Jesus Among Secular Gods

I don't think so; what I am saying is that so far no one has ever presented anyway to actually identify or test to show something is supernatural. I believe GOD exists but understand that is simply a belief with no supporting evidence. Nor do I see anyway anyone alive could ever even produce such evidence. Yeah, I believe you do believe that but I really can't see any point or relevance or reason for such an effort or process. Well, first off, such a God is unnecessary and still simply creates yet another God in that particular image. Why not just give humans a foundational belief to be peace keepers, to be merciful, to love others as we love ourselves etc?I believe GOD exists but have absolutely no reason to think GOD will be like anything I can imagine.I believe there is life after death.I believe that humans at least will be judged after death.I believe that the basics of Jesus message, his teachings are a valid guideline for living ones life.I believe that what I believe is also totally irrelevant to anyone except me.But I am a Christian.

Hi GDR I quit asking people a long time ago if they were a Christian. I was told too many times, "yes, I am a Christian I was born in America.That just don't pass muster.God Bless,

Hi ringo What is the difference in that and believing there is evidence where there is none, only assumptions.God Bless,

Hi GDR Doctrine comes after you are God's child and have got off the milk of the Word and reached the point you can chew on the meat of the Word.

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John 3:3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

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3:4 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?

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3:5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

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3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

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3:7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.

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Jesus told Nicodemus that a man had to be born again to just see the kingdom of heaven. If you could not see the kingdom of heaven then you could not enter into it.Now lets look at what that birth is.Jesus explained that a man had to have two births to see the kingdom of heaven.
The first birth is where mom conceives and carries a child until birth. That birth being a water birth as the child is carried in an amniotic sac filled with the child and amniotic fluid.
When this sac breaks and dispels the fluid birth take place pretty soon. So Jesus was referring to a natural birth as the first birth.So the second birth is a spiritual birth. Literally a birth from above when the Holy Spirit comes in and seals a persons spirit until the day of redemption.I am going to explain how that happens by telling you what happened to me. We were having a revival in the church I attended and were in the third week of revival which would be the last week as school would be starting soon.On August 19, 1949 I was in services and actually heard what the preacher said for a change. (A nine year and 11 month old boy was usually not paying much attention) But this night I was and when the invitation was given I wanted to be saved and have that eternal life the preacher talked about but I went home lost. I ate a snack and went to bed and fell asleep. But sometime during the night, I don't know when as there was no clock in the room. But laying in the bed and thinking of the scriptures and message the preacher had preached I knew I needed to be saved. He had preached from John 3:16, 17, and 18. Verse 18 is the one that was keeping me awake.

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John 3:18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

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The preacher had explained that all I had to do to be saved and have eternal life was to believe Jesus would give me eternal life, just by asking and trusting totally in Him to do what He said He would do. I trusted Jesus and received a full pardon for my sins and the Holy Spirit to seal my spirit. Thus I was born again of the spirit of God to walk in a newness of life. So no I have only been born again and saved one time. I have had one physical birth and one spiritual birth. Physical birth September 26, 1939 at 4:30 pm. Spiritual birth August 19, 1949 hour unknown.Everyone here has had a physical birth.
I am hoping you and others here have had a spiritual second birth.God Bless,

Here are a couple of thoughts on that. Essentially you are saying that you believe that God exists but that the god that you believe in isn't involved in the world that we live in. That is deism.As far as evidence goes there is evidence all around us. Our whole body is made up of mindless particles and yet we have consciousness. We can appreciate beauty. We have a sense of morality. We are able to love, even sacrificially. That is evidence of something, and yes we can only come to subjective conclusions that form our beliefs, but it is evidence.If we feel led to go to the aid of a homeless individual is that because we have listened to that still small voice? if it is, then is that supernatural? Does that still small voice even exist or has it simply evolved out of mindlessness? Well there have been countless philosophers and theologians who have spent their lives trying to answer that question. They certainly saw relevance and reason in trying to answer that question.If we are the result of a deity then it seems reasonable to at least suspect that we are here with some kind of purpose. It seems reasonable and relevant to me to attempt to discern that purpose and react to it. If we can't reject it we can't choose it. As a Christian don't you think that you can look at Jesus to give you an understanding of God? Why believe that over a belief in anyone else? It seems to me that somewhere you said you taught sunday school. You must have believed that your beliefs were relevant to the kids in your class. I'm not questioning that, but I again ask what as a Christian do you believe that a secular humanist couldn't also believe in?

