Toto

Jeffrey Gibson:

Malakai151 has not claimed to be an expert, or to offer his expertise as evidence for his interpretation. He made an offhanded comment about "the more you study Christianity." (Not "I" but an indeterminate "you.")

He then asked a question that no one claiming expertise would ask (in that form, in any case.) It looks to me like a request for information, not a hard and fast assertion of any particular position. Instead of providing him with more information, you challenged his first throw-away line.

I suspect that 'M' has not answered your questions because he has you on
"ignore."

aguy2

I would think there is a decent possibility that the 'end times' may have been over for some time now. Could it be possible that 'armageddon' may been fought and won at the dead center mid point of the planet's greatest plain in early July, 1943? WWII can be easily interpreted as a titanic struggle between parochial/paganism expressed by the nazi as flag/state worship and as idolity (the Emperor as God) by the Japanese. IOW is it all over but the shouting, and we are collectively too damn dumb to realize it?
aguy2(amen)

jgibson000

I beg to differ on the significance of the "you".

In any case, I don't know where you get the idea that M never claimed to be an expert on the matters he raised, let alone on what Christians believe and what the NT says. Fer Chrissakes, he offers his services as a lecturer on the rise of Christianity and has presented himself in various speaking engagements as one who can speak authoritatively on, and tells the real truth about, this subject.

But was it a throw-away line?

It's interesting that though M has had both cause and ample opportunity to say something that would clarify this, he has not done so.

And even if his remark was a throw away line, doesn't it still bristle with a confidence that if he were to study Christianity in any sustained and proper way, his claim that Christianity is "messed up" would be confirmed. Are you saying that he doesn't believe that this is true -- that he would not stand behind his claim?

And if he has not studied Christianity in any depth, how does he know, as he claims he does, that perhaps apart from the book of Revelation, that other NT authors as well as Christianity in general (and because of its being "messed up") rejects "The popular secular view ... that the "end times" meant the destruction of the Roman Empire"?

Jeffrey Gibson