Free Choice? Man's religion vs. Scriptural Truth

Involved Joined: Jul 03, 2006 Posts: 273

Hmm for a somewhat politically aimed topic this sure sounds like Sunday service in here now? I thought I saw a religious forum somewhere else on the site? lol

Site Admin/Owner Joined: Aug 27, 2002 Posts: 17088

I agree and I or one of the admin/moderators will split it out as soon as we get a chance.

Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2009 1:19 am

Raven wrote:

sit down with a reliable Bible translation like The New American Standard Bible, the 1917 edition of The New Scofield Reference Bible, or several others that you can research through Google.

I'm not a biblical scholar by all means but I have been lucky enough to work for an industry and company which dedicates part of it's product to bringing people to the Holy Land. I have been also lucky enough to take tours in the Holy Land, and toured with some of the best tour guides of Israel whom are also biblical scholars. One thing I learned is that in many parts of the bible it is almost impossible to have reliable translations, Hebrew just does not translate well in to English or other languages. I strongly recommend bible studies with Hebrew speaking teachers and teachers whom know the Jewish culture, why Jewish? after all Jesus was Jewish. I also hope all of you can one day travel to the Holy Land, it's one thing reading it, it's another thing touching it, seeing it and breathing it. I was raised Catholic, but I have been missing too much Sunday Mass if you know what I mean. I thought it was an interesting topic so I thought I add to it, and who cares if it all does not fit in to perfect squares right, the political, sunday or which ever service it's all good Wink

Regards,
jc

Involved Joined: Apr 06, 2008 Posts: 484

Somewhere along the line everyone has missed the point.......

BEER

Worker Joined: Dec 01, 2008 Posts: 180

I follow no man made religion and never will; i follow God alone, which makes me neither less distant or closer that those who go through Jesus, Muhammad, etc, for God is God and he's everywhere, so he knows my heart and soul well, for he created me and others alike, and he needs no third party to give judgement or rewards, when he is the magnificant.
And with God is where my heart, soul and mind are always; this i am definately sure of without confusion, and not all over the place with thinking and conclusions; i refer to my confusion over the present day profanities.

I have an open mind, and therefore rely not just on learning from the bible, but the Bible, The Quran, The Book of Mormon, The Maccabees Bible, other religious books, Encyclopedia's, etc, basically as they are all books of history and faith, the interaction of various beliefs is how i integrate my thoughts, socialising, and common knowledge of all nationalities culture, and views on faith, to help me build a bigger understanding of my faith in God and his creation, to be able to help others learn of God and his creation.

I asked myself a few years ago, if someone disbelieved in jesus, how would i teach them about uniting faith; if someone disbelieved in Muhammad, how would i teach them uniting faith; if someone looked up to any past representatives, how would i teach them uniting faith, basically thinking about the oppression mainly caused between Christians/Catholics and Muslims, amongst other religions, in relation to the fact they each argue over the disbeliefs and superiorities of each others prophets.

Maybe its a new age of enabling people to have faith; i am not saying they did not exist or that they didn't bring some of the greatest understandings ever told, but i have certainly noticed from my teachings, i have conformed more atheists, and those never thought about faith before, to question then later understand God and faith more from uniting world beliefs, teachings of creationism from a religious and slight scientific outset, and of God and his miraculous creations himself, than i ever did when i used to mention prophets, as i once did believe in Jesus, but now i have studied and researched so much i understand Jesus came to teach us of God and to have faith in God, so i then began to believe that people have misinterpreted the scriptures from faith directly in God, to faith through Jesus to God.
So now those who do not believe in Jesus, will tend to not listen to those who do, but if i teach of God himself, people worldwide are more likely to listen.

That is why i call myself The Messenger of God, so i can teach faith worldwide to all races and cultures, and so far for me it's worked better, maybe that's what we are all meant to be perhaps!

Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2009 7:52 pm

Quote:

One thing I learned is that in many parts of the bible it is almost impossible to have reliable translations, Hebrew just does not translate well in to English or other languages.

