Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Netza R. on May 10, 2012 at 2:32pm

Agreed. And Viva la Verdad amigo hahaha, whatever it may be

Permalink Reply by Victor E. Franklin on May 10, 2012 at 12:15pm

I had typed much more out and somehow it got erased.  So I'll sum it up.  Atheism is on the rise because the church puts it's foot in it's mouth and likes to cause controversy and problems and get involved in social matters and political issues.  I believe the church has no business in those matters, so I don't get involved in churches that involve themselves in as much.  I've heard it said before "how can I believe in a god when followers of this god are so hate filled and ignorant".  I feel the same way when it comes to the fact that so many christians are ignorant, hate filled fearmongers.  However, my faith is central to my identity and I won't let people I feel are ignorant ruin something that I feel is great about me.  I know I can't be the only christian who feels this way.

Permalink Reply by Peyton Quinn on May 10, 2012 at 2:28pm

I am not even a Christian and sometimes I feel that way. But I feel it is best to be tolerant of others too in so far is practical.

Yet when I hear 'hate' and 'fear mongering' I know I am  nothearing the thoughts of a Christian anyway, even if they do it from the Pulpit of a 'Christian Church' which I have seen happen too.

Permalink Reply by Elliott Jason Ridgway on May 10, 2012 at 4:24pm

That has happened to me on several occasions as well, usually when I am editing a comment... 

Now I always cut & paste my longer comments into a word document, or just "copy" the shorter ones before clicking the "send" button... then if the computer or the connection has a hiccup, I can repost it later without having to rewrite the whole thing...

Permalink Reply by JonEdanger on May 10, 2012 at 4:27pm

Alternatively you might try only posting shorter posts.

Permalink Reply by Elliott Jason Ridgway on May 10, 2012 at 4:35pm

No one is forcing you to read them...

It takes more time to watch the videos you post than it does to read one of my long posts. 

Permalink Reply by JonEdanger on May 10, 2012 at 4:44pm

No one is forcing you to read them...

No need to worry, I don't. My guess is I'm not alone in that.

It takes more time to watch the videos you post than it does to read one of my long posts.

I very rarely post videos. When I do they are almost always on topic, timely and frequently funny.  That being said you are welcome to follow your own advice.

Permalink Reply by Elliott Jason Ridgway on May 10, 2012 at 5:03pm

Your admission that you don't actually read my posts, yet reply to them anyway sure explains a lot... it makes no difference whether other people hold your opinion regarding the verbosity of my posts... so why speculate...? 

I do follow my own advice in order to be consistent with my own worldview... I have no problem with long written posts or long video links... I am not the one complaining about it... I just thought it was ironic to hear that coming from you...

I do watch some of the videos you post, and I have complimented you for doing so by saying the squirrel video was funny... so if you feel the need to remind me of what I have already said in order to prove your point, well, I have nothing else to say...!

Permalink Reply by Peyton Quinn on May 10, 2012 at 6:27pm

Come on guys let's simmer down here and go back to being have way patient with one another. There is nothing to be won or lost here. Let's just have fun with it with as light a heart as we can muster .

Permalink Reply by Elliott Jason Ridgway on May 10, 2012 at 7:16pm

I am having fun with it in a light hearted manner... :)

Sarcasm is a low-brow form of humor that I like to indulge in when the situation deems itself necessary...

Permalink Reply by Elliott Jason Ridgway on May 10, 2012 at 8:54pm

Shieldes... Thanks for answering me... I will do my best to posit a meaningful explanation about the mystery of the Trinity and the nature of the Sacrifice of Christ... Thing is, this is the heart of the meaning of Christianity, and the greatest stumbling block for Jew & Gentile alike, so I hope I can come up with a satisfactory answer as to why Christians believe this, whether it is convincing for you or not...

Shieldes said:

If Jesus was also God, and preached that fact, then there is no meaning behind the sacrifice. God knew he was God, he knew he couldn't really die, and he never truly lived as a man.  He never truly understood the emptiness of not really knowing, of what faith is compared to actual knowledge, what our love is, what actually drives us as we live our mortal lives.

So, if you are supposed to believe in the trinity, how do you answer the accusations above.  The trinity says Jesus and God are the same.

I will take this on piece by piece...

If Jesus was also God, and preached that fact, then there is no meaning behind the sacrifice.

