1. What are the sources of christian faith ?
2. How are these sources to be interpreted ?
Considering the fruits of the original material where both
extremely good, and impacted history probably more than
anything, they should be interpreted straightforward, with an
eye for the most obvious meaning and purpose for the intended
audience.
3. What main theological or exegetical "themes" can thus be
discerned ?
The total depravety of man, promises of a redeemer and Gods
standard in the old testament, election of people and resulting
blessings, coming of redeemer to solve biggest observed problems
and restore contact with God after it was lost with Adam, this
salvation as a free gift of God, not to be earned, sold or open to
reinterpretation. New testament conversion and knowing of Christ,
and creation of a new heart ("I will take out the heart of stone
and give you a heart of flesh") gives people with the real ability
to chose between good and evil as a gift. These people can be
recognized by their holy (in terms of freedom from the world that
was sold under sin by Adam, but legally freed by Jesus) and good
lifes, and they should be edified to find their purpose (ministry)
and function with spiritual gifts available to them.
They should provide a good exemple, also to serve to implement
Gods government as far as possible by saving others and possibly
nations, both through good acts, firm protection of what is good,
and the breaking of barriers that prevent salvation both on personal
level and more general.
4. What is the state of affairs and power distribution in
the heavenly ?
After Jesus went down to hell and rose again He got the legal
victory over the evil world system and over all the powers in the
heavenly by openly exposing them. That authority is available
for people who found Christ not long ago "children are saved for His
name sake" because God adopts them in His family, for a bit more
mature christians when they themselves "overcome the evil one",
and evidently later when "fathers" realy learn to know their Father.
the fact that this is legal victory can be compared to officially
issueing a new law that from then on needs to be enforced by
the official implementors of it, and defended by the powers of the
(new) ruler. An example is the authority Jesus had to cast out
deamons (or to tell satan to go to hell, figuratively speaking),
where the actual fact (a person being freed) follows the authority
He had when it is put to work by His word, or when He bestowed
that same authority on His disciples with the same effect, and
when He states that true disciples of Him can be recognized
by the signs that follow them, such as this and the healing of
the sick (and broken hearts are I guess one of the main deseases
to be cured).
5. What are the main biblical historical and future lines
of events ?
6. Does hell exist ?
Many people know about it in their daily life, but hell
after death is supposedly the eternal destination of all
people that aren't saved, with different departments
to match each type of person.
7. Can one earn salvation
No. Salvation is a free gift ("so that no-one can boast"), it
cannot be obtained through works of law ("he who expects it from
worls of law will e cursed, and I repeat..."), but is a
predestined work of God ("No-one can come to Me (Jesus) unless
the Father pulls him"). Evidently, salvation on the level
of leading a life that is less damned or has fruits that aren't
too evil is a matter of the reap what you saw law, it doesn't make
sense to bacome evil to have something good, but no person
can earn God's favour, as could be evident from his almight
("nations are counted as drops on a bucket or dust on a scale",
let alone persons), and His holyness ("No-one is righteous, not even
one"), and from the fact that after many senturies of trying,
mankind hasn't produced a single person that met Gods standard
and therefore wouldn't need a sacrifice and thus mercy.
Thinking that a human sacrifice is needed is an insult to God
who apearently thought it necessary to sent His own Son
for that purpose, who was the only one who actually lived
according to Gods law and was righteous, so that he can claim
a position before God.
It is very illustrative to use the (devilish?) internet, for instance
the blue bible site, to do a search on the word "works". The
the overwhelmin amount of quotes that this yields will make it
quite hard to for one more second think that works may actually
save someone.
8. What is the eternal destiny of man
Without salvation, there are various types of 'underworlds' which
serve as a gathering place for the dead. The main idea is that
before the final judgement before the great white throne, persons
are gathered in a type of underworld or hell, which does them
justice and eventually will be sent to a place that fits the
person they have been, which without salvation is never a person
that is acceptable to God, wherefore Gods just demand is
that they be seperated fro Him eternally, which is effectively
death. Through Adams sin (whatever the hebrew actually says there,
I'm quite sure it wasn't by eating an apple), mankind has become
seperated from God, or spiritually dead, and given over to a
wannabe god, that rules the
world system that Jesus clearly renounced, and has no way of
standing before and communicating with God (remember that Moses
himself couln't even see more than Gods behind, and then still
become so radiant he was considered irritable). Physical death
was also instituted by God for the same reason, ("let their years be
120..."), and eventually, eternal seperation from God is called the
second death (seems this God is to be feared, he kills everyone
twice, even by decree...).
