Because it has fewer errors than yours?
Fallible does not mean full of errors but rather that it does not claim papal infallibility,
as you imply that you do--which is your error #1.
Apologetics: witnessing to atheists
- Thread starter GWH
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Fallible does not mean full of errors but rather that it does not claim papal infallibility,
as you imply that you do--which is your error #1.
God allows aging and dying in order to teach young folks their need for His salvation physically for starters.
I would respond to your three questions with:
1) Were the accounts of Jesus specifically written to include these prophesies? Studies of Judaism in the 1st century reveal the acceptance of many prophesies that have been largely ignored by Christian tradition.
2) We actually have very limited eyewitness evidence. John claims to have been an eyewitness, but there is ample reason to suspect that his testimony has been tampered with before it has gotten to us. Paul is a second eyewitness, but in key points his testimony is vague and subject to interpretation. Just what did he wee when he saw the risen Christ, and do not rely on someone who admits to using hearsay for support as we do not know why the hearsay accounts were included.
3) There is no clear eyewitness account of an empty tomb. Three accounts do not claim to be eyewitnesses, and the fourth seems to have been tampered with. Additionally, there are multiple, very early, claims that the tomb was not empty but that there was a body present, just not that of Jesus, but rather a different body that has somehow appeared there.
About your wife?
No lol, about the guests.
I would say for starters, at least 15 people died. All different stories, wasn't used to that. Most of the guests were guys who burnt all the bridges, 50s +.
Rough neighborhood, our house was the only one that didn't have bullet holes in it.
A handful of near misses.
Feeding 200+ every Friday, attracted alot of fighting. But also made some friends. Learned alot about the homeless.
I've been ready to graduate for 15 years.
It was about then I started to not be able to withstand the level of physical suffering. Good news and bad news, good news, my family lives to be a 100 years plus. The bad news, my family lives to be a hundred years plus. My great grandmother lived to 110.
I live on ice, and the tens unit.
I'm living a kind of perfect storm. I have something called serotonin syndrome. Serotonin syndrome prevents the brain from sending the rigjt signals for breathing, heart rate, and other stuff. So most pain medication could kill me in my sleep.
I have a freezer full of large ice packs, and im on my forth tens unit. I thank God for rechargeable batteries.
The low back surgery i had last April did give me some positive results. Their going to clean out the pipe in my neck and fuse 7 disc's in a month or so. Not looking forward to that.
S,
take your advice when you find yourself in the tribulation and no rapture as you believe it to be.
I understand you had chronic pain in your back that was partly relieved via surgery and you cannot take most medication,
so you hope that another operation to fuse seven discs and clean the pipe in your neck will help greatly. I hope so too, because
I have some back pain occasionally and can imagine how unbearable that would be if it were continual. Is cannabis an option?
Have you tried acupuncture? Do you know what caused your back pain to begin?
We can pray for miraculous healing or for successful surgery or for blissful relief in heaven,
but we know that physical suffering is a normal part of life, so God may not grant such prayers.
Also, most of the time God works through human agency including surgeons, so I guess a successful operation
in October will be our main prayer?
you describe a life of pain that I would have a hard time dealing with. I used to know a healer who could help with such levels of pain in anyone except herself, but unfortunately, she has passed, but fortunately she is now out of pain. She used a lot of meditation to help with her pain, she described it as putting as much of her pain as she could into a ball, then pushing the ball away.
I will include you in my prayers, that you might find some measure of relief from pain.
My back problems are from 35 years of brick, block, stone, and concrete work. I was a master mason.
I ruptured 2 disc's in my low back in 1996. It was a year before I could even hold a coffee cup in front of me. Having my own business I was able to figure out a way to keep the paychecks coming in. I slowly went back to laying brick mostly. My wife and I made the decision to keep her at home with the 4 children, even though she could have made a 6 figure living very easily.
I would get into pattern of re injuring those disc's every year. Then it was twice a year, 4 times a year, and so on until it was going out every 6 six weeks. Having no insurance was one of the luxuries we gave up to keep her at home. So going to 12 surgeons begging for help over those 30 years and getting nowhere was crushing. I needed 2 or 3 fusions in my low back and 7 in my neck, they told me nobody's going to do that. Fast forward to this year and shortening the story, here i am, gave up on any help years ago, and Im Having those 2 surgeries.
I was able to fight through the pain for about 20 of those years with just ice and the tens unit. But if anyone knows high chronic pain, there's this thing that happens eventually called anxiety. The anxiety is our brain kind of like flipping a breaker. This flipped breaker is our brain telling us, I'm not doing this anymore! It was game over.
So i had to go on disability, back away from feeding on Fridays, give up all those halfway houses we built. Going on disability in 2014, gave me insurance. I would get 17 epidurals, and 56 rfa ablations, and pain medication. That is when I found out about the serotonin syndrome, and could nolonger take pain meds.
I know im painting a night mare scenario, and it is. But there's a whole other side of the story I can't get into much detail about in public.
I'll try and make the point without sounding like a lunatic. In 1987, I started a covenant relationship with Christ by a daily personal surrender to Him and a life inspired by such surrender. As that relationship grew i began to experience the spiritual awakening, the indwelling Holy spirit, and the mind of Christ .
The quick explanation to that is i started to feel His presence and would think about Him 24/7. For the last 38 years, that has never gone away. Of course knowing the continually surrendered life has a great deal to do with that, I've tried to make a better surrendered life to Him continually for the last 38 years, and it's never left. At some point, I would learn that a personal surrender to Him and a life inspired by such surrender is what NT saving faith is, pisteuo.
Just like the physical pain has a physical feeling, so does the presence of Christ. So my pain in some way is equal to His presence I've been living with. Im not saying I can make any sense of it, maybe someone else can.
So if anyone asked me if I would change anything, I wouldn't, not a thing. I seem to be living that paradoxical life im always talking about. Two opposite things happening at the same time. The unbearable suffering, and His presence 24/7.
I don't mean to make it sound like I'm anything special because im not. But if I can help anyone with any of these issues, private message me, or ask me to privately message you.
Thanks for your prayers.
OK, whatever
I follow the doctrine of Christ which is error free
2 John 1:9 - Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.
Catholics are in serious trouble and don't know it.
If we follow Christ's teachings, we will not claim to be error free (1John 1:8-9).
OK, whatever
I follow the doctrine of Christ which is error free
2 John 1:9 - Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.
Catholics are in serious trouble and don't know it.
We are fallible, which means we should be humble/teachable.
Okay, SJ?
Then the :Lord said this in His Word:
Matthew 5:48 - Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
Hebrews 6:1 - Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God
James 1:25 - But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
1 Corinthians 15:34 - Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.
Pretty interesting reading right?
Yes, along with Phil. 3:12-14 - "Not that I have already obtained all this or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it, but one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."
IOW, SJ is more perfect than Paul was?!