Then what you are saying is that the New Testament writers lied about Jesus. He really didn't rise from the dead, and all those miracles about Him are really false, right?
I could see your point, but there is just one problem. How do you account for the writers of the New Testament teaching about truth, love, honesty, giving, etc. all based on lies? Why would they suffer hardships like beatings, starvation, shipwreck, imprisonments, and finally execution for nothing but lies? What you are saying doesn't make any sense, and raises more questions than it answers.
The only logical explanation is that the fulfilled prophecies really did happen. Jesus actually rose from the dead. He performed miracles, and He forgave sins. He forgave sins then, and He can still do it now. My sins are forgiven, are yours?
Please note that many cult members will die for their faith as well. But they die for something they believe in, not for something they have seen. Muslims, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses all die for their faith. But the New Testament believers died for what they saw and believed, not for what they believed only. That is a big difference. The N.T. writers died claiming that they had seen the risen Lord. The cult members die for what they believe, and we know that believing doesn't make it true.
2006-09-24 17:12:58 · 14 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Good points, Intro.
2006-09-24 17:18:57 · answer #1 · answered by ? 5 · 1⤊ 6⤋
Look at what you say objectively, if you can. You note certain things about what you label "cults" and pretend that Christianity is different. Well, to some of these groups you mention, you are the cult member. You weren't there to see what really happened. Maybe it's all fiction to support a new religion. Maybe no one died at all. If they did or they didn't, it proves no more than members of these other groups dying for their beliefs. I've always said that a synonym for "martyr" is "fool". Miracles don't happen, so men of logic and science know there is fiction in religions. You end with, "...we know that believing doesn't make it true". How right you are, but that applies to Christianity, as well as Islam, Mormonism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Shintoism, etc. etc. You pretend that Christianity is an exception to the rules of logic, but it isn't. I've heard this stuff many times, and I see it often in Yahoo Answers. Brahma, Allah, Zeus, Odin, Ahuramazda, Marduk, Amon, Ra, etc. were created by men, but God is real is how the tired old chant mindlessly goes. wake up and see that alll gods were created by priests to gain control over people and take their money. You mention, "The only logical explanation...", but you have no logical explanation. I see the only logical explanation is something real, not fantasy.
2006-09-25 00:44:51 · answer #2 · answered by miyuki & kyojin 7 · 0⤊ 3⤋
Most religious tomes are sub-texts of sub-texts. The dichotomy of manuscripts through rational or deductive thought is not with man believed fact, but rather the equation of Man and God. In that one so able to translate God's words would be God made man, that traditional rational thinkers have yet to reconcile.
The concensus of Prophecy is at best a peculiarity wherein the act of divination alludes to the divine in the Diviner. Unquestioned is the ability to see and record from the collective and individual's viewpoint. The search of life by archaeologists presently is the only tangible proof that may introduce precluded notions to the conclusive.
Where belief is enacted, sentiment is a daily routine in stock markets, with increasing oil prices and plumeting housing demand, with perennial prevailing fasion trends that comes by once every so many years. Are they any better at predicting the exactness of what may come to pass ?
2006-09-25 14:44:16 · answer #3 · answered by pax veritas 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Jehovah's Witnesses refused to compromise their devotion to God and bible principles, and so thousands of Witnesses became Christian martyrs in Nazi death camps and Stalinist gulags.
Yet this questioner has the disgusting shamelessness to align himself with anti-God persecutors by namecalling and insulting Jehovah's Witnesses as "cult members". Such bigotry and hatred expose the questioner's religious intolerance. Others of this ilk are motivated against Christian worship by the unseen 'god of this system of things', Satan the Devil.
(2 Corinthians 4:4) the god of this system of things has blinded the minds of the unbelievers
Interestingly, such "hatred" should be expected by TRUE Christians in this time of the end, and it actually helps identify Jehovah's Witnesses as Christ's true disciples:
(John 15:19) If you were part of the world, the world would be fond of what is its own. Now because you are no part of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, on this account the world hates you.
(Luke 6:22) Happy are you whenever men hate you, and whenever they exclude you and reproach you and cast out your name as wicked for the sake of the Son of man.
(1 Peter 4:4) Because you do not continue running with them in this course to the same low sink of debauchery, they are puzzled and go on speaking abusively of you.
(2 Timothy 4:3-5) For there will be a period of time when they will not put up with the healthful teaching, but, in accord with their own desires, they will accumulate teachers for themselves to have their ears tickled; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, whereas they will be turned aside to false stories. You, though, keep your senses in all things, suffer evil, do the work of an evangelizer, fully accomplish your ministry.
It seems signficant that the relatively small religion of Jehovah's Witnesses are the ones best known for their worldwide preaching work. Yet Jesus commanded that ALL who would call themselves "Christian" perform this public work:
(Matthew 28:19,20) Go therefore and make disciples of people of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy spirit, teaching them to observe all the things I have commanded you. And, look! I am with you all the days until the conclusion of the system of things.
Learn more:
http://watchtower.org/library/jt/index.htm
http://watchtower.org/library/w/2003/3/1/article_01.htm
http://watchtower.org/library/w/2002/4/1/article_01.htm
Incidentally, one could guarantee that no Jehovah's Witness ever killed a Christian or a Jew in a Nazi death camp. Can Christendom make that same assurance?
2006-09-26 10:53:01 · answer #4 · answered by achtung_heiss 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
"Why would they suffer hardships like beatings, starvation, shipwreck, imprisonments, and finally execution for nothing but lies? What you are saying doesn't make any sense, and raises more questions than it answers.
The only logical explanation is that the fulfilled prophecies really did happen."
No, another logical explaination would be that the saints may have lied.
You're using the fallacies of "appeal to emotion" and "false dichotomy" so your statement itself isn't logical.
2006-09-25 08:48:43 · answer #5 · answered by enigma_frozen 4 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Does this help.. that is the question..
I believe what is written in the bible. I believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God.. I believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross, and lives..
I believe that when the time is right, I will join my Lord..
But this didn't answer YOUR question..
to make it look like Jesus fulfilled..etc.. First, your statement - from my viewpoint - is wrong, so your question is moot (obsolete)
2006-09-25 00:22:22 · answer #6 · answered by sassy 6 · 0⤊ 3⤋
What's the question? I believe what the Bible teaches.
2006-09-25 00:16:38 · answer #7 · answered by pleasantville982001 2 · 2⤊ 2⤋
We have no proof that any of it happened. It's just a story and those people's word. If I choose not to believe it, why does that bother you? You act as though we might be right and that would compromise your own belief.
2006-09-25 00:17:16 · answer #8 · answered by AuroraDawn 7 · 0⤊ 4⤋
The Bible... written by Man... man in his nature is tyranous, and power hungry. Edited many times over by Man. Information left out by Man. False information put in by Man. If it is manmade, then why should I revere it?
I refuse to live a life full of guilt.
Thank you.
2006-09-25 00:18:10 · answer #9 · answered by jennilaine777 4 · 0⤊ 5⤋
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.
2006-09-25 00:15:40 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 2⤋