Healing the Complete Man

From the last topics we seem to have trancended onto the topic of God's power at work today. Christianity is a living, active faith, based on the eternal, living and everlasting God - YHWH

In anycase, here are questions I have often wondered about, and will hopefully try to answer in the next post:

Can God heal the complete man? Does this include amputees?

Why are some babies born with deformaties?

If we believe so hard in an equal, love enveloping God, why does He not give everyone an even chance to know Him? And why isn't everyone healed when they accept Jesus - afterall shouldn't the body reflect the state of the soul?

Anyone think they can have a crack at these?!

Gal 1:8-9

But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

An answer to mormonism

I've recently been trying to understand what the mormon church teaches (it is not the church of our God), and I thought I might share some things I have been thinking about. My next post was going to be on the nature of God and then hopefully on to how sin entered the world through Adam - giving a breif history of the pre-flood era and the characters of Enoch, Methuselah and Noah.

I was actually quite angry with what the mormon faith says about our Heavenly Father, I have heard nothing so preposterous in all my life. It is a sham. They even claim that God lives on a planet called 'Kolob'. Spell that backwards and I think it sums up the story that Joseph Smith and Brigham Young tried to sell. Without God there is nothing, He needs nothing, and to Him alone be the Glory as He has no equal. In anycase here is a response I prepared to a posting I saw citing that Joseph Smith was the Elijah that was to straighten the paths for God's return to His temple.

The scripture states that the next time Christ returns will be to the mount of olives, and the witnesses for this will be the church (the body of Christ). There is no longer a path to prepare for the restoration is a work that lies in the hands of Yeshua HaMassiach (Jesus Christ). Joseph Smith could not have been a prophet with the spirit of Elijah as he bears a false witness to the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Check out 1 John 2:22...* Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son.* Please don't take offence at this, but challenge me with scripture if you feel I'm wrong.

On the surface this seems quite a simple verse, and does not cause any problems. That is until we dig deeper. You see the problem lies with the mormon interpretation of the Nature of God. This is what the scripture says:

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one." Deut 6:4 (Known as the Shema)

"for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me," Isaiah 46:9

"Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God." Psalm 90:2

“For I the Lord do not change;" Malachi 3:6

"But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” John 4:23-24

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made." John 1:1-3

"This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God." John 5:18

We see throughout scripture (there are a lot more passages to show this) that Jesus is the only expression of the eternal Father that we can see - it was the miracle of salvation that God himself became flesh and dwelt among us. God describes Himself as light, and that in Him there is no darkness. Jesus was that light in the flesh, in the dark world.

Joseph Smith could not have seen God - even Stephen in Acts 7:55 only saw Jesus (notice the phrasing 'Glory of God') because God is spirit. The three are distinct expressions of the Holy God (Elohim), Yahweh - but Christ is the name of the only begotten (see Hebrews) son of the most High God. We will never be more than human, never be more than a living soul (1 Cor 15). We are not co-equal with the eternal God, the unchanging one, the ancient of days. We are as grass before Him, and many will be consumed when the day of the Lord comes.

By the way, the Revelation of Jesus Christ (Rev 11) talks of two witnesses who will come to Israel at the time of the tribulation - it is most likely that these will be Elijah and Enoch as neither of these yet have tasted death, and it is appointed unto man once to die and then the judgment.

We also could not have pre-existed in any sense (because we are not begotten), and Jesus is not the brother of satan as LDS teaches. Jesus is YHWH (I am becoming what I am becoming). God has no equal, and therefore can have no opposite. God is light and life, outside of His grace is death and darkness.

By this reasoning I declare that Joseph Smith was a false prophet, and the church of LDS is a sham. I'm sorry if this offends, but it is the truth.

Please challenge me if you disagree.

The Nature of Man

Ok! I'm glad to get that argument about truth out of the way, it was a bit difficult so I hope it made some sense! What I was hoping to achieve was to lay some foundation for the credibility of the bible (without referring to historical, archeological sources - waaaay too much stuff!). It has a lot to say about us and hopefully someone will read these blogs and decide to take a chance on it themsleves.

