new to religion, which one is right & true

Hevenly Heathen said:

Question: What does much of this later fluff have to do with the OP?

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Absolutely nothing.

Well if the question is which religion is right and true, wouldn't this be the thread to discuss the various claims and beliefs of any religions in question including canonicity issues?

No. I would suffer arguement so far as to seek to prove why one is true, but tell me how that can be done canonically? Especially if there is no solid evidence in the books or there is so much debate around them.

It's easy to find which one is true: Whichever religion feels true to you. Yes, that means there are many true religion, which also means none are so you are better off finding your own path.

Shermana said:

Well if the question is which religion is right and true, wouldn't this be the thread to discuss the various claims and beliefs of any religions in question including canonicity issues?

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yeah i was just thinking the same thing

all these writings claim divine authorship. So in terms of which is the right religion, its certainly within the subject to discuss which writings are from God and which are not.

1robin said:

So miracles do exist it is just a question of the cause. Since a miracle posits a supernatural force then your position is ruled out but mine is still kicking.

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It is kicking if you accept that also Hindu gods exist and can perform miracles?

There is no other religion that guarantees or requires a personal experience with God. This experience contains aspects that any natural cause or other religion could not reasonably account for. I am not refering to some epifany, in my case it was unlike by a wide margin anything else I have ever experienced, occured at the time I accepted Christ and conformed to the description contained in the bible which I was not familiar with at the time. Either I am lying or your explanations do not account for my experience but the bible does perfectly. Since I have already have covered this I will leave it here.

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OK.

You are presupposeing they had an experience of the same nature as mine or any born again Christian.

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No I don't. Which experiences you have just depends on what religion you believe in. It's purely subjective. For example a Hindu with a Near Death Experience saw "Yamraj, the Hindu god of the dead". Hindu NDEs

As far as your prohesy paper. The first one said that there is no prediction that Jesus would be dead three days and then rise: well - New Living Translation (©2007)
"But Jesus replied, "Only an evil, adulterous generation would demand a miraculous sign; but the only sign I will give them is the sign of the prophet Jonah." The sign of Jonah was that he spent three days in the whale and then was released on the third day. There are over three hundred concerning the details of jesus alone. If the first claim in that paper is wrong I will not bother with the rest.

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I can't find anything in Jonah about Jesus what have I missed? Where's the prophecy? To make this a prophecy Jonah must have said something like "as I have spent three days in the belly of the fish so will Jesus our savior coming after me spend three days in the grave and resurrect". That! would be a prophecy.

Pegg said:

yeah i was just thinking the same thing

all these writings claim divine authorship. So in terms of which is the right religion, its certainly within the subject to discuss which writings are from God and which are not.

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And which writings are from Allah and so forth. I agree.

fresh believer said:

hi guys im a new believer in our saviour jesus christ and god, creator of heaven & earth.
so my question is which religion is the correct one?
christianity
jehovas witness
catholic
any help or guidance would be apprechiated.
ric.

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Which religion matches the closest to the first-century teachings of Christ ?

Jesus instructed Not to follow the customs or traditions outside of Scripture.
-Mark 7 vs 1-7, 13; Matthew 15 v 9

Jesus taught we should make God's name hallowed, held sacred, sanctified.
God's name appears at Psalm 83 v 18 King James Version.

ArtieE said:

I can't find anything in Jonah about Jesus what have I missed? Where's the prophecy? To make this a prophecy Jonah must have said something like "as I have spent three days in the belly of the fish so will Jesus our savior coming after me spend three days in the grave and resurrect". That! would be a prophecy.

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Jonah 1 v 17 corresponds to Matthew 12 vs 39-41; 16 v4 and Luke 11 vs 29,30 and Mark 8 v 31

The resurrection of Jesus was to be just as real as Jonah's deliverance from the belly of the big fish.

Jonah's generation was just as real as Jesus' generation
Jonah preached and Jesus preached.

URAVIP2ME said:

Jonah 1 v 17 corresponds to Matthew 12 vs 39-41; 16 v4 and Luke 11 vs 29,30 and Mark 8 v 31

The resurrection of Jesus was to be just as real as Jonah's deliverance from the belly of the big fish.

Jonah's generation was just as real as Jesus' generation
Jonah preached and Jesus preached.

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This and your post before it look like a swing and a miss.

1robin said:

my salvation experience which completely removed my desire for sinful habits I had unsuccessfully fought for years,

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Are you now saying that you are sinless. Or that all of your current sinning is done without any desire?
I'm a little confused.

ArtieE said:

It is kicking if you accept that also Hindu gods exist and can perform miracles?

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Well since we agreed or accepted that supernatural event can reasonably be pressumed, I will rest the defences case on this. To prove or identify who is responsible would take hours.

No I don't. Which experiences you have just depends on what religion you believe in. It's purely subjective. For example a Hindu with a Near Death Experience saw "Yamraj, the Hindu god of the dead". Hindu NDEs

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I wasn't really referring to NDEs but more to salvation. They are so hard to define that it is hard to make an absolute point. There are reasons why a hindu might see an unidentifiable being and then conclude it is the one they wanted to see later.

