Professing themselves wise, they became FOOLS. (ROM 1:23)

 

I really dislike this pamphlet, and I’ll tell you why. I find the arguments in this pamphlet not even decent. I mean I’ve had some heated and good, in-depth debates over the contents here? But this thing really is just a pathetic misrepresentation of facts. So I have authored this entry, which is long, to counter it.

 

Since your pamphlet uses the Bible as the points of reference it is safe to assume that the pamphlet agrees that the Bible is an adequate, proper authority, on theology. Because it cites the Bible, it acknowledges the Bible as a base on which this debate can be fought, and thus the Bible can be cited back to refute any and all points brought forth by the above flier.

WHY I BELIEVE IN GOD :

Contrary to popular belief The Holy Bible does NOT endorse :

• 150 years ago : Slavery (Exodus, the entire Moses story where God led Moses to free countless slaves from Egypt, supported historically here http://cresourcei.org/exodusdate.html, here http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20060830032403AAOfIqO, and here http://varnam.org/blog/archives/2006/08/exodus_decoded_2.php)

• 100 years ago : Sexism (The women described in the Bible are not always homemakers and mothers. Obviously, the biological function of women is to produce and care for children. However, Deborah was both a judge and leader of Israel. Other women were involved in ridding Israel of her enemies. Quite a number of women are described as being prophetesses. Other women in the Bible were involved in teaching the Word of God or serving as deaconesses in the early Christian church. — http://www.godandscience.org/apologetics/sexism.html)

• 50 years ago : Racism (The claim is often made that the Bible is racist and that Christianity encourages racism. While there are people who claim the name of Christ and preach racist hatred in Christian churches, the Bible does not condone, but actually condemns this kind of behavior. Jesus said that He was sent to minister only to the Jewish people.6 Even so, He healed both Jew and Gentile, including Canaanites,7 Syrophoenicians,8 and Samaritans.9 In addition to healing those of other races, Jesus proclaimed the gospel to those of other races when He met them. http://www.godandscience.org/apologetics/racism.html)

• Today! : Hatred! How does God feel about Homosexuals? — http://www.case-studies.com/articles/homo_hate.htm (Further read Romans 1 and 2) Romans Chapter one describes a life of sin, and includes homosexuality. These verses are most often used by misguided ‘bible thumper’ who say ‘God hate Homosexuals’. Because the opening to Romans 2 says…. I quote : You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgement on someone else, for whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgement do the same things. So when you a mere man, pass judgement on them, do you think you will escape God’s judgement, for God does not show favoritism.

Unlike seccular humanism the bible gives us simple rules to live by. Not to limit us, but instead to aid us in interaction with one another. The Ten Commandments are vastly misunderstood, and obviously by your little flier, misrepresented!

ONE: ‘You shall have no other gods before Me.’

- Here’s a kicker. Yeah if you choose to follow this religion you follow it’s God. Gee that’s such a stretch.

TWO: ‘You shall not make for yourself a carved image–any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.’

- Again if you choose to follow this religion you shouldn’t worship things. Things have no meaning, but instead worship God.

THREE: ‘You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.’

- If you choose to follow this religion don’t use the name of your God lightly!

FOUR: ‘Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.’

- Take one day, (The Holy Day) and use it to rest, reflect, and gather yourself. Spend it with family, friends and do not toil in the fields or at work. You need one day to recharge your batteries both physically and spiritually. Oh so mean to ask this of you.

FIVE: ‘Honor your father and your mother.’

- Honor and respect your mother and father. This isn’t to say that you stand around and let them abuse you. (In fact it says for fathers to ‘treasure their children’ and ‘blessed be the young children’.) Honoring your heritage and family means to not do anything that would shame yourself or your family.

SIX: ‘You shall not murder.’

- NOTE THIS IS NOT THOU SHALT NOT KILL-. This is ‘You shall not murder’. Now I wonder, if I need to break down the pre-meditated intent to end another person’s life, and GENUINE SELF DEFENSE. Considering God himself led many people many times to defend themselves (David and Goliath, to Moses, and Peter) it obviously is not ‘Thou shalt not KILL’ but instead You should not go out, plot the death and demise of another, and do it. Why don’t people get all in arms about this in oh, modern law?

