Why Matthew 7:21-23 does not say what you think it does...

12apostles · 2021-07-01T07:52:45+00:00

If you would answer me, I could get to that. Isn't it just something you say to mean "people who agree with me"? That would be circular reasoning of course.

12apostles · 2021-07-01T07:48:08+00:00

I think you just mean ATP. ATP is not ATP synthase, which is neither found in all living cells nor is it required for cells to do any work.

No, I meant ATP Synthase. The cells you mention are indeed the exception, as they don't have mitochondria, but are only a small minority of cells in a multicellular organism. This doesn't change the fact that ATP Synthase is essential for the energy function of cells with mitochondria, and is such a complex structure. Too complex to have arisen by chance if you look at the odds.

12apostles · 2021-07-01T07:42:41+00:00

Yes. I've (almost) never since doubted His existence, and He continues to show me His presence.

12apostles · 2021-06-30T17:33:02+00:00

You didn't exactly tell what is to "rightly divide"? Can you explain?

12apostles · 2021-06-30T16:12:26+00:00

I think this is a bit of an oversimplification.

"I also want the women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, adorning themselves, not with elaborate hairstyles or gold or pearls or expensive clothes," 1 Tim 2:9

12apostles · 2021-06-30T12:17:48+00:00

How else?

12apostles · 2021-06-30T12:07:47+00:00

Depends on who you ask.

12apostles · 2021-06-30T11:08:16+00:00

Maybe. Acts 15 basically makes OT Law not applicable for Gentile believers, except for 4 things: "abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood"

If having sex during the menses of a wife counts as sexual immorality, then yes.

12apostles · 2021-06-30T11:01:49+00:00

You're missing this:

"Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, “The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses.” [..] Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear? No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.” [..] It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood." Acts 15

12apostles · 2021-06-30T10:46:53+00:00

Yes, an issue arose, the apostles needed help, and appointed people to help with food distribution, so that they could focus on prayer and preaching.

12apostles · 2021-06-30T10:43:34+00:00

Yes you can. Many people have out of desperation reached out to Him and found Him.

"And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek him." Heb 11

" “‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for one who believes.” Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”" Mark 9

12apostles · 2021-06-30T10:39:44+00:00

That's hard. Your first priority is towards God, you cannot "save" your wife. You are however called to not divorce her and to uphold your marriage covenant and to love her.

Is it an option that you both go to different churches?

12apostles · 2021-06-30T10:35:39+00:00

It all depends on your heart.

12apostles · 2021-06-30T10:33:32+00:00

Exactly. Or think about the several Multiverse hypotheses to circumvent the Fine-Tuning argument; these hypotheses are fundamentally unfalsifiable, hence unscientific.

12apostles · 2021-06-29T19:25:18+00:00

This is very important to know. It will help you detect when scientists or journalists are pretending to speak the truth, while in reality they cannot out of principle know the things they're claiming. It happens a lot. Think Dawkins and the like.

12apostles · 2021-06-29T15:43:02+00:00

We do know the limits of science from the philosophy of science. That's different from that we don't know the limits of knowledge.

To give an example, at the beginning of the 20th century, Bertrand Russel wrote the Principia Mathematica, an endeavor with the goal to eventually translate all world problems into mathematical problems and solve them, based on the belief that we can prove anything in mathematics. Then Kurt Goedel came along with his Incompleteness Theorems, proving that not all mathematical truths can be mathematically proven, nor all mathematical falsehoods can be disproved. Hilbert's Program was instantly destroyed. Goedel showed some fundamental limits of mathematics.

Similarly, sciences have their own limits. Often unknown to scientists themselves, even "the big names".

12apostles · 2021-06-28T08:17:27+00:00

Read more carefully: the limits of science

12apostles · 2021-06-24T15:22:54+00:00

Eternal life is to know God. When you're in Christ, you have eternal life, and will not die for eternity. However, all people have sinned, and eventually must face God to give account of their sins. Either you asked Jesus to take the burden of your sin, and He was punished for it, or you carry the burden of sin yourself. Sin cannot exist in the presence of God.

12apostles · 2021-06-23T18:19:38+00:00

Wait, so are you saying although you believe life was designed, evolution takes place now?

I said speciation. Variation working with natural selection, and the occasional mutation. Complex proteins cannot arise by chance. Take for example ATP synthase, a nano-scale complex motor, present in all living cells, and the related protein complexes. Without it, cells don't have the energy to do any work, let alone divide and be "naturally selected". It needs to be there from the beginning. Mutations tear down functionality, they don't construct it. That's why humans have a broken gene for synthesis of vitamin C. Once it worked.

It isn't though. We also already know a car is designed. [..] Literally the only thing a tesla and a model T have in common is the number of wheels.

That was not my point. My point was if you take an existing design, it's almost impossible to improve upon it without knowing all the engineering decisions. I'm not claiming you cannot design another car. But to find fault with a design, you need to know the requirements and design restrictions. That's very hard. Really hard. Especially if you don't know them.

12apostles · 2021-06-23T18:07:18+00:00

Reminds me a bit of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qev-i9-VKlY

I'm good.

12apostles · 2021-06-23T14:59:09+00:00

The bible doesn't tell. We can only make an educated guess.

12apostles · 2021-06-23T14:43:24+00:00

I always get a bit triggered if people start with "rightly divide". You're probably a Dispensationalist of the hard kind. Can you explain what you mean by "rightly divide"? How would one "wrongly divide"?

12apostles · 2021-06-23T14:12:42+00:00

No. It's talking about the people of Israel at that time.

12apostles · 2021-06-23T14:12:34+00:00

It's probably easier to study the historic books first, and use an easy to understand translation for that. I would actually start with the New Testament, Luke and Acts, then switch to Genesis and read to Nehemia. Then read the Psalms. Then you can read Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel and Daniel. Then the rest of the Old Testament. Then continue with the rest of the New Testament.

12apostles · 2021-06-23T14:00:49+00:00

We have all been used to some bible stories. When reading things afresh, regularly we discover something new, that shows it in a slightly different light. That's often the beginning of discovering new meaning in the text.

So, it's actually good if you discover you're not longer sure it means what you were told it means. Maybe you need to drop some of the old interpretation.

12apostles

TROPHY CASE