PEOPLE FORGET PARTS OF THE BIBLE ARE MISINTERPRETED.

Here's a few quotes i found:

"According to Wilson, the deifying of Jesus that he was God was primarily a product of the fourth-century Council of Nicea, not the belief of early Christians. Jesus looked up to God: "

"Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 6:13 to Satan during His temptation, "You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only"?

"In the Mark Gospel, the most consistent in conveying Jesus' humanity, a man is represented as running up to Jesus and addressing Him with the words "Good Master." Jesus' response is a firm rebuke: "Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone" (Mark 10:1 Cool

."

"Even as early as age twelve, Jesus refers to God as "My Father" (Luke 2:49). He continues to use the term throughout the Gospel accounts-a total of forty times! Jerusalem scholar, Dr. Robert Lindsey, explains the significance of this expression:
Synagogue prayers contain the expression, "Our Father [Avinu] who is in heaven," many times, and Jesus taught His disciples to pray a prayer which also begins, "Our Father who is in heaven.""

Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2009 7:56 pm

pureliving wrote:

I have an open mind

pureliving wrote:

if someone disbelieved in jesus, how would i teach them about uniting faith

Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2009 8:03 pm

What you getting at testy1, because if i can see rightly, learning from many, many different faith resources and the fact of uniting, is open mindedness.

Not everyone wants to believe in Jesus yeah, but as long as they are true to faith in God, you need not worry, so either way you look around things, its faith that's most important.

Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2009 8:10 pm

pureliving wrote:

Not everyone wants to believe in Jesus yeah, but as long as they are true to faith in God, you need not worry, so either way you look around things, its faith that's most important.

lol need I say more.

Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2009 12:17 am

One last statement and I am finished with this thread.

pureliving wrote:

but if i teach of God himself

You can't since you have made up the god that you claim to be a messenger of. You do not know God and you cannot know the God of ages past, present, future, and all eternity because you have deluded yourself into thinking that your god is really The God. Jesus stated that He and the Father are One. How could it be any clearer?

Anyway, may you someday find the True God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. As long as you continue with your self beliefs and definitions, you are not following God; you are following the great impostor - satan. And by doing so you thwart all true Christians, not religions, the REAL messengers of God who preach and teach who the God of the Scriptures really is. Remember that "even satan (the devil) is able to appear as an angel of light". By following his light you will live in eternal darkness and damnation Sad

Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2009 3:16 pm

pureliving, Sorry for jumping in late, but have been away. I read this with curiousity. I am curious by your nic here that I would like to ask do you think you are living pure? I ask this to see your reply and I am not doing this as a slam or any other sarcastic reply.

My beliefs are that God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are all one. All have been around since the very beginning. God was there in the OT for his people. He gave them laws to follow in the 10 commandments, which over time was proven just as I think God meant to show, how we as people fail every day to keep them. Everyone failed to keep the laws in one form or the other. God knew this, and he knew this was going to happen. The laws were created to show how weak we are, and how much we need a saviour to cover all our sins, past, present and future ones. The laws were created, IMO, to lead us to Christ. They showed us that we are imperfect and incapable of leading the perfect life. We can't even come close to it. He gave us 10 rules to follow, and we can't even do those, let alone lead a perfect life without sin. Which we must do in order to stand with God.

God knew this at the beginning. That is why Christ was sent to us. He showed us the way we need to go in order to be able to stand in the presence of God himself. Christ covers all of our sins. He washes us pure and removes all traces of sin, by his blood on the cross, so that we may stand one day in the presence of God. Without this cleansing, we would instantly be destroyed since we are not capable of being sinless and pure, and we must be that to stand next to Him.

