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The disciples acted cowardly as their Christ was savagely crucified before their eyes. They went as far as to deny knowing Him. If he died and remained dead, Christianity would have died with Him. However, he had to have rose again -- the only One ever -- proving Eternal Life. There's no greater proof than the actions of the once cowardly disciples themselves -- after His return and subsequent departure to Heaven -- they preached His word and were themselves executed. They willingly gave their lives to preach His word after he was crucified. This took something more than a little change. Would any of us willingly be executed to defend someones word, without the knowledge of something more?
Revelations could only have been revealed by God. The prophecies, like the crucification of Jesus Christ, is occurring exactly as God stated they would thousands of years ago.
The world around you is your answer. Read revelations and compare to the events that have occurred.
Nearly 72% of all Americans are Christians -- that is one reason the U.S. is not spoken of in the bible. Once the rapture occurs, the U.S. will be militarily and economically devastated -- thus becoming a weaker power. They do not play well in the final chapters of life.
Your freewill allows you to search out the truth or not. I hope you choose to investigate this much more. I believe there is a better place than this, where peace reigns, and family/friends never have to part ways again.
Uh...just about every God figure died and rose again according to their respective mythology stories. Some even did it before Jesus. Not that I believe in any of their stories either.
This doom and gloom stuff sure is taking a long time, don't ya think?
John the Baptist thought he was living in the last days when he wrote Revelation.
Searching for the truth is what got me where I am today.
The disciples acted cowardly as their Christ was savagely crucified before their eyes. They went as far as to deny knowing Him.
Well here is a poser for you then.
(assuming the story is true) These disciples spent 3 years walking with the Christ. They witnessed him raising people from the dead, walking on water, feeding thousands with a small sliced loaf and a sardine, curing the sick, making the blind see and personally witnessing the most astonishing miracles the world had ever seen or have seen since then. Having seen all these things first hand they would have been left in no doubt whatsoever that they were in the presence of a god.
Now, please explain why, when it came to the crunch, these first hand witnesses to these phenomenal events, would deny that Jesus was the Christ? They knew without a shadow of a doubt that he was who he said he was as they had seen him perform miracles with their own eyes. Just why would they deny the Christ after seeing what they had seen? Heck, not even we atheists would be that stupid!!!
Think about yourself now. I'm assuming that you believe 100% even though you haven't seen what the disciples saw. If you were faced with death today for holding your beliefs or offered life to deny Jesus the Christ, what would your choice be? Would you deny him and condemn yourself to Hell or would you willingly die for what you believe to be true, knowing that a better place awaits you?
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If he died and remained dead, Christianity would have died with Him. However, he had to have rose again --the only One ever......
Not so. History is littered with man-gods that are said to have died and then resurrected.
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There's no greater proof than the actions of the once cowardly disciples themselves -- after His return and subsequent departure to Heaven -- they preached His word and were themselves executed.
Only according to your Bible. Unfortunately, neither you nor any other theist has yet managed to show that the Bible is anything other than fiction, fable and fraud.
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They willingly gave their lives to preach His word after he was crucified.
How do you know that they did this? You can't even show that they existed....much less what they did. Existence of a person is primary. What the person did or didn't do is secondary. First provide the evidence that Jesus and these disciples existed. When you've done that, we can go on to discuss what they said or did.
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This took something more than a little change. Would any of us willingly be executed to defend someones word, without the knowledge of something more?
Precisely my earlier point. Why would these men deny what they had seen with their own eyes? That is just pure stupidity on their part.
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The prophecies, like the crucification of Jesus Christ, is occurring exactly as God stated they would thousands of years ago.
Oh dear...not 'fulfilled' prophecy again!!
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I believe there is a better place than this, where peace reigns, and family/friends never have to part ways again.
So why don't you do things that would ensure that you go there as soon as possible? Why do you stop at red traffic lights or wear a seat belt whilst driving. Surely your god will protect you - and if he doesn't well no matter - you believe you are going to a better place. Why do you go to various lengths to protect your life here if you believe that there is somewhere better to go? Are you mindful of danger when you cross the road and if so why? If you die you are going to where you want to be. Do you protect your children from the danger of death and thereby deny them the opportunity to be 'somewhere better'.
The disciples acted cowardly as their Christ was savagely crucified before their eyes. They went as far as to deny knowing Him. If he died and remained dead, Christianity would have died with Him. However, he had to have rose again -- the only One ever -- proving Eternal Life. There's no greater proof than the actions of the once cowardly disciples themselves -- after His return and subsequent departure to Heaven -- they preached His word and were themselves executed. They willingly gave their lives to preach His word after he was crucified. This took something more than a little change. Would any of us willingly be executed to defend someones word, without the knowledge of something more?
Revelations could only have been revealed by God. The prophecies, like the crucification of Jesus Christ, is occurring exactly as God stated they would thousands of years ago.
The world around you is your answer. Read revelations and compare to the events that have occurred.
Nearly 72% of all Americans are Christians -- that is one reason the U.S. is not spoken of in the bible. Once the rapture occurs, the U.S. will be militarily and economically devastated -- thus becoming a weaker power. They do not play well in the final chapters of life.
Your freewill allows you to search out the truth or not. I hope you choose to investigate this much more. I believe there is a better place than this, where peace reigns, and family/friends never have to part ways again.
You're not typing that from within a compound somewhere in Texas, are you?
All the gloom and doom hasn't worked in the west for better than half a millenia. You people have merely been cruising along on religious culture alone.
The gloom and doom only works in third world countries your missionaries have been working so hard on, where education is the lowest.
Niether the doom, nor teh attempted guilt, are working anymore. Time to upgrade to "Buddy Jesus".
No, look, if you are honest with yourself (and I have yet to meet a Christian apologist who was capable of it) that answers nothing. It is just a dismissal of the problem.
The problem being that the synoptics, though plainly being based on the same original text (as distinct from being a from the same 'viewpoint', whatever that's supposed to mean) differ so much in a number of respects (1) that it is clear that the accounts cannot be eyewitness.
That's not even looking at the resurrection account, the most discrepant and contradictory parts of the gospels, and we haven't even mentioned John, who pretty much debunks most of the synoptic galilean material.
So, if you are honest with yourself, you should be open -minded to the evidence that we have a story putting anecdotal flesh on the Christian skeleton of 'Jesus rose from the dead'.
And that came via Paul from the apostles, true, but a reading of Paul shuld make it clear to anyone who is open -minded, inquiring and intellectually honest, that this was a spiritual resurrection, not a bodily one. And it existed only in their own imagination.
So just dismissing the questions with "They are synoptic Gospels" does not only fail to answer the question; it does not even begin to address it.
(!) I love fotnotes
Matthew recording the sinking simon episode which Mark and Luke know nothing of
Luke recording a miraculous haul of fish connected with the 'calling'. Neither Matthew nor mark know of it.
Luke omitting the walking on the water
Matthew and Mark not remembering the two most memorable parables in the corpus - the prodigal son and the good samaritan. Luke's own work.
Nearly 72% of all Americans are Christians -- that is one reason the U.S. is not spoken of in the bible.
Uhh, well you better check with your fundie kin - most delusional "end-times" Christians believe the US is the wicked Babylon/abomination mentioned in Revelation.
(Oh and let's not forget the first rule of Christian statistics - when convenient to the argument at hand 72-80% of the population of the US are Christians - UNTIL they disagree with one another... then those other "Christians" suddenly become apostates and evildoers).
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