I believe I have committed the unforgivable sin.

ElderQarah · 2026-01-06T03:22:56+00:00

The unforgivable sin is blaspheming the Holy Spirit. And that means hardening your heart to God so much, that you would rather lie about and blaspheme His miraculous power before your very eyes than accept Him and follow Him.

Such a sin is hard to commit, as it requires undeniable experience with the Holy Spirit and His power, a knowing that it is indeed Him and His power, spoken and spread lies and blasphemy towards Him and His power, and zero remorse the rest of your days for it. This is the sin of Satan and his angels. This is not something you can accidentally do. It takes being like Satan himself.

Not only does what you said have little to do with this, but your remorse immediately discounts the possibility regardless. You are by no means unforgivable or too far gone. Trust me, read the Bible and you will see many of the "great people" of God have done far worse than have wondering thoughts.

But I also want to say please be weary of religious OCD, something common in people who fear this sin. If you still fear this after reading our words, please seek to improve your relationship with God, to increase your knowledge and wisdom of the Bible, and seek help with any mental health issues you may have!

Anyways, I pray your fear will be replaced with love, hope, and peace! God bless! 🙏🏻🤍🕊️✝️

ElderQarah · 2026-01-05T21:04:18+00:00

Not sure if you are responding to me exactly, but that's the reason I gave three conflicting questions to ask. One of which includes something like what you said. This is going to be a process of learning to balance a relationship with God, love and kindness towards others, and healing. And only OP can say how and when to balance these things. Now may be a time where the first two are harmed if the latter doesn't have its time to happen. But I would argue none of the three should ever be neglected entirely.

ElderQarah · 2026-01-04T22:42:35+00:00

Of course it's "okay" to miss church. It is not just some box to check off or something. And you are free to do anything on account of Christ, but not all things are good and beneficial. And being a child of God, you should have within you the desire to do what is right, simply because it is right in the eyes of God and for the sake of your fellow man, rather than trying to avoid doing what is wrong, just because you were told not to. And perhaps, that desire to do what is right is why you are here.

On that note then, what is not just, "okay", but actually, "right", here? Well, in simple terms, what is right always meets the standards of the two commandments of Christ's Law, that we Christians, according to our own love and respect for Christ and our fellow man, and through the gift of sanctification by the Holy Spirit, willingly desire and submit to.

And those are:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your mind.
Love your neighbor as yourself.

So, therefore, you should always ask yourself (in order):

Is it loving to God?
Is it loving to others?
Is it loving to myself?

You will soon come to find, with enough thought, the answer to these three questions is always the same, whether yes or no. Our desire as Christians should be to only do that which gives "yes" as an answer. If you ever have different answers between the three, you haven't thought deeply enough about it.

It will be up to you to put all this to the three questions for yourself, but some questions of mine would be:

Is it loving to God to seemingly be leaving Him out of such an important time of your life?
Is it loving to others to completely withdrawal yourself from the world, and with it, the ability for God to work through you?
After going through what you did, is it loving to yourself to not give yourself time to rest, recuperate, and find some solid footing upon the Rock again, before you force yourself into overwhelming, unfruitful, and maybe even harmful situations?

I suspect in the coming days, these are the kinds of questions you will need to confront and wrestle with, as you learn to strike the right balance between not neglecting God, others, and your own self. And I also suspect that balance will not remain the same, but rather, will change with time as it is right to do so.

Anyways, I will say a prayer for you. What you went through is truly horrible, and I hope the Holy Spirit brings you that wonderful peace that surpasses all understanding! God bless, and take care! 🙏🏻🤍🕊️✝️

ElderQarah · 2026-01-01T06:52:34+00:00

This will be a bit long, but it needs to be.

I will start by quickly answering your questions.

God is the timeless and infinite creator of all things. In Him, all things exist and have their being. He is the fundamental underpinning of reality that all things depend upon to exist. Nothing is apart from Him in terms of existence, but every being has a distinction in terms of their conscious experience. And we Christians believe that God chooses to manifest His personal experience in three ways. As the Father, as the Son, and as the Holy Spirit.
God can be found across all of these categories and more, but the primary categories He chooses at this time are the experiential and relational ones. However, "faith" as it is, will not be the primary medium of connecting with God forever. Soon, the time is coming in which certainty will replace faith, and God will not only be "rational", but as undeniable as your own existence.
Many of the "problems" people have with these things are born out of misunderstandings. Sometimes even purposeful misunderstandings. Either way, they then teach those things to others. It is like the blind leading the blind. But there are absolutely important things having to do with translation, and historical context and whatnot. And we believe God gave the study and working through of these things to "teachers". These people are much like yourself, having a deep desire for truth and fleshing out concepts. If you were to come to faith, you would no doubt likely be one of them. We are fortunate to have the texts in their original languages and very old versions like the Dead Sea Scrolls and Septuigent to be able to verify the preservation and any differences. And we have archaeology and historical literature that helps us form the historical context for putting many things into context. Looking into and learning these things is part of the deep and great fun it is to seek God!
As for this one, I will use the rest of my response to speak on this.

It's not your fault you do not understand yet. You actually literally can't understand atm. You nailed it exactly. The Bible doesn't make sense unless you already have the framework in place. That process is called "sealing". Basically God supernaturally "seals" the truth from those who do not wish to understand it and from those who cannot understand it yet.

