Is Reality an Illusion?

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Logikos

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As I said, we know in part and see dimly! My beliefs are based on the Bible. Beyond those beliefs, I can only assume, make a conjecture. In don't know how many dimensions there are in heaven or how God created anything. The Bible doesn't explain how the universe was made scientifically because not many would grasp it if it did; nor does It explain fully what heaven is like and how differently constructed or how many dimensions God functions in outside of our time domain. The point is _ and I do hope you can grasp this simple thing _ God is not confined to and His power operates outside of the properties and laws of physical universe He made - obviously, rationally and logically, He existed before it and the measurement of time as we know it. His power transcends into our physical realm.
Your own statement here claims that we live in a "time domain" and, by extension, that God exists outside of time, which I've already shown you is patently absurd rationally speaking and is totally unbiblical to boot. Both of which points you completely ignore! Yet you claim that your beliefs are based on the bible. There is one at least that is definitely not.

>>> A Pastor gave an example of how God sees into the future and we can't. He used a piece of paper and asked the audience to imagine that the dot on the paper was a person who lived in a two-dimensional reality.
Then He drew a straight line that represents time and at the end, another dot, the same person. Along that line he also inserted all the events of this person's life. This is a two dimensional construct of time. The person cannot see the events, he can't see what's ahead, because he is in a two dimensional reality, a dot on a piece of paper that can only move forward with time, wxperiencing one event after another. Now, add another dimension. Add an architect who is looking down on the piece of paper. He penciled in the dots, line and events. He sees them all. Because He is not confined to the time line or dimension.
This is just a modification of Augustine's explanation. Augustine of Hippo is THE only reason you believe that God exists outside of time. The bible doesn't teach it, the Jews never believed it and it didn't exist in Christian dogma prior to Augustine importing the idea from Aristotle and Plato.

Who ever said truth did. Sounds like a straw man argument.
YOU DID!

Not overtly but by implication. When you just completely ignore the fact that a notion is self-contradictory and go on believing it anyway, you are saying that self-contradiction is not falsifying.

You seem to be contradicting yourself.
You implied, The title, Ancient of Days is not about God existing before he created the days, then said the title is expressing that God is older than everything else.
>>> Everything else includes days.
Sounds like you just want to argue, a prideful trait.
Do you not understand what the term "per se" means?

No you don't! That is arrogance and above your pat grade to know what visions God sends people.
It isn't arrogance its discernment. That little girl did not see God. If you believe otherwise, we've found two beliefs you hold that are not based on the bible.

Yes it is, I told you the portrait if Jesus was confirmed by Colton Burpo.
I quoted the artists own words. She herself told the story about how she had an impression of what Jesus looked like but couldn't nail it down until a stranger knocked on her family's door and she saw this guy standing there and then she had to convince him to sit as a model for the painting because he, being a real Christian, didn't feel worthy to sit as a stand it for his Lord.

Akianne's story is presented is presented this way. She saw Jesus, angels and heaven in visions and dreams.
It's a lie.

Sorry, must disagree nd reture this conversion because it's like beating a dead horse.
Why? Because I've responded directly to what you've said and wasn't convinced by your complete lack of rational argument or rebuttal. Is everyone who doesn't simply take your word for it get treated like their an idiot?
 

Ronald David Bruno

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Why? Because I've responded directly to what you've said and wasn't convinced by your complete lack of rational argument or rebuttal
I don't care if you are convinced. I guess when we get up there, we can all sit around and have a chat with Jesus, whom we will see face to face, then you will know.



This is just a modification of Augustine's explanation. Augustine of Hippo is THE only reason you believe that God exists outside of time.
Never read much about Augustine. You are making another false accusation. Getting tired of them.
That little girl did not see God.
You can call her up and argue what she saw and what she didn't. Prodigies are gifted by God. Do you have a gift? Let me guess, the gift of validating visions and discernment of time. Okay, got it.
Now you can get back to Episkopos. Oh, you said you didn't know what that meant? He started the thread ... you know, about reality? Actually, I am beginning to think this whole conversation with you is an illusion. Yep, think so. I'll pinch myself now and wake up. Ahhhh
 
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Logikos

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I don't care if you are convinced. I guess when we get up there, we can all sit around and have a chat with Jesus, whom we will see face to face, then you will know.
Then why are you treating me like I'm some sort of moron who isn't worth your time?

