Ask Me Anything About Christianity

[kwikphilly]

On 9/13/2022 at 8:24 PM, Dennis1209 said:

I don’t think it is uncommon, but at the tail end of my life, I seem to be going through one of those times when some doubt is creeping in and questioning myself. Thus, the question.

I cannot say I truly know myself or ever have. 2 Corinthians 13:5 Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?

For me, self-examination is a difficult thing, to be honest about. Is it wishful thinking, or am I deceiving myself?

As you suggested, David appeared to be struggling with the same issue.

Psalm 26:2 Examine me, O LORD, and prove me; try my reins and my heart.

Blessings Dear Brother

   I understand COMPLETELY,you are in my prayers-I believe it is good to work out our own Salvation with fear & trembling! If we live the the turbulent times that are coming we must KNOW Who we are in Christ......He Will Help to put you back on solid ground & keep you there

[Dan Knight]

On 9/12/2022 at 1:05 PM, Starise said:

I can't guarantee I'll be able to answer everything.

Please no silly questions like - Did Adam have a belly button?

Why was Adam and Eve banished from the garden?

[Alive]

I like this verse from Isaiah.

Is. 9:6 (NAS20S)  For a Child will be born to us, a Son will be given to us;   And the government will rest on His shoulders;   And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

[com7fy8]

On 9/15/2022 at 7:46 PM, Starise said:

The Holy Ghost is probably the least understood, yet He, yes HE is referred to as an individual who is part of the Godhead. The Greek translations  use the masculine to describe Him.

"Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us." (Romans 5:5)

From this I see how the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God's own love. 

I understand that only God Himself can be the Spirit of His own love. 

And the Holy Spirit shares this love with us "in our hearts". So, this shows how personal and intimate our Father is with us who are His children. 

So, in case ones say the Holy Spirit is just a "force" . . . I don't think love is just a force. This love is personal, "in our hearts". So, it is a Person sharing this love with us.

[Starise]

2 hours ago, johann pretorius said:

 

“Hear, O Israel, Adonai Eloheinu Adonai is one. These three are one. How can the three Names be one? Only through the perception of faith; in the vision of the Holy Spirit, in the beholding of the hidden eye alone.…So it is with the mystery of the threefold Divine manifestations designated by Adonai Eloheinu Adonai—three modes which yet form one unity.”1

A Christian quote? Hardly. The above is taken from the Zohar, an ancient book of Jewish mysticism. The Zohar is somewhat esoteric and most contemporary Jewish people don’t study it, but there are other Jewish books that refer to God’s plurality as well.

A taboo subject
Why then won’t our people discuss these things? Could it be that to do so might lead a person to consider Yeshua (Jesus) as who and what he claimed to be?2 Rabbis denounce the idea that God would come to us in human flesh as utterly pagan and contrary to what Judaism teaches.

What can we actually say that Judaism teaches? Some people see Judaism as a monolith of religion, with all its teachings resting upon the narrow foundation of the Shema. The Shema certainly is a point of unity that all who ascribe to the Jewish faith must affirm. But it does not state, imply, or even support many of the interpretations and opinions that are labeled “what Judaism teaches.” What Judaism teaches is neither static nor monolithic! Phrases such as “Judaism teaches” or “according to our tradition” are relative. They do not mean “this was, is, and always will be the one and only Jewish viewpoint.”

Ancient sages struggled with several portions of the Hebrew Scriptures and their implications vis-a-vis God’s plurality. Deuteronomy 6:4 (the Shema) is but one such passage. Isaiah 6:8 is another: “Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” However, the first “proof” passage on God as more than one appears in the first chapter of the Hebrew Scriptures: “And God said: Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Genesis 1:26).3

Rabbis who believed that each word of the Hebrew Scriptures, each letter, is God’s revelation had to admit that God spoke to himself and referred to himself in the plural. How can that be, when we know there is only one God?