So this next few topics (I know I ramble on So I will try and break it down to smaller posts) I want to dedicate to mankind. Please understand I want to do this from a Christian perspective.

So - what does the bible say about us, why are we here on this earth? So the story goes -

There were seven phases to creation (creation of light, creation of heaven, creation of plants, creation of sun and moon, creation of living creatures, Creation of man, rest), the pinnacle of it all being the creation of mankind.

It says that God gave the earth as a dominion for us, a place for us to enjoy and be with Him. It wasn't a hap-hazard experiment with DNA and minerals, it was made with purpose and intent - just as we are. There is nothing simple about us, every single member of our being was planned out to the smallest detail, the miracle of man is greater than the miracle of a spinning planet.

We were made in His image, His very likeness - living, breathing souls. We have thoughts, emotions, sensations. We can admire beauty, love, eat, walk, sleep - every little thing that we take as granted is a gift from God. Of Himself He says 'there is none like Me' - and yet we are of all creation the only thing that was made after His image. He placed eternity itself in our hearts and breathed into us His very spirit, which places us firmly in the centre of His purpose. The purpose of the whole of His creative act was us - we were made for Him.

Absolutely True?

In the words of Immanuel Kant:

Truth is said to consist in the agreement of knowledge with the object. According to this mere verbal definition, then, my knowledge, in order to be true, must agree with the object. Now, I can only compare the object with my knowledge by this means, namely, by taking knowledge of it. My knowledge, then, is to be verified by itself, which is far from being sufficient for truth. For as the object is external to me, and the knowledge is in me, I can only judge whether my knowledge of the object agrees with my knowledge of the object.

Here we have a comparison of absolute truth (pertaining to the object) and relative truth (pertaining to the observer). Kant argues that we cannot know truth within ourselves, because we have only based that truth upon other things that we have taken to be true. Oh dear me, what can we believe then?

I like mathematics (though I’m not very good at it!!); it is to many the primary language of logic. Some have even said that a mathematical theory is stronger than a scientific proof. When, as finite beings, it comes time for us to define something as being absolutely true, we know we can rely on mathematics (an expression of logic).

It is an absolute truth to say that (in trigonometry) the opposite² + adjacent² is equal to the hypotenuse² of a right angle triangle. It doesn’t matter on the size of the triangle, this is consistent. Also the circumference of a circle divided by the diameter will always equal π (3.14159). Simply put, “2 + 2” will always equal “4”. We may not always understand a thing, but it does not mean it is not true.

In life we have practical truths – when I drop a cup it will fall, when the sun comes up there will be light, when I go in the bath I will get wet. These again are absolute.

Ok, so what does this have to do with the bible, why do I believe what the scriptures say? The age-old argument is that of man’s existence. Did we pre-exist, are we really here now, what will happen when we die, what is right, what is wrong? This is all relative truth, as in and of ourselves we have no real way to prove these things. We just don’t know. What we search for is outside collaboration to our inner ponderings [such as Charles Darwin who searched for theory of evolution (the idea had already been around for a while), or Eugène Dubois and his ‘Java Man’]. What in reality we all search for in answering these questions, is an outside source of information, some treasure of revelation. Buddhists for example believe this is inside (Tilopa taught 6 words of advice which effectively meant to switch your mind off… looking to spirit). Whatever the means, we want to know the REAL TRUTH.

Though we may (according to worldly standards – please note that I believe slightly differently) have no inert means of reaching absolute truth, we do thankfully in our ‘relative’ state have the ability to recognise ignorance.

So, this is the point I have argued so far – for the knowledge of absolute truth we need a means of revelation that is trustworthy, and that is not us.

