Streams Of Truth

This is a ver good question: "what was salvation for the people before Jesus?" I was asked this question a few days ago by a muslim friend. I believe it is a great question, because it is central to understanding the unique and consistent message of The Bible. At the time of Jesus, the religion views were not unified. The Gospel records that there were two dominant religious groups: the Sadducees and the Pharisees. Unlike the Pharisees, the Sadducees did not believe on life after this life (Mt 22:23, Mk 12:18, Lk 20:27, Acts 23:6). It is related that Jesus questioned this Sadducean belief with this statement: 37. Moses even indicated in the passage about the burning bush that the dead are raised, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.   38   He is not God of the dead but of the living, because all are living to  Him.”   39 (Luke 20:37-39 HSCB) In another passage of the Gospel we are told that in an occasion Mos...

I have been in a pleasant conversation on a social network, with a sunni muslim who is interested on having an authentic discussion about faith. I've decided to post my responses on this blog, rather than saturating the twitter server and the inbox of my muslim friend. My muslim friend has brought forward the following arguments: In my Muslim friend's opinion, multiple passages in the Bible indicate that God only requires repentance for forgive one's sins. Passages such as the parable of the Prodigal son (Luke 15) and Isaiah 43 indicate God only requires repentance for forgiveness of sins. This in his/her argument supports the idea that God does not need any sacrifice for forgiveness of sins. The second brought forward is that doctrine of original sin is unfair in my muslim friend's perspective. I'm quoting here one of the messages I received: " you are giving hell TO EVERYONE, a baby a boy for something they didn't do. 'The inherited sin' you...

---------- SUMMARY No book of the Bible is eternal for they were written at a point of time. The Word of God on the other hand is not created. It is eternal and has coexisted with God. The believe of multiple personalities within the essence of God is not in contradiction with this, and in fact it explains the apparent dilemma. The books should not be worshipped for they are not God. However The Word is God. Unitarian views of God, such as rabbinical judaism an islam among others, struggle to explain this. Triunitarism does not. ---------- During recent debate about the unity of God, it was posted the following question: If the Torah is the eternal word of God, why not worshipping it? The issue was brought forward by Dr Shabir Ally in response to Dr Nabeel Qureshi. Qureshi brought forward a dilemma discussed in the past by muslim theologians: since the Qur'an is verbatim the Word of God, revealed to humanity via the Angel Gabriel and prophet Muhammad, it's concluded that it...

Unitarian Questions: Is The Trinity a mere invention of men? I was recently challenged with this argument: God is not shy to say hes God, he has always boldly and authoritatively stated that throughout the old testament. Trinity was invented 300 years after Jesus died that should be proof enough of a false doctrine. Abraham fell on his face and prayed to God, so did David and so did Jesus . 1 Corinthians 15:27 -28 - For he “has put everything under his feet.” Now when it says that “everything” has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. 28 When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all. So as you can see it clearly says that God does not put himself under himself, so if Christ is put under God then he cannot be God , simple and case closed. Go read more thank you. Your knowledge betrays you. The first point to discuss i...

In the book tittled " Tales And Maxims From The Midrash By Rev. Samuel Rapaport (Late Rabbi Of Port Elizabeth And Eastern District Of Cape Colony), I found an interesting challenge to the belief the Jesus is The Messiah: And there is, in my humble opinion, amongst other  arguments, one argument against the belief in Jesus as the Messiah, which is unanswerable. The Messiah, according to all who believe in a personal Messiah, Jews and Christians alike, is to be a descendant of David. Now, according to Christianity, Jesus, the son--though not the only son--of Mary, was the offspring of immaculate conception, and had no earthly father from whom to take his pedigree. Even assuming that (as some of my Christian friends assert, but without proof) Mary was a descendant of David, that would not make Jesus a descendant, because pedigrees are reckoned from the father's, and not the mother's, side. God being the Father of Jesus, and God notbeing a descendant of King David, it ...

SUMMARY The concept of Trinity is commonly misunderstood by many people. It is the concept which defines God as one in what He is, but three in who He is. Other way of saying this is that the Almighty is One being, but three persons. Multiple assertions have become popular when discussing about the origins of the believe on a Triune God: - Some people say that it was invented by some Christians in the council of Nicea 300 years after Jesus  - Other people argue that the Trinity is definitely a Christian invention, for the Jews never came up with any concept which would point to support this. In this article I present references to first generation Christian writings outside the Bible who explicitly declare the deity of The Messiah. I also present references to Jewish writings which do present views aligned with the concept of the deity of the Messiah, from before and after the time of Jesus. The objective is to argument that the deity of The Messiah...