madegreatbygrace:


While you’re at that, you can also explain to us why there’s only one mad man of Gadarene here:


“Then they sailed to the country of the Gadarenes, which is opposite Galilee. And when He stepped out on the land, there met Him a certain man from the city who had demons for a long time. And he wore no clothes, nor did he live in a house but in the tombs.”
~‭‭Luke‬ ‭8:26-27‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Yet this account says there’re two:

“When He had come to the other side, to the country of the Gergesenes, there met Him two demon-possessed men, coming out of the tombs, exceedingly fierce, so that no one could pass that way.”
‭‭~Matthew‬ ‭8:28‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

According to you, God personally wrote the Bible. Surely, God doesn’t make a mistake. My eyes must be playing tricks on me, eh?

madegreatbygrace:


It seems i am being misunderstood. For the record, I am not an atheist. I am a child of The Most High.

First, the Genesis 3 account is a typology and should not be taken literally. The idea of a talking serpent is spooky, not because it wasn’t possible, but because it wasn’t necessary. The devil wasn’t speaking through a serpent, the devil was the serpent. Better still, the serpent is a representation of the devil. We see this in the book of revelation where the devil is constantly referred to as the serpent or dragon.

“So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.”
~‭‭Revelation‬ ‭12:9‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

“He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years;”
‭‭~Revelation‬ ‭20:2‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Notice that phrase “serpent of old “.

The tree of life is not a tree, it is a person. A tree cannot give life.

“In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.”
‭‭~John‬ ‭1:4‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

The tree of life is therefore Christ.

What about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? That is a typology for the law or works. The fruit of a tree can not defile a man .

“Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.””
‭‭~Matthew‬ ‭15:11‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Fruit symbolizes words

“A man’s stomach shall be satisfied from the fruit of his mouth; From the produce of his lips he shall be filled.”
~‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭18:20‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

So what then is the interpretation of the Genesis 3 account.

God preached the gospel ( tree of life) to Adam and Eve. They acted in unbelief and chose works (tree of the knowledge of the good and evil), via the temptation of satan. This is sin.
Sin leads to death.

madegreatbygrace:


Adam was not a myth, neither was Eve. My explanation is clear enough, even to a 5-year-old .

madegreatbygrace:
Moses wrote the book of Genesis.

He was not in the garden.

Apparently, the narrative was communicated to him through a vision.

In visions, types and symbols are used to represent words, thoughts, things and ideas.

He wrote this down the way he received it, apparently without understanding.

The man in Christ gives it the correct interpretation.

madegreatbygrace:


That was smart of you. I thought you said there are no contradictions in the Bible. So because you couldn’t explain all of these, you tried to dodge the question. Hehehe

“The Bible is rife with historical inaccuracies.”

To provide evidence for such a claim you will need to have faith in history books that were written by fallible men. The Bible was written by men who were inspired by an infallible God, and so it is 100% historically accurate. Not believing the Scriptures doesn’t change that fact.

Source: https://www.facebook.com/official.Ray.Comfort 16 April 2017 ·
www.livingwaters.com

Have you noticed that the Bible is filled with "childish" stories that (if taken literally) insult the intellect? There's a reason for that.

Years ago I ran a Bible club, after which I told 100 kids to line up for candy. As they did so I noticed that it was a line of greed. The big bullies had pushed their way to the front and the quiet sickly kids were relegated to the back.

So I told the kids to about-face. Then I took great delight in going to the other end of the line first.

That's what God has done with the ultimate gift of everlasting life. He turned the line around, and He it did it by consistently using foolish things to confound the arrogant brats of this world.

Who, with any intellectual dignity, would ever stoop to believe the childish stories of the Bible? The answer is—those who understand that in this world, where the rich get richer and the poor get stomped on, God has turned the line around.

The arrogant bullies of this world lose, big time. God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble.

"Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, and said, "Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 18:2-4).

www.NoahTheMovie.com (not the Russell Crowe version)

Source: https://www.facebook.com/official.Ray.Comfort 3 April 2014 ·

madegreatbygrace:


Give me a scripture that says God wrote the Bible.

"And the Lord delivered unto me two tables of stone written with the finger of God; and on them was written according to all the words, which the Lord spake with you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly" (Deuteronomy 9:10).

"And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God" (Deut. 31:18).

"All Scriptures are given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction[/color], for instruction in righteousness" (2 Timothy 3:16).

madegreatbygrace:


Let me shock you.Angels spoke to Moses and not God!

If i asked you who Moses was talking to in the burning bush, I’m sure you’d say it was God, but the New Testament says it was an angel.

“And when forty years were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of mount Sina an angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush.” ~Acts 7:30

I’m also sure that if I asked you on mount Sinai when he went up to receive the law, you’d say it was an angel. But see:


This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us:
~Acts 7:38

Let me tell you this, and it is very important, NEVER build a doctrine around anything or verse in the Old Testament. The New Testament explains the Old Testament.For you to understand the Old Testament, you must first be grounded in the New Testament. Most of the ministrations in the Old Testament, if not all, was done by angels.

madegreatbygrace:


Let us examine this often misapplied scripture .

