TRUTH IS SO OBVIOUS THAT PEOPLE DISMISS IT AND GO LOOKING FOR SOMETHING IMAGINATIVE. Imagination Is Promoted To Students As Being Creative And Creativity Is A Highly Sought Quality. Yet when students leave school they become disillusioned that their creativity is stifled and many turn to vandalism in the misconstrued belief that they are being creative.

What does John 3:8 mean in the Bible?

The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit. —requested by Steve Rider

Harry Riches · Answers Steve Rider

In the particular text queried, Nicodemus was being told by Jesus what it means to be born from above by the Spirit of God. The context of this tells us that Nicodemus was a teacher of Israel, God's elect according to the promise given to Jacob who was named Israel. We read:

Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born anew.’ The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know whence it comes or whither it goes; so it is with every one who is born of the Spirit.”

Nicodemus said to him, “How can this be?”

Jesus answered him, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand this? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen; but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended from heaven, the Son of man. (John 3:5-13)

Jesus speaks of being born of water and the Spirit. Jesus then qualifies this by saying that the water is equivalent to being born of the flesh (as a human), but that which is born of the Spirit is a different dimension again. Nicodemus for a second time displays his ignorance of spiritual rebirth, having done this previously. This is because spiritual rebirth is not a set of doctrines or possessing knowledge of any sort, rather it is about matters that are real and can be proven in the present time; spiritual rebirth is about an experience. Spiritual rebirth is very real for those who are born from above by the Spirit of God.

Nicodemus is like so many eggheads: people who are puffed up with knowledge and their own opinion. Yet unlike those people, Nicodemus has approached Jesus because of what he had heard, and possibly seen himself, concerning miracles such as this woman being healed from lip cancer (click here).

The idea that there was more to life than the physical seemed difficult for the materialist Nicodemus to understand. Many people today think that they can understand everything, except what happens after death. Although what happens after death is the most important question each person needs to understand, because this is an eternal matter.

Jesus demonstrates those who are materialist in their thinking need to realize some truths about life. The idea that wind cannot be seen but can be felt should surely indicate that there is more to life than what can be seen by the naked eye. Those who are so bogged down in their materialist thinking are the ones who are missing out on the truths of life. They are born into this world, delivered in their mother's water (amniotic fluid), but it is not until they breathe that they are alive as a child. Yet this same air that children breathe does not need to move like the wind for a child to live. However, the materialist will tell us that this is oxygen that keeps us alive—ask them to prove it and they have problems. Nevertheless, they forget that when they are under water, the oxygen in H2O does not keep them alive. Nicodemus was thinking like this. Consequently, Jesus said that Nicodemus was not recognized by those who really matter: the Father and the Son of God—who searches the hearts of people by the Spirit of God.

If people cannot grasp that the simple truths around them point to the true spiritual realities of life, then they will not understand spiritual truths. They might learn doctrines, develop theories and philosophy based upon false premises, but unless they recognize, in humility, that they are part of Creation and they need to know the Creator, their lives are futile. Being born to die and being able to conceptualize eternal life is a torment that people unconsciously seek to relieve. This is why people develop philosophies about life to dull the pain of the internal worm that develops and eats at us as we grow older, when we have no assurance of our eternal destiny.

As the wind blows, we can see its presence in the leaves of trees, long grass, dust, sand, clouds and as it turns glass-like water into ripples, and then, maybe, choppy waves. We can feel it on our skin. We can hear the sound of its presence as the leaves rustle. Likewise those who are born of the Spirit produce the effects of the Spirit within them. If we have ears to hear, we will notice that those who are born of the Spirit will change in their confession and produce the fruit of the lips. This is what the Bible states:

Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. (Hebrews 13:15)

Numerous people are like Nicodemus. They lack spiritual experience. They have not realized that they are spiritual beings who need to exercise their right to call out to God and seek Him so that they might find Him. For the Bible is very clear about our being placed on Earth for the very purpose that we might realize our need to know our Creator:

And he made from one every nation of men to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their habitation, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel after him and find him. Yet he is not far from each one of us. (Acts 17:26-27)

The Apostle Paul says that we are to feel after God. The Spirit of God is like the wind. For as we can feel the wind, but cannot see the wind, only its effects, likewise we cannot see God. We can only see the effects of our Creator's existence. If we are sensitive enough to recognize the truth that we are being called to seek Him, then we might feel His presence and know we have found Him. If we know we have found God, others will begin to know because we will produce the fruit of lips and the fruit of the Spirit which includes love, joy and peace; qualities that we can feel and which assure us of our relationship with the Holy Spirit and our Salvation.

When Jesus was using the wind as an Earthly example of a Heavenly phenomenon, we can see that not only was He attempting to describe what being born of the Spirit of God is like. Also Jesus was enlightening Nicodemus, an ignorant teacher of those who think they are the elect of God, the need to experience the love of our Heavenly Father and know the joy of Salvation, having made peace through accepting our forgiveness of sin.

