Immanuel

Written by someone under the name of “step”. A comment aimed at disproving an athiest view of Lone Wolf (blogroll on the side). This person hits so many points head-on and doesn’t dawdle too much or stray from the topic. I truely wish I could write so intricately and provide reason to my point. I really feel this should be seen by others, because I rarely see such writing that is so genuine and refined that I can’t stop reading it…I applaud the person who wrote this, for this is what I strive to accomplish someday. Elaborately concieve an essay that punctuates with such robust significance the most contraversial subject to date: Is there really a God? Did He really do what the Bible said?

God does exist there are no if’s and’s or but’s about it. An atheist and agnostic and any other non-believer do not want a ‘god’ to exist because they do not believe they should feel beholdened to someone for their very existence. They do not want to change their lifestyle, their patterns, their thought processes, their ideology, etc. They live ‘independently’ from the source of life, believing that they can save theirselves, heal theirselves, strengthen theirselves. They yell and curse at an invisible ‘god’ when in reality, the thought of God terrifies most atheists and agnostics. For you see, if there is a God, then they know that what they are doing (living in their sin) cannot be pleasing. And so, it is simpler (in their mindset) that there is no one who they will ever have to give an account to. They believe that their body is all that is visible and once the body is dead, then there is nothing left. No after life, no heaven, no hell, no condemnation. It is easier for them to ignore the fact of a judgment than to face it head on. They and every single person upon this earth is appointed once to die and then to be judged. Those that are in Christ Jesus are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, “to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord”. Those that reject Jesus as the Word made flesh, Emmanual (God with us), will be judged and condemned to an everlasting fire. So of course, an atheist do not want to hear that! An atheist will ask-But if God is so loving (as you Christians say) than how can He send me to Hell? I will tell you. God in His everlasting love and mercy, is a righteous and a perfect judge. If you were to stand before a judge in court with a stack of all the wrongs that you have ever committed in your lifetime (lying, stealing, etc). the judge might be compassionate towards you, but you would still have to suffer the consequences of your crimes and he would still have to sentence you, no matter his compassion. God is the ultimate judge. He has given you the works of His world to know Him, your inner conscious that pricks you when you do something wrong, they work together to form the logical reasoning that there is a God. If there is no God, why then when you do something wrong does your conscious prick you? God said in His Book, He wrote His laws upon our hearts. God would judge you because you denied His one and only Son who came to redeem us to Himself. Our crimes against God separated us from Him and therefore He sent His Son, the only perfect one to ever walk this earth, to place us in ‘harmony’ with the Father. You will be judged if you are not in Christ, for those that are in Christ, ‘there is now no condemnation for those that are in Christ.’ Listen to your spirit (yes, you do have one). God declared in His word that the gospel would seem like foolishness to the wise. I’ll declare His works beginning with His creation, His prophets, His Son and His love for you, the ‘atheist’

How do we know the Bible is the ‘true’ word of God? We can know without a shadow of doubt by prophecy written in the Bible. The Bible was written over hundreds of years by different men through the power of the Holy Spirit (or the Spirit of God). Many of these writers were also prophets. These included the Jewish King David (who wrote the best known book of the Bible, Psalms), Isaiah, Moses. All of the above-mentioned men were Hebrews. David knew that His Redeemer would come, Isaiah in Isaiah 53 described Jesus’ life and ministry explicitly hundreds of years before the New Testament was written, “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
9 And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.”
You see these Hebrew men knew that their needed to be someone to restore our relationship with the living God, our sins had torn us away from Him. They declared it and along came, the Word (the Old & New Testament writings) made flesh (Jesus). He lived, His birth was recorded in secular and biblical records and His trial, beating and crucifiction was also recorded in secular and biblical records, along with the darkening of the earth that was recorded in secular and biblical records.

Now Jesus could be a liar, crazy, just a teacher, or Emmanual (God with us). If He was a liar, and then His disciples knew He was a liar, than why were they willing to die and be crucified for His sake. You see people will die for the truth, even if its actually false, but people will not die for a lie, what they know to be false. If Jesus was crazy, then how could he have been in His right mind to heal so many of their diseases, crazy men don’t go around healing people. If Jesus was just a teacher than He made Himself out to be a liar by saying, “I am the Way, the truth and the light” and “if you have seen Me you have seen the Father” “baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost”. So Jesu made the claim He was more than just a teacher, He was the light of the world, the truth of the world, one with the Father, and worthy to have people also baptized in His name as in the Father’s name. That could only leave one possible conclusion. Jesus was telling the truth, and is the Son of God, and if the Son of God, then a “God” exist to have sent Him to earth to be our Savior.

