Because anyone can say anything, but God put many things on the record for us, and signed them with fulfilment. For one, Isaiah was authenticated in this way even before his prophecies of the messiah which were fulfilled in Christ.

That's the definition as Islam would have it. That makes any old psychic hotline lady a prophet as well.

No, the way it was done in the OT was that if someone had a message with a prophecy from God to declare, they would stand before the elders of that time and deliver it. The scribes would record and notarize it. That way, if it came true, it would be on the record who said it, and further attention would be paid to the other things they said. There was extremely little tolerance for false prophets, so such was rarely attempted. This is why we have the books of the prophets.

^^^ this. Or as Ravi Zacharius once asked of moral relativism: Is anything "Wrong?"

You missed the premise, IF you love, obey, and believe him, THEN his personal walk with you is a natural consequence of that. I attest to that wholeheartedly.

You can get life education anywhere. Unfortunately you can also get spirit education anywhere, but it just happens to lead you in every single direction except to the in-the-flesh, resurrected Jesus, unless it comes from God.

Or, "you err, knowing not the scriptures, nor the power of God."

From life itself.. walking with God for a change, trusting Christ and finding him faithful every single day since, and finding this verse quite true. I wish I had time to elaborate, but that's the root of it.

Not exactly. It's more like this:

You can have love without walking with God, but if you do not have love, you do not walk with God.

Just like one can believe in Christ, but not obey him. We see a lot of that. To paraphrase: "Even Satan and his demons believe, and they tremble."

edit:


All to say, that if you don't love Christ, blaspheming the spirit is a very real but secondary problem for you.

Just in case one thinks all religions are the same...

Let it be known that Islam is more like Judaism + 1 prophet + another prophet (who didn't prophesy) – every prophet and passage that contradicts the later revelations of said prophet + a few essential conspiracy theories to glue it together.

I have heard it from their mouths, in person. Even a widely regarded cleric said: "If not for the punishment of apostasy, Islam would have ended with Mohammed"

It costs 1BTC for a seance now? Oh my.

Likewise, from the pit of my intestinal sentience. 

Well thank you for your patience. I notice in your response a couple places where I may have miscommunicated. Perhaps we should leave it there.

Heard. If you think you're god, your argument is with God.


Really I was talking about the kind of books that lead one to where you are at now, and where I used to be. I'm not a book-burning kind of person, but I've learned: It's garbage in, garbage out.


Figurative! Translated: If I had the time, I could analyze and refute the statements, premises and intentions of the above mentioned categories of books, at least the ones I have read and are aware of. Work with me here.


Sorry, you honestly kinda lost me there.

EDIT: If you don't believe a thing in the book, of course you're going to think the derived ideas are terrible. I just happen to have more to go on now than the book itself.

Does it not take more pure, unaided ego-centric faith to believe that one is god than to take it on authority of scripture that God is external and sovereign, albeit arbitrary?

I suspect I know the books you wish others to read, and given what I've seen and been through, I can tear them apart from cover to cover. They certainly did more harm than good. Do be careful what you choose to read, it can become a regrettably inextricable part of you.

It kinda makes me sick too. Remember, correlation is not causation. You can call me a religious fanatic (perhaps I've demonstrated that), but I've never preached conquest like that. The only problem I have with the present anti-war movement is an inherent ignorance of certain major geopolitical realities, disposed of in favor of details which suit the cause.

We all do well to evaluate each message we hear for it's motive.

My own motive is simply to share the few things that I've found true after decades of wandering, exploring, testing, and evaluating. The lowest common denominator is this: My faith is weak, but my saviour is faithful.

Early militancy was symptomatic of Roman Catholic control of the church (and it's offshoots), wherein the bible was not taught to its subjects, only religiously recited in Latin, which few knew. Meanwhile even protestants had to fight for their lives. Do you know what they did to Tyndale?

This was all pretty far askew from the ideals espoused by Jesus, in fact more the behavior of religious Pharisees, whom Christ sternly rebuked.

Catholicism is now much more broad and well informed, responsible for a lot of good work, and IMHO are becoming less attached to the more heretical teachings, but still quite far from some of Jesus' own admonitions.

Now, if you're referring to Bush putting the US in Iraq, I don't know any Christians that honestly thought that was a good idea. It really didn't follow with 9/11, it seemed to follow Bush Sr. At any rate, they say that the chemical WMDs that had been there ended up in Syria (which fits), so it might not have been completely baseless.

Much of American "oppressive militancy" is on it's face the attempt (perhaps wrongly) to secure peace and democracy amongst cultures which do not value peace, democracy, or even respect for life. Whatever ulterior motives you assign (and there probably are a few), that is the position and objective which the majority of soldiers adhere to, and many peaceful locals do recognize that their intentions are good, their actions generally necessary to prevent takeover by absolutely ruthless and fanatical factions. A full and proper hand-off of power, however, could take generations. We definitely bit off more than we can chew there, but it seems to me that it was at least as much because of secular world peace idealism as anything else.