By the way, I suspect that after we see Jesus face to face, as this artist claims to have already done, we won't need some out of work handyman to show up to remind us of what He looks like.

Never read much about Augustine. You are making another false accusation. Getting tired of them.
It isn't an accusation, it's just a fact. There wouldn't be anyone who believed that God existed outside of time if not for Augustine having imported the doctrine into the church during the 4th century. That's just a historical fact. There isn't any need for you to have read Augustine because your pastor and your pastor's pastor, etc have done so and passed the teaching on to their congregations. The point is that the teaching is utterly absent from scripture and Augustine, who all but worshiped Socrates, Plato and Aristotle and who only became a Christian after he was shown how to interpret the bible in light of the Classics, incorporated several Greek ideas about God, including His existence outside of time into the church via his "Confessions".

You can call her up and argue what she saw and what she didn't.
No need. She's been repeatedly interviewed and widely quoted. It would take you less than half an hour to confirm every word I've said with simple Google searches. (The likelihood is that you've already done this and couldn't find anything that refutes a syllable of the 100% truth that I've told you.)

Prodigies are gifted by God. Do you have a gift? Let me guess, the gift of validating visions and discernment of time. Okay, got it.
Your sarcasm is just evidence that you have nothing of substance to say.

Now you can get back to Episkopos. Oh, you said you didn't know what that meant? He started the thread ... you know, about reality?
Oh, that. Who cares? Certainly no one around here. They're more interested in believing self-contradictory nonsense and fairy tales about five year old children who suddenly "disappear" for five days then a few years later paint divinely inspired pictures of Jesus.

Actually, I am beginning to think this whole conversation with you is an illusion. Yep, think so. I'll pinch myself now and wake up. Ahhhh
This whole website is just full to the brim with wonderful examples of Christian love! It just makes me feel all cozy and warm inside!

You probably should just go back to listening only to those who say the things that you already believe and agree with, because that's not boring at all! Heaven forbid that you open your mind to learning something important.
 
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Big Boy Johnson

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The point is that the teaching is utterly absent from scripture and Augustine, who all but worshiped Socrates, Plato and Aristotle

Yep, augustine was a manichean monk which is pagan garbage....and he brought those pagan beliefs with him when he "claimed" to have become a Christian. This was a satanic attempt to water down Christianity with false doctrine and it was very successful in doing so.

Manichaeism is a former major world religion, founded in the 3rd century CE by the Parthian prophet Mani (216–274 CE), in the Sasanian Empire.

Manichaeism teaches an elaborate dualistic cosmology describing the struggle between a good, spiritual world of light, and an evil, material world of darkness. Through an ongoing process that takes place in human history, light is gradually removed from the world of matter and returned to the world of light, whence it came.

Mani's teaching was intended to "combine", succeed, and surpass the teachings of Christianity, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Marcionism, Hellenistic and Rabbinic Judaism, Gnostic movements, Ancient Greek religion, Babylonian and other Mesopotamian religions, and mystery cults. It reveres Mani as the final prophet after Zoroaster, the Gautama Buddha and Jesus Christ.
 

dev553344

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Can science challenge the church? Check out the new podcast.
Satan creates lies which are illusions. To say reality is an illusion is a slap in the face to the God of truth.

I think the real question is whether or not people are children of the truth.
 

Ritajanice

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How can scientists find the Spirit of God?

By what means of research? LOL.
 

MA2444

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This is just a modification of Augustine's explanation. Augustine of Hippo is THE only reason you believe that God exists outside of time. The bible doesn't teach it, the Jews never believed it and it didn't exist in Christian dogma prior to Augustine importing the idea from Aristotle and Plato.

Is that where it came from?! I wondered about that. I've never seen it in scripture that God exists outside of time. Lots and lots of pastors are preaching that but the idea is fundamentally flawed.

Maybe God is not subject to man's time, or has total control over it having had created it?

