Why people struggle to understand Christianity...

  It is very hard for a non-Christian to understand why there is such a diverse set of beliefs between churches. It is true that in the past, non-believers would have simply reacted to contact by a Christian, but in today's society people are ever more knowledgeable about the world and religion. Leading many non-believers to have formed impressions about certain religions based upon TV and the internet, and it does not matter whether the information is true or not. A non-christian can clearly and easily notice differences between Catholics, born-again Christians, Mormons and others. Would you not agree that to a non-believer, that they would see the diversity of belief as justification to think that no-one knows exactly what to believe? So if non-believers think that no-one really knows what to believe, then it only confirms to him that they should not bother to believe anything.

The truth is simply hidden from all non-believers behind a mask of religion and that we as believers are fully to blame for it. Believers will obviously know and understand that Christianity is all about a personal relationship between the individual and God, a path to give your life to Him, and to improve yourself and do the best you can with your life. Sure there is a lot of other stuff; like attending church, reading the Bible, praying and lots more, but essentially the most basic belief is all about that relationship between a person and God.

Yet if that very relationship was explained to to non-believers; they would clearly see that because every human is different, they could conclude that every relationship with God is unique, and therefore that would help to explain to them about the differences that they see in Christianity, such as Methodist churches, Presbyterian churches and Pentecostal churches. Christian individuals normally join a church which suits their own personal relationship with God, which will more than likely include people with similar relationships and beliefs.

As you may know I was brought up within born-again churches, and I think that I would not be unfair in saying that fellow believers, either excluded other churches from being within the one-true-path (such as Catholics) or simply didn't know which Church did or did not fall within the requirements of being part of the one-true-path. It is one of those grey areas of Christianity that is very rarely talked about, except by non-believers because such things of squabbling between churches only confuses things more. But once again we are back to talking about impressions, we all have our own impressions about religion and about groups of religious people. Our impressions are not always true!

But I would like you forget your impressions for a while, and consider this question; Does a relationship begin only when a person starts to believe in God? Indeed it is not a question that I had ever heard before, yet I believe that it is vital to consider it. Think about it for a second, God knew about you and your whole life before you were ever born (that's what the Bible says). Therefore would it not be right to assume that there was a relationship before you became a believer. Sure this relationship might have consisted of you ignoring him for long lengths of time among other things, yet the relationship was still there. How else would he have guided you into believing in him; the relationship was only one sided perhaps, yet it was still there.

I think it is a very refreshing thought to understand that every human on this planet has a relationship with God, the thought alone can show you the potential of such a wonderful thing. I have heard it said many times from Christians, that non-believers need faith not to believe. To some extent I would agree but I think in many cases that non-believers just don't care and are simply too busy living their lives to think about it.

So what am I suggesting? I am suggesting that instead of preaching to people that they need to come to church and turn to God, that we teach them about their relationship with God. To tell them that even though their back has been turned away God, that he has been watching them for their whole life; that God has seen everything that they ever done, their wrongs and their rights, the failures and achievements. We need to teach that God has wanted to be there for them to help them through all of their problems. To explain to them that God wants to start afresh with them, that he is willing to forgive all their wrongdoings if they will walk with him in their lives, and accept him into their heart.

 There is no price for us to pay to earn forgiveness, because Jesus came to the world and took all our sins onto his shoulders and paid the price for us. That's right, he knew about all of your sins and about all of your future sins and paid the price for them, and all you have to do is accept the free gift and accept Jesus's sacrifice that he made for you.

See more basic beliefs CLICK HERE

El Libro de las Profecías by Christopher Columbus

We have talked before about how some important figures in history have become obsessed with prophecies such as Isaac Newton, but here we will take at another famous personality from history that was obsessed with prophecies, Christopher Columbus.

Between 1501 and 1502 he compiled a book with the help of his friend Gaspar Gorricio, the book was simply called El Libro do las Profecias, or translated to english> Book of prophecies.  The book lists a number of things that he saw as being on a 'to do' list to bring about the return of Christ.  In fact one of his voyages aims across the Atlantic was to gain gold for the monarchy to fund a crusade to Jerusalem!  The events he saw as needing to completed are as follows
1. Christianity must spread around the world
2. The Garden of Eden must be found (of which he believed he discovered it in Venezuela)
3. A crusade to take back Jerusalem from the Muslims
4. A last world leader should be chosen

These beliefs were common place during medieval times and it is clear that Columbus was influenced by the writings of Joachim of Fiore.  But some saw Columbus' obsession as a sign of madness, and refused to listen to his rants about attempting to fulfill prophecies.

