How do people want to grow and come closer to the Real God

On 2019-02-252019-02-25 By Relating to GodIn Christianity, God the Father - Eternal Jehovah, Jeshua - Jesus Christ Son of God, Religion & Church, System of things, Trinity, World & Universe8 Comments

In this world we see lots of religious groups and can find lots of people they believe in god/God. But we can wonder in which god or God they believe. The majority seems to believe in an other god than the God of the Bible. That god of the Holy Books is a Singular Spirit Being, though the god of the majority of Christians is for example a three-headed god who at moments does not know everything and can not do everything. The opposite, the God of the Bible is an All-knowing God Who is able to do everything. It is a god Who cannot be seen by man, who also can do nothing to Him. The god of those so called Christians is a god who was seen by many (though they did not fall death) and could be killed by man. This should have many wondering more about that non-eternal god who even did not know when he would be coming back or when the end-times would come. That last bit though being of very importance, because than it would be too late for people to change of idea or to come to God.

Jesus told many parables where he showed how careful we have to be not to miss the boat. He warned with his stories how when not being attentive we can miss his return and even worse miss our chances to enter the small gate of the Kingdom of God. Sharp-eyed we should be looking for the signs of that times to come.

In the capitalist world people come more under pressure and with many modern tools and electronic gadgets lots of people are drawn away from the Eternal Divine Creator God. People have become convinced they themselves can create the world how they want it and can do whatever looks best for them, to make them richer. The majority came to love the world and want to be full part of that world, they think they can manage and control.

In this world not many are willing to confess with their mouth the sent one from God who came to save the world. Not many are willing to believe that man would have been taken out of the dead. they should know we are given a chance to be saved.

Romans 10:9 UKJV That if you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in yours heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.

The majority do not want to see how Jesus is that “sent one from God” by whom we can come closer to God because he is the way to God.

John 14:6-7 UKJV Jesus says unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes unto the Father, but by me. (7) If all of you had known me, all of you should have known my Father also: and from henceforth all of you know him, and have seen him.

God provided the Book of books to guide us and to allow us to grow in knowledge of God and of Christ. But not many people are interested in taking up those books and to read them. They prefer to follow their own traditions and if they want to believe and go to church, they prefer to go to a church where not to much of their free time is taken up and where they do not have to listen to much of those old writings. How more entertainment there is given in their church how more they love it. Readings from Scripture are of no interest to them.

Also concerning doing something for God and Christ not many feel called to take steps to go preaching about bad or good times and about the Kingdom of God. Some who may hear something, do more like Jonah, who instead of going to Nineveh to preach the Word, as God bade him, disliked the work, and went down to Joppa to escape from it. At all times there have been occasions when God’s servants shrank from duty or even went to teach other things than the Scriptural matters, because those things were much more liked and got more attention. That should remind us of Demas who could have been a potential champion in the New Testament. He travelled and ministered with Paul on several missionary campaigns. At the moment he was most needed by Paul, the waffling man bolted and sought pleasure over sacrifice; temporal delight over eternal gain. Had he stayed the course in faithfulness his name would be held in high esteem today, but now we see that he was disgraced.

In this world we can see many people who say they are Christian but have taken an other god than Jesus. For many Jesus is their god and blinded by human doctrines they do not manage to hear the words of Jesus when he tells about what he is doing and by Whose Power he is doing all those incredible things.

Many people also want to reap their own deeds, like Jonah did, being filled with their own ways. Instead of playing the Jonah, man should better listen to the Words of God and to the words of His many messengers and prophets, like Moses, Abraham, Isaiah and Jesus. Unless you wish to have all the waves and the billows rolling over your head.

By listening to those words, notated in the Holy Scriptures we are given the opportunity to learn more about all those who worked for God and can come to see and learn how we too can come closer to God, like they also came very close to God.

It is by our willingness to read those ancient books, and by following those words for what they tell, and not for what human beings like theologians want people to believe there should be written, that we can come to understand how everything fits the Plan of God and how we can find the Only Real God Who is One and not two or three.

From history we should know that it is man’s pride which always has brought his fall down. From looking at man’s evolution we should learn about the rise and fall of historic civilisations and what it tells us about our own growth.

Collapse can be defined as a rapid and enduring loss of population, identity and socio-economic complexity. Public services crumble and disorder ensues as government loses control of its monopoly on violence.

Virtually all past civilisations have faced this fate. Some recovered or transformed, such as the Chinese and Egyptian. Other collapses were permanent, as was the case of Easter Island. Sometimes the cities at the epicentre of collapse are revived, as was the case with Rome. In other cases, such as the Mayan ruins, they are left abandoned as a mausoleum for future tourists. {Are We On The Road To Civilization Collapse?}

Those living in the beginning of the 21st century should come to see that they are the ones living in a time spoken about on several occasions in the Scriptures. The Book of books warns us for these times, and it is up to us to see it or to ignore it.

And while our scale may now be global, collapse appears to happen to both sprawling empires and fledgling kingdoms alike. There is no reason to believe that greater size is armour against societal dissolution. Our tightly-coupled, globalised economic system is, if anything, more likely to make crisis spread. {Are We On The Road To Civilization Collapse?}

Man should come to see that he made a mess of it all. He got the right to handle the creation and to show god that he could manage and govern it rightly. Man had doubted God His position to Master it all. Now it is getting high time we come to agree that God is the Most Righteous to govern the universe.

People became increasingly specialised but also very disconnected from the production of food and basic goods. They thought they could play for God, and many did feel as if they were god. There disrespect for God’s creation made that they even did not come to see how they were destroying their own universe.

Think of civilisation as a poorly-built ladder. As you climb, each step that you used falls away. A fall from a height of just a few rungs is fine. Yet the higher you climb, the larger the fall. Eventually, once you reach a sufficient height, any drop from the ladder is fatal. {Are We On The Road To Civilization Collapse?}

Many passed the Jacob’s ladder and most people got blinded by the many theories from scientists and theologians, instead of listening to the Words written down in the Book of books and showing proper respect for the divine Creator and His creation.

Reflecting about how everything came into being and how so many things went wrong, showing a willingness to listen to what is written in the bible, people can come to know the Only One True God. And that is what we all should do urgently!

It is God’s Will that each individual shows were his or her heart wants to be and if he or she is willing to accept the Eternal Elohim Hashem Jehovah as the Only One true God.

Preceding

Tri-union gods and Pagan, Christian, Muslim and Jewish views on the Creator God

A King who wanted to extol a King above all kings

Additional reading

When there is a God is it possible to relate to Him

On 2017-02-142017-02-14 By Relating to GodIn Bible = Book of books, God the Father - Eternal Jehovah, Relationship & Connection, Religion & Church4 Comments

When wondered about a godhead and having come to the conclusion that there must be a Divine Creator or Supreme Being that surpasses all human and animal beings, we may question if it is possible for us to have a relationship with that Higher Being.

What does it take to begin a relationship with God?

With people around us we may have an idea how we can start a relationship with them, but what about God?

Do we have to wait until something serious happens in our life? Many do that, but is that the right way? Do they not miss a lot because they too late became in a relationship with their God?

Is it necessary to enjoy yourself a lot or to get in trance to come closer to that god or the God?

Or should we spend more time to ourselves or to taking part in religious activities? Or is it necessary to devote yourself to unselfish religious deeds?

Do we first have to become a better person, whatever that might entail, so that God will accept us?

We can ask a thousand questions and look for many answers. We might go looking in lots of books and places to find answers. Though we should know we do not have to go far. God has made it very clear in the Bible how we can know Him. In God His Word, the Bible, is explained what happened to mankind, how the relationship was broken and how the relationship was and can be restored.

