Expert: Mr. McClellan - 9/11/2011

Question
Good day
How do we know that the Bible or any religious book from the Vedas, to the Koran to the Torah is actually the word of god?
What proof is there, after all no god ever came down and said that this is my word? So why should one believe the scriptures as the word of god. If your answer if that there were written by inspired men, then how do we know that these men were really inspired. Scientifically there is a correlation between spirituality and madness. So why should one trust the scriptures.
Furthermore look at how much conflicts are created in the name of religion around the world.
Please give me a good reason why should any one accept the scriptures as the word of god instead of a social tool for control of the masses inspired by a ruling section of society.
Regards,
Sunil Mahabir
Pembroke Pines, Florida

Answer
Hello again Sunil,
I want to add some important information to my first reply. Here is an amended reply. My original reply is below it.

Here, in fairly simple and brief terms is what the Bible actually says:
God is the spirit we call love. It is an eternal spirit that has existed eternally and before anything material existed. God, or love, is the most powerful force in the universe and the writers of the Bible claim that it created "the heavens and the earth and all that's in the cosmos. If you believe in ghosts, then you believe that spirit exists separate from the body or anything material.
The Bible writers claim that "good" spirits, as well as bad or evil spirits, can and do enter humans (and animals too) and try to influence them. Good spirits attempt to persuade people to do good and evil spirits attempt to influence people to do evil or bad. Probably most of the people on earth believe this kind of thing and science has not proved them wrong or right. The Biblical claim that Jesus was resurrected was to show proof that life does not depend on a material body and that "spirit" is eternal. When the Bible talks about eternal life, the writers are talking about love which the apostle John said was God. Read the book of 1John. A person who is motivated by love to do the things he or she does is being lead by the spirit of God to do good because God is only good. Read 1Corinthians 13 for example to see how Paul said love behaves as he tried to explain how Christians should behave if they are "really Christians" and sincerely committed to living as Jesus said they should and as he demonstrated. "Love God with all your heart and mind and it will cause you to love your neighbor (everyone else) as much as you love and want good for yourself. In other words, your motives are what determine if your actions are good or bad and love cannot be fooled. Love means caring about others even more than you care about yourself and it is never hypocritical or deceitful. When a person violates this definition, or principal, they sin or go astray of love. Others can misjudge your motives and accuse you of evil but you and God know the truth. You know what your true motives are and if they don't match the definition of love it's likely that you're attempting to fool yourself and have lost your way, thinking that selfishness is the best way to live life. Most people (by giving into Satan’s influence) think selfishly and most of the things they do are selfish and they think that a person who truly loves is stupid and easily taken advantage of. This is the real reason for so much conflict in the world and the reason that Jesus cautioned his disciples, "If they have hated and persecuted me, they will hate and persecute you even more if possible." People who live selfish and self indulgent lives make up what the writers of the Bible called "the world" and the "worldly minded." It's those people who are the trouble makers in this world and who cause so much misery for the rest. A great many of these people like to call themselves Christians or some other supposedly righteous kind of person. The vast majority of them are hypocrites or liars just like the Jewish leaders that Jesus often clashed with who considered themselves the true children of God and who eventually had him executed after they, being evil, falsely accused him of wrong doing and blasphemy against God (their mistaken concept of God).
If you put the word Love at the top of a piece of paper, you can then list all of the attitudes, or "spirits" that fit in that category. There's kindness, gentleness, patience, trustworthiness, loyalty, truthfulness, meekness, fairness, justice, and a host of other characteristics of love and a person who is loving. If you put the word "selfish" at the top of a page, all other kinds of evil spirits or motives can be listed below it. Hate, jealousy, being quick to anger, being controlling, manipulative, lazy, spite, unfair in your judgment of others, hypocritical, are just a few of the ugly spirits that humans can give into. God and Satan, love and selfishness, are eternally at war being total opposites and each one tries to persuade humans to be like them. However, since love is the more powerful it will win in "the end."
Now, the Bible tells us that the proof for all this was established by miracles done by those who really represented God. Miracles were events caused by God, many of which were done through people called prophets, or God's spokesmen. There were many false prophets too. People who represented false gods and who tried to influence people to follow them by doing false miracles which were nothing more that what we call magic or tricks intended to deceive. Read 1Kings, chapter 18 to see what I mean. God, through Elijah, did something that was only possible for what created the heavens and the earth while the prophets of Baal could do nothing of the kind no matter how hard they tried. It was this that made executing them justifiable. They were leading people away from God and not to God.
Jesus said that he was "the way, the truth, and the life" and that no one could be a friend of God except by doing it his way. Of course, when you correctly understand the Biblical concept of God it is easy to understand why. Jesus both demonstrated and taught how a person who is committed to loving others more than self should behave. This is what the whole world rejects because people think more highly of themselves than they do others.
Now, the Bible says that Jesus was resurrected and that this proved that he had the power over death and that his faithful followers would also overcome death. To this day, no one has proved him wrong and no one has proved that his resurrection did not happen just as his disciples described it to have. Neither Buddha nor Muhammad can even come close to offering what Jesus offers nor can any other human that ever lived or who will ever live.
Read the second chapter of the book of Acts. Then, see if you can find any legitimate evidence that Peter lied. Lots of people have tried but all their arguments have fallen flat under close examination. Paul pointed out (in 1Corinthians, chapter 15) that if Jesus was not raised then we are all in a most miserable situation. So, what do you want? Do you want to live all your life in fear of death and all the ugliness and abuse that "the world" and the worldly minded cause? Or, would you rather live in hope of something much better to come? Honestly examine all the evidence you want and make your determination on what you discover to be true or that is most likely to be true. This is what scientists are supposed to try to do and even they are very often wrong and often they lie as you can easily discover. You have to examine things yourself, being as honest and unprejudiced as you possibly can.
Here are the addresses to two very good web sites where you can find a lot of the answers you're wanting. The research done by the people who contribute to them is very good and I firmly believe that every effort has been made to come to the most logical and least biased conclusions. (1)http://www.scripturessay.com/article.php?cat=books&id=7
(2) http://www.apologeticspress.org/

