The Bible is an encounter with Christ not a volume of propositional facts or data. It is God's communication to man, if you prefer, it is a Prophet in written form. It is the primary source for safe decision-making. Andrew Jackson the American President said: "That book, sir, is the rock upon which our Republic rests". The Bible will never be superseded by miraculous manifestations. The question is are the people of God now firmly established upon HIS WORD, that they would not yield to the evidence of their senses? Would they, in such a crisis, cling to the Bible and the Bible only or would they discard the written word for anything they see, think or here that is contrary to the written word? All Christian's are called to proclaim the Bible not to perform miracles. They are to proclaim: Behold the Lamb of God not behold the miracle. Greek Philosophy is based on paganism and myths which have became so ingrained into human thinking it has had a tremendous influence on the western world 's philosophy and in particular on orthodox Christian religions. The philosopher Plato gave us dualism that is he believed there were two worlds as follows: 1. The world of Gods', or ideas is the real one. 2. The world of matter or man's world only reflects the real world. He believed there was a great gulf between these two worlds that was so big no one could ever cross it. Consequently, the God of the world (No 1 above) could never reveal himself to ours. There was, in Plato's view, no room whatsoever for divine revelation. The following article shows Plato's arguments for his theory. PLATO'S DUALISM Probably the earliest systematic concept of mind and body stems from the philosophy of the Greek philosopher Plato (429-347 BC). Plato, like Descartes, saw the mind as identical with the soul. However, unlike Descartes, Plato argued that the soul both pre-existed and survived the body, going through a continual process of reincarnation or "transmigration". An important concept to bear in mind when considering Plato's understanding of the soul's relationship to the body is his "theory of forms". According to this view, each thing that exists on earth - or even as an object of language - has a corresponding "form" or perfect idea. So, in the example used by Plato, a simple thing such as a bed would be linked to the perfect idea of a bed that exists independently (which all other beds share). The same thing would also apply to such things as colours, moral values or types of animal. For instance, the thing that all the different shades of red have in common is that they all correspond in some way to the form, or perfect idea, of "red". For Plato, the soul - or mind - obtained knowledge through recollection of these forms. By doing, this the soul was simply returning to the state of knowledge, which it had before birth. Because of this view, Plato's arguments for dualism centre on the relationship between reincarnation and the process of obtaining knowledge through acquaintance with the forms. The Arguments Plato presents 4 main arguments for dualism, which can all be found in the dialogue Phaedo. (i) Coming to be and ceasing to be (The Cyclical Argument). This argument relies on the notion that opposites rely upon one another and in fact lead to one another. In terms of life and death, this leads to the conclusion that, if life leads to death, then death must also lead to life. So, the living come from - or are reincarnations of - the dead, which then die and are born again (and so on). (ii) Knowing is Remembering (The Recollection Argument). The second argument is based on the idea that all knowledge is simply a form of recollection. This is proven by showing that a young, untutored boy, with no knowledge of math's or geometry, can be led to display or "arrive at" knowledge, which he did not know he possessed. How, Plato argues, could he display such knowledge unless he were recollecting it? (iii) The Indestructibility of the Soul (The Affinity Argument). The third argument attempts to prove that the soul - although it may arguably predate birth - also survives death. Since the body is mortal, changing and made up of different parts, the soul - which seems not to be composed of many parts - must therefore also be immortal and unchanging. (iv) The Argument from Opposites. Since death is the opposite of life, and opposites are mutually exclusive, therefore when the body dies, life must go on Quote from Philosophyonline.co.uk Like all great thinkers of his day, Plato reasoned from his own understanding of the material and spiritual world. Because the arguments he postulated seemed logical to the human mind, there were many who agreed with his reasoning. Consequently his ideas took root in human thinking and found the state of the dead argument working its way into Christianity. Had the Bible been freely available and studied by Christian's, the Church would never have accepted Plato's dualism because the Bible clearly states the opposite to his reasoning as follows: "The dead know nothing. And they have no more reward. For the memory of them is forgotten. Also their love, their hatred, and their envy have now perished; nevermore will they have a share in anything done under the sun. Ecclesiastes 9:5,6 "For who can bring him to see what will happen after him?" Ecclesiastes 3:22 "Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the breath will return to God who gave it" Ecclesiastes 12:7 God did not give Adam and Eve an immortal soul. Their immortality was conditional on their obedience. Had God made them immortal, there would have been no need for God to expel the disobedient pair from the Garden of Eden? "Behold the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life and live forever". Genesis 3:22 Of course many other religions do not follow the Christian Bible therefore they are more deeply routed in Plato's philosophy, believing that the dead do not die but go on either to another spiritual life or into another body to be reincarnated as someone or something else. They unwittingly promote the devils major lie to Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:4, where he contradicted God's warning not to eat the fruit of the tree of good and evil, or they would die. There is a war going on for the mind. What we believe is so important because it is a matter of life or death. Human philosophy and reason without divinity is like a ship without a rudder tossed about on a stormy sea. Divine revelation within the Word of God is the rudder that takes us into the peaceful harbour. Truth does not come from philosophical study or intellectual superiority. Truth is knowing who our Saviour is, because He is the Truth, the Way and the Light and nobody can approach the God of heaven excepted by believing Jesus is the Son of God. His words. John 14:6 Amen

Ralph Jackson