What is God?

“So do you believe according to the OT, there is going to be a Messiah? “

No. Most verses that mention a messiah and the Messianic Age are found in the book of Isaiah. But that book describes events that occurred, or were expected to occur, in the 7th and 8th centuries BC. Christianity has distorted the Isaiah prophecies, using them to reference the birth, life, and death of Jesus. If you read them in context, it’s clear the authors are talking about people, empires, and events during or shortly after their lifetimes.

Thats a great question

God is the creator,the maker and the lord of all. If you believe in Jesus Christ who died on the cross for us and paid our sins with his blood then you will go to heaven where you don’t feel pain, no agony or sorrow…eternal life and forever happy

BUT

If you don’t you will go to hell and burn in hell forever where you feel pain and sorrow and agony…THATS going to SUCK..

So if I where you I would get a Bible at any bookstore as quick as possible…

Just read it ok,you will find all the rules and stuf in there…

Get the dvd ‘The passion of the christ’ and watch that its allso a great way to learn

God speed God bless I hope you repent and give youre Heart to our savior and king!!!

Kind regards Your friend in Jesus Chester Gage

God is everything.. that we are not.

But, it is his will, to give us everything… that he is.

“”The Bible is not a fairy tale book. ALL of the bible is true.””

o so I suppose you beat unruly children and kill any man with longh hair. tell me do you still make burn offerings to God?

God is a myth. even if he existed why would such a vengful being be worth worship out of anything but fear.

God, Heaven, and Hell are fictional places and people. They are used to scare people into doing “right” the same way Santa Clause is used to scare little children into behaving.

God is a myth, a tool used by the powerful to keep the masses in fear. Here’s an example of that fear in action:

* If you don’t you will go to hell and burn in hell forever where you feel pain and sorrow and agony…THATS going to SUCK..

OH okay so you are a big fan of Richard Carrier. That makes sense. So do you believe according to the OT, there is going to be a Messiah?

God is the creator of everything,, and therefore the owner of everything.. He is all knowing..

He knows your name,, 

He knows your every thought..

He cares for you —

He wants you to be happy –

He can give you the happiness and completeness your looking for —

you need Him,, He’ll take care of you —

He can hear you —

He’s concerned with you life —

He can help you —

god is just another fairy tale.The bible is also just storys made up and can be proved.Noah got stuck on the highest mountain after the rain,now I would love to know how the hell did he get all those animals of a mountain. And then adam and eve had 3 sons,and the 3 sons got married to 3 woman.where the hell did those 3 woman come from if adam and eve were the first people on earth.And passion of the christ is the biggest pot of crap I ever watch.because if the bible were true it says nothing of jesus being visited by Lucifer(The Devil) in a garden. so theres your answer;GOD IS A FAIRY TALE JUST LIKE THE BIBLE.The Devil is real,I’ve seen him!

bhavisha, check out this website:

http://www.godchecker.com/

chestergage, none of the BS in your post is actually based on the Bible. You should take your own advice, and read the entire book.

yes God made the bet with satan while satan was still in his service. its in the bible wich you claim is all correct.

satan said let me test him and God said do anything you want to what belongs to him but not his body, then after ruining Jobs life God told satan to attact his body as well. im sorry I dont buy that suffering is a season in all of our livescrap when suprem beings are playing with peoples lives. this is the same God christians claim

Like I said earlier the Bible is the very book that we base every segment of knowledge on. Faith is a big part of it but God did not just set us up with blind faith. He sent Jesus Christ to reveal HImself to us. There are many references to Jesus in the OT. The gospels have also proved themselves to be accurate. The argument of them being distorted or Jesus being a legend can be considered a nonissue. The “experts” over The Jesus Seminar have only been educated within the confines of America and with the Experimentalism methods. They have had no education outside of America. They base all of their claims off of Presuppositions. They have to basically REDEFINE the Gospels before they can make claims that they make. Also there is no evidence that points to anything that they say. They are just unsupported theories, I’m afraid.

is some one that made us of his own image:)

he loves us so much that he even gave up his son(jesus) do die for us that when we do bad thing, we just have to ask for forgiviness and he ll forgive us

he live in heave and one day he ll come and take those people that re good and even if they did do some bad things it doesn’t matter as long as they as for forgiveness

he ll take those people to heaven and they ll leave happlt ever after:)

it is my hope that me and you ll be one of those people!!! AMEN:)

is some one that made us of his own image:)

he loves us so much that he even gave up his son(jesus) do die for us that when we do bad thing, we just have to ask for forgiviness and he ll forgive us

he live in heave and one day he ll come and take those people that re good and even if they did do some bad things it doesn’t matter as long as they as for forgiveness

he ll take those people to heaven and they ll leave happlt ever after:)

it is my hope that me and you ll be one of those people!!! AMEN:)

Why would you claim that every word of the Bible is TRUTH, when doing so undermines the very purpose of FAITH?

Which version of the Bible are you talking about?

“o so I suppose you beat unruly children and kill any man with longh hair. tell me do you still make burn offerings to God?”

