A Study in Contrasts
John the revelator
Jacob the liar
Isaiah the orator
Moses the stutterer
David the hero
Paul the terrorist
Solomon the polygamist
Nicodemus the statesman
Mary Magdelene the outcast
Job the philanthropist
Joseph (NT) the peasant
Mary the virgin
Rahab the prostitute
Joshua the warrior
Jonah the deserter
Samuel the young
Sarah the old
Daniel the influential
Jabez the obscure
Abraham the faithful
Bathsheba the adulteress
Samson the strong
Gideon the weak
Rachel the beautiful
Leah the homely
Esther the humble
Joseph (OT) the arrogant
Rebecca the generous
Matthew the tax-collector
Jeremiah the patient
Peter the impetuous
Saul the tall
Zacchaeus the short
Thomas the doubter
Eve the defiant
Adam the follower
Lazarus the dead
Elijah the bald
John (the Baptist) the long-haired hippy
What makes you think God can't use you?
Posted at 8:32 AM
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15 Comments:
Probably a wack view of God.
I'll bet a lot of those listed had a wack view of God.
Great Blog!... very encouraging.
Correction / Detail:
When translated from the original Hebrew text, the word "virgin" was actually: "alma" meaning "young woman".
Therefore, Scripture does not say "Mary the virgin...", rather it says:
"Mary the young woman.."
Luke 1:31 You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end." 34 "How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?" 35 The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. (emphasis mine)
This is clearly a conversation between the angel and Mary about how it a pregnancy is possible where no sex has occurred. If "virgin" in this passage merely meant "young woman" it would make no sense. Why would Mary, who is old enough to wed, ask "How can I become pregnant, since I am a young woman?"
Also, since she became pregnant before marrying, or sleeping with, Joseph, a non-miraculous pregnancy would require fornication, which flies in the face of God's pronouncement of her as a virtuous woman.
I Corinthians 13 also says:
"..as for the prophecies, they will pass, as for tongues, they will cease, as for our knowledge, it will pass away, for our knowledge is not perfect and our prophecy is not perfect. But when the perfect comes, that which is not perfect will pass away..."
Basically, I agree with this passage that knowledge and prophecy are not yet perfect (accept for my “Earth Plane Gravitational Equalizer” prophecy which is perfect). There are mistakes in Scripture just as I pointed out about the ‘alma’ meaning ‘young woman’ passage. Translating ‘alma’ into ‘virgin’ is not accurate.
Additionally, I have never believed that Mary was actually a "virgin" after becoming pregnant with Jesus. It is my opinion and belief, the passage you quoted from scripture is not correct.
Regardless of how one might defend Mary’s virginity, I respectfully disagree with this myth promoted by the Canonical Bible and perpetuated by the Protestants.
On this point, we must respectfully disagree.
Ariel, I can respectfully disagree with you on this point.
Although it is one thing to say that the Bible has been misinterpreted on a particular point, and another thing entirely to say that it is mistaken.
If the Bible is mistaken about the virginity of Mary, then it is also mistaken about the chastity of Mary, the lineage of Jesus, and the literal Sonship of Jesus. If this were the case, Jesus would not be fully God, he would merely have been hand-picked from among sinful men by the Father.
If that were the case, it makes a mockery out of Jesus' manner of speaking, of being "sent by my Father," not to mention the crucial concept of the sacrifice of the spotless Lamb for the sins of the world.
The virgin birth is not a mere detail, it is a lynchpin of a great deal of very important theology.
I hope that I have shown respect as I have disagreed.... thus, disagreeing respectfully.
Yo, just wanted to clarify that my first comment was in response to your closing question, not the string of paradoxes, if that wasn't obvious.
We all see God through a foggy window.
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I have read everything you wrote, Ariel, but I will just respond briefly.
1. Although you claim to be in a position to know what God knows, you actually are only giving 4 possible scenarios, rather than presenting actual knowledge. All four of these ways contradict what is plainly described in scripture, and 3 of them also contradict the idea that the Messiah will be "born and conceived like any other man."
2. I am very touched by your description of the miracle of every conception and birth... and I agree.
3. Please allow me (respectfully, once again,) to ask what it is that has caused your prophecy to last up to this point, and not fall by the wayside? Is God upholding it, and causing it to take root in people's hearts? Or is it sustained merely by your own repetition of it? I only ask you this because you introduce the possibility that your prophecy may not be true, and may actually fade away. Otherwise I would not ask such a bold question.
I only said that my prophecy would fade away "IF" it is not true.
But every word is true, therefore, you will not witness my prophecy fade.
The truth is the truth forever, and the truth of what I say yesterday, today, and tomorrow will set us free.
I realize that I did not answer your questions yesterday, Coreman… so I will answer them as quickly as I can.
You said:
“Although you claim to be in a position to know what God knows, you actually are only giving 4 possible scenarios, rather than presenting actual knowledge.”
The actual knowledge I give is the fact that there was not a virgin birth.
In 31 years I have never cared, nor do I want to know how Mary actually got pregnant.
