chevyontheriver said:

This is not part of the canon of Scripture, so whatever merits it may have, even however 'inspired' it may be, it does not belong in a Bible.

As to your ChatGPT, well, ai;dr

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I never said it is in the canon. I said it is inspired. You reject inspired scripture because it is not in the protestant canon. The text is not for you. It is for wise mature Christians only. Mathew 7:6
“Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.

news

Bondi Beach attack update: ISIS-affiliated flag, undetonated IEDs found​

Officers recovered six firearms and two improvised explosive devices from the scene, and investigators found a flag associated with the Islamic State group in their vehicle.

Police believe the pair had recently returned from a trip to the Philippines and are probing possible ideological motives and links to international extremist networks.

The Islamic State of East Asia, active in the region, has been listed as a terrorist group in Australia since 2017.

Continued below.

DaisyDay said:

Oh look! A deflection! Not taking the derailment bait, thanks just the same.

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Oh look! A hallucination!! lol

And Please, feel free to show where I was wrong in my statement you call a deflection about the Trump acts that were criminalized by L. James via lawfare.

saved24 said:

One person said when they talk against homosexual relationships, that's hate speech. To me it's just the truth, and helping people know what is wrong and keep them from emotional hurt etc.

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Someone said that but that’s nowhere in the bill.

.Mikha'el. said:

That shooting in Australia hurts my heart.

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Agreed! Horrible and sad.

Delvianna said:

I don't think there's anything wrong with going on a pilgrimage to Israel. Some people will draw closer to God just by physically seeing places that are in scripture and walk where Jesus walked. Is it "required", no but I wouldn't condemn people who want to do it either.


I agree. People give Pastors/Priests/People FAR too much credit and treat them as if everything they scripturally say is truth instead of letting God teach you. And I also agree that this idea that ethnic Jews are somehow superior/better is gross. It's propping up a country that is 98% lost (and that's being considerate) and condoning behavior that you wouldn't give to anyone else. We should be praying for their salvation, for them to turn to God, for them to see that just because they are born Jewish, does not automatically mean they are the "light of the world". They lost that title when they failed to do what they were supposed to do, which is why the torch was passed to the gentiles.


That doesn't mean Gentiles can now go to heaven, it means that gentiles are now the ones who teach salvation. Hence why Paul was sent to the gentiles and taught how to start churches. Our view towards Israel should be to try and save them so when Jesus comes, He can claim His inheritance that was started all the way back in Exodus and rule and reign from Jerusalem. All of Israel will eventually be saved:


Meaning, spreading the gospel to the Jews via the gentiles will eventually save them. This is the meaning of the blooming of the fig tree (Matthew 24:32-33, Mark 13:28-29, Luke 21:29-31). When their faith blooms and they finally turn to Christ.

So, if we continually prop up an unsaved nation, that is never going to help save them in the end. We need to pray for their salvation, and back efforts to spread the gospel in Israel.

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Thank you for taking the time to read and to respond to the OP. Yes, we should be praying for all people to believe in Jesus Christ with biblical faith, which brings us salvation, which delivers us from bondage to sin and empowers us to live holy lives, pleasing to God. We should not give our worship to any human beings, and we should not trust all people to tell us the truth, but we must be people who test what we hear against the Scriptures, in their appropriate context, to make certain that what we are hearing and believing is the truth of the gospel.

Mercy Shown said:

Why did Christ ignore so much social justice in his day? Why did Paul not oppose slavery or fight for women's rights.

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Because He wanted us to do it. Do you think abolition was wrong? Or civil/women's rights? Do you think He'd want us to sit on our thumbs and overlook genocide, starvation, etc? He had a singular job to do in a relatively short period of time: to bring the light into the world. It's up to us to ponder, reflect, and radiate that light.
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,"

Dave... said:

Hey Arb

It is Christ we are immersed into. That's why we call it "in Christ". It's a spiritual immersion that the Holy Spirit is the agent of (1 Corinthians 12:13).

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We are both right actually.

