Thanks for your response. And by doing that, what you did show was how your last reply is based on logical fallacy as are your other replies Many prophecies working together do not by themselves, make themselves true. I really don't even need any bias to understand how an imaginary Messianic concept is exactly what it is - imaginary. As already said, I carefully considered your “evidence”. It’s pretty much all the same circular argument grounded on nothing else but logical fallacy. Bible evidence isn’t evidence the Bible is true, no matter how much more Bible you keep throwing at it. You’re just repeating the same false argument over and over but that won’t make it any the more reasonable. It just doesn’t work. If you want to make a grounded logical or reasonable argument, you cannot use more Bible to say the Bible is true. There’s really nothing scholarly about a "Prophetic Perfect Tense". The prophetic perfect tense is a verb tense that some claim is used by the prophets in the Hebrew Bible. This literary technique refers to future events in the past tense. Many scholars contest the existence of this tense, claiming that all of the events ascribed to prophetic perfect can be understood to have indeed occurred in the past. Furthermore, this "Prophetic Perfect Tense" idea bites back hard! It must mean that by using the Isaiah 9:6 passage word for word, Christians are also prophesying a messiah to come in their future. So “a child” is not yet born, "a son is" not yet given. Christians 2,000 years ago must also have used the "Prophetic Perfect Tense" if Isiah did. It was Hebrew rabbis who concocted this verb tense which is neither used nor accepted anywhere else as literary form outside of the Bible. Seeing how Jews don’t believe a messiah has "come", you could say it’s something of a bear trap. You may want to think more carefully about using it in the future or should that be in the present, or maybe in the past?! A completely imaginary concept and a set of self-contradicting plans containing many witnesses as the fictional creations of numerous imaginative authors over thousands of years, is no evidence that would stand in court, or for that matter, even stand reasoning. When people hear an imaginary concept speak out loud, the only evidence that provides is they’re suffering from a psychiatric disorder, or writing make-believe to convince those gullible enough to believe them. Not true. I said no such thing. The Bible is evidence of how highly creative superstitious Jews with daddy issues wrote down their fears, hopes and political objectives in the self-righteous context of a powerful all-seeing imaginary God, as so many have done before they did and have done since. I said I would not accept, nor should anyone accept, the use of the same thing as evidence for itself, including a defense attorney who is claiming to offer sound, reasonable and reliable evidence. It isn’t a case of not wanting evidence examined. It simply isn’t evidence grounded on anything but itself. If Marvel said Spiderman spoke, it’s absurd to use Marvel as evidence that Spiderman spoke. If the Bible says God spoke, it is absurd to use the Bible as evidence that God spoke. Both imaginary concepts cannot use their own books as evidence for what their own books say is true. And it’s no use using DC stories to claim Marvel is true anymore than trying to use the Hebrew Scriptures to claim the Christian Bible is true. Jews indeed generally and often wrote of a ‘chosen one’ with a special role, sent by their imaginary God, as did various other versions of Hebrew text. Dead Sea Scrolls describe how a messiah was not also being God at the same time, as the Christian version has it, but would however be someone with Red Hair and live to a ripe Old Age. That’s no prophesy for a "Mighty God" or an "Everlasting Father” in the shape of the Western Christian Jesus who is invariably portrayed as white with blond hair and supposed to actually be God, which must mean he committed suicide around the age of 30 to 40 years old to save everyone from the sins he gave them in the first place. Like forcing COVID-19 onto people and then saying they’re forgiven for catching it. Until you are prepared to grasp the logic of why it is not sound reasoning to use Bible stories to claim Bible stories are true, you will never make a sound or reasonable or reliable argument. On the other hand you've given very good argument for unrelentingly blind, uncompromising religious faith. Thanks once again for the conversation.
