You know God through the Word of God, Pt.I

From the Bible edited by C.I.Scofield:

The four Gospels record the eternal being, human ancestry, birth,
death, resurrection, and ascension o fJesus the Christ, Son of God,
and Son of Man. They record also a selection from the incidents of
His life, and from His words and works.Taken together, they set
forth, not a biography but a Personality.

These two facts, that we have in the four Gospels a complete Personality,
but not a complete biography, indicate the spirit and intent in which we
should approach them. What is important is that through these narratives we should come to see and know Him whom they reveal....

...the four Gospels, though designedly incomplete as a story, are
divinely perfect as a revelation. We may not through them know
everything that He did, but we may know the Doer. In four great
characters, each of which completes the other three, we have Jesus
Christ Himself. The Evangelists never describe Christ -- they set
him forth. They tell us almost nothing of what they thought about Him
they let Him speak and act for Himself.

This is the essential respect in which these narratives differ from
mere biography or portraiture. "The words that I speak unto you, they
are spirit, and they are life." The student in whom dwells an ungrieved
Spirit finds here the living Christ.

....the Gospels are woven of Old Testament quotation, allusion, and type. the very first verse of the New Testament drives the thoughtful
reader back to the Old; and the risen Christ sent His disciples to the
ancient oracles for an explanation of His sufferings and glory (Lk.24:
27,44,45). One of his last ministries was the opening of their under-
standings to understand the Old Testament.

__________
Lk 24:44: And he said unto them, "These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me."

Pt II

Lk.24:45

Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures.

And said unto them, "Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to
suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day;

And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his
name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

And ye are witnesses of these things.

And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem,
until ye be endued with power from on high."

Acts 2:[Babel reversed by the Holy Spirit]

And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty
wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it
sat upon each of them.
And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with
other tongues [languages], as the Spirit gave them utterance.
And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every
nation unto heaven.
Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and
were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own
language.
And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another,
are not all these which speak Galilaeans?
And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?
Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia,
and in Judea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus and Asia.
Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about
Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes;
Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues, the
wonderful works of God.
And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another,
What meaneth this?....

...whosoever shall call on the name of the
Lord shall be saved.

lochinvar2006, fascinating link, but I wouldn't get too excited about the Joshua project. Christians are pragmatists too, you know.

There is after all a very good reason why the Taimani tribe of Afghanistan (highlighted by the Joshua Project as in significant need of the gospel) is completely free of evangelical Christians queuing up to set them upon the paths of righteousness.

"Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries in the world. Few have safe drinking water, and fighting is still going on in some areas.

The remote location and wide dispersion of the Taimani have made them hard to reach with the Gospel. At the present time, there is no Christian witness available to the Taimani." (Joshua Project)

In my youth I attended a party in an affluent Southwest London suburb, given by a friend who had recently graduated from theological college. A number of his colleagues were there, and I bumped into a group of them chatting in the kitchen, as one was wont to do at that sort of party. They were discussing their next moves, and the topic when I arrived was "which parish?"

After a few minutes listening to them describe their various choices, I naively suggested that the East End of London was probably fertile ground for their ministry. I was treated to a collective old fashioned look, and told that "hey, we have to live, you know". Strangely, none of them looked at all abashed by the concept that they were putting their religious training to work in the comfortable vicarages and leafy provinces of South East England, as opposed to the slums of Brick Lane.

So the chance of anyone in the Joshua project doing anything more energetic than practising distance piety from the comfort of their own prayer cushion is insignificant.

Part 1
Whatever happened to Occam's Razor?
Though a retired farmer, never-the-less, in my younger days I built a 20cm Newtonian telescope,
took photos of Jupiter, and timed transits of Io. Like Galileo, I observed the beauty, wonder, and awesome grandeur of the heavens(See Keiran Forum Comments 13 Nov 2006). I satisfied myself
the Popery Institution is a fallible one.
Did Rome adopt an attitude of humility at Galileo's discovery? No sir! Rather, a couple of hundred
years publication of Roman theological critical thinking has obviously filled the mind of Sells who seeks to support the religious and political shenanigans of the Council of Nicaea(325 CE). With
this theological information overload, Sells needs to get out the “razor” and lop off some of the
excess baggage!

