bbyrd009
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Can Someone Please Define What a Christian is?
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God is spirit, not some old guy sitting on a cloud. God is not part of creation, but entered into creation in the person of His Son and has always manifested in creation, interacting with men, through His Holy Spirit and His Holy messengers, angels. Spirit is not material or quantifiable and in God's case, without limitation. He is described as omnipresent because His Spirit is everywhere and can interact with all of us at the same time. That's what scientists call superstition, but what we call supernatural, beyond the natural world. (Science does not acknowledge the existence of the supernatural. )
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quietthinker
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are they related? only in the sense that one evokes the other for the purpose of understanding, for empathy and for an instructed tongue
bbyrd009
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prolly fair to say that people…participating in a religion are reluctant to acknowledge the superstitious, too?
bbyrd009
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well im actually leaning toward your internal/external argument at the moment, just not sure how to verify that
bbyrd009
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seems like a recipe for being misled also, but at the same time i get you there
weird
Yes, but there is a difference between superstition and the supernatural. The first is the result of imagination, while the latter is real.
As an example, my dad wore a St. Mary medal or carried it on his person while he drove a jeep around Europe carrying messages and orders between headquarters and the front lines during WW II. He had a number of close calls, like accidentally driving into a village square that was still occupied by the Germans and at an hour where soldiers were washing up at the central fountain, and then driving around the fountain to exit the same way without anyone taking notice or firing a shot at him. Or on another occasion, taking a detour through a farm field to avoid a slow moving convoy, and finding out on the other side that the field was mined. His belief that the medal protected him would be a superstition, but the fact that God preserved him would be considered supernatural (or just dumb luck to unbelievers. )
A Christian is Mr Nobody made Mr Somebody in Jesus Christ.
RR144
Well-Known Member
The New Testament continually calls Christians-the "church." Remember the Greek word translated "church" means "called out ones." In other words, a minority is called out from the majority of the human race. Consequently, many scriptures use the words "elect," "elected," "election," and "elect's" (sometimes translated "chosen") to denote God's dealing with Christians. Matthew 24:31; Romans 8:33; Colossians 3:12; 1 Peter 1:2; 2 Peter 1:10 and 2 Timothy 2:10 are a few examples of this usage. This word describes the special selection of a smaller class ("little flock") from the human race before all of humanity has its opportunity for salvation in the Kingdom.
What is this special calling or selection of the church? Christians are called to the multiple profession of judges, priests and kings of mankind in Christ's Kingdom. The Scriptures are explicit on this point. 1 Corinthians 6:2 states that "the saints shall judge the world." 1 Peter 2:9 shows Christians are called to be a "royal [kingly] priesthood." Similarly, Revelation 1:6 and 5:10 states we are called of God to be "kings and priests" and "we shall reign on the earth." Revelation 20:6 states that Christians "shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with him a thousand years."
Judges, priests, kings! It's a profession Christians have been called to! A rigorous training course Christians must pursue to attain this profession. So the question asked is do you as a professing Christian see God working in your life-preparing you for this profession?
RR
A Christian is a person that obeys this....
38 Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
And continues in this...
18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
It is that simple.
38 Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
And continues in this...
18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
It is that simple.
Wrangler
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Aunty Jane
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I hope you understand that there is no such thing as a “Holy Ghost”.
There is no such thing as “ghosts” period! Spirits are not ghosts, which implies that they were once humans who died, and are now living in the spirit realm. Nowhere does the Bible teach this because there are no immortal souls. Souls are living, breathing creatures who are entirely mortal, designed by God to live forever on earth in mortal flesh.
The Bible speaks of Holy Spirit.......”God’s Holy Spirit”...something that is HIS....not HIM.
The Bible speaks of God’s spirit in various ways....in creation, God’s spirit was the force behind creation emanating from God and empowering his “master workman” in the creation of all things. (Proverbs 8:30-31) The “master workman” was God’s son, who is not the Creator, but was guided by him as creation came “through him”....not from him. (Col 1:15-17)
When Moses was finding his assignment in guiding the Israelites through the wilderness, difficult, it was suggested to him to appoint 70 spiritually qualified men to render assistance to Moses. The Bible says that God took some of the spirit that was given to Moses and apportioned it out to the 70 men who were to assist Moses. (Numbers 11:16-17, 24-25)
When Jesus was baptised, the Holy Spirit came up on him and thereafter empowered him to perform miracles.....he was just Jesus the carpenter’s son until he presented himself for baptism and receive God’s empowering spirit in his role as Messiah....a difficult assignment.
The word “ghost” comes from a German word, “geist” which means “spirit”.