SEVEN: ‘You shall not commit adultery.’

- Not only does this lead to surprise pregnancy, STDs, guilt, and finally the break down of family units, believe me it instills lack of self confidence in your spouse, feelings of worthlessness, and regret. This is something you will carry with you the rest of your life.

EIGHT: ‘You shall not steal.’

- Hey if this wasn’t bad, why is it illegal in nearly every culture? Religious or not.

NINE: ‘You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.’

- Don’t lie, especially spread slander, gossip, and to authorities. What happens again if you lie in a court of law?

TEN: ‘You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.’

- Be contented with what you have. If you spend all your time looking at everything everyone else has you will miss the blessings you, yourself have obtained here on Earth. Instead of looking at what everyone else has, and what you do not, look at what you have, and better yourself and your conditions.

The final Commandment Jesus gave everyone :

THE GREATEST COMMANDMENT OF ALL :

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it : Love your neighbor as yourself.

The golden rule! So if you choose to be Christian love God, who wants only good things for you and everyone, and the second command is love everyone else as you love yourself. Isn’t the Bible horrible and filled with evil intentions?!

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Let’s address Mithra. Now since your word choice here is unclear, if this is 6 BC or 600 BC I will provide examples of the following.

Considering that this legend cropped up a mere 6 years before the DEATH of Jesus Christ, and there are -dozens- if not -hundreds- of false Christs that cropped up between the promise of a Christ (OH say 1000 years BC a good 1496 years before this Mithra) it doesn’t surprise me, or shock me Mithra was invented as a religion. Several other religions followed the same format the Jedo-Christian already proclaimed would occur. Furthermore this legend crops up when Jesus himself was then 27 years old? Yeah. Yawn. Please excuse my lack of utter and profound enthusiasm on the topic.

Considering that this legend cropped up a substantial 600 years before the Death of Jesus Christ, and there are -dozens- if not -hundreds- of false Christs that cropped up between the promise of a Christ (OH say 1000 years BC a good 400+ years before this Mithra) The Birth, And Death of Christ were predicted over thousands of years before these ‘religions’ cropped up. In fact, if you go to Psalms 22 (just before famous Psalms 23) you will get a graphic description and prophesy of what a crucifixion is ( THE crucifixion of Christ actually) hundreds and hundreds of years before the Roman Empire adapted the technique as a way to kill people. (earliest account being for pirates by Wikipedia near 7 BC ) Further the Crucifixion of the Christ is recorded (non biblically) that Jesus was an actual, living, breathing, person. Records from the Romans, and the Hebrews at this time have -silenced- historians trying to prove that no such man existed. In fact he did. So tell me how a text that’s instead a thousand years old if not OLDER predicted his birth, life, and the exact manner in which he would die, as recorded by other sources than the bible?

Finally ancient texts of Hebrew teachings predicting the coming of Christ, and the things he would do, to all the events that occurred, were around a lot longer that Mithra.

Christ wasn’t born on December 25th, in fact this is an error that Constantine (Will double check resources) made when he was trying to, erroneously, make the religion popular for Rome through compromise. (Later establishing the Roman Catholic Church) Tradition would have us believe that Jesus was born on December 25, when it is very cold, and sometimes snowy, in Bethlehem. The truth is that Jesus was born in September. Tradition would have us believe that there were three wise men, and that they came to the manger. The truth is that there were quite a number of those who came from the East, and that they came to see Jesus when he was between 18 and 24 months old. He made the holiday coincide instead with a popular holiday at the time and the tradition of MAN stuck.

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What Isaiah 7:14 REALLY says. DON’T BELIEVE AN ATHEIST about THEOLOGY!

7:13 Then Isaiah said, “Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of men? Will you try the patience of my God also?

7:14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign : The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel.

7:15 He will eat curds, and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right.

