Nasa
,..... " If you can not believe the writings of Moses, then how can you believe me". Johns gospel.
My guess is if Moses is wrong then John is informing us that he is also likely wrong.
No one can know but by faith or by the experience of the Lords Holy spirit, -if any, if not all the books of the bible are true or false.
If you have faith you preclude questioning of the Bible and are therefore closed minded and fearful.
A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg - or else he would be the devil of hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the son of God; or else a madman or something worse.... but let us not come up with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.
C. S. Lewis.
What if C.S.Lewis is simply wrong and Jesus{if he indeed existed}
was just a man how would that make a phrase from him such as Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself not be a great moral teaching? He would not be a lunatic or a devil of hell, but rather, now listen closely child, he would be simply like we are ,
human..
So I would choose not the black and white world of a dull man like C.S.Lewis but a colorful and robust life where a great human teacher is a force ti be reckoned with.
Bernard Ramm, a professor of theology in the USA said this about the words and teachings of Jesus:
They are read more, quoted more, loved more, believed more, and translated more because they are the greatest words ever spoken....Their greatness lies in the pure lucid spirituality in dealing clearly, definitively, and authoritatively with the greatest problems that throb in the human breast....No other man's words have the appeal of Jesus' words because no other man can answer these fundamental human questions as Jesus answered them. They are the kind of words and kind of answers we would expect God to give.
Imagine that,a theologian defending that which He spent his life on.
Is there found here some means by which we can judge for ourselves that they are indeed read more quoted more,loved more,Etc..or is it simply the opinion of one man who has cause to bolster his belief since to do otherwise is to begin the undermining of that faith to which he stubborly clings? What fundamentals were answered? I really would like to see something on that.
Many of the Laws in the west were originally based on the teachings of Jesus. We are making progress in virtually every field of science and technology. We travel faster and know more, and yet in 2,000 years no one has improved on the moral teaching of Jesus Chirst. Could that teaching really have come from a con man or a mad man?
Nicky Gumbel, Theology and Writer Oxford.
Please show us which Laws were adopted in the west.Eye for an eye? Stoning to death of disobedient children? Pleasee clarify would you?Show us the present law and the biblical equivalent.
[The] Church.....beginning from a handful of uneducated fishermen and tax gatherers, swept across the whole known world in the next three hundred years. It is a perfectly amazing story of peaceful revolution that has no parallel in the history of the world. It came about because Christians were able to say to inquirers: "Jesus did not only die for you. He is alive! You can meet him and discover for yourself the reality we are talking about!" They did, and joined the church and the church, born from that Easter, gave spread everywhere.
Michael Green, Writer.
And Michael Green backs up this fantasy with what evidence other than this statement?
Now there was about this time, Jesus a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works - a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Chirst; and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at first did not forsake him, for he appeared to them alive again the third day, as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him; and the tribe of Christians so named after him, are not extinct at this day.
Josephus, Historian. AD 37.
Interesting how the date given beside Josephus Historian is AD 37 implying that he wrote about an event that was in recent memory of his time when in fact A.D. 37 was Josephus' year of birth.This man wrote an account long after the events of Jesus' life and death and likely drew on accounts by Christian believers at that time.
Is not the nature of Christ, in the words of the New testament, enough to pierce to the soul anyone with a soul to be piered?....he still looms over the world, his message still clear, his pity still infinite, his consolation still effective, his words still full of glory, wisdom and love.
Bernard Levin. Columnist
His message is only carried on by
living people much in the same way it is claimed that JFK ,Bruce Lee, Elvis and a host of others are still alive. That is not a great mystery that people would cling to comforting illusions.
In many of the popular music trends of the past twenty years or so there is a cry concerning a: Loss of direction, lost hope, no faith, a wanting to live for ever, a bitterness to an unseen lie, a hate in being alone, to have satisfaction, a constant craving, a sin, of help, of a sound of silence, a feeling of falling, a feeling of fear, a wanting to go home, a need of peace and an unseen enemy. The chorus from a famous song sums it up. " Constant craving has always been." Can you sing what you dont believe? Can you write what you are not feeling at the time, when under no pressure to do otherwise? No matter, because the most amazing thing is Jesus has delt with and has answers for all of these cries!
Nathan Price.
You must listen to depressing music man. I even take in some country and hell even they are not that morose. I believe you have some serious issues with your mortality.Being human involves all the pleasant and all the hard to deal with issues and some of us do not need to be comforted and tie ourselves to illusions of mortality.I find life great even though I am starting that slow descent into back problems and deteriorating neck veterbrae and,no doubt, that slow...relentless...nagging...*** Dang I forgot where I was going with that.
Imagine there's no Heaven. It's easy if you try.
No hell below us.Above us only sky.
I think I am clear enough as to what I think of this drivel.
This message has been edited by sidelined, 07-17-2004 07:45 AM
This message has been edited by sidelined, 07-17-2004 07:47 AM
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