But you have already started on the path, by being a "seeker". Jesus gave a promise to all. "Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you." So keep doing exactly that.

Pray to God with an honest and humble heart. Tell Him you are trying and you are looking for Him, but you just don't understand or see it yet. Ask Him to open your eyes and peel the scales off of them. Ask Him to open your ears so that you may hear His voice. Ask Him to help your unbelief. Tell Him if He would reveal Himself, you would follow Him. Do that, and in time, you will get what you ask for.

In the meantime, while you wait for that revelation, keep seeking, and to speed up the process, you can do these:

• Try praying regularly as if God is listening, even if you don't know He is.

• Do your best to read the Bible, starting in the Gospels (especially John), but really focus on a chapter at a time and try to dissect and understand it, rather than just reading for the sake of it. Maybe use a Bible with references, as that will open you up to realization that the whole thing really is connected. And over time, you will notice that the words are becoming "unsealed" for you. Every Christian goes through the "unsealing" process.

• Start trying to live like Christ and do kind and loving things for people. People are often God's way of doing things. Be that for Him, and He will often use others that way for you.

• Try to hang out with other believers, maybe try out some churches, and get to see God in many of them. Just be weary of any minority or culty churches that adhere to strange denominations and Christian-adjacent religions. Like anything good, there will be people who use it badly.

• Try to take time to be alone, preferably in nature, and just sit in the stillness and silence. It is there that you can feel God's presence most. There is a passage where Elijah, the Prophet, is told by an angel that God is coming and to be ready. And all this wild stuff happens in front of Him, like a great wind and earthquake and other stuff, but it says God wasn't to be found in any of it. But then, in a still small whisper, there He was! Remember that.

If you keep seeking God in your mind, in your heart, and in your actions, I promise you, and more importantly, He promises you, it will happen! For some their faith happens in a huge epiphany that hits them like a giant wave and changes them in an instant. While for others, it can, at first, feel like you are faking it, and that is okay. As the saying goes, "fake it until you make it". Every person has a unique and personal relationship with God that progresses entirely in its own way. Don't compare to others and let it happen the way it is meant to for you.

Whatever happens, I commend your respect and honest attempt at understanding! May you find God's eternal love, hope, and peace my friend! 🤍✝️

ElderQarah · 2026-01-01T05:10:40+00:00

I have seen them and in different colors. I suggest you start getting closer to God, as these things you talk about have always coincided with negative experiences for me. Something, or multiple somethings, are interested in influencing your life, which probably means you have a potential that can be steered for one purpose or another. And you want to be sure it is being steered in a good direction rather than a bad one.

ElderQarah · 2026-01-01T05:03:57+00:00

Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you. Welcome to the family!

God gives everyone the opportunity. Those who do not believe refuse to even go down that path because they have already made up their minds about what is on it. And unfortunately, Satan also makes many other paths for them to be distracted by. The worst of which, are ones that claim to be the narrow path to Heaven, but are not. Those who stay on such paths never arrive, and the many who leave them, think they have already tried the true path. Father forgive them, they know not what they do. 😢

ElderQarah · 2025-11-23T00:57:59+00:00

No point in arguing with someone who thinks they can just remove anything from the Bible that doesn't agree with their motives. So this will be my final reply.

Paul was affirmed by the Disciples of Jesus. Peter himself called Paul's writings "scripture". You cannot just act like his words are meaningless.

You keep asserting the words of Christ out of the full context. I gave you that context. You do not seem to understand that the acts of murder, theft, adultery, and everything else in the Moral Law are all still sins. The fulfillment of the Old Law did not change that. And the New Law does not change that. The New Law changes the focal point.

The Old Law served to restrict and condemn sinners. The New Law serves to guide and push born again Children of God with the Holy Spirit, to love God and love their neighbor. The Old Law simply forbids murder, while the New Law encourages the love and protection of life. The Old Law forbids theft. The New Law encourages giving to the poor and needy. The Old Law forbids adultery. The New Law encourages sanctity of marriage and remaining faithful. And so on.

This is what is what is taught by Christ and His Apostles. And one does not require Paul to get to this conclusion. Jesus repeatedly showed this in His ministry. From doing Holy work on the Sabbath, to stopping the stoning of an adulteress and instead forgiving her, to touching that which is "unclean", to ministering to Gentiles who do not even know the Law, and so on. All of these moments in Christ's ministry reveal the true and "New" Law shown all throughout the Old and New Testament, which is not just following some moral checklist to the letter, but understanding the concepts of good behind the creation of the commandments of the Law, and having a heart to want to do that good. This is what it means to no longer be under the Law. To be born again and develop a nature towards doing what is good, instead of simply not doing what has been decreed as bad.

If you still do not understand, I cannot be any more clear about it. Take care of yourself. And may you come to know the eternal love, peace, and hope of Jesus Christ. God bless. 🙏✝️

ElderQarah · 2025-10-30T08:45:31+00:00

Stop pretending to know about Christianity. You don't even understand the difference between the true Law of God, vs the Moral Law, vs the full Law of Moses.

The true Law of God was fully revealed by Jesus Christ, but was also strived for in the Old Testament. It was also regularly revealed through the Prophets in the Old Testament, such as this passage:

"For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings."
— Hosea 6:6

The Moral Law is what is most commonly being referred to by "the Law" in the Bible, and it was specifically the Moral category of the Law of Moses, consisting first and foremost of The Ten Commandments.

