Reading the Bible for the First Time

9/16/2014

Answer to an Islamic man reading the Bible for the first time...

Dear sir/mam,

Sorry i haven't asked you your good name :(. Could tell me what is you name ?

I have read some pages of the Bible. But there is some point i did not get it. Could you kindly explain it to me ?

1) who is Adam ? Is he God ?

2) page 4 said the human has been cursed and the earth too !! Are we cursed ?

3) page 11 . Noah has drunk until he lost his mind and get naked then Ham saw him then he told his brothers to help him to cover his father up but when Noah waked up he cursed Ham !! Why Noah cursed Ham ? Also Noah should be a good person and what he did (Drink and get naked) is totally bad behavior !!!

4) page 85 . Why Israelis have been ordered to marks their homes with blood ? Is God going to mistake between them the others ? Because as it has been said in Bible, that is God will save them so God should know where they live and do not mistake !! Unless you think God sometime do mistakes !!!

5) page 1142 . God said Jesus is my son and page 1148 Jesus said God is my father. So is Jesus the son of our God ?!!

6) Jesus is only came to continue the message that God have send to us by previous prophets as page 1140. Also i believe this but i add prophet Mohammed came to continue same message. So do you think i am right ? What do you believe in Mohammed ? Is he prophet or not ?

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Hello Nahya,

Thank you for writing! Your questions show that you are doing some serious thinking about important matters. Several of us prayed to God and discussed your questions with each other. It is no trouble at all for us to share some answers with you from God’s word.

Adam was the first human being. He was not God. God created Adam and gave him intelligence and personality. God wanted Adam to know Him and to be His friend. For quite some time, Adam submitted himself to God very freely and willingly. He had a close relationship with God. However, sin entered the world through God’s enemy, satan. This deceiver tempted the man and woman to sin against God. He tempted them with the idea that they could be wise and know for themselves what was good and evil, instead of listening to God to learn His thoughts. The deceiver tempted them with being independent from God, with trying to be like gods themselves rather than submitting to their Creator and Friend. They sinned. As soon as they sinned, Adam and his wife lost their friendship with God. They even hid from Him. God had warned them that if they sinned they would die. That is part of the curse. Another part is that the man and woman were driven out of paradise. From then on the man would have to work the ground and earn food by his own sweat. Also from then on pain entered the world. Women would experience much pain in childbirth. The greatest punishment was that Adam and his descendants could no longer have such a close friendship with God. However, God promised that one day there would be a descendant who would crush satan’s head!

As time went on, human beings became worse and worse. Soon they even began to murder each other. After several generations went by, God decided to destroy most of humankind by a flood. He kept Noah and his family alive, because Noah was the most righteous man at the time. However, not even Noah was perfect. One time he did get drunk and lay naked in his tent. Ham did not do anything to help his father. He only gossiped about Noah to his brothers. The other two brothers honored their father and protected his dignity by covering him up. They walked in backwards with a blanket so that they would not see his nakedness. So Noah blessed the two brothers but cursed Ham.

The Bible tells many things about the lives of godly men and women. But the Bible is also honest and tells us about their sins. Even the best people who are mentioned in the Bible sometimes sinned. As it says later, “There is no one who is righteous, not even one.” Sin is a terrible problem in our world. The devil has not stopped doing his evil work of tempting humans. And most people have simply become wicked. They have made their own consciences dead. There has only been one person who has ever lived who has been completely free from sin. And that is Jesus!

God is merciful, so He wants to forgive people their sins. But He is also just and holy, so He must punish sin. At first He allowed people to sacrifice an animal because their own sin. That is why the Israelites marked the outside of their doors with blood on that night. God had commanded them to do it for a reason. It showed that they understood that sin should be punished by death. They were telling God that they had sacrificed a lamb to die instead of their children dying. Only those who really trusted God put the blood on their doors. But it is really impossible for the blood of a goat or a sheep to take away sin. The life of an animal is not worth as much as the life of a human. That is why God sent Jesus.

