"Person of Faith" Cover Reveal!

Christians are often bombarded by instructions on how to be a person of faith and what it means if they are not. They are often confronted with the idea that they need to have a stout and strong faith to please God or for good things to happen in life. Person Of Faith explores the idea of what it means to have a powerful faith in God and then delves into the truth of how to be a person of faith. 

Do you want to be a mighty man or woman of God? The goal of this book is to further your understanding of faith so you can deepen your walk with God and take your next leap of faith.

Make sure to keep an eye out for Person of Faith which will be coming out on Amazon this November!

Jesus and satan - Brothers?

One of the claims that Mormons make is that Jesus and satan are brothers. 

I find this claim interesting as I had never heard such a thing so when the idea was presented to me it was a completely foreign concept. My mind immediately balked at the idea as the first verse that popped into my head was a verse many Christians know quite well, John 3:16, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (KJV). 

Some say that mormons don't believe satan is literally God's son, but that mormons believe that God is the father of all spirits, which comes from Hebrews 12:9, "Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?" (KJV). In this sense, mormons believe that satan and Christ are brothers in the same sense that all men and women are siblings to satan. Though often also claim we are all sons and daughters of God so everyone is a brother and sister of each other, and so on and so forth. This is not actually biblically sound. 

When you are a brother or sister with someone under God it is through the Holy Spirit because you are adopted in to God's kingdom. How are you adopted into God's kingdom? By accepting Christ as your savior and through Christ being your brother, God ADOPTS you. This is backed up scripturally in several places, including Romans 8:15, "...but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father" as well as Ephesians 1:5, "Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of His will," (KJV). If you were already His child, adopting you wouldn't make much sense now would it? When it is saying father in Hebrews, it is more referring to creator.

Also, satan was an angel, in Ezekiel 28:14-17, "Thou art the anointed cherub that coveter; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kinds that they may behold thee."

Something interesting about satan being an angel is the fact that Christ actually created satan as it states in Colossians 1:12-17, "Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: in whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins: Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him, and for Him: and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist" (KJV).

And we can also see the angels were made, as Nehemiah 9:6 states, "Thou, even thou, art Lord alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and thou preserves them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee" (KJV). Thusly, the angels were created and since satan was indeed an angel, then he was created through Christ. I would say the creations/origins of Christ and satan are biblically quite different and therefore, they are not brothers..

Quetzalcoatl Part 2

This is part 2 to information about Quetzalcoatl and comparing him to Christ. If you would like to read Part 1 - please go here: http://thebomtalks.blogspot.com/2015/09/quetzalcoatl-part-1.html .

Last time I discussed the feathered serpent and a little about what serpents normally represent, regardless of what culture you look at and how that does not line up with Christ. 

I want to dig a little deeper into one of these, and that would be Mucalinda. He was supposed to have risen out of the sea and protect Buddha during a great storm. 

If you read Revelation 13:1 it says, "And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy" (KJV). Seems quite similar, doesn't it?

Now, I'd like to look more at Quetzalcoatl and who/what he was. The temple of the Feathered Serpent was Teotihaucan. 

As you can see, this temple has the face of Quetzalcoatl all over it. Now, if Quetzalcoatl was in fact Jesus than this temple should be built to the Lord. One of the things that is interesting about this temple is the fact that it has more than a hundred bodies buried under it. The people are believed to be sacrificed victims. Not something that Jesus would ask for or condone. Also, it's interesting to note that this pyramid has six steps. If it was Jesus and not satan, shouldn't it have seven steps?

Now let's look at an example of what the Bible says about dragons. In Jeremiah 51:7 it says, "And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling place for dragons, an astonishment, a hissing" (KJV). In Revelation 12:9 we have, "And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent called the Devil..." (KJV). There are quite a few others. Basically, in the Bible, dragons are not considered good, and they definitely aren't Christ. So for Christ to be symbolized as a dragon in the context of Quetzalcoatl is obviously erroneous and inconsistent with the Word of God.

(*Please note, the photos are not mine.)

Quetzalcoatl Part 1

I am not sure how much information about Mormon beliefs everyone reading this will have but I will try to explain things as I go along. Please feel free to send me any questions you may have.

Mormons believe that the people from the book of Mormon were MesoAmericans. MesoAmericans basically lived in Mexico and southward toward South America. 

If you are a Christian, or honestly even if you are not, but have grown up in Western culture, I want you to think about something without blinders here. If you call someone an "ol' serpent" or a "dragon lady" what does that usually entail? Does it bring you warm, fuzzy feelings and make you think that person is a great person? Not typically, no. Actually, generally it typifies the devil, someone that can't be trusted, or someone that is mean and nasty. Even in the Bible, that term is generally referring to satan. Who deceived Eve? A serpent.

Mormons will try to explain this away with the serpent Moses lifted up in the wilderness to signify Jesus. 

Okay, let's hold on a moment and look at this. 

Here are some pictures of the typical idea of Quetzalcoatl. 

Here is an example of the typical idea of Moses in the wilderness. 

These do not seem like similar ideas in the least. 

In mythologies, serpents typically represented fertility or rebirth due to the nature of them shedding their skin and in a sense being reborn. Hermes staff can be used to symbolize healing, however Hermes is the god of merchants, weight, oratory, literature, athletics, and thieves. He also guided souls of the dead to the underworld. Not quite Christ like. 

There is the Kundalini, a form of serpent used in eastern religions and traditions. It is the indwelling spiritual energy living within us. It is a coiled up serpent that nourishes the tree of life within us. Sounds similar to the Eve story, doesn't it? This is also sometimes depicted similar to the picture of Hermes' staff.

There is ouroboros, a Greek, tail devouring serpent that represent cyclicality and eternal return. In Egypt it is used when Ra meets Osiris in the underworld and in the text two serpents coil around the head and feet of a god with their tails in their mouths and it represents the beginning and end of time. There is Mucalinda, the buddhist king of serpents. He has multiple heads and for the little available info that can be found on him, is far from Christ-like. 

To go even further, you can look at the fact that Quetzalcoatl isn't even a snake. No, he is a feathered serpent. 

When you think of feathered serpent, what do you think? Typically a dragon which is a symbol of satan. In the bible, the whore of babylon sits on a multi-headed dragon.

If you try extremely hard, you could possibly tie Quetzalcoatl to serpents and if you try even harder you could perhaps link that to healing and then try to tie it back to Christ but you have to be looking for it. You can make almost anything line up and seem true if you are trying hard enough. However, if you step back and look at it with a non-bias eye, Quetzalcoatl could much more easily be lined up with satan than with Christ.

I will discuss this further in my next post.

(*Please note, the photos are not mine.)