How is Jesus different from other prophets, teachers, buddha, allah, mohammed, etc? Jesus healed people, written in both secular and biblical history. Jesus had the power to forgive people of their sins, “…but that you might know the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sin” Luke 5. Jesus rose from the dead. Argument started. Atheist, “you can’t prove that.” Me, yes I can. There were guards stationed at his tomb, three days later the rock to his tomb lay to the side, His body was gone. They were told by the pharisees to say ‘tell the romans that the disciples took His body while you slept’. What? If they were sleeping how did they know who took the body? Matthew 28. Well, maybe Jesus was only faking dead, and he only looked dead, but he really survived His crucifiction. Cough, excuse me. How many peopel you know survived a crucificiton. Remember before this He was whipped, beatened, etc. He was hung on a wooden cross with His hands and feet pierced and to top that off, a Roman soldier pierced Him with a spear! Okay, and then lets say He hadn’t died, but was merely unconscious. Jesus was wrapped mummified, how did He unravel Himself and move the tomb on the 3rd day which He prophesized that He would rise from the dead on the 3rd day? Did His disciples get Him out of there? If they did then once again a lie would have been revealed to them. Jesus was to resurrect Himself, not have His disciples do it. If it was the disciples who took His body, whether dead or alive, then they would have identified that Jesus was a liar because He did not resurrect Himself and therefore they would have been following a liar. Would you die for a liar. 11 of the 12 disciples all were crucified for their faith, not one recanted their belief, that Jesus is the Son of God, and resurected from the dead. I know I wouldn’t die for a liar, would you?

ok, we know Jesus exist, then therefore God exist, but where do I, the atheist fit in? I’m not that bad of a person, I work in a charity, am faithful to my girlfriend, treat people kindly. Well, mr. athesit, God says your works of righteousness are like filthy rags to Him. Isaiah 64:6. You see, how many good things can you do that will make all the bad things you do not matter? 10 to 1. 100 to 30. What is the ratio that can get you firmly into heaven?(this is the muslims belief). Good works = salvation. WRONG. This is how man try to ’save’ himself through what he feels are acts of righteousness, giving money to charity, adopting a gazillion kids, loving animals, being kind to the elderly. That would therefore make Jesus life and death a complete waste of time, air, and heartache. Jesus came to bring salvation, not that you might ‘create’ your own salvation. Jesus is the way, the truth, the light, and He says, “come to Me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest’. Matthew 11:28. Wow, what a promise! Mohammed can’t say such a powerful statement and back it up. So why should you care that Jesus wishes to give you rest? Because He understands everything about you, “for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in everyway, just as we are-yet was without sin” Hebrews 4:14. You see, He understands your doubts/disbelief about God, your wanting to do things your way, there is nothing hidden from Him, that you could try to hide, for He knows your thoughts and actions, “for the word of God is living and active…it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” Heb. 4:12. Everything that you have ever done, whether good or bad, God knows about every single deed, sin, evil thought, lustful look, hatred, love, hope, etc, “there is nothing hidden which will not be revealed” Mark 4:22. Salvation is based on faith in Jesus alone, who He is (the perfect Son of God), what He did (died on the Cross to be the last and ultimate sacrifice) why He did it (to restore our relationship to the Father and the forgiveness of sins) and His reasoning (for God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life). So instead of running (that’s all you’re doing) well, guess what, did you know that God runs to you?!
Now that’s love, stick around to hear the truth that will set you free, for whomever the Son sets free is truly free indeed

have you heard the phrase, ‘prodigal son’? Luke 15:11. Jesus uses it as a parable to explain God’s joy when a son (man) returns to the father (God). You see this son was a child of a great man but asked his father for his inheritance and of course blew it on partying and loose women. we were all young and stupid once. hungry, broke and thinking that the pig’s food looked mighty tasty, the prodigal son cleared his head enough to remember how good he had it back at home and he’d ask his father forgiveness and to be made into a hired servant since he did such great wrong. well, as he made his way home practicing his speech as to how sorry he was, his father saw him and guess what his father did? HE RAN TO HIS SON! that’s right, the father was the one doing the running not the sinful son. He ran, hugging and kissing him, and then called for a great feast. You see, dear atheist, that is what God has in store for you, there is great celebration in Heaven when someone returns to the Lord, that is how much God cares for you! He runs to you, He loves you! You! He made you in His image. He wants to have a relationship with you, he doesn’t want to condemn and reject you, you do that on your own out of your own selfish pride. All God wants is a humble and contrite heart. You can’t live this life on your own no matter how hard you try, and it wasn’t meant for you to live it out on your own. He created you to be loved by Him and for Him to be loved by you. its a two way street, sonny. “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me.”

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