Does that God hide or is it our pride which makes that we do not want to see and know Him?

Should we have to ask Him first a proof of His identity? do we not need some certification or a security that we do have to do with God? Do we need His sign and his reassurance first before we can come to Him? Should we not know first of all that we are speaking with the right person?

Is it in response to a power displayed, that we should start looking for a relationship with God?

In the following articles you might find why it is necessary to build a relationship with God and how you can personally begin such a relationship with God, right now…

Dutch version / Nederlandse versie: Als er een God bestaat is het mogelijk om een relatie met Hem op te bouwen

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Some interesting articles to read

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Tri-union gods and Pagan, Christian, Muslim and Jewish views on the Creator God

On 2017-01-092017-01-10 By Relating to GodIn Christadelphian, Christianity, God the Father - Eternal Jehovah, Religion & Church, Trinity11 Comments

Yesterday we looked at those who have questions about God and how the Christadelphians try to give them an answer and offer a platform where questions can be asked.

When you look at the world of those who claim that they worship the True God, we may find Jews, Christians and Muslims. Though by the Christians and Mohammedans questions may arise. Next to Christianity we can see Christendom where there are people who call themselves Christian, and often consider themselves part of Christianity, though do not really follow the teachings of Christ (the Kristos) Jesus, whose original name is Jeshua from Nazareth, from the tribe of king David. Those so called Christians do believe in a tri-une god, like before the time of Jesus there have been also many others who believed in some three-une or three-headed gods, but of which the Bible say that they are false gods and that there is Only One True God, the God of Israel, Who is One (and as such not two, three, eight or more).

Of those trinitarians there are who do not seem to know about other three-headed gods, and others who claim that their tri-union god is different because he would be having all the same qualities in each personality. Though than then they do seem to miss that the god they claim to be omnipotent, omnipresent, and as omniscient all knowing, at certain points said he did not know it, though they claim he would never lie. If god knows everything (what God does) and Jesus would be God than Jesus would know when he would come back, he would know when the end-times are, he would know who would be saved, he would know who would be seated next to him, he would know he is a spirit, though he clearly stated he is no spirit and does not know all those matters, because it is only known to the Spirit God, Who has no beginning, can not be tempted, can not be done any thing by man, can not die, though Jesus was tempted many times, was killed by man (or faked his death), was three days in hell (not exactly a place for God to be), was taken out of the dead (God never be able to be death would not exactly be under the dead, is it not?), would have been taken in to the heaven to come to sit next to God (though when Jesus is God then he would sit on his own throne never next to himself but at the place of himself).

Dattatreya or Dattā, deity by people from India and Nepal, having Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva in him

Those Christians who think their tri-union god or tri-une godhead is different than the other three-headed gods, like several tri-une Hindu gods (a.o. Brahma, Trisiras and Dattatreya);

Triglav – a Slav three-headed warrior god

or European Slav and Celtic gods like Ambisagrus or Jupiter Optimus Maximus, Nantosuelta, goddess of nature, the earth, fire, and fertility in Gaul, Triglav the three-headed warrior god, or Thor, should think twice and compare the attributes contributed to those gods and theirs, which seem to be very similar.
In several pagan religions we do find a trinity with a god father or god mother, a god son or a god word and a god spirit or god light or god thought or soul.

The Bible also speaks of such trinitarian gods like Nimrod. The Word of the One True God calls him

“a mighty hunter in opposition to Jehovah”

We can see that in 4th C.C.E., at the Council of Nicea of Constantine Christendom simply picked up the idea of tri-une gods to win over the pagans. They suddenly made YHWH Jehovah, Jesus and the Holy Spirit 3 persons in one godhead.

Tri-une Hindu god who is considered the creator god, but also by other groups has four faces. He is also known as Svayambhu (self-born), Vāgīśa (Lord of Speech), and the creator of the four Vedas, one from each of his mouths

Question is if tri-une gods like the creator god Brahma or the Indian Mandhata represent the same Creator God Jehovah, but just under an other name?

Maybe similarities between Kama and Cupid, Vishwakarma and Vulcan and Indra and Zeus may lead many to hastily conclude that Hindu mythology is similar to Greek mythology. It is said that the Greeks believed in polytheism, the belief in many gods, but many Hindus say they believe in one god and as such should belong to monotheism. For them like for trinitarian Christians their god is one god who appears in different forms. For Hindu religious people their one god shows the world the different aspects of the supreme Brahman, the supreme existence or absolute reality, avatars or incarnation of this deity on earth, like certain Christians take Jesus as the incarnation of their god or of their supreme being. In the earliest Vedic literature, all supernatural beings are called Asuras, mythological lord beings. in the Vedic religion of India and in later Hinduism, one of many gods, often roughly divided into sky, air, and earth divinities on the basis of their identification with the forces of nature. In the pantheistic systems that emerged by the Late Vedic period, the devas became subordinate to the one supreme being.

We can see that those who want to defend the Trinity search for their answers in a lot of philosophical human tangle of thought, like in the article “The Trinity Logically Defended” where they go into numerology (a thought of man) instead of using God’s Word to show their way of thinking would be right. The writer Renassault, at Reasoned ruminations, claims the other tri-une gods may not exist whilst his tri-une god exist, though he does not evince it at all, nor does he give any proof the other deities would not exist. For him moreover, the philosopher who popularized Nominalism to the present day, the medieval French scholastic philosopher, theologian and preeminent logician Peter Abelard, considered the past and future to be just as non-existent universals as numbers, so do we have to accept that the past nor the future exist? And what has this to do with the reality of a tri-une god or with the existence of the Real One God who created the being and the elements man uses to divide time?

The writer of the above mentioned article The Trinity Logically Defended says he is not arguing that what he says proves there must have been a God who created everything/something at all. But he writes

I’m only pointing out that the answer is the same logically consistent answer as how the Trinity can be true and non-contradictory. If the cause that originated the universe was eternal, why did it create the universe in this way? Randomly and arbitrarily you say? But if there were an infinite number of possible random variations, like Zeno’s Paradox, how was one even “picked”? {The Trinity Logically Defended}

For him the answer of it all lies in or deals with the Trinity. He also does not seem to believe man would ever be able to follow God’s commandments. With that thinking he implies God demanded from the start something He knew man would never be able to keep, which makes of this God a very cruel God.

For that writer the God

Father is the source of the Trinity and the Son and Spirit both have their source in the Father, yet without a point in time being created. The three person all have the same Will—that of the Father, they cannot contradict each other, or operate independently, they only do the Father’s will. {The Trinity Logically Defended}

In many other faiths where they worship a three headed god they also claim their gods being from the same source and having the equal powers, having the same will. He claims his tri-union god cannot contradict each other though we see Jesus claiming God is greater than him, which would be a contradiction if Jesus is that same God. At one point Jesus also prays to God and says that he wants that the Will of God shall be done and not his (Jesus) will. In case Jesus is God it shall always God’s or his will.

Nowhere does he proof that

Christ also confesses He has a second another will–that of a human. {The Trinity Logically Defended}

In several defences of those who believe in a tri-une god, we never come to see a real logical explanation or a real clear Biblical explanation of that three-headed construction. Having another will than that of God would make the god those trinitarians adhere not having a god of the same will, like the other trinitarian gods in polytheism.

A monotheist religion should only be called this way when it really has one (mono) god as the main figure to be worshipped. Jews, Christians and Muslims claim to be part of the monotheist religions.

