rumitoid

Rose, if there are, as you claim, so-called "multiple false doctrines," please explain.

rumitoid

My bad for not looking deeper into "the United Church of God." That they require both baptism and obedience to the Commandments to be save I thoroughly disagree with, but that does not mean their resistance to the Trinity mistaken.

Canuckus Deploracus Loc: North of the wall

This is like saying all real scientists agree that c*****e c****e is man-made...

Canuckus Deploracus Loc: North of the wall

Shocking....

It's acceptable to be wrong about one thing, yet still be right about another

Blade_Runner Loc: DARK SIDE OF THE MOON

Yes, it does. No mortal human being can return bodily from the dead. Much less can he remain among his followers for 40 days and be seen, touched, spoken to, and preach the Word of God, perform miracles, and convert the worst of the persecutors. Over 500 witnesses attested to that.

What Did Jesus Do Those 40 Days?

Rick Marschall

One of the most significant periods of the church calendar, and least celebrated or noted, is the 40 days after Jesus rose from the dead. He walked and talked in places where His ministry had been; He was seen in His restored body by thousands; He healed many; He continued to preach, He continued to love. And then He ascended to Heaven, taken up in the sky, which also was witnessed by others.

We really should think more about these 40 days, and the significance of the Ascension. Jesus' birth had been according to Scripture. His miracles had shown His power. His preaching had taught the world wisdom. His persecution and death had fulfilled prophecies. That He conquered death was an astonishing miracle. But His ascension to Heaven – His bodily rise to be with the Father at the Throne, the mystery of rejoining the Godhead – more than any detail of these other manifestations, confirms the Divinity of Jesus Christ.

Forty days Jesus showed the world that He lived again. The Sanhedrin had called Jesus a blasphemer, and others claimed His miracles were of the devil… but His 40 days in Jerusalem and surrounding areas, being seen by multitudes, was scarcely disputed. The contemporary Jewish historian Josephus referred to it, as did other writers. Two generations later, the writer Eusebius interviewed many people who had known people who saw Jesus during these days, told of miracles, even cited sermons and letters of the risen Jesus.

In other words, some people might not have joined the Christ-followers – although believers multiplied rapidly, even in the face of persecution soon thereafter – but very few people disputed that He rose from the dead. The number 40 appears 146 times in the Bible, a number of God's significance. We think of Noah, of the years in the wilderness, of the days Moses was on the Mount, of Jonah and Nineveh, and, in Jesus' case, the number of days He was tempted of the devil… and the number of days between the Resurrection and the Ascension.

Usually this number signifies testing, trials, probation, or a provision of prosperity. We must believe the last comes closest to the risen Lord's season before He ascended. They certainly were active days. The last verse of the last gospel's last book (John 21:25) tells us, "Jesus also did many other things. If they were all written down, I suppose the whole world could not contain the books that would be written."

Yet as busy as He must have been, I have a picture in my mind of Jesus alone, also, maybe when darkness fell, down lonely paths, maybe through storms and cold silences, walking the dark hills, not responding to the curious crowds, but seeking out the troubled and the hurting individuals.

This is a plausible picture, because Jesus still does this today.

It was in His nature: Remember the "ninety and nine," and the one lost sheep the shepherd sought; remember His words, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock"; remember His story of the father rejoicing over the prodigal son who repents and returns and is restored; remember His admonition to be "fishers of men"; remember Him weeping over Jerusalem; remember the promise that "Whosoever" believes should not perish but have eternal life. He walks the dark hills, looking for us – piercing the gloom with a joyful hope that may be ours.

And, continuing to reconstruct an image of what Jerusalem must have been like those 40 days, abuzz with talk of the Miracle Man, let us also remember that we don't have to respond to a knock on the door – "Come! They say that Jesus is down by the river! Let's see Him!" No… He will come to us. And it is especially the case, I believe, if you are one of those people who is skeptical, or has "heard enough," or cannot crack the shell of hurt or pain or resentment or r*******n or fear, or all the other hindrances that prevent us from experiencing the love of Christ.

He is closer than a shadow, no matter what you think, or what you might prefer to believe. You might have experienced, say, the nightmare of something like a crib death; remember that Jesus offers peace that passes understanding. You might have health scares, insecure about your very life and what your place on earth is; remember that Jesus walks the dark hills to guide you and me. You might have had problems with drugs, and the law, and custody, maybe losing your home, with nowhere to turn; remember that Jesus offers you refuge. You might be a girl who has tried to shake addictions time after time after time; remember that the feeling around your shoulders is Jesus hugging you tightly. You might have lost a preemie, having prayed, believing, for a healthy child; remember that, through it all, trust is more important than understanding.