Through Jesus, man can come to God again "No-one comes to the
Father but through Me (Jesus)", and a saved person will be with
Jesus after physical death "and second death will have no power
over him". In the old testament there
is talk of "Abrahams lap" for people that God wanted to save.
9. Is man free to chose ?
Not to chose to be with God (see above), in final instance man's
nature is evil and cannot chose to be with God or meet His standard.
After God has given a person a new hart, such a person can chose
to "put an the new man, created in true righteousness and
holyness", or to stick with the old adamic nature without producing
fruits for God, and eventually being cast aside for being useless in
His service. Eternal salvation is once and for allways, but
such a person will lose his rewards when rewards are issued
before Christ's throne.
10. Does predestination produce robots or alliviate the need
for "preaching the gospel" ?
No, no. The easiest way to look upon predestination ("predestined
from before the foundation of the world", it is, also in the greek,
a scriptural and personal concept) is that it is God's business,
when the scroll of life is finally opened it will be by the
only worthy person, Christ. It's pointless to consider the
fact wether you anybody else is predestined to find chirst or
not, because in the first place your don't know, in the second
place how will you know if a person might not find Him at a random
later time in his or her life (right until 1 millisecond before
death), and in the thrird place when a person has been elected,
it should simiply be evident from the good works he or she produces
out of gratitude for such a great and eternal gift.
11. Is God a just, eternal, omnipotent, good, incorruptible
(holy) person ?
12. Is the bible as we roughly known it rendered obsolete
by the "progress" of mankind, science, time, or other reasons ?
No, maybe on the contrary. Statistically 80 percent of the
prophesies in it have become true, so with progress of time it
gains credibility, especially since some of the promises
are a touch hard to believe. Who would believe after a
a dozen centuries of dark middle ages and a shoa to horrible
to remeber prophesies like "I will lift
thee as on eagles wings,..., and they (the jews) shall return
to Jerusalem from the land of the north (Lets say Moscou)").
I don't think planes were invented to make a prophesy self
fulfilling, and a state existing 50 years with less then 10
million people to defend it against a comopletely hostile
environment is also not very credible without a severe
degree of supernatural intervention in my mind. These are
promises done more than three thousand years ago. Everything
human that remains over such a period of time is not so
interesting, fairly battered, hard to read, and certainly not
powerful anymore (unless you count the reinvention of Babylon).
13. Is it scriptural to distinguish between real and false
religions ?
Very much.
14. Is the relational, sexual and power related moral
often associated with christianity scriptural ?
Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, not.
15. Is it reasonable and scriptural to assume that serious
deviation from the original christian sources brings about
main historic errors and their fruits ?
Yes. The old testament prophets continuously warn against the
errors of the type of Babylon, and "saint" Peter himself, the
alledged founder of the the Roman catholic system spends his
whole second (late) letter on the subject: "But there were false
prophets amoung the people, even as there will be false teachers
amoung you that will secretly (gr. and by the side of others)
bring in damnable heresies (doctrines of destruction), .... ,
and many will follow their pernicious (damnable) ways,
by reason of whom the way of truth will be evil spoken of.",
"and through covetousness and shall they with feigned words
make merchandise of you","while they promise them liberty, they
themselves are theo servants of corruption", "but beloved be not
ignorant this one thing that one day is with the Lord as a thousand
years".
Or in Paul's words, acclaimed by Peter to hae received revelation
from God and thus to be a legitimate apostle 2 Peter 3:16 "..., even
as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given to
him has written to you", "but though we, or an angel from heaven
preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached
unto you, let him be accursed". Sounds like damnation to me, as a
result of another gospel. Do you remember the main lines of
roman catholic cathegese: why are we on earth "to earn our place
in heaven by doing good works", or something to that extend.
Please also do not forget that that great whore (as depicted in
revelation) itself claims to be "the olny true church, and the only
true representative of christ on this earth". Luckily Copernicus
and Columbus didn't lose their scientific and human sanity
by intoxication, and thought that the infallible pope (watch out,
it could actually be a woman) might just not be so infallible.