These are not hard questions if you were more willing to accept the answer. For example, if your not willing to accept the exclusive supremacy of Christ, the concept of "heaven" will perplex you. Likewise you will not be able to interptet the saying , "The kingdom of God is within you". Christ, and the domain of Christ are the same thing. "Heaven" refers to the domain of Christ, as well the experience of (feeling of being) Christ. Thus, Christ and Heaven and "The Kingdom of God" are the same thing. Christ is a BEING (life itself), a SPIRITUAL being, which knows only the experience and feeling of bliss and ecstasy . While you insist "heaven" is a place you can go as a person resembling a man or a woman, you deny the supremacy of Christ and automatically exclude yourself from Christ's domain (from the experience of Christ as Self comprising the entirety of Chist's own reality). Thus, to be "in Christ" and to be "Christ" is the same thing. The supremacy of Christ means nothing other than Christ really exists. If you think something else exists, other than Christ, you are actively in competition with Christ for its own attributes. Thus, if you say you are living "your life", you are actively stealing the attribute of Life Itself from Christ, and appropriating it for private purposes. How is that working out for you?
Change Christ to Xi JinPing and Heaven to People's Republic of China and that could be a page right out the Chinese Communist Party's handbook for induction into a Xi JinPing re-education camp.
Not that kind of supremacy. There is a hierarchy of power in China. In Reality (in Heaven , in Christ) there is actual total equality. There are no "angels" making up some hierarchy of angelic power. This means there is actual total "communism" so to speak. Everything is shared without loss for sharing, like knowledge. You can know everything and I can know everything. If knowledge is power then the power of knowing everything is equal . There is no reeducation because there is no education. Knowledge is shared not learned. There are no "things" that one has that another does not have or cannot have. For these reasons there is rather a "oneness" rather than communism as it is experienced in hell (in this world). Where there is oneness there is no distinction between one or another. Thus, this condition can be named with one name (I like Christ) even though there are no such thing as names. There are no names because besides Christ no other kind of being actually exists. This is what I mean by the supremacy of Christ. As a "man" you don't exist. This is learned but it's learned in hell not heaven.
God reveals His name in Exodus 3:14, that "I AM that I AM." The word "that" here is very general and capable of many different English translations, such as I AM who I AM; all are relevant. God in effect says that: He is what He is, He is who He is, and He has been this way forever and always will be. A God who can create a galaxy in an instant, placing every atom exactly where He wants it does not need to explain anything to us. We do not get to vote on what He is like. He gives us the will to reject Him if we want. He has promised that if we seek Him under the conditions and way that He has prescribed, He is gracious and merciful. He defines right and wrong and purity and polluted. If we desire to share in His holiness with Him, we can by being cleansed through the blood Jesus Christ shed on the cross, washing away our sins. If we choose to reject this for any reason and choose to stand before Him on our own merits, He gives us the option. The day of reckoning will come for every person: It has been appointed for man once to die and after this the judgment. However, no man can see God and live. No man can stand before Him and prove God wrong. As a person lives his life, he accumulates or stores up wrath for the day of judgment (Romans 2). Wrath or blessing is the choice before a person today. A superficial expression of salvation does not cut it. True salvation results in a changed life. God gives a person all kinds of reasons to understand these truths. A person rejects the evidence to his own detriment. It does not harm an eternal God what we do with Him. If a person seeks Him, he will find He is merciful, gracious, loving, and desires our good. He will bless the person who desires His blessings. However, everyone of us leaves behind a trail of destruction and misery from the things he has done. Even slight, seeming innocuous sins have eternal consequences. If a persons loves sin more than he loves God, that is his choice. However, there are eternal consequences to the decision.