Thomas Aquinas (who had some reliance on Aritotlian metaphysics in his arguments) wrote five proofs for the absolute truth of the existence of God:

1. The argument of the unmoved mover (ex motu).
• Some things are moved.
• Everything that is moved is moved by a mover.
• An infinite regress of movers is impossible.
• Therefore, there is an unmoved mover from whom all motion proceeds.
• This mover is what we call God.
2. The argument of the first cause (ex causa).
• Some things are caused.
• Everything that is caused is caused by something else.
• An infinite regress of causation is impossible.
• Therefore, there must be an uncaused cause of all caused things.
• This causer is what we call God.
3. The argument of contingency (ex contingentia).
• Many things in the universe may either exist or not exist. Such things are called contingent beings.
• It is impossible for everything in the universe to be contingent, as nothing can come of nothing, and if traced back eventually there must have been one thing from which all others have occurred.
• Therefore, there must be a necessary being whose existence is not contingent on any other being(s).
• This being is what we call God.
4. The argument of degree (ex gradu).
• Various perfections may be found in varying degrees throughout the universe.
• These degrees of perfections assume the existence of the perfections themselves.
5. The argument of "design" (ex fine).
• All natural bodies in the world act for ends.
• These objects are in themselves unintelligent.
• To act for ends is characteristic of intelligence.
• Therefore, there exists an intelligent being which guides all natural bodies to their ends.
• This being we call God.

So! Through mainly the law of finite regression (that is that you cannot simplify to infinity), Thomas Aquinas argued that there must have been a creator, and though people do argue over point “4” (which states there is a greater source of goodness and truth than man - psalm 50:6) I personally believe this to be by far the most important.

Back to the scriptures – what do they have to say about all this? If this is a book, a written truth expressed to us by God himself, should it not deal with these difficult questions. I shall let it speak for itself:

Genesis 1:1

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth

John 1:1-5

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Isaiah 45:21

Who told this long ago?
Who declared it of old?
Was it not I, the Lord?
And there is no other god besides me,
a righteous God and a Savior;
there is none besides me.

Joel 2:27

…I am the Lord your God and there is none else…

Hebrew 4:12

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Isaiah 40:8

The grass withers, the flower fades,
but the word of our God will stand forever.

2 Samuel 22:31

This God—his way is perfect;
the word of the Lord proves true;
he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him.

John 5:39

You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me,

1 Cor 15:3-4

Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,

Romans 1:18-25

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

Psalm 19:1

The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.

And Finally,

Psalm 14:1-3

The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”
They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds,
there is none who does good.

The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man,
to see if there are any who understand,
who seek after God.

They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt;
there is none who does good,
not even one.

"There are few people so stubborn in their atheism who, when danger is pressing in, will not acknowledge the divine power." Plato

"Man is a being born to believe. And if no church comes forward with its title-deeds of truth to guide him, he will find altars and idols in his own heart and his own imagination." Benjamin Disraeli

The bible speaks without political correctness, ambiguity or deceit about the existence of God, and who God is. It contains the origins of man, his purpose, his state and his destiny. It is a revealed work of God (gammatria is an interesting topic on mathematical seal of God) that stands up to scrutiny and can change the life of men. It claims to be the revelation of the absolute truth, which strikes accord in the heart of man.

If we really are searching for the truth, isn’t it reasonable that we should (if even for a brief time) try and understand what the bible teaches us – even if we can then walk away and disagree. But we must also try and forget our understanding and take it at face value (without relative interpretation).

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

Matt 7:7

Now faith comes by hearing...

At the behest of a good friend of mine I have decided to start keeping a little blog of some thoughts and questions I have had regarding the bible (Christian), it's values, ethics and principles. Having personally struggled with understanding it myself, the authenticity of it and the controversy of many passages, it is nonetheless a book I have come to love for it's simplicity by giving hope to those who would believe it, and endless depth to those who would wish to understand it. I personally believe there is no other book like this, written over a period of one thousand five hundred years; sixty six books by over fourty authors. And each pieced together beautifully to produce an oracle about Yeshua, the redeemer of mankind.

"So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God*" (words of Christ* - esv, nasb)
Romans 10:17

We can only have faith by hearing the word of God, it is not a substanceless gift, but rather an act of pilgrimage and devotion to the knowledge given to us of Jesus Christ.

"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen"
Romans 11:1

"And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him"
Hebrews 11:6

"What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead."
James 2:14-17

I hope that through these blogs you also would start to reason and really consider what is written in this great book, and how those things affect us. Like it or not, it truly poses only one big question:

"What will you do with this man Jesus".


God Bless