Fasting

edited December 1969 in Faith Issues
alot of prostant when they come to the point of fasting even if you tell them everything about fasting such as why we fast and what is the fasting
but they come with these question they ask give me a proof of fasting in the bible the bible didn't mention fasting at all
when we try to tell them Moses fast for 40 days and night then danied saying no he didn't fast he just stay on the mountain that long
would someone help me with this situation ???
they want a proof from the bible about fasting by chapter and verse and i'm not good at that.
waiting to hear from you ;D

Comments

  • Fasting. Why do we fast during certain times of the year?

    “When you fast.” WHEN here means that there is a certain specific time for fasting, exactly as Jesus says, “When the son of Man comes in his glory” Matthew 25:31. So, WHEN means that the coming of Christ is a fact that there is a certain time for it to happen.

    In the Old Testament, God specified certain times for fasting, “Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘The fast of the fourth month, the fast of the fifth, the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth, Shall be joy and gladness and cheerful feasts for the house of Judah. Therefore love truth and peace.’” Zechariah 8:19

    Christ specified certain times for his disciples to fast as well, “But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast those days” Mark 2:20.

    Group fasting has been commanded in the Old Testament several times. See Ezra 8:21, Nehemiah 9:1, Esther 4:3 and 16, and Jonah 3:5.

    Christ himself fasted and explained the importance of fasting saying, “However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting” Matthew 17:21.

    St. Paul also fasted a lot, see 2 Corinthians 11:27. He also says, “ That you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer” 1 Corinthians 7:5.

    Daniel and the three young men fasted and did not allow themselves to eat from the luxury food of the king. Daniel begged the king to allow the to fast saying, “Please test your servants for ten days, and let them give us vegetables to eat and water to drink” Daniel 1:12.

    Those are a few reasons why we fast so give those ideas to your protestant friends and have them digest on those verses for a while.

    Hope that helped
    In his name
  • thank you for ur reply
    but i need more proof from both testement
    who fast
    and tell me how to find it in the bible give me the chapter of this event
    does anyone know about when moses the prophet fast 40 day&nights what chapter that proof him that has fast
    because they don't believe
  • Wow JoyIsGod...
    pretty good references there! :D

    Christ_Lover,
    im not too sure about this exactly, so dont quote me on it....
    But i dont think that the Bible actually says that Moses fasted 40days... because we know for sure he was on the mountain for 40days we assume he fasted because there was no food up there.
    Again, im not sure about this at all....

    Sorry i cant be of any help...

    good luck to you and your friend :)

    take care and God bless
  • Hello chris_lover:

    God created man in His Own Image. What does this mean, it means God created man as a rational being with the power of reasoning" the power of reaching conclusion by careful and sound thinking".

    You might ask what does this has to do with the your topic?

    It does a lot because when the Holy Scripture mentioned that Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights, we drew the conclusion that
    1- Moses did not take food with him!!!
    2- when a person is with God, he does not need to be fed because with God there is no eating or drinking.

    The first commandment in the creation of Adm and Eve is attached with fasting by abstaining from the friut of certain tree.

    I hope that will satisfy your Protestant friend although I doubt that.

    May God bless you
  • CrazyCopt:

    It saddens my heart to have to disagree with you for the first time ever on this forum, lol (But I still love you nonetheless). :-*

    Safaa:

    Excellent point and I will try to make this point a little more clear.

    Okay In Exodus 24:18 it states that, “ So Moses went into the midst of the cloud and went up into the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.”

    In this verse it doesn’t explicitly spell out in plain words that he fasted but if we use common knowledge and rational thinking we can safely assume that if a person is in the presence of God for forty days he wouldn’t need food as nutriment because God would provide that.

    Also Moses went into the midst of the clouds, wouldn’t that create a picture or image that he is no longer bound by earths “rules.” He is in the clouds talking to God, GOD, I am spelling that out GOD, when you’re in the presence of GOD you don’t need food or water. I hope this point is clear.

    Christ_lover:

    Here is the verse that your Protestants friends wanted directly from the bible about where it exactly says that Moses fasted forty days.

    Exodus 34: 27-28 “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Write these words, for according to the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.’ So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights, he neither ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.”

    Here are a few other reasons why we fast if you’re interested:

    By fasting our prayers will be heard and accepted. “So we fasted and entreated our God for this, and he answered our prayers” Ezra 8:23

    By fasting, we gain victory over Satan, “However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting” Matthew 17:21

    By Fasting, God rescues us from all tribulations. Esther fasted with all her people for three days, so God saved them from the wicked plan. See Esther 4:16. Also by fasting God Forgave the people of Nineveh and decided not to destroy the city. See Jonah 3:5.

