Sir Gareth

There is also a very big theological problem here if Jonah did NOT die. it means the sign of Jonah was not a sign of a resurrection and the major starting point of the Christian religion didn't happen.

I want to start by saying that I personally think your looking at things the wrong way. First off, you can't persuade anyone to accept Jesus, you can give them the Gospel (this is the most important part!) apologetics are helpful but secondary to the Word of God. The fruit you bear is not necessarily leading others to Christ, sharing the Gospel in the first place is bearing fruit. Others getting saved is wonderful and what we need to focus on, but the saving is done by Jesus and the telling is our part, mixed with prayer! Don't be discouraged, keep sharing your faith and know that no matter how fruitless it seems at times, doing anything for God is worthwhile!

I heard recently that Jonah died inside the fish and was resurrected by God after being spit back out. Looking at Jonah two it does seem that Jonah was in fact dead at one point by the words he uses. (such as Sheol and referring to being in the pit) any input, thoughts, anything? Thanks and God bless!

The outcome is decided by us, just because God knew what we would do does not mean he made us do it. We have free will to accept or reject Jesus Christ, God simply predestines us according to the advanced knowledge He had of what we would do

Heb 9:27 And as it is appointed to men once to die, but after this the judgment after death mannis judged of God, either to eternal life or eternal hellfire. I believe this because the bible, God's word, has told me, and He cannot lie.

I see no reason, at this time, that a christian in america should not own a gun (unless they don't want to.) I don't own one, though i have thought about buying one sometimes. The bible does not forbid self defense, but says we should strive to live at peace as much as depends on us. Now, i also believe this, that at some point in the future, the goverment could take away the right to bear arms, i disagree with them if they do and i would do all i could to make sure such legislature never happened, but if it did it is my duty as a christian to follow alllaws which do not interfere with serving God, therfore i would not fight against such a law after it was inplace save for voting and letter writting to congressmen and such.

Ibelieve any time you use the name of our Lord flippiantly without truly meaning it, or half heartidly is taking His name in vain.

I would pick b, but to me B would encompass all the others, if I was truly doing it the christian way.

With all respect and honor to Jesus, I ask my next question. If He were being a righteous model for us to follow, why did He then say on the cross "Father, why have you forsaken me?" Did Jesus not become God until after the resurrection? One reason said this is because he was quoting psalms 22 and applying the role of righteous sufferer unto himself.

I would think that throwing stones is also metaphoric for condemnation. Jesus was saying that only those who are perfect and without any sin could condemn. Now since that is humanly impossible, we are not to condemn, but guide sinners as Jesus guided the adulteress. (something i always thought interesting about this story, they said they caught her in adultery, but where was the man she was caught with?)

amen!! it remindes me of the old quote from St. Francis of Assisi: Spread the gospel at all times; when necessary, use words One of my favorite quotes also. one time in my life i felt the worst was when a co-worker saw me putting tracts out in the bathroom and said 'so you put these here?' i felt like i was a failure, because if people who knew me didn't know it was me doing that, then i must not be living the christian life visably enough.

Ithink something that is important to remember, for me anyway, is that one does not have to have a 'christian' job to be christian at work. ideally Christ should be evident in all our walks in life, whether at work, home, church or wherever else we go.

From what i have read-and maybe it is wrong-but when people who were not isrealites were becoming jews that they were made to be baptized when they became jewish. when John came preaching baptism for jews it was a shock to them. if i am wrong please let me know so i can know the actual answers

But what is an "unGodly" job? I mean sure, some are obvious, but there are many I am sure we would not agree on. I know a Christian who works for Anheuser-Busch, is this wrong? The company I work for is one of the largest in the world and makes millions upon millions in profits, could some not say this is the exploitation of others? where do you work? I would bet I could find something "unGodly" about every job there is. It seems at times we Christians are way too quick to judge our own. Very true, somewhere between stripper and pastor there is a large grey area, and many christians are quick to point out how much 'better' their jobs are.

I've often wondered about emotions and evolution, not many evolutionists i've talked to give me a very satisfactory answer, ussually involving chemicals in the brain that interact and give the 'impression' of emotions. If you are willing to take the intelluectual superiority complex you could go ask worthy's local evolution 'expert'....

If he owns the station i do not see why he would have no control over what was aired on it. As for the christian lif being seperate from the work life, i don't see that at all. We're called to be Christians everywhere, not where its convinient.

Beyond surviving the only thing money ever seemed good for was providing for God's ministry and missionaries and helping others. I'd probably just spend it on something stupid anyway

Hello again duckling, I would like to briefly-as briefly as possible anyway, describe why i think the bible is very trutworthy and something we can rely on in seeking to use it to learn about God. Firstly the bible was written by over 40 authors, in 13 countries, on 3 continents over 1500 years. Yet it has more continuity than any modern book series written by a single author over a period of maybe a decade. If thats not God at work, what else is? Secondly, we have alot of manuscript evidence to support the NT. There are thousands of NT documents dating from very early, alot earlier than any other historic document. the closest is Homer, with 600. finally, the bible contains hundreds of detailed prophecies. Many pertaining to Jesus. His birth in bethlehem, his birth from a virgin, his betrayal for thirty silver, his death all these and hundreds more prophesised before his birth, some hundreds of years prior.