16. Are the Jews punished by God for their rejection of Christ
and eternally damned ?
There is lack of salvation for not accepting Christ in general,
jew or no jew, that is unishment in its own respect. The jews as
God chosen people still exist as such because God cannot
deny Himself, when He makes a promise He gives His word.
According to scripture, the Jews are sidetracked until Jesus
returns "and they shall see whom they have pierced". At that
point they will as a nation find Him, and the promised kingdom
will be there (the milennium in revelation). Remember that it was
a roman ruler that accepted lies, which he clearly knew and
acknowledged to be lies, as the guide for his ruling, and therefore
it was a european, someone under Rome's system (familiar concept...)
who knowingly nd willingly perverted justice for his own
political gain. And they were roman soldiers to carry out the
judgement. So but the command and its actualization were European
affairs, not a jew was involved, lets remember that. and I would add
that if the romans wouldn't have been in charge of Israel, things
might have been quite different, because the jews did look out
for a redeemer, and at certain points did accept jesus for that,
but were faced with a major problem of oppression, and I guess
they didn't have enough trust (faith) in Jesus or themselves to
believe that they actually could be the head of nations with him
as king. Considering the quite disproportional interest of the romans
for the jews and their religion, also in rome (they had similar
thoughts about the greek, as everybody knows the greek were the
hip characters in those days and mostly defined high level culture,
and they were probably well aware, as we seem to have forgotten,
that the greek drew heavily from hebrew sources. The great greek
writers wrote just about after the start of the jewish kings'
ruling days.), it would not have been altogether out of place
to have had that trust. The roman empire would collapse by itself,
and history teaches that they were not too reluctant to take up
something known to be good or profitable up to the empereors
level. In fact, it is not at all a historical error to believe
that a hige power system such as the roman empire can be taken
over by a religeous system....
Just a pitty that at that point the good thing was already way to
mixed up (the meaning of the word babel) to be real good, and
that power greed was the motivation, instead oif hailing
a king that healed the sick and set captives free.
17. Is there a relation between social behaviour and
christianity ?
18. Is it scriptural that the "church", as the new testament
body of believers, has power and jerks people for their money
and resources ?
It is scriptural that the church gets power bestowed on it when
it is worth it, and it should have all power in the heavenly
thaty it needs (youngsters in faith supposedly have overcome
the evil one), but is is also scriptural that the persons that
exercise power are well tested and of approved ability.
Considering Peters response to annias and saphira, and the response
to magicians wanting to buy the power to baptize in the holy
spirit, money is completely subdued to truth, honorability
and other "holy" concepts, and nowhere in new testament
do I see people asking money for themselves, and at several
places I see them denying that possibility for the sake of good.
I think the term was "thy money perish with thee", not "please
let me sell you salvation". When God has a purpose in someone's
life He is supposed to provide the means, and jerking for money
to me seems like an act of unbelief.
When Jesus was supposed to pay taxes He sent his disciples
fishing, not hold a collection. Rich women served Him by what they
had volontarily, not because they were told to throw in some
more money in the temple's collection box.
19. Are God's standards and goals impossible to adhere or
attain to ?
20. Is secrecy, mistery preservance, and civil behaviour
justified by claiming to have to follow anyone in power biblical ?
No, no, sounds like collaboration to me.
21. What are the main rules for New Testament believers and
is this confirmed in various places in NT ?
Acts (...), we are supposed not to take the blood (the life),
the suffrocated (bondage), sacrifice to the idols (commit adultery
against the Spirit of God), or to have prostitution (greek
"porne", root: selling).
These are the only strict rules laid upon NT believers,
and they are repeated throughout the letters in various forms,
and for instane in the end of revelation (): "for outside are
the dogs (greek "kune", "those with dogskins as hat"),
the sorcerers (greek "pharmakois", pertaining
to magical arts), and murderers, and idolaters ,
and whoever loveth and maketh a lie (clear by itself, someone in
with the Spirit of truth, having come into the light, etc.
cannot be and doesn't want to be in with lies and with their father.)
Evidently, one is to life by the rules of the state, because it
doesn't carry the sword in vain, when it is of the blessingfull
type, to ensure a quiete and tranqil life, according to the
will of God.