Jesus had a human mother, but not a human father. The Spirit of God came over a virgin woman and planted a divine Life inside of her. Jesus was born as a human. He became just like we are. He worked, ate, slept, and felt sufferings and joy like any other man. But He was completely without sin. Beginning at infancy and throughout His life, Jesus completely submitted Himself to His Father in Heaven. Jesus pleased the Father in every way. Jesus lived with courage, love, confidence, peace, wisdom, and kindness. He showed us what the character of God is like. Jesus told us that He did not come to destroy the words of the prophets, but to fulfill them. But He was more than a prophet. In the book of Hebrews, the Bible says, “Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days He has spoken to us by a Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom He also created the worlds. He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being.”

Because Jesus was the “exact imprint of God’s very being,” He hated sin like God does. He taught people that God expects more than good behavior. He expects us to love Him and submit to Him in our hearts. Jesus really did not create new laws. Instead, He taught us to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. He taught us to love our neighbors as much as we love ourselves. Jesus wanted an inner submission of our wills and desires and hearts, not just an outer submission of ritual actions.

Some people listened to Jesus and loved Him, but others hated Him. The religious people in Israel did not like His message. They wanted to have a list of laws to obey. They were willing to visit a holy place or say a prayer or give something to the poor. But they did not want to love God with all their hearts. They wanted to live by laws, but they wanted to stay in control of their lives. They didn’t want God to be in total control. They became so angry with Jesus that they had Him beaten almost to death, and then they finished killing Him by nailing Him to a wooden cross. After Jesus had hung there suffering for hours, He died. The soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and blood and water poured out. His friends took His body from the cross and buried it in a tomb. They wrapped His body in cloths and sealed the tomb with a large rock. On the third day, there was an earthquake. Some women who loved Jesus came to the tomb and saw that the rock had been rolled away. An angel was there and spoke to them. He told them that Jesus had defeated death and satan. Jesus had been raised back to life by the power of God. Afterwards, Jesus appeared to His disciples for a period of 40 days and spoke to them and taught them on many occasions. Then He was taken up to heaven in a cloud before their eyes.

God’s desire is that Jesus should be the first among many brothers and sisters. He wants people to become like Jesus in character and heart and life. When people are willing to fully surrender their lives to Him, Jesus pours His own Spirit into them. His Spirit lives inside them to change them. It is an amazing thing! Jesus called it being “born again.” Baptism in water is supposed to show that the old person is dying and being buried, and a new person is coming up from the grave. The Spirit then transforms people to be like Jesus little by little. Each day they are less like sinful humans and more like Jesus. So God really does call them His children. He also gives them relationships with each other. They can love and help each other, like a family. They can help each other hate sin and love righteousness and become like Jesus. Jesus said that His followers would be known for their love. If they love God with all their hearts, and if they love their neighbors as themselves, they have fulfilled God’s commands. Genuine Christians respond to God with love and gratitude, not with the idea of following a list of rules.

Nahya, it is important that you realize that most people who call themselves Christians are really not Christians. America is really not a Christian nation. Most Americans do not love God. They have not been born again. They do not have the Spirit of Jesus living inside them, because they have never surrendered their hearts and lives to God. That is why America is so full of wickedness and sin. We apologize to you on behalf of Jesus that people who claim to be Christians can be so full of selfishness and greed and immorality and vice. But you must realize that they are false Christians. There are people who really belong to Jesus in America, but they are fairly few in number. There are true Christians in every nation of the world. They love Jesus, they submit their hearts to Him, and they try to obey God. When they sin, they repent. They are full of faith, hope, and love. Most people in the world are very uncomfortable with them, and some people hate them just like they hated Jesus. People who truly love Jesus are a blessing to the world, however. They try to live the same kind of life Jesus lived. These people are like a holy nation, even though they speak many languages and live in many different places around the world. God knows them, and they are His sons and daughters.

Jesus died to forgive you of your sins. He is a sacrifice so that you can be saved. But He is now alive with the Father in Heaven. He invites you to be His friend and brother, if you are willing to repent of your sins, place all of your trust in Him, and love the Father from the heart. One day, maybe soon, He will return from Heaven with His angels. He will judge the world, and those who have submitted their hearts and lives to Him will be welcomed into Heaven forever. One of those people can be you if you are willing!

Thank you for caring enough to read this long explanation. These truths can change your life forever if you let them. We will be asking the Father to bless you with understanding, wisdom, and insight about these matters. Please feel free to write back with any further questions if you want to.

Your friends,

Michael, Greg, Andrew, Dan, and many more here!