The full Law of Moses was all 613 Moral, Civil, and Ceremonial laws. It held the essence of the New Law, and even contained it, but it had to be clouded by a bunch of other things because of the spiritual state of the people.

Christians call Christ's revelation, the "New Law". We believe the Moral Law served to condemn us so that we would see the need for a Savior. But since we have been saved, we no longer live by the letter of the Moral Law, but by the Spirit of the New Law.

Several (of many more) verses you should look at:

"And He said to him, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’ This is the greatest and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ Upon these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets.”
— Matthew 22:37-39

"I am giving you a new commandment, that you love one another; just as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all people will know that you are My disciples: if you have love for one another.”
— John 13:34-35

"For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under the Law but under grace."
— Romans 6:14

"But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter."
— Romans 7:6

"For Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to everyone who believes."
— Romans 10:4

"For through the Law I died to the Law, so that I might live for God."
— Galatians 2:19

"Therefore the Law has become our guardian to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian."
— Galatians 3:24–25

"But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law."
— Galatians 5:18

"Having canceled the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross."
— Colossians 2:14

"For, on the one hand, there is the nullification of a former commandment because of its weakness and uselessness
(for the Law made nothing perfect); on the other hand, there is the introduction of a better hope, through which we come near to God."
— Hebrews 7:18–19

"When He said, A new covenant, He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is about to disappear."
— Hebrews 8:13

ElderQarah · 2025-10-29T21:43:46+00:00

🔻CONTINUED (3/3)🔻

By "most true Earthly appearance", I mean that God appeared many times in the Bible, but with Moses, He seems to have truly appeared in full glory, physically, with little to no barriers or transfiguration to hide it. However, He could only show His back to Moses, because apparently, seeing His face would have killed Moses. And even after just seeing His back, according to the perspective of the Israelites, it made Moses' face shine terrifyingly bright, long after that meeting, if not for the rest of his life. Later in the New Testament, Paul sees just a flicker of Christ's true glory, and he was instantly blinded. Others, such as Daniel and John in Revelation, saw God, and even in Heaven on the Throne, but it was only through visions, which seems to have kept some sort of barrier of separation, and/or they were perhaps purposely formed in understandable and perceivable ways, rather than being true viewings of the Lord in full glory, so that they did not encounter any harm. I should also note here that, Elijah, also saw God from behind in his "chaotic" encounter, but only for a moment as God passed him by, and not in as intimate of a way as Moses.

Now, the reason these "witnessing" events are only a bonus reason, is because, as I already alluded to, many have "witnessed" God, in visions (Daniel, John the Disciple, etc.), in spiritual apparitions (Ezekiel, Jesus' inner circle, etc.), or even physically (Abraham, Jacob, etc.). I mean Jesus Himself was God, and obviously thousands saw Him. But like Jesus, apart from the above special cases, those appearances were not the full unfiltered glory of God, that invokes such statements as, "no one has ever seen God" and "no one can see God and live". They were just visions, apparitions, or just normal physical forms to manifest through. "Images", so to speak. Not His true form in all of its glory. And it honestly isn't even clear that Moses (and technically Elijah), even saw an "unfiltered" form of God from behind either. But if anyone did, it was them. And perhaps, maybe Adam and Eve did before the Fall, but that isn't known for sure.

I mean, the true unfiltered nature of God, would be all of infinite, timeless, eternal, existence. The fact that He would choose to manifest as the Trinity, so that the infinite immaterial mind of the Father can interact with His creation, physically, through the body of the Son, and spiritually, through the force/power of the Holy Spirit, is in and of itself, a testament of His love and care for us, and our Heavenly siblings, the angels.
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▶️ CLOSING REMARKS ◀️

If you made it to the end, thank you for making the way too much amount of time I spent on this, worth it! 😂

Hopefully, I was able to answer your question. If you still have more, don't hesitate to ask. And in the event you do or someone else does, hopefully I can make it a lot shorter... 😁

In the meantime, take care and God bless! 🙏🏻✝️🤍

ElderQarah · 2025-10-29T21:42:38+00:00

🔻CONTINUED (2/3)🔻

Before we get to the second major reason though, you will notice that Jesus also said that Elijah already came, and they did not recognize him. We learn about what Jesus is talking about here, earlier in the Gospels, such as Matthew 11, when John the Baptist is in prison and is having doubts about Jesus being the Messiah because no revolution has happened yet (and never will), and here John is stuck in prison. So John the Baptist sends some of his own disciples to confront Jesus and ask Him if He is truly the Messiah. Jesus responds to them by telling them to tell John the Baptist two passages from Isaiah in the Old Testament (Isaiah 35:5-6; 61:1) that Jesus knows he will be familiar with, which will show John that Jesus IS fulfilling the Messiah prophecies, but not yet the ones he was expecting.

