Questions on Christ

1	Why God brings Death? God is not the bringer of death, death is brought by Devil, and life by Jesus John 10:10 New International Version 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
2	Why doesn't Jesus kill the Devil? It will cease all the bad in the world. Devil has planted the seed of evil in man, judgement on Devil also will bring Judgement upon man, the seed of evil continue to grow, but yes it will happen but mankind is not ready for it, it needs completion/fulfilment of sin for God to bring Judgement upon the world, there is still some good left in the world so God is graceful. Matthew 13 New International Version (NIV) The Parable of the Weeds 24 Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. 26 When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. 27 “The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’ 28 “‘An enemy did this,’ he replied. “The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ 29 “‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’”
3	Claim-  "I am going to create Man and Woman with original sin, Then, I am going to impregnate a woman with myself as her child, so that I can be born. Once alive, ill kill myself as a sacrifice to myself to save you from the sin I originally condemned  you to." Answer: Hundreds of claims like this tries clever use of words to spread wrong doctrine, to find the truth we need to break it down. “I am going to create man and woman with original sin” - False claim, Man & Woman were not created with Sin, they remained sinless until they disobeyed “I am going to impregnate a woman” - False claim, the word impregnate has a wrong meaning that someone physically had sex, but its not the case, this can be in other mythology like Greek, Roman, Hindu where Gods are born out of a sexual relation, it’s not the case here. “I’ll kill "myself" – False claim, the sentence tried to paint as if Jesus killed himself but Jesus was killed as prophesied earlier, refer my blog on few of the ones, there are about 200+ fulfilled in the life of Jesus https://wayoftheredeemer.blogspot.com/2015/06/isaih-prophecies-suffering-of-christ.html
4	Why God condemns people God didn’t condemn anyone, man brought upon it himself, God is the eternal and unbiased Judge he has to go by what is just, holy and righteous. If a parent asks his 18-year-old son not to play with fire, and he ends up burning himself, the son shouldn't complain that the parent kept combustible material in house, he has to only blame himself. The thing is its Satan who coerces you to sin and he is the one who will accuse you to be judged. Revelation 12:9-11 King James Version (KJV) 9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. 10 And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.
5	Why didn’t God just undo what happened in the Garden of Eden? Undoing/Saving/Redemption of the world of the is what is happening for all these time, God is trying to save man and he sacrificed himself to get it done. But man in him pride rejects God what he can get free and runs after sin, vanity, idiocity and false doctrines of this world. Things can be destroyed easily but building it back takes a long time. God will tell you to give up pride, he will not delete it for you but will surely help you if you ask him, he didn't create robots
6	Isnt Devil needed for God to operate, its just part of the same problem isnt it? God doesn’t need devil, he loves us that he is gracefully waiting for us to change, would you agree if a human judge lets go a murder walk free, you wouldn’t but if he truly repents and pays the price in jail, then yes he has paid his dues to walk free if he changes his life, similar justice applies here as well Though this is not clearly stated in Bible, this what Biblical scholars say God created Angels and Man, Angels were super powerful beings, but God created a fragile being called man and said he puts all of creation under his authority, even the Angels Genesis 1:28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” At this point the good angel Lucifer, who was supreme among the angels felt that he cannot submit to man and he deceives man into disobeying God so that he will rule over mankind and not the other way around. God then casts Lucifer out of heaven and Adam/Eve out of Garden of Eden. The difference on judgement for Lucifer(Satan) and mankind is different, Lucifer is damned for hell for he knew the consequence of making man sin against God but man was deceived so God has worked out a plan to save him from eternal condemnation and he has taken the responsibility and paid the ultimate price of painful death and sacrifice on cross to save mankind so that whoever believes in him will be saved.
7	Why did God create man in the first place? Let’s assume that God gives you an option , like you can have a child of freewill or a robotic child that will do exactly what you want it to do that doesn't have free will, I am sure you will choose the former right? may be some people would like robots but God is love and he prefers Children whom he can love and expects his Children to love him back
8	Well isnt Bible just a collection of myths? if you go by science then concept of God itself is a myth but coming to the context of religious text, there is a huge difference between Bible and rest 1. The first few chapters of Bible describing creation of world is considered mythical by non-believers but after about 5th chapter onwards every single place, country, race mentioned has geographical accuracy, same cannot be said about others 2. Anything after the period of David has strong archaeological backing as well, with both names of Kings of both Israel and its warring nations Persia/Babylon(Iraq), Syria, Egypt, Palestine, Greek, Roman and even smaller towns are precisely mentioned with dates that match with recorded history
9	Isnt All regions same, all paths lead to God? Bible is the only book that is consistent, coherent, continuous and doesn't conflict with itself. It makes a lot of logical sense when i scrutinize it myself, i did it before believing it. You tried to scrutinize Bible I was able to give logical answers except the miracles, because they cant be proved now unless a miracle happens now. But try to scrutinize any religion like Hinduism, I can ask tough question that nobody will have answers, like on Birth of Ganesha, Muruga, Ayappa or crazy boons that gods give to Asuras, but ill only get a knife to my throat :') Coming to Religion of Peace, there is a famous joke, which goes, like question it and you will have a piece of you over here and a piece of you over there :) but coming to questions there is strong difference on how God handles prophets in Bible and how Allah handles Mohammad. God of the Bible is 10 times harder on his prophets than on people but it was other way around in Koran, Moses was denied entry into Israel because of a disobedient act of hitting a stone for which he died a lonely death in desert. Famous king David after he committed adultery even though he repented, God took his son and put a sword behind his back for three years and he had to run from cave to cave in hiding till his punishment ended But Mohammad seems be have relaxed rule than what is given to others, like while rest of people can marry 4, but he can marry more or even without a ceremony that too with his adopted sons wife. Others shouldn;t torture but he can torture others for money, i could go on and on like this but thing it doesn't stand up to even human standards of justice let alone Godlines and most importantly Heaven of Bible has no virgins its only holiness of God but heaven of Koran has 70 virgins for a Jihadi. Coming back to the Bible, the prophesies of end times are getting fulfilled ,no country destroyed ever has before has been reinstated but its just a repetition of Biblical history right from the beginning, every time Israel disobeys God, God would send them into slavery, Israel has been so far taken as slaves multiple times by Persia(Iraq), Syria/Assyria, Palestine. God would send his prophets to preach and when they repent and turn back, God would reinstate them back in Israel, this has been going on throughout history but Israel never truly changed and when Jesus himself came they made the ultimate sin of Crucifying the Lord and Jesus himself prophesied that not a stone will be left on Jerusalem post that, and in less than 100 years Romans destroy Jerusalem to the ground and Jews scatter all over the world until after WW2 where in end time prophecy of rebirth of Israel gets fulfilled, its not that they changed to goodness but the devil will be revealed as Anti-Christ and fulfilment of sin that the entire world will follow him and God will bring Judgement upon this world.
10	My religion has better literature and the hymns are more divine than Bible if God should be chosen based on literary works then Homer should be a supreme God :) God of the Bible has the habit of taking the most suppressed to do great things, Moses was born a slave, David was not considered worthy by his own father, and Jesus took many of his disciples from fishermen 1 Corinthians 1: 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him. 30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31 Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”

