Christianity

The Dangers and Errors of the Baha’i Faith Part One

There is a religion out there that is gaining popularity and I would like to write on the dangers and errors. Errors because I was told that it was only different to Christianity in a few ways; I will try to correct that opinion in a series of posts. First a quick history;  A Persian named, Baháʼu’lláh was the leader of the Baha’i religion, and died in May 1892.He started preaching that God would soon deliver a new prophet akin to Jesus or Muhammad. He later claimed that  “he” was indeed the prophet that he foretold would arrive, a so-called manifestation of God! That was very brief But I would encourage you to read more about his biography and the religion as it is fascinating how demonically influenced this truly is!

So with that brief opening I will start this series on the Baha’i Religion and it’s grave issues.

They believe that there is only one God and no Trinity. 

According to the Christian Faith God is a Trinity made up of three distinct persons: The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Although the Bible does not explicitly use the title “Trinity” it is evident throughout the teaching of the Bible. The Baha’i religion is following a basic pattern of most cults, and that is denying the Trinity. See Matthew 28: 18- 20 NASB

And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Also read 2 Corinthians 13:14 NASB:

 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.

Notice just as the Muslims bemoan that there is no mention of the title “Trinity” so do the Baha’i followers, but that is a clear discount of biblical scripture.

I will continue this series and hope it will not misrepresent the Religion of Baha’i but expose it as a cult.

 

God Bless

Brian Mason

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Miracles in the Bible, are they “Unscientific”?

Without miracles in the bible, the Christian faith would not even be relevant, other than good lessons from a “good teacher” Jesus. In fact all of the Christian faith hinges on the miracle of Jesus’ resurrection (1 Corinthians 15). The resurrection is foundational to the Christian Faith.

Conventional scientific belief would state that the resurrection, let alone the other miracles found in the bible are indeed “unscientific” According to Wikipedia the scientific method is defines as: The process of the scientific method involves making conjectures (hypotheses), deriving predictions from them as logical consequences, and then carrying out experiments or empirical observations based on those predictions. A hypothesis is a conjecture, based on knowledge obtained while seeking answers to the question.  So according to that definition, miracles are not scientific.

One argument from science would  state that, “miracles are a violation of natural law”. Miracles are not a violation of natural law, as they are acts from a personal God Who cannot be predicted or explained away by processes or natural causes.

Yes, Miracles can be suppressed by people who have no desire to believe such miracles as Jesus changing the water to wine or healing lepers. One such passage of scripture is quite clear that some will not believe in any case:

Luke 16:31 NASB: “But he said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.’”

As we can see, miracles will not guarantee belief.

How the world operates is described by “natural law” but has no control over it. Natural processes are merely a pattern or template, and do not set anything in motion. It simply describes what happens when there is no agent interfering with casual order. When skeptics claim there is no God they are stating that miracles cannot exist! They put a philosophical roadblock in the way of open thinking.

I will end this with a tidbit of information. The first user and documentarian of the scientific method and set up inductive methods for scientific inquiry was a Christian named Sir Roger Bacon, (1561–1626).

No, the miracles of the bible are not scientific, they are from a loving creator.

 

God Bless,

Brian Mason

 

Does Atheism lacks the ability to account for our existence?

Yes it does. So where did the universe, and us, come from? Atheism can only offer an impersonal cause. But an impersonal cause that precedes the universe must have always possessed the necessary and sufficient conditions to bring the universe into existence. If this pre-existing cause always existed, then it always possessed these conditions. But this necessitates an automatic generation of the universe, because when the necessary sufficient conditions are there, the result is automatic. But this means the universe would have been created an infinitely long time ago. But the universe is not infinitely old, therefore the impersonal cause of the universe cannot be supported from the atheist perspective.
The universe exists. It is not infinitely old. If it were it would have run out of energy long ago. Therefore, it had a beginning. The universe did not bring itself into existence. Since it was brought into existence by something else, I assert that God is the one who created the universe.

Genesis 1:1

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

God Bless

Brian Mason

Hell

Do you know the Jesus spoke more of Hell than Heaven in the scriptures? Hell is not an imaginary place place, it is not temporal, it is real! Make no bones about it, Jesus gives us ample warning:

Matthew 5, 29-30
Jesus said, “And if your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out, and throw it from you; for it is better for you that one of the parts of your body perish, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off, and throw it from you; for it is better for you that one of the parts of your body perish, than for your whole body to go into hell,”

Some misconceptions of Hell are being made such as:

God tortures people in hell; However hell has not been described as “torture” in the scriptures, but a place of “torment”.

Why would God His people to everlasting, eternal torment? God will punish the evildoer.

Isaiah 11: 13,
Then the jealousy of Ephraim will depart,
And those who harass Judah will be cut off;
Ephraim will not be jealous of Judah,
And Judah will not harass Ephraim.

