Are you Rapture Ready?
- Thread starter petros
- Start date
This follows more along the lines of how I feel. I will look at it more closely. Thank you for the link.
Do you rupture when you orgasm, or have you forgotten what that is like? I always found it a rapturous experience and I don't think I ever ruptured anything.
There are indeed, but I've never met or read anything by a Catholic theologian who doubts that Christ was real, and frankly I don't see how people who doubt it could continue to call themselves Catholic. Christ's reality seems pretty central to the faith. It's perfectly clear from scripture that it's not given to anyone to know when the second advent will occur, so you're certainly right that anyone who claims to know is deceived and deceiving. But it also seems perfectly clear from scripture (at least as I understand it) that Christ and Paul and several other people whose words are recorded in the New Testament expected it to occur within the lifetimes of people who heard Christ speak, and that obviously didn't happen. I've read a lot of apologists who try to explain that away, but I remain deeply unconvinced that there's any substance there at all.
Is it just me, or does it not seem that the ones most versed in the scriptures are the ones who do not believe they are for real? I found it most difficult to come to terms with the contradictions and inconsistencies. When I compare the writings of Paul to what Jesus supposedly said, I find no connection. I think Paul was completely out to lunch, and most of the Christian religions base their dogma on his words!
No, it's not just you. Somebody once remarked--I think it was Isaac Asimov--that one of the surest routes to atheism is to read the Bible carefully.
It's just you, there are many believers that are more versed than you or Dex. The odds are since you didn't come up with 'an answer' there isn't one, you are too smart to for there to be a puzzle that you cannot solve. lol
Silly me to think military occupation wasn't already in style in the time the NT was written. Are Bible verses being thrown around these days, rather it is military persuasion with explosions as one of their favorite methods of delivering the 'good news'?
Who controls who, the 'Church' gets control of the little people so they become cute little sheeple so when the State wants to kill a lot of people the 'church' lets itself be 'blamed' that way the State is never brought to justice. If you break free from the shackles of false religion and remain shackled by political deception you are still in bondage. Christians should be about as benign a people as possible in that they should be subject to laws in the Bible and those imposed by the Shepherds in Romans 13.
When is somebody going to approach them with narrowed vision and inquire as to why there are so many dead bodies everywhere they go.
Who controls who, the 'Church' gets control of the little people so they become cute little sheeple so when the State wants to kill a lot of people the 'church' lets itself be 'blamed' that way the State is never brought to justice. If you break free from the shackles of false religion and remain shackled by political deception you are still in bondage. Christians should be about as benign a people as possible in that they should be subject to laws in the Bible and those imposed by the Shepherds in Romans 13.
When is somebody going to approach them with narrowed vision and inquire as to why there are so many dead bodies everywhere they go.
Probably inspired by this part in the Bible.
Lu:6:46:
And why call ye me,
Lord, Lord,
and do not the things which I say?
M't:25:32:
And before him shall be gathered all nations:
and he shall separate them one from another,
as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:
M't:25:33:
And he shall set the sheep on his right hand,
but the goats on the left.
M't:25:34:
Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand,
Come,
ye blessed of my Father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
M't:25:41:
Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand,
Depart from me,
ye cursed,
into everlasting fire,
prepared for the devil and his angels:
M't:25:42:
For I was an hungred,
and ye gave me no meat:
I was thirsty,
and ye gave me no drink:
M't:25:43:
I was a stranger,
and ye took me not in:
naked,
and ye clothed me not: sick,
and in prison,
and ye visited me not.
All the above boils down to the fact in the verse below, if you say you accept Jesus as your Master and then go about doing the very things the Bible tells you not to do then when it comes time to rewards and punishments a 'false christian' is going to punished more than anybody who stopped short of saying Jesus was their Master. Who wouldn't prefer the least amount of 'stripes'.
Lu:12:46:
The lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him,
and at an hour when he is not aware,
and will cut him in sunder,
and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers.
Lu:12:47:
And that servant,
which knew his lord's will,
and prepared not himself,
neither did according to his will,
shall be beaten with many stripes.
Lu:12:48:
But he that knew not,
and did commit things worthy of stripes,
shall be beaten with few stripes.
For unto whomsoever much is given,
of him shall be much required:
and to whom men have committed much,
of him they will ask the more.
As far as Jewish Holydays were concerned Rome didn't care one way or another as long as soldiers weren't needed and Rome got money out of it in some form above their 'normal taxes'.
Or that the Romans wrote the bible to control the dozens of factions within the christian movement. By amalgamating them into the official religion of Rome, Constantine stopped them from tearing his empire apart. And he didn't even believe in the religion he created.
Close enough. lol Les has a bunch of them in a folder here and that's one of them. The actual quote is "A thorough reading and understanding of the Bible is the surest path to atheism" and yes, Asimov was the author.
Maybe some French Canadian history and the influence of the Catholic church would make you think otherwise. ;-)
There's always an exception somewhere, but I'll stick by what I said. Any threats the Catholic Church makes these days concerning people's behavior is implied, not direct.
BTW, I was raised Catholic. My mother is Irish from Galway.