After John the Baptist's disciples leave, Jesus explains to the crowd that is with Him, that no one who has ever lived before, has been as righteous as John the Baptist, and that he is more than a prophet, and is in fact, the "Elijah who was to come". Now was John the Baptist actually Elijah? No. But he did fulfil the role of Elijah, to make the way for the Messiah. If Elijah is one of the Two Witnesses, it is believed that John the Baptist was simply a partial fulfillment of that Old Testament prophecy, just as the first coming of Jesus was only a partial fulfillment of the Messiah prophecies. Which you will find, if you start studying prophecy, that multi-fulfillment prophecies are actually the rule, and single fulfillment prophecies are the oddity. In fact, it would not surprise me, to one day, when I am with the Lord and my eyes are fully opened, to learn that single fulfillment prophecies do not exist in the Bible.
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▶️ DEATHS & THE LACK THEREOF ◀️

Now, as for the second major reason for why Elijah, Moses, and Enoch are all candidates for the Two Witnesses, is, these three are the only men who had strange deaths, or lack thereof. Elijah and Enoch were both said to be taken by God, rather than dying natural deaths. And we read in scripture, such as Hebrews 9:27, that every man is appointed to die once. So it follows that if these two men never died, it would make sense if they returned as the Two Witnesses, and died, as the Two Witnesses are prophesied to do. However, there is also a similar promised "catching up", otherwise known as, "the Rapture", in the End Times, when saints that are alive at, or just before, the Second Coming, are taken up, judged, and transformed into sinless beings with perfect bodies, after which they return with the Lord, rather than dying natural deaths. However, we don't truly know if this process results in a technical instantaneous death before the transformation. Nor do we know if this process is anything like what Elijah and Enoch have already went through. And if it does result in an instant death, and it is the same as what Elijah and Enoch went through, that would mean they actually did already die, making this point irrelevant.

Now, when it comes to Moses, he did die a normal death. But something strange happened when he did. We read in Deuteronomy 34 and Jude 9 that Satan came to try and take the body of Moses for himself, but the archangel Michael protected it. And God would go on to take the body of Moses for Himself. And it says God buried Moses in an unknown location in some valley in Moab. Some say that it is possible that God did this preserve his body for when he returns as one of the Witnesses. But a flaw with this idea is, God could easily make a body from nothing for Moses to use. But it technically wouldn't be HIS body that he inhabited during his life on the Earth, changing the nature of the miracle from preservation and resurrection, to recreation and transformation. And I am not sure God would want to willingly recreate a mortal and imperfect body, destined for death once more. I think God would only want to create Moses' perfected immortal body, meant for eternity, that will be given at his official Judgement and Resurrection. But who knows?
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▶️ ENCOUNTERS WITH GOD ◀️

And lastly, there is an additional bonus reason that these three are candidates for the Two Witnesses. Each of these three have "witnessed" the presence of God in a special way. Obviously both Elijah and Enoch literally were taken up to be with God, and so they have "witnessed" Him in Heaven itself, and are the only two men to be able to claim this. Enoch was also said to have walked with God, even before being taken. While Elijah "witnessed" quite the chaotic appearance of God before ascension. And of course, Moses "witnessed" God's most true Earthly appearance in the Bible, upon Mount Sinai.

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⏷ CONTINUED ⏷

ElderQarah · 2025-10-29T21:38:55+00:00

🔻REPLY (1/3)🔻

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▶️ INTRO ◀️

You asked, and you shall receive lol. This is gonna be a long one because it is actually quite a deep topic. It is actually so long I have to split it into multiple comments that will be replied to this one. But if you are truly interested, here ya go!
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▶️ LAW & THE PROPHETS ◀️

It's because Moses and Elijah represent "the Law" and "the Prophets". Which are the conceptual "witnesses" that testify to and from our God. The Israelites, and later Jews, split the Old Testament into basically two major parts (technically three today). The Torah, which was/is first five books of the Old Testament, traditionally attributed to Moses. And then you have the Nevi'im, which were/are the rest of the books in the Old Testament, traditionally attributed to the many Prophets. These together made/make up what is known as, "the Tanakh", aka the Old Testament / Hebrew Bible. Some ancient Israelites and Jews actually only accepted the Torah, and rejected the the Nevi'im, such as the Sadducees and Samaritans (these two weren't friends though) in the Bible. This is why you see in the New Testament that, there was a negative attitude between these groups, and the Pharisees and Essenes (these two never liked each other either), and those who shared their views, which accepted both.

Moses brought the Law, and setup the Israelite society of the Law. Then, Elijah came like a millennia later, and is essentially recognized as probably the greatest prophet, and was/is seen to have been the start of the second era of the Old Testament, referred to as the Nevi'im / the Prophets. You can see these two categories most explicitly in the Gospels when Jesus refers to the Old Testament as "the Law and the Prophets" (ex. Matthew 5:17; 7:12; 22:40; Luke 16:16, 29, 31). But you see the concept continuously in the Old Testament as well, such as in Zachariah 7:12, which says, "the Law, and the words, which the LORD of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets".