It is not bad to have a look at what those religions teach about their God. At the end of 2016 two websites got to see the light of this world. One tries to look at the God of the Muslim world in comparison to the God of the Christian world. That new site, dares to pose many questions and wants people to look at possible answers many communities offer for the questions which are on many believers and non-believers lips. Questiontime-Vragenuurtje is there for you to ask your questions and to go in dialogue. A Lastige Vragensteller or a Troublesome Inquirer takes the floor and shall bring quotes for the Quran as well as the Christian Bible to put answers from Scriptures in the spotlight.

Some of the vital questions already posed are:

and some of the answers already posed:

Immanuel Verbondskind looks at the difference between the Jewish tradition and Christian faith and the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Who according to the Holy Scriptures was also the God of rabbi Jeshua, Jesus Christ and his disciples, though the tri-une god of many Christians would never be the God of the Jews.

Immanuel started at his site to explain that having the name Immanuel does not mean that person is God. After having looked at “Called Immanuel does not mean to be Jesus being God” he opened with a series on how to read the Holy Scriptures, this with the idea that to come to know the Real True God and to find out who Jesus really is, he thinks it is “Best to read and study the Bible“ and explains how we can do this the best way, not forgetting that making time for God is an essential part of our daily life.

Immanuel Verbondskind shall look at the teaching of the different Christian denominations and compare them to the teachings of the Jewish rabbi Jeshua, better know today as Jesus Christ. Jesus and his disciples their knowledge of the Hebrew Scriptures plays an important role in how shall be looked at the distortions which may have come into Christendom. Immanuel shall take those basic Judaic Scriptures and examine what the chosen pupils of Jesus made out of it and what they wrote down in the Messianic Scriptures, better known by many Christians as the New Testament. He shall not be averse to look at Jewish traditions and other Jewish literature or theological works, comparing it with Christian theological works and Christian traditions to find out how they fit in the way of thinking of the Messiah Jeshua, the Christ Jesus.

Both new blogs should be a good asset to come to know the divine Creator and to come to know how Jehovah God relates to Jesus and Jesus to the world.

Preceding

A Start for looking at the unseen and the treasure to look forward to

Relating to God is it possible

Can you question the existence of God

Are there certain books essential to come to faith

A King who wanted to extol a King above all kings

Find a.o.

Additional reading

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Can you question the existence of God

On 2017-01-08 By ChristadelphiansIn God the Father - Eternal Jehovah, Religion & Church, Trinity9 Comments

The Question Is What Is the Question? (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

You may wonder if there really exist a God. You have all reason to question His existence and to check if you are feeling right or thinking the right way. We are even requested to examine our own faith. It is important to know what you want to believe, what you want to take for the truth.

Lots of people are looking for answers in their life. Many of them also have an inner feeling that sometimes frightens them. They do not know where to look at for what is troubling their inner soul.

They might think others have a catchphrase, a cliché, or a phrase to throw around lightly, but all should know that the matter of the Divine Creator is not something to take light hearted. It is serious business.

All people should know that we were created in the image of the Divine Creator for a good reason. We are expected to have fellowship with Him. But we also must know that from the beginning the great deceiver himself was there – doing everything he could to separate us from our Creator and from each other. It is that adversary which troubles our hearts and makes us wandering about on this globe where we can see so much trouble and suffering, all because so many are not living according to the wishes of the Most Divine and by doing so they are making a mess of it.

But then Who is that Most Divine? Who is that Divine Creator? Who is the Originator of everything what we see around us?

That are good questions we should pose ourselves.

We have all reason to wonder if there really can exist Some One Who can heal the brokenhearted and set captives free. [Psalm 34:17-18 and John 8:36]. And if He really can move mountains and change lives [Psalm 97:5 and Colossians 3], or can cause the rise and fall of nations [Psalm 33: 8-12].

Do you know there is even a place where you can ask such questions or have your thoughts running free. On the net there is a message board or forum where your questions are welcome.

Christadelphian Forum (started August 2016)

While there is no quick fix, God’s Word is clear and the message is simple.

At the place Christadelpian where many people may exchange ideas easily hopefully many will bring forth some good subjects also. To start off the following opening articles can be found

Preceding

Relating to God is it possible

Additional reading

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The Bible’s View of Itself

On 2016-08-242016-08-24 By GuestspeakerIn Bible = Book of books, Religion & Church1 Comment

Though being the most reprinted and most translated book many people doubt the authority of that bestseller of all times.

English: End page of the Lübeck Bible (1494), ... — End page of the Lübeck Bible (1494), showing the end of the book of revelation and the printer de:Steffen Arndes’ kolophon (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Not all people are convinced it has something to say for them. Even lots of Christians never took the time to read the Bible from A to Z. Lots of people do think it is from the old times and as such ‘passé’. They have no idea how the Bible is still best for contemporary use. Much more people should come to see that it is really a book to cherish because it offers many lessons for life and sustains future hope, bringing meaning and power to the present.

In the previous message we said already that Western civilization is in a severe “authority crisis” which is not confined solely to the realm of religious faith, nor is it specially or uniquely threatening to Bible believers.

We should be much aware that our look at the bible can influence our society very much. Too many people do forget that regard for the Bible is decisive for the course of Western culture and in the long run for human civilization generally. People should come to recognise that there is more behind the human writers who scribbled down many words, not of their own. Many wise words they never claimed to be their own. They even say that what they wrote down is not written down from their own inspiration but form the Higher Being which directed them.

Let us therefore have a look at what an encyclopedia of the Bible says about this library of books its own view.

The Bible’s View of Itself

The intelligible nature of divine revelation — the presupposition that God’s will is made known in the form of valid truths — is the central presupposition of the authority of the Bible. Much recent neo-Protestant theology demeaned the traditional evangelical emphasis as doctrinaire and static. It insisted instead that the authority of Scripture is to be comprehended internally as a witness to divine grace engendering faith and obedience, thus disowning its objective character as universally valid truth.

Somewhat inconsistently, almost all neo-Protestant theologians have appealed to the record to support cognitively whatever fragments of the whole seem to coincide with their divergent views, even though they disavow the Bible as a specially revealed corpus of authoritative divine teaching. For evangelical orthodoxy, if God’s revelational disclosure to chosen prophets and apostles is to be considered meaningful and true, it must be given not merely in isolated concepts capable of diverse meanings but in sentences or propositions. A proposition — that is, a subject, predicate, and connecting verb (or “copula”) — constitutes the minimal logical unit of intelligible communication. The OT prophetic formula “thus saith the Lord” characteristically introduced propositionally disclosed truth. Jesus Christ employed the distinctive formula “But I say unto you” to introduce logically formed sentences which he represented as the veritable word or doctrine of God.

The Angel Appears to John. The book of Revelat... — The Angel Appears to John. The book of Revelation. 13th century manuscript. British Library, London. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Bible is authoritative because it is divinely authorized; in its own terms, “all Scripture is God-breathed” (2 Tm 3:16 NIV). According to this passage the whole OT (or any element of it) is divinely inspired. Extension of the same claim to the NT is not expressly stated, though it is more than merely implied. The NT contains indications that its content was to be viewed, and was in fact viewed, as no less authoritative than the OT. The apostle Paul’s writings are catalogued with “other scriptures” (2 Pt 3:15, 16). Under the heading of Scripture, 1 Timothy 5:18 cites Luke 10:7 alongside Deuteronomy 25:4 (cf. 1 Cor 9:9). The Book of Revelation, moreover, claims divine origin (1:1–3) and employs the term “prophecy” in the OT meaning (22:9, 10, 18). The apostles did not distinguish their spoken and written teaching but expressly declared their inspired proclamation to be the Word of God (1 Cor 4:1; 2 Cor 5:20; 1 Thes 2:13).

