Today's Scripture Reading

[tanwahtiu]

Only one thing i do know eveytime when i go travelling i must have my constant companion with me and that is the BIBLE.

So you pay your 'if there is' insurance policy weekly, every Sunday in church all all they cannot assured you 'there is'. Those pastors that were dead did not come back like Jesus (death can rise again) to tell you about this special place on Christains can go!

Let me tell you a story. A pastor dies and (say) go to heaven and lined behind a pilot who also just died awhile ago. The pastor noticed that St Peter gave the pilot a very nice golden robe to wear. When come to his turn the pastor was gvien a plain white robe. Not very sure white is better than gold he asked the Pastor. The Pastor said gold is higher rank of entry than plain white. Plain white robe is common and lowest of the rank and file.

Curious, the pastor asks St Peter and Peter replied that when the pilot drive the plane many people prayed to God but when the Pastor preached many people either fell asleep and keep quiet (and no one prays too).

So when you say you travel you carry a Bible with you and of course you pray hard not because you think of God but just merely praying for a safe trip. But when you are in church you fell asleep, or day dreaming, and did not pray hard when your pastor is preaching You sabo your pastor and he only get a white robe

So do you know the moral of the story? The moral of the story of you carry a Bible with you is for you own selfish gain - praying for a safe trip, and come lah! do you really believe in the Bible?

 

[Psalm23]

Dear Ecclesiastes the teacher,

One of the readers of this thread IR123 has given a very sound advice. That's not waste time with these people whose hearts are so hardened that nothing can really do to let them listen to the Word of God. All they want is just to find fault with the Bible.

It's better that you can spend more time praying for your brother and sister and that they will be saved through their repentence the sooner the better. The blood of Jesus is available to everyone and His atoning blood will save us from the wrath of God on Judgment Day. And if opportunity arises or time permit, let's share God's messages to encourage fellow believers. We also hope that the messages we share can touch the hearts of others and they will come to repentence and acknowledge that Jesus is the Saviour. More of our time should be spending on this and that is exactly what I am doing. Everything will turn into ashes eventually, but a day will come that we can find eternal rest with Jesus. This is the great promise from Jesus and nothing really matter anymore once we understand this. Mercifully, as truly born-again Christians, we have the Holy Spirit to lead us to this acknowledge of grace.

Thanks for all the encouragements....to IR123 and GoodNews, and others as well....Even for those who are now finding faults with the Bible, mocking Jesus, we too will pray for them because Jesus has commanded us to love our enemies!

God Bless.

 

[tanwahtiu]

....Even for those who are now finding faults with the Bible, mocking Jesus, we too will pray for them because Jesus has commanded us to love our enemies!

The Bible comes in 2 parts OT and NT. with due respect, the OT belong to te Jewish people and most people leave the OT to the Jewish to deal with.

Only the NT has a problem and the Jews themselve did not acknowledge to the story lines. Jesus is a rabbi and it was mentioned in 13 times in Gospel of Mark. Jesus is not God. So Psalm23, who is mocking at God? You and the Romans Paul and his NT? Roman worshipped many Gods, so one more God to worship from Paul's invention makes no differences to them and you can see it in RC churches.

So who draws more viewers to this thread, you or me? Even your fellow Christains begin to join in the fray which is good. Don't tell them to keep quiet and just hear your messages. You have not reply or answer many question posted by many participants in this thread. All you do was to post long and unrelaible articles and often either blame God for the problems or blame the Bible.

 

[neilgoose]

Bro Tan,

I think this "discussion" is clearly going nowhere. On second thoughts, I think we cannot expect the bethrens here to explain their faith. For if they can do it, its no longer call faith.

I don't suppose anyone can come up with an intelligent reply on most of the questions raised here. If you do , of course pls step up and not let non-believers brush Xtianity aside as another fairy tale whose Holy book that include things like
- a talking snake,
- someone living in a whale for 3 days
- building a boat that houses 2 specimens of all species in the world and sailing for 40 days on a fully flooded earth (flood done by the divine)
- humans living to many hundreds years old
- parting the sea with a stick

Another thing, Tan , there are dozens of pretty violent verses in the Holy book that no believers anywhere will mention or explain... but do read <2 Kings 2:23-24>. Just that 2 verses is enough.

To all believers, I am also once a believer, until I start to reason things out. I shall spare you my thoughts. I am not keen to brush anyone's beliefs aside here. Am just very keen on the thought process of believers as to the various "seldom explained" contents of the book.

 

[guy-uninterrupted]

dear Bros in humanity , what i would really like to see is that this thread evolve into a meaningful discussion abt the holy scriptures .