    Hope that helps
    In his name
  • CrazyCopt:

    It saddens my heart to have to disagree with you for the first time ever on this forum, lol (But I still love you nonetheless). :-*

    Safaa:

    Excellent point and I will try to make this point a little more clear.

    Okay In Exodus 24:18 it states that, “ So Moses went into the midst of the cloud and went up into the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.”

    In this verse it doesn’t explicitly spell out in plain words that he fasted but if we use common knowledge and rational thinking we can safely assume that if a person is in the presence of God for forty days he wouldn’t need food as nutriment because God would provide that.

    Also Moses went into the midst of the clouds, wouldn’t that create a picture or image that he is no longer bound by earths “rules.” He is in the clouds talking to God, GOD, I am spelling that out GOD, when you’re in the presence of GOD you don’t need food or water. I hope this point is clear.

    Christ_lover:

    Here is the verse that your Protestants friends wanted directly from the bible about where it exactly says that Moses fasted forty days.

    Exodus 34: 27-28 “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Write these words, for according to the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.’ So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights, he neither ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.”

    Here are a few other reasons why we fast if you’re interested:

    By fasting our prayers will be heard and accepted. “So we fasted and entreated our God for this, and he answered our prayers” Ezra 8:23

    By fasting, we gain victory over Satan, “However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting” Matthew 17:21

    By Fasting, God rescues us from all tribulations. Esther fasted with all her people for three days, so God saved them from the wicked plan. See Esther 4:16. Also by fasting God Forgave the people of Nineveh and decided not to destroy the city. See Jonah 3:5.

    In his name
  • they ask give me a proof of fasting in the bible the bible didn't mention fasting at all

    This seems to be a trap that Orthodox believers often get themselves into when in dialogue with Protestants – the “show me where in the Bible, and the Bible alone” trap. We are Orthodox, and thus we do not hold onto the false doctrine of sola scripture. Why should we be bound by the terms of the heterodox with regards to the criterion of obtaining sound doctrine, especially when that criterion presupposes a false doctrine in the first place?

    Though many essential verses from the Bible have been brought up thus far by joyisgod, showing clearly and explicitly that fasting was a commandment from God, practiced by the congregations, nations, the apostles, prophets, the Lord Christ Himself, and even regulated by specific time periods; the fact remains, that even if there were none – the practice of fasting is directly grounded in the tradition of the early church, and was practiced by the earliest of Christians, even before the New Testament was compiled into one unified codex (suggesting their influence by oral apostolic tradition). One of the earliest written church traditions can be traced back to Tertullian the Latin Church father of the early second century, who wrote a book titled: “Fasting; in opposition to the montanists” – refuting many of the typical objections to fasting made by the motanists, which are still made till this present day by certain Protestants.

    In any event, I reiterate and emphasise; the only valid argument that can possibly be made from the Bible alone, is if we in fact find any scripture which goes to directly contradict the act of fasting. If there is none (which there certainly isnt, but on the contrary many that promote it), then all the Protestants have is an argument from silence – and hence one not worth considering.

    We are Orthodox, we are a church for whom the Bible was made, and not a church made for the Bible. The church and the Bible are an inseparable, harmonious and complementary unit – don’t allow any Protestant to try and break that harmony by their attempts to draw tension between the church and the Bible through unwarranted objections based on fallacious presuppositions (i.e. sola scripture) and arguments from silence.
  • heya christ_lover
    its ok ive been through it all and worse dont worry you got it easy yes there are very good references above also in the Holy Mass the fraction prayer thats heeps helpful i think all the ones i used to thell them are all above
    dw bout it u got it easy its even harder wen they question u bout every detail bout COC so dw bout it God will be with u and will speak through u they will understand and u will teech them something
    is this some students? or classmates? or teachers orr???

    GBU May God b with u and always stik up 4 wat u believe dw God will get u out of it its His will anyway

    GB ALL
    +FROG+
  • hey JoyisGod....

    you bring up good references there... i probably should have checked before i posted lol... but thanks for pointing that out ;)

    so it's clear that the Bible does actually say that Moses fasted... that's somthing i wont forget :D

    i'm learning alot of things from you guys... maybe i should quit school and keep reading these posts... it's doing me alot better than those chemistry books! lol
    (i'm kidding- be cool stay in school)

    take care and God bless
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