EvienceOfFaith

According to the Bible, the goal of Christianity is ultimately to be reconciled to God, know Him, and be conformed to Christ.

@Annakhait I’m pretty sure the “be rebel” part is in the context of current culture, and not in a theological one.

“Be a rebel, start a family” isn’t accurate. Rebellion is against God and against God’s design for family. A better statement is: “Be a Christian. Follow the Lord. Start a family.” ✝️

@FaceLikeTheSun He could be all 3 at the same time. They are not mutually exclusive.

Larry is either lying, illiterate, or misinformed. My hope is that he is simply misinformed. Let me refute his article… The charge that Mike Heiser “supported polytheism” only works if we redefine polytheism and ignore how Heiser himself defined elohim. Mike never taught that Yahweh is one god among many equal gods. He taught the opposite:m often saying, “Yahweh was an elohim but no other elohim was Yahweh.” Heiser’s point was that elohim is not a word for a set of divine attributes like omnipotence, eternality, or creatorhood. Rather, it is a “place of residence” term for beings of the spiritual realm. Yahweh alone is uncreated, sovereign, incomparable, and worthy of worship.  So the Larry’s main mistake is simple: he assumes that calling a being elohim means granting it the status of the one true God. But Scripture itself does not use the word that way. The Bible uses elohim for Yahweh, members of Yahweh’s council, the gods of the nations, demons, the deceased Samuel, and angels/the Angel of Yahweh. Heiser’s argument was not “there are many Gods like Yahweh” but that the Bible’s vocabulary is wider than our English word ‘God.’”  Psalm 82 is not a “quotational” use. The text says, “God stands in the divine assembly; he administers judgment in the midst of the gods.” The Hebrew has elohim twice: the first is singular, the second is plural. Heiser points out that the grammar requires a group: God is judging “in the midst of” other elohim. These beings are then called “sons of the Most High” in Psalm 82:6, and they are condemned for corrupt rule. That is the biblical writer speaking in his own voice. To suggest it’s a pagan quotation is actually insulting to the Word. The “human judges” view also fails miserably. Psalm 89 locates the council “in the skies” and “among the sons of God,” not in an Israelite courtroom. Heiser rightly says there is no biblical text where Jewish leaders are placed over the nations in the heavens. Psalm 82 ends by asking God to “inherit all the nations,” which makes sense if the corrupt rulers are supernatural beings over the nations, not Israelite magistrates. Deuteronomy 32:17 is also not a rescue for Larry. It says Israel sacrificed “to demons, not God, to gods they had not known.” Heiser’s pointed out how the shedim are called elohim! Paul follows that logic in 1 Corinthians 10:20–21 when he says pagan sacrifices are offered to demons. So yes, Paul calls them demons. But that does not prove they are not real elohim in biblical vocabulary. It proves what Heiser argued, which is that rebellious spiritual beings can be both “demons” and “gods” in the biblical sense. Larry also mishandles “there is none besides me.” That language does not mean no other spiritual beings exist. It means no other being compares to Yahweh. Heiser gives the obvious parallels that make sense. Babylon and Nineveh say “there is none besides me” in Isaiah 47:8 and Zephaniah 2:15, but no one thinks that means no other cities existed. It means incomparability. That is exactly how Deuteronomy 4:35 works! Yahweh alone is God in the ultimate, sovereign, covenantal, creator sense. So my answer to the challenge is this: the Old Testament itself supplies the non-quotational examples. Psalm 82:1, 6. Psalm 89:5–7. Deuteronomy 32:8–17. Psalm 29:1. Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7. These are not pagan slogans whatsoever but rather show the Bible’s own supernatural worldview. And the New Testament does not erase that worldview. Paul says idols are nothing in themselves, but the spiritual beings behind pagan worship are demons, and Christians must not have fellowship with them (1 Cor 8:4–6; 10:20–22). This is more sound biblical theology than what Larry seems to be suggesting. So no, Mike Heiser did not smuggle polytheism into Christianity. He forced us to stop protecting ourselves from the Bible. As he put it, “The biblical writers weren’t polytheists,” but there is also “no need to camouflage what the Hebrew text says.”  I believe in one God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I believe Yahweh alone is eternal, uncreated, sovereign, omnipotent, and worthy of worship. But I also refuse to pretend the Bible does not say what it says. The biblical writers believed in a real unseen realm. They believed Yahweh had a heavenly host. They believed rebellious spiritual beings existed. They called those beings elohim when appropriate, and they still confessed, without contradiction, “Hear, O Israel: Yahweh our God, Yahweh is one” (Deut 6:4). So there ya go Larry. I hope this shows how you were tearing down a strawman. God Bless

@InspiringPhilos @Jvnior @nikitabier The guy goes public admitting he lies, and you want people to take him seriously?

