A most powerful and clearly distinguishing uniqueness that separates the living word of the living God, as in the Holy Bible, from man's ongoing religious efforts to play god, is that it cannot only support its Divinity, but provides as well, sixty-six entire books of teaching - 31,173 verses - written by forty+ God inspired authors.
When a person gets serious about truth, God gets serious with them! James 4:8 tells us, "Come close to God, and God will come close to you."
The Apostle Paul, a former persecutor of Christians, prior to Jesus calling him out in Acts 9:4 (Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me?), known then as Saul of Tarsus V-11, became the greatest witness known for Christ in his day, as well as renowned for authoring the majority of books in the New Testament.
Paul teaches the world on the subject of 'Living to Please Others,' in Romans 15:1-13, the root and title of this post, as well as to provide support of the Holy Bible's characteristics for holy regard and reverence; 13 verses only, out of 16 chapters, from just one book of sixty-six.
IT TEACHES AS FOLLOWS:
1 We who are strong must be considerate of those who are sensitive about things like this. We must not just please ourselves. 2 We should help others do what is right and build them up in the Lord. 3 For even Christ didn’t live to please himself. As the Scriptures say, “The insults of those who insult you, O God, have fallen on me." 4 Such things were written in the Scriptures long ago to teach us. And the Scriptures give us hope and encouragement as we wait patiently for God’s promises to be fulfilled.
5 May God, who gives this patience and encouragement, help you live in complete harmony with each other, as is fitting for followers of Christ Jesus. 6 Then all of you can join together with one voice, giving praise and glory to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
7 Therefore, accept each other just as Christ has accepted you so that God will be given glory. 8 Remember that Christ came as a servant to the Jews to show that God is true to the promises he made to their ancestors. 9 He also came so that the Gentiles might give glory to God for his mercies to them. That is what the psalmist meant when he wrote:
“For this, I will praise you among the Gentiles; I will sing praises to your name.”
10 And in another place it is written,
“Rejoice with his people, you Gentiles.”
11 And yet again,
“Praise the LORD, all you Gentiles. Praise him, all you people of the earth."
12 And in another place Isaiah said,
“The heir to David’s throne will come, and he will rule over the Gentiles. They will place their hope on him.”
13 I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Notice how the verses in the above teaching, all tie-in together, including the referencing of other verses in other books? THIS IS NOT FOUND IN MAN'S RELIGION - and I always make a point to bring this up, not to judge, or out of pride, but rather, out of concern of billions of souls currently deceived, leaving the souls vulnerable of being lost for all eternity.
LET ME SHARE ANOTHER 17 VERSES FROM THE BOOK OF ACTS
Because I have noted in this post, a reference to another book of Paul's, Acts 9, below is the first 19 verses of Acts Chapter 9 that teaches of 'Saul's (who became Paul) Conversion,' and the faith placed in God by a man named Ananias, quite familiar with Paul's reputation.
1 Meanwhile, Saul was uttering threats with every breath and was eager to kill the Lord’s followers. So he went to the high priest. 2 He requested letters addressed to the synagogues in Damascus, asking for their cooperation in the arrest of any followers of the Way he found there. He wanted to bring them—both men and women—back to Jerusalem in chains.
3 As he was approaching Damascus on this mission, a light from heaven suddenly shone down around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me?”
5 “Who are you, lord?” Saul asked. And the voice replied, “I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting! 6 Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
7 The men with Saul stood speechless, for they heard the sound of someone’s voice but saw no one! 8 Saul picked himself up off the ground, but when he opened his eyes he was blind. So his companions led him by the hand to Damascus. 9 He remained there blind for three days and did not eat or drink.
10 Now there was a believer in Damascus named Ananias. The Lord spoke to him in a vision, calling, “Ananias!” “Yes, Lord!” he replied. 11 The Lord said, “Go over to Straight Street, to the house of Judas. When you get there, ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul. He is praying to me right now. 12 I have shown him a vision of a man named Ananias coming in and laying hands on him so he can see again.”
13 “But Lord,” exclaimed Ananias, “I’ve heard many people talk about the terrible things this man has done to the believers in Jerusalem! 14 And he is authorized by the leading priests to arrest everyone who calls upon your name.” 15 But the Lord said, “Go, for Saul is my chosen instrument to take my message to the Gentiles and to kings, as well as to the people of Israel. 16 And I will show him how much he must suffer for my name’s sake.”
17 So Ananias went and found Saul. He laid his hands on him and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road, has sent me so that you might regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 18 Instantly something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he got up and was baptized. 19 Afterward he ate some food and regained his strength.