No Jester X I dont have any children but when I do, I plan to Discipline them out of love..beat is such a severe word. And no I don’t Kill any man with long hair that would be considered Murder..and I would ask you to read the explanation I made earlier. And Thanks to Jesus Christ I do not have to make burn Offerings to God because Jesus abolished the Old law when He died on the cross.

The Bible is not a fairy tale book. ALL of the bible is true. The Old testament is filled with Prophecies that are carried out in the New Testament..Jesus being one of them. And If you read Genesis Adam and Eve did not only have 3 children..They had very many children most of which where brother and sister and cousin had to sleep with each other ( Which God allowed until there were enough people to populate without having to marry brother or sister)

And to answer YOUR question bhavisha: God is the creator of the universe as chestergage said You can read a lot about the character and traits of God in the Bible But God is an eternal being that exists in three persons God the Father (Creator of the Universe) God the Son ( Jesus, God wrapped in Flesh, the messiah to Humanity) and The Holy Spirit ( God in us, The Spirit of God sent in us to carry out God’s will on earth..The same Holy Spirit that inspired man to write out Biblical texts)

There are many Characteristics of God. God is Love, God is Truth, God is Just, God Is Wisdom, God is Infinite, God is Sovereign, God is Holy, God is Triune, God is Omniscient, God is Faithful, God is Omnipotent, God is Self-suffecient, God is Self Existant, God is Immutable ( Never changing) , God is Merciful, God is Eternal, God is good, God is gracious and God is Omnipresent. This is the description of God according to the bible, any other description of God that doesnt match up to these descriptions is a false god.

God inspired Moses to write out Ten of his Commandments. ALL of those commandments are not of the Character of God. Which is why God considers them Sin. God wants the best for human beings, God knows that He is The Best thing, If God didn’t know he was THE best thing then He wouldn’t be God, because God knows everything, Therefore God want’s His will to be THE priority for human beings. God has already sent His Son ( Jesus- God the Son) to humble Himself and live a human life and die a human death to bridge the gap between God and humanity. And with that Promise fulfilled by God he carried out the next promise and rose again three days later and ascended in to heaven to the Right hand of God (A Sign of Power) and made the promise to come again in Complete Power and Glory instead of in the form of a baby ( which is the way He came the first time)

My Prayer for you is that you put your Hope and Faith in Jesus Christ.

what im saying is that the bible isnt historicaly accurt and cant be trusted as a relyable sorce. furthermore you said

“The Bible is not a fairy tale book. ALL of the bible is true” than you have to accept thoses things as well

you also said””There are many Characteristics of God. God is Love, God is Truth, God is Just, God Is Wisdom, God is Infinite, God is Sovereign, God is Holy, God is Triune, God is Omniscient, God is Faithful, God is Omnipotent, God is Self-suffecient, God is Self Existant, God is Immutable ( Never changing) , God is Merciful, God is Eternal, God is good, God is gracious and God is Omnipresent. This is the description of God according to the bible, any other description of God that doesnt match up to these descriptions is a false god.””

Where was is comapssoion, love, just and all that crap when he did what he did to Job. he murdered and tourchered innocent people, completly ruined Jobs life just to win a bet. then when Job did what he was soppost to God punished him further. All be cause of a bet with satan. What kind of all loving being can do that?

lol, no I don’t just get all my information from Richard Carrier. I referenced one article of his that talks about the canonization of the Bible, clearly a very human process, not at all divine. And I think my posts indicate that I have researched this topic extensively and given it a great deal of thought.

The historical existence of Jesus is still something very much up for debate, and it’s incorrect to say that “scholars have accepted” Jesus walked the earth. There is really no substantive evidence to suggest that he did, certainly no more so than Hercules.

You also said: “the Jewish rabbis never denied that Jesus made the claim that He was God. Instead, they called Him a liar, and tried Him for blasphemy. “

So say the Gospels. The story of Jesus’ trial is found nowhere outside the Gospels. It’s not verified in any contemporary Roman or Jewish record. Considering it’s supposed magnitude, don’t you find this a little strange?

Then I’m afraid that we are on opposite ends of spectrum. I will say that Luke ( Who wrote One quarter of the books in the New Testament) is a ligitmate historian. Scholars have accepted Jesus as a Man in History, Muslims recognize Jesus as a prophet, while Jews either see him as a blaspheming rebel or an exceptional rabbi elevated to deity by idolatrous Gentiles. Many Buddhists regard Jesus as a “bodhisattva” (a perfectly enlightened being who vows to help others), while there’s a Hindu tradition that Jesus was actually a guru who learned yogic meditation in India YOU and Mr. Carrier see Jesus as a symbolic figure used by Christians to “distort” the Old Testament, Christians See Jesus as The Messiah and the Son of God. After this I won’t say anything else because you are entitled to what you believe and I hope that God will show you Truth, but ask yourself this question..Out of all these viewpoints Can you really take this Man Jesus out of history? He is obviously widely accepted as a Man who DID walk planet earth. Your friend Mr. Carrier even tried to make the argument “ That He was grave robbed” . if Jesus’ claim of deity was a myth, the early Jewish opponents of Christianity would surely have presented the fact that these claims never happened. Unlike modern skeptics(such as yourself), the Jewish rabbis never denied that Jesus made the claim that He was God. Instead, they called Him a liar, and tried Him for blasphemy. So I ask you to do a little more research on your own and not Rely on Just Richard Carrier for your source of information.