"God walks the dark hills, To guide our footsteps. He walks everywhere, By night and by day. He walks in the silence, On down the highway; God walks the dark hills, To show us the way."

The risen Savior, Lord of Creation, walks the dark hills, to seek out… me? and you? where we are? in our hurts, in our messes? That's the miracle of the Miracle Man, to me, still – that He loves you and me.

Canuckus Deploracus Loc: North of the wall

Catholics are Trinitarians...

According to many of your earlier threads they promote multiple false doctrines...

I guess if we apply your "logic" to the argument, then the Trinity must also be false doctrine...

Canuckus Deploracus Loc: North of the wall

Christ didn't return himself... You're aware of that, right?

He was Resurrected by God...

If Christ were God, then he never died and his sacrifice meant nothing...

Zemirah Loc: Sojourner En Route...

If you read the Nicene Creed, that which refers to Jesus:

"We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one being with the Father. Through him all things were made. For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven, was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became truly human."

It continues: "For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate, he suffered death and was buried. On the third day he arose again and in accordance with the scriptures, he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end."

Note what it says about Christ in the Nicene Creed: "For our sake he was crucified."

The fact that Jesus was crucified isn’t going to save anyone. He had to pay in full the penalty of death that his own infinite justice demanded for sin and neither of these creeds make that clear.

This is not the gospel that Paul preached. Furthermore, the Apostle’s Creed — The apostles never heard of the Apostle’s Creed. It was written after they were all gone from the earth.

This is a vehicle for ecumenism. It is a watered down, condensed deviation from the gospel that all can accept.

Because All can accept the Apostle’s Creed, they believe they must be Christians. No one can become a Christian through the Apostle’s Creed or the Nicene Creed.

These creeds are now used as a device to gather all the undiscerning around.

It’s not totally biblical, it does not include the gospel of Jesus Christ, the apostles never heard of it. The Nicene Creed — Counsel of Nicea was called by Constantine the emperor; All he wanted was to unite his empire. They were divided on whether Jesus was God. It doesn’t make clear why he died. "He was crucified for our sake," but what does that mean?

It has been brought down to the least common denominator and has left out that which is essential for our salvation.

If you turn to creeds, it prevents your knowing what the gospel is, - what the Bible says.

Norbert Brox wrote on the heresy of docetism, the heterodox doctrine that the phenomenon of Jesus, his historical and bodily existence, and above all the human form of Jesus, was mere semblance without any true reality. Broadly it is taken as the belief that Jesus only seemed to be human, and that his human form was an illusion.

It is, or should be common knowledge that Emperor Constantine was a monster, not a saint. He had his sons and wife murdered long after he started promoting Christianity as an official state religion. He used the popularity of the new faith in an attempt to consolidate his crumbling empire.

Christianity does not rise or fall based on the beliefs or actions of Constantine.

He was not baptized until on his death bed, obviously hedging his bets.

Parky60 Loc: People's Republic of Illinois

Why don't you use God's word to support your viewpoint instead of the words of men?

Blade_Runner Loc: DARK SIDE OF THE MOON

That being the case, why has God never resurrected another human being in the last 2000 years? What was so special about Jesus that God would choose only Him to resurrect from the dead? If Jesus Himself was not God incarnate, how was He able to raise others from the dead? If He could do that, then surely He could "return Himself".

I'm afraid your understanding of God's sacrifice on the cross is terribly flawed.

yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.
1 Corinthians 8: 6

Parky60 Loc: People's Republic of Illinois

WHAT?!!!!! You better reread that if you claim to be a Christian or is that a Freudian slip?

Canuckus Deploracus Loc: North of the wall

1. Seriously? What was special about Jesus that God chose to resurrect him? I refer you to Tommy's answer to Maximus concerning who Christ was....

2. Jesus did not resurrect the dead through his power... He specifically pointed out that anything he did was through God's power, not his own...



Back at you...

[/quote]

Yes...One God... The Father...

Canuckus Deploracus Loc: North of the wall

WHAT?!!!!!!

Canuckus Deploracus Loc: North of the wall

Like Tommy does

Zemirah Loc: Sojourner En Route...

God determined the meaning of His death. ...and of His resurrection.

Jesus Christ was fully God and fully man.

John 10:11: "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep."

Jesus said in John 10:14: "I am the good shepherd. I know My sheep and My sheep know Me,
John 10:15 "just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father. And I lay down My life for the sheep.
John 10:17 "The reason the Father loves Me is that I lay down My life in order to take it up again.
John 10:18 No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I lay down my life for my sheep. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from My Father."