are by pure luck, and that many more aren’t answered than are? I myself have prayed many times, and can say that less than half of them have been answered.
Also, does the Bible actually say to kill Homosexuals, or when it says “Put to Death” does it mean sent to hell?
Then, I have read that there were various religions before the time of the Bible that had very similar texts. People have argued that even the beginning of the Bible was taken from a very old text written by an African Tribe, long before the Bible.
And lastly, in the Old Testament God does not seem very kind at all. I believe he kills a boy for masturbating, and various other people for seemingly strange reasons. Not to mention wiping the entire population off the map with a flood. If God so loved the Earth, why in the Old Testament does he seem to be so easy to Anger, and destructive to the People he created,
Thanks.
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Questionaire,
1. [if the Universe had to be created, then why doesn’t God? And please don’t tell me because the Bible says he’s eternal. You and I both no those responses don’t go well with Atheists.]
As a Christian, my concern is not what goes over well with Atheists. They often reject even the most sound truthful evidence & explanations from & about the Bible. My focus as a Christian is to explain truth from God’s word to glorify God. He’s the one I owe everything to. Not Atheists. And as a Christian, I don’t place myself in the position of feeling I have to answer every question posed by an Atheist because I don’t know everything. But, of course, neither do they. Atheists are fallible human beings. If they knew everything and were always right, why do they get sick and make mistakes like the rest of us? Have you ever known an atheist to get 100% on every exam they ever took? Not only that, but there really is no such thing as an atheist, which they themselves know, even though they lie by swearing up & down that God doesn’t exist. Basically, atheists are deceived deceivers, so I never assume everything they say is valid although I share the love of Christ with them.
But to answer your first question, you can read my post ‘Tearing down the ‘who created God’ question.’ Everything and everyone in the universe is an effect, except God. Since he is not an effect, he does not require a cause to bring him into effect like the rest of us do. If atheists reject this simple truth, too bad.
2. [how effective is Prayer?]
Are you sure less than half of them have been answered? Maybe they were just answered in a way you didn’t want. There are specific criteria that prayers have to follow to be heard and/or answered by God. Jeremiah 11:13-15 says God ignores prayers of those who love their sins and are unrepentant. James 4:6 says God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. A few verses before that in James 4 it says “Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.” God answers selfish prayers with a “No.” If prayers are to be answered in a short amount of time in the affirmative, they must be asked in Jesus’ name, according to his will (John 14:13-14). In other instances, prayers may be answered with a “yes, but not now” because of some extenuating circumstances, such as when Daniel’s answer to a prayer was delayed 21 days because a devil fought against an angel sent from God (Daniel 10).
3. [does the Bible actually say to kill Homosexuals, or when it says “Put to Death” does it mean sent to hell?]
In Leviticus 20 & Deuteronomy 22, there are several sins that were worthy of the death penalty. It was a physical literal death. Those sins included adultery, certain types of sex outside of marriage, homosexuality, bestiality, rape, witchcraft, and other things. Leviticus 18 was one of many chapters where God told them why. All the other nations became very corrupt because of these practices and God was establishing Israel as a nation with a higher standard that respected human rights as well as God’s expectations. Whenever a nation chooses to allow these practices, it becomes corrupt and eventually destroys itself as well as reaps God’s judgment. That’s why we see Western society becoming more corrupt and every year people in surveys acknowledge that our society is getting worse, but they do things that contribute to them becoming worse by denying certain things are bad when they are bad, like sex outside of traditional man/woman marriage. From Egypt to Assyria to Babylon to Medo-Persia to Greece to Rome, etc., no society has ever thrived unscathed that allowed these sins to thrive–ever. And we won’t be the first. People who participate in these sins ALWAYS trample the rights of other people, claiming that trampling others’ rights for their selfish behavior is their right.
4. [I have read that there were various religions before the time of the Bible that had very similar texts. People have argued that even the beginning of the Bible was taken from a very old text written by an African Tribe, long before the Bible]
These are unsubstantiated rumors. Bible skeptics often claim this, but fail to give concrete examples. Then when they do give examples, the ancient texts they point to turn out to be nothing like what the Bible says. Then there are cases where writers of ancient texts, when they came into contact with Jews or Christian missionaries, adjusted their religious texts to reflect what Jews or Christians shared with them. In other words, they plagiarized parts of God’s word. This includes the books of the dead from Egypt, some Hindu scriptures, the Koran, the Apocrypha, and pseudepigraphal books.
5. [in the Old Testament God does not seem very kind at all. I believe he kills a boy for masturbating, and various other people for seemingly strange reasons]
Have you ever read the Old Testament? If anyone wasn’t very kind at all, it was the people. That’s why God ended up kicking butt & taking names. The flood happened because Genesis says the people were only doing evil continually. Whatever harmful thing they thought of doing, they did it. It was a lawless, ruthless society and they got the punishment they deserved after Noah preached to them 120 years for them to stop being evil. When you repeatedly tell someone for 120 years to stop killing, stop raping, stop stealing, stop lying and they don’t do it, then do they deserve to continue to get away with it? If we are so quick to criticize God for punishing bad stuff, then why do we have a court system of our own? When someone kills a child or sells them in the sex trade, do you want them punished? If someone brutally kills someone you love, do you want them punished? Then maybe God isn’t as unkind as you think he is.
And to the masturbating example, that happens to be a misconception. In ancient times, when a young man died with no children by his wife, a brother was expected to marry his brother’s widow to give his brother heirs. This was done in agricultural societies to help women avoid being destitute and having someone to care for them in their old age and to continue the heritage of owning property to prosper. It was established to protect women. Judah’s son Onan was supposed to marry his older brother’s widow to have children for his brother in Genesis 38, but each time he was about to ejaculate after he married her, he pulled out because he “knew that the seed should not be his.” It was an act of utter selfishness of him not wanting to help out his deceased brother’s family line. So God rightfully took him out. It wasn’t about masturbation.