Reality Is Not Something We See But Something That We Feel Just Like The Wind

TITLES ARE STYLES OF ADDRESS THAT PEOPLE COVET. Being Called A Prince or Princess or Lord or Lady or President or Governor or General Has It's Privileges, But Only Because Society Is Geared Towards Elitism. When the Son of God game to Earth, He spoke of Himself as the Son of Man and not as the Lord of Lords or the King of Kings.

Why is Jesus called the Son of man and also the son of the God?

How can this be when he is the son of God? -- Jamar Grimsley

Happy Riches, Answers

Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of Man because He is born of man. Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of God because he is born of God.

People have great difficulty in understanding how a man could be God at the same time. This is has been a bone of contention throughout the ages and many schisms have resulted from the various views, even when the differences seem so minor.

The Gospel of Luke records the genealogy of Jesus to Adam, who is called the son of God (Luke 3.23-38). However, we know Adam was not the son of God in the sense that he was born of God and possessed God's nature. Luke therefore has to be saying that Adam came into being because of God, as did the angels who were called sons of God (Genesis 6:2; Job 1:6; Job 2:1; Job 38:7). Although this need not be the case, because we learn that the Hebrews who were to go into the Promised Land were also called sons of God:

• “You are the sons of the Lord your God; you shall not cut yourselves or make any baldness on your foreheads for the dead. (Deuteronomy 14:1)

A differentiation nevertheless existed between the sons of men and the sons of God, and this was to distinguish between angels and men. This is evidenced in the following Scripture,

• When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of men, he fixed the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God. (Deuteronomy 32:8)

There are those who will interpret Deuteronomy 32:8 in the light of the Deuteronomy 14:1 and claim that the reference to sons of God is really a reference to the number of Israelites that will be born. There is some merit to this, but the Deuteronomy 32:8 is a reference to the time of Babel, when God separated the people of Earth by language and appointed an angel over every nation, just as Lucifer had been appointed the guardian angel over Adam and Eve.

That the sons of Israel could also be the sons of God enables us to grasp how Jesus, being born of an Israelite woman, can be both a son of man and Son of God. However, unlike men who are born into sin and who are then given a spirit made by God, the pre-existence Son of God entered the child of Mary at birth, and God became man. In the Gospel of John, this is expressed thus:

• And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father. (John 1:14)

The Old Testament is very clear that the Son of God existed not as a created being but always was the Son of the Holy One, and they bore the same name.

• I have not learned wisdom, nor have I knowledge of the Holy One.Who has ascended to heaven and come down? Who has gathered the wind in his fists? Who has wrapped up the waters in a garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and what is his son’s name? Surely you know! (Proverbs 30:3-4)

The son possessing the name of the Father is a very important concept for identification that has been carried down into the modern era, where the surname is taken from the father. Consequently, when the Son of God became the Son of Man and took on the body of the babe from the womb of Mary, He became known as Jesus, the son of Joseph ( John 6:42) .Later on, when moving away from where he was raised, he was known as Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. (John 1:45).

While Jesus was a man walking in the biological body of a human, He was rightfully a son of man, even though He was the Son of God. Jesus took the title Son of Man, which was to be bestowed on the Son of Righteousness. This is found in a prophecy within the book of Psalms:

• Give the king thy justice, O God, and thy righteousness to the royal son! (Psalm 72:1)

Mary, the mother of Jesus, was a descendant of King David, and this meant the baby she carried was of royal descent. The Son of Man was to be the Son of Righteousness, which is what was originally intended before the sin of Adam and Eve.

Jesus on the Cross was the Son of Man; the Son of Righteousness who could give His life as a ransom for the sin of Adam and pay the redemption price so every person could have access to eternal life if they do desired, rather than a life of futility and death.

When Jesus rose from the dead, He was declared the Son of God by virtue of His Spirit of Holiness. The Apostle Paul, speaking of his calling as an Apostle, writes about Jesus in the book of Romans, saying:

• ....concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh designated Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 1:3-4)

The book of Philippians sums up the decision of Jesus, the pre-existent Son of God, to become man and fulfill the purpose of God:

• Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name (Philippians 2:6-9).

Before the Son of God became man, being God, He was light and dwelt in unapproachable light (1 Timothy 6:16). When Jesus became man, as far as the people of the day were concerned, He was a son of man. Jesus understood that He was the Son of Man, the royal Son of David, the Son of Righteousness. Not until He rose from the dead, was Creation itself, His disciples and all those who knew Him, absolutely certain that Jesus was the Son of God. Now Jesus, the Son of God looks like a human being, a son of a man, but because of His status He carries the title Son of Man.

Today, Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of Man (because he looks like a man) and the Son of God, because He is God. When Lord Jesus Christ returns, He will be like a son of man upon the clouds, but will also take His place as the rightful ruler of planet Earth as Lord of Lords and King of Kings.

Get To Know What It Means To Be Able To Meet The Son Of Man At His Appearing

DINOSAURS ARE CREATURES THAT ARE MOSTLY EXTINCT EXCEPT FOR CREATURES LIKE CROCODILES. Sea Creatures Were Alive And Swimming When The Dinosaurs Roamed The Earth. Some dinosaurs were extremely large and others were not so big. The Bible speaks of dinosaur-like creatures but nobody is sure what they are really.

