Another Denier Wakes up and smells the coffee,,

I like the obfuscation. Perhaps since it is just a few of us that are following it that might work.

 

Religion is the biggest bunch of Bullcrap ever! Man created God! The more you believe the more you suffer from mental illness! JMHO.

 

Here is a site that may help!

Evil Bible Home Page

 

Where you been man? Haven't heard from you for a while.

Well at least you are in good company on this site.

 

A religion forum called "Freds House of the Lord"

 

Abbreviated to FHOL, and pronounced 'fool'?

 

All that Old Testament nastiness is why the Marcionites believed that there were two gods: An evil god who created the material world, who is the god of the O.T., and a good god who sent Jesus to "save" us.

I have always said that the god described in the O.T. and the god described in the N.Y. could not possibly be the same guy. Imagine my surprise when I learned that a large sect of early Christians said exactly the same thing.

According to the Marcionites, Jesus was pure spirit, and only pretended to die on the cross, actually laughing at the Romans who thought they were crucifying him.

The study of early Christianities is fascinating; all the different sects each with its own theology. Some believed that Jesus was not god at all, but rather a human adopted by god; some, like the Marcionites, believed he was not a human at all, but was pure spirit; some believed there was just one god, some believed in the three-in-one god of the trinity; some believed there were 365 gods and Jesus didn't come here to die, but rather came here to impart secret knowledge which would "save" those who understood it. In the end, the trinitarian Paulists won out, mostly by killing off all the others, but also by buying off many of them. During the period of the Roman persecutions, more Christians were killed by other Christians than were killed by the Romans.

 

And I turned to sexual deviation, works for me for a full interesting life!
I'll keep my phone on incase "god" calls. I hope he leaves a voice message if I'm in a meeting.

 

I've always felt the same way. The god of the O.T is a homicidal nutter, desperate to be both loved and feared (which really makes no sense) who's only solution to any problem seems to be death and violence.

Even ole JC had his rather violent moments... The fig tree is the classic one (Bertrand Russel pointed the strangeness of that story in an Essay title "Why I am not a Christian" many years ago).

Mind you, I think JC did some good. He brought Eastern ideas west to an area that desperately need that sort of thing. We'll never really know though, because he's had a LOT of words put in his mouth since the time of his death. It would be quite interesting to see his reaction to what the world's made of him over the past 2 millennia.

 

It is not surprising that the most evangelical and blood-thirsty sect was triumphant. The irony is listening to them try to sell themselves as loving and benign.

 

Same nutter(s) in the N.T., but with a PR department to 'clarify' statements and project the right kind of image.

 

I've always kind of liked Jesus. He was as loony as a jaybird, as the fig tree episode that you mention makes clear, but basically he was a cool dude. He paled around with all the sort of folks that his 21st-century believers hate, he stood up for adulterers, he excoriated people who had money (which includes most of the people who claim to believe in him today) saying they'd never make it into his "kingdom," and he stood up for the poor.

Don't get me wrong: I don't "believe" in him, and I don't live by his teachings, but I kind of like him. Of course, as you point out, it's hard to tease out the real Jesus from the Jesus of the Bible. But anybody who will answer "Should we pay our taxes?" by in effect telling peple to shove Caesar's money up Caesar's nice person, is okay in my book.

 

Well when He comes again, that ought to get you in.

 

1. He outsourced them to different nations.

2. The NT incorporated the results of many focus groups in an attempt to make the product appeal to a wider demographic. The tactic was wildly successful

 

i think each will be judged righteously. it's not black and white, there are different levels of rewards and punishment. read the rich man and lazarus. interesting tale. with a surprise ending.

 

who is this third guy?

 

your last line sounds a bit like God during noah's time. the entire bible is about God trying to get people to see what he originally intended for them. but most reject him time after time. the Christians you speak of are the ones you see in the media. not the ones grinding it out every day trying to live up to the standard.

 

i used to think that too. but as you study it, you see that the ot leads up to the nt and the nt is the prelude to the climax of God's plan.

 

No way Icarus, it is an awesome question. Basically it boils down to two different time periods. Pre-Jesus and Jesus. Notice that I did not mention post-Jesus.