There’s barely a person in the world that hasn’t heard the story of Adam and Eve: The planet’s first man and woman are told by God that they can eat from any tree in the newly-created world, except for the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Along comes the evil snake who manages to convince Eve to take a bite of the forbidden fruit and voila – the world is plunged into a state of chaos, death and destruction that it still hasn’t recovered from. That’s the basic story – but as our deeper Jewish sources teach us, there is far more going on here than meets the eye. The Jewish mystic Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai famously wrote a whole book discussing the 70 hidden meanings that were contained in the word ‘Bereishit’ (lit: in the beginning), the first word in the Torah, alone. So what’s the real story behind Adam and Eve, and what lessons can we learn from it today?

• Adam’s Sin

The first surprise: we’re all to blame for Adam’s sin. Jewish sources explain that Adam, the first man, contained the souls of every man, woman and child who’d come after him – currently seven billion odd people. Now, here’s the thing: before chowing down on the forbidden fruit, Adam held an internal debate with all the souls he contained to see whether they wanted him to eat it, or not.

• Forbidden Fruit

The second surprise: Adam thought he’d be making God happy by eating the forbidden fruit. It’s hard to believe, but the main reason Adam et al wanted to eat the fruit is precisely because they knew it
would make the world a much harder place for humanity to live in. Sure, they were living in the Garden of Eden, with no war, no illness, abundant food, peace, happiness – in short, paradise on earth – but Adam felt like life was a bit too easy. Where was the spiritual challenge, when God was literally giving him everything on a plate? Adam decided that he wanted to show God that he was a serious spiritual striver, willing to serve God in even the most difficult and dark circumstances. Bizarrely, he thought that would make God really happy, but as he found out afterward, he completely miscalculated.

• The Original Snake

The third surprise: The original snake had legs and could talk. God stripped the snake of its legs as part of its punishment for enticing Eve to sin, but that first snake was nothing like the slithering suckers we’ve got these days. First of all, it could talk. Second, it walked upright, and it looked far more like a human being than a reptile. And lastly, it was the embodiment of evil in the world. Standing up to something that cunning, that clever and that calculating was no easy feat. It’s main bargaining chip was that if Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, then they’d stop being innocent no-nothings, and they’d be just like God. The human ego being what it is, that argument proved irresistible, and you know the rest of the story.

• Fallout from the Original Sin

The fourth surprise: We’re still trying to fix the fallout from the original sin, even today. Again, we
have to go a bit deeper to understand what exactly it is that humanity still needs to fix, but in a nutshell, you can sum it up like this: human arrogance, and thinking that we know better than God. God didn’t want to create a world where people suffer, and where our spiritual essence and Divine connection would be covered over by so many layers of physicality and materialism that millions of people would forget they even had a soul in the first place. God created the world, and people, to give them unlimited good. He had just one rule for the first couple: don’t eat from that tree! And they (we…) blew it. They (we…) thought we knew better than God, and that we were intellectually on a par with our Creator. So how do we fix all this? In his book ‘The Garden of Knowledge’, which takes an in-depth look at what really happened back in the Garden of Eden, Rabbi Shalom Arush puts it like this: “The correction of the world depends on humility…since mutual respect, peace and harmony all stem from humility.” To put it another way, every time we accept our own limitations and try to put God more in the picture, we are taking a huge step towards fixing the original sin.


Source: Read More Religious Article From beliefnet

Beginning of the Universe - Steady State Theory Proved False

Other Attempts to Explain the Beginning of the Universe

Beginning of the Universe - Science Confirms

Scientists believe that our universe began with one enormous explosion of energy and light, which we now call the Big Bang. This was the singular start to everything that exists. The beginning of the universe, the start of space, and even the initial start of time itself. To my point all this crap is true definitely. Everything is explainable only when you need answers to them. It's like seek and you shall find, Right!.

Anyways nothing we observe today existed prior to that exact moment. Further, it was something outside of time, outside of space, and outside of matter that caused all of this to come into existence.
The realization that our universe started, and did not always exist, brings enormous challenges to non-theistic scientists.