22. Can one become a believer from all deprived states, and
what is the purpose of repentance
Yes. The murderer on the cross was forgiven instantaneously,
and so was Paul, there is exception to the rule that Jesus
paid the price for each sinner that finds Him, a look around
some of the cases mentioned in for instance Corintians makes
clear that this is even the case for believers, i.e. after
someone has already found Christ, with one notable exception:
the sin against the Holy Spirit. Some reading makes clear that
this sin is a sin only someone having well tasted of the
future powers and in a position where he or she is confused
with acting according to the Spirit of God can be in, someone that
knowingly and willingly betrays the Spirit of God and tries to fool
people by actually following another spirit cannot be simply
set free (greek "afiemy", loosened, forgiven) from that, because
that would generate confusion. Is such a person lying again or not?
Fellow believers cannot simply e restored to trust with such a
person, so it may take a long time to regain confidence that
having communion with such a person is not having communion
with another spirit than the Holy Spirit, sucha as a deamon.
And of course there is the sin unto death, and that's an easy one,
because then you die. Just like Annanias ans Saphira did. I guess
God is not to be messed with when things get realy holy.
The purpose of repentance is to be very aware of your former
error(s) to not make them again, and NOT to pay for forgiveness.
Forgiveness is a free gift, repentance the only logical reaction.
Repentance can preceed forgiveness, in which case it also simply
means to forsake something that is evil, and is thus useful
in its own respect, but not a reason or price for forgiveness.
23. Can a person be lost after having learnt to know Christ.
No. That salvation was already determined before the foundation
of the world and is simply Gods will and unconditional.
Nothing can seperate a person from Chist's love, because
he cannot deny Himself, once He said yes its yes. So one may
sin against the Holy Spirit, one may be cast aside as useless,
chastised as a son, sin unto (physical) death, but saved is
saved. Period. It is an important doctrine, because if people
are too busy keeping themselves saved, they will never be able
to simply accept Gods forgiveness and learn to produce fruits
of the spirit, of their ministry and of spiritual gifts, because
they occupy their capacities all the time just be remain saved.
Even someone given over to the satan according to Pauls words
is given over for the destruction of their flesh (physical
death) and their spirit may be save in the day of the Lord Jesus.
So Annanias and Saphira would add no more to the sins they would
have to account for before Christ's throne, but they are still
saved and will be there in heaven. Probably without too many
rewards.
Oh, and purgatory is not a concept to be found
anywhere in scriptures that I acknowledge to be written under the
inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
24. What does "sin against the Holy Spirit" mean, and why can
it not be forgiven?
See above.
25. What does "sin unto death" mean?
Idem.
26. Is the Holy Spirit a person, and what happens at rebirth
and baptism in the Holy Spirit?
The Holy Spirit is repeatedly and solemny refered to as a
independent person in the Godhead. At rebirth, the Holy Spirit
creates a new heart (center of the soul, a person is body,
soul (sinfull from origin) and spirit (dead, meaning no contact
with God, before rebirth)) in a person, and restores the spiritaul
faculty of being in touch with that persons new heavenly
Father that adopts that person in His family because Christ
has paid the price for his or her sins. This was only possible
after Christ's resurrection, as a proof of Gods acceptance of
His sacrifice. It was Gods little surprise, alluded to but not
known in the Old Testament. The problem was known, David askes
God to create a new heart in his inside, and in the OT
it was known that the Spirit of God only came over people, not
live inside them. That mistery was only revealed in NT (Who has
given God council that he might instruct Him? It seems to be worth
waiting for Gods surprise gifts), refered to by Jesus when he
was talking with Nicodemus (the concept of rebirth, being
regenerated), and first implemented when Jesus blew on His
disciples (another version of "blowing the breath of His life
into their nostrils). The Holy Spirit doesn't abuse people, or go
against their will, so is invited be a person to take place in
their life, and that is acknowlegded to be true by that persons
ability to henceforth be able to speak in tongues (utterance in
a language naturally unknown to that person under control of the
invited Holy Spirit), and to have his or her share of other
spiritual gifts, such as prophesy, words of knowledge and wisdom,
healing gifts, working of miracles to cast out deamons, etc.