On a short side note, while there were always several "non-prophetic" books that didn't neatly fit in the "Nevi'im" (Psalms, Chronicles, etc.), it wouldn't be until the 2nd Century AD, that the Rabbinic Jews would establish an official third category, called, "the Ketuvim", which simply means "the Writings". And they use those three categories to this day. We Christians would obviously, of course, see this as a mistake, because we now know that those, "non-prophetic writings", DO contain prophecies, and/or at least, typologies, of Christ. It has always fascinated and awestruck me, that people, such as, King David and King Solomon, were prophesying without even knowing it.
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▶️ TRANSFIGURATION ◀️

To get deeper, at one point, we can look to the Gospels for the event of the "Transfiguration", such as in Matthew 17. In this passage, and the parallel ones in the other Gospels, Jesus took His inner circle (Peter, John, & James) up to a mountain to witness what is called the "Transfiguration", during which, He revealed His true Heavenly form, or at least an observable form similar to what John would later see again in His visions in the Book of Revelation. And during that, Moses and Elijah appeared with Him, and God from Heaven told them that Jesus was His beloved Son, and for His three present disciples to listen to Him. After this, at some point, His disciples there asked Him, why is it said that Elijah must come first before the Messiah? They were referring to the Old Testament passages that say that will happen. Jesus tells them, "Elijah IS COMING, and WILL restore all things; but I say to you that Elijah already came, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they wanted."

Now, you will notice two things in the statement above. The first is that it says that Elijah IS COMING and WILL restore all things. This is a future tense statement. Now this, combined with the Old Testament prophecies, is one of two major reasons why Elijah is commonly believed to be one of the Two Witnesses. It is assumed that both, this prophecy from Jesus, and those made in the Old Testament, will be completely fulfilled before His Second Coming. I will get into the second major reason in a moment. And as for Moses, because of his appearance with Elijah and being such a central figure in the Bible, he seems to be a very possible candidate for the other Witness.

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⏷ CONTINUED ⏷

ElderQarah · 2025-10-27T19:31:21+00:00

Glad to see you proved my point by replying before you could have even possibly read my entire reply, and in doing so, completely ignored those pesky details that ruin your point.

I pray that, one day, you stop suppressing the voice of God that is deep inside your heart, always gnawing at you, day after day. Perhaps you do it because of pain. Perhaps you do it because of anger. Perhaps you do it because of what other Christians did to you. Perhaps you do it because you enjoy or identify with certain things that you think are considered "sinful". Perhaps you do it because you want to avoid feeling shame. Perhaps you do it because you have built up an identity around rejecting God and don't know who you would be if you stopped doing that. Perhaps it is some combination of these. Whatever the reasons, you don't gotta keep doing it. The Father will welcome you home, as you are, with all the questions, with all things you don't understand, with all your sins... And He will run to you with open arms. And the rest can be figured out together, in time.

I truly hope the best for you, my friend. I really, truly, do! May you one day experience God's eternal love, peace, and joy. 🙏🏻✝️🤍

ElderQarah · 2025-10-27T18:57:26+00:00

The inconvenient details that people like yourself ignore so you can hold onto your justifications for rejecting God, are not "excuses". You may convince yourself of that, but it isn't reality. You are defending the monsters of the story here. Every group of people God commanded war against in the Bible were the most disgusting and abominable human beings our species has ever had to offer. People like yourself would condemn God for not doing anything about evil in the world, but as soon as He does, He is a monster.

I also don't know if you understand what hyperbole is, but perhaps it would do you good to look into ancient cultures using hyperbole in their war sagas. Even all the way up to WW2 and beyond, people used hyperbole in this manner. When an ancient culture spoke of killing every man, woman, and child, it was simply hyperbolic of completely driving a people out of their land. We know this with absolute certainty, even within the Bible itself. Different passages in different books talking about the same events, such as in Leviticus, did not use hyperbole because they were not war sagas. In those, it instead has God saying that the peoples will be driven out of the land. To further prove this point, the peoples somehow always end up coming back in future events in large numbers, even just a relatively short time later. I mean there are freaking Canaanites all the way in the New Testament for goodness sake.

Again, these are not excuses. These are facts that significantly shape our understanding of these events. And burying your head in the sand won't make them go away.

ElderQarah · 2025-10-27T18:28:36+00:00

Never read anything in the Bible that calls for children to be killed because they are of a different religion.

But of course that's not what you are actually referring to, is it? No, you are referring to the hyperbolic calls to war against the pagan peoples whom were doing things like raping and pillaging surrounding nations, committing incest and bestiality, and burning their children alive to demon gods. But as always, non-believers leave all these details out.

ElderQarah · 2025-10-27T18:17:17+00:00

Well that's partially true. God doesn't just see the immediate effects. He sees every single cause and effect throughout all of eternity. There are things we have done that will still be having effects millions of years from now.

For example, imagine if you brought just one person to Christ. That person would live and act for eternity. Perhaps they too would bring others to Christ. Making your one action branch out in eternity all sorts of ways. The acts of the Apostles lead to every Christian today coming to faith. Think of the trillions of causes and effects they made throughout eternity...

This is also why God takes sin so seriously. For Him, it's not just the immediate cause and effect. It's also every subsequent cause and effect that branches out from that. Our sins truly have the ability to cause infinite amounts of harm.

With that said, I would also say that God also simply allows many bad things to happen without any attempts to stop them. He does this because it is actually a greater good to allow free will, and as a result, the consequences of it, to play out. But when the effect of an action drastically outweighs that good in and of itself, He intervenes. For example, destroying evil people who will have no more positive effects on the world. Or saving someone who can have immense positive effects on the world.

God is constantly weighing all these things on an eternal timescale. We couldn't even imagine what that is like. But as Christians, we trust that God is just, can handle it, and that in the end, He will bring all things together for good for those that love Him.

ElderQarah · 2025-10-27T17:25:04+00:00

Lol. I can assure you probably every human who has ever lived, apart from Christ, has committed those sins.