Why do people keep saying the leviathan in the Bible is a whale or a crocodile?

The Bible calls bats birds, porcupines reptiles and whales fish. But the leviathan has a physical and lifewise more detailed description that do not apply to a whale or crocodile at all, as well many comparisons. Why people keep repeating this big illiterate error?

Happy Riches · Answers

The bombardier beetle is an example of what a creature can do. The idea that fiery dragons are biological impossibilities, therefore a myth, does not hold water when consideration is given to what the bombardier beetle is capable of doing. The bombardier beetle illustrates that a type of crocodilian, fire-breathing, Komodo dragon could have existed. Instead of fire-creating abilities located in its posterior, such a dragon would have had the capabilities of the bombardier beetle placed in its head above its nostrils. A fire-breathing dragon having existed is plausible. Besides Leviathan, a similar dragon could have had wings and flown.

Apart from many people not wanting to believe the truths within the Bible and its historical accuracy, they find it impossible to accept something that they are not familiar with exists. Hence, because there are no fire-breathing dragons known to be alive today, Leviathan had to be a crocodile or a hippopotamus. Anything that suggests dinosaurs, or other creatures that might indicate dinosaurs could have lived among humans, must not be permitted.

Learn What The Great God Can Do For You If You Allow Him Access To Your Life

MORALITY CAN BE A MATTER OF RELATIVE MORALITY OR SITUATIONAL MORALITY OR ABSOLUTE MORALITY. Philosophers And Ethicists And Atheists And Hypocrites All Believe In Situational and Relative Morality. Absolute morality is too restrictive because this requires things like equality, equity and justice to be upheld as virtues.

To what extent does religion shape moral beliefs?

Happy Riches · Answers

To adequately answer this question one has to define religion and morality and then delve into much more than a quick answer permits.

Religion defined as the quest for the truth differs from what people in general believe religion to be. Most people appear to view religion as some cultural vestige which is of no relevance to them apart from being the cultural milieu into which they were born—an event they participated in of which they had no say. A person born to Roman Catholic parents, at birth, did have a choice of being Orthodox or Calvinist or Zoroastrian or Islam or Hindu or Buddhist. At least, nobody I have met has made such a claim.

If religion is merely a tradition that one accepts as being one's birthright, then that is really cultural and not true religion, even though many people claim it to be religion.

People throughout the eons have been born into various religious traditions and practiced the cultural aspects of that tradition. They just do not get into the god-thing because they do not believe it necessary. They may be agnostics, or even atheists. Nevertheless, in order for those individuals to be accepted within society, they tow the party line, so to speak.

How does this shape their morality?

Morality can be defined as the standards that are considered acceptable for human behavior within a community. A community can have different codes of behavior which to another community appear horrific. For instance, many communities of the world would consider the practices of cannibals abhorrent. The cannibals would see these practices as perfectly legitimate behavior for strengthening their community, for they only devour the flesh and drink the blood of their perceived enemies.

On a slightly less grotesque note, today, Muslims practicing Sharia Law seeing nothing wrong with beheading and chopping of the hands of infidels who refuse to accept their tradition; or, who as members of their belief system, transgress certain codes of behavior. Pacifists see this behavior as abhorrent and immoral.

Sikhism is a blend of Islam and Hinduism. Yet for a Sikh male to cut his hair or not wear a turban in public is to violate the tradition of Sikhism. This is similar to women having to wear hats in some Christian denominations or many of the practices that are observed still among the Amish in North America. The individuals have no choice but to comply if they are to remain part of the community. These are codes of behavior that really have no bearing on what true morality concerns.

True morality is about relationships between the Creator and humans. Many accept the Golden Rule as adequate to explain morality, because it possesses a universal essence that is found throughout every community, even among cannibals. Even the commandment of Jesus for His disciples to love one another so they might be distinguishable as His disciples is communal—even though it is not necessarily inclusive of those outside the community.

Cultural traditions and expectations shape behavior and morals irrespective of what religious heritage a person may be born into. This applies to the Japanese, Chinese and Sudanese as much as it applies to those who identify as Aborigines, Gypsies and North American Cree.

When we speak of true religion and true morality, this becomes another matter. True religion being the quest for the truth is about seeking, finding and relating to the Source of Life, the Great I AM, the One Who Exists and besides Whom there is no other. This is not a cultural matter, this is an individual quest that comes from a desire to know why we exist. Once established, then morality has to do with the relationship between the Individual and the One Who Lives and within Whom the Universe exists. This need not negate a person's relationship with other people; in fact, one would expect an enhancement within relationships and deeper appreciation for being human once the quest is satisfied.

However, in their quest to know the Infinite Omniscient One, many are duped into accepting the interpretation within the cultural traditions as to who the Almighty Creator God might be and what His expectations are of them. This false religion becomes a means by which those in power are able to manipulate those over whom they rule. Consequently, there is a sovereign (president) or counsel of rulers (politicians) who dictate policy which is reinforced through the propaganda unit of priests (or teachers, psychologists, philosophers, economists) and government officials (judges, military officers, etc).

