So, Alice had wanted us to watch a movie she had picked up called "Startling Proofs" because it was a great movie about the scientific evidence of God's existence. I was looking forward to it! Shelley was running late, so while we postponed watching the movie until she arrived, Alice and I discussed the questions I had sent to her prior to her switching the Thursday study to the movie.
My first inquiry was about life after life and the validity of ghosts or spirits. Having been taught in Mormonism that our spirits went to "prison or paradise" and that the location of this place was another dimension of this earth, I once thought it possible that people's spirits could come and visit once they had passed.
She indicated that in 2 Corinthians 5 is refers to our desire to return to our heavenly home with the Lord. She also gave me a book to take home and read about heaven. That book also indicated we go to live with the Lord. It also said that spirits do not come back to earth once they are dead. Alice agreed with this conclusion when I had asked her about people seeing deceased relatives. She believes that there are Angels and Demons - they are a different "species" from humans. Angels can and do watch over and protect us. However, demons can take on many forms to deceive us. They would like to distract us from focusing our faith and love on the Lord. Consequently, I looked up scriptures that were about "ghosts" and all of them that included references to people coming back from the dead were used in correlation with witchcraft and sorcery.
Next was paid ministry and tithing. I had brought this up because I had grown up in a church where there was "no paid ministry" in the ward level of service. Tithing was not a foreign concept to me, as I had faithfully given my 10% throughout my activity being LDS. However, now that I was out of it, paying tithing and knowing it went to the pastor's paycheck was difficult when the pastor speaks openly about how generous he is with his staff and how many extravagant vacations he goes on. When my family struggles from paycheck to paycheck, I feel like the church I give my tithe to should be a little more accountable about utilizing that money for the good of the whole church.
Alice and I had had a phone conversation prior to our Thursday study about tithe. She said that giving tithe may not necessarily mean money. She also said, from her own opinion, that tithe doesn't have to be to the church because "inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto me" (Matthew 25:40). That made a lot of sense to me!
Additionally, in doing further research later about tithing on the net.bible.org site, it said the following:
I found it interesting that all of the references to tithe were in the Old Testament - the old law. I looked up 1 Corinthians 16:2 - "On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made." When I looked at the translation for "collections" it referred to the gathering of funds for the poor.Meaning of Tithe
Topic: Tithe
Word meaning “tenth,” used of the offering of a tenth for religious purposes. Abraham gave a tenth to Melchizedek, the priest-king (Gen. 14:18-20). The Israelites were required to give a tithe to the Levites (Num. 18:21, 24), and the Levites in turn were to give a tithe of the tithe to the priests (Num. 18:25-28). The tithe was taken from things like grain, fruits, and animals (Lev. 27:30-32). There is no command to tithe in the New Testament (cf. 1 Cor. 16:2), but many Christians believe that the concept is a useful guide in their giving.
In regard to paid ministry, Alice referenced the scripture 1 Corinthians 9:14. It says that those who preach the gospel should receive their living by the gospel. Some translations show that it means financially, while others just say good things should be given to them. 2 Corinthians 9:7 says that if we decide to, we should give cheerfully and not because we are compelled to. This leads me to believe that free will offerings or donations are what is acceptable to clergy-men.
In my current situation, I concluded from this research that the tithe from my family needed to go toward helping the poor - both physically and spiritually. I think that is what God would want me to do to show him I am grateful for the things he has given me.
The final question I had sent to Alice was about how one can "know" the truth about something. I had been taught that I would have a "burning in my bosom" or a warm, fuzzy feeling when something was truth. However, Alice showed me that the truth was found in God's word which is the bible. Jeremiah 17:9 says that the human heart is deceitful. Just because we have feelings about something doesn't make it a fact. Proverbs 9:10 says that respect of the Lord is wisdom. I had asked this question of her before I had my experience on Tuesday with being saved. I learned from that experience also, that it isn't a warm, fuzzy that makes one saved. It is a choice!
The movie - it was very good. In it, the first point discussed was whether this world was created by chance, or by design. From a scientific standpoint, there is evidence that can not be refuted in nature that it is impossible this world could have been created by chance.
For example, the Big Bang Theory - destruction and chaos are the results of an explosion, not systematic order. Everything in our Universe, our Galaxy, our Earth and even our DNA - all are systematic. These things are so complex that them happening by chance is just not possible. It's like if a contractor got wood, nails, tools and all the necessary building materials to build a house, then lit off a few sticks of dynamite and then BOOM, there's an office building soundly built. The likelihood of that happening is impossible.
Another point used the illustration of a watch - inside of a watch are all kinds of parts, gadgets, etc, that make the watch work. However, the watch didn't just gather together by chance, a watch make put all those parts together... Our universe could not have happened by chance and been as organized as it is - there had to be a creator.
The next point that was made was that the Bible, which is the Christian's belief of being the word of God, has been proven to be accurate. The writings have been verified as authentic, the copies of the dead sea scrolls show a verbatim part of the Bible as we now have it, the events in the Old Testament that were prophesied hundreds of years prior came to pass in the New Testament. The places in the Bible have been verified as valid.
The final point was that if there was an all knowing God, he would be able to know the future. Based on the book of Revelations alone, there is evidence that God put in the mind of John what the "last days" would look like. Almost every single event prophesied in Revelations has come to pass.
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It can explain all these points so much better and more thoroughly than I can.
In any case, after having seen it, there is really no doubt in my mind that there is a Creator, that Creator is God and it is the same God that is written about in the Bible.
What's on the menu for next time we meet? Well, I volunteered to have the study at my house, to make dinner and I am going to have a really, really cool lesson!!!!!!!!!!! Can't wait to share all about it!
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