McLovin ✟ J.C. Samples

Aspiring Christian Apologist - Citizen of the Choctaw Nation - Professor of Logic at the University of Science

[McLovin ✟ J.C. Samples @JCSamplesEph6]

@rileyhharrison @DudespostingWs If you look closely they each have half a Georgia and half an Oklahoma jersey on.

[McLovin ✟ J.C. Samples @JCSamplesEph6]

@leftcoastbabe @JonnyRoot_ Probably because they aren’t Orthodox Jews.

[McLovin ✟ J.C. Samples @JCSamplesEph6]

@JoelMCurzon Bart Ehrman has two sides to him. There’s the academic side, in which he says things that support the conservative position, and then there’s the book-selling side, which supports the liberal position. He’s a grifter.

[McLovin ✟ J.C. Samples @JCSamplesEph6]

@JoelMCurzon @JohnnyTani3 Arguments from silence only work when we would expect the author to mention something. Why should we expect Paul to explain Jesus’ birth in letters dealing with issues like church discipline, false teachers, or justification by faith?

[McLovin ✟ J.C. Samples @JCSamplesEph6]

@JoelMCurzon You should read Revelation if you are offended by the Torah.

[McLovin ✟ J.C. Samples @JCSamplesEph6]

@basmu6934 @RealShahriqKhan If those infants were destined to be pagan, wouldn’t their deaths before the age of accountability bring them to heaven rather than eternal damnation?

[Shahriq Khan @RealShahriqKhan]

When I was Muslim, I would argue & say we had the same prophets as Christians.

But this one broke me:

Surah 17:101: Allah gave Moses 9 clear signs.

I knew the list. The staff. The shining hand. The drought. The flood. The locusts. The lice. The frogs. The blood.

I held onto those 9 signs like proof I had the real story.

But bro, you know what shook me?

There’s a night missing.

After all nine signs, right before Israel walks out of Egypt, something happens that the Quran goes completely silent on.

A lamb is slaughtered.

Its blood painted on the doorposts.

And death passes over every house covered by that blood.

The Passover.

I grew up hearing the whole Exodus story. But nobody ever told me about the blood on the door.

Islam just skips it.

And here’s what wrecked me.

The Bible, the book I was taught was corrupted, mentions the Passover over 70 times.

Exodus. Leviticus. Numbers. Deuteronomy. The Psalms. The Prophets. The Gospels. Paul.

70 times.

So I had to ask myself the honest question:

If men corrupted this book, why would they obsess over the same story for 1500 years? Across dozens of authors who never met?

You don’t forge a document 70 times.

That’s just not corruption.

That to me is preservation.

And then I read the line that finished me off.

1 Corinthians 5:7.

“Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed.”

That’s when it hit me.

The whole story was never just about Moses.

It was always pointing to a King.

The final lamb. Whose blood, when applied to your life, makes death pass over you.

Forever.

The Quran gave me 9 signs but hid the one night that explains why any of them happened.

Because the moment a Muslim understands the Passover…

he’s one step away from the cross.

[McLovin ✟ J.C. Samples @JCSamplesEph6]

@francis_yo92739 @CanyonMimbs Everyone has a worldview. You are just a sophist

[McLovin ✟ J.C. Samples @JCSamplesEph6]

@francis_yo92739 @CanyonMimbs I’ve answered this. Why not answer my questions

[McLovin ✟ J.C. Samples @JCSamplesEph6]

@francis_yo92739 @CanyonMimbs I allow YHWH to explain His own nature. I choose to put my trust in Jesus Christ because I believe Him when He says “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

What’s your worldview? And why do you believe it to be true?

[McLovin ✟ J.C. Samples @JCSamplesEph6]

@francis_yo92739 @CanyonMimbs Just because a husband is the head of his wife doesn’t mean they are different in nature. Both are fully human.

Likewise, the Son obeying the Father doesn’t mean the Son is a lesser being. It shows a difference in role and relationship, not a difference in essence.

[McLovin ✟ J.C. Samples @JCSamplesEph6]

@smile2jannah

[McLovin ✟ J.C. Samples @JCSamplesEph6]

@francis_yo92739 @CanyonMimbs Don’t forget John 10:18 and 5:21.

Who is Jesus Christ to you?

[McLovin ✟ J.C. Samples @JCSamplesEph6]

John 2:19 says Jesus would raise His own body. Acts says the Father raised Him. Romans 8:11 says the Spirit raised Him. Scripture attributes the resurrection to all three Persons because God is one. Further, in Romans 10 Paul applies Joel 2:32, a passage about YHWH, directly to Jesus. The issue isn’t whether “lord” can sometimes mean master. The issue is that Paul identifies Jesus as the Lord of Joel 2:32, namely YHWH Himself.

[McLovin ✟ J.C. Samples @JCSamplesEph6]

@francis_yo92739 @CanyonMimbs Feel free to expand

[McLovin ✟ J.C. Samples @JCSamplesEph6]

You make good points. I was actually going to bring up Hermas myself as an example but left it out.

As for the doctrinal consistency point, I think that’s where Protestants and Catholics often talk past each other. I agree that the early Church’s teaching mattered in recognizing the canon. The question is whether the Church was recognizing apostolic doctrine already present in the churches, or whether later ecclesiastical authority became the final standard by which doctrine itself was judged.

Regarding the Reformation, I think the schism was likely necessary in that moment. Luther himself initially sought reform, not division. Yet rather than seriously addressing many of the concerns being raised, the papacy ultimately excommunicated him and others. Whether one agrees with all of the Reformers’ conclusions or not, it is difficult to imagine meaningful reform occurring without a break at that point.

That said, I don’t agree with everything Protestantism later became. The fragmentation of the Church and the rise of some clearly heretical movements are real problems.

My current position is somewhere between Arminian Protestantism and possibly Eastern Orthodoxy, though I’m still working through those questions. What I do believe is that faithful Christians who trust in Christ for salvation are not excluded from God’s grace simply because they belong to a different communion.

Ultimately, I responded because I wasn’t particularly persuaded by the original question. It seems to assume that accepting the New Testament canon necessarily commits someone to accepting every later doctrinal claim of the institution that helped preserve and recognize it, and I’m not convinced that follows.

[McLovin ✟ J.C. Samples @JCSamplesEph6]

The early churches had a large role and through time a consensus was formed built around the following criteria:
Apostolic authorship or direct apostolic witness.
Doctrinal consistency with prior revelation.
Widespread recognition and acceptance by the early churches.

You have to understand that the Reformation happened because the Roman Catholic Church was plagued by significant corruption. The sale of indulgences, abuses surrounding purgatory, and the elevation of certain traditions above Scripture were among the concerns that sparked the movement.

I’ve yet to decide which tradition I will ultimately align with, but I find legalistic exclusivity claims to be somewhat Pharisaical. Christ repeatedly rebuked those who elevated human tradition and institutional authority above the Word of God.