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But isn’t it true that theist’s are the ones claiming the universe is an effect? While Atheists are claiming it was the Cause of its own effect. Also, if God was punishing people thousands of years ago for sinning, killing people. Then why isn’t he doing the same today. I can name a few people that it would’ve been nice to see get struck by lighting and drop dead. Why wasn’t Stalin, Hitler, or even the North Korean President struck down before they could do all there damage. Why did God suddenly stop all these “fair” trials.I doubt if I were to go commit adultery right now, I would be killed by a bolt of lighting.
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[But isn’t it true that theist’s are the ones claiming the universe is an effect? While Atheists are claiming it was the Cause of its own effect.]
If that’s an atheist’s claim, then that atheist doesn’t understand the proven law of causality, as I explained in the link I gave in my previous response to you. There has never been anything in this universe that has even remotely been proven to exist without something causing it to exist, except God because he is unique and is above everything in this universe and the universe itself. The universe cannot be the cause of its own effect. This is typical of atheists. They claim to be intellectual, but when intellectual proof debunks their errant notions, they decide to write their own rules to avoid God in a way that is anti-intellectual. Then they claim their notions are intellectual simply because it comes from atheist thought and no one should question it for that reason. Totally bogus. That mentality would be like someone saying, “I’m going to jump off this skyscraper and fly all on my own without any assistance, because I don’t believe in gravity. And if I don’t believe in gravity, then that means there is no gravity.”
[Also, if God was punishing people thousands of years ago for sinning, killing people. Then why isn’t he doing the same today]
You’re pushing your assumptions onto God, with the false presumption that he should think like you think. In other words, you want a God who is in your own image. That’s idolatry. Not only that, but if you pay close enough attention to various natural disasters going on around the world, you would see God is still punishing sin. He is holding off for now on destroying the whole world until HIS appointed time, not ours. God also punishes nations by raising up enemies to war against the nation he seeks to punish.
And as far as dictators are concerned, God isn’t to blame for their evil. He is not obligated to do everything for us when we have the capability of doing things for ourselves. Russians allowed murderers like Stalin and aided them in their rise to power. They could have stopped the Bolshevik Revolution, especially when the Bolsheviks broke laws as they rose to power. Same with Hitler. He used street brawls and bar fights and murder and lawless backdoor deals in his rise to power, but the majority of Germans chose to turn a blind eye to his human rights violations out of their own selfishness and it came back on them with a vengeance to bite them in the rear. The Allied powers also had the capability to stop the holocaust, but the whole world at that time hated the Jews, so they turned a blind eye.
God gives everyone plenty of time to do the right thing before he steps in with his judgment. God hasn’t stopped fair trials. Man has chosen to do what’s right in his own eyes by disobeying God’s laws. So once again, you’re blaming God for what man is responsible for. May I make a suggestion? May I suggest that you read the whole Bible? In it, God explains several times why he does what he does and why humans are responsible for their own actions. Attempts to falsely blame God for our wrongdoing isn’t a valid strategy and it isn’t going to stop any of us from being held accountable for our own actions when we stand before our Creator to be judged.
I know it’s the in-thing nowadays to blame everybody else for our own wrongdoings and to expect everyone else (like the government) to step in and do everything for us including giving us free stuff while we sit around and do what feels good or take the easy, convenient routes and shortcuts. I know we live in a time where companies from websites to fast food joints bend to the whims of the consumer. But that’s not how God operates and he is not obligated to kowtow to our whims. When he says “Jump” our response should be “How high?” It’s not our place to tell him to jump.
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I suppose that’s a good enough response for me. Thank you for answering my questions, it has been a help. I wasn’t making an attempt to smear God, i’m a Christian myself. I just want to be certain of our Gods power, but no man is utterly certain. I guess that’s what faith is about. And I completely agree with you on the last section of your response. I’m a big Conservative myself, and am fully aware of the pampering and babying of our once great society. I doubt we will ever become a World of 100% theists. From here, all I can see is the rise of Atheism, and therefore the rise of Sinners, and destruction. If God is there, his return must be soon.
Thank you for your time.
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Dear Harry Gaylord ,
I really loved all your comments, and the detailed response you gave on your blog,
I am a christian myself and i pity people who fail to understand Christ , I have also known some stuborn people who refuse to acknowledge christ, But I believe that even to be a christian we have to be chosen from God. The Bible says “that called are many selected are few”, so God only can graciously open the eyes of the unbelievers,like God chose paul and converted him from an anti christ to the greatest apostle of Christians.
thanks,
Bridget.
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Amen, Bridget. I totally agree.
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Excellent, Harry, thank you! Here’s a related blog post which I know you will find of interest: http://vineoflifenews.com/once-in-a-lifetime-8-super-signs-that-herald-the-great-tribulation-and-the-coming-of-christ-starting-this-fall/#comment-331
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Susan, thanks for the link.
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How about current event were they ever prophecised
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Hey there Harry A Gaylord!
I’ve been debating an atheist recently on the existence of Jesus. His latest argument was this.
Mk Ely 10 minutes ago
“josephus is the nearest record and this is a forgery inserted between to unrelated paragraphs and he was not even born when the jesus myth lived. You do not even know the birth and death date of your myth. Repeat Historians are the Biblical Historians. There are people that wrote about prophets at the time and didn’t even notice your jesus nor his miracles. There were prophets on every corner in those days in a superstitious people.”
Your undeniable wisdom could be used. God bless you!
