My First Post

Hi, Readers!

                     This is my first post on the blog, Christianity and Philosophy. This blog is intended to address philosophical questions about, toward, and within Christianity, but I will gladly address topics outside of these, if my interest is sufficiently piqued.
  I'm very excited to begin a blog! I've heard great things about running blogs, and I've read many a post from other bloggers, and thought I'd give it a try.

  Since I don't really have a topic for this first post, I thought I'd tell you a little about myself:

  As the title of the blog may suggest to you, I'm a Christian. (If anyone has ANY questions about my beliefs, PLEASE ask. It would be my sincere pleasure to answer any questions you may have.)
  My beliefs are simple, but lengthy...
  It stretches all the way back, before the first thunderstorm, before the first sunrise, before the first breath - before anything, except One thing.
  But of course, God isn't a "Thing." (That's a whole topic in itself. Maybe I'll write a post on that...) He's a Person.
  The first thing I want to say about God is that He is perfect (Psalm 18:30). I believe that to be the most important of His attributes. As many Christians do, I believe that God is all-powerful (Jeremiah 32:17), all-knowing (Psalm 147:5, I John 3:19-20), and all-present (). He exists outside of Time and Space, and yet permeates them. (Sort of the idea of having your hand in a jar filled with water. The jar is Space, and the water is Time. Of course, you represent God. You exist outside of the jar, and yet you exist in both the water and the jar also.) He is Three Persons in One. Let me address this:
  It seems to me that many people misunderstand the Christian doctrine of the Trinity (three persons, and yet one). Shouldn't God either be One, or Three? Basic science teaches us this. But does it? What is a human being? Very few belief systems would agree with the idea that a human being is a single thing. We know we're not just bodies, but we have bodies, so we can't just be spirits. But we also have intellects, emotions, and all sorts of intangible qualities.
  So how does this relate to the Trinity? Bear with me, it really is coming together.
  Man, Christians say, is a Body and a Spirit. I believe this to be a flawed notion, as it is clear that human beings are also intellectual, capable of thought, knowledge, and reason. Thus, I add the Mind to the list: Man is Mind, Body, and Spirit.
  But why place the Mind first? Because it sounds cooler? There is that, but it's not really why I place it first.
  I place it first because God the Father is listed first. (Hear me out.) If Man is Mind, Body, Spirit, and God is Father, Son, and Spirit, then we know just from the names that there is a correlation between the two spirits, and therefore we can infer that the other two qualities are also related.
  But which goes with which?
  This is simple. God the Son is Jesus Christ, who is God in the Flesh. Thus, Christ is the Body, and the Father (depicted as the all-knowing One) must be the Mind.
  And while some Christians dislike the idea, it is clear that the Mind must be in control of the other two human qualities? Why would I say this? Because God the Father is in command of the Holy Trinity.
  But I need to move on with the post, so let me close by saying that God can be a trinity, because Man is a trinity.
  I also believe that God created the angels, which are the non-human, non-Divine spirits of the universe, and that some of these angels rebelled against God, and He cast them out for their treason. Their leader is known as Satan, and he is considered the most intelligent and most dangerous of all demons (fallen angels). (Isaiah 14:12)
  I believe that God created all things, and bestowed dominion of the Earth upon Mankind (Genesis 1:26).
  I believe that God created human beings Male and Female, and that marriage is for one Man and one Woman, covenanted with and before God, until death. (Genesis 2:21-24). I also believe that sexual relations are to be reserved for such a covenant union, but again, that's a whole other topic.
  I believe that Adam and Eve, the first humans, also rebelled against God through the temptation of Satan, who had disguised himself as a serpent. (Genesis 3:1-7)
  God cursed Man and Woman, and banished them from the Garden of Eden. (Genesis 3:8-24)
  Mankind, because of our rebellion. Since Adam and Eve, we all have committed such rebellion in our hearts, and so are liable to God's just punishment of such rebellion. The punishment for rebelling against a Holy, Eternal, Sovereign God, is agonizing torture in an Unholy, Eternal, Immutable environment, called Hell. (Romans 6:23)