Two thousand years of Jewish theological deliberation remains untouched by Sells. Could this be
due to feelings of arrogant superiority?

Roman imprimatur is no guarantee of understanding original meaning. Latin is not Hebrew. Should Russia have priority over the interpretation of Australian history rather than Australians?
Sells could start playing catchup, e.g. reading the essay on Nachman Krochmal by Solomon
Schechter in his “Studies in Judaism” would yield helpful insights into the nature of “strong
right arm”.
(contin.) Shmuel

Part 2
Australia is not noted for producing theologians, but Barbara Thiering's efforts on the Dead Sea Scrolls are worthy of careful investigation to perhaps help unravel some of the confusion Sell's
reveals... “we must affirm that G-D is not tied into nature”(Christian atheism)... “while biblical
narrative is often derived from actual historical event... it is also figurative... there is no essential
conflict as regards the nature of the physical world.” Later comments “The greatest gift that Israel
... has given the West is the priority of history and the understanding of its linear and not cyclic
nature”. When Thiering points out deliberate calendric changes in Jesus' era, it becomes obvious spiritual faith took precedence over prophetic calculations. Why?

How fulfilled would Sell's wishes for a following to help be, if the global interest in Dan Brown's musings were to devour Sell's words with their previous fervour? Perhaps, Dan may even have
been a secret student of Barbara?

Christian theology may well have been “eclipsed”... “over the last couple of hundred years”, but
many lay persons are free in the Australian environment to pursue their own bent, ideas that can
generate passions to pursue throughout life. Ian Gillman(edit) “Many Faiths, One Nation” lamented
“Are they having us on?” when wondering about the ever growing 3rd largest “religious” group
revealed by the Australian census. Somewhere around 80% Australians believe G-D exists, but many are hard pressed to say much more in terms of explanation.

“How does G-D exist?” Confusion interlaced with common sense has made for some exhausting
and interesting reading. Whew!
Shmuel

God created the devil. That was good of God.

Sells refers to God as "God Himself". You seem to be at pains to emphasise the sex there. So God has balls. Now who really sees God as an object - in human terms? Hope he has updated to boxer shorts or god forbid hope He isn’t still wearing Bond’s y fronts.

Numbat you said that there was no never-ending hell - well I just read this lot and I disagree. Also despite this punishing read, I am none the wiser. Thanks anyway Sells and posters.

Maybe we should have more faith in Satan for he will sort out the truly bad people. Actually I wonder if Jesus' brother, Satan, really is God because at times Satan seems to be the only one doing any works. Maybe we have it wrong and the Trinity should be the Quadruplet.

Satan has a strong work ethic so that there devil - must be good.
Got lots of friends that evil devil - must be good.
Cashed up that devil - must be really good.
Pulls plenty of chicks that horny demon - must be good.
Drives a BMW that Beelzebub fella –must be good.
Heaps of followers –must be good.

God’s religions are trying to kill each other off while Satan is having fun putting bastard pills in John Howard’s coffee, gaffe invokers in Beazley’s beer, invisible tablets in the Democrats’ bubble baths, chainsaws noises in the Greens’ relaxing CDs and replaced Christian theology with a computer game called the Chamber of Scientific Curiosities and Religious Experiences for Christians with Big Balls – must be good.

Hmmmm. We’ll see.

How does God exist? Only God knows. Maybe instead of grappling with unanswerable questions we should ask: What is truly God’s Way? What is the best way to live (for the atheists)? The answers are supposedly in the Bible and other places. People will find the answers if they push back ideology, religion and all those things that get in the way of Truth