I Thessalonians 5:20, 21

Do not despise expounding of scripture, but scrutinize all things. Hold fast that which is right.

Malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium

- I prefer liberty with danger to peace with slavery.

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See also Kerux Replies at Wordpress.com where all future missives will also be posted.

However, because Wordpress charges an outrageous $59.95 a year for a video upload upgrade, videos will only be linked, not embedded.
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Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Christianity is Not a Religion

Consult any reputable encyclopedia and it will define Christianity as a religion. For example the online Wikipedia - "Christianity is a monotheistic religion centered on Jesus of Nazareth, and on his life and teachings as presented in the New Testament." Or Answers.com - "Christianity - Religion stemming from the teachings of Jesus in the 1st century AD."

However, when ones goes to the Word of God, the Bible - the founding document of Christianity - for the definition of Christianity, one will discover that Christianity is not a religion.

Let's first define religion and then Christianity and then explain why Christianity is not a religion.

Religion:

* man's attempt to work his way into favor with God.
* man's way of working to appease God.
* man basing his salvation on his own works.
* man seeking fulfillment or inner peace or a state of enlightenment within himself or to the exclusion of God.

Man's attempt to work his way into favor with God.

The first example of religion mentioned in the Bible is the religion of Cain, also referred to as the 'way of Cain' in Jude 11, found in Genesis 4:

3 In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. 4 But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, 5 but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. 6 Then the Lord said to Cain, "Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it."

Abel brought "fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering." God was pleased with Able's offering which looked forward to God's offering - His only begotten Son. But God did not look with favor on Cain's offering, "some of the fruit of the soil." Evidently, God had taught Adam and Eve what kind of an offering would be acceptable in God's sight. And that offering involved the shedding of blood, not the efforts from working the soil as Cain's offering was. Able approached God in the way God instructed, and Cain attempted to please God in his own way. If Cain would only do what God asked, he would be accepted. Cain refused to worship God in the way God instructed.

Cain's efforts in approaching God was based upon his own work, the work of his hands. Abel's approach was not based upon his own efforts but upon the first fruit of his flock, no doubt an innocent lamb.

The point being, man has avoided God's way and devised his own way from the beginning.

Man's way of working to appease God.

Men quite often perceive God [or the gods of their own making] as a God [or gods] to be feared. They view God [or gods] as an angry God. A God to be appeased in an effort to stave off His wrath. To appease God, man has invented sacrifices of their own creation. From the beginning man has sacrificed to idols in his effort at appeasment.

Exodus 20:

"4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: 5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;"

Man has so feared the wrath of gods that he has created idols of those gods to which he bows down to and serves. Since antiquity, man has constucted many gods - gods of the rain, river gods, crop gods, gods of life and death. While Moses was on Mount Sinai, Aaron, Moses' right-hand man and Israel's high priest, was persuaded by the Israelites to construct a golden calf to which the young Jewish nation, just delivered from Eygpt's God pharoah, bowed down to. The Mayan's constructed great pyramids and temples around which they sacrificed their young virgin women in an effort to appease their obviously demanding gods, and which undoubtedly help lead to the downfall of their civilization, for how can a civilzation that kills off their young women survive?

Today, examples exist of modern day religions that use sacrifice in their appeasment attempts. The Roman Catholic Church daily offers at their altars what they refer to as the 'bloodless sacrifice' to God through their celebate paedophile priests. Adherents to Islam believe prayer - Salah - is an obligation, sacrificing their time five times daily, rising as early as 4 a.m. while facing east, in an effort to please their god, ask for forgiveness and mercy "You have bestowed Your grace, those whose lot is not wrath," from a god they perceive as angry and vengeful, a god to be feared. In many personal conversations with devote Muslims, they expressed their concept of God as an angry God, a God to be feared, a God that expects the straight path to be walked upon. They fear the reprimand of God should they stray off the path, hence the need for prayer five times daily, to help keep them on the path.


Prayer is the first duty imposed by Allah upon mankind after that of belief in the oneness of Allah. Prayers are also an act to be accounted for on the Day of Judgement among other deeds carried out by servants of Allah. The Prophet (pbuh) said: “The first thing of the slave to be reckoned on the Day of Judgement will be his Prayer. If it is good, the rest of his deeds will be (accounted as) good. And if it is rotten, the rest of his deeds will be rotten”. (Tabarani)

Prayer constitutes one pillar of Islam and is considered the foundation of religion. Any Muslim who fails to do his prayers and has no reasonable excuse is committing a grave offense and a heinous sin.


http://www.al-islam.com/

We see in Islam, like many other religions, a fear, not in the sense of reverential trust, but a fear as in afraid, of God. Therefore, many actions of adherents of Islam, when living out their faith, such in the daily prayer ritual, are done, not so much as a voluntary act of worship, but one of obligation based upon fear.

Man basing his salvation on his own works.

Similar to man attempting to work his way into favor with God, man tries to have his work accepted by God for his salvation. By doing so, man rejects God's work, and replaces it with his own works.

But God's Word plainly states that man can not be saved by his own works:

Ephesians 4: 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.