Co 12:13 For by one Spirit were we all immersed into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free; and were all made to drink of one Spirit.

Act 1:5 because John, indeed, immersed in water, but ye shall be immersed in the Holy Spirit, not many days hence."

We are immersed in The Holy Spirit as the text says, but that immersion is an immersion into Christ because that is where The Holy Spirit applies the blood of Jesus to our fallen human spirit and we are raised to newness of life. We belong to Jesus from that point on.

Dave... said:

The indwelling. I would make the distinction between the filling and the Spirit baptism as the Spirit baptism, or placing into is what makes us one with Jesus, placed into Him. As MacArthur once said, "The baptism of the Spirit grants the power that the filling with the Spirit unleashes.".

The baptism with the Holy Spirit is what places us in Christ, making us born again and justified. The filling comes after. Post #32 after "Today..."

Dave

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Don't quote macarthur to me. I'm a Assemblies of GOD Pentecostal, he spent most of his life writing books against us and badmouthing us.

He's also wrong.

Oompa Loompa said:

No. You wouldn't. Which is why you chose to post what you just posted, instead of sharing what you actually believe. So I will ask you directly. Do you agree with Ericka that she and her children have a right to erect a memorial to her husband and their children's father that is from desecration? Or do you believe that she and her children should spend their entire lives suffering from the perceived signs of their father/husband?

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The kids are innocent, it's the parents job to protect them. As far as I know, their kids are more protected. Than most kids. If she's going to continue to do whatever her husband did. Then she has to deal with what she complains about.

timothyu said:

At what age do children start rebelling at the will of God?

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Everyone is a unique case. My wife figures she was innocent till age 8, because she can remember developing a theory of mind around that time, which is supposedly impossible to remember.

As for myself well, i sinned in the womb and became affected by a generational curse of powerlessness.

Delvianna said:

I hope I'm posting in the right spot, if I'm not, my apologies and please move it to where it needs to be.

I want to talk about video games, table top games, etc and look at it from a place of Christian moral ethics. To give an example, I play the game Medieval Dynasty, which is mostly just building a city and managing it with all the resources. But due to it being close to Halloween, they've updated it to give the main towns halloween decorations. This isn't standard decorations... This looks purely pagan witchcraft to me.

View attachment 371968

So when you run across instances like this, what do you do? I'm not required to engage with it. Like, there isn't quests or anything but how do you handle video games and following Christian ethical standards? (This is just an example as I mean this discussion to be more broad than just the example I'm showing).

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I don't engage. I didn't know about this. I haven't played medieval dynasty in a while. I like medieval dynasty. I have some hours sunk into the game.

SuperCow said:

In a predetermined universe, I do not actually choose, because God created me in such a way so that I can only choose what is predetermined. And if I can only choose what is predetermined, how can you say that I am choosing?

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It occurs to me that, by this particular verbiage, you may have in mind direct causation, and not indirect: "...because God created me in such a way so that I can only choose what is predetermined." It is not merely a matter of what you can or cannot do. It is a matter of what you WILL do.

This is sort of like one of the accusations against Calvinism (and Reformed theology), that goes something like this: "If Salvation is automatic, then what is the use of obeying or even choosing Christ?" But it is not automatic. It is only SURE.

John 6: "37All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one coming to Me, I shall not cast out. 38For I have come down from heaven, not that I should do My will, but the will of the One having sent Me.

39Now this is the will of the One having sent Me, that all that He has given Me, I should lose none of it, but will raise it up in the last day. 40For this is the will of My Father, that everyone beholding the Son and believing in Him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up in the last day.”...

... 44No one is able to come to Me unless the Father, the one having sent Me, draws him, and I will raise him up in the last day. 45It is written in the prophets: ‘And they will all be taught of God.' Everyone having heard from the Father and having learned, comes to Me.

(I don't claim to be Calvinist nor Reformed, though people keep mistaking me for it—it's just that most of what I believe, they do, too. I'm Calvinistic, I suppose you can say.)

ChubbyCherub said:

I really appreciate your continued engagement.

