Critical thinking and education is linked to loss of faith

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Matthias

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AMEN

Let's LOOK n SEE = Isaiah 43:3 and Mark 1:24 and Titus 3:6

For I am the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior;

saying, “Let us alone! What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us?
I know who You are—the Holy One of God!”

But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit,
whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior,

Jesus is a savior (Luke 2:11) sent by his God, Yahweh.

Yahweh has done that throughout history (Nehemiah 9:27).
 

David in NJ

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Jesus is a savior (Luke 2:11) sent by his God, Yahweh.

Yahweh has done that throughout history (Nehemiah 9:27).
Your unbelief is incredibly sad.

"All have sinned and fallen short from the Glory of God" = "there is none good but one, God"
 

Matthias

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“The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart.”

(Luke 6:45, NASB)

I bring forth John 14:1. Let the evil men repent or be sad and gnash their teeth.
 

Matthias

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Shema Yisrael YHWH Eloheinu YHWH Echad.

This is the creed of Judaism and the Messiah’s creed.

YHWH is the God and Father - a single self / person - of the Messiah and his disciples.

When Jesus quotes his creed in Mark 12:29 the Greek word used is the singular kurios, not the plural kurioi.

Yahweh is the Lord (singular) God (singular) - not the lords (plural) gods (plural) - of Israel.

The Shema is a unitarian creed. There is no plurality in it.
 

Matthias

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When a person‘s creed is unitarian the person is a unitarian.

The Jews, then and now, are unitarians.

Jesus’ creed is unitarian. Jesus, himself a Jew, is a unitarian.

Confirmation: Jesus himself tells us explicitly (John 20:17) that his God (and the God of his disciples) is only one person, the Father.

Jesus hasn’t changed his theology (Hebrews 13:8).
 

Matthias

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Your unbelief is incredibly sad.

My belief (primitive Christianity) is the Messiah’s belief. Yours isn’t, and I don’t find it / you persuasive.

I’m not asking anyone to believe something, anything, which they aren’t persuaded is true.
 

Matthias

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When a person‘s creed is unitarian the person is a unitarian.

The Jews, then and now, are unitarians.

Jesus’ creed is unitarian. Jesus, himself a Jew, is a unitarian.

Confirmation: Jesus himself tells us explicitly (John 20:17) that his God (and the God of his disciples) is only one person, the Father.

My position on this is unassailable.

Jesus hasn’t changed his theology (Hebrews 13:8).

There is room for discussion on my position concerning Hebrews 13:8.
 

Matthias

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I was thinking earlier this evening about the Nicene Creed. (2025 is the 1700th anniversary of the first Council of Nicaea.) It‘s inception dates to the 4th century (the original creed to AD 325 and the amended creed to AD 381). Three hundred years after the earthly ministry of the Messiah.

The inception of the Messiah’s own Creed, the Shema, the unitarian creed of Judaism, dates to the giving of the Mosaic Law at Mount Sinai, following the Exodus. Approximately one thousand, three hundred years before his earthly ministry.

Which theology came first? Not the one I was taught in Sunday School.

Jesus of Nazareth had nothing to do with the inception of the creed at Mount Sinai. Did he have anything to do with the inception of the competing creed in the 4th century?
 

David in NJ

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My belief (primitive Christianity) is the Messiah’s belief. Yours isn’t, and I don’t find it / you persuasive.

I’m not asking anyone to believe something, anything, which they aren’t persuaded is true.
You CANNOT find me persuasive because GOD is keeping you blind as HE Promised

When you reject God's WORD you remain BLIND as you are a monotheistic atheist with stones in your hand


Reject the Fulfilled Prophecy of Isaiah 40:3-5

You REAP the Fulfilled Prophecy of Isaiah and JESUS = Matthew 13:14-15
 

Matthias

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You CANNOT find me persuasive because GOD is keeping you blind as HE Promised

God promised no such thing.

When you reject God's WORD you remain BLIND as you are a monotheistic atheist with stones in your hand

Reject the Fulfilled Prophecy of Isaiah 40:3-5

You REAP the Fulfilled Prophecy of Isaiah and JESUS = Matthew 13:14-15

N/A to me.

I’m a primitive Christian.

Side note. Neither you nor I are Nicene Christian.
 

