Can someone here quickly sum up the bible history for me.

Welcome to the forum, a3a.

Would you be so kind as to flesh out your assertions with some backup reasoning?

the only thing i thought of

except thru me

Could you be more specific as to what you mean is a crock

Not only it's a crock, it's crap.

A religion that follows such fairy book is worth nothing..

People that follows the precepts of such violent, vengeful god are not in their right minds.

To Save you time all scriptures are posted at the bottom of this article.


How Can You Find the True Religion?

Are all religions pleasing to God, or is just one? (1)

Why are there so many religions that claim to be Christian? (2)

How can you identify true Christians? (3-7)



1. Jesus started one true Christian religion. So today there must be just one body, or group, of true worshipers of Jehovah God. (John 4:23, 24; Ephesians 4:4, 5) The Bible teaches that only a few people are on the narrow road to life."Matthew 7:13, 14.

2. The Bible foretold that after the death of the apostles, wrong teachings and unchristian practices would slowly come into the Christian congregation. Men would draw away believers to follow them instead of Christ. (Matthew 7:15, 21-23; Acts 20:29, 30) That is why we see so many different religions that claim to be Christian. How can we identify true Christians?

3. The most outstanding mark of true Christians is that they have real love among themselves. (John 13:34, 35) They are not taught to think that they are better than people of other races or skin color. Neither are they taught to hate people from other countries. (Acts 10:34, 35) So they do not share in wars. True Christians treat one another as brothers and sisters."1 John 4:20, 21.

4. Another mark of true religion is that its members have a deep respect for the Bible. They accept it as the Word of God and believe what it says. (John 17:17; 2 Timothy 3:16, 17) They treat God’s Word as being more important than human ideas or customs. (Matthew 15:1-3, 7-9) They try to live by the Bible in their everyday life. So they do not preach one thing and then practice another."Titus 1:15, 16.

5. The true religion must also honor God’s name. (Matthew 6:9) Jesus made God’s name, Jehovah, known to others. True Christians must do the same. (John 17:6, 26; Romans 10:13, 14) Who are the people in your community that tell others about God’s name?

6. True Christians must preach about God’s Kingdom. Jesus did so. He always talked about the Kingdom. (Luke 8:1) He commanded his disciples to preach this same message in all the earth. (Matthew 24:14; 28:19, 20) True Christians believe that only God’s Kingdom will bring true peace and security to this earth."Psalm 146:3-5.

7. Jesus’ disciples must be no part of this wicked world. (John 17:16) They do not get involved in the world’s political affairs and social controversies. They avoid the harmful conduct, practices, and attitudes that are common in the world. (James 1:27; 4:4) Can you identify a religious group in your community that has these marks of true Christianity?

1 (John 4:23-24) . . .Nevertheless, the hour is coming, and it is now, when the true worshipers will worship the Father with spirit and truth, for, indeed, the Father is looking for suchlike ones to worship him. 24 God is a Spirit, and those worshiping him must worship with spirit and truth.”

1 (Ephesians 4:4-5) . . .One body there is, and one spirit, even as YOU were called in the one hope to which YOU were called; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism;

1 (Matthew 7:13-14) . . .Go in through the narrow gate; because broad and spacious is the road leading off into destruction, and many are the ones going in through it; 14 whereas narrow is the gate and cramped the road leading off into life, and few are the ones finding it.





2 (Matthew 7:15) . . .Be on the watch for the false prophets that come to YOU in sheep’s covering, but inside they are ravenous wolves.

2 (Matthew 7:21-23) ... “Not everyone saying to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the kingdom of the heavens, but the one doing the will of my Father who is in the heavens will. 22 Many will say to me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and expel demons in your name, and perform many powerful works in your name?’ 23 And yet then I will confess to them: I never knew YOU! Get away from me, YOU workers of lawlessness.