I can't speak for everyone and can only speak for myself so what I'll say is I am not confident in anyone's translation, interpretation etc of the bible. The very fact that it has to be translated at all leaves many things too open. The only thing I can do is pray that God steps in wherever I'm being mislead by myself or others.

If Paul meant what he said to be generalized, I completely understand that but I still won't do it for the reasons I mentioned before. God will either help me with that or judge me for it, but I'm open to whatever His will is, either way.

Whilst I felt emotional from being verbally disrespected by my father, the ongoing issue with my parents and how to explain this all to my daughter according to Paul, I don't feel emotional or impassioned about this subject, one way or the other, because I'm not an emotional person. I'm usually compared to Spok from Star Trek by most people. I don't overthink it to know if it's an insult, neutral or a compliment to be viewed this way. Sometimes, things are just what they are!

Have a great day x

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Navigating life, enjoying or exercising healthy authority is a big challenge when our life journey is fraught with family or parental dysfunction. Parents make mistakes, sometimes terrible ones, and we add our own to theirs. But God is our Father - He is everything our earthly fathers or I myself as a father may lack sometimes. By taking in and basking in His character and love we heal ..

Be blessed .. !

PARASHA: “VaYeshev” (and he settled) GENESIS 37:1-40:23


In this study, the focus is on Yosef, who is going to be in the limelight of God. Things seem to be going from bad to worse for this young teenager. It wasn't all his fault, we could say. His father, Jacob, held him high up on a pedestal, “Papa's favorite”. Whenever there is family favoritism among sons and daughters, there is bound to be trouble, especially from the other siblings who are the “less preferred.”

Papa Jacob makes him a "long-sleeved robe." This coat was a symbol of leadership; The Torah doesn’t specify that it was of “many colors,” only that this type of garment was one that had sleeves down to the wrists and that reached the ankles. This is like getting a kid a three-piece suit made of fine silk and then sending him out to the fields where his brothers are wearing overalls and straw hats.

This "coat" would be considered a "Royal Tunic" and must have had the colors of royalty, like blue, scarlet, red, etc... We could also say that this coat symbolized "Messiah the King" and Yosef, a "type of Messiah" who would, in God's perfect timing, save the local world of physical starvation. Now, the brothers are affected by this coat.

It will arouse jealousy. ( I mean, why doesn't Dad make coats for all of us?) These brothers are boiling mad, and to make matters worse, Yosef is given dreams by YHVH, and he doesn't keep them to himself; he shares them. He shares them not to be haughty, but just to let his family know what is happening, or rather, what is “going to happen” in the future. But I don't think that at that time, Yosef understood the meaning of the dreams. These dreams reflect Isaac's blessing on Joseph.

We understand that the dreams include sheaves of wheat that bow down before Yosef’s sheaves of wheat. How might one see this? Here’s an idea. Wheat is made into bread, and Yeshua is the “Bread of Life”. Yosef is a “type or symbol of Messiah.” He saves the known world from physical starvation, and Yeshua saved the whole world from spiritual starvation. Just like Yosef’s brothers bowed down to him in honor, the whole world will “bow down” to Yeshua, who is the “Bread of Life”.

To make a long story short, he gets out to the fields, the brothers strip him of his coat, rip it, dip it in goat's blood, plan to kill him, Judah talks them out of it, and instead, throw him in an empty well, wait until a group of Ishmaelite traders comes by, they sell him to the buyers for 20 pieces of silver, and that is how, they are rid of brother Yosef, “daddy's boy” the dreamer, yet unknowingly, they are playing right into the perfect plan of YHVH, they are “investing” in their own future welfare. One interesting fact about these events is what happened before Yosef found his brothers in Dothan. Genesis 37:15 reads the following:

“A certain man found him wandering in the field, and the man asked him, saying What are you looking for?”