A complex unity
Much in Genesis 1:26 seems to confirm the idea that there is one God whose oneness is complex. The idea of God’s nature being three-in-one is mind-boggling. Contemplation of the infinite is always confusing to finite beings. Nevertheless, certain illustrations can help people grapple with the issue of a complex unity. C. S. Lewis, a talented philologist, writer and debater put it this way:

We must remind ourselves that Christian theology does not believe God to be a person. It believes Him to be such that in Him a trinity of persons is consistent with a unity of Deity. In that sense it believes Him to be something very different from a person, just as a cube, in which six squares are consistent with unity of the body, is different from a square. (Flatlanders, attempting to imagine a cube, would either imagine the six squares coinciding, and thus destroy their distinctness, or else imagine them set out side by side, and thus destroy the unity. Our difficulties about the Trinity are of much the same kind.)4

Christians consider themselves monotheists, while Jewish tradition maintains that believers in a triunity of God reject monotheism. Yet the Hebrew Scriptures do imply some kind of plurality in the Divinity. Why else would Jewish sages offer various alternatives to explain those implications, particularly in Genesis 1:26? Evaluate the following methods our ancestors used to deal with the text.

Wrestling with plural pronouns
1. Change the text or translate it differently

According to Jewish tradition, scholars who worked on the Septuagint5 translation of the Hebrew Scriptures for King Ptolemy were embarrassed by the plural pronouns in Genesis 1:26. They took the liberty of changing the text from “let us” to “let me.”6 Such “liberty” violates the sacredness of Scripture.

Other rabbinical commentators also took liberties with the text. The medieval rabbi, Ibn Ezra, described those commentators as “absurd” for attempting to translate the active “let us make” (na’a’seh) into a passive “there is made” (niphal). These commentators added that the phrase “in our image, after our likeness” was not said by God, but added as a postscript by Moses.7

2. The text describes God speaking to creation

Medieval commentators David Kimchi and Moses Maimonides accepted the Talmudic interpretation of Rabbi Joshua b. Levi. Rabbi Levi explained that God was speaking to creation.

AND GOD SAID: LET US MAKE MAN, ETC. With whom did He take counsel? R. Joshua b. Levi said: He took counsel with the works of heaven and earth, like a king who had two advisers without whose knowledge he did nothing whatsoever.8

Levi knew that the plural implied that God was speaking to someone and concluded that the Lord was seeking advice and approval from other beings.

According to Rabbi Nachmanides, the plural reference denotes God speaking to the earth because “man’s body would come from the earth and his spirit (soul) from God.”9 But the separation of a person into distinct parts owes more to the Greek influence of Aristotle’s philosophy than to a careful and accurate reading of the text. The biblical view of humankind indicates that physical, spiritual, and psychic aspects are held together in a composite and indivisible unity. Rabbi Abarbanel explained that God was capable of making all the lesser works of creation but needed assistance when it came to human beings. That position denies God’s omnipotence.

For further reading....https://answeringislamblog.wordpress.com/2021/11/02/a-look-at-the-trinity-from-a-messianic-jewish-perspective/#:~:text=Contact-,A Look at the Trinity From a,-Messianic Jewish Perspective

As for me, I firmly believe in the Triune Godhead, and believe it or not, godhead is mentioned in the B'rit Chadasha.
Blessings
J.

What caused you a Jew to convert to Christianity? 

I appreciate the way you see the trinity. In the end the Rabbis hold little weight for me a gentile if I am comparing their statements to scripture. Scripture properly translated and understood wins every time. Yet there is probably much still to be gleaned from these Rabbis. Obviously to a devout Jew they probably hold more weight as the word rabbi brings up the idea of a person who should know the word.

As you mentioned, some of these Rabbis decided to retranslate the parts of the text they didn't agree with.

That the Jewish people as a whole are blinded is not a thing to be doubted. I believe many will remain so until it becomes apparent 31/2 years into the 7 when the one they thought was their messiah turns his back on them and claims to be God . 

Still God has seen fit to show a number of Jewish believers the truth. You seem to be among this number. 

We have precursor prophecy which mirrors future prophecy all through the older books.

The Jew has always held a dear place in God's heart.

[Starise]

6 minutes ago, com7fy8 said:

"Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us." (Romans 5:5)

From this I see how the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God's own love. 

I understand that only God Himself can be the Spirit of His own love. 

And the Holy Spirit shares this love with us "in our hearts". So, this shows how personal and intimate our Father is with us who are His children. 

So, in case ones say the Holy Spirit is just a "force" . . . I don't think love is just a force. This love is personal, "in our hearts". So, it is a Person sharing this love with us.

