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Except Jesus didn't come to earth to make people prosperous.
The comment that I responded to had to do with churches that have adapted to modern man that are successful.
Frankly, I'm not sure that we know what Jesus taught. The books of the bible were written way after he died and then copied over and over. What we call the Bible are later copies of those books. It was the Catholic church that made the decision to combine certain books to become our Bible. Who knows what early books are in the Vatican library? Maybe some were written while Christ actually lived but were considered inconsistent with the rest of the books. Maybe that was the real teaching. Maybe there are elements not found in what we have as the Bible that the Catholics got right, maybe not.
All I know is that the vast majority of us would rather be rich than poor. Christ, himself, often availed himself of the hospitality of those with more wealth than he. I believe there is justice in the universe and that we are not born into the families and situations that we are in a happenstance manner.
If you want to make a case that the Jesus, as presented to us in the Bible, promoted socialism I would agree. Eliminate wealth inequity. Give what you have and what you'll work for in the future to the poor who perhaps were not born as smart or industrious or are hindered in other ways from making a good life for themselves. I think that's what the Jesus as He's presented to us in the Bible actually tells us to do.
This is fine. I think we, most of us, would agree with that. The problem is that you are not your brother. He may work harder than you. He may postpone having a family and go to school and change jobs in order to make more money. He may save more than you and study investing and put his money to work. You, on the other hand, - well, you get the idea.
So, although the main concern of a church is to bring each soul closer to his Creator, they do not have to accept the dogma and myth that comes along with most religions. People need not feel guilty about being happy and having abundance in their lives - and for the rest of us, these are worthy, positive, goals.
Just wondering, goldengrain, do you hold the writings of ancient Greek philosophers,
the Old Testament, Talmud, and all ancient historical writings to the same standard ?
What about all those foolish mythos that anti-Christians keep throwing around as
"forebearers" of Christ (absolute debunked hogwash), most of those "embellishments" of
ancient mythos and "mystery" religions didn't even surface until the 19th century when anti-Christian authors began adding their own unsupported lies to these.
Consider. What about verbal history, tradition accounts throughout history where the spoken word was written hundreds of years later ? All b.s. ?
Or was interpreted/translated eons later by linguists who had no exposure to the cuneiform
or hieroglyphics, or sanskrit ?
How about all the persecution Christians had to endure, for example the loss of Matthew's
original Hebrew text. Just wondering if you hold all documents to the same standard,
because if that's what "history" consisted of, there wouldn't be much out there at all.
Caesar-written 100-44 B.C. Earliest copy- 900 A.D. Time span-1,000 yrs, number of manuscripts- 10 Plato-written 427-347 B.C .Earliest copy- 900 A.D. Time span-1,200 yrs, number of manuscripts- 7 Thucydides-written 460-400 B.C. Earliest copy-900 A.D. Time span-1,300 yrs, number of manuscripts- 8 Tacitus-written 100 A.D. Earliest copy- 1100 A.D. Time span-1,000 yrs, number of manuscripts- 20 Suetonius-written 75-160 A.D. Earliest copy- 950 A.D. Time span-800 yrs, Number of manuscripts- 8 Homer (Iliad)-written 900 B.C .Earliest copy-400 B.C. Time span-500 yrs, number of manuscripts- 643 New Testament-written 40-100 A.D. Earliest copy in full-125 A.D. Part of gospel of John dates 90 A.D. Time span-25-50 yrs, number of manuscripts- 24,000 (don't forget the Didache also, which was written in the first century).
Just wondering, goldengrain, do you hold the writings of ancient Greek philosophers,
the Old Testament, Talmud, and all ancient historical writings to the same standard ?
What about all those foolish mythos that anti-Christians keep throwing around as
"forebearers" of Christ (absolute debunked hogwash), most of those "embellishments" of
ancient mythos and "mystery" religions didn't even surface until the 19th century when anti-Christian authors began adding their own unsupported lies to these.
Consider. What about verbal history, tradition accounts throughout history where the spoken word was written hundreds of years later ? All b.s. ?
Or was interpreted/translated eons later by linguists who had no exposure to the cuneiform
or hieroglyphics, or sanskrit ?
How about all the persecution Christians had to endure, for example the loss of Matthew's
original Hebrew text. Just wondering if you hold all documents to the same standard,
because if that's what "history" consisted of, there wouldn't be much out there at all.
Caesar-written 100-44 B.C. Earliest copy- 900 A.D. Time span-1,000 yrs, number of manuscripts- 10 Plato-written 427-347 B.C .Earliest copy- 900 A.D. Time span-1,200 yrs, number of manuscripts- 7 Thucydides-written 460-400 B.C. Earliest copy-900 A.D. Time span-1,300 yrs, number of manuscripts- 8 Tacitus-written 100 A.D. Earliest copy- 1100 A.D. Time span-1,000 yrs, number of manuscripts- 20 Suetonius-written 75-160 A.D. Earliest copy- 950 A.D. Time span-800 yrs, Number of manuscripts- 8 Homer (Iliad)-written 900 B.C .Earliest copy-400 B.C. Time span-500 yrs, number of manuscripts- 643 New Testament-written 40-100 A.D. Earliest copy in full-125 A.D. Part of gospel of John dates 90 A.D. Time span-25-50 yrs, number of manuscripts- 24,000 (don't forget the Didache also, which was written in the first century).
Of course. Every document that contains information that men are expected to live their lives by needs to be examined and criticized and torn apart and tested. People should not be asked to not question. Following blindly is the real sacrilege in my opinion. The Bible should be treated as any other philosophy. That does not disprove the existence of a God or an afterlife, but gives us a surer compass with which to steer our lives.
I am not even a christian but I like this pop. He makes a lot of sense. Good job! Keep it up!!
I think this pop is a good marketing choice and is doing the right thing to bring more revenue in. Keep it up!
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