Yeah, but as you admit, most of the manuscript evidence was written in the centuries after Jesus was said to have lived, which tells us nothing about the historicity of Jesus. In fact, we have hundreds of Gospels, most of which are not even in the Bible, with contradicting records of his life and ministry.

And on top of that, textual analysis shows that many NT manuscripts were revised during copying and translation in the early Christian centuries, with several ommissions and alterations. Some books of the Bible are so distorted that scholars are not entirely sure what their original message was.

And, the canonization of the Bible was very much a political and cultural process, obviously not guided by any spiritual force. I recommend you read Richard Carrier’s article “Formation of the New Testament Canon” which talks about this subject.

Thallus is a no-go, I’m afraid. Everything we know about him comes from second and third hand sources (Christian ones), not from Thallus himself. The writings you are referring to, are attributed to Thallus by Christian writer Julius Africanus, who lived 200 years later, and they definitely don’t make any reference to Jesus Christ. Thallus seems to be talking about a solar eclipse, and other events occurring within Judea, during the time Jesus is said to have lived, with Africanus making the conclusions that he’s talking about Jesus. Nothing about Thallus can be verified…we don’t know exactly what he wrote, when he wrote it, and we have no reference to his writings outside Christian apologetics.

Tacitus is also a no-go. Not only did he live several decades after Jesus is said to have been crucified, but his reference is very vague. He mentions “Christus” and doesn’t refer to him as a person known to have lived, but simply as someone the Christian sect seems to revere. Obviously, by that time, the mythology of Jesus Christ was widespread enough that Tacitus would have heard of it, writing about events within the Empire.

So you have one historian who makes a vague reference to some person revered by Christians, and you have another historian who is shrouded in mystery, and whose writings are only known to us through Christian writers who lived centuries later.

Try again.

Well I’m afraid you have me in the argument in no “direct” link to the New Testament. Let me go a different route. The manuscript evidence for the New Testament is dramatic, with over 5,300 known copies and fragments in the original Greek, nearly 800 of which were copied before 1000 AD. Some manuscript texts date to the early second and third centuries, with the time between the original autographs and our earliest existing copies being a remarkably short 60 years. Interestingly, this manuscript evidence far surpasses the manuscript reliability of other ancient writings that we trust as authentic every day. Look at these comparisons: Julius Caesar’s “The Gallic Wars” (10 manuscripts remain, with the earliest one dating to 1,000 years after the original autograph); Pliny the Younger’s “History” (7 manuscripts; 750 years elapsed); Thucydides’ “History” (8 manuscripts; 1,300 years elapsed); Herodotus’ “History” (8 manuscripts; 1,300 years elapsed); Sophocles (193 manuscripts; 1,400 years); Euripides (9 manuscripts; 1,500 years); and Aristotle (49 manuscripts; 1,400 years).

I was actually thinking of Names such as Thallus that lived in Rome around 52 AD. In his writings, he describes the darkness that surrounded the execution of Jesus on the cross and attempts to explain away it as a supernatural occurrence, claiming it was due to a solar eclipse. In his writings, we notice that he does not try to disprove that Jesus lived, rather he takes his existence for granted.

or Tacitus in writing on the reign of Nero, talks about how Nero blamed the Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD on the Christians, wherein he mentions the origins of their name to Christ.

Both of which are historians and one of which lived in Jesus’ time.

“You seem to take Great faith in the Old Testament which is great, because it is truth.”

Uh, no I don’t. I’ve read the entire thing, though. And there’s no doubt about how it portrays God.

“But both of us know that Jesus walked planet earth.”

Actually, I don’t think that at all. Outside the Gospels, there is not a single direct, contemporary reference to Jesus in any historical record, Jewish, Roman, or otherwise (and please don’t bring up Josephus). I believe Jesus is a symbolic figure. Or if he was a real man, his life story was drastically revised by the Gospel authors.

Okay lets back this up a bit, religionisgood.

You seem to take Great faith in the Old Testament which is great, because it is truth.

But both of us know that Jesus walked planet earth. Who do believe Jesus to be in the time He walked planet earth

jusebox, Jesus is never mentioned, or even alluded to, in the OT. Authors of the NT handpicked and twisted individual verses within OT scriptures to make it seem as though the coming of Jesus was prophesied, and that he was the Messiah.

You should also realize that your concept of God, with that long list of wonderful attributes, is certainly not supported by the Bible, especially the OT. God, in the OT, is very much involved in the muck of human politics and war, and displays the traits of a territorial, aggressive, ruthless king more than a benevolent, merciful father. Ancient Hebrews lived in a violent, chaotic time, and this is reflected in their view of God.