Jesus loves page 4

12/15/2007 7:30:17 PM

never thought this would make it to 4.

12/16/2007 3:22:33 PM

seriously? religion is an automatic 5 pages at least.

12/16/2007 3:24:15 PM

yea, i forgot about tww not believing in jesus.

[Edited on December 16, 2007 at 3:28 PM. Reason : t]

12/16/2007 3:28:24 PM

i believe in Jesus

12/16/2007 3:28:47 PM

i believe in Jesus.

i mean ... there was this itinerant rabbi in 1st Century Palestine who spread an appealing message of a radical Jewish egalitarianism, and for his troubles he was convicted of sedition and executed by command of the notoriously brutal Roman prefect Pontius Pilate in what may or may not have been a conspiracy by his political enemies.

Just like tens of thousands of other convicted criminals of the Roman era, this preacher was hung on a cross to die of exposure, and like the tens of thousands of similar executions, his rotting corpse was most likely eaten by birds and dogs.

Needless to say, the Kingdom of Heaven promised by the preacher and the associated rule of God to vindicate the righteous did not come to pass. Eventually his devastated followers developed a new theology that borrowed heavily from Greek and Roman mystery religions describing a familiar story of virgin birth, divine parentage, and resurrection from the dead.

What's so hard to believe about that?




[Edited on December 16, 2007 at 8:59 PM. Reason : ]

12/16/2007 8:56:10 PM

Quote :

"the Kingdom of Heaven promised by the preacher and the associated rule of God to vindicate the righteous did not come to pass."

For real? The world's already ended, and it didn't happen?

Then your statement is true.

12/16/2007 9:49:26 PM

you lost me, dude.

12/17/2007 8:17:27 PM

yeah I believe in jesus's teachings but i agree with schmoes realistic history of Jesus not the cult mysticism that evolved to worship him after death.

btw if the bible were true i'd have to guess that Joseph was a homo. I mean his wife is the virgin Mary. What kind of straight guy does not rail out his wife.

[Edited on December 17, 2007 at 9:44 PM. Reason : l]

12/17/2007 9:39:04 PM

joe_schmoe wins this thread? i believe so.

[Edited on December 17, 2007 at 9:57 PM. Reason : oops]

12/17/2007 9:57:20 PM

Some of yall need some help. crusade aint all that bad. Some of the people are wierd but that doesnt mean anything, most people are normal.

12/17/2007 10:27:56 PM

I used to go last year, and freshmen year, its not a bad group at all. I haven't attended at all this semester, but most of the people are nice, and they don't force any beliefs on people.

12/17/2007 10:32:14 PM

I went my the first week of my freshman year. They made the mistake (I'm assuming it was a mistake) of having one of their more radical guest preachers there for the kick-off. He went on some rant about how Jonathan Edwards was a great man and his sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" was spot on and a whole lot of other nonsense. It's been 4 years and I haven't been back since. I'm sorry but I don't want to be associated with an organization that tries to scare people to Jesus. That's some weak sauce. Scaring people to their God...How does that make them any different from Islamic terrorists?

12/17/2007 10:41:53 PM

Quote :

"btw if the bible were true i'd have to guess that Joseph was a homo. I mean his wife is the virgin Mary. What kind of straight guy does not rail out his wife."

The Bible doesn't say that Mary remained a virgin her entire life.

12/17/2007 10:47:28 PM

yea, it only says she was a virgin when she conceived Jesus.

12/17/2007 10:47:59 PM

i guess it must have been an arranged marriage and joseph had not yet hit puberty

12/18/2007 1:21:00 AM

I could be completely wrong about this but I believe that Mary was not yet married to Joseph when she first became pregnant.

Actually, I have no idea.

12/18/2007 8:53:14 AM

Don't forget that Jesus had several brothers. James and Didymos Thomas, being two of the most famous.

so either the Virgin Mary womb was getting some stretching, or (as Catholic tradition likes to claim) Joseph was an older widower who already had children of his own.

in any event, none of the so-called "Birth Narratives" existed until LONG after jesus was dead and gone. we're talking 40 years at least.

the one single contemporary follower of Jesus whose writings survive ... failed to mention anything remotely related to a virgin birth (or unusual birth at all) in even a single line of the 14 complete letters attributed to him.

Seriously folks, If anyone would have had a reason to trumpet a divine birth to his gentile (Pagan!) audience, it would have been Paul the Evangelist, who was himself alive during Jesus' ministry. This fact alone is near-conclusive that the Birth Narratives and associated theology wasn't developed until later. Probably, in part, to persistent and nasty rumours of Mary's less-than-pristine background.






[Edited on December 18, 2007 at 9:35 AM. Reason : ]

12/18/2007 9:32:35 AM

Quote :

"I could be completely wrong about this but I believe that Mary was not yet married to Joseph when she first became pregnant."

You are right.

Quote :

"Probably, in part, to persistent and nasty rumours of Mary's less-than-pristine background. "

care to elaborate? I've never heard of this?

12/18/2007 9:34:23 AM

i took mary's virginity

12/18/2007 9:35:51 AM

Quote :

"the one single contemporary follower of Jesus whose writings survive ... failed to mention anything remotely related to a virgin birth (or unusual birth at all) in even a single line of the 14 complete letters attributed to him."

ssshhhh!!! come on joe you are ruining the faith and mysticism of Christianity. Ignorant people need to believe to give themselves meaning in life so they do not feel so crappy about working on an assembly line or cleaning toilets for 8 hours everyday. What you are advocating is using rational thought which will undermine the whole church

I mean isn't it much easier to think that poof humans just popped onto earth rather then trying to process the idea of humans evolving from proto-bacteria over 3.5 Billion years.

[Edited on December 18, 2007 at 12:45 PM. Reason : a]

12/18/2007 12:42:54 PM

religion is so funny

boy, all i hope is that I'm not one day put up against the wall and shot because of my lack of faith

12/18/2007 12:45:18 PM

Quote :

"boy, all i hope is that I'm not one day put up against the wall and shot because of my lack of faith"

Huckabee/Tancredo 2008.

12/18/2007 2:16:39 PM

12/18/2007 2:18:21 PM

yeah.

it gives me the shits, too.

12/18/2007 7:36:32 PM

Quote :

"they won't care if you're Catholic, as its really a non-denominational thing. "

I was in it for about a year and I disagree with this. The non-denominational thing is a joke. Most of the ministry comes from Baptists, especially Providence Baptist Church which has a well-organized college ministry.

The bible studies are from a general evangelical perspective and Catholic points of view are neither appreciated nor even understood, and in fact frequently attacked if you bring them up. In another case, one girl I met said "wow, I've never met a Catholic before." Uh yeah you have... you just assumed everyone was like you. She was from a small town near the beach, but even if you live in a small town, you probably have some Catholic Mexicans. Basically if you tell everyone you're Catholic but don't think or act like one in their presence, they won't mind.

Other than that the preaching was generally pretty good (except that each meeting I went aspired to be some kind of revival) in terms of how well the preachers could get their message across, but the praise and worship stuff exceedingly corny. The people are pretty nice but you always get the feeling that they want to be your friend so they can tell everyone that they helped 'save' you.

I ultimately left because I just felt I didn't fit in. My Catholic points of view were dismissed from a theological perspective and except for the overall rhetorical skill of the preachers I didn't feel compatible with the worship services.

[Edited on December 18, 2007 at 10:53 PM. Reason : .]

12/18/2007 10:52:07 PM