arnoldo

More examples of "apologetics. . ."

Sheshbazzar

Once it has been suggested, and comprehended, it works great on those who are prone to paranoid delusions. They spend the rest of their lives casting quick glances over their shoulders, and furtively peering about to see if they can see that they are being watched by these Watchers.

It is a bit of an act of cruelty to even let this interpretation 'out of the bag' around serious Fundamentalist's, because taken seriously, it serves to keep genuine believers permanently scared shitless.
Actually it is is only another variation on, and an ancillary to the ancient religious concept of the gigantic 'EYE in The Sky' surveillance that constantly watches and scrutinizes the tiny little believers every move, night and day;

YOU ARE BEING WATCHED THIS MINUTE, AND THERE ARE WITNESSES AGAINST YOU!
THEREFORE FEAR! and TREMBLE! BEFORE THE WRATH OF YOUR MIGHTY GOD!

Works great for keeping all the little peons down and in their proper places, on their knees, or on their faces, guiltily groveling before an intercessory priesthood whose job it is is to protect them from that boogeyman God that they fear. (and as always, brain-fuck, fleece, and extort them for as much as they can)

Hey Harry, it played well in ancient Babylon, in Egypt, and Israel, etc.etc.
No wonder it still plays well in Peoria. The right 'audiences' are still inclined to suck it up.


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HarryStine

I guess I'm just not that much of a regular. Still, I would have expected to hear about it among the Catholic community I grew up in. People went to great lengths to explain the Trinity, Jesus' dual nature, and how the Bible does not really mention Jesus having brothers. They weren't shy to address seemingly damning arguments, they would bring them up by themselves all the time. This thing, however, never came up, and it was one of my biggest concerns.

Jesus had a strange habit of always saying things in a way that his followers were guaranteed to misinterpret. At least with the parables people knew that they didn't understand.

aa5874

But, in gMark story, Jesus told the Sanhedrin directly that they will see him coming in the clouds of heaven.

Mark 14.61-62 And in the gMark story, Jesus told the disciples when the Son of Man will be coming in the clouds.

The Son of Man will be coming in the clouds AFTER the Fall of the Temple and the destruction of Jerusalem.

Mark 13:24-27 - So, essentially, Jesus, the Son of Man predicted in the gMark story that the Sanhedrin will see him sometime AFTER the Fall of the Temple and the destruction of the Jerusalem which COINCIDES with the very FIRST assumed writing of the Jesus story.

It will be noticed that none of the SUPPOSED predictions of Jesus has come to pass except the Fall of the Temple and the destruction of Jerusalem that is SIMPLY because the very FIRST Jesus story was written AFTER the Fall of the Temple when SOME of those who were supposedly in the Generation of Jesus were still STANDING.

It was the AUTHOR himself who thought the Son of Man would be coming in HIS OWN GENERATION and wrote a STORY to warn people to REPENT for the kingdom of heaven was at hand.

It would seem that the AUTHOR of the FIRST Jesus story was TERRIFIED by Hebrew Scripture and thought they were the ACTUAL words of God and would REALLY come to pass in HIS/HER OWN TIME.

These are some of the TERRIFYING words of Isaiah.

Isaiah 13.9-11.
And Joel 2.30-32 Even if the FIRST Jesus Son of Man story was written AFTER the Fall of the TEMPLE then it could STILL be in the so-called Son of Man's generation.

sugarhitman

Hi, my fellow Georgian. This is a rather easy task here. Did you notice the word til (until)? That means that some of the believers would die after Christ returns...But wait, thats a contradiction as the Gospels says believers will not die when He returns and certainly not afterwards. So what does it really means? The Apostles were the only ones standing there. Later on we find the meaning of this scripture such as in the book of Revelation where John saw the Return of Christ and dies afterwards.


Some would see his return in visions and die afterwards. What is a prophetic vision? It is Revelation of an imminent event given in advance.


They saw...and died afterwards.

dog-on

So what do you do with the "has come" bit?

show_no_mercy

There were Christians back in pseudo-Paul's day that thought it already happened:

sassafras

Many historians argue that Christians grew out of an apocalyptic sect of Judaism that thought the end of the word was imminent.

When it didn't happen, Christians started to organize and build hierarchy and reinterpret their scriptures.

Godwithus

The has come is in the context of seeing it in a vision. I agree with Sugar, no Christian is to die after the coming of Christ, so that automatically means Jesus is referring to something else here. The word until shows that they are to die after they witness this event which is a huge contradiction in the Gospel context. Some of the Apostles did indeed see this in prophetic visions..and died later, just as Jesus said.



How critics have missed the word "until" in there is beyond me.

aa5874

Something is very wrong here.

You say a "prophetic vision" is a Revelation of an IMMINENT event given in advance.

What imminent event did John see?

It is now 2000 years.