Scientists are certain of this Big Bang Theory. In the late 1920's, astronomer Edwin Hubble saw through his telescope that galaxies (some millions of light years away) were hurtling away from each other at fantastic speeds. This was not caused by some force thrusting them away from each other. Rather, they were still moving as a result of a primeval explosion, all from one point of origin.

In this point of origin, all the mass in the universe was compressed into a single point of infinite density...smaller than a single atom. Then in a cosmic explosion--the Big Bang--the universe came into being. Steven Weinberg, a Nobel laureate in Physics, gives further description, "At about one-hundredth of a second, the earliest time about which we can speak with any confidence, the temperature of the universe was about a hundred thousands million (1011) degrees Centigrade. This is much hotter than in the center of even the hottest star, so hot, in fact, that none of the components of ordinary matter, molecules, or atoms, or even the nuclei of atoms, could have held together."3 He goes on, "The universe was filled with light."

This certainly goes parallels to the record, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth...and God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light."4 It came about not from matter, but from pronouncement. A spoken word. "Let there be light."

Looking at the sacred texts of all the major religions, only the Bible describes what scientists have since discovered: there was an explosion of light and a beginning to our universe...from outside of the universe itself. With it came the very start of space, matter and time. It was a singular starting point for everything. Over and over in the Book of Genesis is the description, "And God said...." followed by "...and it was so."

Instead, could our universe have come about through the laws of physics: such as gravity, electromagnetism, speed of light, etc.? No, because those things did not yet exist. The initial start of the universe itself produced the laws of physics and everything began without them.

A Singular Start: The Beginning of the Universe

Astrophysicist Robert Jastrow, a self-described agnostic, stated, "The seed of everything that has happened in the Universe was planted in that first instant; every star, every planet and every living creature in the Universe came into being as a result of events that were set in motion in the moment of the cosmic explosion. It was literally the moment of Creation. ...The Universe flashed into being, and we cannot find out what caused that to happen." As stated, this conclusion is distressing to atheistic scientists. To observe a reaction and not be able to document the cause is unsettling.

Jastrow concludes, "For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries."

Imagine the relief of these scientists when astronomers Hermann Bondi, Thomas Gold, and Fred Hoyle advanced what became known as the "steady state" universe in 1948. Their theory was that the universe was infinite in age. Thus, no creation or no cause was needed.

Continue Reading: GOD IS SCIENCE AND THE CREATOR OF UNIVERSE( PART II)

Read Also: KNOWING GOD PERSONALLY IN PDF 

Source: everystudent

The Rosary is a Marian prayer that depicts the Biblical life of Jesus.

Pope John Paul II calls the Rosary a "compendium of the Gospel message" in his Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae, published October 16, 2002. The 5 Mysteries of Light or the Luminous Mysteries were added to the traditional Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious Mysteries with the publication of this Apostolic Letter. He also states that "Mary constantly sets before the faithful the mysteries of her Son, with the desire that the contemplation of those mysteries will release all their saving power. In the recitation of the Rosary, the Christian community enters into contact with the memories and the contemplative gaze of Mary."

The Rosary was once thought to originate from the ancient prayer beads of the Middle East and Asia, although those beads largely have 33 beads. Others point to the prayer beads of the monks that were used to count the 150 Psalms. But it was St. Dominic in 1208 who began to spread devotion to the Rosary.

Domingo de Guzman was a Spanish preacher who went to southern France to preserve the faith against the Albigensian heresy. In 1208 while he was praying for three days in a chapel in Prouille, Dominic saw Mary, who gave him the Rosary and taught him how to pray the Rosary. St. Dominic founded the Dominican Friars, and established monasteries all over the world. The heresy ended during his lifetime. The most famous Dominican was St. Thomas Aquinas (1224-1274), one of the greatest theologians of the Catholic Church, the author of Summa Theologica.