Hi GDR You are not describing someone being born again.You are describing a person that decides to serve the Lord and sets out on a journey of doing good deeds in order to gain favor with God. Then after that journey has lasted a long time the person has convinced himself/herself that they have arrived and deserve to be in heaven and is now saved.That is getting the cart before the horse. You have to be born again before you can do one good deed that God even sees. The verse I quoted in the previous message John 3:18 tells you that you are condemned already and you did not have to do anything to be condemned. All you had to do was to be born into the world with a natural birth and you were already condemned. People don't get to choose whether they go to hell or heaven. If a person does not choose to be born again they will spend eternity in the lake of fire.
But no one has to go there as they can choose to go to heaven instead.God Bless,

I think isome of us were born again but didn't know what it was so we don't think of it as pinned to a particular time and place. We just notice that we're very different from what we were before. I had a few eparate rather dramatic supernatural experiences during the period when I was reading my way to Christ but there was a time when I looked at myself and saw that I actually had a faith I had't had before and didn't know exactly when the change had occurred. But many Christians have a very definite experience in mind they definitely can pin down to time and place, and just as ICANT does, commemorate it as having its own birthday. Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

Not at all. That is one of the problems with your type of fundamentalism. You think the whole point of the thing is to get to heaven. In the first place the idea of heading off to some place called heaven is not from the Bible. It is Greek mythology and primarily from Plato. The Bible actually talks about the recreation of all things. The Kingdom of Heaven in Matthew or the Kingdom of God in the other Gospels is about having an earthly kingdom without geographic boundaries that is made up of those who respond to that small voice of God and work to spread God's love and care into His creation.Secondly when you make the point of Christianity to get a reward in the next life you are preaching a message that is 180 degrees from what Jesus taught. It takes the message Jesus' message of serving others into a message of loving the self.The point about being born again is that it is about having a heart that learns to love sacrificially, not because there is a benefit from doing so in either this life or the next, but simply because you love that which is good and follow through with that love. Read the Bible and start with the sermon on the mount or Matthew 25. The whole point about being saved is not just to get a benefit in the next life, but it is about being saved so that we can serve God by being good stewards of His creation. That is so completely unscriptural. Again, read the Bible for what it actually says. In this case start with the "Good Samaritan", or again the sheep and the goats. There is nothing in there about what doctrine they accepted but simply about where there hearts were. This again is more about Greek mythology than anything else. Your type of faith turns doctrinal belief into the idea of salvation by works. It represents a modern form of phariseeism.Remember Jesus said that all of the commandments hang on the love of God and neighbour and Paul tells us that ultimately they amount to the same thing. You might also read my signature.

No and you cannot find anywhere I have said that is what I believe; but of course you can find that God in Genesis 1. But it is not evidence of anything supernatural. No one knows. The best evidence is that it is a simple product of being alive. There is no evidence of anything supernatural there. Absolutely not. The story of Jesus can give us an understanding of what it means to be a human. I believe there is a GOD and that there is life after death and I will be judged based on how I have lived my life.

I do. jar seems more Jewish than Christian, though he insists he belongs to a club. How? It looks more like a charge. And I might ask: A charge from Whom? This whole idea of personal responsibility and doing your best came from Judaism. Yup. Very Jewish. Not that this is wrong, mind you. Christians need Judaism to keep their fantasies in check.The whole idea of throwing God away is debatable, however. You can't throw reality away.

Jesus was a Jew not a Christian Phat. Really? Did Jesus not tell us that we should love our brother as ourselves; that we will be judged based one how we treat the least of these or brothers?Have you ever actually read the Bible Phat? Jesus taught stories teaching humans how to behave. He showed compassion and did what was needed by the particular individual or situation. Jesus set an example of what it means to be a human.

Assumptions are based on evidence.

So if they were forming a canon to revise todays NKJV,NIV, and ESV versions of the Bible, would you suggest that they throw away the Gospel of John, or would you let it stay as part of the readings?

The point is that many believe that the supernatural is a part of reality, despite no (Objective) evidence. Do you find the idea of a supernatural God laughable? Is your belief formed soley through evidence? What specifically about the God that is marketed by today's apologists do you find objectionable?

HUH?Who is revising a Canon?Why would they eliminate it?What is needed is to help Christians learn the basics of Christian History. John is not one of the Synoptic Gospels for a reason.