“15.And that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 16.All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,”
~‭‭II Timothy‬ ‭3:15-16‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

You’ll observe scripture appears twice in the above. Once in verse 15 and once in verse 16. But you know what, the Greek words for the two are different. The Greek word for the scripture in verse 15 is “gramma” while the Greek word for the scripture in verse 16 is “graphe”. Also, anytime you see scripture in the New Testament it is always referring to the scripture of the Old Testament, because the New Testament was not yet available at this time.


Now, gramma means content or what was written. On the other hand, graphe means the art of writing. Therefore, looking at verse 16, we can come to the conclusion that it was the art of writing that was inspired by God and not the content or what was written. In other words, God motivated men to write but not always responsible for what they wrote.
Sometimes, men did rely on eye witness accounts as in the case of the mad man of gadarene.


Then also, men that have not come to the fullness of the revelation of God’s nature wrote especially the Old Testament. Because these ones didn’t really know God, they were presumptuous in their writing. Jesus Himself says no one knew God before He came.

“No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.”
‭‭John‬ ‭1:18‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Seen means revelation. The nature of God was not revealed to any man until Christ came. Christ is therefore the revelation of the Father.

The more reason the writers of the Old Testament will always attribute everything that happened, whether good or evil to God.

Recall that Job and his 3 friends spoke presumtously what they didn’t know about God. Thereafter, God rebuked and corrected them. This was the pattern in the Old Testament.

However, you’d hardly find any error or inconsistencies in the New Testament ,especially the epistles because the Holy Spirit, which is the Spirit of Truth had been given when it was written

”Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.“ John 16:13

The Holy Spirit guided New Testament writers into all truth, and not partial truth.

madegreatbygrace:
Or maybe you need to consider these two accounts:


“Again the anger of the LORD was aroused against Israel, and He moved David against them to say, “Go, number Israel and Judah.””
~‭‭II Samuel‬ ‭24:1‬ ‭NKJV


‬‬ “Now Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel.”
~‭‭I Chronicles‬ ‭21:1‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

I’m sure it’s clear to you who actually moved David to number Israel . God and satan have suddenly formed a tag team,right?

budaatum:


I have recently got to Chronicles and think it is the part of the book that is meant to finally make one open one's eyes and more carefully take note and wonder.

It can not be seen by an a la carte reader.

Here's a copy from beginning to end. Sorry its ESV.

OLAADEGBU:


Well done. I knew that these are the kind of questions that will interest skeptics. For your information, these supposed contradictions have already been addressed and trashed years ago on this forum. The bible skeptic you quoted got his questions from the so called "The 101 contradictions of the Bible" which has been cleared up in the suggested link here --> https://www.gluefox.com/min/contrad.htm

budaatum:


If you understood what you've quoted, you'd understand how you may be hearing "fear" and others might be hearing a greater commandment than that.

After all, God can only meet you where you are and we can not all be met at your level unless your argument is, fear is the greatest commandment of the Lord God. Is it, Deg?

budaatum:

I am not a Moslem iluv.

Try using your brain more instead of making things up in your head to justify your laziness.

OLAADEGBU:


What are you then? Don't be shy.

budaatum:


I am buda.

OLAADEGBU:


And what does this buda believe in?

budaatum:


buda hardly believes in anything except in buda and the general love and kindness of other humans, as in our inherent desire to, or be perceived to, be good.

Why believe when one can always check the available evidence and know?

OLAADEGBU:


Do you know whether God exists or not?

budaatum:


Yes, I do know whether God exists or not.

OLAADEGBU:


Does God exist?

budaatum:


Depends on whom you are. Does God exist for you, is the correct question to ask, after you've answered, What is God?

Do know that your god does not exist for me and if it did I'd kill it. It must exist for you though or you'd not be worshipping it.

OLAADEGBU:


God does not depend on whom I am. God exists regardless of who I am. Who is God to you?

budaatum:


I agree that God does not depend on whom you are.

Whom God is to me is none of your business since its between me and God. But since you peddle your god here so much I do insist your god does not exist for me and if your god so happened to turn up and ask me to worship it my response will be, "Get thee behind me satan!"

OLAADEGBU:


You have just denied that you know God. This explains why you do not fear Him.

budaatum:


I do know your god, deg, you've promoted it here often enough. And you are correct that I do not fear it since its a rather hopeless god you have.

If you had the right God, you too would fear nothing at all, especially not God who loves you so much.

[img]https://www.nairaland.com/attachments/11481350_2020050522 4920492_jpeg_jpeg45c04c33a4a908bd46d091bf5a07f6af[/img]

OLAADEGBU:


Atum, there's only One God and this is why you should fear Him.