There will be time in Heaven. It might not not go so fast as it does here but if there was no time....how can there be a yesterday a today, or a tomorrow in Heaven? Scripture speaks of these!

And hey, maybe every 6000 years, we get 1000 years off! That's cool!
 

Logikos

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Yep, augustine was a manichean monk which is pagan garbage....and he brought those pagan beliefs with him when he "claimed" to have become a Christian. This was a satanic attempt to water down Christianity with false doctrine and it was very successful in doing so.
This is over stated. Reading Augustine's writings, it's pretty clear that he was a genuine believer in Christ, that Jesus was God in the flesh and that He died for his (Augustine's) sins and that He rose from the dead. It pretty much doesn't matter what else you get wrong with your doctrine if you get that much right.

Manichaeism is a former major world religion, founded in the 3rd century CE by the Parthian prophet Mani (216–274 CE), in the Sasanian Empire.

Manichaeism teaches an elaborate dualistic cosmology describing the struggle between a good, spiritual world of light, and an evil, material world of darkness. Through an ongoing process that takes place in human history, light is gradually removed from the world of matter and returned to the world of light, whence it came.

Mani's teaching was intended to "combine", succeed, and surpass the teachings of Christianity, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Marcionism, Hellenistic and Rabbinic Judaism, Gnostic movements, Ancient Greek religion, Babylonian and other Mesopotamian religions, and mystery cults. It reveres Mani as the final prophet after Zoroaster, the Gautama Buddha and Jesus Christ.
Yes, but you don't get the idea that Augustine was trying to import much, if any, of Manichaenism into the church. It was Plato that Augustine was really into and it was the Classical notions concerning the nature of God, principally the idea that God is immutable and it's derivative doctrines, that virtually the whole of Christianity believes today because of Augustine's influence.
 

Big Boy Johnson

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This is over stated.

No, not for those of us that only accept God's Word as truth... those that are just religious think augustine was a great guy.

Yes, but you don't get the idea that Augustine was trying to import much, if any, of Manichaenism into the church. It was Plato that Augustine was really into and it was the Classical notions concerning the nature of God, principally the idea that God is immutable and it's derivative doctrines, that virtually the whole of Christianity believes today because of Augustine's influence.

And he's one of the primary reasons why there is wide spread false doctrine in the "church" today
 
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Logikos

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Is that where it came from?! I wondered about that. I've never seen it in scripture that God exists outside of time. Lots and lots of pastors are preaching that but the idea is fundamentally flawed.
"Flawed" is probably the mildest possible way to put it!

You'd probably be amazed at the number of doctrines that the bible does not teach and that practically the whole Christian world believes solely because of Augustine's "Confessions"! The bedrock of them all is the doctrine of absolute divine immutability. The entire doctrinal system known today as Calvinism is derived logically from that single premise. That is to say that all of Calvinism's distinctive doctrines are derived from that premise, meaning all of the TULIP doctrines, their particular flavor of predestination and foreknowledge, the doctrine of divine simplicity and impassibility, etc. None of it is biblical. It is entirely derived from pagan Greek philosophy.

Maybe God is not subject to man's time, or has total control over it having had created it?
Where do you read about God creating time? Not in the bible!

Moreover, the idea of creating time is a contradiction.

There will be time in Heaven. It might not not go so fast as it does here but if there was no time....how can there be a yesterday a today, or a tomorrow in Heaven? Scripture speaks of these!
It will go exactly the same speed as it goes here. Your comments communicate a misunderstanding of what time is. Time is not an actual thing, it is an idea. It exists within a thinking mind but it doesn't exist in the same sense as your desk or you yourself do. Time is a convention of language used to communicate information related to the duration and sequence of events relative to other events.

It sometimes helps to communicate what I'm getting at here by pointing out that distance (i.e. space) is similar. It too does not exist except as an concept. Distance is a convention of language that is used to communicate information related to the position and size of objects relative to other objects.

And hey, maybe every 6000 years, we get 1000 years off! That's cool!
A Sabbath millennium!

Well, that is, in effect, what Israel's (i.e. Christ's) reign on Earth will be, right?
 

marks

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Maybe God is not subject to man's time, or has total control over it having had created it?