I know that what I've presented goes against all the popular notions about what the Bible says but it is correct. Here's the real situation. Everybody can't disagree and all of them be right. It is only possible for one person to be right if everybody is in disagreement, or it is possible that none of them are right. You have to honestly examine the evidence and decide for yourself. If the Bible writers were correct and you disagree with them, then you have a serious problem indeed. Their claims are far too serious, too important to ignore or to lightly consider and then disregard without the most diligent and painstakingly honest effort you can muster. Don't you think so?

A CRITICALLY IMPORTANT SIDE NOTE: The way the word “faith” is popularly used in modern times, especially with regard to what is popularly thought of as religion, is the exact opposite of the way the writers of the Bible used it when speaking of what is pleasing to God.  The popular concept of faith is nothing more that a subjective “feeling” or prejudice that tends to disregard any legitimate evidence to support it. It’s the concept of faith used by people who tend to fall prey to false teachers, or prophets and the false “evidence” they use to convince people to follow them. A very popular form of false Christianity uses this same concept which is the basis of the “Salvation by faith alone” doctrine. It should be obvious that if your concept of faith is contrary to the way the writers of the Bible used it, you cannot possibly be a true follower of Jesus or child of God.
Legitimate faith, according to the writers of the Bible, was (and is) based on legitimate and irrefutable evidence that supports what a person believed was true. Understand that I said “irrefutable evidence,” not “disputable evidence.” Anything can be disputed whether true or false and the miracles that were done by Jesus and his disciples were disputed, not refuted, by most of the Jewish leaders in that day and who accused Jesus of trickery; doing them by the power of Satan. However, Jesus brilliantly exposed their prejudiced and fallacious illogic (Matthew 12).
Another thing about “true” faith is that it is not “just” a belief, or feeling of trust, that is only in a person’s mind. True faith has to be demonstrated by a person’s sincere actions or works. This is the reason Jesus instructed his disciples (Matthew 28:18-20 and Mark 16:15-16 for example) to require repentant sinners to be baptized (immersed or buried in water (Acts 2:38 et al) is critically important in becoming a true Christian. Quite contrary to the common notion (based on the popular false concept of faith) that baptism is not required to become a Christian, in other words to be saved, but is only a rather needless ritual used like an arbitrary initiation rite, baptism was originally an absolute requirement because a person’s sincere belief in the death and resurrection of Jesus had to go with a corresponding action and the one specified by Jesus was a burial in water. If a person refused to be baptized he/she could not legitimately claim to be saved, forgiven of sins, a Christian, a true follower of Jesus Christ. Paul, who himself was commanded to be baptized in order for his sins to be forgiven, or “washed away” (Acts 22:16), plainly said, “For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection; knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away, that so we should no longer be in bondage to sin; for he that hath died is justified from sin.” Romans, chapter 6, especially verses 5-7. In other words, only those people who sincerely believed in Jesus, what he taught and demonstrated in life and in the reality of his actual death and resurrection and then backed it up with their honest and open admission by being baptized calling on Jesus to forgive them as instructed would be saved or forgiven of their sins and grated the opportunity to begin life again with none of their past sins charged against them. Romans, chapter 6.
The popular false “Salvation by faith alone” doctrine is based on a serious misunderstanding of what Paul was talking about in Romans 3, specifically verse 6. Here, Paul was explaining to mostly Jews that had supposedly become Christians that “works” apart from the spirit of true faith (as practiced by the Jewish Pharisees for example. See Matthew 23 and Acts 23) was worthless hypocrisy and that only sincere believers, people who backed up their claim to be Christian with their actions, were true children of God. See James, chapter 2 also where James says that faith without works is as empty as a dead body and worthless to God. Paul was not saying what the promoters of “salvation by faith alone” teach. Their teaching is a Satanic lie designed to lead people away from the truth. Read 1John again too.