Israel sends Yosef to look for his brothers in Shechem, but when he gets there, he doesn’t find them because they have gone on to Dothan. Josef is now lost, just “wandering,” so the man says that they said, “let’s go to Dothan.” So the man redirects Yosef to find his brothers and continue in Adonai’s perfect plan for his life. Who is this man? No one knows, perhaps he was just a man who happened to be there near Yosef’s brethren and overheard them talking.

God, who looks down from beyond the heavens, from a multi-dimensional universe, sees the end before it happens, and this man was essential to fulfill the words of the Torah and the promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Without this man, Yosef would not have found his brothers in time for them to "sell him into slavery." He never would have made it to Egypt to interpret Pharaoh’s dreams and save the world from starvation. The sons of Israel would not have moved to Egypt, and the prophecy of “Israel being in Egypt” might not have come true. Yet it all DID, because God had that certain man in place at the right time.

Little may we know it, but we probably have been in the “right places” at the “right times” to help people achieve their goals because we have a God in the universe that oversees all things and places people in those places to fulfill his will in them and in others.
But let's go back to the events. How do these events symbolize, compare with Messiah Yeshua? We do not see any blemish on Yosef, as if he is “perfect and righteous” as Yeshua was/is “Tzadik kadosh” (Righteous and Holy). Yosef is the “victim” of his own people (his brothers). Yeshua was given up to the Roman governor by a group of religious leaders.

Joseph was Israel's "beloved son." Yeshua is "The Father's beloved Son"; Joseph was a shepherd with his brothers; Yeshua is the "Good Shepherd." Joseph was hated by his brothers; Yeshua is still "hated" by much of the world. Joseph was sent by his father to see the flocks in the field; Yeshua was sent by the Father to care for his sheep and guide the "lost sheep" back to the fold. Joseph was in prison with two criminals, one was sentenced to death, the other was pardoned. Yeshua was crucified between two criminals, one was unrepentant, and the other was forgiven. Joseph was faced with temptation (Potiphar's wife) and resisted. Yeshua was tempted in the wilderness by HaSatan, and he resisted. Yosef went "down to Egypt" as a slave, saved from being killed. Yeshua went "down to Egypt" and was saved from being killed by Herod. We could probably think of more comparisons and contrasts in the lives of Messiah Yeshua and Yosef Ben Israel.

The brothers stripped Yosef of his coat (The King's tunic), the coat was dipped in goat's blood. Yeshua was stripped of his clothing and was beaten, his flesh “ripped” by a Roman whip, until the blood poured out. (torn and bloodied tunic of the King) The “goat's blood” reminds us of “Yom Kippur” where goats were sacrificed and one was “set free” the blood of the goat reminds us of our sins “covered by the blood” (back then) but now, our sins are “erased” by the blood of “God's chosen LAMB” the “Lamb of God” which taketh away the sins of the world.

Yosef was thrown into a pit, an empty cistern, void of water. Scripture doesn't say, but I imagine that his brothers tied him up with a rope and lowered him into the pit by the rope. A “water well” symbolizes “Life,” but when it is empty, it can symbolize “death”. Just try to climb out of a deep pit with dirt sides without anything, you can't, might as well be dead. Yosef being lowered into the pit can symbolize Yeshua's death, and his descent into “Sheol”; yet when the Midianites came by, the brothers pulled him “out” of the pit, which could symbolize Yeshua's “resurrection unto life”. Before the pit, Yosef was part of his immediate family. After the incident of the pit, he is on his way to a “new life”, with trials, tests, troubles, suffering, and finally, rewards! Doesn't that sound like our life today?

In Chapter 38, the scene switches to “Judah”. We see that Judah is not doing a very wise thing as he goes into a Canaanite woman. He leaves his brethren and has kids with a Canaanite! The first two are evil, and Adonai kills them. Shelah is his third son, and he hesitates to marry him to “Tamar,” yet she poses as a prostitute and deceives Judah into sleeping with her and getting her pregnant. But the question is, why was he looking for a prostitute?

Believers can wander away from God’s will for their lives in such ways, marrying unbelievers, committing adultery or fornication, the list can go on. Adonai still loves us and will continue to reach down to us and redirect us, even though it hurts at times, at times, the chastisements can come in the form of sadness and depression, a loss of love and excitement for the things of the LORD, because we know we are “doing wrong”.