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Firstly, you should understand about atheists is that they believe it’s perfectly OK to lie if it furthers their cause of getting more people to agree with them. Secondly, many atheists are not as educated in Biblical history as they portray themselves to be. Thirdly, many atheists just pick statements up from other atheists that sound good to them and they use them without verifying what they’ve been told and we Christians make it easy for them to get away with their unfounded statements because we are often ignorant of the facts that can easily refute them.
Now, having said that, this person’s statements are chock full of errors or just plain outright lies about the Bible and ancient Israel. Josephus was born in the late 1st century and was around when Christianity had blossomed and spread worldwide. The writings of Clement of Rome (95 AD), Ignatius (107 AD), and Polycarp (110 AD) quote extensive passages from 25 of the 27 books in the New Testament, including the four gospels. This shows that the whole New Testament was complete and circulating worldwide by the end of the 1st century AD. The existence of Jesus isn’t just based on Josephus’ writings, who wrote about Jesus, within 150 years of his death. Writings for Julius Caesar, Homer, Herodotus, Plato, and Pliny, were done 500 or more years after their lives. The writers in ancient times who talk about Jesus of Nazareth include:
1.Flavius Josephus, Jewish historian
2.Tacitus, Roman historian
3.Pliny the Younger, Roman politician
4.Phlegon, freed slave & historian
5.Thallus, 1st century historian
6.Suetonius, Roman historian
7.Lucian, Greek satirist
8.Celsus, Roman philosopher
9.Mara Bar-Serapion, Roman citizen
10.Jewish Talmud
There is an uncorrupted Arabic manuscript of Josephus’ work that hasn’t been tampered with that talks about Jesus. And there are many historical figures whose birth and death dates we don’t know but accept they existed, so that’s not even a valid argument. Furthermore, there weren’t “prophets on every corner” either. The fact that so many prophecies have come true is also proof that this isn’t a superstition.
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One-day Newcastle United will win th premier league, and when they do will I be hailed as a god?!?! DOUBT IT!!!
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Harry A. Gaylord,
Why did God create Satan? If God knew that his son Jesus Christ would eventually die on the cross, did he not also know that Lucifer would become the evil that rules over the world? Why would he allow this?
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He did it to show forth his glory and superiority of his power over anything and everything that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. When God allows his created beings free will to follow him or not to follow him, his grace, righteousness, love, truth, mercy and all other attributes pertaining to him are shown to be absolutely, mind-blowingly awesome and praiseworthy in comparison to any wrongdoing chosen by his creatures. I, personally, like it when people love me because they want to, not because they have to. I believe scripture shows us God is the same way.
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more fulfilled prophecies: http://www.kingdomrepublic.wordpress.com/d/
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You say that God gave his people free will, but then there are parts in the old Testament that show otherwise. A few examples…
And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day … And the LORD said unto Moses, The man shall be surely put to death: all the congregation shall stone him with stones.–Num.15:32-36
God sends a plague on the Pharaoh and his household because the Pharaoh believed Abram’s lie. 12:17
God decides to kill Moses because his son had not yet been circumcised. 4:24-26
A child who hits or curses his parents must be executed. 21:15, 17
He who sacrificeth unto any god, save unto the Lord only, he shall be utterly destroyed.” If this commandment is obeyed, then the four billion people who do not believe in the biblical god must be killed. 22:20
Whoever puts holy oil on a stranger shall be “cut off from his people.” 30:33
If a man or woman “lie with a beast” both the person and the poor animal are to be killed. 20:15-16
So you see, sure these things are considered wrong and unmoral, but having free will means being aloud to make these choices. Something the God of the Old Testament finds punishable by death. For instance if we really had free will, then why is it that someone should be killed if they choose to sin and sleep with an animal. Doesn’t sound like free will to me.
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“Free will” doesn’t mean the freedom to do whatever you want whenever you want without consequence, as you’re implying. It’s the ability to choose to do right or do wrong. Once the choice is made, one must face the consequences of the choice. God gives free will to everyone, not just “his people” as you stated.
Your comment is somewhat jumbled because you give examples from the Old Testament, but you only supply one book. The rest of them, you only give a chapter & verse but they’re from various books. So how is someone supposed to look up the passage and get a context when you omit such info? Or maybe that’s your goal to cause confusion to make yourself look correct?
When God called Israel out of Egypt, not one of them was forced to leave. They made a decision to leave and become a God-established nation. God’s nation, God’s rules. When a person is born into whatever country and they choose to stay there in adulthood, they understand they will abide by the rules of that nation. If they choose to disobey the laws, they potentially face consequences of that choice. So it was with the Israelites. If they didn’t like the rules, they had the choice to go to some other nation.
Now if we expand the concept to the universe, the God who created the universe reserves the right to establish the laws that govern his universe. The God of the Bible, Jehovah, is completely righteous, completely truthful, is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. Taking all of these concepts into account, he knows what’s best for a society. So when he makes rules, they are ultimately for our benefit and his glory (which is what he deserves). Your complaints come from your sinful, evil nature that desires to have ungodly things that lead to your destruction and the destruction of society out of a disrespect for someone who has earned respect and honor, who gave you life and the capacity to preserve your life and thrive.
Do you have kids or younger nieces and nephews? If one of them wants to come to your place and have a bonfire inside your residence, would you let them? Would you give them a loaded gun and tell them they could just do whatever they want with it?
If you’re someone’s boss, do you let them do whatever they want however they want to do it? Probably not because in order for your business to function and for you to have a job, conditions must be met.
Bottom line–the problem isn’t God, it’s people who don’t care what’s good for them or what’s good for society because they are too selfish to care how their bad choices will affect them and those around them. And yes, God will one day rid his universe of those who don’t follow his rules because you’re the ones who bring darkness when he’s all about light. You mistakenly believe that you want good, but then turn around and promote all kinds of sins based on your lies. Real families and real marriages under God were created to enhance society by having a male as protector for his wife and kids to strengthen them and encourage them as fruitful members of a society. But those who hate God despise the positive idea of family and marriage, attempting to redefine it for their own selfish purposes as they push their selfish desires as being more important than other people’s rights, leading to a society that is taught to be intolerant towards others and to degrade human dignity.