Bro Psalm if you can at least address some of the points from bro tanwahtiu cos hes been posting some real thought provoking stuff that is too important to ignore. If indeed you say thatthe bible is word of GOD then u need not have any fear addressing the issues. Similarly i would also like to ask that ppl do read the Bible and as Bro Tan has mentioned i think he is quite well versed in it.
Although im not a Christian which is quite obvious , i do have strong family ties to some Methodists and i love and respect them and they also do accommodate me in my own belief.
What is important is mutual respect because it is easy to degenerate this thread into a mudslinging fest like a lot of other discussions .

Finally , although at the end of the day , we cannot force anyone to accept our beliefs, we can still gain a little knowledge and understand other ppls points of view and convictions.

 

[guy-uninterrupted]

[

To all believers, I am also once a believer, until I start to reason things out. I shall spare you my thoughts. I am not keen to brush anyone's beliefs aside here. Am just very keen on the thought process of believers as to the various "seldom explained" contents of the book.

[/QUOTE]
hi, from my own experience which is quite limited, ppls who are strong in the faith in whichever religion are quite dogmatic abt it although they may have not acquired the knowledge they will still say they believe no matter what. Thats why we need to increase our knowledge of religion and do some research to find out how does any of the worldly religions come about.

I for one would also love to hear from Hindus and learn more abt their faith as i have recently found that theirs is some awesomely ancient belief that propounds the Truth in the vedas and most likely wasnt called Hinduism at all but another sanskrit name for the Creator of the universe.
How it evolved is a diff matter of cos.

 

[Goodnews]

Hi dear readers,
I was once a non-believer of Christ - in fact no one is born a believer of Christ (for that matter of any religion). But, like all human, we all yearn for God. The inner voice of God's calling though is very faint, it is still audible.

People have very different experience when it comes to spiritual matter. My personal experience is that specifically I can relate myself to the Bible and generally the world to the Bible. Just few verses are sufficient to convict me that I am truly a sinner and desperately in need of God - we are wicked and our mind think of nothing but wickedness; we are jealous, we envy, we are selfish, we are self-centered...etc...etc. Please take no offence. If you think you are not one of these, then just continue with your belief. But for me....nothing good in me as told in the Bible.

Furthermore, I don't think science can help one to his believe although I must say that many scientific facts are consistent with the Bible. (Ooop! I am attracting alot of discussion for this comment!). For example, many people have doubts about the Noah's ark, but there are many ways to look at things whether they are credible or not. We were not there during Noah's time. But we all know that even for modern naval architects, they still need to use the ratios that were used in the construction of the ark to guide the construction of modern ship. This is a clear testimony that what is mentioned in the ark is not really nonsense. Was the ark big enough to accommodate all the animals? You were not there. I was not there so the answer, we don't know. But we know that the ship dimension is now used throughout the ship-building industry. You are here and I am here and we all know this. And how did Noah know about it? He was in the desert and the nearest river was few hundred miles away. There was no rain during Noah's time. People then saw only dews. How come Noah know how to build a ship with this seaworthy dimension that even modern naval architects must follow? By God's revelation to him?

Another point is the virgin birth. Again you were not there and I was not there when Mary gave birth to Jesus. But the concept of virgin birth was laughed at, mocked at. How could a girl who did not have sex with a man give birth? Christians then just believe by faith that it can happen and the conception was through the Holy Spirit. God put baby Jesus into the womb of Mary. But today, through IVF and other artificial insemination methods, we know it can be done. In today's scientific world, a girl does not need to have sex to conceive. This is a scientific fact. I am here and you are here. We all know this. (By the way, I have my own opinion on IVF and artificial insemination which I think is not a biblical way to conceive a child...ooop!!! I am attracting some more arguements on this!)

We can go through many of these that what were told in the Bible are scientifically consistent with science today. What Bible taught may sound ridiculous initially but sooner or later, the truth will reveal to us because the True Author of the Bible is God Himself and God does not lie. This is the most wonderful attribute of God!

Heaven declares His handiwork and His glory! Perhaps you want to look at this as another scientific fact.

Cheers...God Bless.

 

[tanwahtiu]

dear Bros in humanity , what i would really like to see is that this thread evolve into a meaningful discussion abt the holy scriptures .

Bro Psalm if you can at least address some of the points from bro tanwahtiu cos hes been posting some real thought provoking stuff that is too important to ignore. If indeed you say thatthe bible is word of GOD then u need not have any fear addressing the issues. Similarly i would also like to ask that ppl do read the Bible and as Bro Tan has mentioned i think he is quite well versed in it.
Although im not a Christian which is quite obvious , i do have strong family ties to some Methodists and i love and respect them and they also do accommodate me in my own belief.
What is important is mutual respect because it is easy to degenerate this thread into a mudslinging fest like a lot of other discussions .

Finally , although at the end of the day , we cannot force anyone to accept our beliefs, we can still gain a little knowledge and understand other ppls points of view and convictions.