here is the evidence for the ressurection i mentioned in chat. I hope this is helpful The information i am presenting is from historians Micheal Licona and Gary Habermas. It was presented in the Case for the Russeruction by Licona and Habermas and again in The case for Christ by Lee Strobel. These five facts are almost universally accepted by historians and scholars. 1) Jesus died by crucifixion: Not only do all four Gospels, which are written far too early for legendary corruption, account this fact but it is also accounted by Josephus, a well known and trusted historian who lived in Roman era Isreal. He wrote about the crucifixion of Christ in passing here. Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, (9) those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; And the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day. ( antiquities 18, chapter 3) 2) The disciples of Jesus saw the risen Christ: Of course this is again accounted in all four gospels, but also in 1 corinthians, which was actually written down before the four Gospels. 1 Corinthians 15 records a very early account of post ressurection apperances to Peter, the other apostles, James the brother of Jesus and to '500 others, solme of which have fallen asleep but many of whom are still with us.' By making such a bold statement, Paul was inviting people to check out his story, which Luke later did before writting the Gospel named after him. The effects of the post ressurection apperances had a very profound effect on the apostles, all of whom deserted Jesus during his crucifixion as told by the Gospels themselves. Even the Gospel writers admit they left Jesus in fear. Now, after the ressurection, these 11 people-and other disciples as well-who had abandoned Jesus and went back to their own lives feeling fear and shame suddenly proclaim that Jesus is alive and not only refuse to recant after being threatened but keep to their stories when persecuted, beaten, flogged and faced with death. While it is certainly possible for the disciples to have lied about the ressurection, liars make very poor martyrs and would not be willing to die for what they knew to be a lie. 3) The conversion of Paul: Saul of Trasus was completly against the followers of Jesus, he was a persecutor of the early church and was on hand for the stonning of Stephanas. Despite his desire to destroy the early church and stop the Christian movement before it could really pick up steam he had a sudden realization and came to be the most outspoken and-to this day- the most famous and effective evangalist in all the church history. The reason Paul himself gives for this-told three times in Acts, and eluded too elsewhere in Paul's writtings- is that he encountered the risen Christ on his way to Damascus. It seems hard for me to believe that such an ardent and millitant anti-christian would suddenly just join the ranks of his enemies for no reason. Not only switching sides but being willing to suffer and die for the new cause he had found. 4) The conversion of James: Jesus' half brother, James, was likewise a very skeptical person who did not see his brother as being anything more than a weirdo leading people astray. The fact that the followers of Jesus record this, despite the complete embarrasment it would be to their cause, shows me that they were trying to record the truth, not just making up stories. James likewise encountered the risen Jesus and became a leader of the church in Jeruselam. He also suffered and died for the belief that Jesus was the Christ, despite being completly against the ministry of Jesus in his brother's lifetime. 5.) The empty tomb: The Jews and Romans both knew where Joseph had taken the body of Jesus, the Romans even had a guard posted at the request of the Jewish leaders. When the early Christians started proclaiming the ressurection they could easily have gone to the tomb, gotten the body out and said 'look, he's still there, shut up already!' Instead what they did was to make excuses as to why the tomb was empty. If I borrow your car and wreck it so it can't be fixed and tell you it was stolen I am admitting, in part, that the car is gone. The fact that enemies of the church support the empty tomb helps us to believe it was true. Another strong argument for the empty tomb is the fact that the Jewish men writting the Gospels admit that women found the empty tomb first. In 1st century Jewish culture women were considered the lowest wrung, so much so that the Talmud said that women's testimony should not be considered admissable as evidence in court. But here we have the apostles admitting that only the women among them went back, the women were the first to see the risen Christ and that only after being led there by the women did the men believe. In comparisson it would be as if a convicted drug dealer were used as a character witness in todays court. In closing, i believe this evidence best fits in with the theory of Christ'sn ressurection. No other theory explains all the data as clearly as the ressurection would.

I for one am happy that someone said what needed to be said, Amen and Amen!!

There is a certain selfishness in the world thanks to the sin nature that Adam and Eve brought into the world, thiscauses us to think of ourselves more than others. I also believe a big part of the problem is the fact that humans are very frightened beings, we treat that which we see as our enemioes with fear and contempt because we are afraid they will hurt us and we are unwilling to allow ourselves to be hurt in order to help others. Finally i think it may also come from the desire to be right, we see ourselves as being the truly right and our enemies are the truly wrong. It's easy to forget Jesus' command, i do it far too often, because when we see ourselves as right and others as wrong we feel we have no reason to love them. well these are a few ideas anyway.

The way i see it is thusly, and i may be incorrect, if so i am sorry. When Jesus first came to earth born in the manger he came to offer forgivness of sins through His shed blood. Well when he comes back, the offer expires and he comes to judge the quick and the dead and to extablish his kingdom which will have no end. Paul compares workers of inequity as vessels of dishonor, so it would seem-to me-that when Christ returns he will use his rod todestroy the vessels of dishonor, leaving only the true faithful christians behind.

David was an all around awesome guy, save for his one big mistake. My favorite part about the history of David is that as a sheperd boy he sees a bunch of adult warriors cowering from the huge goliath and his response is 'why are you affraid of this guy?' his trust in God was wonderful and something i try to immitate in my life.

Johnathan was easier to pronounce....

One of Saul's sons - but I forget the name. Johnathan, maybe?