Jesus is the human manifestation for a limited temporal lifespan of the "Eternal Son" aspect of the Trinity... which pre-existed the birth of Jesus when God manifested in the flesh... with the Ascension of Jesus Christ to the Right Hand of God the Father, Jesus Christ is now in the 3rd Heaven outside of the space-time frame of the created Universe... in a Glorified Body, much like the glorified bodies that all True Believers will receive on the Last Day when the Last Trumpet sounds, and all the NT saints will be raised from the grave or raptured up to the clouds and given bodies that will require no sleep, will never age, can transcend physical laws, and cannot procreate...

God knew he was God, he knew he couldn't really die, and he never truly lived as a man. 

I agree that God the Father and God the Son both knew that the grave could not hold Jesus Christ... Satan, however, likely didn't... otherwise, he wouldn't have attempted to have had Jesus killed... God allowed the crucifixion of Christ as a Trojan Horse to liberate the righteous souls trapped in hell, and to prevent any other righteous souls from ever going there ever again... Satan had domain over all of humanity after the Fall from the Garden, when Adam & Eve rebelled against God, and the Sin Code entered our DNA... Satan held the title to all the souls in Hell that were not righteous, who lived by Grace, and were in a temporary "holding cell" in hell that the NT refers to as "Abraham's Bosom" in the account of Lazarus & the rich man... When Jesus' ghost descended into hell after physical death, (just like all of the other humans to have died prior to the Crucifixion of Jesus), He arrived completely spotless, free from any sin... His perfect sacrifice fulfilled God the Father's requirements for Perfect Justice... in that having lived a sinless life, the Devil had no rights to keep Him there... and because Jesus had taken on ALL the sins of the world when He drank from the Cup in the garden of Gethsamene, so that when God the father rained down His fury on Jesus in lieu of the rest of Humanity, God the Father's requirement that Justice be required was fulfilled... that means that Jesus had won the Keys to Life & Death back from Satan not just for Himself, but for all of humanity that believe that Jesus' death on the Cross is the substitutionary payment for their own sins... (hence why it is the Grace of God that saves us, and no works that anyone can do that saves them from hell)... Then Jesus led captivity (those in Abraham's Bosom) free, where all the OT saints rose up out of their graves in glorified bodies three days later, as testified by hundreds of eyewitnesses at the time, and ascended to Heaven... effectively emptying hell of any soul that was righteous, and preventing any righteous soul (meaning taking on the imputed righteousness of Christ, and not their own self-righteousness) from ever going there again... 

He never truly understood the emptiness of not really knowing, of what faith is compared to actual knowledge, what our love is, what actually drives us as we live our mortal lives.

You lost me here... true faith is not an absence of knowledge, but a belief based on actual knowledge... If the sun rises in the east every day of my life, I have faith that it will rise again in the east tomorrow... this is true for Jesus as it is for us... there are those who use a modern usage for the word "faith" which changes its meaning to be "blind faith", as in believing in something despite lack of knowledge or evidence to the contrary... if that is what you mean by "faith", then no, I don't have faith... as far as not really knowing something...  that would be silly...

God the Son, during His tenure as Jesus, also did come to understand what it means to be limited to a subjective singularity; being in one place at one time; seeing and interacting with the world through that vantage point... This is why Jesus spent so much time in prayer & fasting, so He could be in Communion with God the Father in order to access the omniscient knowledge Jesus required in order to fulfill His mission and be obedient to the Perfect Will of God the  Father at all times... 

Being in a mortal body that can experience human physiological sensations, needs and functions (such as hunger, thirst, pain, emotions, etc), God the Son as Jesus was indeed able to experience and therefore understand what motivates mankind for good or evil... Jesus definitely did know what our own human capacity for love is (to distinguish it from the pure Agape love of God)... for  Jesus exemplified the Roman Centurion's love for his servant and faith in the Lord's ability to heal him to His disciples as a gold standard to strive for...

Some speculate that Jesus as a man had desires just like the rest, but never sinned by entertaining those thoughts by fulfilling them in his imagination nor acting them out physically... While there are merits and drawbacks to this idea, only God knows whether indeed that was the case...

Permalink Reply by JonEdanger on May 11, 2012 at 5:29am

the Sin Code entered our DNA

Is that anything like the DaVinci Code?

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