The style and format of preaching the Bible from the pastors have changed reently, but not Psalm 23 messages. Things like BP oil spills and natural disasters in his messages should not link to God. The tsunami the wiped out Sir Lanka is a case of some pastors taking advantage of the situation to say it was wrath of God or sign of Relevation is coming. God plays no parts in creating a huge wave to wipe out Sri Lankan people, right? So science helps us to understand God better and man will install Tsunami warning gadgets and learn how to stay alive when next tsunami come.

I have no objection to Psalm 233 messages if he is politcally correct and not base on fear of God, God's wrath and God deliverance of punishment and etc.

He should get his messages checked by qualified Pastor before he post. Nothing to do with his holy spirit that make him write messages outside OB markers. Let's see he can change his style of messages and we'll help him do better and encourage him instead and within OB markers.

 

[tanwahtiu]

Dear Goodnews,

....... I was once a non-believer of Christ - in fact no one is born a believer of Christ (for that matter of any religion). But, like all human, we all yearn for God. The inner voice of God's calling though is very faint, it is still audible.....

I was born in the family where my aunty was a medium and the godly spirit that came into her was 'shi jia mo ni'. Other medium that came to see her will bow to her. Among the mediums, they understand each other and we beleive 'as it is'.

When I got interest in the christian religion it was all about the Bible. So with respect you go along with the brethens and sisters Christs and learn about the Bible. All the brethrens tell you is not to read other books than the Bible. No one is interested where, how and why the Bible was introduced, created and so on. So base only on the Bible book, it is like a blind faith and blind leading the blind.

When I began a thorough researches on the Bible you began to doubt the authencity or truth of the bible. It is not a holy scriptures but story telling lines likw Chris Handerson book - Cinderalla.

There are many well define inpired quotes, proverbs that will strike at your hearts. These messages are no other than man written to encourge and inspire each otehr to do better. Most of the Bible insoired word, texts and nessages were link and similar to the Buddha Dharma scriptures. So Jesus is reincarnate of Buddha, if you want to put it this way.

Or the Roman want to intrdouce Buddha teaching to his people but shy of revealing to the people to adopt Budhhist scripture and come up with the Bible. I only say this because there are amny evidences of Buddha Dharma scriptures in the Bible like the 'Undo to others as you would want other to undo you' and the Jesus walk on waters and the needle pick into your eyes.

.....Furthermore, I don't think science can help one to his believe although I must say that many scientific facts are consistent with the Bible. (Ooop! I am attracting alot of discussion for this comment!). For example, many people have doubts about the Noah's ark, but there are many ways to look at things whether they are credible or not. We were not there during Noah's time. But we all know that even for modern naval architects, they still need to use the ratios that were used in the construction of the ark to guide the construction of modern ship. This is a clear testimony that what is mentioned in the ark is not really nonsense. Was the ark big enough to accommodate all the animals? You were not there. I was not there so the answer, we don't know. But we know that the ship dimension is now used throughout the ship-building industry. You are here and I am here and we all know this. And how did Noah know about it? He was in the desert and the nearest river was few hundred miles away. There was no rain during Noah's time. People then saw only dews. How come Noah know how to build a ship with this seaworthy dimension that even modern naval architects must follow? By God's revelation to him? ..

I beleive this is under OT and the Jew rabbi can explain to you clearly. I am more interested to rebut the NT which was the Roman version of Buddha Dharma scripture. Most of the inspired messges were borrowed from the Buddhist.

...Another point is the virgin birth. Again you were not there and I was not there when Mary gave birth to Jesus. But the concept of virgin birth was laughed at, mocked at. How could a girl who did not have sex with a man give birth? Christians then just believe by faith that it can happen and the conception was through the Holy Spirit. God put baby Jesus into the womb of Mary. But today, through IVF and other artificial insemination methods, we know it can be done. In today's scientific world, a girl does not need to have sex to conceive...

Having sex is an act. Giving birth, in this case need two components, a load of sperms and fertilised eggs (must be ripe and ready to consumate with the sperms). So therefore the mighty God who is invincble must borrow some sperms from a human to complete the process of birth. This is what IVF is about, giving birth without the act of sex.

This is a scientific fact. I am here and you are here. We all know this. (By the way, I have my own opinion on IVF and artificial insemination which I think is not a biblical way to conceive a child...ooop!!! I am attracting some more arguements on this!)

We can go through many of these that what were told in the Bible are scientifically consistent with science today. What Bible taught may sound ridiculous initially but sooner or later, the truth will reveal to us because the True Author of the Bible is God Himself and God does not lie.

Have you heard of the perfect crime.

Heaven declares His handiwork and His glory! Perhaps you want to look at this as another scientific fact.

