religion-and-culture

Is it Possible to Understand the Bible?

Sat, 20 Feb 2010 17:19:40 +0100

The wisdom is belong to the Lord. Therefore, ask wisdom and it shall be given unto you. There is no impossible with God. To Him, with Him and for Him everything is possible. Ask and you shall received, seek and you shall find, knock and the door will be open for you. To those who seek, he will find, to those who ask, it shall be given and to those who ask wisdom, He will give understanding.

Many people thought that the bible is hard to understand. But contrary to that belief, Bible is the easiest way to learn and understand, if, however, you’re asking guidance and understanding from the Lord. The Lord, Himself will open the door to your heart and let you understand, the power of the scripture.

“For the Lord gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding”, Proverbs 2:6

There is no impossible for God, he can give you the power of understanding. He will give the answer in every question in your heart. What is knowledge? What is understanding?

“For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul”, Proverbs 2:10

Scripture is the powerful word, empowered by God. His holy spirit roving around the earth to make His words “living and active”. Hebrews 4:12.

Athiest believed that the Bible is only one type of a book written to explained the event of the past. If you figure it out, there are many book in the past that was written by many geniuses and scholars but did not last till now, whilst the Bible existed long before everyone was born. It is the beginning. It’s because this book is powered by God, “living and active”.

“For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke by God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit”, 2 Peter 1:20, which means God was in the context of the scipture and in each pages and chapters of the Bible. Thus, if you ask him the will to guide you toward understanding, he will direct your path and guide you in a right directions. Understanding is the main key to the scripture. God will open each heart in order for you to understand.
Is it possible to understand the Bible. Absolutely. What shall you do to make it more clear to you?

First, pray. Prayer is the only means of communication you have with God. So, open your heart through prayer and it will guide you towards understanding.

Second, constant studying. Open your bible everyday. Make an effort to study. Be like a student and God will be your teacher. Obey God’s word and wisdom will flow like a stream.

Third, have someone with you. A counsellor for example. Be humble in asking what you need to ask. Even before, discipling partner is very common to the first century Christian.

Bible is not to question science but to explain the human heart. God always reach out people’s heart in the very beginning till now. Do not be afraid to be rebuked by the bible. It is where you will learn.

“All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”, 2 Timothy 3:16.

Introduction: Buddhism

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 23:50:28 +0100

Buddhism was founded by Guatama Buddha. It is a religion and a philosophy of life that was originated in Northern India at around fifth century BC by Siddhartha Guatama. Buddha means "enlighten one" and this religion is also known as Buddha Dharma or Dhamma ( In Sanskrit: Awakened) is any being who has become fully awakened (enlightened), and has experienced Nirvana. Buddhism has been described as a very pragmatic religion and it is also one of the six major religions of the world. Pragmatic in the sense that it doesn't focus in metaphysical speculation means is a straightforward look for human condition or the real things that happen in this world. No theological approach nor to worship of deity or deification of the Buddha. It is rather best described as a path of practice and spiritual manifestation that provides greater and wider outlook about the nature of life. Buddhism takes no wishful thinking. The teaching is about the nature of life, the truth, moral code, system of belief and a transcendental dimension. It is simply the way things were as a human and a respect from one another and beyond.

Unlike other religion, Buddhism doesn't worship any gods or even Buddha, others will not consider nor called Buddhism as a religion as if the belief that in religion there should be a highest or supreme God to worship. The basic tenets or standard about Buddhist religion is practicality and straightforward: nothing is fixed or permanent; actions have consequences and changes is inevitable. To do no evil; to cultivate good; to purify one's mind is the teaching of the Buddha. The meditation practice that being taught and developed are the means of changing oneself to achieve the qualities of awareness, kindness and wisdom.

From its humble beginnings, the teachings were quiet adoptive and explicit. The practicality of teachings and beliefs has been embraced by many. The core of Buddhism spread to India, Korea, Japan, Southeast Asia, China, Nepal and Tibet and it seems to have arrived in America in the 19th Century. Buddhism has attracted many American followers and intellectuals, may be so it contains so much human insight on how to use the mind to tame the mind's excesses.

There Are Four Noble Truths Taught In Buddhism:

The fundamental teaching about the Buddhist religion is the Four Noble Truths: As there is suffering; there is a cause of suffering; there is an end to suffering and there is a path out of suffering.

Life is Suffering.

The reality of suffering (dukkha, a Pali word means suffering, "pain, sorrow or misery"), in the main context of this First Noble Truth also described, "imperfection, emptiness , imperfect, stressful or filled with anguish". That life is painful and frustrating that even if we are honest with ourselves, there are still moment that we become miserable and frustrated. This is the reality of suffering that no matter how we escaped and do the errands all the time, we can still suffer and feel frustrated. The First Noble Truth described the reality of suffering. Look behind us, terrorism, hatred, wars, greediness, children dying of starvation, and anything encompasses suffering. The reality of life such as we get sick, grow old and eventually die or the worst meet an accident at a young age and no matter how we try to avoid it, it is happening and we cannot stop the reality of our own existence.