Matthias

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Interesting metaphor you chose to hurl at me @David in NJ. As is well-known, even on this forum, I practice and preach non-violence.
 

Matthias

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I encourage intelligent readers, critical thinkers, to look up the definition of “monotheistic atheist” - terminology which clearly isn’t applicable to me.

So what is really going on here? I don’t think it’s necessary for me to spell it out for my readers.
 

Matthias

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Shema Yisrael YHWH Eloheinu YHWH Echad.

What the creed says -> Hear O Israel. The Lord our God is one Lord.

What the creed does not say -> Hear O Israel. The Lord our God is x-in-one Lord.

This is the creed of Judaism and the Messiah’s creed.

The one Lord who is our God is Judaism’s God and the Messiah’s God; the God of primitive Christianity.
 

Matthias

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“The Shema is an affirmation of Judaism and a declaration of faith in one God.”


”So, what religion was Jesus? The simple answer is: Judaism. Jesus was a rabbi, a teacher of Judaism.”


”Jesus was born a Jew, lived as a Jew, died as a Jew. His teachings were grounded in Judaism, albeit a radical interpretation of it. He did not set out to establish a new religion. Instead, he sought to reform his religion, Judaism, Judaism, from within.

However, his teachings, particularly his claim to be the Messiah and his resurrection from the dead, became the foundation for a new religious movement. This movement, initially a Jewish sect, evolved into a separate religion - Christianity. …

In the first century CE, Christians were essentially just one more sect of Judaism. …”


I’m a 1st century Christian - a primitive Christian - living in the 21st century.
 

Matthias

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“Judaism has always been rigorously Unitarian.”


“Jesus practiced the religion of first-century Judaism.”


His God is the God of Judaism - > Yahweh, only one person, the Father.

The Messiah is a unitarian.
 

Matthias

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“Jews believe that God has always existed in one person and that he always will exist. He made the world …

Judaism began with the Covenant between God and Abraham.”


The God of the Bible is the God of Judaism -> the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
 

Matthias

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Shema Yisrael YHWH Eloheinu YHWH Echad.

This is the creed of Judaism and the Messiah’s creed.

Jesus is in agreement with the Jewish scribe, who is not a disciple of Jesus, in Mark 12:28-34

XII. 28-34. The Greatest Commandment. - This further question does not seem to be put in a spirit of hostility. The scribe may have been a Pharisee who admired the answer Jesus had given to the Sadducees. There was no real doubt as to the greater commandment. The Shema (Dt. 6:4f) was repeated daily by the Jews. It was the foundation-text of their monotheism, which was ‘not a speculative theory but a practical conviction’ (pp. 618f.). Jesus adds to it Lev. 19:18. Love to God finds its only adequate fulfillment in love to one’s neighbor. God’s worship lies in social duty. Love to one’s neighbor must be rooted in love of God. Wellhausen says, ‘the combination was first effected in this way by Jesus’; this is not certain, and, at any rate, ‘in this Jesus stood in complete and conscious agreement with Pharisaism’ (Schlatter, Das Wort Jesu, p. 221). …”

(Arthur S. Peake, A Commentary on the Bible, pp. 695-696)

There is no dispute over who God is in the Gospels. The Jews, including Jesus, were united by the unitarian creed of Judaism. What is in dispute in the Gospels is whether or not a particular Jewish man - Jesus of Nazareth - is the Messiah whom that God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob - their God, his God, my God, Yahweh - had promised from the beginning.
 

Matthias

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“ Jesus didn’t worship a religion, but rather the eternal God…. He didn’t worship Judaism, but He worshipped the God of Judaism - the God who revealed himself at the Exodus as ‘I Am’ or ‘Yahweh’ (generally written in English Bibles as ‘The LORD’) (Exodus 3:14).


The God of Judaism doesn’t worship anyone. The Messiah - Jesus of Nazareth - worships the God of Judaism.

The God of Judaism - Yahweh - is the God and the Father of the Messiah.
 

Matthias

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It isn’t the prophets who speak against the God of Judaism. It isn’t the Messiah, nor the apostles, who speak against the God of Judaism.

The voice which speaks against the God of Judaism is either the voice of the ignorant or the voice of the wicked.

The cure for the ignorant is education.

The cure for the wicked is either repentance or certain destruction in the lake of fire (the second death).