This is why in anti-Christ societies like China & India, there are such huge violations of the rights of the poor, women, and children. This is why the rule of law and Constitution in the US are being devalued as unimportant, thanks to the atheist socialist God-hating liberals who serve to weaken America. Then they act all surprised when the policies that they push make things worse instead of better as 68% of Americans think we’re headed in the wrong direction. All they have to do is look back at their agenda to see that whenever their ideas became law, America continued to get weaker. Whether it’s liberal Southern Democrats (with their history of racist behavior) who pretend to love people of other classes and skin colors, but push welfare and abortion which have served to weaken the black, hispanic, and poor white communities; or atheists who fought to make it illegal for teachers and administrators to lead prayer in school then 50 years later wonder why public schools have become so violent, student academics have gone down, and respect for the adults has diminished.
If you know of people who are disrespectful to you and your property and would destroy it if given the chance, would you invite them into your house without making sure they had changed their destructive ways? Then why are you so quick to imply God is wrong for doing the same when it comes to who is allowed into his house?
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Fair enough I suppose, but on a different point. What about these prophecies that didn’t come true?
7. “Babylon…shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make a fold there. But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there;…and satyrs shall dance there…and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged.” – Isaiah 13:19-22, Jeremiah 50:39-40,
Obviously there has never been a time since Isaiah that Babylon (modern Iraq) was uninhabited. People lived there during New Testament times according to Matthew 1:11-12, 17, Acts 7:43, and I Peter 5:13; and it is still inhabited today. Arabians still visit there, shepherds still make their folds there, and Iraq has never been known for its dancing satyrs.
“Hear the word of the Lord, O Zedekiah king of Judah: Thus saith the Lord of thee, You shall not die by the sword but you shall die in peace.” – Jeremiah 34:4-5
Rather than dying in peace, as Jeremiah predicted, King Zedekiah was captured in battle, forced to watch all of his remaining sons put death before his eyes – which were subsequently gouged out – then hauled off to rot his remaining moments away in a dungeon.
“I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” – Matthew 16:28
“You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? Therefore I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. I tell you the truth, all this will come upon this generation.” – Matthew 25:33-36
“And he said to them, “I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God come with power.” – Mark 9:1
“I tell you the truth, this generationwill certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.” Luke 21:32
Several different passages, all the same idea: Jesus describes the End Times to his audience, and then declares that some of them standing there will personally live to see that and his glorious Second Coming.
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May I suggest you brush up on your history? Were you aware that Babylon was not only an empire, but a city also? In both the Isaiah & Jeremiah prophecies, they were referring specifically to the capital city Babylon. How do we know? Because the context refers to the cities of Sodom & Gomorrah to show Babylon would become like those fallen cities. Context gives the meaning. The city of Babylon was overthrown centuries ago and has not been inhabited since then. So the prophecy has been fulfilled.
When it comes to King Zedekiah, you conveniently twist the prophecy by omitting context once again. In Jeremiah 32:4-5, Jeremiah said “And Zedekiah king of Judah shall not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans, but shall surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, and shall speak with him mouth to mouth, and his eyes shall behold his eyes; And he shall lead Zedekiah to Babylon, and there shall he be until I visit him, saith the Lord: though ye fight with the Chaldeans, ye shall not prosper.” And that’s exactly what happened. The prophecy you mention in Jeremiah 34 is simply a follow-up prophecy letting Zedekiah know he would not be killed and he wasn’t killed. He died in a Babylonian prison in peace (Jeremiah 52:11), so this prophecy was fulfilled to the letter. You’ve simply made the assumptions that Zedekiah wasn’t supposed to be captured or harmed and imprisoned, which is your own misinterpretation.
Matthew 16:28 was fulfilled when the apostle John saw the Son of Man coming in his kingdom in a vision called the book of Revelation. It was also fulfilled before that when Christ was raised from the dead. You once again make the assumption that the Son of Man coming in his kingdom is only speaking of the physical second coming. After Jesus gave the prophecy in Matthew 16, a conversation took place as recorded in Luke 17:20-21– “And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” The kingdom of God started within the nation of Israel within Christ’s disciples. The prophecy was fulfilled.
Matthew 25:33-36 was fulfilled in the 1st century AD. John’s brother James was killed by Herod. Stephen was killed by the Jewish leaders. Paul, Silas, Barnabas, and others were chased from town to town for sharing the gospel. Then in 70 AD, God used the Romans to raze the city of Jerusalem, which fulfilled this prophecy.
Mark 9:1 is the same as Matthew 16:28. The kingdom of God came with power through the disciples on the day of Pentecost when they received the power of the Holy Ghost who then sent them out to preach the gospel, care for the poor, and to back it up with miracles which continue today when people are healed, raised from the dead, etc. The prophecy has been fulfilled.
In Luke 21:32, you make assumptions once again. You’ve assumed that when Jesus said “this generation,” he was referring to the audience he was speaking to at that particular moment. “This generation” refers to the generation that will witness the signs of the end times that he predicts, specifically the time when the Gentiles ruling Jerusalem would come to an end. Gentiles ceased from ruling Jerusalem in 1967 as a result of the Six Days’ War. So it is this generation, this era we’re living in right now, that will not end until all of these things Jesus spoke of come to pass. And if you haven’t noticed, the clock hasn’t stopped yet. Time continues to march on, so prophecies like Luke 21 are unfolding little by little as this generation continues.