@Jvnior @nikitabier The only way you can make up for this is to start doing Dawah again. Make a YT channel and become the face of Islam.

I’m sick to my stomach @nikitabier

When I was Muslim, I compared Muhammad’s last words to Jesus’ last words. Not just the facts, but the spirit behind them. And bro, the difference is staggering. It shook my devout Muslim faith. According to Sahih al-Bukhari, Muhammad’s final words included: “May Allah curse the Jews and the Christians. They made the graves of their prophets into places of worship.” Those are words associated with his final moments. No forgiveness. No reconciliation. No peace. Now compare that to Jesus. Beaten, betrayed, tortured, hanging on a cross with nails through His wrists, Jesus says: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And then: “It is finished.” One dies speaking curses. The other dies extending forgiveness. One ends by drawing lines and reinforcing division. The other tears the veil and reconciles heaven and earth. And whether people like it or not, final words reveal something deeply personal about the heart. That contrast shook me. Because one man’s final moments reinforced separation, while the other’s changed eternity through mercy, sacrifice, and love. Please sit with that honestly.

@BillArnoldTeach You just posted a bunch of nonsense.

The devil’s greatest humiliation was losing to a woman. Modern Christianity’s greatest humiliation was misunderstanding her.

@BeSaintly nope.

Her torture and execution was under Henry VIII, meaning it was done under Protestant rule

.@haymes_joshua dude you’re sharing the stage with these clowns? You could have been better than this.

@lsanger You should have spent that time trying to actually read Heiser and correct your own mistakes.

I am DONE correcting the many, many mistakes of Heiser's fan club. Wow. Just shoot me if I ever gain followers like that.

The term "context" is just as alien as the Bible is to this catholic.

@MisterMaleficus @mic52262 @Miguelchenko @AtheistTakes Please enlighten us with your study and work. Do you have a link to these breakthrough findings you did?

@mic52262 @Miguelchenko @EvidenceOfFaith @AtheistTakes Paul's version of Jesus is very different from what is portrayed in the gospels. Paul never met him. He had visions. Nothing Paul says is evidence its faith. Also not all of the letter were authored by the same person. So no.

Why is Jesus never mentioned anywhere outside of the Bible?

The biggest catholic bully on this app could not stand on his arguments, so of course, he did what they usually do: RUN

@BishopJaxi All denominations have false teachers. Now, back to Jesus' teachings on showing respect to other religions.

@EvidenceOfFaith Oh no, a sign of respect. What ever will we do! Meanwhile…. Protestants

500 years of Sola Scriptura. Millions of people all claiming “the Bible alone” while disagreeing on baptism, salvation, the Eucharist, divorce, women pastors, homosexuality, church authority, worship, predestination, and even what the Gospel is. At what point do people admit this was never how Christianity was meant to function?

For the 100th time: Rome did not create Scripture’s authority. God did. The Church recognized the canon; it did not make books God-breathed. Saying Rome “gave us the Bible” confuses recognition with inspiration. Rome did not dogmatically define its canon until Trent in the 1500s. So if the Bible needed Rome’s infallible declaration to be Scripture, then Christians had no certain Bible for over 1,500 years. Catholics are wrong. Their claims have been debunked numerous times, yet you find them spewing the same thing over and over again.

False

@BishopJaxi While regardless of denomination, there will be false preachers as warned in the Bible, let's check on how the leader of Catholic church is spreading the gospel

Let’s check in on how Sola Scriptura is forming Protestants in holiness, virtue, wisdom, unity, and Christlike behavior… Oh.

The Didache proves that early Christians had church order. It does not prove Rome’s later claims of papal supremacy, Marian dogmas, purgatory, indulgences, transubstantiation, or an infallible magisterium. Does the Didache carry the same authority as inspired Scripture? It does not.

Just a reminder that most people commenting on religion (even people whose job it is to do so) don't actually read anything. A post like this is the result of never having read the document he is commenting on.

@PrayTheRosary That is false.

Catholics put together "your" Bible in 382 AD... well over 1000 years before your false religion began

Facts