SIDE NOTE #2: Religion is another word that is typically and wrongly used today. Religion is any system of belief that attempts to explain how people should live and what they should believe among which are Communism and atheism.

SIDE NOTE #3: Jesus was not God while on earth, he never claimed to be, and none of the writers of the New Testament meant to say that he was as most scholars think. Jesus was a human in every respect like the rest of us but he let himself be lead solely by the spirit of God, or love. See his decision in Matthew 3 and 4. He consciously and freely chose that his every action, his every word, was motivated by love. This is what is meant when the New Testament writers spoke of him as “the” Son of God. He was “the” one human being that would do this and actively demonstrate that it is possible to obey God without sin, showing all the rest of us self deceived humans the truth, the way, and the life. See Philippians 2 and Hebrews 2, then John 1 et al. Jesus became God, or joined God on an equal footing after his resurrection. It was then that he was actually given all “authority” in heaven and on earth. See Matthew 28:18-20 for example.  Until then, he had to rely on the power of his Father in heaven just like any other human and as he himself said. The “fact” that Jesus was only human but still managed to be entirely motivated by love is the very reason that God can justly punish sinners. No one is forced to sin by Satan and no one is born having been “programmed” or predestined by God to sin. Humans were created in the image and likeness of God, freely able to choose to do good or evil, to obey God or Satan and to have “dominion” or control of things on the earth. No one has a legitimate excuse. See Genesis 1:26 and Romans, chapter 1 et al. We can use our power for good or evil. It’s our choice and we will be justly held accountable. How else could you possibly and rationally explain all the cautioning and warning by Jesus and his apostles for followers of Jesus to avoid sinning? If we cannot ultimately avoid sinning, how can God justly punish anyone? “He can’t,” is the obvious answer. “The Devil made me do it.” This is an illegitimate excuse and the same one Adam and Eve used in the very beginning. See Genesis 3 et al.


I hope this is helpful to you.
Sincerely,
Mr. McClellan



Hello Sunil,
Just like for most of the people in the world, your concept of God is in serious error and the primary reason for your confusion just as it is for virtually everyone else in the world.

