Merged Topic - Historical Reliability of the Gospels

[LittleNipper]

That's because biblical "explanations" don't actually explain anything.  You need evidence, not fairy tales.  And you're still not answering any of my questions.  You have no interest in informed debate -- I assume you typed 'cession' in error, but it's appropriate for what you're doing, which is simply stopping engaging, standing in one place, and yelling in complete and blissful and willful ignorance.

You came to us.  We didn't ask you here.  If you genuinely believed that just waltzing in here and telling us 'the bible says so' would convert us all, you're more delusional than most believers.

Perhaps you could provide a specific instance?

[josephpalazzo]

LittleNipper has changed his position:

Before: the bible has many interpretations, but it's inerrant.

Now:  biblical "explanations" don't actually explain anything

[widdershins]

LittleNipper has changed his position:

Before: the bible has many interpretations, but it's inerrant.

Now:  biblical "explanations" don't actually explain anything

One has to change one's position on a rather regular, circumstance-dependent basis when one holds so many conflicting and mutually exclusive beliefs.

[trdsf]

Perhaps you could provide a specific instance?

No.  You don't get to keep dodging the questions already put to you.  I have several outstanding that you've ignored because I am confident that you don't have any answer other than because you say your book says so.  If you want to debate, you need to tackle what's already on the ground.

Now you're just adding cowardice to ignorance.  You know what questions I've already put.  Answer them.

[LittleNipper]

No.  You don't get to keep dodging the questions already put to you.  I have several outstanding that you've ignored because I am confident that you don't have any answer other than because you say your book says so.  If you want to debate, you need to tackle what's already on the ground.

Now you're just adding cowardice to ignorance.  You know what questions I've already put.  Answer them.

The prophecies of the Bible are fulfilled. There is nothing wrong with the Bible. The coward is the one who rejects absolutes for personal desires.

[Blackleaf]

The prophecies of the Bible are fulfilled. There is nothing wrong with the Bible. The coward is the one who rejects absolutes for personal desires.

I opened a fortune cookie that said, "Something good will happen to you this week." Then I got a raise. Hallelujah! All praise the prophetic power of the fortune cookie! Fortune cookie, share with me your profound, and limitless wisdom for next week!

"Patience is bitter, but it's fruit is sweet."

The furtune cookie has spoken!

[Sargon The Grape]

The prophecies of the Bible are fulfilled.

Evidence, please. Preferably of the extra-biblical kind.

[widdershins]

The prophecies of the Bible are fulfilled. There is nothing wrong with the Bible. The coward is the one who rejects absolutes for personal desires.

The fool is the one who imagines absolutes for personal desires.

[leo]

The prophecies of the Bible are fulfilled. There is nothing wrong with the Bible. The coward is the one who rejects absolutes for personal desires.

Nothing is fulfilled . Jesus isn't the messiah.

[LittleNipper]

                                                                                                                                                    Nothing is fulfilled . Jesus isn't the messiah.

Jesus is the Messiah! He isn't through as of yet.

[Mike Cl]

Jesus is the Messiah! He isn't through as of yet.

And neither is Pecos Bill!!!

[Sargon The Grape]

Jesus is the Messiah! He isn't through as of yet.

Saying it repeatedly doesn't make it so.

[Hydra009]

Jesus is the Messiah! He isn't through as of yet.

Oh give it a rest already!  Just from a literary perspective, the character is done.  When you have a guy say "It is finished" in his big death scene, you can't have him come back in the sequel.  This isn't the Lord of the Rings trilogy.  All onscreen deaths are final.  Besides, the Word of God says he's in heaven.

[ApostateLois]

Back when I was a Christian, I used to believe that the biblical prophecies had been, or were being, fulfilled. I was really fascinated with prophecy for awhile and read everything I could about it. It didn't take me long to realize that every Christian writer, pastor, and evangelist had a different idea of what the prophecies were all about, as well as when (at least approximately, often precisely) they were to come true. Some claimed to have had scary visions about the coming end times, and proclaimed themselves the receptors of special divine knowledge on the subject.

A very famous example of this is "The Late, Great Planet Earth," by Hal Lindsey. He predicted the return of Jesus in the early 1980s, if I'm not mistaken. That book is long out of print, but you can still buy used copies here and there. And the guy STILL has a big following! His prophecies failed, yet not one Christian has called for him to be stoned or burned at the stake or covered in jam and then tied to a fire-ant nest, or whatever the bible says to do with false prophets.

And speaking of that, Jesus, himself, should be labeled a false prophet. He promised to return within the lifetime of his disciples, and here we are, more than 2000 years later, and his modern disciples are still looking for him like little lost puppies. When I took a good look at biblical predictions, I realized that the reason nobody agreed on them was because they were so vague. None of them offer any specific dates, times, names, or facts which we could use to nail down even the roughest time frame for the events they allegedly predict. And the events they don't even mention, such as mass transportation, worldwide communication, and space travel, are more significant than the vaguely ominous pipe-dreams of multiple-headed monsters with crowns. How could an all-knowing deity NOT know about the Internet, one of the most important tools humans have ever invented?

No Bible prophecies have been, or ever will be, fulfilled because they don't predict anything. Christians will, however, go on expecting fulfillment for as long as their religion exists, never bothering to look back over the last couple thousand years of failed predictions. They don't want to know about that. It would force them to ask too many questions that are even scarier than the monsters that the priests have put into their dreams.

[AllRight]

And speaking of that, Jesus, himself, should be labeled a false prophet. He promised to return within the lifetime of his disciples, and here we are, more than 2000 years later, and his modern disciples are still looking for him like little lost puppies. When I took a good look at biblical predictions, I realized that the reason nobody agreed on them was because they were so vague. None of them offer any specific dates, times, names, or facts which we could use to nail down even the roughest time frame for the events they allegedly predict. And the events they don't even mention, such as mass transportation, worldwide communication, and space travel, are more significant than the vaguely ominous pipe-dreams of multiple-headed monsters with crowns. How could an all-knowing deity NOT know about the Internet, one of the most important tools humans have ever invented?

They always seem to get around that though... like "we don't know WHICH disciples because we are his disciples." or the JW claim her returned "invisibly" in 1914.