Date: Sun, 24 Oct 1999 08:39:21 +1000
From: anti-sam <anti-sam-AT-lisp.com.au>
Subject: Re: Fun With Christians




bakunin-AT-hushmail.com wrote:

> Heeere Christian Christian Christian...  Susan still here?
>
> Tell me, do YOU read your Bible?  I mean carefully read it?  Have you noticed
> these passages?
>
> "Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth?  I tell you, Nay; but
> rather division: For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided,
>  three against two, and two against three."
> - Luke 12:51-2
>
> "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I come not to send peace,
>  but a sword."
> - Matthew 10:34
>
> "For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter
> against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
> And a man's foes shall be they of his own household."
> - Matthew 10:35-6

Yes I read my Bible and I understand the above verses, in context. The holy Spirit
speaks through the text so I hope that as you examine the Bible as an intelligent
reader that God will reveal His plan and character to you.The above verses were
spoken by Jesus Christ. He was speaking about the fact that some people will follow
the truth and some people won't. My sister does not follow Jesus, I do. There is
nothing sinister. God is loving, and he can't allow his truth to be compromised. He
doesn't want people to be slaves to sinfulness and Satan so he sends his Son, Jesus
Christ to set them free through his death, and then the Holy Spirit came and helps
people today. But Jesus is coming back soon and I do want him to recognise you, to
take you to heaven.
As for your Old Testament quotes, I fear I am going to have to say that you took
them out of context slightly. Its not that the God of the Old and New Testaments
are different,  Christ fulfills the old and brings in the new. Hebrews 10 and
Colossians 3 explain this. Jesus nails 'the law' such as the stuff about eating fat
or blood to the cross. The new covenant, which was necessary because people went on
sinning, is one where we live in response to God's grace. The law was a shadow of
the reality to come.
Think about this. In the Old Testament there are sixty major messanic prophecies
and approx. 270 ramifications that were fulfilled in one person, Jesus Christ. God
did this to create an address in history, so that fifteenth century AD blokes in
bars couldn't claim to be the Christ-- they just could not match up to all that was
written, but Jesus does.
This is not coincedental...and they are things beyond human control. Isaiah 7:14
(written more than 500 years before his birth) claims that he will be born of a
virgin, a natural birth of godly conception. This did happen. See Luke 1 and
Matthew 1. Another example can be found in Zechariah 11:11-13 and Psalm 41. God
indicates that the Messiah will be betrayed, by a friend, for thirt pieces of
silver, which will be cast on the floor, of the temple, and used to buy a potter's
field. Then compare the events in Matthew 27 and in the last chapters of the book
of John. The Bible makes sense! Jesus is the only way!
(a good book on all of this is Josh McDowell's 'More than a Carpenter' - there's
also a web site)

In truth, Susan.