What is death except absence from the body? Physical death occurs when our spirit leaves our bodies. Spiritual death occurs when we deny the existence of God, and live for ourselves instead of for God. This leads to the second death as Jesus called it, and it's a permanent death in hell.

So while Jesus' body did physically die He lives on. Consider this, if you take the common element H2O you have 1 element. That element can have 3 distinct phases, water, solid, gas. God is similar in that He has the overall fluid state of water, the solid state as Jesus, and the gassous state as spirit. God took on a physical form, but was also present in both spirit and in his fluid mode. All three were witnessed at once when God the father spoke while the Holy Spirit decended in the form of a dove and Jesus came out of the water after His baptism.

All three are distinct personalities of God, but all three are the same BASE God. That is why Christians say there is only ONE God because in truth there is.

I have quoted from another thread because the comments are relevant,

Believer, I realise that you feel that 'good Christians' will behave in a 'good' manner, so they should automatically do good works. However, you do say 'it's not what you do it's who you know that gets you into heaven'.

I can see that your argument about the good tree producing the good fruit, but surely this is a side issue ~ a happenchance?
Isn't it believing in God and making Jesus one's saviour that supposedly really counts?

Which is it:

Good behaviour?
Loving God?
Trusting Jesus?
Both?
Either?
Not sure?

What if one loved / believed in God and Jesus, and intended to be good and do good things, but somehow it always went wrong, so one considered oneself to be a Christian and one loved God, etc, but didn't do good works. What do you think would happen?

James said it best when he stated that faith without works is dead faith. What he was trying to point out is that when one has faith in Jesus that faith will demonstrate itself in ones deeds. It will be evident.

Also, below what Paul had to say:

1 Corinthians 13:12: For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.
1Co 13:13 But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Blessings,

Emilie

Yes, I agree about love, but I think that I have been told, on here, that salvation is not about good works but about belief.

Indeed, I have been told that a rapist, who repents on his deathbed and accepts the Lord, will go to Heaven. Where are his good works and love?

[quote]PDM:' I don't think that humanity is evil at its core.' PDM: 'I have to believe that I am a sinner ~ not just acknowledge, as I do, that I make mistakes and do the wrong thing, but that I am equal in sin to murderers and rapists!!!' MrsJF: Be careful w/thinking that you're better than someone else b/c of what they did vs what you didn't do. PDM:'Generally, I don't think that I am better than anyone, but I'm sorry, I don't include murderers, rapists, paedophiles, etc, in that.' MrsJF:'So you don't include murderers, rapists, paedophiles, etc. as human beings then.' Taken from these ealier pages from this thread: http://www.wineintro.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=181865&page=0&fpart=9 http://www.wineintro.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=181865&page=0&fpart=10 [/quote] I feel that I need to clarify what I was saying here. I do not think that humanity is evil at its core, but I do think that there is a lot of wrongdoing in the world. The fact that this wrongdoing is considered [i]wrong[/i], and is usually against the law, and punishable, tends to support my belief. (We should also realise that not every society has the same ideas on right and wrong, though.) As I said, 'most countries have laws that promote good and punish evil. If humanity was 'evil at its core' that would not be the case.' For Believers, I also asked: 'How can something created in God's image be 'evil at its core'? ~ Unless God was 'evil at its core'?' Generally, I don't think that I am better than / superior to others. Generally. This is because I think that [i] generally[/i] people are OK. However, some people are not OK ~ murderers, rapists, paedophiles, torturers, etc. Maybe they can't help it; maybe they have suffered, themselves, but, either way, they are not generally OK ~ their behaviour is very bad – very harmful. So yes, I do consider myself better than these criminals. I suppose I have now committed the sin of pride or something. Well yes, OK, I'm proud not to be a criminal.

And well you should be happy not to be a criminal. But the sin comes in when you consider yourself better than that person for not having committed the same sin. Remember, christians believe and scripture documents that God does not distinguish one sin from another....ALL have sinned and fall short of God's glory.

Jesus was born sinless. The only person who was born without sin. The rest of us have the original sin. Adam brought the sin into our lives....Jesus paid the price to remove it.

Blessings,

Emilie

I don't believe in original sin.
I don't believe that my 'sins' are anywhere near as bad as rape, murder, torture, etc.

If a child had to be adopted by a decent ordinary family, or a family of murderers & paedophiles, who would you choose?
I'd choose the people I considered to be 'better' people ~
better in several ways.

Better as far as 'sin' goes.

so god does not distinguish on sin from another? so - stealing an apple is just as bad as soddomising a young child. maybe i'm starting to understand why the paedopriests are enjoynig so much protection. maybe god should show a little more discrimination between offenses.

I was reading these posts, not planning on replying because I just finished talking in one of these about religion, and frankly it's addicting lol, so I don't want to get into another one. But this caught my eye, and seeing as how you are a Christian and repersenting our belief, I feel this should be said. I apologize if it has already been said. Although I agree with most of what you are saying, with the judging part I donot agree with. Jesus said "he without sin cast the first stone" protecting a HOOKER as I remember it. You're correct, just because someone says they are Christian, doesn't mean they are. But it goes the same with how "good" they act. Just because they say they're Christian, go to church every sunday and are in the front row saying amen after ever verse the pastor reads does NOT mean they are Christian. Jesus said that there will be many of his followers who he will turn away at heavens gate and he will say to them I know you not. The thing is... we can't determin whether someone is a REAL Christian or not. It's not our job, and we are unable to, because we are NOT all knowing like God is. The only thing we can say to someone to determin if they are a Christian and are saved or not and if they are going to heaven or not is to say "If you believe in Jesus as your personal savoir, you are saved and are going to Heaven" Even if they said "Yes yes I'm saved!" You still cannot say to them "Then you are going to Heaven", you don't know what's truly in their heart.

According to statistics over 75% of the people in the US consider themselves christian. The very definition of the word implies one is a follower of Jesus Christ. But as has been stated on these posts before, just because we follow Christ does not mean we are always nice or good people. Again, we live in a world which is dominated by the prince of the air (Satan) and we live in sin. We don't want to sin, but because we are human we do so anyway. This is a daily struggle for everyone, but more so for the dedicated christian who recognizes instantly when they sin.

PDM I don't mean to continue harping on your obvious discomfort with the word sin. It is not my intent to offend you or anyone else on this post and since I consider myself a sinner as well, you should not be offended. I consider myself a sinner saved by grace thru faith in Jesus.

But your statement that you would choose the better family is a no brainer. Who would choose a diabolical family to raise a child? Only an idiot or a satanist. We cannot, however, judge who will be the better parent in the case where both couples appear to be sane.

My husband has always worked with foster children. He has always stated that in this country one needs a license to even catch a fish or shoot a deer. But the most important job a person can do in life, raising a child, there are no instructions or no license required. Any idiot can become a parent. The only instructions for raising children are in the bible. Children unfortunately don't come with a "how to" manual.

God does not distinguish one sin from another. They are all alike in His eyes. Part of God's very intrinsic nature is righteousness. He therefore cannot go against His nature and allow even one iota of sin in His presence. A repentant heart is needed to overcome sin. Acceptance of the price paid by Jesus is needed to overcome sin.

Blessings,

Emilie