2 (Acts 20:29-30) . . .I know that after my going away oppressive wolves will enter in among YOU and will not treat the flock with tenderness, 30 and from among YOU yourselves men will rise and speak twisted things to draw away the disciples after themselves.

3 (John 13:34-35) . . .I am giving YOU a new commandment, that YOU love one another; just as I have loved YOU, that YOU also love one another. 35 By this all will know that YOU are my disciples, if YOU have love among yourselves.”

3 (Acts 10:34-35) . . .At this Peter opened his mouth and said: “For a certainty I perceive that God is not partial, 35 but in every nation the man that fears him and works righteousness is acceptable to him.

3 (1 John 4:20-21)... If anyone makes the statement: “I love God,” and yet is hating his brother, he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot be loving God, whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from him, that the one who loves God should be loving his brother also.

4 (John 17:17) . . .Sanctify them by means of the truth; your word is truth.

4 (2 Timothy 3:16-17) . . .All Scripture is inspired of God and beneficial for teaching, for reproving, for setting things straight, for disciplining in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be fully competent, completely equipped for every good work.

4 (Matthew 15:1-3) . . .Then there came to Jesus from Jerusalem Pharisees and scribes, saying: 2 “Why is it your disciples overstep the tradition of the men of former times? For example, they do not wash their hands when about to eat a meal.” 3 In reply he said to them: “Why is it YOU also overstep the commandment of God because of YOUR tradition?

4 (Matthew 15:7-9) . . .YOU hypocrites, Isaiah aptly prophesied about YOU, when he said, 8 ‘This people honors me with their lips, yet their heart is far removed from me. 9 It is in vain that they keep worshiping me, because they teach commands of men as doctrines.’”

4 (Titus 1:15-16) . . .All things are clean to clean [persons]. But to [persons] defiled and faithless nothing is clean, but both their minds and their consciences are defiled. 16 They publicly declare they know God, but they disown him by their works, because they are detestable and disobedient and not approved for good work of any sort.

5 (Matthew 6:9) . . .“YOU must pray, then, this way: “‘Our Father in the heavens, let your name be sanctified. . .

5 (John 17:6) . . .“I have made your name manifest to the men you gave me out of the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have observed your word.

5 (John 17:26) . . .And I have made your name known to them and will make it known, in order that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in union with them.”

5 (Romans 10:13-14) . . .For “everyone who calls on the name of Jehovah will be saved.” 14 However, how will they call on him in whom they have not put faith? How, in turn, will they put faith in him of whom they have not heard? How, in turn, will they hear without someone to preach?

6 (Luke 8:1) . . .Shortly afterwards he went journeying from city to city and from village to village, preaching and declaring the good news of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with him,

6 (Matthew 24:14) . . .And this good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations; and then the end will come.

6 (Matthew 28:19-20) . . .Go therefore and make disciples of people of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all the things I have commanded YOU. And, look! I am with YOU all the days until the conclusion of the system of things.. . .

6 (Psalm 146:3-5) Do not put YOUR trust in nobles, Nor in the son of earthling man, to whom no salvation belongs. 4 His spirit goes out, he goes back to his ground; In that day his thoughts do perish. 5 Happy is the one who has the God of Jacob for his help, Whose hope is in Jehovah his God,

7 (John 17:16) . . .They are no part of the world, just as I am no part of the world.

7 (James 1:27) . . .The form of worship that is clean and undefiled from the standpoint of our God and Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their tribulation, and to keep oneself without spot from the world.

7 (James 4:4) . . .Adulteresses, do YOU not know that the friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever, therefore, wants to be a friend of the world is constituting himself an enemy of God.

You don't believe. That's your right.

But you offer your opinion as proof.

Perhaps you also could provide some back up reasoning.

No need to post an encyclopedia, a3a.

