are most christians naive or is god completely unfair?

i nearly pissed myself laughing!

Next time the the rain falls, and the food
grows, tell me that my Mother has no voice.

 

so more pepole can come to him(I gess thats the logic) otherwise we would be stuck in the world of $$$$$ and fuirtless things. I gess that is the logic behind that belif

 

The reason we preach is because God instructed us to do so. Often people who are seeking God try everything but God. Sometimes they donot even understanding it is God they are really looking for. Christians are here to point the way to Christ. God has given Christians the opportunity to be part of His plan, and we count it a honor to be a small part of it. The reason many will find God, is because God has factored in the Christian witiness. It would be a mistake to walk away from God's Great Commission. We are, exactly where Christ wants us.

 

Well your mother does not know the future, but the God of the Bible does. And the God of the Bible has revealed Himself in His prophecies of truth. Your mother
is but a belief that is built on traditions of men, which offers know proof of her existance other than your tradition. Blind faith, is the worst kind of religion.

 

Jesus was just a shining example of the potenential which mans relationship with GOD can bring. There were good people before Jesus, be it that being a good person was possible. So being a good person never left the earth. Jesus just reassured that it is possible to be perfect.

 

This coming from a christian?

Last time I checked, my Mother was all around me.

Your god is a mere tribal deity with a good publicist,
my Mother is the world. Argue that my tribal gods
arent real, you might have a case, but to argue
that the Mother doesnt exist, but your all powerful,
omni-present tyrant does? Thats blind faith man.

Though she didnt get a book deal, I can see my Goddess, lets see your god.

 

Heron, I don't agree with everything you say, but I like your style

To whoever said that within about a lieftime after jesus everyone heard about him, well, that's moronic. Yeah, the populations were smaller, but the "earth was smaller" isn't true. It was far, far bigger. Communications took days and weeks. It took asians hundreds of years to hear anything about the Gospels, and even then it was a tiny little inroad that didn't last. Marco Polo encountered a population that had never heard of jesus. Plus, in your post, you said it just had to spread to Asia. Way to leave out the whole continent of Africa, most of which did not get the Gospels also for hundreds of years at least.

Anyways, I'm basically in agreement with Tiki. There is but one supreme reality (aka "god"), but there are as many ideas about what this god is as there are cultures (or really, people. everyone has a unique perspective). To be told that there is only one way to god (that is, by believing in one story of one guy from 2000 years ago) is ridiculous. There is no monopoly on god. As a Hindu saying goes, "truth is one, paths are many." Or as the Sufis (muslim mystics) say, "the paths to god are as numerous as the breaths of humankind"

 

I feel the same about you man. People have differences, but its respect
for their differences that is important. I dont like it when people speak
with full authority, and mockery, like tiki did, so i quickly take the defensive.

But the way you present your idea of the one god many paths is more
respectable. So i have no reason to oppose you.

Plus you just seem to have knowledge of what you speak, that too is important.

 

I thought Δ was Delta. I could be wrong, probably am

Why would anyone?

God isn't a name, it's a title.

 

This is the third time I've posted this, no previous comments. Possibilities: it's gotten lost in the shuffle, it's too trivial to comment on, or no one wants to venture a comment (somehow, I doubt this last possibility).

If someone has commented, please direct me to the post.

JDFU, Erise, Campbell, please comment if you wish. I'm not going to use your answer to start an argument.

In Luke Ch. 21, Jesus describes the signs of the coming end of time, and finishes with Verse 32: "Verily, I say unto you, this generation shall not pass away, until all be fulfilled".

Jesus specifically describes observable phenomena, and then states that it will all happen within the lifespans of those to whom he is speaking.

In Luke Ch. 17, Verses 20 and 21, Jesus had previously stated: "...The Kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here!, or Lo there!, for, behold, the Kingdom of God is within you."

He dismisses those who would predict his second coming and states that the Kingdom of God is an inner and individual matter.

