THE CHRISTIAN SCRIPTURE OPPOSES TRUTH SEEKING - THAT OVERRIDES WHAT ANY INDIVIDUAL CHRISTIAN SAYS
As shown below, Christian faith involves opposition to knowledge and reason which show that the Old Testament is man-made and did not come from God.
Hebrews - New International Version (NIV) - Chapter 11
1 Now faith is confidence in what we
hope for and assurance about what we do not see. 2 This is what the ancients
were commended for.
Does not praise those who see but those who do not.
3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed
at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.
4 By faith Abel brought God a better offering than
Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his
offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.
The text clearly shows that faith involves belief in the Old Testament as
history. More examples follow. One example would do but the author
goes on for he wishes to stress that acceptance of the Old Testament "history"
is essential.
5 By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he
did not experience death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him
away.”
For before he was taken, he was
commended as one who pleased God. 6 And without faith it is impossible to please
God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he
rewards those who earnestly seek him. It is clear
that you need clear belief in a God who rewards you with this belief if you
really seek him.
7 By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet
seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned
the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.
8 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he
would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not
know where he was going. 9 By faith he made his home in the promised land like a
stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who
were heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the
city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. 11 And by faith even
Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she
considered him faithful who had made the promise. 12 And so from this one man,
and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and
as countless as the sand on the seashore.
13 All these people were still living by faith when
they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and
welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers
on earth. 14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country
of their own. 15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they
would have had opportunity to return. 16 Instead, they were longing for a better
country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for
he has prepared a city for them.
17 By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered
Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice
his one and only son, 18 even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac
that your offspring will be reckoned.” 19 Abraham reasoned that God could even
raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from
death.
20 By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to
their future.
21 By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of
Joseph’s sons, and worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff.
22 By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about
the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions concerning the
burial of his bones.
23 By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months
after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not
afraid of the king’s edict.
24 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be
known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. 25 He chose to be mistreated along with
the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 26 He
regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures
of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. 27 By faith he left Egypt,
not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible.
28 By faith he kept the Passover and the application of blood, so that the
destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel.
The story of God's angel being sent to murder babies is upheld.
29 By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as
on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned.
30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the army
had marched around them for seven days.
31 By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed
the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.
32 And what more shall I say? I do not have time to
tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the
prophets, 33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and
gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the fury of
the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to
strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. 35 Women
received back their dead, raised to life again. There were others who were
tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better
resurrection. 36 Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and
imprisonment. 37 They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they
were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins,
destitute, persecuted and mistreated— 38 the world was not worthy of them. They
wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.
39 These were all commended for their faith, yet none
of them received what had been promised, 40 since God had planned something
better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.
FINALLY
Hebrews gives us several interesting clues about the falsity of the Christian chronology with its Jesus who had lived not long before Hebrews appeared.
It defines faith as the assurance that we will get things hoped for and is the conviction that invisible things really exist. It says that it is by faith that we perceive that God created the world. At least it admits that creation does not prove God exists.
Verse 11 says that by faith Sarah was able to conceive despite being barren and old. So God would not have given her a baby had she doubted. God had made a very important promise to Abram that Sarah would conceive and the promise was conditional on her belief. This is a strange doctrine and means that the plan of salvation (for Jesus the descendant of these people as predicted by God who could come to save the world from sin) would have collapsed had she changed her mind about trusting God. By implication then, if Jesus had not kept true to his beliefs he would not have been raised from the dead and God’s alleged promises about it would not have been fulfilled. This opposes the gospel Jesus where no convincing attempt was made to show that he was faithful. You cannot accept both the gospels and Hebrews as scripture.
Hebrews would have centred on the evidences of God rewarding Jesus’ faith if it was able. Instead it chose some pathetic examples from the Old Testament.
Abraham going where God told him to go while knowing nothing of the future was applauded. But Abraham could have found a way to be okay anyway so his action was not that laudable – it was worthy of condemnation for how did he know that the being talking to him was God.
11:7 commends Noah for building the Ark when he had no evidence whatsoever that the revelation from God warning him about the flood would come true.
Hebrews 11 is not just commending faith. It is blind faith it sanctions. It commends it to the Church meaning that the Church must believe in the death and resurrection of the Messiah Jesus just because God says they happened for there is no other reason. There is no evidence. The visions of the apostles concerning the risen Jesus arose from a sense that God was talking to them and they probably had the visions in their imaginations which they considered a valid vehicle of revelation for unsubstantiated faith was a virtue. The epistle regards fanatical suffering for blind faith as a good thing. Christianity in its earliest days was infested with hard-line fanaticism.