I'm with you all the way from Genesis 3:15, through Psalms 83:18, and including John 13:35

Hello All!
First I have to set this up...I read where 23217988 answered a question that had to do with there being more then 'one' true religion that is approved by God. Plenty of people say, "Well of course, these more then one !" With that said, I love for any and all to weigh in on what I responded...I said:

Hello!
I’ve been thinking about your comment that, “…only one religion can be a good religion and that is a crock.” So here’s what bubbled up in my brain after I thought about that for awhile. I’d appreciate a response if you’d care to send one!

God started with Adam and Eve and he told them, ‘do this and this and this, but don’t do that’. S-o-o-o-o, God giving them instructions as to His likes and dislikes is ‘religion’, right? Well for the sake of discussion let’s say it is…here’s where I’m going with that. God telling Adam and Eve what to do was the ‘first’ religion…mankind started out with only one religion.

Now, move on through time. Here comes the Jew and God chooses them to be his people. Anybody could become a Jew. (proselytes"I think that was what they were called). So God had one religion that everybody could join and everybody that didn’t join was a pagan, again one religion approved. Now move on through time again.

Jesus is born and fulfills the prophecies that he’s the messiah, he has God’s backing. Now that the the messiah has arrived the Jews are out and the followers of Jesus get God’s approval. Once again, anybody can join! God’s happy to welcome Jews, pagans, agnostics"you name it. But now we’re up to a third time that only ‘one’ way was ‘The Way’, so to speak.

Now move further through time yet again. Why are there so many different groups calling themselves ‘Christians’ today?

“Me thinks me smells a rat!” (one of my favorite pirate sayings) Because if God gave specific instructions to Adam and Eve, then gave specific instructions to only the Jews and then gave specific instructions to Jesus who gave specific instructions to his followers (his apostles who actually knew him personally) wouldn’t it just stand to reason that there should only be ‘one’ true, God-backed religion today?

Then which one would be that ‘one’ after so many hundreds upon hundreds of years? I think it would have to be the one that followed as closely as possible the specific instructions that Jesus gave his close friends, the apostles. So, if you take that as your bottom line, well then…there’s still just one. And that makes the expression, “Give me that old time religion, it’s good enough for me” pretty much on point! How to find the one right ‘one’?

Sense God hated the pagans so much (the Bible is full of example of God killing them off for the horrible things they did) just look up stuff on the net that has to do with ‘religious origins’ … I did that because I supposed that any religion that added pagan thing would be deserving the same consequences that the Jew’s suffered when they added pagan things back in the day.

Here’s what I found when I Google, “what is the origin of Christmas?” What an eye full I got! “Christmas wasn’t celebrated until about 300 years after Jesus died” (And that’s just for starters!) What! The apostles weren’t passing gifts back and forth come the 25th of December??? (Me thinks me smells a rat!) Are you willing to X out XMAS? If your not them you won’t want to Google, “the origins of… Easter, Halloween, the Trinity… “But all ‘Christian’ religions celebrate all those holidays and the word ‘Trinity’ is in the Bible!”, right?

You might want to stop reading and get Goggling, if you’ve got the guts, of course…Oh yes, one thing in closing…(could save you some time) I went through every different translation of the Bible I could get my hands on and couldn’t find the word ‘Trinity’ in nary a’ one of them…what’s that me’ smells…not yet another one?

S-o-o-o-o, how many religions will you be able to qualify as ‘pagan free’? Let me know!!

Thanks for your consideration,
Sammiesoo

christians are just impatient jews

Hello djjd62!
Hands down, every Jewish person I know is funny or has a great singing voice, or is funny and can sing too!

Of course, as a Jew you would be well aware of all the polluted pagan stuff I read about when I Google, "What is the origin of..." Wowzer! I can’t believe anybody who reads any of that can still stomach trying to tie Christmas to Christianity. And what about Easter?!?! That’s one pagan driven phallic-party if there ever was one! After reading where it came from I told my kids that if they were going to celebrate Easter this year they were going to have to celebrate the way it was ‘originally’ done. They would have to get naked, plat flowers in their hair and dance around outside with lots of fertility symbols setting around like eggs, and baby chicks and most of all rabbits (we all know what great little breeder rabbits are). Of course, the kids agreed to the terms right away and hurried off to see if their friends in the neighborhood could participate. Actually, when spring arrived I banned the fertility Goddess Eostre’s spring festival as well. Just not willing to mix easy to see, old school pagan in with what I know God used to put people to death for.