But, of course, none of these revelations which show that you’re wrong are going to help your spiritual state. You’ve hardened your heart against God, which means your life is in peril. What will you do when your end comes? Jesus is the only Lord who can save you from your sins. The sins you love so much are keeping you in bondage and will only serve to destroy you in the end. Don’t you think it’s time you repented and experience real life in spiritual freedom from the ball and chain of sin and start a relationship with Jesus Christ who created you and knows what’s best for you?
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1. Yes, I was aware that Babylon was both a city and an empire. If you’ll notice in the early comments from about 2 years ago, I clearly delineated between the two. And expanding the context – as you suggested – to include the comparison to Sodom & Gomorrah does not make it self-evidently apparent that a comparison is being drawn between the municipal structure of the locales in question. The purpose of the comparison appears to be the totality of the destruction, not the city limits. Sodom & Gomorrah were referenced because of the extent to which they were utterly destroyed, not because of their singular properties as cities. This interpretation is – at the very least – equally as valid as yours, and I would contend it is more so. It certainly doesn’t make LESS sense.
But let’s grant your point that it refers to the city of Babylon for the sake of argument, and evaluate the specifics of the prophecy:
• “…neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there…” Is this true? The ruins of Babylon are at the epicenter of the Middle Easter thoroughfare, so I have a hard time imagining that no nomads, merchants or travelers have pitched a tent there over the last 2,000+ years.
• “…neither shall the shepherds make a fold there…” Again, how does anyone verify this? It’s smack dab on the Euphrates river and trade routes, so I can imagine generations of people camping for the night as they take their flocks to or from market. I know US and Polish troops camped there for quite a while, but they’re military, not shepherds, so that’s probably splitting hairs.
• “…wild beasts of the desert shall lie there…” Okay, sure.
• “…and satyrs shall dance there…” Definitely false.
• “…and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged.” This part bears closer inspection because Isaiah was writing c. 740 BC. In 1 Peter 5:13, the author states, “The church that is at Babylon, elected together with you, saluteth you; and so doth Marcus my son.” This enjoinder was written some 800 years later. If you want to invoke your own context argument, every time one of the Epistles references “the church at X,” X is always a city. This context seems pretty unambiguous that there is a church “at Babylon,” which means the place is 1. in existence, and 2. still inhabited. At what point is eventually stopped being inhabited as a city is up for debate, but it certainly wasn’t “nigh at hand.”
Saddam Hussein built a palace there at one point, which was occupied. It’s still a tourist attraction, and the expansion of Bagdad is slowly encroaching on the whole place.
2. King Zedekiah’s Fate
In your haste to accuse me of willfully ignoring context, you’ve incidentally ignored quite a bit of your own. Jer 21:7, 24:9, 27:15, 32:4-5 (which you mentioned), 34:4-5 (which I mentioned), 34:21, 37:17, and 38:14-23 all bear relevance. In those assorted passages, Jeremiah combines to tell Zedekiah that he will die by the sword, he will be captured, he will be exiled, he can avoid exile, and he will NOT die by the sword. Jeremiah’s predictions essentially cover the entire range of possibilities, so it’s nothing to get terribly excited about as far as prophecy fulfillment is concerned. It’s like rolling dice and predicting you’ll get a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6; and then claiming you’re psychic afterwards when one of those turns up.
I’m going to let a Christian theologian and Bible scholar address it for you. John Applegate was the Archdeacon of Bolton. His commentary on the fate of Zedekiah is that “it is one of the more brutal scenes in the Old Testament.” According to him and many of theologians, Zedekiah most definitely did NOT die a peaceful death. Why do they disagree with you? Because as I already mentioned, Jeremiah predicts a vast spectrum of possibilities for Zedekiah – spread out over many chapters and verses – and they subsequently end up defending whichever prophecy they happened to be reading that day, not realizing there are other prophecies that contradict it 40 chapters earlier. Jeremiah 21:9 says Zedekiah WILL die by the sword, which didn’t happen if he died in prison. But the passage I quoted that said he would NOT die by the sword – but IN PEACE – is contested by theologians of your own religion! They say he didn’t die in peace for the same reasons I mentioned above. When we hear the phrase “die in peace,” we think of passing comfortably in one’s own home or bed, possibly attended by loved ones. It is a scene of serenity. Watching your infant children slaughtered, having your eyes gauged out, being shackled and thrown into a dungeon to rot does not conjure up images of “dying in peace.” It sounds horrific (as Applegate alluded to). But if you want to play the semantic game and claim the prophecy was fulfilled because his death in prison probably wasn’t a violent sword-death, I’l just refer you back to the prophecy that said he would die by the sword.
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Okay, I get it. You absolutely hate it when Bible prophecies are proven true. So you must argue, argue, argue, even if you don’t provide proof to back up your statements because the Bible cannot, must not, be true in your mind because if it were, you would have to admit you’re a sinner who needs to repent and accept Jesus or you’ll face an eternity in hell. You love sin. Plain and simple. So in order to continue in it you have to say whatever you deem necessary to tear down the Bible and Christianity, even if you have to make it up as you go along. And when that fails, then you can call on any number of “Bible scholars” that agree with your view. Personally, I couldn’t care less about “Bible scholars,” as I’ve stated before. “Let God be true, but every man a liar,” Romans 3:4. Next you’ll be telling me the Greek means this, or the Hebrew really means that as you blah, blah, blah to infinity.