If you die today, where would you go?

This earthly life is just a temporary period, we are to spend eternity ahead of us, and there are some who don’t believe in  God, or Heaven and Hell, and some ask, if there is a God why is the world full of so much suffering?

Lets look at what the Bible says

2 Corinthians 4:4

Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God

1 John 5:19

We know that we are of God, and that the whole world is under the power of the evil one.

Word of God clearly says that the world is under the power of the evil one, or in simple words "Satan", and this is what he does.

John 10:10

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

All the suffering and pain in this world has been brought into this world by Satan, because, from Adam, man has sinned and hence fallen a slave to his deceits through worldly greed, lust and malice. So does that mean that God has no authority on the world? God works by justice, and will punish those that sin. Surely the murders and abusers and rapists can't be left unpunished, and a theft of 5000 Crore, or 50 rupees. All would be judged by God in the end according to their deeds.

So is there a way out? will God forgive me. Most religions have the concept of equalizing your sins by doing good, so that if you do more good probably you will be able to enter heaven. But Bible says only through the blood of Jesus are our sins washed. Knowingly or Unknowingly people sin, and end up abusing another person. Do you think that giving out some alms is going to equalize that? No it doesn’t. The sin must be atoned for, equal price must be paid. So what is that price is the question. In worldly terms a person is said to have made things right if he serves a jail term. E.g. a murderer serves a  really long sentence and is said to have been served justice. But is that an equal atonement for his actions? Bible says that our actions doesn't make it equal, because an unworthy repayment doesn’t cleanse the sins of a person.