So, thanks for your answer, it was ever so wry! It was great! Also, I’m one person who understands why Jewish people can get antsy when December rolls around… I believe that Jesus is the messiah, but no way am I celebrating the return of the winter solstice, I mean, ‘XMAS’. And oh yes, you’ll like this, this is rich! Guess what I’m getting now when I say I don’t celebrate Christmas? People say, “Really? You don’t look Jewish.” Is that mashuga or what?!

One closing thought: You know that tall, hat/crown thing the pope is always wearing on his head? That’s actually adopted from some weird, pagan fish god! Of course you probably knew that, you’re Jewish…well now I know it too…the web is wonderful! Who needs TV when there’s so much great pagan myth dispelling to occupy ones time!

Thanks again,
Sammiesoo

It's the greatest story ever told

Hi Sammiesoo, Keep up the good work. I thought that this article would interest you taken from the Watchtower 1996 April/1 pp. 3-5

*** Watchtower 1996 April/1 pp. 3-5 Easter or the Memorial"Which Should You Observe? ***

The Origin of Easter

The name Easter, used in many lands, is not found in the Bible. The book Medieval Holidays and Festivals tells us that “the holiday is named after the pagan Goddess of the Dawn and of Spring, Eostre.” And who was this goddess? “Eostre it was who, according to the legend, opened the portals of Valhalla to receive Baldur, called the White God, because of his purity and also the Sun God, because his brow supplied light to mankind,” answers The American Book of Days. It adds: “There is no doubt that the Church in its early days adopted the old pagan customs and gave a Christian meaning to them. As the festival of Eostre was in celebration of the renewal of life in the spring it was easy to make it a celebration of the resurrection from the dead of Jesus, whose gospel they preached.”

This adoption explains how in certain lands the Easter customs, such as Easter eggs, the Easter rabbit, and hot cross buns, came about. Concerning the custom of making hot cross buns, “with their shiny brown tops marked by a . . . cross,” the book Easter and Its Customs states: “The cross was a pagan symbol long before it acquired everlasting significance from the events of the first Good Friday, and bread and cakes were sometimes marked with it in pre-Christian times.”

Nowhere in Scripture do we find mention of these things, nor is there any evidence that the early disciples of Jesus gave them any credence. In fact, the apostle Peter tells us to “form a longing for the unadulterated milk belonging to the word, that through it [we] may grow to salvation.” (1 Peter 2:2) So why did the churches of Christendom adopt such obviously pagan symbols into their beliefs and practices?

The book Curiosities of Popular Customs answers: “It was the invariable policy of the early Church to give a Christian significance to such of the extant pagan ceremonies as could not be rooted out. In the case of Easter the conversion was peculiarly easy. Joy at the rising of the natural sun, and at the awakening of nature from the death of winter, became joy at the rising of the Sun of righteousness, at the resurrection of Christ from the grave. Some of the pagan observances which took place about the 1st of May were also shifted to correspond with the celebration of Easter.” Rather than steer clear of popular pagan customs and magical rites, the religious leaders condoned them and gave them “Christian significance.”

‘But is there any harm in that?’ you may wonder. Some think not. “When a religion such as Christianity comes to a people from outside, it adopts and ‘baptizes’ some of the folk customs which derive from older religions,” said Alan W. Watts, an Episcopal chaplain, in his book Easter"Its Story and Meaning. “It selects and weaves into the liturgy folk observances which seem to signify the same eternal principles taught by the Church.” To many, the fact that their church sanctioned these observances and treated them as holy is reason enough to accept them. But important questions are being overlooked. How does God feel about these customs? Has he given us any guidelines to follow in the matter?