Elwell, W. A., & Beitzel, B. J. (1988). In Baker encyclopedia of the Bible (p. 298). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.

Preceding:

Life and an assembly of books

The Bible a book of books

Revolt against the Authority of the Bible

Additional reading

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Revolt against the Authority of the Bible

On 2016-06-172016-06-17 By GuestspeakerIn Bible = Book of books, Jeshua - Jesus Christ Son of God, Religion & Church, World & Universe7 Comments

Concerning the authority of the Holy Scriptures there has bean much debate. Let us have a look on what is written about the Power of God’s Word and its authority in a well-known encyclopedia of the Bible.

The Power of God’s Word.

The Bible remains the most extensively printed, widely translated, and frequently read book in the world. Its words have been treasured in the hearts of multitudes like none other. All who have received its gifts of wisdom and promises of new life and power were at first strangers to its redemptive message, and many were hostile to its teaching and spiritual demands. In every generation its power to challenge persons of all races and lands has been demonstrated. Those who cherish the Book because it sustains future hope, brings meaning and power to the present, and correlates a misused past with the forgiving grace of God, would not long experience such inner rewards if Scripture were not known to them as the authoritative, divinely revealed truth. To the evangelical Christian, Scripture is the Word of God, given in the objective form of propositional truths through divinely inspired prophets and apostles, and the Holy Spirit is the giver of faith through that Word.

Carl F. H. Henry

Elwell, W. A., & Beitzel, B. J. (1988). In Baker encyclopedia of the Bible (p. 300). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.

Bible, Authority of the.

View that the Bible is the Word of God and as such should be believed and obeyed.

Image from the Book of Kells, a 1200 year old ... — Image from the Book of Kells, a 1200 year old book. Category:Illuminated manuscript images (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Western civilization is in a severe “authority crisis” which is not confined solely to the realm of religious faith, nor is it specially or uniquely threatening to Bible believers. Parental authority, marital authority, political authority, academic authority, and ecclesiastical authority are all being deeply questioned. Not only particular authorities — the Scripture, the pope, political rulers, and so on — but the concept of authority itself is vigorously challenged. Today’s crisis of biblical authority thus reflects the uncertainties of civilizational consensus:

Who has the power and the right to receive and to require submission?

Revolt Against Biblical Authority.

As the sovereign Creator of all, the God of the Bible wills and has the right to be obeyed. Judge of men and nations, the self-revealed God wields unlimited authority and power. All creaturely authority and power is derived from that of God. The power God bestows is a divine trust, a stewardship. God’s creatures are morally accountable for their use or misuse of it. In fallen human society God wills civil government for the promotion of justice and order. He approves an ordering of authoritative and creative relationships in the home by stipulating certain responsibilities of husbands, wives, and children. He wills a pattern of priorities for the church as well: Jesus Christ the head, prophets and apostles through whom redemptive revelation came, and so on.

The inspired Scriptures, revealing God’s transcendent will in objective written form, are the rule of faith and conduct through which Christ exercises his divine authority in the lives of Christians.

Revolt against particular authorities has in our time widened into a revolt against all transcendent and external authority. The widespread questioning of authority is condoned and promoted in many academic circles.
Philosophers with a radically secular outlook have affirmed that God and the supernatural are mythical conceptions, that natural processes and events comprise the only ultimate reality. All existence is said to be temporal and changing, all beliefs and ideals are declared to be relative to the age and culture in which they appear. Biblical religion, therefore, like all other, is asserted to be merely a cultural phenomenon. The Bible’s claim to divine authority is dismissed by such thinkers; transcendent revelation, fixed truths, and unchanging commandments are set aside as pious fiction.

In the name of humanity’s supposed “coming of age,” radical secularism champions human autonomy and creative individuality. Human beings are lords of their own destiny and inventors of their own ideals and values, it is said. They live in a supposedly purposeless universe that has itself presumably been engendered by a cosmic accident. Therefore human beings are declared to be wholly free to impose upon nature and history whatever moral criteria they prefer. In such a view, to insist on divinely given truths and values, on transcendent principles, would be to repress self-fulfillment and retard creative personal development. Hence the radically secular view goes beyond opposing particular external authorities whose claims are considered arbitrary or immoral; radical secularism is aggressively hostile to all external authority, viewing it as intrinsically restrictive of the autonomous human spirit.

Any reader of the Bible will recognize rejection of divine authority and definitive revelation of what is right and good as an age-old phenomenon. It is not at all peculiar to the contemporary person “come of age”; it was found already in Eden. Adam and Eve revolted against the will of God in pursuit of individual preference and supposed self-interest. But their revolt was recognized to be sin, not rationalized as philosophical “gnosis” at the frontiers of evolutionary advance.

If one takes a strictly developmental view, which considers all reality contingent and changing, where is the basis for humanity’s decisively creative role in the universe? How could a purposeless cosmos cater to individual self-fulfillment?

Only the biblical alternative of the Creator-Redeemer God, who fashioned human beings for moral obedience and a high spiritual destiny, truly preserves the permanent, universal dignity of the human species. The Bible does so, however, by a demanding call for personal spiritual decision.
The Bible sets forth the superiority of humans to the animals, their high dignity (“little less than God”—Ps 8:5) because of the divine rational and moral image that all bear by reason of creation.

In the context of universal human involvement in Adamic sin, the Bible utters a merciful divine call to redemptive renewal through the mediatorial person and work of Christ. Fallen humanity is invited to experience the Holy Spirit’s renewing work, to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, and to anticipate a final destiny in the eternal presence of the God of justice and justification.

Contemporary rejection of biblical tenets does not rest on any logical demonstration that the case for biblical theism is false; it turns rather on a subjective preference for alternative views of “the good life.”
The Bible is not the only significant reminder that human beings stand daily in responsible relationship to the sovereign God. He reveals his authority in the cosmos, in history, and in inner conscience, a disclosure of the living God that penetrates into the mind of every person (Rom 1:18–20; 2:12–15). Rebellious suppression of that “general divine revelation” does not wholly succeed in suspending a fearsome sense of final divine accountability (Rom 1:32).
Yet it is the Bible as “special revelation” that most clearly confronts our spiritually rebellious race with the reality and authority of God.

In the Scriptures, the character and will of God, the meaning of human existence, the nature of the spiritual realm, and the purposes of God for humankind in all ages are stated in propositionally intelligible form that all can understand. The Bible publishes in objective form the criteria by which God judges individuals and nations, and the means of moral recovery and restoration to personal fellowship with him.

Regard for the Bible is therefore decisive for the course of Western culture and in the long run for human civilization generally. Intelligible divine revelation, the basis for belief in the sovereign authority of the Creator-Redeemer God over all human life, rests on the reliability of what Scripture says about God and his purposes. Modern naturalism impugns the authority of the Bible and assails the claim that the Bible is the Word of God written, that is, a transcendently given revelation of the mind and will of God. Attack upon scriptural authority is the storm center both in the controversy over revealed religion and in the modern conflict over civilizational values.

Elwell, W. A., & Beitzel, B. J. (1988). In Baker encyclopedia of the Bible (pp. 296–298). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.