Suffering is Caused by Attachment.

The cause of suffering ( samudaya ) illustrates the "why?" in suffering. It is described in the Second Noble Truth that the principal cause of suffering is the attachment to "desire" or "craving". In this context, suffering arises because everything will undergo changes, nothing is permanent. Everything will revolved and subject to change. Suffering is caused by desire, the craving of human nature accompanied by human delights and lust; craving for sensual pleasures, craving for existence, craving for extermination. "Attachment" in Buddhism extends far beyond sense of "greed" or clinging" into something. The second Noble Truth reflects on the sources of suffering. It is simply explained that, we suffer because of our own desire and in somewhat
"our own selfish desire". The clinging to desire comes from our own experience that short-term satisfaction comes from following the desire and even though we satisfy our own hunger for desire, it doesn't bring an end to them, we're still craving and clinging into them.

Attachment Can Be Overcome.

We can overcome, this is the teaching of the Third Noble Truth. That, in our suffering, there is a solution that we need to overcome. There is a freedom from attachment and the solution of the suffering. Our struggle to survive and our effort to prove that we can overcome our desire and the result of our own suffering. As we are the ultimate cause of our difficulties, we are also the solution. We cannot change the things that happen to us, but we can change our responses. If we could b released from attachment, we would be released from suffering.

To Eliminate Desire Follow the Eightfold Path.

The Fourth Noble truth is the way, or path to end the cause of suffering. This is the teaching that taught the method to get out from the suffering. The central or the core thought in the Eightfold path can pursuit through meditation, morality (Sila); described as the right speech, right action, right livelihood and Wisdom (Panna), described as the right understanding and the right thought.

The Biblical and Scientific Views on How Planet Earth Was Formed

Sat, 07 Mar 2009 22:48:18 +0100

Many believed that the earth was formed because God created it for six days and completed it by seventh day. To assert some scriptures from the Holy Bible, it says that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. First, he created the light and he separated it from the dark. Next, there was the expanse between the waters to separate water from the sky. Then, he created the land which separated the seas; and he let the land produce vegetation: seed bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to various kinds. He let the water teem with living creatures and let the birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky. By his words, he let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: live -stock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind. On sixth day; he said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground”. So, he created us- in his own image. Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in their entire vast array. By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. However, not all of his creation believed that they were made from him. This belief would cause a debate (back to back) with others who do not believe in him.

On the other hand, other people believed that the earth was formed from a cloud of dust and gas. Cosmos and the works of science or the scientist believed that it was formed in the same way as the sun, planets and stars. It was long, long years ago as our solar system condensed from an interstellar gas cloud; 4.6 billion years, from the same nebula cloud of gas and dust that the sun and other planets were formed. The condensing gas molecules as they became closer together, developed a gravitational force and the inward motion, towards the center of the mass along with force from radiation for other interstellar bodies cause the radically attracted particles to rotate. In the beginning, according to the cosmos, the earth was a giant, red hot, roiling, boiling sea of molten rock like a magma ocean. Earth was nothing more than molt rock. The heat had been generated by the repeated high speed collisions of much smaller bodies of space rocks that continually clumped together as they collided to form the earth. As the collisions tapered off the earth began to cool, forming a thin crust on its surface. Water vapour began to escape and condense in the earth’s early atmosphere as the cooling continued. Clouds formed and storms raged, raining more and more water down on the primitive earth, cooling surface further until it was flooded with water, forming the seas. But all of this is just a mere theory. The Big Bang theory in which commonly thought by most scientists that there was an explosive types of event that occurred in the galaxy and the dust and rock sediment from that explosion came together and eventually formed the planet earth after fusing in orbit after a long period of time. Other explained it as there was a tremendous burst of light blazed out in infinite space; two huge stars surged together at terrific speed. They shattered vast fragments from each other as they passed- and thus our earth was born. So, the earth was formed by accidents as you can possibly imagine. But, take note that all of these are just a mere theory and until now, there are still studies about our physical universe. Astronomers, scientists and cosmology were collecting data and theory regarding the exact formation of earth and how it was formed. They were only basing on the observations, theorist that they gathered from the data that they collected. They developed many models to explain the cosmos. At first, it was Einstein’s Theory of Relativity which attempts the explanation of how earth was formed.

These two factors have a tremendous impact of someone who believes the Big Bang theory or God’s creation. For Christians and other religions, they set to believe that the earth was formed because God created it, but for someone who does not believe that God exist; science is the only way to know how the earth was formed. Science is base on proofs while religions and other denominations believe that God is the beginning of all creations and that, they called it -by faith. Atheists for example do not believe about the faith of creation; however they have faith on the scientist’s ability that proved about the existence of the universe. Was there any?
Who knows? Can scientists really prove that there was a big explosion billion years ago? That a nearby supernova seeded the hydrogen cloud with heavy elements, causing it to gravitationally collapse? That the earth was formed by accidents? According to the scientists, that Big Bang was just a mere theory, an abstract thought or contemplation. Hardly, there were lots of theories after the Big Bang theory till now--it causes many people to engage on debate.

Published @: Triond