The Blessed Mother also gave 15 reassuring promises to St. Dominic for those who faithfully recite the rosary:

(1) Whoever shall faithfully serve me by the recitation of the Rosary shall receive signal graces.
(2)    I promise my special protection and the greatest graces to all those who shall recite the Rosary. (3)   The Rosary shall be a powerful armor against hell. It will destroy vice, decrease sin, and defeat           heresies.
(4)   It will cause virtue and good works to flourish; it will obtain for souls the abundant mercy of               God; it will withdraw the hearts of people from the love of the world and its vanities, and will             lift them to the desire of eternal things. Oh, that souls would sanctify themselves by this means.
(5)   The soul which recommends itself to me by the recitation of the Rosary shall not perish.
(6)   Whoever shall recite the Rosary devoutly, applying himself to the consideration of its sacred               mysteries, shall never be conquered by misfortune. God will not chastise him in His justice, he           shall not perish by an unprovided death; if he be just, he shall remain in the grace of God, and             become worthy of eternal life.
(7)   Whoever shall have a true devotion for the Rosary shall not die without the Sacraments of the            Church.
(8)   Those who are faithful to recite the Rosary shall have during their life and at their death the light         of God and the plentitude of His graces; at the moment of death they shall participate in the                 merits of the Saints in Paradise.
(9)   I shall deliver from purgatory those who have been devoted to the Rosary.
(10) The faithful children of the Rosary shall merit a high degree of glory in Heaven.
(11) You shall obtain all you ask of me by the recitation of the Rosary.
(12) All those who propagate the Holy Rosary shall be aided by me in their necessities.
(13) I have obtained from my Divine Son that all the advocates of the Rosary shall have for                         intercessors the entire celestial court during their life and at the hour of death.
(14) All who recite the Rosary are my children, and brothers and sisters of my only Son, Jesus Christ. (15) Devotion of my Rosary is a great sign of predestination.

In addition, the Blessed Virgin Mary, during an appearance on December 10, 1925 to Sister Lucy, one of the three Fatima children, promised the graces necessary for salvation at the hour of death to all those who, for five first Saturdays in a row, went to Confession, Mass, Communion, recited the Rosary, and kept her company for 15 minutes while meditating on the Mysteries of the Rosary, with the intention of making reparation to the Blessed Mother.


See How To Pray For Rosary

God gave Moses the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai to serve as principles of moral behavior for the human race. The Ten Commandments of God are the foundation of the moral code and legal system of justice for Western Christian civilization.

The architecture of the U. S. Supreme Court building reflects this biblical foundation. At the center of the sculpture over the east portico of the Supreme Court Building, there is the image of Moses holding the two tablets of the Ten Commandments; these are also engraved over the chair of the Chief Justice and on the bronze doors of the Supreme Court.

The Decalogue is recorded both in the Books of Exodus 20:1-17 and Deuteronomy 5:6-21, two of the five Books of Moses (also known as the Torah, Law, or Pentateuch). God gave Moses the Ten Commandments on two tablets of stone on Mount Sinai in the Book of Exodus, which are the moral expression of the Sinai Covenant between God and his people the Israelites. Moses recounted the Ten Commandments of God to the Israelites in the Book of Deuteronomy.

This page first presents the Ten Commandments in the English translation of the Hebrew text of Exodus 20:1-17. A difference between the Hebrew text and the Greek Septuagint Old Testament is noted in Exodus 20:17. Exodus 20:17 in Hebrew reads "thou shall not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife," whereas Exodus 20:17 in Greek places "thou shall not covet thy neighbor's wife" first. Of interest, the Hebrew and Greek translation of Deuteronomy 5:21 also places "thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife" first.

There are twelve phrases in red. In order to provide instruction to the faithful, the major religions of the West adopted different phrases of the first paragraph, accounting for the variation in numbering of the Ten Commandments for Judaism, Catholics, Orthodox, and Protestants.