In older times, people sacrificed a lamb as an atonement for their sins and some religions still practice this, but that is not enough, only a true and a holy sacrifice can cleanse the sins of man, which is impossible to come out of this world, as everything and everyone in the world is tainted with sin, which is why Jesus came to this earth and lived a blameless and holy life, which no one could do before or after him. And he paid the price of the worlds sin by shedding his blood as a pure and holy sacrifice so that all the sins of man can be forgiven through Jesus Christ as prophesied earlier.

Isaiah 53:10

Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,

    and though the Lord makes[c] his life an offering for sin

(read my other post on Prophecy of Isaiah on Christ's death and resurrection - http://wayoftheredeemer.blogspot.in/2015/06/isaih-prophecies-suffering-of-christ.html )

Just as per the prophecy of Isaiah(800 BC) Christ died for the sin of mankind and rose again victorious, he is alive today waiting eagerly with the true and sacrificial love that only God can give. Come to Jesus and know what is love !

Prophecy of destruction of Tyre by Ezekiel

Many websites dismiss the prophecy of Tyre and some have stated this prophecy was never fulfilled (Ezekiel 26:1, 26:7-14) as it calls for its total destruction. Tyre did withstand the siege of Nebuchadnezzar for 13 years, ending in a compromise in which the royal family was taken into exile but the city survived intact." but lets look at the prophecy in detail

First and foremost thing to note is, the prophecy is not "one" verse. It starts in Ezekiel 26:3 and ends in verse 21. The ones from many websites argue either unknowingly or knowingly omit the rest of the  prophecy I don’t know why probably they didn’t understand it or willfully suppressed it.

Lets look at the entire prophecy now (those who are short of time can skip to the next paragraph)

Ezekiel, Chapter 26 from verse 3 (https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/111/ezk.26.niv)

3 therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against you, Tyre, and I will bring many nations against you, like the sea casting up its waves. 4They will destroy the walls of Tyre and pull down her towers; I will scrape away her rubble and make her a bare rock. 5Out in the sea she will become a place to spread fishnets, for I have spoken, declares the Sovereign Lord. She will become plunder for the nations, 6and her settlements on the mainland will be ravaged by the sword. Then they will know that I am the Lord.

7“For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: From the north I am going to bring against Tyre Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, king of kings, with horses and chariots, with horsemen and a great army. 8He will ravage your settlements on the mainland with the sword; he will set up siege works against you, build a ramp up to your walls and raise his shields against you. 9He will direct the blows of his battering rams against your walls and demolish your towers with his weapons. 10His horses will be so many that they will cover you with dust. Your walls will tremble at the noise of the warhorses, wagons and chariots when he enters your gates as men enter a city whose walls have been broken through. 11The hooves of his horses will trample all your streets; he will kill your people with the sword, and your strong pillars will fall to the ground. 12They will plunder your wealth and loot your merchandise; they will break down your walls and demolish your fine houses and throw your stones, timber and rubble into the sea. 13I will put an end to your noisy songs, and the music of your harps will be heard no more. 14I will make you a bare rock, and you will become a place to spread fishnets. You will never be rebuilt, for I the Lord have spoken, declares the Sovereign Lord.

15“This is what the Sovereign Lord says to Tyre: Will not the coastlands tremble at the sound of your fall, when the wounded groan and the slaughter takes place in you? 16Then all the princes of the coast will step down from their thrones and lay aside their robes and take off their embroidered garments. Clothed with terror, they will sit on the ground, trembling every moment, appalled at you. 17Then they will take up a lament concerning you and say to you:

“ ‘How you are destroyed, city of renown,

peopled by men of the sea!

You were a power on the seas,

you and your citizens;

you put your terror

on all who lived there.

18Now the coastlands tremble

on the day of your fall;

the islands in the sea

are terrified at your collapse.’

19“This is what the Sovereign Lord says: When I make you a desolate city, like cities no longer inhabited, and when I bring the ocean depths over you and its vast waters cover you, 20then I will bring you down with those who go down to the pit, to the people of long ago. I will make you dwell in the earth below, as in ancient ruins, with those who go down to the pit, and you will not return or take your place in the land of the living. 21I will bring you to a horrible end and you will be no more. You will be sought, but you will never again be found, declares the Sovereign Lord.”