In Matthew Ch. 24, Verse 14, Jesus states that the end will come only after the gospel is preached to the entire world.

2000 years ago, from a Rome-centered point of view, the known world extended West to the British Isles, North to barbarian lands in central and northern Europe, South to North Africa and Egypt, and East perhaps to Western India.

The concusion that I draw is that Jesus directly predicted that the end of the world would come in his time of history, after the gospel had been preached to the known world. He also cautioned against listening to those who purport to know when these events would happen.

I'm definitely no Bible expert, but I do recall reading that most of the books of the New Testament had been written by 50 to 100 years after the death of Jesus. There is no direct connection that I've read of between Jesus and the actual writing of Revelation. I have read in general reference that it was written by the Apostle John or more possibly his followers, around 80 A.D., as a series of letters of encouragement for the early followers of Jesus during a period of intense persecution in Rome.

 

Erise you were correct.

Alpha is A

Delta is the triangle (sorry, dont know the key code)

 

I believe the first verses you quoted are for the end of the world, the second verses are about how things are going to be in the NT, and where God can be found during that time.

I don't really believe jesus was just referring to the Rome-centered world. Saying the entire world and not just portion of it, he meant the whole thing

Edit) wait, you say Matthew 24:24, I looked that up and got this:

24For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.

Nothing about gospel being preached to the whole world.

This one, I have heard various things about. Some say the books were written during Jesus's life, some say after his death, some say 400 years later, many people say different things. It makes more sense to me that they were all just written around the time of Jesus's life.

John the Evangelist himself was an apostle of Jesus, who lived and saw Jesus while He was on earth. Supposedly the revelations came to him when he was filled with the Holy Spirit (in the Spirit, he says) as a list of prophecies and things that would happen before the end of the world. Some say they were letters of encouragement, possibly that could be a side effect of the book being written, but I believe the book was beyond that.

 

Campbell perhaps you could more accurately answer spook13's questions, you know a lot more than I do regarding biblical matters

 

Thanks for the reply...Matt. 24:24 a typo on my part....should be 24:14...I changed it.

Edit: A reply by Campbell or JDFU would be most welcome as well.

 

I reject god, yes. I also reject going to hell, but god sends me there/made the rules that send me there. God is thus responsible for sending people to hell.

I understand the concept just fine, I am challenging it. Challenging something doesn't = lack of understanding.

Also, your last sentence added nothing to your post.

GOD SENDS US TO HELL.

 

Hell means ignorance, staying in the dark when it comes to truth ('the light'). God is light and if you dont know light, youre in the dark. Its that simple. Its not a matter of sending you there, its your choice to neglect truth and stay ignorant.

 

Well, I was always under the impression that the christian hell was fire and brimstone, not a mental state. This is the hell that I'm arguing about.

What you suggest is that hell is the same as my life is now, in the dark without god. If that is the case, I am quite happy to live in hell.

 

I was always under the impression that thats not supposed to be taken literally.

 

Right

 

I couldn't agree more....we are all stuck in this dark illusion of life with the idea that we are somebody; we are somebody with wants and desires that keep us stuck thinking that we are somebody....but taking a step back quantum physics tells us that this reality is nothing but a large blanket of energy that exists at different frequencies that our senses can interpret as being matter

when we recognise and admit this we are accepting that we are the light...but as long as we are denying this we are in the dark

in the words of swami muktananda: ' why do we humans experience imperfection, why do we feel broken and scattered, why do we keep crying out and weeping? the reason is our forgetfulness of our own real nature. although illusory, this self-forgetfulness is very powerful. it has been called ignorance, nescience, maya, or impurity; it is this ignorance which reduces the universal soul to an individual soul, the free to the bound. creating the notion of 'I, me, mine,' it takes you into the painful world of dualities and gives rise to many sufferings. the only way to escape is to realise god, to have the vision of the Self"