₦airaland Forum

People make it sound complicated but its not. The old covenant was made between God and Israel so if your not a Jew then you have never been under the old covenant. The New Covenant is that if you believe Jesus is the Son of God and that He died on the cross and rose on the third day for the forgiveness of sins and keep His word then God will not condemn us at the judgement. God has promised that He will judge all men at the end of the age. Every human has sinned against God and we are all in need of forgiveness and that is why Jesus died on the cross, so that whosoever believes will be saved. It is that simple a child can understand. The question is , Do we believe and try to obey.

johnydon22:
excuss i thought the holy spirit influenced the bible both old and new testament...i wonder how the holy spirit made the OT writters to write something and at the same time make the new testament writters to write something totally different . . even the book of job clearly stated that satan took permission before dealing with job...

in the New Testament Jesus said that satan asked if he could sift Peter as wheat and it was allowed. The devil cannot do anything without permission that is in both the testaments.

MizMyColi:

LoL Xcapizt

Check this out.
From a christian I deeply respect #RichardMurray.

When Isaiah is speaking here, he is translating the
divine impulses of inspiration from the Lord the best
he can. But remember, he had an undifferentiated
view of God, a fundamental blind-spot which affected
and limited everything he received from the Lord. He
wrongly believed, as did all Old Testament saints,
that Satan was the left hand of God, an obedient
extension of Yahweh's wrathful will.

This is why John 1:18 says no Old Testament saint
had truly beheld God at any time. Jesus came to
DIFFERENTIATE and DIVORCE our understanding
of God AND Satan, to completely separate and forever sever their natures, wills and purposes. As for Isaiah, he certainly knew God created light and was full of goodness, BUT he did not know that Satan was a cosmic rebel totally operating without Divine
permission or sanction.

Isaiah in this verse was misattributing, or perhaps
better described, "improperly blending" his images of
God and Satan into one bi-polar UNDIFFERENTIATED image. Jesus couldn't be clearer that Satan was a liar, murderer, and rebel being, and that he did not operate at the command of the Heavenly Father.

Sometimes, OT authors were improperly attributing Satan's works and words to Yahweh. Other times OT saints were rightly attributing Yahweh's mighty deliverances to Yahweh alone. But, still other times, such as in this Isaiah passage, the OT saint is hearing God and Satan TOGETHER at the same time. Much like a radio dial receiving two different remote station signals at the same time, what comes out is a mish-mash of conflicting notions and ideas.

Similarly, what comes out in this Isaiah verse is a
confusing and contradictory statement in need of New Testament re-translation.

How does anyone know what Isaiah knew or didn't know? To correct a prophet who had direct knowledge of God is arrogant.

No one has it completely right.

Ukutsgp:
u are very correct. Some churches that like introducing paganism into the house of God should watch out. Things like carved or moulded images, rosary etc.

I would not be so quick to pass judgement. Jesus tells us not to judge, we should speak what the bible says but as soon as you begin to pass judgement and point the finger at a particular church and say your wrong you are being part of the division.

If you can objectively look at every world religion you will see that they have all divided into different sects or denominations. It is part of human nature to form into groups, each group claiming to have more insight or are more right or the only ones that know. Every one has their own perspective. Two people can read the same bible verse and come to two different conclusions. Church's divide over details, they split hairs and then pass judgement but if you look at the essence of it it is all about love for God and our fellow man. Division in the church is not justified but every religion divides because of our human nature.

Asking why did God send the devil to earth is really asking asking why does evil exist? People have been asking that question for a very long time and the truth is no one knows. We are taught in scripture how to deal with evil but not its purpose. Not to be too presumptuous but it is in overcoming adversity that strengthens us and builds our character. Good can come from some of the worst tragedies. Personally I see the story of the fall as a metaphor. It is in Revelations that it tells of the devil being cast down to earth. I wouldn't take that too literally. It is about the friction between our carnal desires and our spiritual inclinations. We have to keep our carnality in check not giving in to every desire we may have. We all have struggles but we do have a choice in the matter, we don't have to be evil we can do good if that is what we want. We have to find the balance between the carnal side of our existence and the spiritual. We do that by living as the bible teaches. Sin is when we use our natural inclinations in a distorted way.

Jesus also taught not to judge others, there will always be corrupt preachers just like there is corruption in every other profession. We have to be wise a a serpent but as innocent as a dove.

When bible says that Jesus was made poor so that we may be rich it is speaking of spiritual wealth. When Jesus said it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom it is because material wealth brings temptations that we otherwise may not have. A lot of pastors today teach a doctrine of materialism, that if God "favors" a person they will be blessed with wealth. They get that from examples in the old testament, Solomon, Abraham, David, etc. In the New testament Jesus teaches to give up material things in order to gain spiritual blessings. The point is that we are not supposed to allow wealth to keep us from having compassion for others. The spiritual life is not about getting rich, that is materialism. The spiritual life is about living according to the natural order God created and that in turn gives us peace with God and our fellow man. It all points to love for one another and God is love. When we have love for others in our heart we have God. We are all required to give of our means to help those who are in need. Money is not bad it is what we do with it that matters.