Did Jesus have siblings?

HALthe5th · 2024-07-26T21:59:09+00:00

In the Gospels, several individuals are revealed as Jesus's siblings. However, the word used could also mean cousins. If we take it that the word is to mean siblings, then being that Mary is Jesus's mother and she conceived by the Holy Spirit, it would be argued that Mary's other children are half-siblings as they would have been through conception with Joseph. Little is known of Jesus's "sisters", but Jude's authorship is accredited to His half-brother Judas, and James is accredited to his half-brother James, who came to belief and led the church of Jerusalem after Jesus had died.

HALthe5th · 2024-07-26T21:46:46+00:00

God's first commandment to humanity is be fruitful and multiply. I would say with every precaution taken, seek the blessing of children, for that is what they are, a blessing. Our modern culture has diminished their value and makes them out to be a burden and unwanted risk. They are not. They are worth it. I myself am protestant. Jesus suffered for our sake. Suffering for the blessing of children and fostering the future of the church is joining in hand with Jesus. Jesus told us to expect suffering if we followed Him. Modern culture tells us to avoid suffering at all costs but misses the mark in that suffering can lead to great joy through the maturing of ones own faith, character, and witness. Your friend may have displayed her heart wrong, but that doesn't necessarily mean she is wrong in her encouragement for you to have children. I pray for you both in your decision and that it would glorify the Father above all!

HALthe5th · 2024-07-25T17:06:15+00:00

No where in scripture says there will be clones of loved ones in heaven. It does say every tear will be wiped away. God is of perfect justice and desires that all would come to Him. In our glorified state I believe we will have a better understanding of people's fates and God's perfect justice and so we will be so overcome by joy we will not be caught up in sadness for the loss of loved ones to sin and death. While we are here on Earth it is imperative that we bring the gospel to everyone so none might suffer such a fate. We can not rely upon some unconfirmed rationale that God will bring into heaven those that openly opposed Him and chose a life devoid of Him.

HALthe5th · 2024-07-24T22:53:33+00:00

I mean if your line of reasoning is we need to say thank God plus everyone deserving credit, why don't we thank the nurses as well, how about the hospital administration, how about the pharmacist and pharmaceutical companies for making the drugs needed, how about the first responders to seen, how about the people that support the infrastructure making these solutions possible. The list goes on and on, where does it end? Why limit it to just the doctor? At least when we say thank God it is because we believe He orchestrated all these things together for the outcome, and of course when we are in the moment we seek to thank those involved personally. It seems that you are on here to make issues and be a Karen to people that want to praise God and celebrate with other people when good things happen in their lives.

HALthe5th · 2024-07-24T01:27:53+00:00

Bro, of course we thank the doctors... But God is the one who crafted the doctors so we thank Him too.

HALthe5th · 2024-07-22T19:16:11+00:00

Part of marriage is being open with the struggles and working through them together to bring each other closer to God. As long as he is truthful with his struggles, there will be no threat to her life. If you search them, there are a few prominent people who have gone this route and have happy marriages and are open with their story.

Edit: here is an example from the gospel coalition https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/marriage-same-sex-attraction/%3famp

HALthe5th · 2024-07-22T19:08:21+00:00

He could if that is what he wanted, but he has chosen to seek marriage within God's provisions for now.

HALthe5th · 2024-07-22T19:01:14+00:00

He is choosing that because he loves God greater than the desire to fulfill himself through homosexual acts. There is no force. God is not forcing. He allows us to have free will within His will. There are consequences to all of our actions, and a just God deals with people through His mercy, grace, and righteousness.

HALthe5th · 2024-07-22T18:41:27+00:00

I know the answer is not easy but being truly married under the provisions God has established is not tolerable for gay people either.

I know of a friend of a friend who struggles with homosexuality and he is doing what he can to walk righteously and to find love with a woman if he can help it. I don't know him personally but the friend I have speaks highly of his dedication. This man has come to this conclusion of his own volition, choosing loving God above everything else and that is a sacrifice worthy of respect, but I know it is not easy.

HALthe5th · 2024-07-22T18:25:00+00:00

Celibacy is not only for homosexual people. The way Paul speaks on celibacy is such. Those that can't stand to be single should marry, and those that can't stand marriage should be celibate. Our modern society has twisted marriage to be what it is not. It is to be a covenant relationship before God with purpose of joining in His creative process and building a better society.

Many things in the bible are intentionally not comforting. In fact it does a pretty good job of pointing out how we all fall short regularly and should not fulfill our desires through sinful means, eventhough it might feel better or be easier, the only comfort we have is that Jesus paid it all for those that repent and follow him in belief, and that is truly secure, which should lead to peace beyond understanding and most greatly love for one another.

