Well, one more….Let me pick an interesting one.The one about no local well known historian…Jesus was in Judea with a small band of close followers. Where were these local historians? Some people passionately HATED Jesus and wanted him dead. Some loved Him to the uttermost. Most, as today, didn’t even know what was going on! The Son of God was walking on earth and most were more interested in the gladiator matches! No surprise from me that the “historians” missed Him. Instead, the four gospels record eye-witness accounts from four different angles. Luke especially was written in the standard format of 1st century history. Luke was the most famous local historian. Many more people have read Luke’s accurate history of Jesus and the early church than Josephus’ politically motivated (and slanted) accounts. Who is more “well known”?

Why is it that Satan can oppose the will of God at all in the first place?

Why can’t God defeat evil all at once?

Why does God create people imperfectly and then punish them for their inadequacies?

Why doesn’t God just create people as perfectly good to begin with?

Why are we supposedly paying for the sins of Adam and Eve?

Why did God place a temptation in the Garden of Eden to begin with?

Why aren’t we omniscient, omnipresent and omnibenevolent if we are created in “God’s Image”?

Why must people suffer eternal torture, pain and anguish just because they don’t believe in God?

Why does God demand that we feed his ego with eternal worship and praise?

Why in the bible does God command and directly cause the murder of over 2 million men, women and children?

Why does God demand the death penalty for petty reasons like working on the sabbath or children for cursing their parents?

Why does the bible order rape victims to marry their rapists?

Why does the bible condone the obvious evil that is slavery?

Why do innocent children suffer and die from cancer, murder, starvation, accidents and a multitude of other reasons?

Why can’t God heal amputees and other obvious afflictions like baldness, rosacea, psoriasis, skin cancer or visible tumors?

Why are faith healings always some invisible condition like back pain, deafness or diabetes?

Why can’t faith healers come forward with numerous conclusive proofs of healing from credible doctors?

Why can’t faith healing be reproducible and definitively proven by the scientific method?

Why can’t answered prayer be reproducible and definitively proven by the scientific method?

Why does God (and the church) require 10% of your income if he could just miraculously make money appear?

Why are there so many mistakes, outright fallacies and contradictions in the bible?

Why are there at least 38,000 denominations of Christianity if Jesus specifically prayed for unity?

Why aren’t there numerous contemporary accounts of Jesus’ life from well known local historians?

Why does the bible say that God is unchangeable and then gives numerous instances where he changes his mind?

Why couldn’t God see the fact that he’d need to change his mind in the first place?

Why is it that on one hand it is by faith that one gets to heaven and then on the other hand that good works must be done?

Why would God write a second set of ten commandments if the first set was divinely inspired to begin with?

Why would God write the first covenant (the old testament) if he could see the need for a second covenant in the future?

Why is it that Christianity is so similar to the “mystery” religions such as the Egyptian “Book of the Dead” and the worship of gods like Mithra and Zeus?

Keep up the great work…(all y’all)

In the late 70’s, the Spirit led me from LA to Lodi California. As I stood on a street corner in Lodi, I looked down the street. As I stood gazing, I began to see several men and women leave their Churches. As they exited their several buildings, I closely watched, they kept their focus away from those leaving the other buildings. I began to weep, I then turned to the side and the Lord stood next to me also weeping. Through the many years that followed I ministered in many different Denominational Churches, I found that what had caused this great divide between Christians was how each Denomination was formed by someone who had taken Scripture out of context. When those around this person refused to agree with their new found interpretation, they simply used the Scripture to separate themselves and founded a new Denomination. When man attempts to increase his knowledge of God based on carnal efforts alone, he is doomed to cause death, no matter how intelligent he may believe himself to be. To those who study in this manner, the Anointing means little, they base the truth on the limits of their mind.

What does this mean for me today?

What does this mean for me for how I spend my money this week?

What does this have to do with what I look at on television and on the Internet and in a movie theater?

What does this say about how I spend my leisure time?

What does this have to say about how I love my wife (or husband or child or neighbor)?

What does this have to say to me about how I honor my parents?

What does this mean about the clothes I choose to wear as the weather gets warmer?

What does this have to do with how I respond to people who sin against me?

Taken from Sovereign Grace Fellowship senior pastor Rick Gamache’s April 6, 2008, sermon on Hebrews 5:11-6:8 titled “Consider Jesus: The Problem, the Pathway, and the Peril” (audio timeline 25:31 to 24:50).

To the other questions in this thread, fantastic. I usually like to ask myself which of my current beliefs, if any, are challenged by the passage.

Does this passage use slippery argumentative methods, such as the classic ad hominem reflexive argument? (i.e. by disagreeing with the passage, does it automatically and reflexively condemn your person either as a nonbeliever or as a fool?)

Does the original Greek or Hebrew mean something totally different from the translation in English?

How might the passage reveal that Jesus is NOT the true savior?

How might MAN have wanted the passage to function in my life?