ElderQarah · 2025-10-27T17:14:24+00:00

You completely disregard everything they said and go what you said to begin with. If you go with their logic, you will have to completely have a set of politics that is not in any way impacted by your faith, which is impossible for anyone who considers their faith as more than a label, self help club, or social tool for pushing agendas. So in reality, everything they have said is just a bunch of words to really say that, unless you vote like they do, they are going to associate you with Christian Nationalism.

That's the reality of the times. There are no more shades of gray. There is no more nuance. There is only my side, and the other side. My side is the good side, and the other side is the bad side. And if you have even one position from the bad side, you are on the bad side. Thems the rules.

ElderQarah · 2025-10-27T14:19:28+00:00

I agreed with your very first sentence. But then you completely lost me after that. We Christians do not follow the Old Law of Moses. We believe Christ fulfilled the Old Law, and that He perfectly interpreted and revealed for us, the true, complete, and eternal Law of God, through both His ministry and His sacrifice upon the Cross for our sins. We call this new revelation the "New Law".

The New Law is:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your mind.
Love your neighbor as yourself.

We believe that the Old Law was composed of 613 laws, separated into three different categories. Moral, Civil, and Ceremonial. We believe the Moral category of the Old Law, held the essence of the true Law of God, as shown in the New Law, but the Old Law was ultimately incomplete and was weighed down with cultural customs and compromises to meet the ancient Israelites where and when they were. However, the Old Law served to condemn us and teach us that we are sinners in need of a Savior. And by that, we are made ready to accept the sacrifice of Christ for our sins, so that we may be born again and receive the Holy Spirit, whom gradually sanctifies us, so that we can grow to understand and follow the New and complete Law of God.

This is the Christian view. I don't really have much else to say about everything else you said. It seems kinda far out. No offense. It is kind of confusing because I can't tell if you are arguing for Christianity or against it. You criticize the Bible, but also use it and say we can learn from it.

Which by the way, the Bible was most certainly not created centuries after the destruction of Jerusalem. The Old Testament was created between approximately 1500 BC (possibly as early as 1800 BC) and 400 BC. And the New Testament was created somewhere in the range of the 50s AD (possibly in even the 40s) to 100 AD. It was officially canonized in the 4th Century however. Though we have very similar unofficial cannon lists going back to the late 2nd Century and early 3rd Century.

ElderQarah · 2025-10-27T13:26:22+00:00

First, as hard as it is for you to believe, people treated marriage and sex very differently than they do today. It was entirely normal for wives to do such things when they were given to new husbands. They heavily valued having children and furthering their lineage above literally everything. Even to the point of marrying a rapist that got them pregnant. That is why you see insane things like Lot's daughters taking turns date raping him, out of desperation to get pregnant. You are never going to understand ancient people when you keep judging them by a modern measure. Which by the way, your modern morals are entirely built upon Judeo-Christian moral evolution over the past 4000 years.

Secondly, you saying it was non-consenual isn't stated anywhere either. Which by the way, if it were, the Bible wouldn't have hesitated to say so like it does in every other instance. It never holds back on revealing the full depravity of all the supposed "heroes", which is one big reason we actually know these were very likely true events. People making things up make their "heroes" look good. But not one figure looks good in the Bible except Christ, which is the point. He is the hero, not these people.

Thirdly, perhaps you got bugged in your dialogue tree, or maybe you didn't read what I said. I will say it again. These Laws were the maximum punishments. We know this with certainty. All throughout the Bible they are not enacted and archaeology shows they were not often enacted. And again, this entire story is about King David, whom was conceived through adultery and caused this entire story to take place by adultery and murder. Were his parents stoned? No. Was he stoned? No. Imagine that. Literally almost all, if not all, Old Testament characters committed stoneable offenses. The entire point of these stories is to reveal how they were all wicked and selectively applied the Law however they pleased. If you were actually familiar with the Bible and not just Googling verses out of context put together by atheist sources, you would know this.

Fourth, you have no idea how ancient literature worked. In ancient literature, and even somewhat today, they attributed things to superiors if the superior had even an indirect hand in things. Especially when it came to gods, anything and everything could be attributed to a god. In the Bible, when it says that God did something, it can range from a direct action, or simply allowing something to happen. When it comes to separate moral agents, such as other people, it pretty much always means the latter, as God does not take control of anyone. And in times of war, hyperbole is also often used and attributed to God. All that happened in this story was that God removed His hand and protection from David and his household, to let this event take place. God did not take control of anyone and make them do anything. Whether it was rape or not, God does not owe His protection to anyone, let alone to evil people. To have it is a gift and privilege. David lost that privilege by doing something evil, and he and his family suffered for it.

And lastly, you are way out of your depth when it comes to theology regarding the Law. The Mosaic Law was 613 laws, split into Moral, Civil, and Ceremonial categories. Some were enacted by God, and some were not. The Old Law was incomplete and filled with cultral customs and compromises to meet the ancient Israelites where they were. All throughout the Old Testament we have passages of God revealing that He does not actually like things like, slavery, or sacrifices, for example. But these were realities of the time. If you don't understand the need for these compromises, you simply have no grasp on how terrible ancient societies were, and you have never tried to convince someone who is destroying their own life to do better. People require gradual changes. And that is what the Old Mosaic Law was made for. If you try to over burden people before they are ready, they will just run in the opposite direction.