Romans 9: 2 If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about--but not before God. 3 What does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness." 4 Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. 5 However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness. 6 David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: 7 "Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. 8 Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him."

[still under construction]

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Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Is Evolution Science?

Many evolutionists would like others to believe evolution is science, scientific or a science. It's not. Evolution is a theory that attempts to EXPLAIN science from a materialistic naturalistic worldview or paradigm.


Evolution is the theory that all forms of life found on earth descended from a common ancestor, evolving from a lower form to a higher form, from less complex to more complex, from single celled living organisms to multi-celled organisms over vast periods of time. A commonly accepted hypothesis within the theory of evolution is that natural selection is involved in a extremely gradual evolutionary process in which the most fit or strongest specimen or most vital aspect of a life form survives and those surviving characteristics are passed on from one generation to the next generation through reproduction over billions of years allowing the species [or essential trait] in question to best adapt and survive in its environment.




Click on image to englarge
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/evolution

[Evolution is described here in it's basic simplest form. Neo-Darwinism attempts to expand on this rudimentary definition based upon the latest understanding of science. However, evolution remains a theory, not fact. Although,more frequently, some dishonest evolutionists are asserting as fact what is indeed theory. If one observes closely the language used within the more honest Neo-Darwinist's descriptions, one will notice such words as infer, traditionally thought, may constitute, are believed to be, etc., are commonly used. Furthermore, descriptions of the evidence is not to be confused with conclusions about the evidence].

Evolution is weak in the area of origins eg, the origin of life, and as such avoids directly addressing origin issues, and instead relies on hypothetical chemical [organic compounds] reactions or otherwise self-generating synthesis of already existing chemicals or living organisms to explain the origin of life on earth.

Arthur S. Lodge points out that the "Main Open Questions of Evolution" are:

1. The origin of life.
2. Common ancestry.
3. Macroevolution.
4. The mechanism for generating substantially new genetic material.
5. Differentiation.
6. Origin of convergent evolution.

Evolutionists often proclaim, and rightly so, that evolution does not address the issue of origins. And while so doing, will often state creationists are somehow confused when it comes to exactly what evolution is. But what evolutionists are doing when they make these kinds of critical statements is admitting that evolution can not offer a good explanation for the origin of life. Evolutionists start out with life as a given and then attempt to explain how life evolved from that point, all the while conveniently passing over and ignoring completely the vitally important 'origin of life' issue. In short, evolution offers, at best, a weak explantion of how, what science calls life, came into existence. The miracle of life, to the evolutionist, is a given - Life just was. "In the beginning was life..."

That's what Creationists say about God. So, what's the difference? both views are taken by faith. If evolution takes life as a given, then that is not science, its faith.

[still under construction]

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Monday, October 23, 2006

Quotes - About the Bible

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"There are more sure marks of authenticity in the Bible than in any profane history." .... "I have a fundamental belief in the Bible as the Word of God, written by men who were inspired. I study the Bible daily."

Sir Isaac Newton

“All human discoveries seem to be made only for the purpose of confirming more and more the Truths contained in the Sacred Scriptures.”

Sir William Herschel [1738-1822]
Astronomist. Discovered Uranus, several nebulae, and binary stars. First to accurately describe the Milky Way Galaxy

"The secret of my success? It is simple. It is found in the Bible."

George Washington Carver


"What hath God wrought?"

Found in the Bible; Numbers 23:23
First message sent by the electric telegraph

Samuel Morse
[1791-1872]

"Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people...so great is my veneration of the Bible that the earlier my children begin to read, the more confident will be my hope that they will prove useful citizens in their country and respectful members of society."

John Adams


"It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible."

George Washington


"A nation of well-informed men who have been taught to know the price of rights which God has given them cannot be enslaved."

Benjamin Franklin

“Our citizens should early understand that the genuine source of correct republican principles is the Bible, particularly the New Testament.”

Noah Webster


"The Bible is worth all other books which have ever been printed."

Patrick Henry


"It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ”.

Patrick Henry


"That Book (the Bible) is the rock on which our Republic rests."

Andrew Jackson

"I believe the Bible is the best gift God has ever given to man."

Abraham Lincoln

"At this time I both read and studied all kinds of literature: cosmography, histories, chronicles, and philosophy and other arts , to which our Lord opened my mind unmistakably to the fact that it was possible to navigate from here to the Indies, and He evoked in me the will for the execution of it; and with this fire I came to Your Highnesses. All those who heard of my plan disregarded it mockingly and with laughter. All the sciences of which I spoke were of no profit to me nor the authorities in them; only in Your Highnesses my faith, and my stay. Who would doubt that this light did not come from the Holy Spirit, anyway as far as I am concerned, which comforted with rays of marvelous clarity and with its Holy and Sacred Scriptures."

Christopher Columbus

"The New Testament is the very best book that ever was or ever will be known in the world."

Charles Dickens

"The existence of the Bible is a book for the people. It's the greatest benefit the human race has ever experienced. Every attempt to belittle it is a crime against humanity."

Immanuel Kant

"It is impossible to enslave mentally or socially a Bible-reading people. The principles of the Bible are the groundwork of human freedom."

Horace Greeley

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