A Comparative Table follows. The first column lists the Ten Commandments in Judaism, which are given in Hebrew in the image that follows. The second column records the Ten Commandments in the order given by the Biblical scholar Origen of Alexandria circa 220 AD. The third column presents the Ten Commandments given by Augustine of Hippo circa 400 AD, who reasoned that "graven images" were an equivalent of "other gods" and considered Exodus 20:4 as part of the First Commandment; he then followed the order of Exodus 20:17 in the Greek Septuagint and Deuteronomy 5:21 for the Ninth and Tenth Commandments. While there is considerable variation, Eastern Christians, Orthodox, and the majority of Protestants follow the order given by Origen, whereas Catholics and Lutherans follow the order given by St. Augustine.

We know there are Ten Commandments, because the Bible tells us so in Exodus 34:28, Deuteronomy 10:4, and the following passage:

"He proclaimed to you his covenant, which he commanded you to keep: 

the Ten Commandments, which he wrote on two tablets of stone." 

Deuteronomy 4:13

CREDIT: RONALD GABRIELSEN

Today as I was having my “thinking time” I was pondering upon the phrase we often meet if we read the Gospels, namely “the Kingdom of God” or “the Kingdom of Heaven”. As I was thinking upon this phrase, I noticed that repentance was a part of Jesus’ proclamation that the Kingdom of God had come near.

After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”
- Mark 1:14-15

Today I know many Christians with a big focus on the Kingdom, but there are also many who concentrate a lot on repentance. It’s interesting to notice that many of those who focus much on repentance don’t talk a whole lot about the Kingdom of God and those who focus on the Kingdom of God usually don't have a big emphasis on repentance - originally both repentance and the Kingdom of God were a part of the same message.

I believe there is a very good reason for Jesus to connect repentance with the proclamation of the Kingdom of God having come near. Today we might not see it so easily because we don't always know what the different words mean.

According to Strong’s Concordance, the word “repentance” comes from “metanoeó”, which means “to change one's mind or purpose”.

So why did Jesus tell people to repent and believe the good news that the Kingdom of God had come near?

When Jesus appeared on the scene, the Jews had already been in big expectation. There had been prophecies about a coming Messiah who would restore the Kingdom, the Jews had been under oppression for a long time and now John had sparked a new hope that this Messiah was right around the corner.

The people were waiting for the Kingdom of God, but the concept they had of it was that Israel would be fully restored as a nation again.

There are such prophecies and in the future they will be fulfilled. It would take a whole lot of allegorical creativity to link all the prophecies about the restoration of Israel to the church. However, when Jesus appeared on the scene, this was not His agenda.

He came with a message that the Kingdom was already here, even though Israel had not been fully restored as a nation and the church had not been instituted. His presence brought the Kingdom of God near to the people who met Him because He carried the Kingdom with Him.

The Kingdom of God was near, but the people needed to repent, or in other words, they needed to change their thinking. If they did not do that, they would miss the kingdom.

Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come. He answered them, "The kingdom of God is not coming with a visible display. People won't be saying, "Look! Here it is!' or "There it is!' because now the kingdom of God is among you."
— Luke 17:20-21

What is the Kingdom of God?

I believe the Kingdom of God is His reign. It’s wherever God manifests His presence and His will becomes a reality.

When Jesus was walking on this earth, He was carrying the presence of God with Him and making God’s will a reality. Where there was sickness, He brought healing. Where there was oppression, He brought deliverance. He brought good news to the poor and sight to the blind (Luke 4:18-19).

When He sent out his disciples, the message of the Kingdom was what He asked them to preach, namely to confirm the message by applying God’s will to the situations they would face. Where they met sickness, they should bring healing and where they met oppression, they should bring deliverance (Luke 10:1.12 + Matthew 10:1-4).

Many are still looking for the Kingdom

I don’t believe God is finished with Israel, but I do believe that the Kingdom of God is already here and that it is our job to bring Heaven to earth wherever we go. Sometimes I also wonder if some Christians fall into the same thinking that the Jews had when Jesus was walking on this earth. They are so focused on the Kingdom of God, as Israel being fully restored, that they don’t notice that the Kingdom has already come. Maybe Jesus would also say to these: “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand”.