Let me ask you a question. Among these things; church, God, family, leisures and chidlren, which is more important in the order of 1 is most important to last the least important?

Tell me what you think?

 

[Goodnews]

Mr. Tanwahthiu (I am assuming you are a male and correct me if I am not correct).

I am now quite confused with your message. Each time you seem to introduce very funny 'theology'. This is the first time I heard that the NT is from the Buddhist scriptures. As I undestood, and I may be wrong, the Buddhist scripture was in Sanskript and was translated into Chinese language only in around AD 150. Before that I don't think there was any Buddhist scripture in other languages like Greek or Latin. So, how do the Romans understand Buddhist scriptures and incorporate them into the Bible? If they indded did this, I am sure there are many historical records to show it. But this is the first time I heard about such thing.

I like to discuss religion in more logical sense and you seem to keep introducing so many funny 'things' which I don't even know how to start to answer you. Another point...it seems that you agree that Jesus' birth was unique and He has no earthly father. If that is the case, in your best knowledge was there other such person - and I meant before the technology of IVF. (Currently there are many babies born without fathers and a special term is now given to their mothers - the surrogate mothers). If Jesus is the only person conceived in this manner throughout humanity - and according to you, God has miraculously took a sperm from a man and do an divine IVF on Mary, then this in itself is sometime that call for our acknowledgement that Jesus is truly conceived through God's divine plan. Of course, as Christian, I believe the conception is by the Holy Spirit and Jesus did not have any man's share of DNA nor man's blood. This is the reason why in Christian, the term precious blood - the Blood of Jesus is completely uncontaminated by the sin of Adam.

You mentioned your aunty was a medium....in your most honest opinion do you really want one day one of your children or all of your children to become temple medium. I know many Chinese families, even traditional do not want their descendant to be medium or tang kee. If yes, you are truly special and all the best to you. If no..can you tell us why? Would you sincerely pray to Kwan Inn that one day one of daughters (and I am assuming you have daugthers) can be a Kwan Inn medium and people can come to worship her. Please don't take offence on this...Let's discuss this honestly.

For me, I pray with all my heart that one day my children, if possible all, will come to do God's work, preaching and sharing the Good News of Jesus. Whether they exceled in their studies I really don't care. I want them to obey God's command and tell people about Jesus.

For my priority - I put God first, then church, then family and finally pleasure but with responsibility. When I say church, I mean the body of Christ. I don't mean we give all attention to go to our church and ignoring family. What I mean is that our body is the temple of God as taught in the Bible. We must uphold this body temple or church. We must take care of ourselves, our health, what we do, what we eat and to keep our body temple holy and clean. If we cannot look after our own body, how could we look after our family? For pleasure, I have to qualify it. We can enjoy but must be responsible. We must not enjoy something at great expense of others. It's perfectly alright we go and admire forest and play some games to relax ourselves. But many a time people enjoy at the expense of others. A good example is going to see boxing. To me, this is plain cruelty. You enjoy watching people punching one another, the harder they punched one another, the more you enjoy. This is wickedness. Another game is golf and I am introducing controversy here. Sngapore is a land-scarce country. But acres upon acres of land are used up for people to play golf and some of these areas are in prime districts. Watching people hitting a silly little ball into a equally silly little hole makes me sick when you see people are struggling to pay for their HDB housing loans, for a hole in the air, so to speak. And most of the time the golf courses are empty except on weekends.

God Bless

 

[wrcboi]

well its renown that the NT and the buddhist scriptures are very common....wondering how many romans did travel abroad...or tourist vice versa.....Buddhism at its peak did spread till as far to the border of Egypt...

 

[Ramseth]

well its renown that the NT and the buddhist scriptures are very common....wondering how many romans did travel abroad...or tourist vice versa.....Buddhism at its peak did spread till as far to the border of Egypt...

Basic morals of humanity are common through all religions and even by human commonsense and conscience. But by religion, through scriptures, NT and Buddhism hold big fundamental differences. Son of God, Resurrection, Day of Judgment, One Soul One Life versus Wheel of Karma, Reincarnation, Nirvana. Completely different conceptually.

 

[tanwahtiu]

.....For my priority - I put God first, then church, then family and finally pleasure but with responsibility..........God Bless

Mr Goodnews,

Apparently the answer is none above. Ironically, God is not the first priority, it can be leisure too, it has to do with doing one simple thing!

Go ask your church members or pastors and see if they can come close to my answer. I know many viewers here, if they read this thread, will be interested to know the answers.

The answer I will give you will/can change the way you deal with problems, life, marriage and businesses in your Christain life.

 

[whoami]

Let me ask you a question. Among these things; church, God, family, leisures and chidlren, which is more important in the order of 1 is most important to last the least important?