The result of Tamar’s pregnancy was that twins were born, the first one pushed his hand through the womb and the midwife tied a “scarlet thread” on it to say, “this is the first-born” yet the baby pulled back inside and his brother came out, then HE came out in second place…yet…he was in “first place” (if you get my drift).

There is symbolism in these births. A way we can look at this is that the scarlet thread can symbolize Yeshua the Messiah, and his “first coming”, then his “second coming”. The twins were "Peretz" and "Zerach." Peretz means "breaker." Yeshua broke through the barrier of separation between God and man.. He "tore the curtain of the Temple down the middle, which was in the Temple.

"Zerach" can mean "dawning," and the second coming of Messiah Yeshua is the "dawning" of the new Millennial age. Also, perhaps a bit before the "dawning" of the First day of the week, Messiah Yeshua burst forth from the grave, conquering sin and death. From Tamar came Peretz, and from Peretz comes the line of King David, and from David, Mary and Joseph, and "Messiah Yeshua Ben Yosef."

Joseph saved the local world from physical famine and starvation. Yeshua has saved us from Spiritual darkness and starvation. Don't starve yourself of God's WORD. Get into it. As Joseph stored up grain to be made into bread, Yeshua came as the Bread of Life.

Cosmic Charlie said:

If Ton Homan has stats to show, he’d show them

short of that I assume he’s a lying lair

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Don't you realize you were lied to by high ranking Democrat officials when they claimed the border was safe, secure, and closed? Tom has been announcing the numbers over these months. If that doesn't satisfy you and you want specific records then you have the right to ask for documents, you can make a formal request through a Freedom of Information Act request. I don't know specifically what you want, perhaps the reports coming in from the states, you have to accurately describe what you want. You can see they were receiving roughly 83,000 requests each month. Here is the link:

Aryeh Jay said:

Good for them. I have no connection to the State of Israel, I am a United States citizen.View attachment 374556

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So you didn't, this is not about your personal choice. It is about choice as far as the Israeli government was concerned...The issue is Jews could have, just like any other Israeli

BobRyan said:

God said to Cain "sin is at your door you must overcome it" in Gen 3 , even before the command against murder is recorded in the book of Moses.

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Did Cain keep the sabbath?

BobRyan said:

Genesis is not an exhaustive account of very word spoken for the first 2000 years of human history. Obviously.

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That’s true which means that you can’t use it to dogmatically prove a doctrine. Arguments from silence do not work.

BobRyan said:

No wonder we have so much agreement on the TEN in the OT across every major Christian denomination.

Almost every Christian denomination on Earth affirms the continued *"unit of TEN" for Christians today

[*]The Baptist Confession of Faith section 19
[*]The Westminster Confession of Faith section 19
[*]Voddie Baucham
[*]C.H. Spurgeon
[*]D.L. Moody
[*]Dies Domini by Pope John Paul II
[*]D. James Kennedy
[*]R.C. Sproul
[*]many others as well..

* - 10 as-is or else in edited form

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None of these denominations or people keep the sabbath on Saturday nor do they teach the Jewish Sabbath. We’ve been through this before. Now what?

BobRyan said:

=============== it just does not get any easier than this

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It does for me.

BobRyan said:

Sabbath was "MADE FOR MANKIND" not mankind MADE for the Sabbath Mark 2:27 speaks of the MAKING of both , when both were made during creation week.

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“Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord, even of the Sabbath.””
‭‭Mark‬ ‭2‬:‭27‬-‭28‬ ‭NASB2020‬‬

Don’t forget to include the result of verse 27. Because the sabbath was made for man, Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath. Did you not account for the “so” at the beginning of verse 28?

BobRyan said:

Right next to the verse where God commands mankind not to take God's name in vain before Exodus 20. That sort of game is not a funny kind of proof that it was ok to take God's name in vain.

No wonder the Sabbath is in Exodus 16 , even before the TEN are given.