Again, there is no name for the Supreme Being because it is the only Being that exists. And did i say ONLY? If there are more than one beings within the supreme being, they are all the same: equal in every aspect. They are "one", and the One Being is all that exists. Names derive from the concept of differentiation. The One Being i speak of does not differentiate from anything. It is everything, so to speak. If there are more than one being within the One Being, they do not differentiate at all, not one bit. So again, there is no need for names. Each being within the One Being IS EVERYTHING, just as the One Being IS EVERYTHING. This oneness precludes any need or desire for a name. Names are only needed by sinners and learners. Once the knowledge of the One Being is lost through sin, the sinner conjures up many different kinds of gods, naming each one. Finally a teacher arrives who remembers/knows the qualities of the One Being i've been speaking since the top of this text. The teacher gives the description a name so students (those who are repenting of sin) can differentiate the One Being from the multitude of gods that the sinners have named, such as "Yahweh". Once the students arrive at their destiny, there is now no more need for names, as all other gods have been forgotten as fake, false, and most importantly: non-existent. Jesus was a teacher who described the One Being using terms like "Father", and "The Kingdom Of God", neither of which are names. It was a NEW description, unlike the OLD gods described by the Hebrews. Furthermore, Jesus claimed a close relationship with the "Father", once again defying any descriptions every proposed by the Jews. Some Jews called him the "Messiah", but not only did he NOT fit the description, he also denied it, saying, "My kingdom is not of this world" (contrary to Jewish descriptions). Eventually Jesus came to be known as "Christ", a Greek word borrowed when translating Messiah from Hebrew to Greek, even before Jesus was born. However, the etymology of the greek term is obscure, as there are no Greek texts that use the term such that it's original meaning can be defined. Nor are there any old Greek dictionaries that tell what it means. There simply is no equivalent concept, in Greek literature, that compares to the Messiah of Jewish literature. The closest we seem able to come is "the word", meaning, an unknown word that describes an otherwise indescribable basis for the "cosmos". Jesus seemed clear as to who or what was the basis of the cosmos, and went about trying to describe it using many and various parables. The parables suggest the basis of the cosmos is a being, that is both "spirit" and "truth". Alas, what shall we call this being, those of us who study wisdom? I prefer to call the description "Christ!", with an exclamation mark. The word, (Christ), with an exclamation mark, expresses astonishment. Jesus described something so new, it was a somewhat mind-blowing, but in a good way. It's good that egos blow up when faced with what Jesus described, as it is the only way to arrive at an understanding of the One Being that he was not only describing, but also claiming to be "one" with. So it is, in honor of Jesus and his descriptions, i offer students of truth the name Christ! ...to describe the basis of the cosmos. Christ! is Jesus' description of truth, or what i often call Reality (with a capital R to denote a living being). Christ! has been described as SPIRIT. As such, neither Jesus, nor any man, being "flesh", can be "the Christ"! Christ! is a sinners (or students) best description of what is true/real. Upon hearing and understanding the description of the One Being, what else can a good student say but "Christ!" ? For it is truly astonishing just how GOOD is our legacy, and our destiny. Christ! is not a name as much as it is a term of astonishment, or a term of endearment toward Jesus' description of what no tongue can possibly describe in full without exploding into nothingness, completely subsumed by the One Being. It is ONE WORD that aggregates all of the worthy descriptions of Reality as it is, not as sinners would twist it to be. It is the only word hell needs to understand in order to return to the dust (nothingness) from which it came, to be replaced with the One Being that was, is, and always shall be.
This is in response to what Good1 recently posted. Nothing that you just wrote is backed up by Scripture. Everything I've posted and so far every doctrinal idea I've seen posted by Expiated I can find a basis in Scripture for. "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness" 2 Timothy 3:16 KJV "The entirety of Your word is truth, And every one of Your righteous judgments endures forever." Psalm 119:160 NKJV "Dedicate them to yourself by means of the truth; your word is truth." John 17:17 GNT I've previously listed evidences for why the Bible we have now appears to be accurate textually to what was written in the original documents. I've also shown it is reliable based on the evidence of the writers as witnesses. I compared the use of witnesses in a court for establishing evidences with the witnesses of the writers of the old testament, testifying that God had spoken to them. I've also listed specific, detailed prophecies in the Old Testament that portrayed a view of a Messiah to come that is fulfilled in Jesus. Some of these very detailed prophecies were already fulfilled and some will be fulfilled in a future coming of Jesus, the Messiah. These are very good reasons for believing the Bible is trustworthy and believing in the God that the Bible has revealed. I'm not trying to be disrespectful to you in any way. However, I want to point out that if anyone's ideas about God come from a source other than what God has given to us, meaning the Bible, there is no way to verify that there is any truth to those ideas at all. In addition to this, the Bible has strong warnings for those who stray from the teachings within it. "You reject all who stray from your decrees, for their delusions come to nothing." Psalm 119:118 "You reprimand arrogant people. Those who stray from your commands are doomed." Psalm 119:21 Hebrews 1:1 states that God spoke to the Old Testament prophets many times and then through Jesus, His Son. These writings are the only reliable ways of knowing God, according to what the Scriptures themselves say. Jesus also said the He is the Truth and the only way to get to the Father. https://www.bethinking.org/is-christianity-the-only-way/q-is-jesus-the-only-way-to-get-to-god "In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. 