Half-Life

Hey guys,

I haven't been posting for a while because I had a lot going on in my life this past week.

I decided to take a little break from posting and just focus my energy on MY OWN opinions.

However, the Book of Acts is a very strange book. I must have read this book so many times throughout the past week to the point of my brain hurting exponentially.

There are so many outlandish things in this book that I had never read before when i was more of a Christian as opposed to now that I am having doubts. For some reason, it never occurred to me to read this book when I was a believer. But, now that I am doubting Christianity, for some reason, it makes me want to read the bible more.

Here is an example of something outlandish:

The apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers used to meet together in Solomon's Colonnade. 13No one else dared join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people. 14Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number. 15As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter's shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by. 16Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by evil[a] spirits, and all of them were healed.

This makes me scratch my head and go "what the?!?!?!" How can anyone seriously believe this happened? Why don't we have more people today who do this so easily? After all, Jesus CLEARLY said that we will receive ANYTHING we ask for in prayer and nothing will be impossible for us. Obviously, this is not true because then there would be no hospitals.

You can't get any more clear than God saying "nothing will be impossible for you. Whatever you ask for in my name, i will do it."

14When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him. 15"Lord, have mercy on my son," he said. "He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. 16I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him."

17"O unbelieving and perverse generation," Jesus replied, "how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me." 18Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed from that moment.

19Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, "Why couldn't we drive it out?"

20He replied, "Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."[a]

So, here we have God saying "nothing will be impossible for you." Yet, if you pray to God to move a twig 2 feet, he won't do it. Was Jesus a big liar?

Check out this other verse:

When they heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. 55But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56"Look," he said, "I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God."

57At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, 58dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.

59While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." 60Then he fell on his knees and cried out, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." When he had said this, he fell asleep.

Why couldn't the Sanhedrin clearly see Jesus in the sky and become Christians? They covered their ears and stoned him? Does this sound logical to you? Most thinking people would be able to look up and see Jesus in the sky waving down at you. How can someone just COMPLETELY ignore that?

Now, all of these things seem extremely far fetched, but here is a verse i am having trouble with:

Then Herod went from Judea to Caesarea and stayed there a while. 20He had been quarreling with the people of Tyre and Sidon; they now joined together and sought an audience with him. Having secured the support of Blastus, a trusted personal servant of the king, they asked for peace, because they depended on the king's country for their food supply.

21On the appointed day Herod, wearing his royal robes, sat on his throne and delivered a public address to the people. 22They shouted, "This is the voice of a god, not of a man." 23Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died.

According to sources, Herod died sometime after 39 AD but he died in exile. There is no mention of Herod dying because an angel struck him down and he was eaten by worms.

However, how did Christianity spread so much with this book? While I read this book and notice so many outlandish things, how did the people during this time not know it was fake and no healings were really going on anywhere? :huh:

Salam

Half-Life:

How many Christians believe in the physical healing and talking in tongues taking place in Churches? I think quite a lot.

Half-Life

I'm not talking about that.

jesus clearly said "nothing will be impossible for you."

he didn't say "only preachers and faith healers." he said whoever has faith and prays, nothing will be impossible.

This means any joe-blow christian should be able to pray for a sick person to get healed and they will. if they don't it means they have no faith.

i didn't say it. God Himself said this.

temporalillusion

I bolded the important part.. some Christians believe that yes if you have the faith you could pray for anything at all and it will be done, but they can't because they lack the faith.

If someone doesn't get healed, it's not because it wasn't God's will it was because they lacked the faith. If they don't get all the wealth they desire, it's because they lacked the faith. Etc...

Faith not being an on or off proposition, but some value.. they talk about faith being a muscle that you have to exercise and strengthen by believing for small things and working up to big things.

Salam

Faith differs from a person to another.

Matt. 14:29
"So Peter went over the side of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus. But when he looked around at the high waves, he was terrified and began to sink. “Save me, Lord!” he shouted."

Sheshbazzar

But that IS the rub, for all the Christian bragging about the power of faith, there isn't even ONE Christian to be found in the entire world that is even able to effectively employ even as little "faith" as would "move a twig 2 feet..."
No, even the strongest among them cannot by faith nor by the power of a prayer, cause a single grain of wheat to move by even so little as a fingerbreadth.
Isn't there something seriously wrong with a religion and its claims, when in the books those Christians were allegedly capable performing astounding PHYSICAL miracles, healing's, and bringing dead bodies back to life almost daily, while the followers of that same religion today resort to, and employ deception, fraud, and lies to 'perform" even the smallest of their so-called "miracles"?

mountainman

So you thought the Canonical Acts were strange?

Whatever you do, DO NOT, I repeat ... DO NOT
attempt to read any of the Non Canonical Acts


Best wishes,


Pete Brown

paarsurrey

Hi

I don't think, there are any CatholicsProtestants here, who would have as much faith as of a mustard seed who would ask a mountain to move and it would move from its place; so that sort of indicates that they are followers of Paul rather than Jesus. Paul had differences with the theology Jesus believed in and Paul only used Jesus' name as a cover to spread his own Philosophy he invented at Rome in my opinion, may be he borrowed it from the pagans.

I respect faith of my CatholicsProtestants here; I am only expressing what I believe to be true.

Thanks

I am an Ahmadi peaceful Muslim

ICinsideU

Maybe all this really unbelievable stuff happened, and was written under the guiding hand of the Holy Spirit.
Or maybe the bible isn't true.

Maybe the age of apostles has passed. Maybe people don't have enough faith. Maybe people are getting healed, and Satan is hiding the evidence.
Or maybe the bible isn't true.

Maybe it's because it's not God's will for the twig to move 2 feet. Maybe Jesus was saying that nothing is impossible for the disciples listening to him at that time.
Or maybe the bible isn't true.

Maybe God/Jesus hid himself from the unbelievers. Maybe Satan possessed them to stone Stephen in spite of seeing God. Maybe they believed that God approved of what they were doing.
Or maybe the bible isn't true.

Maybe the historical record is wrong, and the bible is the trustworthy source. Maybe there is a satanic conspiracy to change the written history to make the bible look wrong. Maybe these are two different Herods.
Or maybe the bible isn't true.

Maybe Christianity grew in spite of the book because of the power of the Sprit. Maybe the bible isn't the problem, maybe it's your faith.
Or maybe the bible isn't true.

In this post you have questioned 4 biblical passages and their application. On top of that you have many other fundamental questions about faith, the growth of christianity, and the apparent lack of miraculous healing today. You can come up with a different explanation for each of your questions. If have the mental flexibility to hold onto a convoluted answer to every question you can come up with, then you can stay a christian for a little longer.

Or you can give one simple, straight forward answer to all of your questions. Ockham's Razor.

aa5874

Now, after Acts, read the epistles by the so-called Paul, and you will see that this letter writer never mentioned a single personal miracle. The epistles have no details of any miracles at all, not even Paul's own miraculous conversion, as recorded in Acts, is mentioned, just a vague incoherent statement.

See 2 Corinthians 12.2[quote] I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, ( whether in the body I cannot tell; or out of the body I cannot tell, God knoweth......

But, in any event, your brain will stop hurting as soon as you realise the entire NT is bogus. The claim that a god called Jesus was on earth in the 1st century is completely false.

Temples were built for Apollo, and were used to worship Him in the 1st century, but today it is very rare that someone head hurts because Apollo is no longer worshipped and considered a myth.