It is possible to buy translations of his book, though currently they are out of print, you may still find second-hand copies online at Amazon for around $90.

About the human soul...

I think that a lot of people are confused about the soul, some people doubt it's existence, others know that it's there but know very little about it.  I hope that in this article I can explain if but a few things about the soul and how it theoretically works.  The soul is a spiritual existence, meaning that it does not take physical form and  I believe that the soul is joined to the body through the mind, thoughts are biological but they are also spiritual.

But the relationship between the body and soul is a complex one, they are in a way, interdependent on each other, meaning that what one does, can influence the other.  Indeed this is what Christians believe, that sin can corrupt the soul and once the body dies, the soul will go to hell.  But how exactly can sin (in physical form) corrupt the soul (in spiritual form), well the answer simply lies in the mind.  The mind is the link between soul and body and as such, can transmit certain things between the two.  Indeed we already discussed the Christian side already, but have you ever heard a person say 'they lost a piece of their soul' when referring to a person either involved in a traumatic event or being a victim of an event.  Is this just an expression, or a mere non-believer way of understanding what happens??

See more basic beliefs CLICK HERE

Mohammad (570-632 A.D.)

Mohammad is mainly recognized by most to be the founder of the religion of Islam, and is considered by Muslims to be a prophet, that he was a messenger from God just like the other prophets such as Noah, Moses, Enoch.  He was born in the city of Mecca (Saudi Arabia), but he became an orphan and was raised by his uncle, a man named Abu Talib.  At one point he worked as a merchant, and at another point as a shepherd and he got married at the age of 25 to an older woman.  During his whole life it is said that he had thirteen wives / concubines.  But he was unhappy with his life in Mecca and went away and became a hermit in a cave in the surrounding mountains.  At the age of 40 he received his first vision from God, which is communicated to him through the angel Gabrielle, and three years later he started preaching about these visions to the public.

At the time the the Arabs believed in many gods, and Mohammad was teaching that there is only one God, the Living Everlasting God.  Nevertheless, he gained some supporters, but mainly hostility from Meccan tribes which forced him to escape persecution and flee to Abyssinia (Medina/Yathrib).  In Medina, Mohammad managed to unite the tribes, and in 622 with over 10,000 followers he returned to conquer Mecca, several years later in 630 he succeeded.  In 632 after his first and final pilgrimage, he fell ill and died.

The revelations that he received during his lifetime became the verses of the Quran, and were combined into a single book after his death.  These verses are considered to be the Word of God by Muslims.  Although Mohammad is believed to be the author of the Quran, he is only mentioned in it by name  four times, which has meant that sources for information about his life have to be found elsewhere.

The earliest surviving biography of his life by Ibn Ishaq was written 150 years after Mohammad's death.  Although scholars generally believe the early biographies to be accurate, it is not ascertainable.  In early days, both Christians and Jews saw Mohammad as a false prophet, saying that prophets do not arrive with swords and chariots.  And Mohammad after all, was involved in several battles during his lifetime.

It is however recorded that when Mohammad was twelve that he was travelling in a caravan to Syria, he met a Christian monk called Bahira, and that the monk gave Mohammad a copy of the Old testament and put forward the idea that he should become a prophet to the Arabs.

It is this record that confuses me most, was Mohammad converted to a Christian as a child?  With biographies of his life only being written about him hundreds of years after his actual existence, how do we know the he wished to create a  belief that was separate to Christianity.  Apparently it is also recorded that when they took Mecca, that he instructed all his soldiers not to destroy any images of Jesus or Mary.  In fact Mary is mentioned more often in the Quran than in the Bible!

My point is that, we cannot know for sure where his beliefs came from for sure, and maybe we will never know, but the idea that Mohammad was converted to Christianity is intriguing to say the least.  Yet those texts given to him by the monk became part of the Quran, recording the existence of Adam, Noah, Moses, Abraham and more.

Mani (216 - 276 A.D.)

Mani was a prophet and the founder of a gnostic religion than became known as Manichaeism, a religion that was once widespread but it now extinct.  He was born in around Seleucia-Ctesiphon in Assyria (modern-day Iraq).