Without going in depth of this teaching, two key points, one being that no one is beyond saving in God's eyes; Saul was ruthless, determined to do what was necessary to rid the land of the Christian. And a second point is of the normal fear that Ananias had to overcome in order to approach this 'Saul/Paul' when he shares is concerns in V13 & 14 13 saying, “But Lord,” exclaimed Ananias, “I’ve heard many people talk about the terrible things this man has done to the believers in Jerusalem! 14 And he is authorized by the leading priests to arrest everyone who calls upon your name.”
IN CLOSING - FOR IT'S BEEN SAID ...
... during the time of Muhammad (Quran/Islam), about 600 AD (After Death of Jesus), it was proclaimed by many religious bodies that Muhammad plagiarized their religious text to make up his Quran. There were approximately 360 religions to choose from during his time in Mecca. However, for illustrative purposes, and to help differentiate between human accomplishment (man) from Divine Accomplishment (God), the following example is profound in a few ways ... in regards to what is believed to be plagiarized from the Holy Bible, 5 EXAMPLES ONLY, and from one book only, the book of Genesis being suffice.
EXAMPLE 1
From the Holy Bible
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.[a] 2 The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. 3 Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good. Then he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day” and the darkness “night.” And evening passed and morning came, marking the first day.
Believed to be plagiarized in the Quran
In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful.
Praise be to Allah, Who created the heavens and the earth, and made the darkness and the light. Yet those who disbelieve ascribe equals to their Lord.
12. We have made the night and the day two wonders. We erased the wonder of the night, and made the wonder of the day revealing, that you may seek bounty from your Lord, and know the number of years, and the calculation. We have explained all things in detail.
EXAMPLE 2
From the Holy Bible
2 The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.
Believed to be plagiarized in the Quran
7. It is He who created the heavens and the earth in six days—and His Throne was upon the waters—in order to test you—which of you is best in conduct. And if you were to say, “You will be resurrected after death,” those who disbelieve would say, “This is nothing but plain witchcraft.”
EXAMPLE 3
From the Holy Bible
6 Then God said, “Let there be a space between the waters, to separate the waters of the heavens from the waters of the earth.” 7 And that is what happened. God made this space to separate the waters of the earth from the waters of the heavens. 8 God called the space “sky.” And evening passed and morning came, marking the second day.
Believed to be plagiarized in the Quran
30. Do the disbelievers not see that the heavens and the earth were one mass, and We tore them apart? And We made from water every living thing. Will they not believe?
EXAMPLE 4
From the Holy Bible
12 The land produced vegetation—all sorts of seed-bearing plants, and trees with seed-bearing fruit. Their seeds produced plants and trees of the same kind. And God saw that it was good.
Believed to be plagiarized in the Quran
19. We spread the earth, and placed stabilizers in it, and in it We grew all things in proper measure.
EXAMPLE 5
From the Holy Bible
31 Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good!
And evening passed and morning came, marking the sixth day.
Believed to be plagiarized in the Quran
59. He who created the heavens and the earth and everything between them in six days, then settled on the Throne. The Most Merciful. Ask about Him a well-informed.
Human-Accomplishment vs. Divine-Accomplishment
Now that you have seen the five scriptures from The Book of Genesis, believed to be plagiarized by Muhammad, without need to be word for word for significance, let us see a most clarifying and revealing fact used to hide plagiarism, while also unmasking human-accomplishment-teaching-style vs. Divine-Accomplishment-Teaching-Style.
From above … you will notice Muhammad places his version of Genesis 1:1-5 in … Quran 6 (Livestock) … and Quran (The Night Journey) 17
From above … you will notice Muhammad places his version of Genesis 1:2 in … Quran (Hud) 11
From above … you will notice Muhammad places his version of Genesis 1:6-8 in … Quran (The Prophets) 21
From above … you will notice Muhammad places his version of Genesis 1:12 in … Quran (The Rock) 15
From above … you will notice Muhammad places his version of Genesis 1:31 in … Quran (The Criterion) 25
Why is this so significant? Take a guess!
By first, rewording a text to be plagiarized, especially a teaching such as the Book of Genesis offers, divinely intended as one teaching, you then need to displace or separate the teaching (over 6 different chapters as found in the Quran) so not to draw attention to the obvious, without careful due diligence under suspicion - noting also chapter titles are also 'Muhammad's' and not by the likes of forty+ God inspired authors as eye witnesses and in museums for the world to see first hand from the time of Jesus.
What is meant by ‘divinely intended as one teaching,’ there are two things:
A/ The entire book of Genesis is The Living God’s teaching to the world “In (from) The Beginning,” where man got his start, where he came from, how, and race, culture, etc.
B/ To scatter bits and pieces throughout God’s word, would be like a teacher asking our grade school children to read every 5th or 10th line of each chapter of a book, and then return to the beginning and start over reading every 4th & 9th, or 6th & 11th line for example, until completed; HOW QUICKLY WOULD THE CHILDREN LEARN? Exactly!
PS:
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I thank you ... and I thank you, Jesus, amen and amen!