His teaching are his teachings.
Indeed they are.
You said that you try to love your neighbor as your self.
According to Romans 7, the law is spiritual and we are carnal, sold into slavery by our sin. Jesus also said that he who sins is a slave of sin.
All it takes is one violation of the law to sin.
Thankfully, God has explicitly stated that if we agree with him about our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So, not does he forgive our sin, he cleanses our sin.
He has a vested interest in keeping a short account with us because he knows what our sin does to us.
He actually wants to spend time with us.
I experience Jesus not answering the door when I knocked.
Curious.
He said he's the one knocking, and we just need to be listening. Revelation 3:20.
Are you listening?
[Rev 3:20 NKJV] 20 "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.
And according to me he didn't.
Curious.... just who do you think would have a greater understanding and perspective of reality.... finite human beings who are alive for maybe 100 years, and can't accurately predict 1 second into the future, or the eternal God, who has infinite understanding and perspective of everything, from eternity past to eternity future, who knows what you're thinking before you do, and can describe your entire life before the foundation of the world was laid?
His perspective has greater understanding, and awareness than anything humans have, or can obtain.
I know you believe the Bible is the inerrant word of God.
You should be asking why I do.
There's actually a good set of reasons why I do so.
Yep. Got that already.
My experience tells me that the Bible is wrong.
That finite, limited human experience that has no basis beyond their inexperience?
No it's the difference between death and the possibility of something we have no knowledge of.
Ah!
So you're a gambler!
That's a dangerous situation.
I live in Nevada. Gambling is legal and there is an entire industry and economy that the state gets at least 39% of its taxes from on the state budget.
In fact, from the Gaming Resort website--
Gaming taxes were responsible for generating the majority of the industry-generated taxes with $622.9 million, which was
45.2 percent of the total General Fund revenue generated by the industry.
Probably about 20 years ago they finally incorporated a 12 step style anti-gambling-addiction program into the casino industry because of the level of addiction that was taking place here.
People would gamble paychecks away, leaving them unable to pay their debts.
Loan sharks, back in the 50's through the 60's there were rampant murders due to gambling problems in Las Vegas.
So, I find myself wondering why you would be so ready to take so risky a chance with your life. This isn't merely your income. It's your eternity.
Jesus was quite clear about the importance of the human being to God.
What value is it if you gain the whole world and lose your soul?
It is indeed your life. But to take that tact is writing checks you lack the ability to cash.
Are you? Because so far, you're just telling me that he hasn't done for you what he said he would and has been doing for the rest of humanity down throughout the ages.
And yet he didn't welcome me with open arms. Unless it was in a way that I found imperceptible.
Seeing that the Bible says he welcomes everyone who comes to him. Obviously the Bible is wrong.
Ah yes.... "because I'm more special than everyone else, I didn't get what I wanted, I'm not required to obey the truth in order to learn the truth. It's just supposed to appear like magic"
Seems like you have a problem for which there will be no excuses.
Everyone is on the same level when it comes to Jesus.
He has no favorites, he judges everyone without partiality.
It's important to note the following
Heb 5:9 WEB Having been made perfect, he became to all of those who obey him the author of eternal salvation,
Stating that, it's equally important to note that he's ready, able and willing to provide us with, and teach us everything we need to know, and have in order to follow Jesus.
You however have to decide whether you actually want to know him or not.
He came to save sinners. So, the question you need to ask yourself is...
Are you a sinner? Are you in need of a savior?
Because if not, then you're simply excluding yourself from knowing God and that will be on your shoulders. Nobody else's.
People all over the world have believed a lot of unfounded things over millennia.
Yep. The first-time people believed lies, it brought ruin to the human race and now we're living with the consequences for it.
The next time, a man killed his brother to silence the conviction he was experiencing by refusing to obey God.
So, false beliefs, false religion, and now, all because people prefer to do it their own way, instead of God's way.
So.... yes. People have been doing it for millennia their own ways. That doesn't mean that there's not God's way. Nor does it mean those who ignore God's ways are right and will be justified by God.
One of the most notable things I've noticed is that where there's an overload of information, people have a tendency to just blow everything off, and dismiss it all.
That's a deadly way to go about it.
Ignoring everything because there's just too much information will not be able to justify yourself before God.
You tell me why God didn't do what the Bible claims?
He's given everyone the same thing.
He's explicitly stated that he has chosen the foolishness of preaching the cross of Jesus to save everyone who believes in Jesus.
It could be that the Bible isn't actually the word of God.
It's your eternity.
Do you actually want to find out the hard way?
Living with regret is bad enough. Living with regret for an eternity is absolutely miserable. Constantly rehashing your various opportunities to engage him, and you want to say yes, but your yeses after the fact fall into empty space and the echoes drive you insane.
It could be that God "hardened our hearts".
Could be. It'd be a real pity to learn that it was you who hardened your own heart and excluded yourself from knowing God.... all because you chose to believe you're just too intelligent and believe that you know better.
That passage that discusses Pharaoh's heart being hardened by God states up front that the pharaoh didn't want to know God. So, God gave him exactly what he wanted. To be left alone. He gave him several miracles to demonstrate himself to make it clear that God was real and knowable. But, the pharaoh would have none of it! Even after his son died because of the Pharaoh's stubbornness, he refused, and went after the Israelis who had left Egypt. He wound up getting himself drowned in the sea for his outrage against God.
So.... the only way God would "harden your heart" is if you continue to refuse to engage him on his terms. And what God is doing, is affirming your choice. Strengthening your resolve to do it your own way.
And the final outcome of this would be incredibly sad.
People believe they have been meeting Jesus for millennia. None have proven it.
It's yet to happen.
The millennium is the 2nd to the next phase of human existence.
Following the harpadzo (greek word for "snatched way by force, aka rapture) of the Jesus followers, there will be a 7-year period of civilization that will result in the near utter demise of humanity.
The first 3-1/2 years will be a period of unprecedented growth and development for humans. They'll believe that global peace has finally been realized. Jesus followers won't be around to remind them, but God will give a witness to his reality through that time. It's sounding more and more like this new guy, Juval Noah Harari, and Klaus Schwab's ideas.
Then the beginning of the end starts when the global leader decides to step into the holiest place of the Jewish community and declare himself God.
At which point, you'll have another 3-1/2 years remaining.
And it'll be brutally gruesome and ugly. Literally everything will start falling apart.
Jesus said that it'll be worse than at any other time in history and will never again be so bad.
After the 7 years, the day will come when Jesus comes on horseback with the saints from throughout the ages, and put down a global attack against him (the actual battle of Armageddon). He'll set foot on the mount of Olives and it'll split in two, from east to west.
Afterwards, there will be a 45 day judgment of the nations. Those who are accounted worthy will get to enter God's Kingdom on earth. Those who are not, will be shown the door to hell, where they'll wait for one thousand years until the great white throne judgment.
People who believe God will live for at least 1000 years, and those who do not believe God will die at 100 years of age, and will be viewed as children.