He received visions at the ages of 12 and 24 telling him to leave his father's Jewish Christian sect and to teach the true message of Christ.  From there he traveled to India and Afghanistan and may have been influenced by Buddhism.  When he returned in 242 A.D. he became favoured by King Shapur, yet when Bahram succeeded to the throne everything changed, Bahram was a supporter of Zoroastrian movement and persecuted the Manichaeans, Mani was caught and put in prison and later crucified.

It is said that he wrote seven works, although none of these have survived in their complete form, they include the Mani-Codex and the Book of Giants.  His teachings that have survived tell us that he believed that good and evil existed in a constant struggle.  He believed that salvation was possible through education, self-denial, fasting and chastity.  He claimed to be the last of the prophets, and followed the teachings of other prophets; Seth, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Nikotheos, Zoroaster, Buddha and Jesus.

Old Document Review 'The Book of Enoch'

The Book of Enoch has survived in various copies, although only exists in complete form in the langauge of Ge'ez. It oldest surviving copy has been dated to have been written somewhere between 300 B.C. and 100 A.D. , although it could be said that it originates from earlier texts (unfortunately there is no proof of such a statement). It was rejected by Judaism and Christianity due to its content, despite the book being refered to by Jude 14-15.

Indeed there are some strange things that are said in the book which could paint a different view on some important issue. The book basically covers the story of Enoch and his family, mentioning his grandfather, his sons and grandsons.

The first strange notion is that mankind was supposed to not step outside nature, and it was the leaving of nature that brought with it a curse. In fact the Adam & Eve story is painted totally different “tree of wisdom...they learnt wisdom...eyes were opened...they knew that they were naked”.

The second strange notion is that it claims the cause of the Great Flood as being something which caused a smell of sulphur, that there was a great melting of ice which re-froze afterwards (a melting of the ice caps?). A third suggestions was that there is amention that they did not eat blood, basically meaning that they were all vegetarians.

The book also contains detailed knowledge of days of the year, varying lengths of the days between winter and summer, with reference to portals (maybe some stone alignment like Stone Henge), carries on to explain the moon cycles in the year and another planetary object (most likely mars), also aware of Solar Storms that work in cycles of varying violence.

Jacob Boehme (1575 - 1624)

Jacob Boehme was born in Poland, and was raised in a Christian family,as a young lad he became a shoemakers apprentice and stayed with the family who were not Christians, which opened his eyes to the world around him.  It is recorded that he regularly studied the Bible yet also took time to read works by visionaries such as Paracelcus.

Boehme had numerous mystical experiences, the highlight of which occurred in 1600 when he received a vision which revealed to him the spiritual structure of the world and gave him a great understanding of good and evil and the ongoing relationship between man and God.  It was not until twelve years after this that he started to write, but his writings gained mixed success, at one point he was even asked to leave his town.  But by the time of his death in 1624, he had written many documents of various subjects such as 'Of the Last times' (1620) , 'Answers to forty questions regarding the soul' (1620) and 'The Supersensual Life' (1624)

I came across references to Boehme made by the famous John Wesley and others during the 18th century who looked upon Boehme's writings as a great source of knowledge, and indeed he was considered as the original thinker in the Lutherian tradition and maintained many followers after his death who became known as Behmenists.  I am planning to get a hold of some translations of his writings and review them here at a later date.

Old Document Review 'A prophecy on the Antichrist'

This prophecy is one that can be found in the Mirabilis liber which was an ancient document published in 1522, a document which was a vast collection of prophecies from many older sources including this prophecy which gives details about the Antichrist.

It is said in the prophecy that the Antichrist or the false prophet will come from the 'land of Leo' and will influence many powerful people through false signs and wrong doctrines, it his said that deep within his mind he despises Christianity yet he hides this, and gains powerful sway even over the Roman Catholic church, it is said that 'even the wisest shall be misled'.

Yet despite the trial which is forecast to put on the church by his existence, it is a part of what is meant to happen, part of the bigger plan.  In a sense the Antichrist is seen here as part of God's plan, not in the sense that he serves God, but more in the sense of Judas who betrayed Jesus, yet that too was part of God's plan as it was meant for Jesus to die.  So here the Antichrist has been given his time and his moment so that he can test believers, to put them through a trial to see if they should pass.

To read about the other prophecies in the Mirabilis liber CLICK HERE