"… when Moses was grown … "

The New Testament Documents can be read here for free...

http://www.bible.ca/b-new-testament-documents-f-f-bruce.htm

My favorite part....
The evidence for our New Testament writings is ever so much greater than the evidence for many writings of classical authors, the authenticity of which noone dreams of questioning. And if the New Testament were a collection of secular writings, their authenticity would generally be regarded as beyond all doubt. It is a curious fact that historians have often been much readier to trust the New Testament records than have many theologians. Somehow or other, there are people who regard a 'sacred book' as ipso facto under suspicion, and demand much more corroborative evidence for such a work than they would for an ordinary secular or pagan writing From the viewpoint of the historian, the same standards must be applied to both. But we do not quarrel with those who want more evidence for the New Testament than for other writings; firstly, because the universal claims which the New Testament makes upon mankind are so absolute, and the character and works of its chief Figure so unparalleled, that we want to be as sure of its truth as we possibly can; and secondly, because in point of fact there is much more evidence for the New Testament than for other ancient writings of comparable date.

There are in existence about 5,000 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament in whole or in part. The best and most important of these go back to somewhere about AD 350, the two most important being the Codex Vaticanus, the chief treasure of the Vatican Library in Rome, and the wellknown Codex Sinaiticus, which the British Government purchased from the Soviet Government for £100,000 on Christmas Day, 1933, and which is now the chief treasure of the British Museum. Two other important early MSS in this country are the Codex Alexandrinus, also in the British Museum, written in the fifth century, and the Codex Bezae:, in Cambridge University Library, written in the fifth or sixth century, and containing the Gospels and Acts in both Greek and Latin.

Perhaps we can appreciate how wealthy the New Testament is in manuscript attestation if we compare the textual material for other ancient historical works. For Caesar's Gallic War (composed between 58 and 50 BC) there are several extant MSS, but only nine or ten are good, and the oldest is some 900 years later than Caesar's day. Of the 142 books of the Roman History of Livy (59 BC-AD 17) only thirty five survive; these are known to us from not more than twenty MSS of any consequence, only one of which, and that containing fragments of Books iii-vi, is as old as the fourth century. Of the fourteen books of the Histories of Tacitus (c. AD 100) only four and a half survive; of the sixteen books of his Annals, ten survive in full and two in part. The text of these extant portions of has two great historical works depends entirely on two MSS, one of the ninth century and one of the eleventh. The extant MSS of his minor works (Dialogue dc Oratoribus, Agricola, Gcrmania) all descend from a codex of the tenth century The History of Thucydides (c. 460-400 BC) is known to us from eight MSS, the earliest belonging to c. AD 900, and a few papyrus scraps, belonging to about the beginning of the Christian era The same is true of the History of Herodotus (c. 488-428 BC). Yet no classical scholar would listen to an argument that the authenticity of Herodotus or Thucydides is in doubt because the earliest MSS of their works which are of any use to us are over 1,300 years later than the originals.

Originally posted by Suzianne
By definition, they all worship "the God of Abraham".

Yeah, I'd say it's the same God. This was the gist of your post, was it not? That "most people" worshipped other deities?

Do I think that most Jews, Muslims and Christians 'think' they all believe in the same God? No, definitely not. Which is a shame. Just see the following posts to see, I'm s ...[text shortened]... vice the same as a Southern Baptist service? Definitely not. But they're still both Christian.

The God of the Holy Bible is not just the God of Abraham, but the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The Muslims claim their god, Allah, has no son and his prophet is Muhammad. They worship the god of the Koran, not the God that inspired the Holy Bible.

The Instructor

Originally posted by wolfgang59
If Cathiolics and Protestants worship the same god then Spanish and Italian are the same language.

If Christians and Jews worship the same god then English is a dialect of German.

If Christians and Muslims worship the same god then all the Indo-European languages are basically one language.