My aunt, a very staunch buddhist. Leader of a well-known Japanese sect in Sillypore. Always spend so much time with her fellow bros/sis. So much so she totally neglected her duties in her very own family responsibilites...as a mum/wife!

 

[tanwahtiu]

Basic morals of humanity are common through all religions and even by human commonsense and conscience. But by religion, through scriptures, NT and Buddhism hold big fundamental differences. Son of God, Resurrection, Day of Judgment, One Soul One Life versus Wheel of Karma, Reincarnation, Nirvana. Completely different conceptually.

Ramseth

Your keyword is concept. The meaning of "concept" is explored in mainstream cognitive science, metaphysics, and philosophy of mind.

Many ideas come from concept first and then implement it. Then it is 'trial and errors' all the way until you perfected the concept. Next is how to apply the concept and sell it world wide (marketing which the Ang Mohs are good at).

Buddha has evolved in one concept and of course Roman want to be different and develop another concept but fundamentally the Roman borrowed Buddhist Dhrama scriptures in their NT.

 

[tanwahtiu]

My aunt, a very staunch buddhist. Leader of a well-known Japanese sect in Sillypore. Always spend so much time with her fellow bros/sis. So much so she totally neglected her duties in her very own family responsibilites...as a mum/wife!

As leaders in a religious organisation they always are busy people and they often get carried away in their line of duties and some get loss in the process and neglected their own family.

 

[tanwahtiu]

Goodnews

....I am now quite confused with your message. Each time you seem to introduce very funny 'theology'. This is the first time I heard that the NT is from the Buddhist scriptures. As I undestood, and I may be wrong, the Buddhist scripture was in Sanskript and was translated into Chinese language only in around AD 150. Before that I don't think there was any Buddhist scripture in other languages like Greek or Latin.

So, how do the Romans understand Buddhist scriptures and incorporate them into the Bible? If they indded did this, I am sure there are many historical records to show it. But this is the first time I heard about such thing......

Go to Google and do searches and you will find the anwers. Pators and decans (the inner cicle) will often discourage their members to go Google and do searches and some even say Google is commiting heresies. But when they want to buy something or search for places they say Google is OK.

I like to discuss religion in more logical sense and you seem to keep introducing so many funny 'things' which I don't even know how to start to answer you. Another point...it seems that you agree that Jesus' birth was unique and He has no earthly father. If that is the case, in your best knowledge was there other such person - and I meant before the technology of IVF. (Currently there are many babies born without fathers and a special term is now given to their mothers - the surrogate mothers).

Babies can be born without fathers, true, but cannot be born without cheeky ONE sperm searching for one fertilised egg to consume.

If Jesus is the only person conceived in this manner throughout humanity - and according to you, God has miraculously took a sperm from a man and do an divine IVF on Mary, then this in itself is sometime that call for our acknowledgement that Jesus is truly conceived through God's divine plan. Of course, as Christian, I believe the conception is by the Holy Spirit and Jesus did not have any man's share of DNA nor man's blood. This is the reason why in Christian, the term precious blood - the Blood of Jesus is completely uncontaminated by the sin of Adam.

These miracle babies born without sex are Greek people ideas. Google search on this topic and you see many Greek Gods were born miracle-ly. Perhaps to keep their tradition or same style of story telling, using Greek idea was intorduce to Jesus story make sense to the Greeks.

You mentioned your aunty was a medium....in your most honest opinion do you really want one day one of your children or all of your children to become temple medium. I know many Chinese families, even traditional do not want their descendant to be medium or tang kee. If yes, you are truly special and all the best to you.If no..can you tell us why?

The spirit came to her and not my aunty chose to become a meduim. If there is a school of taught, like in Christain you can become a pastor, where you can study a degree in medium-ology, would you consider?

But in Christain there is, you can become pastor and earn quite a good quality life style (except often have to see dead people, your members passed away).

Pastorship and medium-ship do you see any different! One is spirt entered into you (you don't have a choice) the other you can study and get a degree in pastorship.


Would you sincerely pray to Kwan Inn that one day one of daughters (and I am assuming you have daugthers) can be a Kwan Inn medium and people can come to worship her. Please don't take offence on this...Let's discuss this honestly.

My explanation is above. no need to repeat. If there is a school to study medium-ship would you be interested? But apparently a spirit will enter into you and you don't have a choice, you are the Chosen One.

...For me, I pray with all my heart that one day my children, if possible all, will come to do God's work, preaching and sharing the Good News of Jesus. Whether they exceled in their studies I really don't care. I want them to obey God's command and tell people about Jesus.....

I have seen many parents who bring their kids to church when they were young. Now their children ahs grown up and don't go to church anymore. If one day your children tell you that the Bible is not true, how would you react?