No wonder the clean and unclean distinction is in the history of mankind in Gen 7 long before Lev 11 is written

hint. Most readers can see this point.

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Not really. Most readers don’t read your pet doctrine into scripture. You still did not post a verse stating that anyone kept the sabbath before Moses.

“Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, so that I may test them, whether or not they will walk in My instruction. On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily.””
‭‭Exodus‬ ‭16‬:‭4‬-‭5‬ ‭NASB2020‬‬

The Lord gave the instructions on what to gather per day and to gather twice as much on the sixth day. First time they had received such an instruction.

“Now on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for each one. When all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses, then he said to them, “This is what the Lord meant: Tomorrow is a Sabbath observance, a holy Sabbath to the Lord. Bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over put aside to be kept until morning.” So they put it aside until morning, as Moses had ordered, and it did not stink nor was there a maggot in it. Then Moses said, “Eat it today, for today is a Sabbath to the Lord; today you will not find it in the field. Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will be none.””
‭‭Exodus‬ ‭16‬:‭22‬-‭26‬ ‭NASB2020‬‬

Notice that the people came to Moses after gathering twice as much not knowing why or what to do with it. Moses had to explain to them what the sabbath was and how they were to prepare it. In fact Moses had to tell them not to try to gather on the 7th day because there would be nothing to gather but some tried anyway.

These people did not know what the sabbath was or how to keep it because they never had before. Not only that but this was just a rest sabbath without any of the restrictions of the law that would come later when Moses wrote the Torah.

Again, post a verse that shows anyone keeping the sabbath BEFORE Moses. Exodus 16 actually defeats your argument.

BobRyan said:

It is seen each time we find that same phrase used in the books of Moses "My Commandments, My statutes and My Laws" Gen 26:5 a phrase used repeatedly in the books of Moses.

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What commandments, what statutes, what laws? Post them.

BobRyan said:

Eph 6:1-2 the unit of TEN is the only place where we see the Eph 6 statement hold true and .

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The unit of ten is not depicted in Eph. 6:1-2. Only one commandment is mentioned.

“Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother (which is the first commandment with a promise), so that it may turn out well for you, and that you may live long on the earth. Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”
‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭6‬:‭1‬-‭4‬ ‭NASB2020‬‬

BobRyan said:

Mark 2:27 "Sabbath made for mankind"

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See above.

BobRyan said:

Is 66:23 Sabbath to be kept by all mankind

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The audience here is Israel and this is part of the old covenant. The future time is most likely talking about the new heavens and new earth, where all people will consistently worship God from month to month (new moons) and week to week (Sabbaths).

BobRyan said:

Acts 13 believing gentiles specifically ask for more gospel preaching to be scheduled for them on "The next Sabbath"

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The people that begged Paul and Barnabas to preach to them the next sabbath day were the Jews not the gentiles.

“After the reading of the Law and the Prophets, the synagogue officials sent word to them, saying, “Brothers, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, say it.” As Paul and Barnabas were going out, the people repeatedly begged to have these things spoken to them the next Sabbath.


As you can see the synagogue officials are the ones that invited Paul to preach on the next Sabbath.


The next Sabbath nearly all the city assembled to hear the word of the Lord. But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began contradicting the things spoken by Paul, and were blaspheming. Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and said, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first. Since you repudiate it and consider yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. When the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord; and all who had been appointed to eternal life believed.”
‭‭Acts‬ ‭13‬:‭15‬, ‭42‬, ‭44‬-‭46‬, ‭48‬ ‭NASB2020‬‬

The gentiles from the city would gather outside of the synagogue. After the Jews saw the crowds and got jealous Paul tells them what Jesus Himself had taught which was to preach to the Jews first and then to the gentiles. The gentiles, who were not of the law, were delighted and believed.

These verses do not help your argument.

I am looking for independent living senior apartments. They are kinf og scattered and expensive

That their joy may be full.

Yarddog said:

Do you say the same about the shooters?

