Running "ask a zealot" thread

1. Why couldn't God inform the whole world? God is God. Why tell a small group of people that they're the ones that have to tell everyone else in an age that has not mass communication. That thinking drove The Crusades and the Inquisition, to name but two.

2. How can not accepting the sacrifice be a sin if most of the world never knew the sacrifice occurred?

3. I refer you to Bart Ehrman's "Misquoting Jesus". He's a Biblical historian who devoted his life to the study of the Bible. There is extremely strong evidence that transcribers either added things to the Bible to clarify what they believed the point was. There is also strong evidence that human errors were made during the transcribing.

I mean, Jesus wasn't a Christian, he was a Jew and observed Jewish traditions. Many of what we accept as the basic tenets of Christianity were added well after the fact of Jesus's life for religious and political reasons. The Bible was written long after Jesus's death. Books were dropped, words were changed to present the 'correct' dogma as decided by lay people.

If you are going to claim that your religion is the only 'true' religion, it should be based on a stronger foundation than Christianity has going for it.

 

Is god just a kid with an ant farm?

 

Is there heaven for a G?

 

No, or he wouldn't have be willing to take human form and then die to save us.

 

Tupac says yes.

 

1) God can do whatever He wants. I'm not sure why he didn't tell everyone, but I fall again to my point about faith. There has to be room for it. If God went to everyone and introduced himself, nobody would believe through faith -- they'd believe through sheer evidence. It's obviously important to Him that we have faith (the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen).

2) I think the vast majority of the world has heard about the sacrifice by now. How God judged those who lived right around that time, before the message got out, I don't know. I'll ask Him, but I doubt I'll get an answer.

3) Jesus wasn't a Christian, true, but it's not entirely true to say he was a Jew. He was more like THE Jew. But because he was more than just a man, it's not fair to try to categorize him in one religion, because he was above that. He had a direct line to God that nobody else has ever had.
The Bible was probably not written as long after Jesus' death as you think. I don't know where my copy is at the moment, but "The Case for Christ" makes a pretty strong argument that the first gospel would have been written in something like 10 years after Jesus' death.
That's really not that long, especially considering it was people who personally knew him who did the first gospels.
If God exists, then there must be some truth out there. Can you tell me one that has more credibility than Christianity?

 

Buck, here's a point I've made to you on this board before. It applies here.

"Quote from: buckweaver on May 15, 2007, 12:07:52 AM
Something like that, Chuck. The religion of your birth should not grant you a better parking spot in the Wal-mart of the afterlife."

I see what you're saying, but grant me a few ifs here.
IF there is some form of a higher power, and IF that higher power has created an eternal paradise, and IF there is a way to obtain a ticket to the eternal paradise from the higher power, THEN there has to be some people who are in luckier situations than others, right?
If Christianity is correct, then those of us in the West are lucky because we are more exposed to the truth than most of the world.
If Zambufu of a tribe in the African jungle is the true god, then we are quite unlucky.
Either way, I'm not going to give up searching for truth (which IS what we do as journalists, right?) simply because religions tend to be regional.
I've said before, I might come to the wrong conclusions about God, but it won't be for lack of trying.

 

so demo... considering i've had the 'annoiting of sick' when i was kid,,, am i in?... or was that a priesty sideshow to keep the parents and grandparents to keep donating?

 

You're asking a Protestant (what sounds like) a Catholic question.
I have no idea if you'll get in. That's between you and God.
I will say I believe anyone who genuinely accepts Christ is saved forever. I believe the only sin His death can't cover was the failure to accept his sacrifice, so once you do that, you're set.
Then it is not you but the sin living in you that does wrong, as Paul wrote.

 

i accept that... thanks for non smart a** reply...

 

DC:

For those Christians that do not spread the word, that do not proselytize, are they hypocritical? Are they not doing God's work?

 

I'd put it this way: I believe Christians as a group are supposed to spread the word throughout the world. However, we can't all be in the jungle, can we? We need people everywhere.
Some are called to do missionary work. Some are called to domestic service. Some are called more for discipleship, to help those who are already in the faith to grow. Maybe God is working on some more one-on-one and they're just not ready to be a Christian example yet.
You are only a hypocrite if you're not doing what God asks you to do.
He hasn't asked me to go on a missionary trip. He has asked me to carry on civil, intellectual discussions whenever and wherever the time is right.
I'll add that some Christians do much more harm than good in their proselytizing methods, trying to catch flies with vinegar. I'm a much bigger proponent of honey.