  But God is also a God of Love, not just Justice (John 17:17). So, He made a way for us to be saved from punishment in Hell. But it would come at a great price.
  God Himself, or more specifically, God the Son, came to Earth, and was born of a virgin. (Luke 1:26-2:21) (If God can create the Universe in six days, how simple must it have been to conceive in a virgin, really?)
  He never sinned. (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. I can't really give specific examples, because the whole point is demonstrating something's absence, which, in texts, is nigh impossible.. This is not to be taken as inability, because God is all-powerful. To strip Him of any ability is to limit Him, and so rob His completeness of power. But just because God can do something does not mean that He will do it.
  Jesus' actions on Earth demonstrated His humanity and His Divinity. Some called Him a blasphemer.
  Among His critics were the religious leaders of the day, whom He called hypocrites to their faces.
  Eventually, they let their anger get the better of them, rather than coming to repentance before God, and had Jesus killed.
  So Jesus submitted, and gave Himself as a Sacrifice for the sins of all people dead, living, and yet to be born.
  But if it was forced upon Him, how can I say that He did it willingly?
  Jesus Christ is human: but He is also God. Saying that Jesus was killed, rather than saying that He gave His life, is like saying that a two-year old girl forced a three-hundred pound linebacker to sing Jingle Bells. On paper, it may look like she forced him to sing. On the other hand, we know that he was not subject to such force as the girl was capable of applying to him, and so his submission must have been a choice of his will, and not the force of the little girl.
  Jesus Christ was beaten, mocked, scourged, and mutilated, until He was barely recognizable as human. Then the Romans dropped a heavy cross on His back, and He carried it across Jerusalem, while people continued to scream insults at Him, and He eventually collapsed under its weight. The Romans then had an onlooker from the crowd carry His cross for Him.
  He was nailed to the cross by His wrists (or hands, but that's a long-standing and pointless debate) and feet, and hung there on those wounds, on the verge of suffocation (for such is the nature of crucifixion), and eventually died after six hours on the cross.
  A rich man buried Him in his own tomb, and the followers of Christ mourned for three days, dazed, confused, and heartbroken. The religious leaders had the tomb sealed, and placed a 24-hour fully-armed military guard on the tomb, to make sure no one could feign a resurrection.
  But on the third day, something incredible happened. Several women who had followed Jesus arrived at the tomb, with no clue as to how they were actually going to get past the Roman soldiers, and the seal on the stone, let alone actually open the tomb.
  But when they arrived, the guards were all face-down on the ground, unconscious from an earthquake:
  And the stone had been rolled back from the tomb's opening.
  Angels appeared, and told the women what had happened: Jesus Christ was not dead anymore, but had risen from the grave, and claimed victory over sin and Hell itself. Most of them ran away, to tell the rest of Jesus' followers what they had seen.
  But one woman stayed behind, uncertain of what had really happened, and wept.
  A man came up behind her, and began to talk to her. After a brief exchange, the man called her by name, and the woman knew it was Jesus. She greeted Him by kissing His feet, but He sent her away, so that she could tell His other followers.
  What followed was forty days of reunion of Jesus and His followers, which culminated in His return to Heaven before their very eyes.
  Angels appeared then, too, and repeated the words of Jesus to them. They told them to go, and do as the Lord had said.
  The disciples, now Apostles, went forth shortly thereafter, proclaiming the Gospel to anyone and everyone who would hear.
  It was the greatest religious and social reform the world had ever seen, and it continues to this day.
  
  That's what I believe, in short. I hope it has been clear and succinct.
  I look forward to discussing philosophy with anyone who wants to do so, and can't wait to start!
  (I do not have any sort of degree, philosophical or otherwise. I'm what you might call an amateur philosopher. Philosophy is a hobby for me, but I hope to study later in life, and become truly proficient. I do study philosophy, just online, not at a school. I greatly enjoy diving into issues, especially difficult ones, and hope that such topics will be presented.)
  Thanks for reading!

  JOB 1:21, 2:10