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They are Pakistani, which is 96% Moslem. The younger man, Naveed Akram, had close ties to Isaac El Matari, a member of an Islamic State cell who was arrested in 2019.
The media has been strangely reluctant to state the religious affiliations of the terrorists.

John Bauer said:

Since I already agree with your opening post (more or less), I will be hanging out here mostly to engage young-earth creationist defenses.

However …



That statement is false, I’m afraid, if it means that Scripture doesn’t narrate real events in space and time—because it does. Just off the top of my head: the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Literal history. Paul stakes the truth of the gospel on a public, datable event: “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is futile and your faith is empty” (1 Cor. 15:14).

Large portions of Scripture are historical, from patriarchal narratives to monarchic histories, from Babylonian exile to their eventual return, and so on. Luke explicitly frames his Gospel as an orderly “account of the things that have been fulfilled among us,” including “accounts passed on to us by those who were eyewitnesses” (Luke 1:1-4).

If by “historical” you mean exhaustive chronology, neutral description, or detached analysis, then it’s not historical. Scripture is theological, covenantal, and teleological. Events are narrated because of what God is doing with and through them, never because the author is trying to reconstruct the past for its own sake.

I think it would be a category mistake to treat “history” and “theology” as competing genres. (I am not saying that’s what you are doing, but it is often done around these parts.) In Scripture, history is theology. God reveals himself through acts, and those acts are interpreted within the text itself. Natural history is the stage upon which the drama of redemptive history unfolds, while it is redemptive history that reveals the meaning and purpose of natural history, all things pointing to Jesus Christ for the glory of God. Scripture contains real history, but it’s unique as a divinely authored, covenantally ordered witness to God’s redemptive acts, narrated for faith, obedience, and worship.

As for Genesis? I would call it a historical-covenantal account with symbolic narrative elements. Adam and Eve in a sacred sanctuary God prepared in Eden? Historical-covenantal. Its eastward orientation, God “walking” there, humanity “to serve and guard,” Adam made of dust, talking serpent, guarding cherubim? Symbolic narrative elements (a lot of temple architecture and language used elsewhere in Scripture).

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John Bauer: “That statement is false, I’m afraid, if it means that Scripture doesn’t narrate real events in space and time—because it does. Just off the top of my head: the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Literal history. Paul stakes the truth of the gospel on a public, datable event… ”

You have hit the nail on the head here. I certainly do believe in the resurrection of Jesus. I was thinking primarily of the Old Testament when I said that scripture is not history. I complement you on this observation. It is true that the Gospel of Luke is considered to have good historical information in it. We don’t know exactly what year Jesus was born, or crucified, so the Gospels are uncertain on that point. The usual figure given is that Jesus was born in 4 BC and crucified in 29 AD, but that is not certain.

John Bauer: “If by ‘historical’ you mean exhaustive chronology, neutral description, or detached analysis, then it’s not historical. Scripture is theological, covenantal, and teleological.”

Even when we get past Genesis, it is difficult to fit Biblical events with what we know from other sources. Some claim that the Pharoah confronted by Moses in Exodus was Ramses II, but this is far from certain. Later, the “treasures of the Temple” were taken by Pharoah Shishek, but no one can identify Pharoah Shishek with any Pharoah known to Egyptologists.

Brightfame52 said:

Okay, yet Jesus is the one who gives repentance, causes it as Saviour Acts 5:31

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"Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, "repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." (Acts 2:38). “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.” Romans 6:3-4,

If we truly love God, then we will obey "Every word" that proceeds out of his mouth (Matthew 4:4). Baptism is one of those words. In order to be baptized, certain events must take place: You must repent, give up a lifestyle where sin has dominion, (ruler ship) over you. Sin according to 1 John 3:4, Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression (breaking) of the law. You must be taught "The Word", before you can adhere to God's commandments (judgments\statues). These laws are found in the Holy Bible; beginning with Genesis and ending with Revelation. You must believe what the bible says and finally, you must confess that Jesus is Lord.
Once this has been accomplished, you are qualified to be baptized in the name of Jesus.