IMO, I am eternally grateful for what Christ did for me on the cross. I know that there is absolutely no way that I could have ever gained God's approval without it. I have failed miserably and need Christ in my life to guide me along by the Holy Spirits promptings EVERY DAY. Without it I would be a lost soul burning in a fiery place forever since I have absolutely no way of living a pure and sinless life on my own. I thank God every day for providing His son's blood for me, in order that one day I will stand next to God and praise Him and worship at his feet. Oh what a glorious day that will be. I can't even imagine all that will be going on, but am grateful that Christ will give me that opportunity

I wish you luck in your path you have chosen. I disagree with some of your statements and hope some where down the path you have chosen to go that you see differently. Even Saul was given that opportunity after killing many Christians, so I am pretty confident that your chance will come also. Saul became one of the great ones after the incident,( Paul ) and we all can do that also. We all have a choice to make. We can either accept that Christ is the way, or not. That is our Free choice to make. I felt after reading the posts in this topic the Spirit moving me to add mine. I once thought somewhat like you have shared. In my life, I have been shown through study and life's lessons, how wrong I was, and how much I needed Christ's help. There was no way that I could even come close on my own. I feel very comfortable in saying what I have and over time have been shown time after time that if I follow the guidance given me without hesitating, my life goes much better. It is the times that I hesistate, or go against this guidance that I encounter more problems, so I needed to respond with my thoughts in order to follow the guidance given to me. Not that it removes ALL my problems, but my life is much easier if I follow the leadings I receive. I wish you the best.

registered · Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2009 6:40 am

pureliving, I would challenge that you have not truly studied why the Bible, with 66 books penned by over 40 different authors (most who didn't know each other), over several thousand years, with prophesy after prophesy given way in advance and fulfilled is like no other "religious" book that you lump it into.

If you are truly interested in understanding just what the Bible is (which is a choice only YOU can make, but has serious eternal consequences), I encourage you to take just 24 hours out of your life (in may only take a couple to truly understand what a treasure this book is) to educate yourself. The following is an excellent survey study done by Chuck Missler about the Bible:

http://khouse.org/6640_cat/learnthebiblein24hours/

Enjoy... or not, your choice.

Posted: Fri Mar 13, 2009 8:30 am

Quote:

the REAL messengers of God who preach and teach who the God of the Scriptures really is

The God that created all in the universe, you, me included, and that stands for all things righteous. Can not be mistaken who everyone refers to as God.

Quote:

As long as you continue with your self beliefs and definitions, you are not following God; you are following the great impostor - satan.

You tell me what evil i commit, then judge me and say i do not follow God. For if i seek down in my soul, the sinful profanities of evilous ways i try to teach of the right of God, always, so as far as i see, and as far as my friends see, that i hope God himself sees me to be a messenger for him; as faithful as can be. So how can you falsely say, what you see not, what is the judgement of God.

Quote:

do you think you are living pure?

No-one but God is pure, we just learn from the right ways to be, and co-ordinate ourselves to adhere the faithfullest we can.

Quote:

He gave us 10 rules to follow, and we can't even do those

Ten rules by top categories, but a million rules by morality. Not following them to our up-most, isn't that why we living in hypocrisy.

Quote:

He washes us pure and removes all traces of sin, by his blood on the cross

How can he remove traces of sin, if we are not stopping the sin we are committing. To receive penance, orders remorse and never committing the same again before the eyes of God.

Religion is man made, faith is not. God was here before, we was not; now we are, and from God we came, so to God can our faith be.

Quote:

I am eternally grateful for what Christ did for me on the cross.

For one of the greatest causes for God and for freedom, i heed not disagree in gratefulness.

Quote:

need Christ in my life to guide me

Need not neglect the righteous words of his Messengers today and from the past, who are sent from God to guide still everyday. Seek and search and you shall find. No matter where in this world, or from whatever faith oriented literature, words of wise can be sought throughout all walks of life, from around the world of which God created, and amongst our abilities he gave us the ability of freedom to learn of him, by any good means.

Quote:

but am grateful that Christ will give me that opportunity

God made all, it is God who grants all.

xx Bless xx

Posted: Fri Mar 13, 2009 1:18 pm

Do you believe in the Bible at all? I know you will probably say that what is written is false, but it has withstood the test for a very long time and has been correct time after time after time, but you may want to look at 1st John, specifically from Chapter one, verse 5 to Chapter 2, verse 6.

I wish the best in your journey. I will continue on mine and follow Jesus.