7:16 But before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid to waste.

(Immanuel, the name “God is with us” is to convince Ahaz that God could rescue him from his enemies. Hebrew for Immanuel is used again in Isaiah 8:8, 10, and may be another name for Maher-Shalahash-Baz (8:3) and Jesus was the final fulfillment of this prophecy for he was “God with us” This passage is not peaking Virgin here in 7:13 refers to Isiah’s second wife as his first died in childbirth and this word used here ‘almah refers to a woman about to be married. This too is recognized by the Israelites, at that time as a prophesy of a distant person to be born -foreshadowing- the birth of the Christ.)

WHAT THE BIBLE REALLY TELLS US :

• Who should we kill?

(Considering your PAMPHLET says “We cannot kill anyone even in Self Defense”, then contradicts itself by providing a numbered and bulleted list of people to kill…) This entire little argument is invalid. God broke down who should die in the Bible. “For the wages of sin is death; but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 6:23) — EVERYONE deserves to die, but God does not want us to do the killing.(See Ten Commandments)

In fact he doesn’t want any of us to die. we all fall short of perfection, and glory, so guess what? We’re all unworthy to go to heaven. Sin is Sin is Sin is Sin, and “the wages of sin is DEATH” — God is not biased, he loves all of us, and wants the best for us, thus provided a way to salvation. But face it, we all suck. We all have done bad things in our lives. God cares so much about that he gave us a way to overcome those flaws. (Which we most assuredly cannot do on our own.) So instead of focusing on who should die, let us focus on who we should LOVE. (On this note, please realize the word ‘Love’ is used more in the Bible more times than the words Hell(0), Hate (29), Murder (17), and Judgement(70) combined. Love by itself used 310 times, and in other forms such as ‘loving’ a total of 555 times.*)

• Who should we love?

Let us revisit the commandments given to us :

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it : Love your neighbor as yourself.

God commands us to love : EVERYONE

This includes : Homosexuals, Women, People of different Religions, People of different Races, Children, Men, Women, Elders, the Unborn, The Dying, The Sick, The mentally Ill. I could go on but you get the point.

• So what are the opinions of Women in the bible? :

Women : There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:28) — God is not sexist.

Wives : A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies. Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value. She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life. She selects wool and flax and works with eager hands. She is like the merchant ships, bringing her food from afar. She gets up while it is still dark; she provides food for her family and portions for her servant girls. She considers a field and buys it; out of her earnings she plants a vineyard. She sets about her work vigorously; her arms are strong for her tasks. — She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come. She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue. She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: “Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all.“ (Proverbs 31:10-29) — This places a housewife as the financial head of a household, furthermore the in an administration role for the domestic work. She is wise, strong, dignified, independent, and praised.

Homosexuals : ROM 2:1, MATHEW 22: 36-40 While Homosexuality is a sin in God’s eyes, he encourages us like with any sinner. Hate the sin LOVE the sinner. Akin to an alcoholic, or liar, you do not hate these people, you extend your hands and try to teach, help, guide, and love them. In fact he directly asks that you -do not- judge these people.

Fathers mistreat your children? I think not! : Colossians 3:21 (NASB) Fathers, do not exasperate your children, that they may not lose heart. — Ephesians 6:4 (NASB) And, fathers, do not provoke your children to anger; but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Hebrews 12:11 (NASB) All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

• Marriage? Love?

COR 13 :4

Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, (love) is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. If there are prophecies, they will be brought to nothing; if tongues, they will cease; if knowledge, it will be brought to nothing. For we know partially and we prophesy partially, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things. At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known. So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

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• What does God say about Marriage? Better to not marry?!

This argument has come up a lot. The books they are actually citing are called the “Letters” in the Bible. They are instructions for PRIESTS and LEADERS OF CLERGY where God and his disciples advise that it is better for Priests and Clergymen to be unwed, but if they are filled with love for someone, it is better to marry them.

Let’s clarify the Fall of Man. Shall we?