Hell is an eternal separation from God.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses claim that “There is no conscious eternal hell where the wicked are punished, (Let God be True, p. 79, 80). Instead, it is the grave where people who did not follow the Jehovah’s Witness teachings are annihilated and cease to have existence. “God’s Word says nothing about eternal torment of lost souls in a fiery hell as being the punishment for wickedness. Instead, it simply says: ‘The wages sin pays is death.’ ‘The soul that sinneth, it shall die.’ ‘All the wicked ones he will annihilate,’” (Watchtower, 3/1/1960, p. 134).
FALSE!
Matthew 5:22
“But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.

The LDS states: “Hell is outer darkness, a spirit prison, but is not forever. It is also sometimes said to be the lower levels of the heavens. Therefore, it would consist of the telestial and terrestrial kingdoms where progression to godhood is forbidden.”
FALSE!

Jude 6-7:
6 And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day, 7 just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.

Christ’s sacrifice would be entirely meaningless and cruel unless there is a place called hell!

Everyone who entered hell actually wanted to be there, as strange as that sounds people love their sin too much to give it up! Please pray for the salvation of those who scoff at the reality of hell. Salvation comes at a great price!

Matthew 16:24-27
24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. 25 For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? 27 For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and will then repay every man according to his [y]deeds.

God Bless

Brian Mason

Atheist Claims “New Atheists” are “Rude and Brash”

Here is an interesting article from The Telegraph dated August 14, 2013.

This was written by an atheist commenting on the brashness of the so-called New Atheists.
(Full article on the link)

“When did atheists become so teeth-gratingly annoying? Surely non-believers in God weren’t always the colossal pains in the collective backside that they are today? Surely there was a time when you could say to someone “I am an atheist” without them instantly assuming you were a smug, self-righteous loather of dumb hicks given to making pseudo-clever statements like, “Well, Leviticus also frowns upon having unkempt hair, did you know that?” Things are now so bad that I tend to keep my atheism to myself, and instead mumble something about being a very lapsed Catholic if I’m put on the spot, for fear that uttering the A-word will make people think I’m a Dawkins drone with a mammoth superiority complex and a hives-like allergy to nurses wearing crucifixes.”

Atheists keep proving they have become the most irritating people on Earth

God Bless

Brian Mason

Question For the Roman Catholic

If authority of the Roman Catholic church is so important, then why did the Bereans in Acts 17:11 not just subject themselves to that apostolic authority instead of checking what Paul said against Scripture – and Paul praised them for it?

Acts 17:11 (NASB) Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.

God Bless

Brian Mason

Does the Bible Support the Concept of Purgatory?

The Roman Catholic follower will at times supply two primary passages to support their idea of Purgatory.

Matthew 12:32:

Matthew 12:32 (NIV) reads:  Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.

Of course The Lord was speaking of the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.

How does the Roman Catholic interpret that as “Purgatory? Well the RC believes that it is very possible to have sins forgiven in the age to come!

Calvin wrote in response to this Roman Catholic interpretation in his writing “Insitutes of the Christian Religion 1960”:

“When the Lord, they say, makes known the “sin against the Holy Spirit is not forgiven either in this age or the age to come”, he hints at the same time that there is forgiveness of certain sins in the world to come. But who cannot see that the Lord is there speaking of the guilt of sin? But if this is so, what has it got to do with their purgatory. Since, in their opinion, punishment of sins is undergone in purgatory, why do they deny their guilt is remitted in the present life?”

Next passage: 1 Corrinthians 3: 10-15 (NASB):

10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it. 11 For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. 14 If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. 15 If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

This is the most popular scripture for the Roman Catholic to buttress his idea of purgatory. But where do we find purgatory in this passage? If the words about “fire” are to be used as support of their idea of purgatory, where has the RCC defines that there is indeed, fire in purgatory? In fact, this scripture fails to state that the person goes into the fire or atonement for sins is then suffered!

There is no reference to the idea of purgatory being a place or thing in the Bible. Often the RC will respond to the word “purgatory” not mentioned in the Bible by stating that the word “Trinity” is not in the Bible either. Such a statement is fruitless as even the RC does not deny the Trinity.

Please pray for the Roman Catholic to leave their heresies behind, as their Salvation is a very precious thing!

God Bless

Brian Mason

Who Did Jesus Speak of When He Said “Little Ones”?

Matthew 18: 1-6 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” 2 And He called a child to Himself and set him before them, 3 and said, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 And whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me; 6 but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.

The phrase “little ones” in Matthew 18:6 is the Greek word mikros mikroteros and means small in size. The reference is not to a child but refers to those who “humble himself as this little child”.

Matthew 10: 40-42 40 “He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me. 41 He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward; and he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward. 42 And whoever in the name of a disciple gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water to drink, truly I say to you, he shall not lose his reward.”

In Matthew 10, no children are referred to.

I believe that God has a special place for anyone that harms a child on purpose will have to explain that to God, however we must have a fundamental understanding of words and verses in the Bible.

The term “little ones” is clearly directed at Born Again Christians, children of God. And with that comes a stern warning from Jesus that whoever messes with us there will be a great punishment! “…better to have a millstone hung around his neck” Thrown into the sea!

– millstone[ mil-stohn ] noun
either of a pair of circular stones between which grain or another substance is ground, as in a mill.

God Bless

Brian Mason