"Jesus tells his brother James that though they are both going to die violently, death is not something to be feared," Landau, a lecturer at the UT Austin Department of Religious Studies, told Newsweek over email. "All James needs is to remember the passwords that his brother has taught him, so that he can escape from the clutches of the archons, a set of demonic beings guarding the material world."
Great. I can barely remember my own passwords and now it seems heaven is password-protected. Grrr.
It was never said that Christ married or had children.....something that would definitely have complicated his mission. As he knew that his death was sure to come, he would hardly have left a widow and children behind.
The Messiah who said to dump your family and follow him alone wouldn't leave his family behind?
When he was dying, Jesus gave the care of his mother over to the apostle John.
He didn't care for her at all. He bummed around Galilee while the rest of the kids had to take care of mom.
None of the faithful fear death.
That presents a problem, as Jesus and all his followers and Paul all had this habit of running away from harm or death.
Don't bother telling people to get on the boat when you clearly only built it to house your family?
Matthew 8:29 relates that demons who possessed two men asked Jesus a question.....
"And look! they screamed, saying: “What have we to do with you, Son of God? Did you come here to torment us before the appointed time?”
Jesus didn't invent exorcism, nor did Christianity. They would've said that anyway. Besides, if demons are liars, and they call Jesus Son of God, then ...?
There are many counterfeit religions in the world all sown by God's adversary.
And I came to realize, despite years of trying to avoid the conclusion, that I can't leave Christianity because it never really existed in the first place.
Dr Who....Star Trek....Star Wars....people are fascinated by the idea of extraterrestrials and other worldly creatures. Why do you think that is so?
Because having just ourselves for company is boring.
Per Genesis, we are the maintenance crew.
Is this the life we want? Or is this the life we are forced to live?
The latter. We are all on a raft going downstream. We might be able to change a few details, but we're all on the same raft.
Is there a Creator and if so why is everything so "out of control"?
God doesn't do much? He's like a Sims player who goes off and eats a pizza while the Sims burn the house down.
Do we really have a say in how things turn out?
More than we think we do and less than we think we do.
They have been explored and found to lead nowhere.
Where in the bible does it say all the paths have been explored? Even the paths that hadn't been invented yet?
If you know what the Bible teaches as a whole scenario from Genesis to Revelation, then the rabbit holes become obvious.
But it doesn't. Editors tried to make it seem like it did, but they are different texts by different authors. Just because a library is one building doesn't mean all the books in it are related.
He tells us very clearly what is important to him.
But He can't make up His mind about what impresses Him.
We have a choice to obey him or ignore him.
I'll follow morality to the best of my ability. God can either care about morality or not.
Can you tell me why small scribal errors matter in the big picture?
We need to eat, Grandma.
We need to eat Grandma.
One comma's difference. VERY different meanings.
The final days of human government.
As much as the president gives me nightmares, it could still be worse.
As foretold by Daniel, the kingdom that will be set up by God will crush all human rulership out of existence and replace it.
With what? Where has God shown any desire to govern as we need governing? He can't even be bothered to raise Adam and Eve. All He does is spout off a couple of rules and then doesn't come back until they've screwed up. As the bible progresses, we see less and less of any kind of physical presence from God. It's like He checked out millennia ago.
Prayer was to God through Christ as mediator.
But if I can talk to God, what do I need Jesus for?
Think of all the times God brought calamity (bad times, disaster, adversity, hard times) upon the enemies of his people.
How many of them deserved it? And don't tell me they all did. Maybe if Hebrews didn't "settle" in other people's lands and take their stuff, the Canaanites and others wouldn't have been so agitated?
Evil? I do not believe that the Creator is capable of evil, though he allows the practice of it at present for a good reason.
Negligence?
Oh, no, wait, for Job, it was "for no reason".
Unless you approach God with the right attitude, you will receive nothing.
Sometimes God needs to hear from someone who can keep it real. God can make butt-kissers out of rocks.
Nothing in the Bible makes sense without Jesus.
Jesus ... *sigh*
Most have no idea why he had to come and what his death accomplished.
He has to come back, right? So it accomplished nothing.
The fact that he chose a relative "few" from among mankind to assist Christ in heaven with the rulership he promised under the Messiah as King, doesn't mean that all Christians go to heaven.
I find it strange that Jesus prefers 12 guys who ran away instead of "dying" for him instead of people who live their entire lives devoted to him.
Yes, I believe that God would not want his human creation to be left in the dark about his intentions.
That's what prayer is for, no?
Unfortunately, God's adversary is a master deceiver, trying his best to confuse everyone about God's purpose
The only one with the convenient sense of Truth is God (and Jesus). Satan never lies anywhere he's in the story.
It is very special indeed, but not something every Christian can experience.
Agreed, but does it justify idolatry?
If all Christians went to heaven, then we'd have 'all Chiefs and no Indians'.
Um, I thought God would be the Chief?
