RE: Atheists who become Christians
December 21, 2014 at 10:20 pm
(This post was last modified: December 21, 2014 at 10:23 pm by watchamadoodle.)
(December 21, 2014 at 9:14 pm)Drich Wrote:Quote: In fact, believiing in Christianity requires you to ignore the historical evidence indicating fundamental changes to Judaism and Christianity over the centuries - not at all like God was inspiring those religions.Such as?
You mentioned the pride of Lucifer a few posts back, so let's take that example:
The verse that spawned the character Lucifer is from Isaiah. ("Lucifer" in the KJV was a mistranslation of "morning star".)
Quote:How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! You said in your heart, 'I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.' But you are brought down to the realm of the dead, to the depths of the pit. Those who see you stare at you, they ponder your fate: 'Is this the man who shook the earth and made kingdoms tremble, the man who made the world a wilderness, who overthrew its cities and would not let his captives go home?http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucifer
Later the wikipedia article says:
Quote:In ancient Canaanite mythology, the morning star is pictured as a god, Attar, who attempted to occupy the throne of Ba'al and, finding he was unable to do so, descended and ruled the underworld. The original myth may have been about a lesser god Helel trying to dethrone the Canaanite high god El who lived on a mountain to the north. Hermann Gunkel's reconstruction of the myth told of a mighty warrior called Hêlal, whose ambition it was to ascend higher than all the other stellar divinities, but who had to descend to the depths; it thus portrayed as a battle the process by which the bright morning star fails to reach the highest point in the sky before being faded out by the rising sun.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucifer
As further evidence Mount Zaphon is the holy mountain of Baal Hadad not the holy mountain of Yahweh.
Quote:According to Ugaritic texts it was the sacred mountain of the storm god Baal (Baal-Hadad in ancient Canaanite mythology), where his palace was erected of blue lapis and silver and where his lightning overcame the nearby sea (Yam) and Death (Mot) himself.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Aqraa
So this part of Isaiah where the story of Lucifer originated is comparing the king of Babylon to the god of the morning star who according to Canaanite myth tried to occupy the throne of Baal Hadad at Mount Zaphon. This shows how Judaism evolved gradually from Canaanite religions.
(December 21, 2014 at 9:14 pm)Drich Wrote:Quote:EDIT: Even if you accept that you experienced something supernatural, it would be more reasonable to suspect that you were simply hearing a message from some non-Christian entity in the language of your religious beliefs. For example, in the Martian Chronicles, a martian appeared to be Jesus to a priest, because that was the language the priest would understand.Even if this person was not Christian He supported and pushed me towards Christianity.
Maybe all religions are false, but those false religions help people interact with the real God (if it exists). So the real God might encourage you to follow Christianity, but it might encourage somebody else to follow Hinduism.