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“And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.” Revelation 13:16-17
Tech company creates biometric scanner that can read your palm for payment, automatically deducting money from your bank account if it is linked to your palm. http://tinyurl.com/o784c2r
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Thanks Harry for your wonderful responses.. I am so down and out in my life right now, Long story short, I prayed for a good friend while he was in prison. He was my rock my best friend, I truly changed during these years to not only be as our Father who loves all, I deeply fell in love with this individual. For him to come out and say “he doesn’t care if we are friends” and for him to have moved on so quickly, truly hurts me to the core. Parts of me feel like well a few people did say leave him alone because prison changes people, but I walked confidently in Christ believing that the only judge is our Father.. I prayed daily for his protection and so we would one day have a Godly marriage. Everything was perfect until the week after he was released.. Now a year and half later, he has a new girlfriend and I am stuck here wondering was I supposed to listen to others or was I supposed to walk confidently in Him.. Now I’m torn with how to pray, I go to church, I pray, I am planning to get back to daily scripture, I will fast.. It is not the outcome of situation because in reality I want God’s will for my life. It is the overall experience.. I spent nearly a decade doing this and in prayer and God has me sitting here lost and confused and wondering well heck my heart is deceitful, how do I know when He is speaking to me or my deceptive heart. I just don’t know anymore.. I have contemplated suicide and this is where I ended up, because I need to find scripture and evidence that God I been serving and paying tithes and praying too is actually there. Why would he be silent when I have asked for forgiveness of all my sins and truly made chances in life so I can ensure he hears me and none of my blessings are blocked… Do you think we go to hell if we commit suicide? I’m not contemplating because of the hurt and pain, I’m torn because surely the God I serve would have shown me something along the years that would have made me say goodbye to him. Something would have been put on my heart, something from somewhere.. He and I are opposite my friend in fact that he always says he is doing him and to move on, and I am not doing me because I have prayed and cant believe my prayers are in vain.. Even went so far to say I’m so confident in this right now, stop and just pray…. He hasn’t done so, and frankly I gave up.. Point is Harry, I trusted my Father, I’ve grown so much I am def not the same person I have been. Why would a loving God leave me stranded and all I do now is say forget my will Lord, I want your will and your will only.. Why would he leave me here drowing and wanting to find evidence of existence and information about suicide. If I don’t have my faith, life is not worth living. I wonder had I not cared about a Godly marriage, Id probably be married and on way to divorce court. I feel like had I not been a friend that sticks closer than a brother, I’d probably at least have my friend right now.. I gave it to God and I’m sitting here writing to a stranger trying to research the true existence of God.. Sorry for so long, I am just going through mental warfare right now.. Not knowing why God would sit silent and bless others while I’m sitting here the one that did all the hard work, sitting here wanting to die… Blessing to you for unknowingly helping others in there time of need, I clicked on your website for a reason.. God bless.
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Patty,
If you’re contemplating suicide, you need counseling that I’m not qualified to give and you should talk to someone either face-to-face or over the phone about these things. It could be that your prayers have been answered and it’s not the answer you want. God is not obligated to tell us what we want to hear, but what we need to hear. If you are truly interested in finding out what God wants, prayer, careful study of God’s word, and meditating on (contemplating over and over in your mind) what God’s word says all should be done alongside each other. So maybe it’s time to stop “planning” to read the Bible and just read it. Suicide is never a solution for life’s problems. Get counseling ASAP.
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What do you think of this, Harry?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/06/carbon-dated-camel-bones-bible_n_4737437.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular
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Answers in Genesis offers this explanation of the camel bones & their dates: http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/2014/02/10/carbon-dating-camels
I would add that people in the past have drawn broad conclusions in attempts to destroy the credibility of the Bible only to discover archaeological proof afterwards that proved the Bible was right after all. The whole of Israel hasn’t been dug up yet. There are still discoveries to be made, like more camel bones or written accounts that speak of camels. The writer of the HuffPost article on the camel bones and other news articles on the same thing have made broad assumptions as if there are no more camel bones to be discovered and that carbon dating is always accurate. The many prophecies that have been fulfilled from the Bible far outnumber the amount of camel bones. So I think it’s best people stick to what the Bible says. And yes, I’m biased in favor of it.
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Hi, I have been reading all the comments. (Ok not all, there is so much to read) thank you all for the information. I was brought up as muslim. My dad is christian so his been telling me about the bible, haven’t read it. His made notes for me (lots) to read. I actually understand it. I do believe that jesus is the son of God. I believe His name is very powerful. Everything my dad mentioned the believers here have mentioned. All your post is very interesting and I’m learning. I have so much questions to ask how can I contact you (if u don’t mind)
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keera,
if you send me your email address in a comment that I’ll keep private, I’ll get in contact with you privately via email.
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Patty. Know that God loves you and never stops loving you. It may be that God is trying to speak to you but your will is standing in the way. Let me relate to you something similar that happened to me. At the depths of despair after my divorce, I was drinking heavily and not knowing what good was coming out of my life, I knew I was reaching the point of giving up. One night I decided to pray to God to rescue me and, like most people, I was praying for what I wanted to see as an outcome. At one point while I was praying I stopped and started praying that if it was His will that I should suffer longer then I was willing to go on and endure for His sake. I am convinced that this change of heart led to my rebirth. Two weeks later, I received a dream that changed my whole outlook. I was laying on the ground looking up and suddenly what I believe to be an angel came streaking toward me. She had a cherub face and long brown hair and a blue silky dress flowing behind her. As she got closer I could feel peace as she smiled at me. Then she kissed me on the cheek and the dream was over. I knew then that God had sent me a message, that indeed I was loved. If no one else loved me God loved me. This turned my whole life around. Perhaps He sent you to this site so that you could see just how much you are loved. I do love you and my heart aches for you. My prayers are with you. Do not give in to the despair but give yourself fully to Christ and brighter days will come your way.
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looking for a list of prophecies that have not been fulfilled
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http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Failed_biblical_prophecies
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Anonymous,
Thanks for the link. It’s the perfect example of how atheists think and draw conclusions based on assumptions and ignore the facts. Whoever compiled this is not a student of genuine history but revisionist history working from the following assumptions:
1) I hate whatever the Bible has to say and will dismiss it by any means necessary.