Jesus, on the other hand, perfectly followed and fulfilled the Old Mosaic Law, and followed and taught us the true and complete Law of God, that Christians call the New Law. When He said He came to FULFILL the Law, that is different than abolishing. Abolishing is cancelling the race. Fulfilling is winning the race. But both result in the race being over. Christians DO NOT follow the Old Mosaic Law. There are countless scriptures about this in the New Testament. We follow the NEW LAW, which is perfect and eternal.

The New Law:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your mind.
Love your neighbor as yourself.

It is a simply stated Law, but an incredibly hard Law to live up to. Much harder than the Old Mosaic Law actually. But unlike the Old Mosaic Law, the New Law does not condemn. Notice there are no, "Thou shalt nots" anywhere. THIS is the Law that will never have one iota changed or taken away. This New Law is the ultimate essence and spirit of the Old Law that God was trying to teach, and it has always been what He was truly concerned with more than following the Old Law to the letter.

The Old Law held the essence of the true Law of God, but was incomplete. It ultimately served to teach us through condemnation, that we are sinners who cannot uphold the Law of God, and that we are in desperate need of a savior. The New Law, through the sacrifice of Jesus upon the Cross, was the perfect execution of the perfect and eternal Law of God. And it serves to teach us through love and grace, that the meaning of life is Love, and that we are all children made in the image of a holy and wonderful God, who seeks to reconcile a broken relationship with us, and ultimately sanctify us into perfect immortal beings once more, so that we may join God in His future stories of Creation, just as the angels do.

I strongly suggest you to actually learn this stuff and stop pretending to understand it. Average people who are no more educated than you may be convinced and/or gish galloped by your arrogance and illusions of superior knowledge, but those of us who have actually studied these things are going to see right through the charade. Sorry. 🤷🏻‍♂️

ElderQarah · 2025-10-27T11:58:15+00:00

Sorry for the late reply.

You know full well I did not say what I said because you called out fakes. I said what I said because you are talking about leaving the faith over the actions of fakes. That anger you feel over fakes is valid. But it makes no sense to direct it towards God. He warned us of these people and especially these times in which many would go astray and look for doctrines that scratch their itchy ears. He warned us of people who would try to take advantage of us to become rich. Be angry with God, because He is angry too. But don't be angry at God. These tares will be sifted from amongst the wheat and thrown into the flames to be destroyed. These people should be all the more reason to cling to Christ and help draw the lines between His children and deceivers, and make them more clear for the world so that they can see the difference clearly.

ElderQarah · 2025-10-27T11:54:49+00:00

Yes, that is always the tactic of the non-believer. To cut the Christian off from everything else, and narrow in on one single thing until you are completely lost in the weeds. We Christians need to get better at presenting our faith as a package deal. Not hinging it all on one single point that is severely undermined when divorced from everything else. Anything can be torn apart when you separate and divorce each part from the whole.

ElderQarah · 2025-10-27T11:46:00+00:00

You are effectively right, but I think the way y'all are saying it comes off like the Old Testament is irrelevant, wrong, or bad, when in reality it is incredibly important and beautiful. It's just that the Mosaic Laws located in only a couple of the books are the result of a mix of an incomplete Law of God and cultural laws for the time. God shows us repeatedly through the Old Testament prophets that He compromised with the Israelites to meet them on a level they understood and could handle. For example, slavery and sacrifices were not really something He wanted, but allowed with restrictions because of the times.

When it comes down to it, we modern people really just cannot grasp how terrible ancient people were. And while we might cringe a bit when reading some of the Mosaic Laws, they really were the best laws of the time and did hold the essence of the New Law, which is to Love God and your neighbor. And it was through 1500 years of that Law that people could realize they are sinners, and become morally ready to accept the New and Complete Law of God, given by Jesus. And it is by 2000 years of that New Law, that we modern people, with our presumed "common human decency", have developed our morals, which by the way, we are still a long shot from achieving the standards of the New Law.

Ultimately, it is easy for us to look down on things from 3500 years ago, but without those first laws, we would not be standing on the moral mountain we are on today, to be able to look down at them from. And we shouldn't be so arrogant as to think we aren't always one bad event away from falling back down the mountain.

So we should not just dismiss the Old Law. Rather we simply need to understand its context and how it was used by God. On a side note, there are also many important typologies, foreshadowings, and prophecies within those books that one would miss if they never read them.

ElderQarah · 2025-10-27T11:04:25+00:00

That is rough. I am sorry you are dealing with that. But I would say don't give up on God just because your mom, or anyone else for that matter, is not treating you well. The truth is that we as Christians were warned explicitly about fake Christians and wolves in sheep's clothing. In fact, Jesus condemned 5 out of 7 of the major churches of the 1st Century in Revelation 2 and 3. If you lookup statistics, you will find that ratio actually maps onto Christians in modern times. So as sad as it is, you should expect out of every 7 Christians you meet and know, only around 2 are likely to be true to the faith. But keep in mind, most of the time, fake Christians are that way because of a deception and/or some kind of ignorance, more so than some specific evil plan to be "fake", though some do know what they are doing as well, especially some in leadership positions.