Lets look at the important parts of the prophecy

1. Verse 3 :  I will bring many nations against you

The first point that I make to those arguing against this prophecy is that it doesn’t say only one nation, but many nations. The destruction of Tyre is started by Nebuchadnezzar but its only the beginning and the Lord will bring many more nations against it.

2. Verse 7 :  From the north I am going to bring against Tyre Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon

Nebuchadnezzar is the one to bring about the beginning of the destruction of Tyre.

3. Verse 12 :throw your stones, timber and rubble into the sea.

To those arguing against this prophecy, this verse should sound silly or irrelevant. Most destruction of cities is either by demolishing it with siege weapons and plundering it and the may be setting it on fire but who in the right might would want to carry all the huge building material and that too all the way to the sea. Let's think of the great city walls and governmental monuments built with stones that would have weighed several tons it’s a waste of effort to carry and throw them into sea and for what purpose? It just sounds crazy right, yes prophecies may sound crazy but lets see how this was fulfilled very soon.

4. Verse 14 : become a place to spread fishnets. You will never be rebuilt,

Again a crazy verse "place to spread fishnets",  at the time of writing Tyre was a great city of commerce and its just totally silly to say that such a place will be used to spread fishnets. Of course since it was a harbor city some amount of fishing would have happened even then but the prophecy is clearly saying that the city will turn into a place where its only good enough to catch fish

5. Verse 19 bring the ocean depths over you and its vast waters cover you
6. Verse 20 : I will make you dwell in the earth below, as in ancient ruins, with those who go down to the pit, and you will not return or take your place in the land of the living

Next crazy verse here to the minds of critics, "ocean depths to cover you", "Tyre going down the pit and not returning to the place of the living, sounds something from "Lord of the Rings" ?

Well its not from a movie but the prophecy of the true Lord as revealed to prophet Ezekiel.

Now since the important parts of the prophecy has been covered lets look at the history and some geography of the Tyre. The City of Tyre in 1000BC when this prophecy was written isn't not the one that you see today on Google map right now. There were two parts to it, the main land City and an island city which was a harbor and held the grandeur of the city of Tyre.(Reference No.2).  You wont see the island city now in Google maps thanks to the fulfillment of the Prophecy which I will explain later as you read more below.

Here is what you will get on Tyre on Google Maps if you search for it as shown below in Figure 1

Google maps link : https://www.google.co.in/maps/place/Tyre,+Lebanon/@33.273276,35.1981048,14.22z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x151e7d902f915d95:0xcf0e3fc6fb997408?hl=en

 Figure 1

This Figure 2 the original Island city of Tyre as reconstructed(Research Reference - 2, given below)

Figure 2

The ancient city Tyre was the trade capital of not only of the Phoenician empire but one the greatest of the ancient world. The empire had great naval skills and were the first to navigate the seas and establish trade routes with many nations making it the heart of the ancient trade. When wealth increases so does immorality and Tyre was no different. It had one of the biggest slave market of ancient times and the prophecy is directly related to it. Tyre was a big trading nation with Israel during the good periods of King David and his son  Solomon and both nations gained both in wealth and strength though this trade. In Bible its said that in those good times, Hiram, the king of Tyre sent to Israel, woods of cedars to built the Jewish temple and also sent his skilled naval personnel to help Solomon's ships navigate the seas to acquire gold from various nations to build the temple. But during later times when Israel had fallen to the Babylonian empire, Tyre captured people from Judah and Jerusalem and sold them off as slaves in the slave market which is why Lord revealed this prophecy to Ezekiel against it.

The island city was considered impregnable as it was protected by fortified walls, surrounded by deep sea offered it, natural defenses with steep ocean cliffs and rough weather. It can only be approached by naval ships, thus no siege warfare can be launched effectively against it from sea, as Tyre also had naval superiority. Due to this supremacy in both military, navy and wealth Tyre and the Phoenician empire flourished greatly.

Lets look at the historical events which sets of the destruction of Tyre, first Nebuchadnezzar starts off to subdue Tyre but even though he desolated the main land(the region which was separated by sea from the Island city of Tyre). The island city was never captured by Nebuchadnezzar. He tried for 13 years and finally gave up after getting a tribute from Tyre but the once great region was on its knees, though it was not completely destroyed. Its commerce still continued to generate wealth, it still had naval superiority which is why Nebuchadnezzar could never reach the Island city.