There will be time in Heaven. It might not not go so fast as it does here but if there was no time....how can there be a yesterday a today, or a tomorrow in Heaven? Scripture speaks of these!
That's how I see it. "Time" is our word signifying sequence and duration.

Much love!
 
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MA2444

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"Flawed" is probably the mildest possible way to put it!

You'd probably be amazed at the number of doctrines that the bible does not teach and that practically the whole Christian world believes solely because of Augustine's "Confessions"! The bedrock of them all is the doctrine of absolute divine immutability. The entire doctrinal system known today as Calvinism is derived logically from that single premise. That is to say that all of Calvinism's distinctive doctrines are derived from that premise, meaning all of the TULIP doctrines, their particular flavor of predestination and foreknowledge, the doctrine of divine simplicity and impassibility, etc. None of it is biblical. It is entirely derived from pagan Greek philosophy.

I think that comes from people who listen to people teach and preach but they don't read for themselves. So they are open to whichever way the wind blows.

Where do you read about God creating time? Not in the bible!

Moreover, the idea of creating time is a contradiction.

True enough it doesnt come out and say God created time. But he create the heavens and the earth and all of our universe. Then Einstein finally figured out that space is expanding at the same rate of time. So it's a fairly reasonable assumption that God cra=reated man's time...?

That could be that even the idea is a contradiction. Genesis 1:1 starts out, ...In the beginning/ God created the heavens and the earth. It depends how you read it I guess.

It will go exactly the same speed as it goes here. Your comments communicate a misunderstanding of what time is. Time is not an actual thing, it is an idea. It exists within a thinking mind but it doesn't exist in the same sense as your desk or you yourself do. Time is a convention of language used to communicate information related to the duration and sequence of events relative to other events.

I'll buy that. That makes sense.

It sometimes helps to communicate what I'm getting at here by pointing out that distance (i.e. space) is similar. It too does not exist except as an concept. Distance is a convention of language that is used to communicate information related to the position and size of objects relative to other objects.

I dunno if I buy this one. Space may just be more than a concept. (Time too!). We know that space is expanding and we know that nothing is infinite. We do have a finite material universe. So that brings to the minds eye a pic of a ballon being blown up...

If the ballon is the universe and is expanding then space is contained and that would take space beyond being a concept into a part of reality that we don't understand yet all about it, lol. But more than a concept.

A Sabbath millennium!

Well, that is, in effect, what Israel's (i.e. Christ's) reign on Earth will be, right?

Yeah!! and every 6000 years after that!. Starting with the Millenium!
Maybe not. We might be still be on earth time for Christ's reign on earth. So I expect I wont be retired anymore and will have to get up and go to work on Monday. (Sunday?)
 

ChristisGod

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I think you have misunderstood the idea of there being a simulation of reality in the temporal world. The only reality that goes on is the eternal reality.

Which reality? Which god?
Truth is reality :) and Christ is the truth. :) His word is truth. :)

What’s your reality ?
 

Logikos

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I think that comes from people who listen to people teach and preach but they don't read for themselves. So they are open to whichever way the wind blows.
Well, that accounts for the average pew sitting Christian but not the pastors and teachers that propagate this stuff. For them it's more complex. It's starts as beliefs that they believe as an adult because that's what they've always been taught to believe and then they go to a school that teaches them a whole system of beliefs after which time they've invested so much time and effort and money into their doctrine that they are entrenched in it. They then go start a church or become a professor and start the cycle with a new generation.

True enough it doesnt come out and say God created time. But he create the heavens and the earth and all of our universe. Then Einstein finally figured out that space is expanding at the same rate of time. So it's a fairly reasonable assumption that God created man's time...?
Einstein figured out that motion effects clocks, not time. His adding time as a fourth dimension is purely mathematical. In fact, Einstein is, more or less, where physics and cosmology turned the corner and began moving away from an experimentally based science to being a mathematically based metaphysics/quasi-religion.

I don't buy into everything on the following website but their opening article is with reading...
Physics' New Suit

That could be that even the idea is a contradiction. Genesis 1:1 starts out, ...In the beginning/ God created the heavens and the earth. It depends how you read it I guess.
It is definitely a contradiction. It helps to define terms as I've already done but it stands reiterating...