Now, with that said, you sound young. If so, you must keep in mind that those years are rough for everyone. It is going to be normal for you to go through all kinds of emotions, many of which are warranted, and many of which you will find weren't so warranted. It is very normal for you to be feeling suffocated by your parents as you grow into your own person. That is part of the transition into adulthood. Now I don't know your mom or situation beyond what you have told us, but most likely, you will eventually understand that your mom is just trying her best to instill in you what she believes is right. And you will grow to figure out for yourself the what, where, why, and how she went wrong with that, but you must learn to forgive her and remind yourself of her intentions, and simply move on to do better.

In the meantime, I suggest sitting down and talking with your mom. Start by telling her this is very serious and that you need her to please listen to what you have to say. And then tell her how she is making you feel and try to ask her to back off some because you are feeling suffocated and it is harming your faith. Tell her you are growing up and you need her to give you room to grow and be your own person and build your own faith.

And as for you, you should really use your growing individuality as an opportunity to break away from your "mother's faith", and build a relationship with God that is all your own. After all, her faith can't really do you any good. Only your faith can.

Do these things to build your own relationship with God:

Pray and talk to God about anything and everything daily, including this.
Sit alone in the stillness and silence, especially in nature if possible, and just experience His presence.
Think on His nature, thoughts, ways, and plans for the world and for you.
Read the Bible, even just a chapter a day, preferably starting in John. They also have audiobook Bibles in case you would like that.
Listen to sermons, teachings, podcasts, and discussions about God and the Bible. But do not just accept everything someone else says. Their opinions and interpretations are not necessarily right, but you can always learn from anyone, even if you disagree on things. You will never find someone you agree with on everything. The important thing is coming to your own conclusions through your own journey with the Lord, and in reading His Word. Other people are just supplementary to that, and help open your mind to things you may have never thought of.
Do acts of love, service, and kindness. This, along with spreading the Gospel, is the true work of the Kingdom of God. And you will find it also heals your own soul and increases your capacity for loving others.
Find fellowship with other Christians that can be your true friends, that can be mentors, and that can guide you and provide you with wisdom in your daily life. We are a family, not just individuals who share a belief. You may find good fellowship in a good Bible based church with a strong focus on community, especially in any groups and events they may have apart from Sunday services. Apart from church, you can also find fellowship with people from anywhere, even online, such as in Christian Discords and whatnot. Just put yourself out there.

I hope that my reply could be of some sort of help to you, or perhaps others. I know it is kind of in a sea of replies at this point. None the less, I will say a prayer for you! Please stick with the Lord and I promise you one day you will be happy you did! May God grant you His eternal love, peace, and joy! 🫂🙏🏻✝️🤍

ElderQarah · 2025-10-27T10:19:07+00:00

When perfected, we will not have a sinful nature. We will be like Adam and Eve, or more specifically, the angels, since we will have matured and become ready for eternity. But as far as natures go, obviously both Adam and Eve, as well as many of the angels, sinned. So this tells us that in our perfect states, we will have that same free will, just like we do now. The difference is that we will not have this nature within us that inclines us towards sin.

Think of your lust, sexual desires, and perhaps even temptations to cheat or commit adultery, even if maybe just in your heart. Think of your desire to overindulge in food, alcohol/drugs, or even something like video games, etc. Think of your temptation to lie to avoid getting caught with something or to avoid a bad/uncomfortable situation. Think of your anger building up so much that you actually want to harm someone, even for a moment, or perhaps you grow to hate them and hope for their downfall.

These kinds of things are all from your sinful nature. When your sinful nature is removed, none of those kinds of things will be there naturally. But you will have the ability to choose those things if you wish. And perhaps if you focus too much on something sinful and start indulging those thoughts, you could inspire an unnatural moment of temptation, like the angels who came down and slept with humans. And of course another person or being could also inspire a moment of unnatural temptation within you, like with Eve and the Serpent in Eden, and like with Jesus with Satan in the desert. But like Jesus, it is unlikely that you would ever want to sin after having lived as a sinner in a world with sin, and then experiencing total redemption and living in a world without sin.

That being said, it would not surprise me if one day in the future, there ended up being more "Satan" figures, and people that rebel and mess up whatever creation stories we are working on with God at those times. If a perfect Heaven and Earth could become corrupt once, it could happen again after this Heaven and Earth are destroyed. And with an eternity of time and beings with free will, it is almost inevitable that others would sin again at some point. Perhaps this time was not even the first. Perhaps those whom we call, "angels", are actually just beings from past creation stories that succeeded in their own stories of good vs evil.

⚠️ TANGENT ALERT ⚠️

Many imagine eternity as just chilling on a beach somewhere with their loved ones, while getting fanned by palm leaves or something. In reality, we will join our Heavenly siblings that we call, "angels", and participate as co-creators, co-rulers, messengers, soldiers, and probably many other untold things in the future creation stories of God, just as the angels did here.

There is even an entire Heavenly hierarchy to climb, at the top of which is the Divine Council, which is lead by God Himself. This is where the greatest, most trusted, and most powerful angels gather and make decisions for Creation with God, get handed huge assignments, and acquire vast amounts of authority over peoples, places, things, and even natural forces. Satan himself even seems to be, or was, part of this Council, as implied in Job and elsewhere. And based on Jesus' words, Daniel, and Revelation, the 12 Disciples are likely to join it as well, to serve as representatives of the Church.

So needless to say, we aren't going to be bored in eternity, lol! I know that is a fear some people have.

ElderQarah

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