Adam and Eve were told not to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge. I don’t know how much more direct that “It will end in your demise” God could have been. He didn’t explain things in detail, instead insisted that the fruit was not good. (You don’t need to know what bad is to understand it, if you have a knowledge of what good is.) Further God said it would seperate them from Him, which they did know since he wasn’t around when they ate the flipping fruit. Man and Woman, Adam and Eve -willfully- disobeyed God and his request not to eat the fruit. God didn’t do it. God didn’t force them. God didn’t tempt them. God didn’t trick them. They had a request from the very being that created them, and after thumbing their nose at God, lying to His face, and blaming everyone instead of taking accountability for their actions, God still loved them. But God could no longer dwell with them. To understand this, you have to understand the nature of sin. God is all Good, all Holy, and Flawless. Compare yourself to pure perfection for a moment. It’s a bit hard to do so, let us take this to an analogy.

You have a flawless perfect diamond.

You mark the diamond, scratch it, mar it, break it, chip it in some way. Now every scratch, mar, break, chip, crack and speck in it represents ONE singular time you messed up in your life. Lied, cheated, stole, slept around, and did things that actually you know in your heart are wrong?

Can you you repair the diamond truly after all that it has undergone? No. In fact God says this. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-not by works, so that no one can boast.” Ephesians 2:8-10 (NIV)

What jeweler in their right mind would take that diamond when you were done with it?

God would. God would take it still because to him you are precious, and important. Don’t be like Adam and Eve and refuse to take accountability for actions you know are wrong, and grow a defensive heart around things you know you’ve done. You cannot alone make yourself, or that diamond a perfect thing again, only God can.

Let’s Clarify Original Sin. Shall we?

Not all people believe in ‘Original Sin’ nor do all people believe in ‘Baptism’ to promise salvation. Nor is your salvation dependent on these theological theories. Do you think a God that is fair, just, kind, and caring would -actually- condemn innocent people? I don’t. That’s not my God. My God has promised me and everyone else on this planet salvation, and I have faith in His judgement, His righteousness to make the right decisions. For in the Bible says : …”I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, “Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” Jeremiah 31:33-34. (NIV) “True Morality” is innate in all of us.

Blood Sacrifice paying for your sins?

You betcha, but not in the archaic and mundane way it is thusly demonstrated in this little flier. God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are all three one being. Much like a woman can be a sister, mother, and daughter. Three distinct roles, yet one singular person. She can be nothing other than a mother to her children, a daughter to her parents, and a sister to her sibling, yet she is one whole, complete person.

Jesus was God, and through Jesus, God Himself sacrificed himself, taking on the burdens of the world. It was not through blood you are saved. The wage of sin is death, God died as so you can live on. It is through His -Grace- you are saved, and his often mocked, overlooked, and selfless sacrifice. Another analogy.

A man and his child are in a bank that is being robbed. Would you consider this father taking a bullet for his child a blood sacrifice paying for the child’s life? No.

It is by the Sacrifice of your Holy Father, and His alone that you are given a choice, a sincere, and honest choice. Choose to refuse it, and that is your choice, choose to accept it, and that is also your choice.

But for goodness sake.Frankly I have no influence in what you believe in, all I can hope and pray your heart will be touched, but I also know the ways of a hardened heart. I cannot convince you, nor is it my job to convince you of anything one way or the other. All I can do is tell you the truth. In the end it’s your choice and something you will have to come to terms with. This choice is between you and God alone. This choice is a highly personal one. No one was scared into heaven, conversely no one was offended into hell. Before you start going on about things you don’t know… before you start giving all atheists a bad name in your blinding ignorance, ask yourself this. If you believe in nothing, why does it offend you so terribly I believe in -something-? Why do you care? Why are you so bitter, and so angry against something you don’t believe in anyway? I on the other hand am held to speak up when facts about my relationship with my God are misrepresented. He is my God too, and as He has saved me, I shall defend Him unto my dying breath.

* Sources cited :

http://www.southbayyouth.org/question.asp?id=52
Zondervan NIV Study Bible (Various Passages, and Concordance)