As I said in the previous post, time is not a thing, it is an idea. It is the concept that we use to communicate information related to the duration and sequence of events related to other events. Likewise, space too is not a thing, it is an idea. Space is the concept we use to convey information related to the size and position of objects, relative to other objects. These two ideas are basically two sides of the same coin. They are conventions of language and do not exist outside a thinking mind, one used in relation to objects, the other in relation to events.

Existence, the concept itself, presupposes duration. Which is to say that if something exists, it endures. Thus, you cannot engage the concept of existence without tacitly employing the concept of time. Therefore, the idea of timeless existence is self-contradictory. It's an excellent example of a stolen concept fallacy.

(The “stolen concept” fallacy is the fallacy of using a concept while denying the validity of its genetic roots, i.e., of an earlier concept on which it logically depends.)

I'll buy that. That makes sense.

I dunno if I buy this one.
You can't except one and not the other. It's like trying to keep the heads side while discarding the tales side of the same coin. There are important conceptual reasons why the two go together. It isn't any accident that when Einstein took time down the road of relativity that space came along with it. It's because they're the same basic idea being applied in two different ways.

Space may just be more than a concept. (Time too!). We know that space is expanding and we know that nothing is infinite. We do have a finite material universe. So that brings to the minds eye a pic of a ballon being blown up...
Infinite or not, we definitely DO NOT know that space is expanding! In fact, I categorically reject the notion. There is nothing there to expand nor anywhere for it to expand into.

Ever wonder why there is a seemingly endless parade of rescue devises that modern cosmologist need to keep their Big Bang / accelerating expansion of the universe boat afloat? Dark Matter, Dark Energy, et al. Neither of which has ever been detected even after decades of really expensive efforts to find it - efforts that absolutely should have worked if either existed, by the way. The simple fact is that they refuse to allow falsifying evidence to actually falsify anything.

Evidence Against the Big Bang Theory


If the ballon is the universe and is expanding then space is contained and that would take space beyond being a concept into a part of reality that we don't understand yet all about it, lol. But more than a concept.
The concept of expanding space is a contradiction in a similar fashion as is the concept of timeless existence. What is space expanding into? You cannot answer that question without using concepts that only apply inside the space that they claim is expanding. If they claim that space is getting larger, then I ask, "Larger than what?", "Larger? By what standard?" and again, they are left with no way to answer other than to employ concepts that only have meaning inside this universe. When you are FORCED to beg the question in order to defend your worldview, it means that your worldview is false.

Yeah!! and every 6000 years after that!. Starting with the Millenium!
Maybe not. We might be still be on earth time for Christ's reign on earth. So I expect I wont be retired anymore and will have to get up and go to work on Monday. (Sunday?)
I suspect that after the Millennium is concluded and God destroys this universe and creates a new Heaven and a new Earth that He will set up whole new patterns that have entirely different symbolic meanings and that the things of this world will fade into the obscuring mists of time and will no longer come to mind.
 
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Ronald David Bruno

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Y2K

That's all I have to say about Chuck Missedler.

Many were suspicious about Y2K. Because of all the concern, many corporations fixed the problem, invested in new systems, software upgrades, etc. Poorer countries had more problems. The scare was evidently a good precautionary warning.
So if someone sends out an alert of the possibility of a collapse or financial disaster and they get it wrong, I suppose one mistake _ according to you _ nullifies their whole being, intellect and knowledge about all things?
Well, we live in a cancel culture, I guess that is your modus operandi?
 

Mr E

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Many were suspicious about Y2K. Because of all the concern, many corporations fixed the problem, invested in new systems, software upgrades, etc. Poorer countries had more problems. The scare was evidently a good precautionary warning.
So if someone sends out an alert of the possibility of a collapse or financial disaster and they get it wrong, I suppose one mistake _ according to you _ nullifies their whole being, intellect and knowledge about all things?
Well, we live in a cancel culture, I guess that is your modus operandi?

lol..... You brought him up. All I did was shoot him down. Chuck was a false prophet.