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Quote from: TheHobbit on May 08, 2015, 01:52:51 AMWell it a hinges on the resurrection and not the prophecies anyway. Any guy with delusions of grandeur with a background in scripture could try and be the Messiah. Its not obvious at first glance if Jesus was simply following a recipe.Any guy could be born of a virgin, in Bethlehem, move to Egypt and then be called out of Egypt, and be known as a Nazarene? I thought that pretty much relied on your parents.
Well it a hinges on the resurrection and not the prophecies anyway. Any guy with delusions of grandeur with a background in scripture could try and be the Messiah. Its not obvious at first glance if Jesus was simply following a recipe.
Quote from: jbeers285 on May 08, 2015, 02:38:53 AMQuote from: TheHobbit on May 08, 2015, 01:52:51 AMWell it a hinges on the resurrection and not the prophecies anyway. Any guy with delusions of grandeur with a background in scripture could try and be the Messiah. Its not obvious at first glance if Jesus was simply following a recipe.Any guy could be born of a virgin, in Bethlehem, move to Egypt and then be called out of Egypt, and be known as a Nazarene? I thought that pretty much relied on your parents.His parents could have red that prophecy and simply exaggerated the virgin part. The point is prophecy that has already come to pass is not proof of anything. All we have to go on is the word of those who saw it come to pass, which is good enough for me but not foolproof.
I don't like splitting up posts.This is basically semantics. Still, a better way to phrase the question would be "Does the old testament accurately predict the Messiah as God?" The fact that it specifies Jesus already makes the assumption that Jesus is indeed the Messiah. There are a few problems with this assumption. While Christians will agree with it, what's the point of asking the question if you're only asking it to people who have obviously already picked an answer? Problem 2 is that Christians agree with it largely because of the interpretations of the OT by the NT (as evidenced by this thread), which is looking at it through biased glasses. This is why I've been stressing looking at it from the OT only. So getting back to what I was talking about, saying "Messiah" instead of "Jesus" eliminates this bias, which is necessary. Or simply throw out the NT like I was doing from the beginning. Either way, it's pointless to take the NT into account.If you think that Jewish people are still like the Pharisees of old, then it's pointless to discuss this with you. In actuality most Christians are far closer to Pharisees than they'd like to admit.Once again, this is just assuming you're speaking only to Christians, which is pointless. Until we agree on what the question exactly is and why it's being asked, I'm not sure we can proceed because we're coming at it with a different premise.And again, I'm not looking at Mark, I'm looking at the prophecies. The question is not whether Jesus was indeed God, but whether the prophecies predicted the Messiah to be God.Finally, it sounds like you're saying that all rational people believe that Jesus is indeed the Messiah and is indeed God. I'm sure you don't actually believe that every rational person is a Christian, but it comes across that way when you make statements like "The insufficiency could be in their hearts and minds" and " In fact if we try to interpret Scripture in any way as a human without the power and wisdom of the Holy Spirit, we probably come up short." and "The issue is pride and a lack of faith, not a lack of evidence." Be careful of your demeanor, it can very easily turn people away from Christianity. Zeal is not always a boon.
Is Jesus God or is he a giant spaghetti monster? The Old Testament is unclear.
As a side note, the Hebrew word for virgin can also mean young woman, which has nothing to do with what we normally associate the word with.
Typically debates go better when you bring a counter point instead of telling westy he's dumb. But this isn't a debate. This is Christians trying to convert westy and it's honestly kinda disgusting overall.
Quote from: Alex_Olijar on May 10, 2015, 10:14:02 AMTypically debates go better when you bring a counter point instead of telling westy he's dumb. But this isn't a debate. This is Christians trying to convert westy and it's honestly kinda disgusting overall.Does westy need converting? Last I ever knew he didn't? Secondly, trying to convert someone to what you assume/know/believe is not disgusting. It's admirable. If an atheist tried to convert me, I would most definiately respect that he is acting with authority. Granted, I wouldn't agree in the slightest but still.
Well, Christians are the biggest threat to Christianity, just as Christ was the biggest threat to himself. The point is, do you believe in Him?
Quote from: Alex_Olijar on May 10, 2015, 10:14:02 AMTypically debates go better when you bring a counter point instead of telling westy he's dumb. But this isn't a debate. This is Christians trying to convert westy and it's honestly kinda disgusting overall.So stating that context is king isn't a valid point?It would be disgusting if believers didn't attempt to convert the people around them. If I trully believe how much do I hate you if I don's try to bring you to (who I believe is) the savior?
Does westy need converting? Last I ever knew he didn't? Secondly, trying to convert someone to what you assume/know/believe is not disgusting. It's admirable. If an atheist tried to convert me, I would most definiately respect that he is acting with authority. Granted, I wouldn't agree in the slightest but still.
Quote from: kariusvega on May 10, 2015, 01:12:28 AMWell, Christians are the biggest threat to Christianity, just as Christ was the biggest threat to himself. The point is, do you believe in Him?Quote from: jbeers285 on May 10, 2015, 10:34:14 AMQuote from: Alex_Olijar on May 10, 2015, 10:14:02 AMTypically debates go better when you bring a counter point instead of telling westy he's dumb. But this isn't a debate. This is Christians trying to convert westy and it's honestly kinda disgusting overall.So stating that context is king isn't a valid point?It would be disgusting if believers didn't attempt to convert the people around them. If I trully believe how much do I hate you if I don's try to bring you to (who I believe is) the savior?Quote from: Red on May 10, 2015, 02:35:46 PMDoes westy need converting? Last I ever knew he didn't? Secondly, trying to convert someone to what you assume/know/believe is not disgusting. It's admirable. If an atheist tried to convert me, I would most definiately respect that he is acting with authority. Granted, I wouldn't agree in the slightest but still.This is not at all what Jesus described as how to go about spreading his Gospel. It's embarassing that anyone on this forum would so blatantly proselytize a prominent member of the forums with a well known theological positions in relative closeness to orthodox Christianity. This thread has long since digressed from being about the topic and devolved into "How can I prove Westy is wrong to Westy so Westy will love Jesus more and be saved?". It's a disgusting displaying of people who think they are right unable to do anything but spout what they think are facts back to someone. There is literally no room in this conversation for Westy to even maybe be right, because everyone is just assuming he's a heretic based on the tonality of posts.You can't convert someone on the internet so stop trying. Per the topic at hand, this is a ridiculous question because, shockingly, as Jay pointed out, you can't really answer this question with the NT, and this question is expressing ignoring the NT.
...but you have to keep it civil or I'll be forced to move this over to OD at the very least.
You can't convert someone on the internet so stop trying.