Lets look at what happens later, well here comes the hero "Great Alexander". Ancient historian Diodorus Siculus has written of about the events which brought the destruction of the Island city of Tyre on the hands of Alexander. It seems he wanted to offer a personal sacrifice to the temple of Heracles in Tyre. This was declined by Tyre, though angered by this, act Alexander knew its military strength and its naval supremacy so he was willing to focus only to conquer Egypt. Also Alexander and the Macedonian army had no fleet either. Wanting to conquer Egypt he sent messengers to Tyre, to sign a peace treaty. Trusting their naval strength and the natural defenses of the Island nation, they kill his ambassadors and threw their bodies into the sea angering Alexander which I guess was the last straw . The military master mind sets of on his quest to subdue Tyre, he quickly destroys the main land which might have been partially rebuilt after Nebuchadnezzar but it didn’t stand a chance against Alexander's army. But he too faced the same challenge faced by Nebuchadnezzar, he could not subdue the Island city as he had no navy. But the military genius sets off a great engineering innovation, he orders his army to build a land bridge to the Island city called a "Mole" in the writings of Siculus which was over 200feet wide. This was unprecedented in the ancient world as such a grand and mammoth task was never attempted or not even thought possible. Now where will the army get its stones to build the bridge? well you have the main land city with its great old monuments where else, and thus the prophecy in Verse 12 is fulfilled "throw your stones, timber and rubble into the sea", Well the story goes and  even after great attempts by Tyre's navy to halt the construction of bridge Alexander's gets support from his ally's and uses their naval ships and stops them from harming the bridge. It is also recorded that a storm destroyed the bridge during construction but Alexander rebuilt it and pushed forward and on reaching the city , unlike Nebuchadnezzar he showed no mercy to Tyre. He killed all of its army with 7000 killed in battle and 2000 crucified later, sold off rest off the population of over 30,000 as slaves. Alexander achieved total annilation of Tyre in just 7 months which Nebuchadnezzar couldn't do 13 years. Alexander didn’t just stop at destroying Tyre, he knew that if left as it was, being at the heart of established trade routes it will restart its commerce. He then builds the city of Alexandria, as the city of commerce and diverts all the trade routes to the new city, thus Tyre is now destroyed, unable to gather any more wealth to regain its military strength nor commerce.

The term "rebuilt" used in the prophecy has a significant meaning. What it means is that in historical terms when a city is destroyed it can regain its strength and rebuilt itself again. This happened in bible, even when the Persian empire destroys the first temple built by Solomon it was rebuilt by Israel again but it was again destroyed by Romans later. Even in modern terms we see Germany, Japan being destroyed and now they are rebuilt to their former glory. Recently speaking it’s the twin towers of World trade center, US is rebuilding it with even greater grandeur to show their strength, if US builds a supermarket say a Walmart or say an apartment or something else its not rebuilding it. The term rebuilt means the city should regain its strength and reach its glory days or better. As history shows it never happened.

But the most amazing part of the prophecy is towards the end which is left out by the critics of this prophecy, verse 19 bring the ocean depths over you and its vast waters cover you and verse 20 : I will make you dwell in the earth below, as in ancient ruins, with those who go down to the pit, and you will not return or take your place in the land of the living. Its over 2500 years, as this prophecy was written around 586 B.C and the sea level then was over 6 meters below the current levels. If you want to find the island nation now you need to look below the sea as its submerged at 3 meters below sea level(Referece 2: UNESCO research on Tyre and Sidon)

Update: Initially I thought the island is completely submerged but recently I got some more information from research by Nick Marriner(Reference 4), and came to know the land bridge built by Alexander due to centuries of sedimentation has enlarged has made the island into a peninsula but the major portion of the island is submerged into sea by over 3 meters as you see in this picture

Here is an aerial photo as well, showing the current submerged island with only parts above the sea level.

Well now I guess I have put forth arguments that establishes the fulfillment of this prophecy, request readers to post their questions and I will try to answer them.

References

1.  http://apologeticspress.org/apcontent.aspx?category=13&article=1790
2. Research by UNESCO to protect the submerged ruins of Tyre and Sidon: http://www.researchgate.net/publication/228892099_Under_the_city_centre_the_ancient_harbour._Tyre_and_Sidon_Heritages_to_preserve
3. http://www.padfield.com/1994/tyre.html
4. http://archive.archaeology.org/0801/topten/alexander.html