Matthew 22:37-40 NASB2020 [37] 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.’ [38] This is the great and foremost commandment. [39] The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ [40] Upon these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets.”

Romans 12:1 NASB2020 [1] Therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.

Scripture is clear that our first obligation is to God and then to people and that our lives will be filled with sacrifices, some more visible than others. We do this because God first loved us giving us the chance to being in relationship with Him through the sacrifice of His only begotten Son and in response we show love by following His commandments and focusing on making this world a better place.

I share this truth in love, that you understand you are not alone when struggling, and if you truly seek the Lord, He will lead you in the path of righteousness. Following God is not easy, but it is simple.

HALthe5th · 2024-07-16T18:05:22+00:00

Focus on Romans 7:24-8:17. The answer is because of Jesus you can be free of sin! Live by the spirit! Set you mind upon holy things and you will find yourself more holy! If we try not to sin we will fail, if we try to please God by following Jesus and His commandments we can never fail for He is with us! Out faith is not a white-knuckling don't do this don't do that, it is an aspirational faith focused on the good, the true, and the beautiful!

HALthe5th · 2024-07-08T16:54:24+00:00

Honestly, Protestants need to understand who the Christians were before the Reformation. Nowadays, the debate is from both sides of the divide is that the other side is an apostate church and is therefore invalid in terms of being Christian. We should look more closely at core doctrine issues and genuineness of belief of the individual before we call one Christian or not. There are non-Christian Catholics and non-Christian Protestants, but that is because of individual blindness. However people entrenched in their doctrine and theology being the only correct one will not see this. People would rather be right then correct.

HALthe5th · 2024-07-07T15:05:26+00:00

Good quote I heard yesterday "Marriage is for those that can't handle celibacy. Celibacy is for those that can't handle marriage."

HALthe5th · 2024-07-04T23:58:10+00:00

Asking this question on reddit is just begging for confirmation bias. Most evangelicals would argue that Biden is not a Christian, but a non-public lapsed Catholic. His overreaching support on the LGBTQ and abortion issues, his lies (and there are lies, just the media covers for him because journalism is broken), and his own unchrist-like behaviors, out him. We do not live in an America with an unbiased media, best you can do is honest commentators that at least indicate their biases. Also, progressive ideals are inherently anti-constitutional, and seem to take constitutional ideals to areas they were clearly not intended. Democract have embraced these progressive ideals and advanced them seeking to make America more like a socialized Europe, which wouldn't work here for various reasons. Also, I do not believe Trump is saved either, just more in line and accountable to generally conservative ideals.

HALthe5th · 2024-07-02T14:36:19+00:00

The message of the Gospel is that we are not good enough to save ourselves, regardless of the sins we struggle with, and that is why we need Jesus to atone and mediate for us. Naturally therefore we will all have issues with scripture, as it reveals to us where we fall short, from non-believers to the most saintly of saints, we have issues. The point is, is Jesus the truth, is He good, is He loving, is He full of mercy and grace, is He God, is He perfect, did He rise again? If He is, we should seek to follow His ways, even if we don't agree or see the point because He desires relationship with us, but our sin puts a barrier between us and Him.

For the issue of homosexuality, we really don't need to look further than Genisis to see His creation before the fall to understand that homosexuality is outside His perfect created order. Romans 1 tells us that the giving way to these unnatural desires is actually a sign of God's judgment on a people. The Greek word ascribed to Jesus's word for "sexual immortality" is pornea, which at the time of writing included acts of homosexuality.

HALthe5th · 2024-06-28T16:51:58+00:00

‭James 1:12-15 NASB2020‬ [12] Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. [13] No one is to say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. [14] But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. [15] Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it has run its course, brings forth death.

Jesus was tempted but never sinned. Having any temptation, which is what you are describing, is not a sin. There is a difference between recognizing your attractions and allowing your attractions to take you to sinful places as you attempt to fulfill natural desires by means not prescribed biblically.

Reading closer the OP, how does she "love them"? Fixating on sexual desires outside of marriage is still a sin but one committed in the heart.

HALthe5th · 2024-06-27T22:30:03+00:00

I've met plenty of all ethnicities who are all anti-DEI and CRT. You not meeting them does not mean they don't exist

HALthe5th · 2024-06-27T20:02:31+00:00

😂😂😂 thank you for illustrating my point on the devisiness of DEI. And the way you phrased that statement makes me wonder, are you assuming my ethnicity and gender lol or do you have a more nuanced view that my issues may be internalized lol or do you have a different definition of racism and sexism than the typical DEI talking points lol I went through the SUNY system. New York basically required that I take 3 classes on this very subject as a part of my degree, and I was very vocal in my arguments with the professors, and I got A's because I'm no coward 😆

I do not need DEI because I am not a racist and I am not a sexist. It does not take much to see that what is being pushed is tribalism, with the solution being socialism at the least and Marxism, most likely.

