DIVISION, DIVISION, DIVISION

You had the Jews who believed in what these documents were saying, primarily because these documents were accounts of what had happened to them directly, and you had people who didn't.

Then you had Chirst appear on the scence, who interacted with these people, and you had some people who accepted him, and some who didn't.

After that experience, books were written regarding what happened with Chirst. Now you have people who read the Bible one way, and people who read it another.

Division... Division... Division.

What we need to be able to do is look at something, and be able to say does this make sense? Are there holes in this assumption? Is there something we're missing?

I'll give you a run down of some things that are so controversal it would make any head spin. However, we will go back and find (hopefully nondisputable) evidence of it in the Bible.

Several things happen when you do this to someone who's religious:

1. "Oh I don't believe that part, we just ignore it."
   People won't take only the parts they find convienent.
2. "Yeah, but it's too late to change now."
   These are the people who read, and acknowledge, one thing, but continue to do another. Last time I checked, inspiried Word wasn't meant to be convienent to our whims, wants, and traditions.
3. "I didn't know that, I'll change."
   A rare possibility, but there are some who when corrected on a matter feel the urge to do something about it.

• The devil doesn't have horns, a pitchfork, etc.
• The devil isn't all powerful, nor is he all knowing
• Your spirtual body is not a ghost
• When you die, you don't go to heaven (or hell) immediately
• The devil isn't in charge of hell
• There isn't a purgatory
• At this very moment, there is no hell -- hell is an incident, not a place
• God isn't going to punish and torment sinners for an infinite amount of time
• Heaven ain't sitting on clouds and playing harps
• Heaven will be right here on this planet
• Once saved, always saved? Nope.
  (This does not mean God will walk out on you, nor that you need to do something to keep your salvation. Losing salvation is a very difficult thing to do once you have it.)
• You don't need to be good and perfect before you accept God
• Saved people sin as much as the rest of unsaved
• Praying to a saint doesn't cut it
• Proper worship isn't on Sunday, it starts Friday at sunset and goes to Saturday at sunset

Now why did I spit out some of these things? Simply to get your curosity up. The above list, a small subset of what we'll learn, certainly isn't what you thought religion was. A majority of my major beliefs were stripped from me when I ended up doing my own research. Most people can't stand to have their foundations shaken, so they find a church that preaches what they want to hear. Other people ask someone 'knowledgeable' rather than learning for themselves... I'm guilty of that.

The Bible can't be read from front to back with much understanding. It wasn't designed for that. Each book covers an era of time from a certain point of view with some aspect highlighted.

To jump right in and get our feet soaking wet, we are going to take a good look at an era of the Bible which foretold the future, see if it came true, and then extend it out to present day. We are also going to look at today's interpurtation of the event and see what's wrong with it. If you want telling the future, and history as confirmation, these some great stuff for you.