₦airaland Forum

Thank you guys for taking your time to discuss exhaustively on my thread.I will take time and study your positions before I make up my mind. Cheers!

NET1: Just last week (as I came back to PH from Lagos), I heard the sad story of a 22 year old boy who has bewitched and killed in my compound. He is the only son in a family of about 5 girls. His uncles had openly boasted that they would get rid of him, so his father would no longer have a heir to replace him. They reckoned that if that happened, they would just wait for the boy's father (who is from my estimate over 65 years) to die, so they take his own portion of their family land, since he would have no son to replace him.

I also heard they were seriously fighting and haggling over their Family Land and ..ish. The boy has been having terrible spiritual and physical attacks. Many times, he fell sick and experienced doctors could not diagnose anything wrong with him. Time will fail me to narrate the terrible ordeal this lad had to go through.

I was shocked to hear when I came back to PH just last week that the boy had crossed the narrow sea.

If you were that boy, would you pray against your 'Enemies' or not?

.NET

How are you sure that the boy never prayed?Does prayer even stops death?Is it not better to die while keeping the word of God than to live or die disobeying him?Why cant people who claim to be believers trust God when he says vengeance is his?

iamswizz: Dnt pray against them,ok?... Allow them 2 kill u first.

But if God says you should love your enemy,then who are you to say otherwise?After all who are you taking the prayer to,is it not to the same God? What do you think he will do with that kind of prayer?

God and his word is said to be unchangeable. My understanding of this assertion is challenged by the following verses of the bible: Leviticus 11:1-end specifies the animals to be eaten by his people and the ones considered to the forbidden ones. It is stated that anyone who eats the forbidden animal would be unclean. The sanction for violation is also clearly stated there in. However,in Matthew 15:11,Jesus says -"it is not what goes into a person mouth that makes him ritually unclean,rather what comes out of it makes him unclean". Saint Paul in 1Corinthians8:8 says"Food,however will not improve your relationship with God,we shall not loose anything if we do not eat,nor shall we gain anything if we do eat" Obviously,there is a change in the way God considered eating food in the old and new testament.It can be assumed that while people in OT time would be very conscious and fearful of this law (indeed, some would have fallen foul and received appropriate punishment)we in NT time are completely left off the hook.Can we consider this a change for the better?

Image123: ^op
I'm so not into this, but anyways, (let's push it). So, you're saying the married woman uses her hair to cover her husband. Okay. Is the man's hair not covering Christ, from your understanding/explanation of the passage? Also, if the woman's hair is her glory as well(as written in the passage), is she supposed to 'expose' that glory or cover it?

Of course she is to expose it because the Bible says you can't light a lamp and hide it under your bed but rather set it on a stand to shine

Right from the Old Testament,there is prediction of the coming of Christ and of how he will suffer,be betrayed,be crucified and by that he will save mankind. The betrayal was foretold even before Judas was born. There were many other ways by which Jesus would have laid down his life but the choice was for him to be betrayed by Judas first.Judas might have committed abomination by betraying Jesus but that is a matter between him and God. For Christians,we should acknowledge that his action led to our redemption. After all he repented when he realized his mistake. Many of us today commit worse atrocities that do not serve us or any one else any good.What would have happened if at the final hour Judas had refused betraying Jesus,how else would the scripture have been fulfilled. Of course you would say that he could not have done otherwise. The reason is that he was programed to behave so from the word go.

According to Christian mythology hell is that place of eternal grief for sinners.But the whole idea of hell leaves me with the following questions 1 Who is the creator of hell-Satan or God? 2 Why was hell created even before man and sin came to be?(there is no mention of it in the biblical creation story) Let me explain why I pose these questions. Firstly, if God is the creator of hell,then given that he also created man and also loves man so much,why did he create eternal damnation for him?(after all,everything that he made is good) Secondly,if Satan made hell,why has it become such a useful tool in the hand of God for destruction of man? Thirdly,by creating hell even before man,does it mean that there was fore knowledge and planning for hell's candidates?(why create an empty hell?) Fourthly,since God knows every ones in and out why does he allow people to sin only to throw them in to hell? For example,as a human,if I know my child is planning to harm someone, I would rather do everything to stop my child rather than allow him commit the act and then punish him after.

emmyskies: No. Never. The closest that try to portray same god is muslim to christian (like old testament is partially contained in quaran etc). But basically, allah is very much different from the Most High GOD of the christians. Allah doesn't have a son and sends only servants. Christian GOD have a son and sent Him to redeem the world as many that believe and accept Him. Allah doesn't hear prayers. GOD does. Allah doesn't work miracles. GOD does. etc

Do you mean it about Allah?Then what is the essence of worshipping him at all?