2) I’m an atheist so you can just believe in whatever I tell you since I’m not biased.
3) It’s okay to question what religious people say, but you don’t need to ever doubt what an atheist says.
I will just use 3 witnesses to show how uneducated about history this person is because that is all that’s needed to call into question what they say.
1. Nebuchadnezzar’s destruction of Tyre. The city of Tyre had a mainland and an island off its coast. Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the main city on the mainland. Survivors fled to the island. He then besieged the island until they surrendered by paying him taxes. The main city has never been rebuilt. https://sunandshield.wordpress.com/2013/07/07/bible-prophecies-havent-failed-despite-skeptics-claims/
2. Egypt a barren wasteland. Whoever wrote the article at rationalwiki.org must have never heard of the “Nebuchadnezzar Inscription” or the other ancient records kept by Babylonian kings. Ezekiel prophesied in 590 BC. All Egyptians were taken out of Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar in 588 BC, according to these ancient records. Then in 548 BC, the records of the Babylonian kings tell of an agreement made with the Pharaoh to allow Egyptians to leave the kingdom of Babylon to return to their native Egypt. So Egypt was indeed barren for 40 years, just as Ezekiel predicted. https://sunandshield.wordpress.com/2013/07/07/bible-prophecies-havent-failed-despite-skeptics-claims/
3. Davidic line lasts forever (Jeremiah 33). On this point, as well as the other points, the author(s) at rationalwiki.org deliberately misinterpret the scripture by leaving out key points on purpose. This shows why unbelievers should never be trusted to give a correct interpretation of the Bible. The prophecy specifically states that in the day that the Davidic line will be forever, the Messiah will have returned to establish his kingdom on Earth and the whole nation of Judah (i.e. Israel) will be saved by believing in Jesus, their true Messiah. He will reign forever, so it is from that point on that David’s line will continue forever. Atheists are such liars. And they’re not as intelligent as they try to portray themselves. https://sunandshield.wordpress.com/2014/08/25/why-jesus-genealogy-is-messianically-valid-through-both-joseph-mary/
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So what you’re really saying is; you’re a bigot, you like to use ad-hominems, you don’t understand ‘the fallacy’ fallacy, and you can cherry pick things and disingenuously argue against them.
You’re presented with a choice. You can deny the virgin birth, or you can deny the continuation of the davidic line. Your choice, but you cannot have both. I’m indifferent to whatever you choose to deny.
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[ So what you’re really saying is; you’re a bigot, you like to use ad-hominems, you don’t understand ‘the fallacy’ fallacy, and you can cherry pick things and disingenuously argue against them.]
Yes that’s what I was saying about atheists. Or like I said before atheists are liars. Even when presented with facts that expose their fairy tales they still argue their fairy tales are facts because they assume being atheist automatically means they’re always right. Yes they are bigots.
Regarding Jesus’s background, I made that clear where I stand in my previous comment.
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Hi Harry,
I don’t know if you have time but if you do, check this website.
http://www.relevantmagazine.com/god/5-things-i-wish-christians-would-admit-about-bible#comments
I’ve been trying to find ways counter some of the points the author of this article has made, but just wondering, how would you deal with this problem? I’ve also checked some of the comments at the bottom of the article and lots of Christians made great points. But I’m also curious to see what you would say about it?
Thanks.
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Patrikios,
Thanks for sharing this link and for asking what I think. I agree with a lot of what this article says. I completely agree with his points 1 and 5. His point 2–‘The Bible Isn’t As Clear As We’d Like It To Be’–is a good point in general, but I believe anyone who has read the Bible from cover to cover has accepted that. Even Paul said that we ‘see through a glass darkly’ because we ‘know in part, and we prophesy in part’ (1 Corinthians 13). John also admitted we couldn’t fathom exactly what we would be like upon Christ’s return, but that all we could really understand is that we would be like him (1 John 3:2). I think most Christians admit that point.
But with his example of violence from point 2, he makes it seem as if all opinions on that are valid. I would’ve liked to have seen him dig deeper into it. For instance, if a Christian believes all violence and war is immoral and sinful, what do they think about Jesus running the moneychangers and merchants out of the temple with a whip? What do they think of Jesus who will fight with the global governments’ armies at Armageddon when he comes back with his army of saints and angels to kill them? If all violence and war is wrong, then God must be wrong and the Bible is wrong. I think God’s views on violence and war are pretty straightforward and clear, so maybe he could’ve used a different example.
His point 3 about God inspiring, not dictating, his word can be questioned to some extent. Any of us familiar with older office lingo know that bosses used to tell their secretaries that they wished to ‘dictate’ a letter for them to type up and send out. So ‘dictating’ something to someone could simply mean asking them to write down something word-for-word, which is what God did a ton of times with the prophets. The way he uses his argument is basically how the church became as weak as it is today. We allowed wolves in sheep’s clothing to say that we needed something different than what the kjv or Textus Receptus manuscripts offered. So they deleted, switched out, and added to God’s words to water the Bible down with different ‘Bible versions’ using the same arguments he uses.
Jesus told Satan in Matthew 4, ‘It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.’ So God must have ‘dictated’ what was written down and when he does that, the people are used by God–not as puppets, but as willing participants, partners, and friends of God. I’ve seen experiences in and out of church where God will give the exact word-for-word prophecy through someone to their brother or sister in Christ as ‘dictated’ by the Holy Spirit and the person speaking may not know what it means, but the recipient knows exactly what it means and can give the background of why God had it said exactly how the prophecy was spoken. Then there are times, like Paul points out in 1 Corinthians 7:2 on marriage, where people used by God make it clear they are giving their opinion based on godly wisdom, not God’s direct command or words, yet God still uses it to bless the hearer.
Those are things that stood out to me.