Preceding:

Are there certain books essential to come to faith

Life and an assembly of books

Reliability of message appears from honesty writers

The Bible a book of books

Continued with: The Bible’s View of Itself

Additional reading

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Are there certain books essential to come to faith

On 2016-04-292016-04-29 By Relating to GodIn Bible = Book of books, Christianity, God the Father - Eternal Jehovah, Religion & Church, Trinity14 Comments

When we are looking for God and want to find Him are there certain books in which we should belief and follow?

Many people create themselves gods. We can see that in how people have idols and sometimes go so far to worship those human beings. There are also people who take elements from nature as their god and they speak or pray to trees, sun, stars or look for a god behind everything that happens in nature, and as such have a god for the rain, wind, thunder, sky, or even for each day of the week.

But when we look how those gods respond or what they can do we see that something is lacking. It is always questionable what those gods can do and what they really provide.

Though there is One God Who is superior to all those gods and can do much more than they. About Him is a lot written down throughout the years. But one particular library is very trustworthy and should be best referred to. When we consult that library of Books of books we can find the Word of that God of gods, Who is most reliable.

White-collar criminal defense lawyer Joel Cohen questions if the Bible’s factuality is essential to faith.

Many people wonder if one can trust what religious people say about the Bible. Is there reason to believe in the factuality of the Bible’s contents, and that the Almighty God Himself was its Author?

Cohen writes:

Indeed, to worship God as religion demands, must one believe that God actually performed the acts attributed to Him; must we accept as authentic His purported interactions – His Creation of the universe and mankind, the plagues that He visited on Egypt, His splitting of the Red Sea and His conversations with mankind, Moses, Abraham and David. More to the point, must we obdurately accept them in the particular and peculiar ways described in the Bible? {Is the Bible’s factuality essential to faith?}

A bible from 1859. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It all depends how you want to look at that Book of books. In which way do we have to look at those different writings, and take them as stories or real reviews of what happened at the earlier times? Several people do find that we have to take those Biblical accounts as morality plays or anecdotal narratives, created by human beings without God’s help or involvement.

When you take a closer look at them, you will find strange things, which would shed a light on those writers, they normally would hide for others.

We may choose to believe that God dictated nothing whatsoever to Moses, and merely instructed a spiritually inspired Moses to write of the Creation.

writes Cohen and continues

We may choose to believe that all that God really wants from mankind is for it to live a conventionally moral life based on civility, charity and love of one’s fellow man. That a moral life is not only the sine qua non to a life of faith, but is also its sole prerequisite. We may believe that all of the meticulous laws of animal sacrifice (morphed, upon the Temple’s destruction, into communal prayer), the Sabbath’s sanctity and kashrut were fashioned by man himself in order to nationalistically (if you will) create a “culture.” Perhaps even, a culture that designated this particular Society as having been chosen, while others were not. {Is the Bible’s factuality essential to faith?}

Today we have different media and we always can pick up what is written or filmed before. At the old times there were no sources people could consult and not all where so literate they could read the stones or scrolls. For that reason passing the word form one generation to the next mostly was done in the aural way and history had to be so compressed or said in such manner people could easily remember it.

Orality, the first and still most widespread mode of human communication. Far more than “just talking,” oral tradition refers to a dynamic and highly diverse oral-aural medium for evolving, storing, and transmitting knowledge, art, and ideas. It is typically contrasted with literacy, with which it can and does interact in myriad ways, and also with literature, which it dwarfs in size, diversity, and social function. {Encyclopaedia Britannica}

What is so special about that aural tradition, that not likewise other aural stories, these stories kept the same over centuries.

Even Voltaire, who wanted to destroy the Bible and distributed pamphlets against that book, had to confess that he could not imagine that when there would be a watch that there would not be a watchmaker. Looking at mankind and the plants and animals around us, and when you get to know how wonderfully they are made it would be very strange to believe there would be not a Master Inventor or Maker behind them, providing this life. When those people grew up and multiplied from one generation to an other, they carried with them the stories of their families. To their next of kin they brought stories from kings (Solomon) herdsman (David), man who could tell about things which happened many years later and as such were visionaries (Isaiah, Zacharia), fisherman (John) doctor (Luke), publican (Matthew), scholar (Paul) etc..
That collection of stories written on 3 continents: Africa, Asia and Europe, under different circumstances: in desserts, humble homes, palaces, prisons, etc., written in three languages, Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, became the first translated Great Book, and became the most translated and reprinted book in the world, a best-seller of all times.

Voltaire is death. His house and the printing machines became again used, this time to print bibles.

Interesting to note is that those writers also told not such nice things about themselves. Proud being inherited by man you would expect their visions would be contributed to themselves. But more than 3800 times the writers do say that their words do not come form them but from the Higher Power God, the Adonai Elohim Hashem Jehovah.
Every time we read:

Jehovah, god, said to me

The word of the Most High, Jehovah God, came to me

Naturally you could assume they were telling lies; But how could they tell about things which had not happened yet and could use names which did not mean anything yet at the time they lived?

Would such liars than be able to produce such special writings which can inspire so many people and can bring forth so much goodness? Bitter sources cannot bring forth sweet waters.

The 40 different writers of the assembly of books, written over a period of more than 1500 years, also never contradict each other. This whilst they wrote about one of the most sensitive subjects on earth: God.

Though many rabbis as well as priests and ministers say it does not matter if the Bible is written under the guidance of God or if their congregants want to read the Bible with skepticism, or see it as somewhat of a work of historical/Biblical fiction.

In the monotheist religions we have seen several groups which started to put more accent on human writings and gave preference to keep to human doctrines instead of holding to the clarity of the simple words written in the books of the Bible. This created many schisms in those religious groups and even made it possible that certain people came to consider themselves still monotheist though they started worshipping what they call a tri-une god, three gods in one.

The man of justice correctly looks at the real question

what do the rabbis themselves believe? Do they say aloud “it doesn’t matter” because they recognize that defending the Bible’s stories to moderns simply won’t (or can’t) be effective, leaving congregants to turn elsewhere or pay less attention to what observant Jews tend to believe? Or is it because they, themselves don’t believe in their authenticity? {Is the Bible’s factuality essential to faith?}

In the Catholic Church we can find many examples of people who call themselves “theologian” and do not believe in God. For them being part of an institution which pays for their living is very handy. Also for the other priests we can ask the same question as for the Jewish rabbe or the Muslim imam when they utter either in their sermon or tete a tete that a Holy Scripture account’s authenticity “doesn’t matter,”

do they immediately then mutter to themselves: “But yet it happened”? And, really, does it and should it matter if an observant rabbi/teacher doesn’t himself believe in exacting fashion that the Bible is God’s literal Word transmitted by God to Moses at Sinai? {Is the Bible’s factuality essential to faith?}

If you want to get to know the only real God, in a way it does not matter if you believe it or not that the Bible is God’s Word. But it is essential to come to see and understand what happened to mankind and to get to know Who is behind it all.

Do you want to take it as an allegory or metaphor, that is your good right, but then also dare to take the words written in it to take for what they (literally) say. For example when there is written “the son of God“, do not think in your head “god the son” because that is not at all what is written there. Only by accepting the words like they are written down, saying what they are saying and not what some theologians may want you to believe what should be implemented by that saying.

God is a god of order and clarity who does not tell lies. When those writers claim to have written down what God ordered them to write down, we may expect that they did not write down lies but wrote what was meant to be said. Then we also should not fix our eyes on one phrase but look at all the phases being connected with each other and in unison with each other. As such we should always look at the text in contexts with the sayings at other places in that Holy or put or set apart Book of books.

