indoctrination is more evident in evolution.
i cannot prove to you my faith - just as you cannot prove your reasonings to be any more logical than mine. i never claimed to be a scholar of biblical thoughts - but neither are you rocket scientists. so if you keep trying to foil me - it is pointless. you are not believing in my faith - just as i do not accept reason as a means to understand how God existed before matter. He is Spirit.
as for my limited understanding of paul's writings, i do see evidence that paul knew of Christ's death and ressurrection and mentions it MANY times. Romans 1:4 declares it from the beginning so that people will know that Paul IS an apostle. "concerning His Son, who was born of a descendent of David according to the flesh, who was declared THE SON OF GOD with power by the ressurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord...."
I cor. 1:2 "to the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling, with all who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours....ICor. 1:13 "for Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, NOT IN CLEVERNESS OF SPEECH, that the cross of Christ should not be made void. For it is written..."I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the cleverness of the clever I will set aside...the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men...."
as a divergence, yet on the same topic, i've been thinking about torp's question all day. i too experienced a death of a family member (my father) when i was two. i'm sure his mother prayed for his healing - and yet received a similar answer. that doesn't mean that her faith and yours were lacking. death isn't the end - but it's the end of the 'race' that we are in against death. so, in effect, my father and your sister are in a far better place than we are alive (especially in these trying times). that's not as comforting, though, as knowing that God will never give us a burden too great for us. I kinda doubted that too, because at times I would pray to God and tell Him it WAS too great. i said i couldn't carry it - and cried a lot about it. i didn't understand the passages about 'the dead burying the dead...' that seemed rather heartless. but, over time i understand better. for one thing - God knows what we can bear and tests our hearts (otherwise how would he prove that we have faith?) I cor. 13 says "bears all things, hopes all things..." there would be no point of that verse if things sometimes didn't go as we wished (despite fervent prayers). also, we never know the WHOLE picture - as God does. maybe he was working with my father and your sister in more merciful way than we understand. cancer is painful and you don't want to hang around forever dealing with it - esp. if you are not healed right away. the causes of cancer may be from our changing our environments to other than what God had in mind. also, my mom told me that my father 'tested his fate' by certain things that he did - and his kidneys became weak because of it.
I cor. 15:46 "however the spiritual is not first, but the natural (explaining matter, energy, and spirit); then the spiritual. the first man is from the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven. as is the earthy, so also are those who are earthy (if we are made of matter - we are matter), we shall also bear the image of the heavenly (spirit). now i say this brethren, that flesh and blood CANNOT inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. behold, i tell you a mystery - we shall not all sleep (death to all?) but we shall all be changed (at Christ's second coming). in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye (this is encouraging to those who lose loved ones), at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead shall be raised imperishable (spirit - not matter or energy as we know it)."
when we as mortals put on immortality - i'm sure we'll understand a lot more too about what happened in the past, what's happening now, and what is our 'destiny.' II cor. 1:5 "for just as the sufferrings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ." we don't get all our comfort in this life - but we have enough to encourage us to 'finish the race.' paul often referred to running a race (since the romans/corinthians identified with the roman ideals of athleticism.
even with piano - you don't want everything easy - otherwise you have nothing to 'test your mettle with.' Galations 1:1 "paul, an apostle (not sent from men, nor through the agency of man, but through Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead), and all the brethren who are with me...i am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel...
paul goes on to say that he did not receive the gospel from man, but from God (as he was blinded while persecuting Christians). paul and the gospels have no conflict because he learned from God directly that he was sent to the gentiles and did not preach a doctrine of 'works' but a doctrine of faith. he spoke with peter and james three years after he had already been to arabia (gal. 1:17). the gentiles he spoke to were only required to put away deeds of the flesh (as opposed to pieces - such as in circumcision) : immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing - but to have the fruits of the spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (against these there is no law).
paul also wrote to the ephesians, philippians, colossians, thessalonians i ii, timothy i ii, titus, philemon (so he wrote many many of the nt books). his writings could only have been written during his lifetime and not hundreds of years before 290 AD - that would have been before Christ. i don't claim to know all about how the books came to light - and it's been awhile since i've read how the king james version was popularly accepted - but i do know that none of the gospels counters paul directly. they define Christ's time and gospel to those in jerusalem and judea just as paul defines the gospel to the gentiles. the apostles worked together - and the spirit of God moved them to say everything in common and with the peace of God always mentioned (no matter the book).
Poll
Topic: Is there a God?