Here, in fairly simple terms is what the Bible actually says:
God is the spirit we call love. It is an eternal spirit that has existed eternally and before anything material existed. God, or love, is the most powerful force in the universe and the writers of the Bible claim that it created "the heavens and the earth and all that's in the cosmos. If you believe in ghosts, then you believe that spirit exists separate from the body or anything material.
The Bible writers claim that "good" spirits, as well as bad or evil spirits, can and do enter humans (and animals too) and try to influence them. Good spirits attempt to persuade people to do good and evil spirits attempt to influence people to do evil or bad. Probably most of the people on earth believe this kind of thing and science has not proved them wrong or right. The Biblical claim that Jesus was resurrected was to show proof that life does not depend on a material body and that "spirit" is eternal. When the Bible talks about eternal life, the writers are talking about love which the apostle John said was God. Read the book of 1John. A person who is motivated by love to do the things he or she does is being lead by the spirit of God to do good because God is only good. Read 1Corinthians 13 for example to see how Paul said love behaves as he tried to explain how Christians should behave if they are "really Christians" and sincerely committed to living as Jesus said they should and as he demonstrated. "Love God with all your heart and mind and it will cause you to love your neighbor (everyone else) as much as you love and want good for yourself. In other words, your motives are what determine if your actions are good or bad and love cannot be fooled. Love means caring about others even more than you care about yourself and it is never hypocritical or deceitful. When a person violates this definition, or principal, they sin or go astray of love. Others can misjudge your motives and accuse you of evil but you and God know the truth. You know what your true motives are and if they don't match the definition of love it's likely that you're attempting to fool yourself and have lost your way, thinking that selfishness is the best way to live life. Most people think selfishly and most of the things they do are selfish and they think that a person who truly loves is stupid and easily taken advantage of. This is the real reason for so much conflict in the world and the reason that Jesus cautioned his disciples, "If they have hated and persecuted me, they will hate and persecute you even more if possible." People who live selfish and self indulgent lives make up what the writers of the Bible called "the world" and the "worldly minded." It's those people who are the trouble makers in this world and who cause so much misery for the rest. A great many of these people like to call themselves Christians or some other supposedly righteous kind of person. The vast majority of them are hypocrites or liars just like the Jewish leaders that Jesus often clashed with and who eventually had him executed after falsely accusing him of wrong doing and blasphemy against God (their mistaken concept of God).
If you put the word Love at the top of a piece of paper, you can then list all of the attitudes, or "spirits" that fit in that category. There's kindness, gentleness, patience, trustworthiness, loyalty, truthfulness, meekness, fairness, justice, and a host of other characteristics of love and a person who is loving. If you put the word "selfish" at the top of a page, all other kinds of evil spirits or motives can be listed below it. Hate, jealousy, being quick to anger, being controlling, manipulative, lazy, spite, unfair in your judgement of others, hypocritical, are just a few of the ugly spirits that humans can give into. God and Satan, love and selfishness, are eternally at war being total opposites and each one tries to persuade humans to be like them. However, since love is the more powerful it will win in "the end."
Now, the Bible tells us that the proof for all this was established by miracles done by those who really represented God. Miracles were events caused by God, many of which were done through people called prophets, or God's spokesmen. There were many false prophets too. People who represented false gods and who tried to influence people to follow them by doing false miracles which were nothing more that what we call magic or tricks intended to deceive. Read 1Kings, chapter 18 to see what I mean. God, through Elijah, did something that was only possible for what created the heavens and the earth while the prophets of Baal could do nothing of the kind no matter how hard they tried. It was this that made executing them justifiable. They were leading people away from God and not to God.
Jesus said that he was "the way, the truth, and the life" and that no one could be a friend of God except by doing it his way. Of course, when you correctly understand the Biblical concept of God it is easy to understand why. Jesus both demonstrated and taught how a person who is committed to loving others more than self should behave. This is what the whole world rejects because people think more highly of themselves than they do others.
Now, the Bible says that Jesus was resurrected and that this proved that he had the power over death and that his faithful followers would also overcome death. To this day, no one has proved him wrong and no one has proved that his resurrection did not happen just as his disciples described it to have. Neither Buddha nor Muhammad can even come close to offering what Jesus offers nor can any other human that ever lived or who will ever live.
Read the second chapter of the book of Acts. Then, see if you can find any legitimate evidence that Peter lied. Lots of people have tried but all their arguments have fallen flat under close examination. Paul pointed out (in 1Corinthians, chapter 15) that if Jesus was not raised then we are all in a most miserable situation. So, what do you want? Do you want to live all your life in fear of death and all the ugliness and abuse that "the world" and the worldly minded cause? Or, would you rather live in hope of something much better to come? Honestly examine all the evidence you want and make your determination on what you discover to be true or that is most likely to be true. This is what scientists are supposed to try to do and even they are very often wrong and often they lie as you can easily discover. You have to examine things yourself, being as honest and unprejudiced as you possibly can.
Here are the addresses to two very good web sites where you can find a lot of the answers you're wanting. The research done by the people who contribute to them is very good and I firmly believe that every effort has been made to come to the most logical and least biased conclusions. (1) http://www.scripturessay.com/article.php?cat=books&id=7
(2) http://www.apologeticspress.org/

I know that what I've presented goes against all the popular notions about what the Bible says but it is correct. Here's the real situation. Everybody can't disagree and all of them be right. It is only possible for one person to be right if everybody is in disagreement, or it is possible that none of them are right. You have to honestly examine the evidence and decide for yourself. If the Bible writers were correct and you disagree with them, then you have a serious problem indeed. Their claims are far too serious, too important to ignore or to lightly consider and then disregard without the most diligent and painstakingly honest effort you can muster. Don't you think so?

I hope this is helpful to you.
Sincerely,
Mr. McClellan