The word ghost, when applied to God’s spirit, implies that it is an entity......yet nowhere does the Bible state that God’s spirit is a person. His spirit is his power, sent to whomever, and wherever his will dictates to accomplish his will.
A Christian is man or woman who converts to christianity and they repent sins to God and find forgiveness. Acts chapter 3 to document.
Galatians chapter 5 . Those led by the spirit, children of the light. They repent, study the bible and share God's truth with others. They will have linen and rewards in heaven. God's blessings.
Those who walk in the flesh, are following satan. They don't have Gods blessings or protection. They are in Bondage to satan. Pride is factor as to why they wont convert to christianity.
Luke chapter 16, Richman and Lazarus. Is about two sides of the Gulf. One side is paradise. Other side is sheol. Many people end up in sheol.
It's holding place for the spirtualty dead or wicked. It not fun to be in. In sheol, they feel sadness, distress and despair. It's a awful place.
Good news. Salvation is free. Anyone can repent and convert to christianity. To be children of light.
Pray to God, and be sincere. Repent sins to God. Start studying the bible.
Paradise or sheol? Its their choice.
Galatians chapter 5 . Those led by the spirit, children of the light. They repent, study the bible and share God's truth with others. They will have linen and rewards in heaven. God's blessings.
Those who walk in the flesh, are following satan. They don't have Gods blessings or protection. They are in Bondage to satan. Pride is factor as to why they wont convert to christianity.
Luke chapter 16, Richman and Lazarus. Is about two sides of the Gulf. One side is paradise. Other side is sheol. Many people end up in sheol.
It's holding place for the spirtualty dead or wicked. It not fun to be in. In sheol, they feel sadness, distress and despair. It's a awful place.
Good news. Salvation is free. Anyone can repent and convert to christianity. To be children of light.
Pray to God, and be sincere. Repent sins to God. Start studying the bible.
Paradise or sheol? Its their choice.
So, God is not holy and a not Spirit(AKA Ghost)...not a Holy Ghost?
Is God an unholy thingamajigger?
RR144
Well-Known Member
"Ghost" is just a bad translation. It should be "Spirit". "God is Spirit and those who worship him do so in spirit and truth." (John 4:24)
atpollard
Well-Known Member
The only Bible version (translation) to use "Holy Ghost" is the KJV. The newer versions (translations) were published after 1900 while the KJV was published in 1611. I think it reasonable that "ghost" is one of MANY words whose range of meanings has drifted from when Shakespeare used it to now.
ghost (n.)
Old English gast "breath; good or bad spirit, angel, demon; person, man, human being," in Biblical use "soul, spirit, life," from Proto-West Germanic *gaistaz (source also of Old Saxon gest, Old Frisian jest, Middle Dutch gheest, Dutch geest, German Geist "spirit, ghost"). This is conjectured to be from a PIE root *gheis-, used in forming words involving the notions of excitement, amazement, or fear (source also of Sanskrit hedah "wrath;" Avestan zaesha- "horrible, frightful;" Gothic usgaisjan, Old English gæstan "to frighten").
Ghost is the English representative of the usual West Germanic word for "supernatural being." In Christian writing in Old English it is used to render Latin spiritus (see spirit (n.)), a sense preserved in Holy Ghost. Sense of "disembodied spirit of a dead person," especially imagined as wandering among the living or haunting them, is attested from late 14c. and returns the word toward its likely prehistoric sense.
Most Indo-European words for "soul, spirit" also double with reference to supernatural spirits. Many have a base sense of "appearance" (such as Greek phantasma; French spectre; Polish widmo, from Old Church Slavonic videti "to see;" Old English scin, Old High German giskin, originally "appearance, apparition," related to Old English scinan, Old High German skinan "to shine"). Other concepts are in French revenant, literally "returning" (from the other world), Old Norse aptr-ganga, literally "back-comer." Breton bugelnoz is literally "night-child." Latin manes probably is a euphemism.
The gh- spelling appeared early 15c. in Caxton, influenced by Flemish and Middle Dutch gheest, but was rare in English before mid-16c. Sense of "slight suggestion, mere shadow or semblance" (in ghost image, ghost of a chance, etc.) is first recorded 1610s; sense of "one who secretly does work for another" is from 1884. Ghost town is from 1908. Ghost story is by 1811. Ghost-word "apparent word or false form in a manuscript due to a blunder" is from 1886 (Skeat). Ghost in the machine was British philosopher Gilbert Ryle's term (1949) for "the mind viewed as separate from the body." The American Indian ghost dance is from 1890. To give up the ghost "die" was in Old English.
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