If I really wanted to know, I could find out easily enough. But before I find out something I do not want to know, I will only say that my best guess is answer #4 of the 4 case scenarios.
(By the way, sometimes I get revelation knowledge if I want to know or not.)
You said:
“…. and 3 of them also contradict the idea that the Messiah will be "born and conceived like any other man."
Actually only 2 of the 4 contradict "born and conceived like any other man." Also, I said that the Angel theory would not be accepted by Hebrew Scholars anyway.
I was really throwing out ‘food for thought’ because as I said: “I do not want to know”. Maybe now I will find out for your sake, Coreman.
You said:
“I am very touched by your description of the miracle of every conception and birth... and I agree.”
Thank you.
BUT, what I did not say and what I also believe to be true is the following:
Because we are living in the end of the Christina Era and the very beginning of the Messianic Era, the world has become incredibly Evil.
The old saying: “It is darkest before the dawn” is certainly true now.
The world is:
--overpopulated,
--polluted,
--filled with sin,
--filled with crime,
--countless criminals have too much techno. knowledge.
Generally speaking the world is a bad place to sojourn.
Everyone must decide for themselves, but at this point in time, I think procreation is a very bad idea.
It is my feeling that if people really want to sacrifice and raise babies, they should adopt. There are countless orphans; but adopting is risky and comes with it’s own set of problems. As I said, we all must decide for ourselves.
You asked:
“Is God upholding your prophecy, and causing it to take root in people's hearts? Or is it…?”
Yes, it has been taking root since July 7, 1976. (7-7-76)
We must be patient. After all, it took 300 years, after Jesus was crucified, for Christianity to take root in the world.
Personally, I hope it will not take 300 years for people to understand that we are living in the very beginning of the Messianic Age. But whatever happens with my prophecy, as the woman predicted in Revelation 12: 1, it is God’s hands.
You wear me out, Coreman. Can we take some time to rest please?
Sure... let's take a rest.
But I do want to say that Christina and I definitely see your point about adoption. It's obvious that we've been slow to approach the whole matter of children because we have some of that reluctance in us.
The only thing I will disagree with is that it took 300 years for Christianity to take root in the world. During his life time, Jesus was being followed around, on more than one occasion, by multiple thousands of people. And it is described in Acts how 3000 people came to the faith in one day, not to mention that people were added to it every single day. Even though that is all just a fraction of the world's population, I would say that counts as "taking root in people's hearts."
Whether or not that has any real bearing on my original question is, of course, up for debate.
While this is fresh on my mind, I want to share it before I rest.
* The 300-year reference was about Constantine, finally establishing and unifying Christianity in the known world. Up until Constantine (Constantinople) had his epiphany, the world was very adept at torturing and slaughtering Christians. He managed to change that somewhat.
* Charisma.
The literal meaning of charisma is: “Christ-like”
Christ had charisma. His “Rib” does not -- at least I have never thought I had any charisma.
And I am a “behind the scenes” type of person. Basically, I am a very private person, except for publishing my Messianic Era Message. I have zero ambition to be in the limelight.
For me, it would be a nightmare to be followed around all the time like Christ was.
(OK, maybe in the limelight occasionally, --I was on the radio for about 2 years-- but on a regular basis would be very bad for my personality type.)
So what is the answer? I do not know.
Sometimes I think of this:
I am exactly 31 years old as a Believer in Christ and I have known my purpose for exactly 31 years. Christ was 33 years old when he began to preach, teach, and etc.
Even though I hate the thought of being famous or being on stage, maybe I will be ready when I am “33 years old in Christ” to go out and spread my Messianic Age Message?
Maybe ~ maybe not. At this stage of my life, I do not like the thought at all. What I really want to do is publish a Christian children’s story I wrote and illustrated in 1992; and I want to create a Coffee Table book of Artwork, a project that will take several years.
I just don’t know why God made me the way I am, if I am suppose to change Judaism and Christianity forever! Could it be that nothing will really happen until God translates me to His Eternal City?
I do not know.
I am the ‘Messenger of the Messianic Age’ (originally the word was “Anchor” not “Messenger”) but I do not have the answers to these questions.
When we would worry about various and sundry things, Sharon my late sister would say:
“God is still in charge and still sitting on His Throne in Heaven.”
What she meant is that we don’t have to know everything for our life, all we are required to do is believe that God is still in charge of our life.
Now, I will rest.
That is really a beautiful bit of auto-biography, Ariel. Thank you for that.
Without diminishing my compliment, let me just say that I don't consider the age of Constantine to be a positive development in the history of Jesus' message. I like the fact that Christians stopped getting killed, but as Christianity was converted from a revolution of the heart to an institution, I believe it perverted Jesus' purpose.
Secondly, the Greek word "charis" means "grace" and "charisma" means "gift." Although Jesus did indeed possess a great deal of charisma (a gift of the Holy Spirit), I don't think that it is necessary to be charismatic (with a big or little "c") in order to be Christ-like.
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