True religion will affect the morality of a person in such a way that death is no real issue to that person, therefore the person will give selflessly; for what counts is knowing the Creator and communicating the Creator's values to others through one's behavior; which is reflective of the Creator.

People are affected by the ultimate ideal or meaning that they appropriate for themselves, to the extent that this will dictate how they relate to their fellow human beings within the community in which they live and derive their significance; not to mention outsiders. Various quasi-religious beliefs do incorporate ultimate ideals (reincarnation into a higher caste, nirvana, virgins in Heaven ) that will shape a person's morality from that which is seemingly meritorious to that which is immoral. Compare the practice of feeding beggars to obtain merit in the next life with the suicide bombing of heavily populated shopping precincts (stadiums, stations, airports) to obtain virgins in Heaven.

Distorted reality is a product of organized religion utilized for political purposes by the ruling class to control the non-ruling (working/slave) class. On the other side of the coin, reality is what each one has to realize for one's self. In so doing, one has to come to grips with the true form of reality through a personal quest to discover the truth of life. This is religion in its pure form. From this quest, morality that seeks the good of all will emanate, even if it means risking one's life to communicate this truth to others.
In which case, religion shapes moral beliefs in many ways.

Distorted religion turns people into hypocrites or practitioners of rites and rituals (and even sacrificial offerings) hoping for immediate rewards and eternal rewards.
Authentic religion is the quest for the truth. Those who believe they have found the truth will attempt to demonstrate this by engaging their fellow humans and expecting to persuade them of the truth.

Those who have actually found the truth may be rather enigmatic in that they may be provocative in seeking to stimulate the unenlightened, possess integrity, be wise as serpents, declare what is just, right and true with passion, but when taken by force because of their message, found to be as gentle as doves, since they do not want to maim people.

Understanding The Only Words Written By God Puts People Ahead Of The Game

WEALTH DISTRIBUTION IS NOT EQUITABLE. That Is What People Are Being Taught In Many Places And What The Poor Understand When They Learn There Are Those Who Are Born Into An Abundance. The morality about the discrepancy needs addressing, surely.

Why do individuals have any moral obligation to have their wealth redistributed towards other less well-off individuals?

Happy Riches · Answers

There is no moral obligation to have wealth redistributed to anyone, the same as there is no moral obligation for parents to leave an inheritance to their children. The writer of the book of Ecclesiastes said:

• “Thus I hated all the fruit of my labor for which I had labored under the sun, for I must leave it to the man who will come after me. And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have control over all the fruit of my labor for which I have labored by acting wisely under the sun. This too is vanity. Therefore I completely despaired of all the fruit of my labor for which I had labored under the sun. When there is a man who has labored with wisdom, knowledge and skill, then he gives his legacy to one who has not labored with them. This too is vanity and a great evil. For what does a man get in all his labor and in his striving with which he labors under the sun? Because all his days his task is painful and grievous;even at night his mind does not rest. This too is vanity” (Ecclesiastes 2:18-23).

Moreover, there is a misperception about what true wealth is really. Many think that wealth is gold, jewelry, paper money and artifacts. But there are other material goods that are more valuable to the wealth of a nation.

Have a look around at the infrastructure that is deteriorating in the US. It is left behind and freely available to be used by anyone. Some might not consider this wealth, yet it contributed to the wealth of the nation when it was constructed and would have showed up in the gross domestic product accounts (GDP) when being produced and thereby considered to have been part of the country's wealth .

Obama's job was created by somebody else. Obama may be a puppet, but this does not mean everybody else is a puppet. His claim that nobody builds his or her own business is false. The infrastructure (roads, bridges, etc) may have been constructed by others, but if there is no upkeep, that infrastructure will be destroyed. A person who takes it upon himself to establish a business from using that infrastructure is not relying upon someone else having created his business. An inheritance has to be appreciated and put to good use, if it is to be of value. This requires individual effort.

When a person dies and leaves massive inheritances to children, socially this creates problems because of a number of reasons. Mainly because this contributes to discrimination through the creation of a two-tiered society consisting of the haves and have-nots.

Massive amounts of money, of course, leads to purchasing power and ultimately corruption. Especially when people prostitute themselves because they can be bought for a penny, rather than keep their personal integrity intact and be moral beings who love their neighbor as themselves. Preying on the vulnerable, the moneyed class are able to make political prostitutes out of those who seek power. Political prostitutes only exist because there are people who are willing to pay for their services. Both are corrupt.

Another issue has to do with the individuals whose lives become meaningless because they possess no financial need to learn how to grow a business or develop a career that will provide them with a sense of achievement. Although, this is not necessarily the case in all instances, as many people born into wealth do seek to have a purpose in their lives, even it it is to increase the wealth they have inherited or maintain the status quo.
Interestingly, the concept of the Jubilee found in the Torah among the laws of governance for the Israel nation addresses this problem of wealth distribution. Every family is given an inheritance, and family members can even become slaves, but every fifty years that inheritance is to be returned to each family, and those who become slaves are to be freed so they can to return to the family inheritance.