Getting God’s Viewpoint

“Easter Day, the Feast of the Resurrection of Our Lord, is the greatest of all the festivals of the Christian Church,” said Christina Hole in her book Easter and Its Customs. Other writers concur. “No holy day or festival in the Christian year can compare in importance with Easter Sunday,” notes Robert J. Myers in the book Celebrations. That, however, raises some questions. If celebrating Easter is so important, why is there no specific command in the Bible to do so? Is there any record of Jesus’ early disciples observing Easter Sunday?

It is not that the Bible fails to give guidelines as to what should or should not be celebrated. God was very specific in this to the ancient nation of Israel, and as noted earlier, explicit instructions were given for Christians to continue observing the Memorial of Christ’s death. (1 Corinthians 11:23-26; Colossians 2:16, 17) An early edition of The Encyclopædia Britannica tells us: “There is no indication of the observance of the Easter festival in the New Testament, or in the writings of the apostolic Fathers. The sanctity of special times was an idea absent from the minds of the first Christians. . . . Neither the Lord nor his apostles enjoined the keeping of this or any other festival.”

Some feel that the joyousness of such festivals and the happiness they bring are sufficient justification for their observance. We can learn, however, from the occasion when the Israelites adopted an Egyptian religious practice and renamed it “a festival to Jehovah.” They too “sat down to eat and drink” and “got up to have a good time.” But their actions greatly angered Jehovah God, and he severely punished them."Exodus 32:1-10, 25-28, 35.

God’s Word is very clear. There can be no sharing between the “light” of true beliefs and the “darkness” of Satan’s world; there can be no “harmony” between Christ and pagan worship. We are told: “‘Therefore get out from among them, and separate yourselves,’ says Jehovah, ‘and quit touching the unclean thing’; ‘and I will take you in.’”"2 Corinthians 6:14-18.

As only the Memorial celebration"not Easter"is commanded in the Bible for Christians, it should be observed. So how can we celebrate it worthily?

Your friend Mike

Hi Sammiesoo,You might have noted in the last article Jehovah's Witness don't believe in the cross. (him dyeing on it but on an upright pole or stake. As is in this web page, an independent sours) This information is also in our own publications which says the same basic things. WikiAnswer.com says:

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Where_did_the_cross_originate
http://www.watchtower.org/e/200604a/article_01.htm
http://www.watchtower.org/e/bh/appendix_05.htm
PS. Keep up the good work. Your right on track

Your Friend Mike

Now this, is an entertaining thread. An amazing exercise in repetition and illogical behavior.

Cycloptichorn

Hi Cycloptichorn, repetition for emphases is not necessary a bad thing. It makes things stick as you get older. Just think of it this way you'll never forget things.

That wasn't the sort of repetition I was talking about. Thanks for the tip, tho

Cycloptichorn

Ok, got yah, And your Quite welcome
Your friend Mike

Wow!
And I thought I liked to school people...Dude! I don't think this poor person was askin' for what ever you think at is! And I thought I had trouble gettin' to the point!!!
(These are the ramblin' thoughts o' Sammiesoooooooooooooooooooooooooo on and so on, and so on, and so on and....

God's promise related to Satan's corruption of Eve:
(Genesis 3:15)" . . .And I shall put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He will bruise you in the head and you will bruise him in the heel. . ."
The promised seed identifies his followers:
(John 13:34-35) ". . .I am giving YOU a new commandment, that YOU love one another; just as I have loved YOU, that YOU also love one another. 35 By this all will know that YOU are my disciples, if YOU have love among yourselves. . ."
God's promise to those followers:
(Psalm 37:29) 29 "The righteous themselves will possess the earth, And they will reside forever upon it."
And later:
(Revelation 21:4) ". . .death will be no more. . ."

Are you a Jehovah Wittnes ?
Please i want an answer.