Evidence for God from Science

What does the bible say about doubting your faith?

UsagiTsukino wrote: ↑Wed Jan 16, 2019 10:33 pm What does the bible say about doubting your faith?

Mark 9:24.

Doubt is part and parcel of our sinful nature. Prayer helps.

God knows the beginning, middle and end. Does this mean he tries to change our fate? That it was one of the reasons he had Jesus come down to us? To give us a change o be saved? Because if not we would all end up in the same place?

Another question is God doesn't change and yet he is seem doing it a few times in OT

UsagiTsukino wrote: ↑Sun Jan 27, 2019 8:08 pm God knows the beginning, middle and end. Does this mean he tries to change our fate? That it was one of the reasons he had Jesus come down to us? To give us a change o be saved? Because if not we would all end up in the same place?

Another question is God doesn't change and yet he is seem doing it a few times in OT

God KNOWS all that we CAN do, even what we probably WILL do and even what we WILL do ( not that hard when you consider how predictable humans are).
God sets in place the answer to our questions, it's up to US to get there.

God doesn't change in the bible, the writers make it so to teach a lesson about WHO talk is dealing with, NOT to teach that God "changes" His Mind.
Sodom and Gomorrah come to mind.

What is free will? Is it just a illusion just to make it seem that we come to Jesus by choice and not by the path is already chosen?

UsagiTsukino wrote: ↑Fri Feb 01, 2019 11:52 am What is free will? Is it just a illusion just to make it seem that we come to Jesus by choice and not by the path is already chosen?

Define, "come to Jesus."

What does it mean if one comes to Jesus?

That one believes one is only saved by accepting Jesus. Question where in the Bible does it say we can't use medicine? People are saying no to vaccinate due to religion

UsagiTsukino wrote: ↑Tue Mar 26, 2019 8:20 pm That one believes one is only saved by accepting Jesus. Question where in the Bible does it say we can't use medicine? People are saying no to vaccinate due to religion

Personally I say no to vaccines because some have formaldehyde, aluminium and mercury in them. Vaccines are fine if they would just take out the heavy metals and other toxic ingredients!

Question when it came to Jesus's death how long did it take to write about it? There been some debate that Paul and the others didn't write about until a while after

UsagiTsukino wrote: ↑Mon May 06, 2019 8:45 pm Question when it came to Jesus's death how long did it take to write about it? There been some debate that Paul and the others didn't write about until a while after

The earliest record of the death and resurrection of Jesus that we have is an early Christian Creed that Paul records in 1 Corinthians 15:3-7.
The consensus of NT scholars is that Paul wrote 1 Corinthians around 55 AD (25 years after the death and Resurrection of Christ).

However, scholars agree that Paul 'received' this early Christian creed when he spent 15 days with Peter and James when he visited Jerusalem in 35 AD (Gal 1:18-19).

So the creed that Paul recorded within 25 years of the death and resurrection of Jesus, was already codified and passed on to Paul by Peter and James (who Paul lists as eyewitnesses) within 5 years of the historical event.

They question becomes why take that long to write it down. However, that seems to be a pattern in ancient records.

UsagiTsukino wrote: ↑Mon May 13, 2019 8:23 pm They question becomes why take that long to write it down. However, that seems to be a pattern in ancient records.

The issue with all ancient records (especially records that are 2000 years old) is that we do not have access to all the records that were written down. We only have access to those very few records that actually survived the passage of time.

The unique thing about Christianity is the large number of written records that have survived, and the close proximity in time of the writing of those surviving records to the historical events they record.

Paul's writings were written within 25 years of the death/resurrection of Jesus.

The Gospel of Mark is the oldest of the four Gospels, and most likely dates to the 50s (which would place it also within 25 years of the time of Jesus). Papias tells us that Mark's Gospel contains the account of the Apostle Peter as recorded by Mark. So this Gospel account would have been written down prior to Peter's martyrdom at the hands of Nero.

Luke tells us that his Gospel is a record of information that was handed down to him. So Luke's Gospel is a function of written documents, oral tradition, and eyewitness testimony that was already distributed throughout the Christian community before he even began to write down his Gospel account.

There is also the fact that the passing on of oral tradition played a much larger role in the ancient world than it does in the modern world.
So if the early Christian creed that Paul records in 1 Cor 15:3-7 was passed on to him within 5 years of the death/resurrection of Jesus then that means the creed had been codified and transmitted orally throughout the early Christian community for some time prior to that.
Which means that the early Christian creed that Paul records in 1 Cor 15:3-7 can trace its oral roots to within a year or two of the death/resurrection of Christ.

So the bottom line is that the life of Jesus is well documented both in quantity and quality of contemporary (1 Cor 15:3-7) and near contemporary records (The four Gospels, specifically Mark... and Josephus too for that matter).
To quote historian Thomas Arnold...

I have been used for many years to study the histories of other times, and to examine and weigh the evidence of those who have written about them, and I know of no one fact in the history of mankind which is proved by better and fuller evidence of every sort, to the understanding of a fair inquirer, than the great sign which God hath given us that Christ died and rose again from the dead.

UsagiTsukino wrote: ↑Mon May 13, 2019 8:23 pm They question becomes why take that long to write it down. However, that seems to be a pattern in ancient records.

Since the written word was viewed as LESS than oral tradition, the only time it ( tradition) was passed on in written form was when those that were witness to the accounts, first hand, were starting to die off.

The other thing to remember is, many in the masses were illiterate. And things were transmitted via word of mouth easier via repetition and phrasing that was easy to remember.

Can someone tell me the reasons why John was called "the elder"