Joel Cohen asks

Can we, ourselves, determine what the Bible truly means to us? While it may be controversial or provocative to articulate it that way, that’s exactly what’s at stake. And, lest it go unsaid, this decision, dilemma if you will, is not limited to Judaism. How different is it that the Fathers of the Church, years after Jesus’s time, dictated that Jesus is actually part of the Holy Trinity (part of God Himself) , even though the Christian Bible never said that. Yet, would a modern Christian remain in good standing, if he doesn’t believe (or, at least state he believes) in a Triune God? {Is the Bible’s factuality essential to faith?}

Real lovers of God should come to see how certain people prefer to be off this world, instead of being of God, following God His advice and wise Words.

When you shall take the historical books and the Bible, you shall come to see that the idea of a three-headed god does not come from Jesus, nor from somewhere in the bible but from those people who wanted to live in peace with the Roman leaders and came to an agreement with emperor Constantine the Great.

You also than come to understand what it means to be from the world or of the world, to belong to the world and what it is to be living in this world being of God or to belong to God.

Those people whose lives are steeped in faith – split so that approximately 50% said they accepted the Bible’s account; the other 50% did not, will have it more difficult to see the light and come to the truth.

Then, after everyone had opened their eyes, the moment of truth arrived: I asked those who had only “confidentially” acknowledged that they didn’t believe the Bible’s account to raise their hands in full view of the now eyes-wide-open congregation. Only a handful raised their hands. How does one explain this? For me at least, the overwhelming majority of those “non-believers” of the Red Sea story who sat on their hands were comfortable in their belief, but only privately. They apparently didn’t want their community to know; essentially, they didn’t want their neighbors to think “less” of them. {Is the Bible’s factuality essential to faith?}

Lots of people are afraid to talk openly about what they really believe. Lots are convinced that one’s faith is a very personal thing, and should remain so.

People might believe in only certain things their religion places before them, irrespective of whether the Author is divine. But even if they don’t believe in all of it, they remain believers in God, as well as believers in the importance of faith in their lives. {Is the Bible’s factuality essential to faith?}

says Joel Cohen.

We do believe that in case you are wiling to read and study the Bible as a book to come to enlightenment and to learn about the Most High Divine Creator of all things, it shall offer you enough insight to come to understand that it is really the Word of God, and that there is really only One True God of gods, Who is One, and that we do have a sent one from God who is one mediator between God and man.

Preceding article: All about love, not needing disasters

Please find additional reading:

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Religious people and painful absence of spring of living water

On 2016-03-302016-03-30 By GuestspeakerIn Christianity, God the Father - Eternal Jehovah, Jeshua - Jesus Christ Son of God, Relationship & Connection, Religion & Church21 Comments

Religious people often are looking for their gods or for The God and may find those gods or God useful for obtaining things in life. It is said that

Christians find God beautiful and knowing Him is the chief good they seek. {Gazing Upon True Beauty}

Lots of those people who call themselves Christian do not see the spiritual lifeline that will keep them from giving their heart to lesser loves and other beauties that will ultimately lead them into bondage, misery, and despair.

With most of those calling themselves Christian there is a painful absence of the spring of the living water, welling up in the lives of many walking around on this earth.

The fundamental reason why is that we have obeyed our thirst rather than embracing God’s gift. {Image is Nothing…Thirst is Everything…Obey Your Thirst}

Most Christians do not listen to the words of Jesus or do not want to hear what he says about his relationship with his heavenly Father. They prefer to listen to the false teachings of those who call themselves theologians and twist the words of the Holy Scriptures.

To cherish to commend gave on 2016 March 18 a sound definition from the British-born Canadian Christian theologian who is known in the low church Anglican and Reformed traditions, James I. Packer his classic book Knowing God in the chapter “Thy Word is Truth”

“A person who acknowledges and lives under the Word of God. He submits without reserve to the Word of God written in ‘the Scripture of truth’ (Daniel 10:21), believing the teaching, trusting the promises, following the commands. His eyes are to the God of the Bible as his Father, and the Christ of the Bible as his Savior. The Word of God has convinced him of sin and assured him of forgiveness. He aspires to have his whole life brought into line with it. The promises are before him as he prays, and the precepts are before him as he moves among others.

He knows that in addition to the Word of God spoken directly to him the Scriptures, God’s Word has also gone forth to create, and control, and order things around him; but since the Scriptures tell him that all things work together for his good, the thought of God ordering his circumstances brings him only joy. He is an independent fellow, for he uses the Word of God as a touchstone by which to test the various views that are put to him, and he will not touch anything which he is not sure that Scripture sanctions.”

J.I. Packer asked back in 1973: “Why does this description fit so few of us who profess to be Christians these days?” He concludes: “You will find it profitable to ask your conscience, and let it tell you.” {What is a Christian}

Jesus very well knew the Scriptures. After he was born he had to learn everything and before his death had still to say he did knew a lot of things not, whilst only God knows everything. The One Who can not die placed Jesus above the angels (him having been lower than angels before), but Jesus knew also he could not do anything without God Who is greater than him.

English: Resurrection of Christ — Resurrection of Christ (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Only True God Who send his only begotten beloved son to the world has given the world a spring for new life. Because that man, not doing his own will, not falling for temptation, always showing his love for God and fulfilling God’s commandments, accepted his ransom offering and took him out of the dead, to come to sit next to (or besides) Him (God) as a high-priest and mediator between Him (God) and man.

Ephesians 1:20 (Anderson)
which he made active in the Christ when he raised him from the dead, and caused him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly places,

Matthew 26:64 (Anderson)
64 Jesus said to him: You have said. Moreover, I say to you, Hereafter you shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of the Almighty, and coming upon the clouds of heaven.

Hebrews 1:3 (Anderson)
who, being the effulgence of his glory and the exact representation of his essence, and upholding all things by his own powerful word, when he had by himself made expiation for our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

Hebrews 10:12 (Anderson)
but after offering one sacrifice for sins, he himself sits continually at the right hand of God,

Hebrews 3:1-3 (Anderson)

Hebrews 3
1 Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of our confession, Christ Jesus, 2 who is faithful to him that appointed him, as Moses also was faithful in all his house. 3 For this man is counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who has builded the house, has more honor than the house.

Hebrews 3:1-3 (Anderson)

Hebrews 3
1 Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of our confession, Christ Jesus, 2 who is faithful to him that appointed him, as Moses also was faithful in all his house. 3 For this man is counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who has builded the house, has more honor than the house.

1 Timothy 2:5-7 (Anderson)
5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself a ransom for all, [of which] the testimony [has been given] in its proper times, 7 to give which testimony I have been appointed a preacher and an apostle; (I speak the truth, and lie not;) a teacher of the Gentiles in faithfulness and in truth.

Those who call themselves Christian should belief what Jesus says and what the God Who does not tell lies says. they also should come together to the city of the living God, becoming partakers of the Body of Christ. Together they should unite and become one with Christ, as Christ is one with God. The ones who call themselves “Christian” should belong to the congregation of the firstborn, who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous, who have been made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant. They should really appreciate to have received the grace of salvation under the sprinkled blood that speaks of something better than Abel’s does.

Real Christians are those who follow the teachings of Christ and take care not to refuse the one who is speaking!

Hebrews 12:22-27 (Anderson)
22 But you have come to Mount Zion, and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels; 23 to the general assembly and church of the first-born, who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the just made perfect, 24 and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than the blood of Abel. 25 See that you reject not him that speaks: for if they escaped not who rejected that earthly man who gave the oracles, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that is from heaven, 26 whose voice then shook the earth; but now he has promised, saying, Yet once more I will shake not the earth only, but also the heaven. 27 And this [prophecy], Yet once more, signifies the removing of the things that are shaken, as of things that have been made, that the things which can not be shaken may remain.