There are thousands of religious sects in the world which pray to one god or the other. But I used to wonder whether the God of the Christian,Moslem,Hindi,etc is still the same one God who is being worshipped in different ways,or are they actually different Gods with different kingdoms? If he is the same one God, why the disunity among worshippers? If there are different Gods,is there a chance that some people are worshipping a lesser or even non existent god?

emmyskies: Temptation is different from sin:
The devil tempted JESUS CHRIST but He didn't sin: "And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season." (Luke 4:13)

When tempted, you can stand or fall. When you fall, that is when it becomes sin:
"They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away. " (Luke 8:13)

That is how I see it too but the scripture has different interpretations.That is why I sought for other perspectives. Thanks all for your contributions.

qstar: Op, you have to define first, what makes someone evil and what makes someone good.

What do you think is the secret of success?

Yes,I know that those concepts (good and evil)are subjective. But that doesn't erase clear instances where some people of questionable character often attain high social status.for example,in Nigeria,political office holders always live large even though we know that it is at the expense of the rest of us.Is there any thing good about some one who throws away food while his neighbor starves?

The biblical injunction is is for the word to be preached until everyone hears it.But what I have noticed about some Christian denominations is that they purposely send out (evangelists) to poach members from other churches.Their message basically says:church A or B are not the true church of God, they will lead you to hell,join us, the true church. My questions are:1Can the church you attend lead you to hell or your sins?2 Are there churches whose members are automatically hell bound? 3 Since every church claims to be the true church,how do we know the true church?4 Is one supposed to go round all the churches in order to identify the true one since you can't write off any without being there? If not I feel there are still a lot of unbelievers out there to be preached to not to be casting doubts and creating disunity among the Christian fold.

Many people(especially Christians) believe that all good things come from God while all bad things are from the devil.(Invariably,good things are for Godly people and bad things for evil people)But it puzzles me when some people who are obviously evil have free access to the good things of life while others who are obviously Godly lack same. My questions are:1 Does all things (good and bad)come from God?2When an evil person is blessed,who is the source of the blessing?NB:my definition of good things is the things that make life easier:food,shelter,health,transport,money etc.3Can the devil also bless someone with good things? Happy Sunday to us all.

[quote author=freshness2020]you are mixing it up here bro, whether strong or weak one is always tempted. The options you would have is either to allow the temptation weighed you or you overcome it!
Its a Test when God allows the devil to tempt you. And becomes a sin when such act is conceived and achieved!
Temptation is now a sin when you conceived such thought without remorse! But victorious when you kick such thought away!
So U̶̲̥̅̊ see why I say it is synonymous?() how does one know when God is testing him as different from when Satan is tempting him?(quote]

freshness2020: Yes it's cos both of them are Synonymous to each other. Let's check this example from this very chapter from the Bible:
But I say to you that whoever looks at a
woman to lust for her has already committed
adultery with her in his heart." (Matthew 5:27,28)
All men and women have thoughts about the
opposite sex and this is the way we are designed by
God.
God test you, while satan tempts!
So God is not associated with filthiness . Temptation and Sin is of the devil.
So it's now Left for You to ask God For forgiveness when such a thought is conceived in your mind.

freshness2020: Yes it's cos both of them are Synonymous to each other. Let's check this example from this very chapter from the Bible:
But I say to you that whoever looks at a
woman to lust for her has already committed
adultery with her in his heart." (Matthew 5:27,28)
All men and women have thoughts about the
opposite sex and this is the way we are designed by
God.

God test you, while satan tempts!
So God is not associated with filthiness . Temptation and Sin is of the devil.
So it's now Left for You to ask God For forgiveness when such a thought is conceived in your mind.

Please,how is Gods test different from satans temptation?

Where does one cross the line?look at these scenarios:you are walking on the street and you see a lady and your mind tells you she will be good in bed.Again your mind fondles with the idea of you breaking into a bank and making away with millions.At the end of the day,none of the above happened either because of self control or sheer impossibility.Are you still liable?

Realone92: ALOT I TELL U ALOT

That is what I want to know.Like what and what?

This is not a bashing thread please.I have been wondering.The early Christians in Nigeria carried the message of Love,Endurance,Tolerance,Charity and western education which bore visible gains to the country till date.In fact,many non Christians are what they are today because of the western education they received from missionary schools.Early Christian missionaries brought the message through Love and sacrifice.Many of them died in the process.On the other hand,the history of Islam in Nigeria is of wars and forced conquest of unwilling tribes.What are the benefits of Islamic education and the Arabic language to the development of the country in the past and especially now?

Between religion and ethnicity or family:which feeling runs deeper?practically put, if you had one chance to save a family member who practices a faith different from yours and a fellow believer who is not your family or even tribe. what will be your choice?In northern and western Nigeria,most families are divided by religion. I have read several reports of instances in northern Nigeria during religious crises where some people betray their family members who do not share their religious beliefs. Is this an easy decision to make?

But why? I don't think there is any any university that charges anything close to that in Nigeria.