The concept of Jubilee recognizes that the individual should be given the right to do with his or her life as she or he desires, and each one will be responsible for what each does. Nobody will be responsible for another person's actions. If a person decides to make the most of his or her life and enjoy interacting with the surrounds, learning and appreciating what is on offer and contributing to improvements, that person will be rewarded. If a person is lazy or seeks evil, that person will reap accordingly the consequences of their actions.

For such a concept of the Law of Jubilee to exist in the current era, it could not be based upon an agricultural economy. Nevertheless, the introduction of such a concept is possible, if one's inheritance is distributed to the state and the state allocates a certain amount of wealth to every individual at a certain age. What the individual does with that wealth is that individual's responsibility.

True wealth has to do with the individual. A materially poor person can be more wealthy than a person who possesses an abundance of material goods. This is because we can only put on one pair of shoes at a time, sleep in one bed and occupy the space where we happen to be. True wealth has to do with the spiritual realm. For happiness is not found in a coin, a credit card, owning jets, yachts and castles. Happiness is found within. Accomplishment and satisfaction are what make people happy. But an anxious soul cannot sleep at night.

Those who are less well off to begin with will find themselves enjoying a world of discovery if they so desire. Self-help books like Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude and How To Be Rich and How To Be Happy Though Rich attest to this with their accounts of people who have succeeded in becoming accomplished, satisfied individuals, as do the many who have acted on the advice contained within.

The Ten Commandments Were Designed For You To Enjoy And Possess Life

ATHEISTS CANNOT FOLLOW THE TEN COMMANDMENTS WITHOUT ACKNOWLEDGING THE LORD GOD CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE. Atheists Might Say That They Follow Some Of The Ten Commandments But Even Then This Is Doubtful. For there are only four commandments which are possible for them to follow and not break, but if they do not believe in ultimate morality, claims that they follow any of them are really questionable.

Are there any atheists who follow any of the 10 commandments?

Do not bear false witness

Do not steal

Do not kill

No covetousness 

Happy Riches Answers

It is doubtful an atheist would follow a commandment. No theist I know follows any commandment. This is particularly so if we understand "to follow" as meaning "to fall behind someone who is leading". But then the word "follow" can also be used within the context of following some guidelines or instructions in a "how to" manual. In which case, there is an argument that can be made for someone following the Ten Commandments in order to possess eternal life.

However, Jesus spoke of fulfilling the Ten Commandments, rather than following them. Although, He did say that Heaven and Earth would pass away, but not one dot or iota of the Law would pass away until all had been accomplished. The Law being a reference to the Ten Commandments, and that which is to be accomplished: the purpose of being born on this Earth.

Essentially, the Israelites followed Moses out of Egypt and across the Red Sea as it is stated in Exodus. The route and sites mentioned there have been discovered. The crossing of the Red Sea was marked with columns erected by King Solomon who made the appropriate inscription as to why they were there:

• to commemorate the Red Sea Crossing and the deliverance of the Israelites from the Egyptian Pharaoh.

While one of the columns still exists on the Egyptian side of the crossing, unfortunately, since the discovery has been made known to the Saudis, the column with writing declaring this fact has been removed and a marker put in its place by the Saudi authorities. Moreover, the Mount Sinai/Mount Horeb area has been fenced off and placed under armed guard..

Anyhow, rather than asking whether atheists follow the four commandments, if you really want to find where people are at, the following set of questions might be more revealing:

Do you know the Ten Commandments? How many of the Ten Commandments can you quote? Do you violate any of these Ten Commandments? Do you enjoy violating them? How about the consequences?

I am sure there will some respondents who will say that they get a kick out of violating them. There are liars, thieves, sadists and many perverted people in the world.

However, there are many who recognize that the consequences of violating the four key taboos of society are too painful to contemplate. Although, once one is consumed with covetousness, violation of taboos seem to be par for the course.

The reality is every community is able to cohere as long as they do not violate the commandments to murder, steal, bear false witness against one's neighbor and comply with sexual relationship mores. Although, these need not be commands. For most they seem to be an internal recognition of essential requirements for survival within the hen pecking order of which rooster is the biggest and brightest.

Coveting, of course, is one of those things that creates problems, and once a person decides to covet, expect to see stealing, adultery, murder and bearing false witness.

Now the question is asked whether atheists follow the four abbreviated prohibitions that are mentioned as part of this question. Surveys conducted by myself on different populations over the decades have revealed that most people who claim to be Christians are unlikely to know three of the Ten Commandments, even after stating that they believe they should be kept, and asserting that they know them. The two that most people seem to know are "You shall not steal" and "You shall not murder". After that it becomes a struggle.

The Ten Commandments Were Designed For You To Enjoy And Possess Life

ADULTERY IS SO COMMONPLACE THAT TO DEFINE IT IS CONSIDERED AN ANACHRONISM. People Even Consider Sin To Be Anachronism. Because of this we know society as we know it today is on its last legs, for sin exists and so does adultery. There is no way to hide this fact.