In Gospel of Mark, Jesus the rabbi was mentioned 13 times, and only in Gospel of John that the Roman hammered in to say (wist and turn) that Jeus is God, or son of God. And Gospel of John was written last in the 100-150 AD, and Mark in 70-85 AD. Paul died some time in 50 AD. So 20 years after Paul died someone wrote Gospel of Mark and 50 years later someone wrote Gospel of John. So if your chidlren ask you these question how would you answer them?

So the story line of Jesus changes uh! Is this not altered, modified, trial and errors to improve the concept, cut and paste from the Greek ideas and their own Roman God, as you go along?

 

[Goodnews]

Goodnews

....I am now quite confused with your message. Each time you seem to introduce very funny 'theology'. This is the first time I heard that the NT is from the Buddhist scriptures. As I undestood, and I may be wrong, the Buddhist scripture was in Sanskript and was translated into Chinese language only in around AD 150. Before that I don't think there was any Buddhist scripture in other languages like Greek or Latin.

So, how do the Romans understand Buddhist scriptures and incorporate them into the Bible? If they indded did this, I am sure there are many historical records to show it. But this is the first time I heard about such thing......

Go to Google and do searches and you will find the anwers. Pators and decans (the inner cicle) will often discourage their members to go Google and do searches and some even say Google is commiting heresies. But when they want to buy something or search for places they say Google is OK.

I like to discuss religion in more logical sense and you seem to keep introducing so many funny 'things' which I don't even know how to start to answer you. Another point...it seems that you agree that Jesus' birth was unique and He has no earthly father. If that is the case, in your best knowledge was there other such person - and I meant before the technology of IVF. (Currently there are many babies born without fathers and a special term is now given to their mothers - the surrogate mothers).

Babies can be born without fathers, true, but cannot be born without cheeky ONE sperm searching for one fertilised egg to consume.

If Jesus is the only person conceived in this manner throughout humanity - and according to you, God has miraculously took a sperm from a man and do an divine IVF on Mary, then this in itself is sometime that call for our acknowledgement that Jesus is truly conceived through God's divine plan. Of course, as Christian, I believe the conception is by the Holy Spirit and Jesus did not have any man's share of DNA nor man's blood. This is the reason why in Christian, the term precious blood - the Blood of Jesus is completely uncontaminated by the sin of Adam.

These miracle babies born without sex are Greek people ideas. Google search on this topic and you see many Greek Gods were born miracle-ly. Perhaps to keep their tradition or same style of story telling, using Greek idea was intorduce to Jesus story make sense to the Greeks.

You mentioned your aunty was a medium....in your most honest opinion do you really want one day one of your children or all of your children to become temple medium. I know many Chinese families, even traditional do not want their descendant to be medium or tang kee. If yes, you are truly special and all the best to you.If no..can you tell us why?

The spirit came to her and not my aunty chose to become a meduim. If there is a school of taught, like in Christain you can become a pastor, where you can study a degree in medium-ology, would you consider?

But in Christain there is, you can become pastor and earn quite a good quality life style (except often have to see dead people, your members passed away).

Pastorship and medium-ship do you see any different! One is spirt entered into you (you don't have a choice) the other you can study and get a degree in pastorship.


Would you sincerely pray to Kwan Inn that one day one of daughters (and I am assuming you have daugthers) can be a Kwan Inn medium and people can come to worship her. Please don't take offence on this...Let's discuss this honestly.

My explanation is above. no need to repeat. If there is a school to study medium-ship would you be interested? But apparently a spirit will enter into you and you don't have a choice, you are the Chosen One.

...For me, I pray with all my heart that one day my children, if possible all, will come to do God's work, preaching and sharing the Good News of Jesus. Whether they exceled in their studies I really don't care. I want them to obey God's command and tell people about Jesus.....

I have seen many parents who bring their kids to church when they were young. Now their children ahs grown up and don't go to church anymore. If one day your children tell you that the Bible is not true, how would you react?

In Gospel of Mark, Jesus the rabbi was mentioned 13 times, and only in Gospel of John that the Roman hammered in to say (wist and turn) that Jeus is God, or son of God. And Gospel of John was written last in the 100-150 AD, and Mark in 70-85 AD. Paul died some time in 50 AD. So 20 years after Paul died someone wrote Gospel of Mark and 50 years later someone wrote Gospel of John. So if your chidlren ask you these question how would you answer them?

So the story line of Jesus changes uh! Is this not altered, modified, trial and errors to improve the concept, cut and paste from the Greek ideas and their own Roman God, as you go along?

Dear Tanwahtiu,

The prophecy of the virgin of Birth was already in told Hebrew Bible some 1,000 years before the Christ. If this was just a myth (which of course Christians believe otherwise), than the myth must be transmitted by the Jews to the Greeks, and not vice versa (as stated by you). Before the discovery of the Red Sea Scrolls, many skeptics said that the virgin birth was a conspiracy and the OT was written after the NT. But the Red Sea Scrolls discovered in 1947 dated back 1,000 before Christ proved that it was already foretold 1,000 years ago before the event has happened. (I think Psalm23 has written something on this last week.)

