080715: Salvation and Sin

**we started off with what it means to be "saved," to receive salvation, and what is required of us for us to be saved

John 3 (especially 3:16)
- focuses on what it means to have "faith"
- the "Light" = Jesus
- believe in Jesus Christ to be born of water and spirit, to receive eternal life, to not perish in Hell

Romans 8
- re-emphasizes the meaning of "faith," and brings in the concept of the Spirit
- ASK for the Spirit to come into your body; i.e. it is a personal CHOICE to have the Spirit come within oneself; the Spirit will not enter uninvited

Matthew 13:31-33
- The Parables of the Mustard Seed and the Yeast illustrate how faith can start off small and seemingly insignificant, but with continued effort to nurture it, faith can grow to something that is monumentally amazing


**we clarified what Sin means

there are 2 major and separate concepts of Sin

1. the "original" sin is the sin that has been passed down from Adam & Eve
- God gave them the one and only rule--"do not eat from this tree"--and yet, they still ate from the tree
- the failure to follow God's rule is a sin
- the punishment for this sin is the loss of immortality and the shelter provided by the Garden of Eve
- hence, humans are now born with a limited amount of time on Earth and have to fight for everything (as opposed to having everything provided for); i.e. humans are born under the burden of this original sin
- to return to God's side, to regain immortality and God's shelter, humans have to shoulder the responsibility of CHOICE (i.e. Adam & Eve ate from the tree of knowledge, and with knowledge, comes the responsibility of choosing between right and wrong); humans thus have to choose to receive Salvation; it shall not be given freely after what Adam & Eve have done--and this is the punishment that humans have to withstand when they come into this world, aka suffering of the Original Sin

every sin committed by humans hereafter is defined as that described in 2.

2. all sins committed by humans (other than Adam & Eve) are basically acts that do not adhere to the Ten Commandments (e.g. Thou shalt not kill; Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, etc.)

once sinned, humans cannot return to God's kingdom (because God is flawless, and all that belong to him can only be flawless)

God is very strict about His rules. Any deviation from it is considered having sinned. However, He is lenient in the sense that He understands that it is not possible for humans not to make mistakes, not to be tempted by Lucifer (as Adam & Eve were), and hence, not to sin. And it is this understanding that led Him to send His one and only son, Jesus Christ, to die and bleed for us. Because Jesus Christ was perfect (i.e. having never sinned), his blood was pure and was thus able to wash away all sins belonging to those who CHOOSE to side with Him (i.e. to believe in Him, to believe in God, to shun Lucifer).


**we then talked about the Trinity (God, Jesus, Holy Spirit)

Genesis 1:1
- God is the One and Only. He is omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent, one who created all.
- His words are special in the sense that when he speaks, things happen; e.g. He said, "Let there be light," and there was light.

John 1:1
- the Word = Jesus; i.e. Jesus literally embodies God's Word; Jesus is the human shape and form of God's Word

the Holy Spirit is not as well-defined by the Bible, but the idea is that once one receives God as the Father and Jesus as the Messiah, the Holy Spirit will enter one's body in order to protect and to guide the individual


**to sum up, Salvation: if one KNOWS that God is the Father, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that God sent Jesus, His only son, to die and bleed for us in order to wash away our Sin, and if one sincerely invites Jesus in and asks Him for guidance, then one becomes a Christian and receives Salvation.

080708: Perry Stone on Hell

by Dolphinitefantasy

I'm in charge of last week's notes...there was a lot to write down...but I'll simplify and just do a quick summary!

We watched a "movie" about Hell starring Perry Stone.

The Gist:

1. God did not create Hell for people. God created Hell for Lucifer (= Satan in Hollywood) and other fallen angels.


2. Hebrew and Greek words for "chambers"

a. Sheol - Old Testament Hebrew Word
= hell, grey, pit
= underneath the Earth

b. Hades - Old Testament Hebrew Word
= hell
= unseen world of departed
= King spirit over the underworld (Spirit of destruction & death, Spirit over hell)

c. Gehennah - New Testament Greek Word
= hell
= trash dump of Jerusalem
= Basically used to be a trash dump where people threw all their trashes; there was a continue fire (perpetual fire) burning to burn the trash. The trash dump was very steep--once in it, you couldn't physically climb out.
= A place of trash, smelled, fire, smoke--basically a place where no one wants to go
= Judas, one of the 12 apostles and the one who betrayed Jesus, hung himself near the edge of Gehennah when he realized the sin he had committed could not be undone. (The place was known as Potters Field, where bad potteries were taken and trampled / stamped under horses feet. It was an area of ancient potteries - of potteries that could not be repaired. Judas knew what he has done is "unrepairable", cannot be undone.)

d. Tartarus - New Testament Greek Word
= hell
= pits of darkness
= lowest chamber of Hades for worst spirits and rebels (thus there are different levels in Hades)

e. Abyss - New Testament Greek Word
= bottomless pit, eternal darkness
= deep, where the worst fallen angles are taken and bound
Important: pit, deep, chambers all linked to the sea!!!

We ended with discussion of Adam & Eve and the apple.

Adam & Eve sinned when they did not listen to God and ate the apple. Though they had no knowledge of right and wrong, they still had a freedom of choice. And by choosing to listen to the snake (Lucifer in disguise) instead of trusting God, they had sinned. And now all the descendants of Adam & Eve carry the sin as well. Believing and trusting God will allow you to be forgiven...

080701: Hell

by iRobot

We covered (these are the direct verses, read the verses before and after the quoted ones to understand the context):

The Narrow Door: Luke 13:23
The Parable of the Wedding Banquet: Matthew 22

Hell is a translated word for 3 different names in the New Testament:
Gehenna: Matthew 23, 10:28, 5:22-29
Tartarus: 2 Peter 2; related is Jude 4-6
Hades: Luke 16:23 (whole story)

Abraham’s Bosom: Luke 16:23 (whole story)

Welcome!

"Aletheia" is the Greek word for the absolute Truth and/or all Truth pertaining to God.

Speaking for myself, religion has never been the focus of my interest in Christianity. I have always had the intense desire to find the Truth--still do--whatever that may be. In science, in life, in anything and everything, there is always an absolute Truth to be found. And it is this passion that has led me to Christianity.

With this in mind, I thus chose to name the blog "Aletheia Seekers," dedicated to those who are in search of the Truth. It is not a religious whim. It is the stubborn determination to think logically and to critique analytically the evidence we have accumulated today in order to unearth the Truth.

And with that, let our search begin!