Magus55

Whats there to give up? Jesus tells the truth, you just call him a liar. Stars most likely refers to asteroids or meteors, not interstellar stars that are bigger than than our Solar System. Although God could very easily cause Neutron or White dwarf stars to crash into Earth.

I'm well aware the moon reflects light, as were the Biblical authors.

Here is a prophecy of the end times:

Isa 13:10 For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.


And here it is happening in Revelation:

Rev 6:12 And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;

Tell me Mark, what happens to the light being reflected from the moon when the sun goes dark and moon becomes as dark as blood?

Magus55

What do you mean where are these bodies located at? Dead corpses, ressurected from the grave. God transforms them into perfection and immortal, just like He did to Jesus as His transfiguration in Mat 17.

trillian

Wow...so for all the dead people who were burned (maybe even by evil Romans) and left out for animals to eat their flesh, God goes around collecting every particle of their old bodies that vultures flew away with thousands of years ago and pooped out somewhere into the fossil record? What about persons who died at sea and ended up in the bellies of hundreds or thousands of fish? Magus, some of their old atoms could be in your body right now!!

Sorry DMB, couldn't resist this one.

trillian

Demigawd

If you spent the time you do quoting mythology to impress us heathens with how powerful your diety's juju is on instead learning about astronomy, physics, chemistry, and the like, then maybe, just maybe, you'd realize how ludicrous your statements are.

Shall I tell you how the forces of Hel and Jotuns will overcome the gods at Ragnarok, and the world shall both freeze and burn, and from the remains shall a new earth and a new group humans be born? Sounds just as groovy to me as Revelations.

mark9950

Than you said this

You cant have it both ways.

This may happen in probably one billion years or so when the sun burns itself out,but we both will be dead.

Rational BAC

The early Christians may have been illiterate, but I doubt they were stupid. When it became obvious that "this generation" WAS dying out with no 2nd coming in sight, I think there should have been a massive exodus from Christianity late in the 1st century or definitely early in the 2nd. ---------if that passage and others like it had ever been taken literally.

I doubt that there was any "conspiracy" by Bishops to withhold "possibly embarrassing" portions of the Gospels from the masses in the 1st century. What would have been the point unless those early Christian leaders were complete frauds? Possible of course, but I think unlikely.

I am sure that kind of withholding of info from the masses did happen much later in history when Christianity was much better organized and there were political and bureacratic influences..

But we are talking about the 1st century. Small groups of Christians spreading "the Word" by word of mouth with the help of a few literate church leaders. But mostly just an oral tradition. That part would not have been left out or glossed over. What would have been the point before "that generation" did actually pass away?

I think it is most logical to assume that "this generation shall not pass away" was NEVER taken literally from the very beginnings of Christianity. And that was generally understood by just about everybody for the 1st 3 centuries.

And that is why--during the various Councils in the 4th century that quote was left in the Canon.-------------when it would have been SOO easy to just pitch it out (along with all the other stuff that was pitched out) as an embarassing piece of "non-divine" and therefore not-to-be-recognized scripture.

Who would have noticed in the 4th century? Who would have cared all that much with so much of the scripture pitched out at that time? --------- Biff's problem solved. And that would have been the perfect time to get sneaky about it, if you were ever going to.

That was not done. It was left in the Gospels. And the only reason I can think that it was not done was that NOBODY from the very beginnings of Christianity EVER took it literally. And nobody does today---except for atheists of course.

winstonjen

My guess is that they were stupid back then, and they thought that 'this generation' referred to the generation reading the text.

Magus55

For such stupid people, they certaintly wrote the most poetic, complex and influential book on the planet in harmony with over 40 authors over a span of 1500-2000 years. Shakespeare can't even come close to the Bible.

You know, I keep reading Matt 24, and It makes sense to me. Its like Jesus is sitting there with the Apostles, while they are writing down His words, telling them a story of whats to come in the future, so that the generation that sees the signs He describes, won't have to fear - for they know Jesus will return during their lives because the Apostles wrote down what Jesus told them.


And whats really odd here, is for people who think the Bible is such a joke, and Jesus and God are all fake, you certaintly beat arguments into the ground. Why not just move on, since you know for a fact you're right? Who are you trying to convince? Certaintly not the Christians since we can understand what it means. So whats the point? You don't even believe Jesus existed, yet you are bickering over what He supposedly said?

Demigawd

Uh, Magus55, have you ever been in the business of keeping knowledge, as in literature academia and subsequent libraries? Our ancients weren't morons by any stretch of imagination, but their scope was miniscule compared to modern-day humanity's total scholarship.

Shakespeare's genius over biblical storytelling is his characters spoke for themselves. Beyond contemporary political allegiance, there is no narrator dictating absolute morality.

To quote Merlin, "Good and evil. There never is one without the other." Prosperity versus loss, within some imaginary control via deity worship, is the false binary imagined by theists.

winstonjen

Well, according to you, they just dictated what they were told. Any moron can do that, so it has no bearing on their intelligence.

And no, it's not harmonious, or we wouldn't get several thousand denominations all claiming to be correct.

It only makes sense because you make up things that aren't there so that is matches with your conclusions.

We want to promote free thought and the search for truth, not blind allegiance to dogma.