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It is well known the Book of Daniel was written in 2nd BC. Well after the time of Alexander the great.
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Wrong. It’s well-known the oldest known manuscript of Daniel is estimated to be from the 2nd century BC. Just because that’s the date of the manuscript doesn’t mean that’s when it was written. Regardless, that manuscript pre-dates & predicts Rome ruling the world, so nice try.
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Why does the Bible have to divide opinions? Its like the ppl writing it wanted to create tension!! I can understand why it causes so many arguments 😞 Its sad when Christians r aruging with fellow Christians x
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[Why does the Bible have to divide opinions? Its like the ppl writing it wanted to create tension!!]
Lorraine,
It isn’t the Bible’s fault that opinions are divided. Just look at what’s going on around the world. Did the Bible make ISIS terrorists want to be terrorists? Of course not since they believe in a different book and hate the Bible. Did the Bible make Planned Parenthood want to butcher and sell babies’ body parts? I think not.
Divisions come because of human sin, including yours. Tension is created when people embrace sin and reject God and that’s not God’s fault. It’s yours, mine, and the rest of humanity’s. The world you desire where Christians don’t argue won’t happen until Jesus comes back to create new heavens and a new earth. The Bible is not only honest enough to tell us the good, the bad, and the ugly about real life, it also offers real solutions to our real problems–providing believers with a blessed hope that no other can give. That’s where your focus should be.
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I believe that there is one quick way to prove to Christians that all the prophecy and supernatural claims in the Bible are pure fiction:
Where is the Empty Tomb?
We have no record that the Christians of the first FOUR centuries venerated or even knew about the location of Jesus’ alleged tomb. If it existed, it would be the most important geographical location in the history of the Christian religion. It isn’t as if Jerusalem became a ghost town after 70 AD. People continued to live there. Are we to believe that Jesus’ Resurrection in circa 30 AD was accompanied by two massive earthquakes, the tearing down the middle of the curtain in the Holy of Holies, dead saints roaming the streets, appearances of the dead Jesus in Judea and Galilee to over FIVE HUNDRED eyewitnesses…and yet within a couple of decades, everyone, including Christians, forgot where this man was buried???
NOT believable.
We have no record that the Christians of the first four centuries venerated an empty tomb nor do they mention its location in any of their many writings. We can only guess why but I would bet that most probably it is because they knew that the Empty Tomb was a theological embellishment of the Gospel authors. Only after centuries had passed and the new religion had become thoroughly Gentile (pagan), did the Roman Empress enter Jerusalem in the fourth century and “discover” the Empty Tomb.
The Empty Tomb is a legend. It is not historical. Christians can hypothesize about how probable it is that Pilate would have allowed Jesus to be given a proper burial by the Sanhedrin; how improbable it is that first century Jews would have stolen/moved a recently dead body from its tomb, etc., etc., but the fact is that there is no record of any Christian, Jew, or Roman, in the first FOUR centuries of Christianity, having any clue as to the location of the greatest event to have ever occurred on planet earth.
It
is
a
tall
tale.
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@nonsupernaturalist,
Your whole statement is not based on the facts. You don’t really know the Bible or history. Firstly, you mention disciples would have venerated Jesus’ tomb. That is a false statement about his disciples. They didn’t venerate, or worship, “holy” sites. They were taught by Jesus in John 4 that worshiping God was not about a particular location but was about worshiping him in Spirit and in truth (John 4:21-23). So your argument that “it would be the most important geographical location in the history of the Christian religion” is pure folderol. If someone is rejoicing in a resurrection, they’re not going to be obsessed with a gravesite since they’re celebrating life.
The importance of Christianity from the time Christ arose up to today is the fact no one ever found his body–not where his tomb is located. Or to put it another way, your whole argument is based on the false assumption that probability equals evidence. You falsely assume evidence for normal events somehow means rare events should be dismissed. But a good investigator knows that if you have enough evidence a rare event occurred, you follow and believe the evidence. For example, in golf a hole-in-one very rarely happens. It isn’t normal. But when you have eyewitness evidence that a golfer had a hole-in-one, only a fool would deny it happened based simply on its not being normal.
There is plenty of non-biblical evidence from ancient accounts in the first century that verify people, places, and things surrounding the life and times of Jesus, including events in Jesus’ life and his existence. I cover some of them here –> https://sunandshield.wordpress.com/2012/02/13/manuscript-evidence-the-new-testaments-firm-reliability/. I cover other forms of believable evidence about Jesus here –> https://sunandshield.wordpress.com/2010/02/13/is-the-new-testament-truthful-pt-2/ .
As authors Frank Turek and Norman Geisler stated on p. 207 of their book I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist, “…the issue is not whether an event is regular or rare–the issue is whether we have good evidence for the event. We must weigh evidence for the [specific] event in question, not add evidence for all previous events.” In a nutshell, your comment is full of false premises which lead to false conclusions.
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Excellent response Harry!
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I just wanted to say Harry that I’ve read every single comment on your page. When I say “every”, I really mean all of it.
I didn’t want to miss out on pure greatness. You straight bodied every atheist that crossed your path for years! You showed no remorse other than showing them the true path of God. I was feeling down just a week ago. I felt very empty because I felt like I was losing faith. I felt that it was a possibility that Jesus, nor God existed. I felt wrong believing in such foolishness, yet I humbled myself. I ran across a page that said “God is Imaginary”. I surely lost all hope. Then God said,” Let me lift you up”. I came across your site right after I saw the brainwashing videos of destruction. My mind is all clear now. I feel full of knowledge and God showed me the true way of love for him. I can’t thank you enough. I would donate to you if possible – Thank you Harry
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Love for Greatness,
Thanks for that comment and for the honesty about what you’ve been going through. May the Lord continue to bless you with ever increasing strength & faith by his grace.
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