The native New Mexican with roots in Santa Fe and Albuquerque Paul Smith, ventures into troubling waters today or is into foggy skies, wrestling for the past few days with a question that recurs frequently in conversations among brothers and sisters in Christ.

That question is, “Who is my brother or sister in Christ?” {Boundaries of Brotherhood}

Which is a very important question by which we as Christians should stand still. Because being a Christian is as follower of Christ also wanting to be a Brother in Christ.

At the center of the discussion is the frequently repeated and much discussed phrase, “in necessariis unitas, in dubiis libertas, in omnibus charitas.” (in matters of necessity, unity; in matters of doubt, liberty; in all things love) Confusion and ignorance reign. {Boundaries of Brotherhood}

We should be fully aware that there is a big difference in which way those Christians consider Jesus to be “Lord“. Lots of them want to make him to be the Most Highest Lord of lords instead of the worldly Lord of lords, the son of man and son of God.

Intellectually we may know that God’s grace must exceed our own human limits – otherwise we would be God!

– but emotionally I have a hard time welcoming those who disagree with me. After all, I am always right (c’mon – my tongue is firmly planted in my cheek). {Boundaries of Brotherhood}

writes the blogger of Instrument rated theology.

He seems to know that he must reject out-of-hand the growing chorus of the “easy believeism” that is sweeping through the Churches of Christ, and says

That is nothing other than the “Cheap Grace” identified by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. We cannot accept that two diametrically opposite views of Holy Scripture can both be correct. We cannot accept that two diametrically opposed views of worship – or especially of the requirements of Kingdom membership – can both be correct. We must allow for differences of opinion and conscience, but at some point there must be a determination of wrong and right, of heresy and of sound doctrine. Likewise, we must be careful that we do not elevate our own intellectual prowess to the level of God’s judgment. We do not tell God who is a part of his Kingdom, God does that. Refer to my Undeniable Truth for Theological Reflection #1, the foundation for theology must be humility. Our greatest error is in proclaiming that we are beyond making errors. If universalism is wrong, so is Phariseeism. {Boundaries of Brotherhood}

At the same time it is that want to have our human ideas instead of accepting the words of the Holy Scriptures that is dividing Christendom and Christianity. Human beings preferring to stick to human doctrines instead of Biblical doctrines make it that we do have so many denominations.

Problem is that not enough people are willing to pray for God’s Spirit to guide us into the healthy truth. When they ask their own gods (except from the Only One True God, not Jesus but Jehovah), whoever they might be, we do not think they will get answers from them, but if they listen carefully they shall be able to hear the Call of God, because God knows the heart, and when they sincerely want to look for God He shall guide them.

– the truth that sets proper boundaries where God has placed them, and not where fallible humans have placed them. {Boundaries of Brotherhood}

Pastor Craig Schweitzer thinks

Jesus is challenging us to open our hearts and minds to hear today’s humbling good news – God’s immeasurable love. {“God Loves You.” 03.06.2016 Sermon}

and asks

Are you and I open to that good news? The good news of our prodigal God’s immeasurable love that is freely and extravagantly shared with all: love that we cannot earn, love that we do not deserve. And our response to God’s grace and mercy encourages and invites us, even pleads with us, to share God’s perfect love with others. Even when those others look and act a whole lot like the two sons in today’s parable. (This section was inspired by the writing in Day Resources, Sundays & Seasons.com) {“God Loves You.” 03.06.2016 Sermon}

It makes it important for us to decide which way we do want to go. do we want ot keep to human tradition and keep sticking to the so called Holy Trinity, or do we want to take the Word of God, the Bible to be infallible and telling us the truth?

Fewer and fewer people take the time for deep study and thought anymore, partly because of the busyness of our lives. We are quick to believe what we hear on social media or in the news because we just can’t be bothered with actually taking the time to investigate and think for ourselves. {Sounds Nice, But is it in the Bible?}

At this site we do ask you to compare what we and others say, with what is written in the most sacred Book of books and best-seller of all times: the Bible.

Let the living water flow of the pages of that book. Let it come into your hands, into your heart and into your spirit, opening your eyes and showing you that Jesus is the Way to the Only One True God.

Read also

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For Dutch speaking readers #3 Dutch triptych’s closing site

On 2016-03-19 By Marcus AmpeIn Bible = Book of books, Christianity, God the Father - Eternal Jehovah, Journal - News & Facts, Relationship & Connection, Religion & Church, World & Universe2 Comments

The Bible, like other scriptures, is open to interpretation depending on an individual’s religious background, personally-held beliefs, general understanding and many other factors. But we do have to be aware that it is God’s message to the world. It is His Word He has given to His creatures so that they might find Him and build up a good relationship with Him. It is the source which can bring us out of darkness.

Those assembled 66 books form the guide we are asking you to take with you on your trip to finding God. On the third component of the Flemish Triptych around looking for and finding God, the aim is to help those who have managed to do the first steps, namely looking for God (Op zoek naar God) and secondly finding the way which can bring us to God (De Weg naar God).

The blog on the third panel of the triptych opens with saying that we only can find something when we looked thoroughly “Vinden komt pas na goed zoeken“. Already in the first component of the triptych, as on our pages on the Relating to God site, we told our readers that we must know that our Creator Himself is ready to be found. He calls us. He wants to be found (De Schepper God wil gevonden worden).

In this system of things, the world offers many religions and also in Christendom there are many controversies. When we look at reactions of certain people who call themselves Christian it is understandable that non-believers in a god, atheists, are weary about those religious people. Sometimes the way those who call themselves God’s people think and act, makes it difficult to interest unbelievers in the God and His sent one and to hold those who are new in the faith.

Whilst the second component has its focus on the way to come to God, the final shutter looks at affirming the decisions which a person has to take when looking for God. Parts of texts published here in English shall be presented over there in Dutch. As such you may find the series on the seen and unseen, the touchable and untouchable, the transient and the imperishable, in Dutch on that site as well in different episodes.

This way you may find there already “Naar het vergankelijke of het onvergankelijke kijken” (Looking at the perishable and imperishable) parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 covering the same subject as in our previous writings “A Start for looking at the unseen and the treasure to look forward to” and “Looking at the seen and going for the unseen“.

The God of Israel said that Israel’s closeness to Him will be seen by the nations around about and it is Him Who all people in the world should come to find and worship. Him alone, and no other God. The God of gods warned people that He wants to relate to them only when they do not make any graven images of Him. Yes He Who demands not to make an idol for ourself, whether in the shape of anything in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters under the earth, is calling His creatures to come to Him and to give only worship to Him. the act of revering or adoring with dignity and high standing should only be done to the Almighty Divine Creator, the Elohim Jehovah Host of hosts.

Exodus 20:1-7 (RNKJV)

Exodus 20
1 And Elohim spake all these words, saying, 2 I am יהוה {Jehovah} thy Elohim, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 3 Thou shalt have no other elohim before me. 4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: 5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I יהוה thy Elohim am a jealous Elohim, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; 6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. 7 Thou shalt not take the name of יהוה thy Elohim in vain; for יהוה will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

In that third section shall be given much attention to That One Who cannot be seen by man.

Exodus 33:19-20 (TS2009)
19 And He said, “I shall cause all My goodness to pass before you, and I shall proclaim the Name of יהוה {Jehovah} before you. And I shall favour him whom I favour, and shall have compassion on him whom I have compassion.” 20 But He said, “You are unable to see My face, for no man does see Me and live.”