OK, ok the spirit came to your aunty. So, if a monkey god spirit came to your son and he manifested with some monkey behaviours and able to do some monkey tricks like predicting 4-D, would you really rejoice? Honest answer please. Even I am from a traditional family and have many relatives, I am yet to hear from any of my aunties or uncles that they would like this to happen to their children. And do you really like it? If you are, really you are special. (I think you are trying to avoid the answer. No problem…but I will take it that you don’t really like this to happen. But why if the spirit can help people to be rich by giving them 4-D, shouldn’t you ask for this spirit for you son instead of waiting for the monkey spirit to come? If things are good, we should ask for it. Sound offensive…..if so….thousand apologies.)

Jesus was called Rabbi many times in the Bible by people. In fact this is one of the great ‘revelations’ that Jesus is truly extraordinary. In ancient Hebrew time, to be a Rabbi you need a lot of training and under strict teachers’ disciplinary training in addition to other trainings like religious practices, laws, etc, and they took years. Not everyone can become one. Rabbi is one of the most respectable people in ancient Israel and I believe today they are also very well-respected in their own community. Jesus has never attended any school and yet He was addressed as Rabbi. Well, He actually is – a High Rabbi, a High Priest who is now sitting at the Right of God interceding for us. Another reason why people acknowledge Jesus as Rabbi was because of His unusual knowledge of the Jewish religious laws. At very young age, He was in the temple challenging the teaching of the Hebrew laws with ‘qualified’ Rabbi and many just puzzled why He knew the Hebrew laws so well when He had never received any religious training. They were so jealous that they plotted to kill Him! This brings a very important lesson for us as Christians. While I think it is good that having some formal theological training is useful because you can learn not just from the teachers but from fellow believers, it is not absolutely necessary. During NT time there was no theological colleges and schools, yet the NT written (well, just borrow your term cut-and-paste, if this makes you happier) is now read by hundred of million of people if not billions. Certainly only a small percentage really believe in Jesus but the fact remains that this Book of New Testament is Book of all Books (of course together with the OT). If they are just cut-and-paste then again this must be the most wonderful cut-and-paste book and there will be no second best. All people who are convicted to work for Jesus are called by God and His Holy Spirit and not by man. Remember, all training institutions be they medical, arts or religious institutions are man-made.

You asked me what would I feel when one day my children tell me the Bible is not true. Well, I don’t need to look further into this. Many people are telling that the Bible is not true and some, though had been to church for many years, took a different perspective later said that Bible is not true. They are also as many people who turned away from other religion and become Christians (I think you are one here…so no need to look further)! Are we surprised that our children one day tell us that the Bible is not true or one of our Christian brother tells us that he is leaving the faith and want to be Taoist priest? Definitely not because the Bible told us that during the end time, many will be fallen away and this 'fallen aways' are the believers. This does not apply to non-believers. You see – what the Bible says will come true eventually. So if people don’t believe, so what. That’s does not change the position. The God of the Bible is not going to negotiate with us and say “Let’s negotiate the deal”. He is saying to us that “THIS IS THE DEAL! Accept Me as your Saviour and believe in Me, Repent and Be Saved. Leave it or take. The choice is yours to decide!” Mercifully, He will give you time to decide but the time is not going to go forever because you don't know what is going to happen to you tomorrow or even the next hour. So, now is the time to decide!

God Bless

 

[IR123]

Jesus was called Rabbi many times in the Bible by people. In fact this is one of the great ‘revelations’ that Jesus is truly extraordinary. In ancient Hebrew time, to be a Rabbi you need a lot of training and under strict teachers’ disciplinary training in addition to other trainings like religious practices, laws, etc, and they took years. Not everyone can become one. Rabbi is one of the most respectable people in ancient Israel and I believe today they are also very well-respected in their own community. Jesus has never attended any school and yet He was addressed as Rabbi. Well, He actually is – a High Rabbi, a High Priest who is now sitting at the Right of God interceding for us. Another reason why people acknowledge Jesus as Rabbi was because of His unusual knowledge of the Jewish religious laws. At very young age, He was in the temple challenging the teaching of the Hebrew laws with ‘qualified’ Rabbi and many just puzzled why He knew the Hebrew laws so well when He had never received any religious training. They were so jealous that they plotted to kill Him! This brings a very important lesson for us as Christians. While I think it is good that having some formal theological training is useful because you can learn not just from the teachers but from fellow believers, it is not absolutely necessary.

Hello GoodNews,

Your point here is quite thought-provoking. My point of view is that the established leaders of Christ's days are not jealous of Christ but rightfully viewed Christ's words as blasphemous.