Yes I'm with you. Well stated.Thanks for your thoughts.

[Starise]

2 hours ago, Dan Knight said:

Why was Adam and Eve banished from the garden?

Sin separated them from a Holy God. To be banished was a part of the judgment since life was no more to be easy for them.Adam was to toil from then on for his food.

 

[com7fy8]

On 9/15/2022 at 3:45 PM, kwikphilly said:

There are people that do not believe in the Triune GodHead as we do " God the Father,God the Son,God the Holy Spirit- yet say they are Born Again Christians because they believe Jesus is ( Lord)& Savior,the only Way to the Father and they are a " whosoever the Believes( John 3:16)..... I've heard folks say Jesus is not God the Son but Son of God,discrediting His Deity

Are they Christians? Is Believing in Christs Deity required to be " Saved"?

Well, to me it seems our Apostle Paul is making clear what believing means > he says,

"we who first trusted in Christ" > in Ephesians 1:12.

You can believe a report about someone, without trusting in that person. So, I think Biblical believing means you receive the message about Jesus and you trust in Him and therefore obey Him.

I see how it is very personal, to be drawn by our Father to trust in Jesus. With this comes being changed by God so we are submitting to Jesus, I would say, if we are trusting Him. He does want us to submit to Him; so if we trust Him, we do this.

And part of our Christian calling is Colossians 3:15 >

"And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful." (Colossians 3:15)

Every child of God is called to submit to how our Father rules us in His own peace. This is for all of us "in one body" . . . not only for certain specially chosen and approved super-saints! This is basic, for all.

And to "all" Jesus says > 

"'Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.'" (Matthew 11:28-29)

So, trusting in Jesus includes this basic of taking His yoke upon each of us and learning from Him so we find rest for our souls.

So, a first thing I might do with someone who denies the Trinity or the deity of Jesus is, I will check the person out, to see how he or she is doing. Are you personally submitting to our Father in His own peace? Do you have rest for your soul because of taking Christ's yoke upon you and learning from Him? This is included in our guarantee of what will happen because we have trusted in Jesus, right? 

So, instead of arguing about how to label Jesus or if there is a Trinity, I might start with what is guaranteed to us who have trusted and therefore obeyed Jesus.

[Dan Knight]

23 minutes ago, Starise said:

Sin separated them from a Holy God. To be banished was a part of the judgment since life was no more to be easy for them.Adam was to toil from then on for his food.

 

What was the first sin?

[Dennis1209]

40 minutes ago, Starise said:

What caused you a Jew to convert to Christianity? 

I appreciate the way you see the trinity. In the end the Rabbis hold little weight for me a gentile if I am comparing their statements to scripture. Scripture properly translated and understood wins every time. Yet there is probably much still to be gleaned from these Rabbis. Obviously to a devout Jew they probably hold more weight as the word rabbi brings up the idea of a person who should know the word.

As you mentioned, some of these Rabbis decided to retranslate the parts of the text they didn't agree with.

That the Jewish people as a whole are blinded is not a thing to be doubted. I believe many will remain so until it becomes apparent 31/2 years into the 7 when the one they thought was their messiah turns his back on them and claims to be God . 

Still God has seen fit to show a number of Jewish believers the truth. You seem to be among this number. 

We have precursor prophecy which mirrors future prophecy all through the older books.

The Jew has always held a dear place in God's heart.

I want to dovetail your comment about disbelief, regardless of the group of disbelievers. As Christians, we have faith, trust, and belief in Jesus, but it is not blind faith. Roughly one-third of our Bible is prophetic. We should realize why the Lord devoted so much of the Bible to future events (10 Reasons Why Bible Prophecy Exists | Lamb and Lion Ministries (christinprophecy.org).

What other holy or religious book tells of the creation and condition of man? What other book (the Bible means the Book) tells the end from the beginning, with hundreds of prophecies? Many ancient prophecies have been secularly and historically verified from personal testimony, history, records, and archeology.  

There was not much interest, but I recently started a thread on about 50 biblical prophecies fulfilled 100% accurately in our generation alone since 1948. Only a Person who is in complete control, the author and finisher of our faith, can predict and forecast the beginning from the end.

What would the Las Vegas odds be of predicting just two of those fifty or so in our generation alone?