The first time that happened was at pentacost, and it was the
fullfillment of the prophesy that God would pour out of His
Spirit upon all flesh. The disciples had to wait for this first
time of the coming of the "comforter" (greek "parakletos",
"sticking around?"), and afterward it can be given to persons
that know christ (are forgiven, and have a new (and unfortunately
also still an old) hart), for instance in an effective manner
by the laying on of the hands of a reliable fellow christian. The
essence simply is to ask God for it, and the proof is the
capacity to speak in tongues 9see various places in Acts).
Baptism in the Holy Spirit has nothing whatsoever to do with
baptism in water (it is never confused in scripture, and
there are various other types of events refered to as baptism
in OT and NT), and it is only related to salvation in the sense
that it is only possible after a person has found Christ, i.e.
is forgiven and able to stand before God as justified by the
sacrifice of His Son, otherwise that Spirit couldn't have a
holy enough place to dwell (such as in old testament).
Trying to perform a rite to achieve similar effects may
have results, but they would be demonic and delusive in nature.
A person that is saved (knows Christ as their personal redeemer)
is indeed saved, but will lack the "strength from above" that
was promised and appearently deemed necessary by Christ,
and have no means of excercising spiritual gifts through the
Holy Spirit.
27. What is the place and function of prophesy in New Testament?
Prophesy is speach under control of the Holy Spirit, in a known
language. Tongues (as the proof of baptism in the Holy Spirit)
are too, but they would have to be interpreted to qualify
as prophesy. Prophesy in general rarely relates to future events,
it does not have the function of a soothsayer, but addresses
problems at hand, hidden thoughts of the hart to produce
faith, may provide directions, and occasionally deal with
future events. Prophesies should not ne dispised, when Gods
Spirit actually speaks one would better take it serious,
it is the same God that counts nations as drops on a bucket,
and should be severely pout to the test of fellow believers who
sense the source to be correct, against Gods word because He
doesn't contradict Himself (God doesn't err), and against actual
fact because God is not a liar and a spirit that lies cannot
be confused with His.
In short, the function of old testament prophets was to exhort
people, which is more or less similar with NT prohpesy, that can
be uttered by any spirit filled believer, but since the bible is
finished (historical lines have been presented from past to
far future) there is no need for such type of great prophesy, and
it often is of a more personal nature.
The concept of the prophet as a ministry (that is a 'job' type in the
body of Christ) is completely seperated from the spiritual
gift of prophesy. A prophet is a type of person with a lot
of inspiration, or 'impulse driven' as opposed to 'ratio
driven' behaviour that a teacher would exhibit. An apostle
seems to combine both types of behaviour in one unit (person).
Old Testament prophets were only temporaly grabbed by the Spirit
of God (remember, they didn't have a new heart God could
live in) "thy words burn in my inner being", to utter
what God wanted to say to His people, in NT both the gift
of prophesy in action as well as the prophet in living in
his ministry (any member of the body of Christ has the
potential faculty to prophesy, and only a certain fraction
of them are prophets by ministry) are not taken over by Gods
Spirit like a spiritistic medium would do, buit simply give place
for His words by opening their mouth, and have His word
in their minds as any other matter of fact, the only difference
being that the thoughts are because God reveals them to the mind.
Prophesy is a dangerous faculty, either for those with
hidden evil thoughts or for believers of good will who are
confronted with prophesy of the wrong source. That is any other
source than the Spirit of God, such as the own thoughts of people,
a hurt and wounded hart (emotional prophesy) or simply a
demonic source.
28. What are ministries, and what is their place ?
A ministry is the implmentation of Gods will in someone's life,
one may say a 'job' in Gods service. Each believer has a unique
personality, and a new heart that he or she can use to
carry out actions the God has planned for them, and those
personalities can be rougly characterized and categorized
by type and authority. First, apostles with a dual personality
(not schizofrenic, but both of the teacher (rational) type and
of the inspired ("inpulsive") type at proper times, second in
authority the prophet (a prophet may well teach), then
the shepperd (local church), the teacher, the exhorter
(mainly inspired, at best limited ability to instruct,
but very "good with people"), shower
of mercy (inspired, probably my favorite, because it comes
closest to the essence of what God gives), givers, etc.
Knowing (people who can recogize it) and finding one's ministry
is essential to produce fruit unto eternal life, that is
the fruits that last eternally and probably have to do with
future occupations and the approved ability to have them
(we shall reign as kings?), and is the essense of globally
finding Gods perfect (instead of permitted) will for one's
life.
29.