What does Jesus mean in his talk on adultery (Matthew 5:27-30)?

He isn't seriously saying that looking at a woman with sexual desire is as grave a sin as actual adultery, which causes humiliation, destroyed families, and breaches the marital covenant with God.. is he? Or Jesus isn't downplaying the gravity of marital adultery, right? (I can't gouge my eye out)

Harry Riches Answers ·

Jesus is not raising the bar of the law. Jesus is simply stating what the Ten Commandments written by God Himself states: You shall not commit adultery.

Unfortunately, too many people do not understand the definition of adultery and the severity of sin. Sin cuts us off from God. Sin cuts us off from life—eternal. Far better to enter eternal life with two eyes gouged out, rather than spend eternity absent from the presence of God. The same applies to one's hands.

God forgives us. But only if we forgive others. This is what Jesus said. There are no options. After death comes judgment.

If people are born into sin, then they have to be given the option to get out of sin. God has given us that option. If we prefer our sin, then we love evil. If we hate our sin, then we will seek God.

At the age of thirteen I read the Perfumed Garden and Karma Sutra. But I had my first pubescent sexual encounter as a twelve year old with a girl who was fourteen. She thought she was going to be pregnant. I became concerned about my culpability. But upon inquiry, did not find advice that satisfied. Having had many prepubescent attempts at this male/female caper with other girls (playing doctors and nurses, mom and dad), I had finally found out there was something more to being male once a person is catapulted across that gulf from innocence to becoming capable of culpability. However, the culpability was not realized, as no charges were laid, for there was no evidence of blame (no offspring) forthcoming.

Reading what is prohibited by God did me no favors. I became a sex fiend in my thoughts. Eventually I found out why masturbation is a waste of time unless it is accompanied by thoughts that trigger the sensation. Some may have thought I had an obsession about sex, so much so, once when I told a pastor (an author of 60 books) about my shame, he told me not to boast. I was possessed by beings that are very real and they were leading me towards destruction.

With what I know now, it is a wonder Jesus did not say, castration is better than going to Hell. But the issue is not really the members, as the Apostle Paul is often interpreted as saying (Romans 7:21-25), rather it is the thoughts of what we can do with our members.

Adultery is like idolatry. It is putting another before what God has ordained. Only many do not take sin as seriously as Jesus of Nazareth did. If Jesus had just once allowed a seed of sin to get into his thinking, he would not have been able to pay the price for our ransom.

 Jesus understood where He was at, saying when confronted by temptation from the tempter: "Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." (Matthew 4:10)

But when lawyers get involved or others who think that sin and, its corollary, death are not such serious matters, they come up with different degrees of sin. Some are venial and some are mortal; some are more venial than others and some carry with them mortality but can be redeemed after death (providing one's final indulgence is large enough to pay for the remission).

Nepiophilia, pedophilia, hebephilia and pederasty are considered to be venial, even not sin at all, by many whose consciences are seared and whose lives are cursed. Still many of these perverts administer the curse that is upon them to members of the congregation they oversee. All who permit them to administer sacraments risk demonic influence in their own lives that could steal their salvation.

How evil are those who abuse the innocent?

Jesus made a point of stating that the sins of others can come upon us if we willfully overlook them and say that if we were in their position we would not do as such, while we look up to or identify with those persons.

Masturbation is not seen as a sin at all in many Christian circles. Yet many understand that masturbation is a sin, and this is evidenced by the often quoted, get married lest you burn with desire, verse. This is the King James Bible reference:

• But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn. (1 Corinthians 7:9

When the psalmist says the blessing is on those who delight in the Law of God and meditate upon it day and night, he was not kidding. When meditating the Law of God, it is difficult to be thinking about caressing another person or doing anything else to them that might cause one's libido to instinctively arise with such intensity that it becomes an irresistible urge. Memorizing Scripture and meditating upon it tends to bring our focus onto God and His love for us. Indeed, in the presence of God there are pleasures for evermore (Psalm 16:11) that surpass the short-lived experience of fleshly relief that never satisfies and comes with enormous cost. For Jesus was not joking when He spoke about the seriousness of the sin. Neither was Jesus joking when He pointed to where the pleasures for evermore are to be found. He said:

• Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. (Matthew 5:6)

Admittedly it can be difficult to flick on the Scripture switch and begin meditating when the passions of others are lusting after oneself, and the advances are such that unless one is forthright (even to the point of being considered rude and offensive), the person does not get the message. But rather than being eager to cut out one's eye or lop of one's hand, better to be forthright and state where one stands. From experience, the offenders are less likely to be women seeking men, rather it is along the lines of what we find in the book of Romans, chapter one, twenty-two to twenty-seven (1:22-27).

At the heart of all sin is covetousness. This begins within the thoughts. How can a person think of two things at once? Many like to think they can. Many even claim they can do more than one thing at once. Studies have revealed that when a person is doing two things at once, there is not the same focus. Which is probably why a double minded person will receive nothing from the Lord (James 1:6-8).