3The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven." Hebrews 1:1 NIV "The Bible is unlike any other religious book. Despite forty authors writing from three continents over nearly two thousand years, it maintains a perfect consistency of message. Its words point unerringly to Christ, whose work on the cross was ordained by God—the true author of the Bible—before the world began. Among all the books ever written, the Bible is absolutely unique. Actually, it is not just a book—it’s 66 books. And one of its most remarkable qualities is the complete unity of the overall message despite having so many different authors writing over many centuries on hundreds of controversial subjects. Natural explanations fail to account for the supernatural character and origin of Scripture." There is more on this article found at https://answersingenesis.org/the-word-of-god/3-unity-of-the-bible/
Oh thank you. I will take that as a compliment. I don't want to put new wine into old wineskins, lest the old wineskins burst and the new wine be wasted (I didn't just make that up myself. I vaguely remember that from somewhere hmmm). Hence my emphasis on NEW, as in something eyes have never seen before nor ears have ever heard before, unlike the "new testament" which is not even new thanks to Paul (an old Pharisee) and the rest of the neo-Judeo "judaizers" (Paul"s term for stupid students who twist everything Jesus said into a Jewish framework, of which he was chief), Jesus' brand new message was repackaged into a "new" brand of the old (wicked) Judaism, hence the term "Judeo-Christian". This is the brand where Paul could have charged "tithes" as high priest of the repackaged franchise but was too much of a virtue signaler to do what he thought he had every right to do. That brand is wasted wine as it is mixed with the very same "god" (god of this world) that the Pharisees and Saducees and their lawyers promoted. If you trace their (very old) theological genealogy back far enough you will find the god of this world (the god that made man and man's world) , something very wicked indeed (not just my opinion, Jesus too). What's NEW is a GOOD FATHER, a brand new type of "God", which has nothing to do with the making of man or man"s wicked world. What's NEW is a SON (of the good Father) who is given a great inheritance, and yet he wanders off into "strange lands" and squanders his inheritance (spends it all on nothing of value). This was BRAND NEW COSMOLOGY in its day (still is quite new) describing the basis of man's cosmos. The word (logos) for that new cosmology is what I call Christ! (with an exclamation mark). It's a word lost in the lexicon of the Greek language, given new meaning when applied to Jesus description of the SON as well his journey away from home. Yes, man's world was "made" by that "prodigal" son, very much contradicting old Jrewish traditions about the "beginning" of man's cosmos. Jesus made it clear that the SON"s cosmos was not of the same cosmos as the proverbial "prodigal son", making it clear that man's cosmos was conceived in sin, and was therefore NOT GOOD versus what is claimed by the advocates of Hebrew/Jewish religio tradition; hence the famous phrase "my kingdom is not of this world" explaining how he was NOT their "messiah", but rather kin to a brand new kind of "God" who is really GOOD. Ok, so you don't think this is in your scriptures. I'm just looking at the spilled wine and putting it back into new wineskins (giving it a new interpretational framework).
It’s been interesting to me to note the difference in how I "saw" the Old Testament before and after being "filled" with the Holy Spirit. Originally, I thought that God could be pretty brutal. But later, I formed the opinion that virtually everything God does involves goodness and mercy. For example, obliterating virtually all of humankind with the flood initially struck me as pretty rough. However, the way I viewed it later was that it was as if you had discovered that the last member of a species of trees was totally infested with disease except for one tiny twig. So to preserve the species, you burned the whole tree, except for the tiny twig, which you removed and replanted to start over again. Otherwise, the entire species would have been completely wiped off the face of the planet! Another example was God’s ordering that even Canaanite babies should be put to death. Again…pretty rough. But though everyone is born with a sinful nature, I see nowhere in Scripture where God actually condemns anyone to the lake of fire who has not literally committed a sinful act, so that I would not be surprised to find that all those babies ended up in heaven (though I cannot be sure of this). However, had they been allowed to grow up still under the possible influence of the Canaanite culture, they might have been guaranteed an eternity spent in hell, perhaps even after a violent rebellion against the Israelites, or worse yet, after having persuaded the Israelites to adopt some or all of their abominable Canaanite practices. If one recognizes that what happens here on earth is relatively fleeting in light of eternity, and that what goes on in eternity is going to be pretty darn permanent in nature—it can put a whole new spin on how one views the way God is orchestrating things in this world.