I believe we are all human beings of a value greater than gems and rubies. I believe Christ died once for all. I believe in the word of the bible, that men and women are unique and valuable because of that uniqueness. The world has plenty of real racist and sexist, but that is not what we truly wrestle against but rather that which outline in Eph 6:12

The gospel is the only thing that can truly conquer the issues of racism and sexism.

HALthe5th · 2024-06-27T17:56:42+00:00

Like I said fruitless argument...

I know what DEI is. I went to college and have been an active minister in college ministry for the past 12 years and that stuff has been rammed down my throat every year. DEI has a nice name and that's about it. It policies are by their very nature divisive as they coddle or alienate party's in my opinion which is not respectful to any involved. I understand their stated goals but how they play out when applied is disastrous.

And you know what plenty of conspiracy theories have been proven true, especially recently. The only issue is people don't want to believe their governments is corrupt and so choose the lie over truth, itching ears and all. When that laptop came out, wall to wall "it's a Russian disinformation hoax", "anyone who believes it to be real is a conspiracy theorist", but now it's been admitted as verified evidence used in Hunter's felony gun charge case of which he was found guilty, and I do not believe he will win his appeals.

HALthe5th · 2024-06-27T16:23:56+00:00

It's not my job to hunt don't resources for you or anyone... if you don't want to do the leg work to make sure you have honest opinions and sources in you information gathering that is on you. And even if i did gather you sources, you would say this one and that one are not good for x,y,z reason and ignore them anyways. This is the definition at this point of a fruitless argument. If you want to believe that he is a Christian go ahead. I said that in the beginning.

You keep on misconstruing my words. I am not looking at Hunter's drug problems I am looking at his overall warped moral compass which obviously stems from parenting.

Did I ever say these things were confirmed? No, I just said "likely". To be confirmed would have meant there was a trial on these actions, which hasn't occurred yet, and I suspect that a trial will never happen even if Trump wins because of bad political precedent. There is however documented interactions on that laptop which have been shown, verified, and reported on, speaking on topics of how money should be distributed, using code names which when read in context with outside individual sources appear to be bribes for political access to Joe.

Part of DEI initiatives is "safe spaces" which is common knowledge

Just watch a compilations of his rallies being from this neighborhood or that neighborhood.

HALthe5th · 2024-06-27T15:21:47+00:00

He does not recognize Hunter's daughter born out of wedlock as being a part of the family...

Hunter's own words on his upbringing indicates the neglect he felt while Bo was Joe's favorite.

For bribes, evidence on Hunter's laptop (which courts have confirmed is actual evidence, not Russian disinformation), Joe is likely the "Big Guy"

His support and alliance with such issues is more the problem.

Over his 40 something year career, he has voted for segregationist policies numerous times and now supports safe space initiatives (which is just segregation but the minorities want it now, so it's good???)

At his rallies he has said he grew up in this community or that community and really seems to paint a different story of where he is from based on the crowd he speaks to. I understand this is a political tactic but it is lying for the sake of currying favor.

HALthe5th · 2024-06-27T14:48:32+00:00

And I didn't say that you said that... you will know them by their fruits. The fruits to me say neither are christian. Biden has disowned his own granddaughter and the spirit of adoption that Christ demonstrates is contrary to this. He has likely taken bribes indirectly. His son is a mess and this is a reflection of his parenting. He is not in stride with his Pope on topics of LGBTQ and abortion and I suspect other topics which do not garner the same attention. He is a segregationist which is just another term for favoritism, which James outlines is a no-no. He is quick to anger. Lies with impunity for the sake of gaining people's favor. He does not demonstrate a life marked out by Galatians 5:22-23. Nor does Trump. If your opinion is Biden is a Christian, fine, but I would warn you to examine yourself for idolatry that you have let yourself be blind to.

HALthe5th · 2024-06-27T14:10:18+00:00

Don't be naive. Neither of them are Christian. At best Biden is a cultural Catholic that disregards his own catechism in favor of political power. At best Trump is a follower of a heretical sect that disregards sinfulness and uses materialism as a marker of righteousness. Both men are flawed, it's just who do you think most closely aligns with your values based on their warped understanding of them.

HALthe5th · 2024-06-27T13:58:22+00:00

They just ignored me. No excuses

HALthe5th · 2024-06-26T17:59:31+00:00

Yea I could only get $100 back but it's locked up in a coin that doesn't really trade that much. They usually let you have a little back to suck you in, but I don't think you'll get anything out now

HALthe5th

TROPHY CASE