When a person asks about whether Jesus is serious about lust in the thoughts being deadly, such a person ought to ask: Will this make me double minded? Will this separate me from God?

• Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. (James 4:1-8)

The consequences of adultery can have far reaching effects upon many people. Since Abraham was told that God desired to bless the families on the Earth, it is no wonder that adultery is the sin that destroys society. It begins with a thought and then degenerates overtime from that seemingly innocuous and private idea until people eventually turn to bestiality. This is happening as a result of secular decadence today and has been exposed by David Ike who could have been taken to court for defamation, except his evidence is solid (listen to the interview).

The family structure is purposely being targeted, and those of us who desire to walk in the joy of salvation—and it is real joy—can only but warn of what is coming. The signs of the times are evident. Better to go into life with one hand and one eye rather than into eternal destruction with both hands and both eyes. The alternative to the earnest message for people to choose is that severe we should consider the value of the option of having one hand and one eye compared to having all our members only to be impaled and infested with a worm that will never die.

Read: The Ten Commandments Were Designed For You To Enjoy And Possess Life

INTELLECTUALS, ACADEMICS, PHILIPPINES AND THE IGNORANT ONLY LIKE ARGUING ABOUT MATTERS.. This Is Why Even People Who Believe In The Bible Want To Argue About Their Beliefs. When you have something that is true or you are hungry, you are not interested in arguing, you just want to have it.

What are the best arguments against Christianity?

Harry Riches · ANSWERS

The only argument a person can have regarding not choosing to seek the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ is premised on the fact that those who claim, or have claimed to be Christians, do not live, and have not lived, a resurrected life. Therefore the evidence that they were born again could not be true because they produced no commendable evidence of spiritual rebirth. Thus, in an argument for not becoming a Christian, the following points could be made:

1. If Christians are people who are born again, then they must be changed people who are full of the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness and self-control.
2. No Christian I have met demonstrates these qualities but claims that he or she is powerless to overcome sin because they possess deceitful hearts and can do nothing but we wicked.
3. Therefore Lord Jesus Christ cannot have risen from the dead and no Christian could have been born again spiritually, as they demonstrate no evidence of this with a victorious life that is full of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness and self-control.

Pointing to those who claim to be Christians because this is the tradition of their parents, the argument would go along similar lines, but a little different.

1. Christians claim that Jesus rose from the dead. The priest drinks some wine and claims to change a wafer into the body of Christ. I saw no body only a wafer.
2. The wafer does not change into anything. The person who eats the wafer does not change into anything and neither does his or her behavior change.
3. Therefore this has be a superstitious ritual based upon myths. There is no point in seeking Lord Jesus Christ to see whether He rose from dead.

Any other argument is hollow. On the day of judgment the person will be asked, since you knew you were going to die, and being born to die is a futile existence, why didn't you seek out the Creator of Heaven and Earth yourself, since you heard that He had risen from the dead?

But saying to the Creator who will be your Judge: "I thought I was better than you," just doesn't cut it. The same as telling a judge &^$#@% doesn't cut in a human court of law.

The Power Of Truth

DEATH IS A COMMON PHENOMENON FOR PLANET EARTH. Everyday Billions Of Deaths Take Place, Or Should That Be Trillions Ranging From Insects To Humans. 151,000 deaths a day may not mean anything to many people, but there is one death that will mean everything to everyone.

Why did Jesus have to die physically so man could attain salvation? What significance does physical death have with spiritual life?

Harry Riches Answers

Distinguishing between the physical and the spiritual can be difficult for those who have not grasped the idea that humans are spirit beings in physical bodies. The reason people exist in biological form is the same reason they live in physical form. This is a different realm to the spiritual realm, which is the realm of our thoughts, the realm where we come to understand who we are in relation to the world in which we exist and not just what we are.

The Bible narrative is quite simple. The Creator decided to create Earth and populate it with what we call biological life forms. A couple of these life forms were a man and woman who were created in the image of the Invisible, Immortal, Infinite God.

Why did the Creator decide to create biological life forms?

The only answer from the Bible is He did, and there is no specific reason given. God is infinite and capable of an infinite number of creative ideas. Evidently, creating Earth and placing a finite biological man and woman on it to reflect the image of the Infinite One was part of a master plan to create many sons and daughters who would then be exalted in status above the individuals already created. Except, there was an entity who decided that losing out on his own status as the most perfect being created was too much to bear, so he took his chances and ruptured the relationship he possessed with his Immortal, Almighty, Creator.

From the Bible we learn that man was created a little lower than the angels.

• What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet. (Psalm 8:4-6 KJV)

The man and woman were created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). Angels were not created in the image of God. Once this is understood, we can grasp why a personage who holds the highest honor of created beings and possesses freewill may fear losing his position in Creation as top dog.

The Son of Man was to become the One Whom the Son of God was to enter at birth.
When the fetus of the boy to be named Jesus was given birth, the Son of God entered the child. God became human in the likeness of a man.

• Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. (Philippians 2:6-7)

Unfortunately, because humans are born into sin, instead of what was originally planned, the Son of God had to become Son of Man the Savior, as well as be Lord of the Sabbath. This was not the original plan. This was the plan that required Jesus to die as a physical being for the ransom of what Adam and Eve, the first man lost—the two were one. This was to prove that God is righteous (Romans 3:21-26). He delivers everything in accordance to the counsel of His will (Ephesians 1:11). Unless we possess God's omniscience, we have to accept that which is revealed to us through Moses, Jesus, the prophets and the apostles within the sixty-six books of the Bible.

Since it was the plan of the Almighty for man to reign on Earth as biological beings in His image, the Son of God had to redeem what was lost, so this could be brought about. This required for the Son of God to become flesh (John 1:18) so He could sacrifice His physical body to pay the purchase price for the return of the planet Earth from Lucifer, who had taken captive the man and his descendants. Lucifer wanted to rule over the Son of God. The Son of God became man so that Lucifer could take His life. But being a sinless life, Jesus' life also became the purchase price for the first man. Not only this, the righteous life of Jesus became the ransom for those who were kidnapped by virtue of being Adam and Eve's descendants.

The physical realm we know as Earthlings differs from the spiritual realm. This is because thought is spiritual and not a physical substance. Chemicals do not produce thought. DNA does not produce thought. However, our spirits produce thought.

The One Who possesses full comprehensive knowledge of existence, calculates what will be brought into being by virtue of the counsel of His will and this emanates as thought. The thought of the Omniscient One was to create individuals who would learn from experience to appreciate the value of existence and the joys of creativity. Because our Creator has created us as biological beings encoded with instructions within cellular structures (what we call DNA), this does not mean thought is a similar substance.

According to the Bible, each one of us are given a spirit and this is what distinguishes us from animals by enabling us to be rational beings. Therefore, we are spiritual beings in physical bodies with the capacity for developing rationale.

The Bible teaches that we possess a spirit, a soul and a body (1 Thessalonians 5:23). All breathing biological bodies have souls. Only humans are biological bodies that have spirits. The spirit of each person is attached to the soul of the body. Humans therefore possess spiritual life in the physical bodies of animals.

When Jesus died, Lucifer took His life and disease covered His body (Isaiah 53:4; Job 18:13). Those who stood nearby saw what happened to Jesus' body. None would have witnessed nor heard beforehand of other persons who had been crucified where any of their bodies had become stricken with disease in an instance. Consequently, even Roman soldiers believed that Jesus had to be the Son of God. This is what is recorded in the Gospel of Matthew:

• Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God. (Matthew 27:54)

• And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that he thus breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!” (Mark 15:39)

• Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, and said, “Certainly this man was innocent!” And all the multitudes who assembled to see the sight, when they saw what had taken place, returned home beating their breasts. (Luke 23:47-48)

It is doubtful that an eclipse and an earthquake would have made such an impression on these people to the same extent as seeing Jesus' body become like leprosy, while those crucified on either side of Him did not.

When Jesus rose from the dead, He possessed a glorified body. This is a physical body; only unlike the biological bodies that we possess which are subject to death, the glorified body possesses no blood. Contrary to the idea of spirits floating off into some ether, the Bible teaches that everyone will be resurrected from the dead with physical bodies. Those who are to be saved will have glorified bodies. Those who reject the truth will be given resurrected bodies. After they have seen every aspect of their lives played before them, and after each one of them is evaluated, because their names are not in the Book of Life, they will be thrown into the Lake of Fire.

Jesus died physically to pay the ransom for a physical Earth. Since the realm that we live in exists in a different dimension to what we refer to as the spiritual realm, this does not mean we are not spiritual creatures. For we are spiritual creatures within physical bodies.

According to the Bible, all who choose to accept the righteous life of Jesus, and their portion of the inheritance He left, shall be reunited spiritually with the Heavenly Father. This was made possible because, at death, Jesus could bequeath to every human an inheritance for each to claim. The inheritance is Jesus' righteous life. In this respect, we are like poor creatures without hope, which have been left an abundance of wealth, so that we can have hope. The transfer of Jesus' eternal righteousness to ourselves, enables us to live forever and relate to our Heavenly Father in the realm of the spirit, even as physical beings.

God is a Spirit Being who has placed spirits within us so that we might relate to Him in spirit and truth. However, we exist in a world that is both physical and spiritual, but one that is separated from God because of sin (a contractual violation to do with relationships). Only through a legal (just) transaction that required the death of a righteous person (Jesus) for an unrighteous person (Adam) could the inhabitants of the physical world be reconciled to their Creator, a Spirit Being. In effect, this has brought about a new creation that is analogous to a caterpillar becoming a butterfly (unfortunately, nearly all currently die in the chrysalis state). The resurrection is about physical bodies being able to live forever and relate to God as spirit beings, as originally intended; except the resurrected bodies will not be functioning metabolically in the same manner the biological bodies that we now possess do.

The Ten Commandments Were Designed For You To Enjoy And Possess Life