> Introductions, Announcements, and More of Ray's Teachings
Moar new members!!
Samson:
Great Introduction Astropho,
It brought great joy in my heart to experience that initial zeal through
you in having these marvelous truths revealed by God. It reminds me of
the time I first learned that the word Eternal wasn't supposed to be in
the Scriptures, I sought to learn all I could about Aionios(pertaining to the
Ages) with a beginning and ending and how Punishment(chastisement) was
remedial and for our benefit and correction. These were things I learned
prior to my discovering Ray's teachings. However, I first learned the most
important Truth of all from Ray, We don't have a Free Will, only caused
choices and everything we did and will do is contingent on God's Will in
are lives.
Thanks Again, Samson. ;)
Astrapho:
cjwood:
Yes, I'll continue to pray. :D Wow, your posts really make me think about the enormity of things... How the "itty bitty little things in life" contribute to this big grand plan... Wow. Wow. :o This reminds me of this close shave just last Sunday. I almost impaled my friend's face with a knife once, but he happened to be leaning back slightly at the time so it missed. Imagine if he felt like leaning forward! :o I'm sure all of you have this sort of stuff happening all the time too, right? Almost get killed or something, but nothing happened just by sheer... chance (orly?). ;)
Samson: Wow! That's awesome to know. :D Yeah, the more I think about the "We haz no Free Will" thing, the more it makes sense, strangely... I have this feeling, though, that were I to tell someone about the truth about free will, he'll say "that's precisely what we mean by free will though!" and then "Free will is just a term to describe something, it doesn't have to mirror the actual meaning... Right?", because strangely those things what I first thought when I read Ray's papers. :o
Yep, the initial zeal for truth isn't dying anytime soon. :D I must be off... To gobble up more! ;) ;)
God bless!
Deborah-Leigh:
I find when touching ever so very lightly on the subject of free will, that it produces a most hostile offence to the unregenerate mind. It is truly a most sacredly cared for idol of the carnal heart. It is almost as if the wolf in the sheep's clothing cares nothing to ripe off their polite cordial deceptions to bare their ravenous teeth without regret or compunction if the conversation goes futher to prove that God IS Sovereign.
Truly God has shown us that the carnal mind is deep seated, very DEEP and SEATED, (not standing but lunging comfortably cushioned in a seated position) hatred for Him.
Touch my cushion and I kill you says the carnal mind to whosoever would dare take away their comfortable seat.
No wonder Jesus went in to the temple of idolatry with a whip!
Arc
Astrapho:
--- Quote ---Touch my cushion and I kill you says the carnal mind to whosoever would dare take away their comfortable seat.
--- End quote ---
Yes, I guess that must have been what I was feeling as I felt all the garbage in my mind getting hacked into pieces. It's still happening. :-X Can't say it feels too good... Wait, it does. Feels bad and good at the same time. I think this is the appropriate time to say, "I'm somewhere between absolutely joyous and absolutely wanting to tear out all my hair" again. ;)
Now I'm faced with this question from both myself and my Catholic friend: How do we know that the scriptures we have now is the unaltered Greek/Hebrew scriptures? I want to try to explain this to my friend who doubts the veracity of the manuscripts (I do too, sometimes), but I can't use the word "faith". I'll have to show her honest scholarship to show her that the manuscripts are 95% unchanged... And how do you say it... She doesn't believe the bible because the scriptures it's translated from may be wrong, and the original language in the interlinears may also be wrong. I admit to sometimes feeling like that, so I think it's time to do some honest research. What books/websites would you guys recommend? From my own efforts, I've gone through a lot of sites defending and attacking scripture, and I've ended up more confused than ever because both sides seems fully justified in their respective positions. Thanks in advance! :D
EDIT: Also, I forgot to add this in, but my pentecostal friend is pushing me to get "baptized in Jesus's name for the remission of sins". I told her to give me more time, but she's getting more anxious by the day (Always never failing to remind me that I will be in eternal hellfire if I don't, and I realized that I now believe that there is no hell so much that I even have to suppress a desire to tell her so) and I don't know what to do. Should I get baptized anyway? Is it a sin? There seems to be this strong feeling in me that says that if I get baptized, I will never get out of pentecostalism, but at the same time I fear that the thought is irrational and is just me being paranoid. It's hard to tell God's voice from my own sometimes. But yes, should I just go along and get baptized just so that she will stop pushing it?
God be with you :)
(Yesh, I'm still here and still jumping with enthusiasm. :D)
cjwood:
--- Quote from: Astrapho on May 01, 2009, 04:05:07 PM ---my friend who doubts the veracity of the manuscripts (I do too, sometimes)
my pentecostal friend is pushing me to get "baptized in Jesus's name for the remission of sins". (Always never failing to remind me that I will be in eternal hellfire if I don't, and I realized that I now believe that there is no hell so much that I even have to suppress a desire to tell her so) and I don't know what to do. Should I get baptized anyway? Is it a sin? There seems to be this strong feeling in me that says that if I get baptized, I will never get out of pentecostalism, but at the same time I fear that the thought is irrational and is just me being paranoid. It's hard to tell God's voice from my own sometimes. But yes, should I just go along and get baptized just so that she will stop pushing it?
--- End quote ---
astropho,
i will start out by saying that i chalk much of your vacillating back and forth up to the fact that you are so young. but, with that being said i will attempt to comment on the parts of your post that i have italicized above. it appears to me that your friends are seriously trying to influence you. i guess they think they have your best interests at heart, but in truth they have their own best interests/agendas at heart. also, and very importantly, one can't doubt the veracity of the scriptures and believe in the scriptures at the same time. you can't sit on the fence when it comes to the Holy Spirit inspired Word of God. (again, i know you are young in years and you have much yet to learn regarding the scriptures (as we all do actually), but the point i want to stress is that you either believe the scriptures or you don't. one might not have a full understanding of all that is contained in them, but your faith and belief that they are from God shouldn't be on shaky ground. granted, there are differences in translations, but the hebrew and greek manuscripts from which the translations were derived from are genuine. ray has a very good study in the videos section on the forum, about where did we get the scriptures from. that is not the actual name of the video, and i apologize for not knowing it, but you can look in that section and go through the archives and find it. regarding your friend pushing you to get baptized in the name of Jesus for the remission of your sins, and her reminding you that if you don't you will go to hell, and your suppressing the desire to tell her your belief (and the Truth) that there is no hell, i say, go ahead and tell her what you believe and why you believe it. she opened up the can of worms so to speak. of course, don't be surprised when she tells you that you have been deceived or some other nonsense. it might make it easier to just give her the bible-truths.com website address and tell her to read it for herself. water baptism is purely physical, and it cannot give you remission of your sins. God did that through Jesus Christ and your baptism, as well as the only True baptism now is the spiritual baptism of the Holy Spirit. of course, your friend will be clueless on this point also, so just tell her if she wants to really know Christ Jesus, and the Love of God, just give her the BT address again. astropho, you have no NEED to be water baptized. if you will read through ray's papers and emails regarding baptism, water and spiritual, you will be shown all there is to know about the subject. regarding your being confused about having a "strong feeling" and not knowing if that is God's voice or not, that is something that you will learn by life's experiences and by continuing to study the scriptures (and what He has revealed through ray smith). okay little brother, i better end this post. ANYTIME you have questions about ANYTHING, this forum and this website are the BEST place you can come to. the world WILL NOT have the answers. i can guarantee that your 2 friends DO NOT have the answers.
i love you little bro,
claudia
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