The Way to God, God His only begotten son, the Nazarene man of flesh and blood, who really died, can be seen and it is him that we should follow. Whilst in the second component the focus is on Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the third component brings all knowledge together and looks at our relationship between Jesus, God, other people and other created elements like the plants and animals.

Our main focus over-there shall be on the one Who is Spirit and has nothing to do with gold or silver that man wants to use to portray Him.

Acts 17:29 (TS2009)
“Now then, since we are the offspring of Elohim, we should not think that the Elohim is like gold or silver or stone, an image made by the skill and thought of man.

John 4:24 (TS2009)
“Elohim is Spirit, and those who worship Him need to worship in spirit and truth.”

In the first two components we show how we may not be limited on our thinking, to what is going on in the world around us. All panels of the triptych show how we do have to become transformed. Transformed to God sensitivity, understanding the Awesomeness of His Presence around.

All three sites show the reader how we have to allow the Spirit of God to reside in us. To come to a good relationship between God, Jesus and each-other, we do need an open mind and to let the Scriptures bring us assurance that we belong to God when we give ourself up as His children.

Galatians 4:1-8 (TS2009)

Galatians 4
1 And I say, for as long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave, though he is master of all, 2 but is under guardians and trustees till the time prearranged by the father. 3 So we also, when we were children, were under the elementary matters of the world, being enslaved. 4 But when the completion of the time came, Elohim sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under Torah, 5 to redeem those who were under Torah, in order to receive the adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, Elohim has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, “Abba, Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, also an heir of Elohim through Messiah. 8 But then, indeed, not knowing Elohim, you served those which by nature are not mighty ones.

Romans 8:9 (TS2009)
But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of Elohim dwells in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Messiah, this one is not His.

Romans 8:16 (TS2009)
The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of Elohim,

Romans 8:24-28 (TS2009)
24 For in this expectation we were saved, but expectation that is seen is not expectation, for when anyone sees, does he expect it? 25 And if we expect what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with endurance. 26 And in the same way the Spirit does help in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray, but the Spirit Himself pleads our case for us with groanings unutterable. 27 And He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the set-apart ones according to Elohim. 28 And we know that all matters work together for good to those who love Elohim, to those who are called according to His purpose.

***

In het Nederlands is er de triptiek die ook op deze site gebrachte teksten in het Nederlands vertolkt over de drie componenten.

Het derde deel “God vinden” concentreert zich op het eindpunt van misschien een lange weg, warbij wij meerdere keren voor een keuze zullen geplaatst worden.

In de voorziene artikelen zal aangetoond worden dat wij ons betere concentreren op die dingen die niet kunnen gezien worden maar die als wij willen wel waar genomen kunnen worden. Want ook al is God niet zichtbaar voor de mens kunnen wij Zijn wonderwerken en Zijn Kracht wel waar nemen. Wanneer lezers bij het derde deel van de trilogie komen zouden zij op het punt moeten staan waar zij bereid zijn God in zich te laten nestelen. Want pas als wij ons zelf over geven aan God kunnen wij opgenomen worden als kinderen van Hem. Hiertoe moeten wij echter het kinderschap met de wereld opgeven en bereid zijn om die hechte relatie met de Enige Ware God aan te gaan die geen verering duldt van andere goden.

God vinden - Relatie met God pagina — God vinden – Relatie met God pagina

Preceding:

For Dutch speaking readers #1 On the first component of a triptych

For Dutch speaking readers #2 Second component of triptych

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For Dutch speaking readers #2 Second component of triptych

On 2016-03-182016-03-18 By Marcus AmpeIn Journal - News & Facts, Relationship & Connection, Religion & Church, World & Universe2 Comments

At “For Dutch speaking readers #1 On the first component of a triptych” we looked at the subjects tackled on the Dutch counterpart of this and the Weebly site.

The second component of the triptych concerning looking and finding God treats the subject of the Way to God: “De weg naar God“.

“The way to God” is a site created for those who are sincerely looking for God and see in front of them many denominations or churches calling out that they have the truth, but all having very different ideas.

That site wants to show people there are many ways in front of us. We can choose out of a lot of options and directions. Man being confronted by so many religions and so many different groups in each religion may wonder which religion is the right one and in that religion for which group he or she has to go.

Some may think that people “go to church”

probably for the same reason that, when Adam & Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, and thought God was near, they “hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden” (Genesis 3:8 NKJV). {Why People Don’t Come To Church}

Going to a church may be a valuable part of coming into the presence of God. Or when looking for God to find them there. But we should know that God is everywhere and not limited to one particular space.

Though we may agree with the saying

When people sin today, they think by staying away from “church,” they are hiding from God. {Why People Don’t Come To Church}

But like Adam & Eve found out,

“there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account” (Hebrews 4:13 NKJV).

The world has to know that God is calling all people, sinners and those who try to live a good life and are doing good. Non-believers or un-believers also can do very good things and for them it would also be better if they could see the importance to go on the right way to God. Also to them this website, our Weebly twin, and the Dutch antipode wants to bring them to see that mankind has to come on the right track.

When you do not believe in God this site and for the Dutch readers the Flemish sites can bring you closer to the One Who wants to have a relationship with His creatures. As an unbeliever it shall not hurt to have a look at what we have to say or to make a visit at a Christian church and to see and hear what they have to tell you there.

It is when “an unbeliever or an uninformed person” attends church, that “the secrets of his heart are revealed; and so, falling down on his face, he will worship God” (1 Corinthians 14:24-25 NKJV). The churches of Christ invite you to come. {Why People Don’t Come To Church}

Lots of people may think you have to be a fool to believe in a god. “Idioot zijn om te geloven?” (Being an idiot to believe) tackles that idea and want to show you that perhaps you might be smarter than all those who want you to keep away from God.

“Paadjes, straten, autowegen, hoeken en kantjes” (Paths, streets, highways, corners and edges) looks at the world-map with her many paths, which bring people from one to an other place. It tells that even if we have a modern gps in the old ages already a very good satmap was provided by the Creator of all what we see around us.

The Maker of that most elaborate Plan gives His readers the liberty to choose freely. In “De Plannenontwerper laat kaarthouders of klanten vrij kiezen” (Plans Planner allows cardholders or customers choose freely) we show how the Maker provide His Plan and how He gave the best Guide to go on our road-trip.

The coming up series showing that there is a way to joy and eternal happiness shall be placed on that second component in Dutch, or should we better say shall be translated to this site in English?

Here too we shall look how you can experience the daily management and joy of God. On The Way to God (De Weg naar God) the focus is on the many roads man has in front of him but only one true Way to God. On that site we want to convince people that we can be sure that there is something much better than the life man finds here at the moment. We shall show that also this system of things shall be limited in time, the same as any living being is, but that we do have the prospect to something much better.

The coming up series on this site and in Dutch on the “Weg naar God” site shall bring answers to your questions about this and the future life.

On that site we also shall look at different religions and how even in Christian religious groups so many have gone far away form the Biblical teachings. Like on this site we want to bring all those who are looking for God to come to see that we should use the Books God provided and listen to His Words to come to the Truth.

Therefore please do make sure that you always keep the bible at hand to check what is really written there.

De Weg naar god - Kruispunt pagina = The Way to God showing the many road-sings and the best way to choose to find God. — De Weg naar god – Kruispunt pagina = The Way to God showing the many road-sings and the best way to choose to find God.

Preceding: For Dutch speaking readers #1 On the first component of a triptych

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