And Christ's words indeed would be blasphemous if they were spoken by any one other than God Himself. For who can claim equality with God? Even today, Muslims and Ultra-Orthodox Jews find it difficult to accept and came up with reasons of their own in explaining this issue.

The same stumbling block occur in the belief systems of many here, including the one you are referring to. Some of them had attacked the cornerstone - that Christ is God incarnate and they believe in their own words.



My next point of view is your statement that theological studies are not 'absolutely neccessary'. Two points: First, your statement is true if you have the Holy Spirit fully as your teacher. If you think that all of us have the Holy Spirit teaching us, take a good look at the christian world today and a good look at yourself and myself. We see but darkly. Scholarship helps us to put a framework and sheds some light. If the personal teachings by Christ is sufficient, then Paul would not be called. Second, you need a good scholarship background to have a basis for understanding the different perspectives of people. Theological arguments mean nothing if the heart is not right. Sometimes christian attitudes can be improved and developed if we have more understanding of the Mind of God. For what is theology but an attempt to systematize our understanding of the Mind of God.


Finally keep up the good work. You certainly have more patience than me.

 

[tanwahtiu]

Dear Goodnews,

OK, ok the spirit came to your aunty. So, if a monkey god spirit came to your son and he manifested with some monkey behaviours and able to do some monkey tricks like predicting 4-D, would you really rejoice? Honest answer please. Even I am from a traditional family and have many relatives, I am yet to hear from any of my aunties or uncles that they would like this to happen to their children. And do you really like it?

Your assumption is baseless, work harder. Perhaps that is what you did asking Jesus for 4 D numbers, quietly.

If you are, really you are special. (I think you are trying to avoid the answer. No problem…but I will take it that you don’t really like this to happen. But why if the spirit can help people to be rich by giving them 4-D, shouldn’t you ask for this spirit for you son instead of waiting for the monkey spirit to come? If things are good, we should ask for it. Sound offensive…..if so….thousand apologies.)

Jesus was called Rabbi many times in the Bible by people. In fact this is one of the great ‘revelations’ that Jesus is truly extraordinary. In ancient Hebrew time, to be a Rabbi you need a lot of training and under strict teachers’ disciplinary training in addition to other trainings like religious practices, laws, etc, and they took years. Not everyone can become one. Rabbi is one of the most respectable people in ancient Israel and I believe today they are also very well-respected in their own community. Jesus has never attended any school and yet He was addressed as Rabbi. Well, He actually is – a High Rabbi, a High Priest who is now sitting at the Right of God interceding for us. Another reason why people acknowledge Jesus as Rabbi was because of His unusual knowledge of the Jewish religious laws. At very young age, He was in the temple challenging the teaching of the Hebrew laws with ‘qualified’ Rabbi and many just puzzled why He knew the Hebrew laws so well when He had never received any religious training. They were so jealous that they plotted to kill Him! This brings a very important lesson for us as Christians. While I think it is good that having some formal theological training is useful because you can learn not just from the teachers but from fellow believers, it is not absolutely necessary. During NT time there was no theological colleges and schools, yet the NT written (well, just borrow your term cut-and-paste, if this makes you happier) is now read by hundred of million of people if not billions. Certainly only a small percentage really believe in Jesus but the fact remains that this Book of New Testament is Book of all Books (of course together with the OT). If they are just cut-and-paste then again this must be the most wonderful cut-and-paste book and there will be no second best. All people who are convicted to work for Jesus are called by God and His Holy Spirit and not by man. Remember, all training institutions be they medical, arts or religious institutions are man-made.

50% of the Anglo Saxon in Britian today are non Christain and it was their forefather that wrote the KJV Bible, why?

You asked me what would I feel when one day my children tell me the Bible is not true. Well, I don’t need to look further into this. Many people are telling that the Bible is not true and some, though had been to church for many years, took a different perspective later said that Bible is not true. They are also as many people who turned away from other religion and become Christians (I think you are one here…so no need to look further)! Are we surprised that our children one day tell us that the Bible is not true or one of our Christian brother tells us that he is leaving the faith and want to be Taoist priest? Definitely not because the Bible told us that during the end time, many will be fallen away and this 'fallen aways' are the believers. This does not apply to non-believers. You see – what the Bible says will come true eventually. So if people don’t believe, so what. That’s does not change the position. The God of the Bible is not going to negotiate with us and say “Let’s negotiate the deal”. He is saying to us that “THIS IS THE DEAL! Accept Me as your Saviour and believe in Me, Repent and Be Saved. Leave it or take. The choice is yours to decide!” Mercifully, He will give you time to decide but the time is not going to go forever because you don't know what is going to happen to you tomorrow or even the next hour. So, now is the time to decide!