Jesus was totally That Guy. Thank God. I want to be That Guy.

Fancy avatar there, ktttn. Roughly translated I get: Taoist, balancing darkness with enlightenment. That's why you see the akashic records as being on neutral ground. I affirm to you, they are not what they seem.

So far so good?

Anyways, whether one believes in biblical prophecies or not, realize that there are a massive number of mystical/channelling groups and cults that people are getting into, usually involving ghosts, angels, gods, aliens, drugs, etc, and amazingly they all present essentially the same exact doomsday message, and it's exactly what the Bible suggests the antichrist would sell the world. "Unite for world peace and purge the absolutists, or { we won't give you free energy | you're going to kill each other | the planetary vibration will stay at a lower density [sic] }." Cite: Ashtar Command, Thrive Movement, Galactic Federation of Light, Zeitgeist, Raelians, Scientology, a thousand others, etc... and AFAIK anyone dabbling in mysticism (though initially considering it an objective pursuit) will find they can hardly object to their statements.

Sadly that message is spreading rapidly through a society that doesn't know any better. Whether you believe it is of spiritual or lunatic origin, the antichrist message works against the libertarian principle far more than the Christian message does.

At any rate, the world is absolutely primed for the fulfilment of end times prophecy, Bitcoin playing an uncredited role. Should the mark system come into effect, it would have to be quite generous but potentially exclusive, as it was with the Romans.

I'm also curious how one might explain how over 2000 years ago anyone could have supposed that the whole progressive world would be primed and ready to unite behind some irreverently charismatic leader who could actually bring world peace?

Can you imagine right now how popular someone like that would become, especially if he had the worship-inducing favor of the global media, hollywood, politicians, even muslims? There would literally be no limit to the damage he could do. Or so he may believe.

cescan, are you gonna come through here, or do I have to do it?

Nice! Just curious if you've indefinitely dropped the reward system, if so I'll adjust my sig to suit..

I don't usually indulge in philosophy, but try this on for size if you need a place to fit God in your head.

Why is the universe the way it is? Ask this of yourself iteratively. Think bigger than the universe, or any other meta-universes you can concoct, snow globes, nostrils, multiverses, fields or otherwise, and you eventually get... nothing.

How do you go from no energy in no field of nothing, containing no objects, motion, or information, to the particular arrangement of atoms that constitutes you, right here, right now?

What could possibly ever have caused anything to happen in all of eternity, ever?

You have to eliminate everything you see around you, every property of the known universe, energy, quantum physics, even information.

All that is left, is the fundamental truths.
1 + 1 = 2
Pi = 3.141592653587...
The prime numbers are what they are.
And one glaring fact, that if anything should ever exist in eternity, it will have to be decided what that shall be.

Logically, the first and only thing that could ever be in all eternity, would HAVE to be a point of authority over every single parameter to follow.

This particular universe is derived from the LOGOS, the Word, the massive download of information and energy direct from the absolutely sovereign universal mind of the Godhead, as he sovereignly unfolded from reality itself. "I AM THAT I AM."  

Prophecy is just one example of how he has chosen to reveal himself on Earth. You can almost always invent some whacked out theory to explain it away if you are that uncomfortable with the notion of there being a supreme authority to the universe. Others accept it, but reject him based on their ideas of how such a God ought to behave or reveal himself. Yet others invent a "source" or "force" that is passionately disinterested, but explains away some of the little things that don't make sense without the supernatural.

If you try taking God at his Word and focus on Jesus, letting him impact you, you might find that the technical minutiae are on the other side of the equation, and not such a hurdle.

He made us free to choose him, and even though we have derivatively, corporately and personally disobeyed his most fundamental law (Love God first, and love your neighbor as yourself), he still paved the way for those who would humble themselves to be saved from the utter destruction that a sovereign authority MUST dish out on the disobedient. Even in Daniel's day a King could not reverse a decree, or it would invalidate his authority. So it is with God, and so just punishment must be.

We all fall short. Only Jesus could perfectly obey and please God. Everyone else would be toast if they were not "in Him." If you don't think you deserve his wrath, how on earth can you be saved from it?

The decree is eternal: The wages of sin is death. Jesus innocent blood, shed for your atonement, is the loophole, the Neo, the hack that lets minds which were free to reject him, also be free to worship him. If you're dissatisfied with the headcount, that's your conviction to do something about it, starting with yourself.

TL;dr: God is. Take it up with him.

...still others take Jesus at his word, as with the parable of Lazarus.

By the way, if you're familiar with Jesus story but you've never read Isaiah 53, give it a read. It speaks of none but Christ, yet by the end you might forget that it was widely published and cherished, centuries before Jesus was even born.

http://www.blueletterbible.org/Bible.cfm?b=Isa&c=53&v=1&t=NIV#top

This passage lends to why he could claim he is The way, The truth and The life, and no man comes to the Father but by Him.

If 400 other prophecies are too many too ponder, consider whether anyone else could have satisfied these 48 like he did:

http://therefinersfire.org/accurate_messiah_prophecies.htm