Ben C Smith

Yes. Of course.

What I thought was interesting is the statement: He was obviously referring to the contemporary generation.

Ben.

ughaibu

I find it incredibly sad. The Jesus of the Bible was a guy selling a doomsday cult, as trivial a piece of nonsense as one could want, it was past it's sell by date 2000 years ago. When I read the title of some work of ancient Greece, lost because some idiot wanted something to record religious trivia on, I'm heart broken by the shame of being human.

rjf

I've always heard the "I come quickly" explained as "'quickly' is an adverb and should not be understood to refer to a specific time."

As for the rest of it--Tiberius has hit the nail on the head. No matter how twisted it may be, there will always be an explanation for those who want one.

mountainman

The prophecy may appear to be 1900 odd years old to
indeed the entire planet, however the foundational
aspects of this appearance was first published to the
sons of men -- in its complete form, with the purported
"new" and purported "old" books bound together -- during
the rule of Constantine, in the fourth century.

Taking the year 325 CE as the date upon which the new
and the old testaments were proclaimed to contain highly
recommended directions concerning "the fear of god", a
term used by Constantine in summoning attendees to the
council, and a term also used immediately after the council
in a letter edicting the burning of the writings of the academic
Porphyry, and the writings of the "contraversialist" Arius,
and the death penalty for anyone found hiding said writings.

Thus IMO the prophecy this year,
is (2007 - 325) only 1682 years old.

judge

Preterism

haight

We all view things in our own interest with a certain amount of bias,including this post,however one thing is certain,and that is the FACT that Truth IS Truth.
Society can distort the Truth as they like,transforming it into a LIE but under all the LIES the Truth remains unchangeable.

One may ask "Who defines truth without bias?" Well,any definition cannot be without bias but we (Humanity) must draw a line at some point to be able to operate.

I define what is True and False by evidence as far as it's available and common sense when it is not,so why do people believe in Jesus as there is NO evidence for him?*
So if we have no evidence we are left with reason and common sense.Is it reasonable to believe that a man, born of a virgin was the son of god,a god no one has ever scene?If we have never scene god then what reason do we have to believe he has a Son?

Is it rational to believe any of the religious myths? I say it is totally IRRATIONAL and it is driven purely by FEAR.
Christians often say in defense that God is the only explanation for the world,but this is silly because we don't need an explanation for everything,do you know everything?
It is impossible to know everything,even a Christian will admit this yet they offer an explanation for the hardest question to ever exist"How did the universe get here",how is it they can "know" the answer to this yet fail to see the common sense in much more trivial matters?

My point to this is that anyone that believes in God is totally irrational because your taking it on the written word of people you don't know(the apostles etc) and believing it,why would you do this? What motive could you have to abandon all rational to believe in secondhand stories that contradict each other? A substantial amount of these Bible stories are refutable by science.

If it were any other area of your life you would want proof,so why accept God and Heaven so easily on the word of strangers? As stated above,FEAR,Fear of death and fear of nothingness!
God offers a way of avoiding death by offering a fantasy land for eternity,i suppose lies (so long as they are comforting) are more important than Truth to the majority of people.

Religion is a sickness,it paralyzes critical thinking,essentially making the person a complete idiot.I see no other way of viewing Christianity and Jesus as every other avenue i have taken just does not seem plausible,nor possible,in fact it seems quite ridiculous.

I can't offer a 100% correct explanation for religion,but this view seems to be the most rational and plausible from a stand point of having no interest in either outcome.

I really would like people to wake up and think for them selves ,but it will never happen as it is scary to think and know "some" Truths,and even scarier to not know Truths!



*Not just my opinion,the fact is jesus can't be proven in a court of law because no evidence exists.

judge

Not really, who in their right mind would continue to believe in prayer if their prayers were never answered?

And who seeing their prayers and the prayers of others answered would not begin to believe even if they were not sure exactly what God was?

The reality is that many many people find substance to spirituality and some concept of god. This is the fact of the experience of countless people.

haight

Your prayers are answered (appear to be at least,by default, a placebo effect)
by coincidence and the fact that you are praying means you believe it,so of course you will believe they get answered.Fact is,it does not make it the truth because you think its real,its ridiculous.
Substance in lies and fantasy? Oh,please!.

Spirituality is big load of shit for gullible,scared and weak little people!
NEVER will a religious man contribute to the advancement of humanity,rather he will keep us under the thumb of "god" and his contradictory book of law.

Humanity,if it is smart,will mature beyond needing gods some day.....maybe a thousand more years of no return of Jesus will change a few things.

Also,the religious are not qualified to discuss if gods exist or not as they are severely deluded and show heavy bias,and they lie,cheat and contort truths to fit the theory.

These religious people are making decisions that effect all of humanity and yet it is perfectly sane to allow them to have gods....imaginary friends.

If i state Habajaka is the real god and i write an inspired bible and start a church,have thousands of members that believe in Habajaka because he answers their prayers and have a nice little religious community, is Habajaka still real once i declare i made him up entirely?

People will still believe in Habajaka because they WANT to,not because he is real,even though i kick and scream saying i made him up they will believe.
This is clearly insanity!

One thing that always bothered me:If god was real, surely he would write a decent book and make an appearance once in a while.

Clivedurdle

Interesting the response I was brought up on hasn't been mentioned - that it was fulfilled at the day of Pentecost - the Holy Spirit is with us, and therefore the kingdom of heaven is with us.

The Second Coming then becomes a final tidying up exercise.

Which makes me wonder, was a purpose behind the writing of Acts an attempt to tidy up some of these loose threads?

Clivedurdle

Does that not directly link to "It is finished."?