I can't find anything in Jonah about Jesus what have I missed? Where's the prophecy? To make this a prophecy Jonah must have said something like "as I have spent three days in the belly of the fish so will Jesus our savior coming after me spend three days in the grave and resurrect". That! would be a prophecy.

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Look in Mathew below.

Matt: 16: 1-4 1The Pharisees and Sadducees came up, and testing Jesus, they asked Him to show them a sign from heaven. 2But He replied to them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ 3“And in the morning, ‘There will be a storm today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Do you know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but cannot discern the signs of the times? 4“An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and a sign will not be given it, except the sign of Jonah.” And He left them and went away. New American standard. Emphasis mine
Jesus is the one saying this.
Check any mainstream christian commentary on this and you will see virtually complete agreement that this is refering to the resurrection. They explain better than I ever could.

If you still can't agree with this being a prophesy it is because you do not want to. Try the one out below it is as plain as can be.

Here is another
Matt 16: 21-22 21From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day. 22Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You.” 23But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.”
New American standard. Emphasis mine.

beerisit said:

Are you now saying that you are sinless. Or that all of your current sinning is done without any desire?
I'm a little confused.

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I find it hard to believe that you are making a sincere estimate of my statements. I was implying that a specific set of extremely hard to stop habits I had at the time were completely elliminated. My desire for these particular problems evaporated. That suggests nothing about living a sinless life and I suspect you already knew this but maybe you just wanted clarity.

1robin said:

I find it hard to believe that you are making a sincere estimate of my statements.

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Some people specialize in doing that.

Katzpur said:

Some people specialize in doing that.

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Please excuse me if what was being IMPLIED concerning a specific set of extremely hard to stop habits, was misunderstood.

1robin said:

I was implying that a specific set of extremely hard to stop habits

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1robin said:

my salvation experience which completely removed my desire for sinful habits I had unsuccessfully fought for years,

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It's just that the original statement doesn't make that clear at all.

beerisit said:

Please excuse me if what was being IMPLIED concerning a specific set of extremely hard to stop habits, was misunderstood.


It's just that the original statement doesn't make that clear at all.

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Fair enough, sorry bought that.

My .02 cents.

Every other religion asks you to "believe something", whereas Christianity asks you to "receive someone"

1robin said:

Matt: 16: 1-4 1The Pharisees and Sadducees came up, and testing Jesus, they asked Him to show them a sign from heaven. 2But He replied to them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ 3“And in the morning, ‘There will be a storm today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Do you know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but cannot discern the signs of the times? 4“An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and a sign will not be given it, except the sign of Jonah.” And He left them and went away. New American standard. Emphasis mine
Jesus is the one saying this.

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Maybe we have a different definition of prophecy. As I see it a prophecy provides information about the future. Have I overlooked something in Jonah where he says something like "as I was three days in the fish so will Jesus be three days in the ground?" But I will check some commentaries.

Here is another
Matt 16: 21-22 21From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day. 22Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You.” 23But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.”
New American standard. Emphasis mine.

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Now this is interesting. Are there any verses in the Old Testament that predicts that Jesus will be dead three days and then resurrect? Something more precise than Jonah? Because of course Matthew was written after the fact.

ArtieE said:

Maybe we have a different definition of prophecy. As I see it a prophecy provides information about the future. Have I overlooked something in Jonah where he says something like "as I was three days in the fish so will Jesus be three days in the ground?" But I will check some commentaries.
Now this is interesting. Are there any verses in the Old Testament that predicts that Jesus will be dead three days and then resurrect? Something more precise than Jonah? Because of course Matthew was written after the fact.

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These are good points. I will research some more and see if I can give you somethings that won't die the death of thousand qualifications.

ArtieE said:

Maybe we have a different definition of prophecy. As I see it a prophecy provides information about the future. Have I overlooked something in Jonah where he says something like "as I was three days in the fish so will Jesus be three days in the ground?" But I will check some commentaries.
Now this is interesting. Are there any verses in the Old Testament that predicts that Jesus will be dead three days and then resurrect? Something more precise than Jonah? Because of course Matthew was written after the fact.

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I have researched your points and have concluded you have a valid position but not necessarily for the specific point we are discussing. I said that the paper you linked made the statement that the bible does not contain a prohesy concerning the three days of Christ being dead and that that statement was false. You responded that since mathew is written after the fact that it doesn't count. This is not applicable in my opinion. Every scholar I researched on this concluded that is in fact a prophecy. I am not debateing the truth or untruth of the prohesy. I am simply saying that it is in the bible. If you want to say that since it is after the fact it isn't proof of divine inspiration I will agree, but it still exists. Regardless of when it was written, if true, it took place before his death. Since the truth or untruth of the prophecy is not the issue I think my point is still valid. Once again it was a very astute point but not quite applicable to the specific point that it was used to address. However there are many reasons to accept even the one in Jonah based on principles for biblical exegesis. I am sure you found that if you researched the major commentaries. There are over three hundred other prophecys concerning other aspects of his life and death. I have forgotten what the discussion was originally about maybe you can steer things back that way.

cledussnow said:

My .02 cents.

Every other religion asks you to "believe something", whereas Christianity asks you to "receive someone"

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Doesn't Christianity ask you to believe in God and Jesus?