I'm glad you agree with me, then. 🙂

Originally posted by checkbaiter
Technicalities, technicalities, tsk tsk....
There is only one God, the God of Abraham...
The problem is that all these different groups you mention have their own interpretation.
In fact, what a lot of people do is make God in their image and how they suppose he should be. And then religion started....

Very good.

I'm glad someone gets it.

Originally posted by johnnylongwoody
OK, I got busted by the lovely Suzianne.
But I'd like to ask you one question about your last post.

If God had been still talking to us right up to today,
do you think then that none of these ( extra ) religions
would exist?

Well, there is more than one player on lifes chess board.
Kelly

Originally posted by Suzianne
I'm glad you agree with me, then. 🙂

اتفاق کرتا ہوں! آپ کے ساتھ بالکل، میں

Individual Discouragement and Personal Growth

"… when Moses was grown … he went out to his brethren and looked at their burdens" (Exodus 2:11).

"Moses saw the oppression of his people and felt certain that he was the one to deliver them, and in the righteous indignation of his own spirit he started to right their wrongs. After he launched his first strike for God and for what was right, God allowed Moses to be driven into empty discouragement, sending him into the desert to feed sheep for forty years. At the end of that time, God appeared to Moses and said to him, " ‘… bring My people … out of Egypt.’ But Moses said to God, ‘Who am I that I should go …?’ " (Exodus 3:10–11). In the beginning Moses had realized that he was the one to deliver the people, but he had to be trained and disciplined by God first. He was right in his individual perspective, but he was not the person for the work until he had learned true fellowship and oneness with God.

We may have the vision of God and a very clear understanding of what God wants, and yet when we start to do it, there comes to us something equivalent to Moses’ forty years in the wilderness. It’s as if God had ignored the entire thing, and when we are thoroughly discouraged, God comes back and revives His call to us. And then we begin to tremble and say, "Who am I that I should go …?" * We must learn that God’s great stride is summed up in these words—"I AM WHO I AM … has sent me to you" (Exodus 3:14). We must also learn that our individual effort for God shows nothing but disrespect for Him—our individuality is to be rendered radiant through a personal relationship with God, so that He may be "well pleased" (Matthew 3:17). We are focused on the right individual perspective of things; we have the vision and can say, "I know this is what God wants me to do." But we have not yet learned to get into God’s stride. If you are going through a time of discouragement, there is a time of great personal growth ahead." (Oswald Chambers)

* "We must also learn that our individual effort for God shows nothing but disrespect for Him—our individuality is to be rendered radiant through a personal relationship with God, so that He may be "well pleased" (Matthew 3:17)

Talk about no-nonsense, tough love. If so with a Leader of the Stature of Moses, how much more so with the likes of us? (OP)

Yes, first we must become a living sacrifice....We must become "useable"..

Originally posted by Suzianne
By definition, they all worship "the God of Abraham".

Yeah, I'd say it's the same God. This was the gist of your post, was it not? That "most people" worshipped other deities?

Do I think that most Jews, Muslims and Christians 'think' they all believe in the same God? No, definitely not. Which is a shame. Just see the following posts to see, I'm s ...[text shortened]... vice the same as a Southern Baptist service? Definitely not. But they're still both Christian.

Do I think that most Jews, Muslims and Christians 'think' they all believe in the same God? No, definitely not. Which is a shame. Just see the following posts to see, I'm sure RJH will appear with his Islam-bashing and possibly others.

And right on cue, there he is.

But you cannot seriously say that all three religions worship the same god. The god of Islam did not send his son to be crucified. The god of Christianity did not dictate his message to a prophet.

Christians do not believe in a god who dictated his message to a prophet and Muslims to not believe in a god who sent his son to live on Earth and be crucified. They do not believe in the same god and they cannot be lumped together as a single religion.

The fact that they both descended from Judaism does not mean they are the same religion, in the same way that English and Italian are not the same language.

--- Penguin.