. appreciation the retrospect .. refreshing indeed and quite rare .. so big kudo's for that .. but alas you are still not getting me .. which may well be more a relection of my poor teaching ability rather than your ability as a student. Was not sarcasm - Stated twice my stance on The Book itself "in general" .. that does not mean I do not believe in nostro-damas style prophecy love Maybe God got involved in the Bible somewere .. snuck in a principle or two of merit ... and thats lovely my position in general is that clearly God is not intervening in the affairs of men ... least not directly .. but nor are all the Bible stories "Fairy Tales" and is great historical value in The Bible .. fantastic book in many ways .. but to me ... the idea that the book is 100 % God Breathed ..is complete nonsense. Regardless of whether or not the Revelation story .. and simmilar apocalyptic narratives -- have any value - this is at least a situation where you have a broken clock correct twice a day .. as the analogy .. is very fitting .. to the Decline of the US Empire -- but which is bigger than the US .. like the many headed monster rising out of the sea .. Our system .. a Oligopoly-Bureaucracy Fusion Monster .. and it is this System that I am calling "The Beast" .. but regardless of whether you have any believe in Revelation .. this Beast Exists .. and it is a form of true primordial evil.. like the Serpent in the Garden .. commonly mistaken for our good friend Satanial .. who was so demonized in the New Testiment but was a Friend of God in the Old.. .. but I digress.. Archtypes .. looking at archtypes in the collective consciousness .. the ghost in the machine .. So A) book of fairy tales B) some of which might be true .. even if by accident and C) don't think I am one of those Vunerable to the ranting of preachers and dogma .. Favorite Book Title " If you meet Buddha on side of road - Kill Him"
The post is designed to take the Conspiracy theorist for a ride - didn't have any bites thus far from the fundies - those would have a real fun time on the ride .. "Suppose it were true" tell me why , was Jesus ,Crucified .. .. you never did even try to name that tune - Artist" Roger Waters .on album "The Final Cut" ..
The reason Jesus died is simple. The religious heirarchy took exception to being called the hypocrites they actually were. The people knew their hypocrisy and enjoyed seeing them discomforted. Jesus, a Jewish preacher, had learned the Tanakh well as a child and could compete with them. That undermined their authority. That they could not tolerate so they contrived a plan to get rid of him. The Gospel writers simply embellished the story around the crucifixion. And coudn't even get their stories to match.
Pissing off the Jewish religious authorities was a dangerous activity ... particularly harsh punishments they were known to issue for slightest offence so some dude acting like Jesus is portrayed is definitey plausible .. and how the story goes pretty much. Not sure how embellished the crucifixion itself .. but certainly after the Crucifixion ...after the Mark ends at the empty tomb - (not including the Long Ending of Mark which wasn't part of that gospel until it was added hundreds of years later. The whole physical ressurection .. Jesus wandering around in the flesh .. what some have affectionately coined "Zombie Jesus" was not in the Gospel of Mark .. which Im sure you know but that is where the major embelishment starts for sure. One of the more interesting instances of "Pious Fraud" something which was quite acceptable back in the day - is how Matt containes the entirety of Mark . sans a few passages .. those being derogatory to either Jesus or the disciples. This is straight out of the Catholic Encyclopedia Gospel of St Matt. https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10057a.htm Alrighty then a little artistic license .. make Jesus a little more perfect .. a little more divine .. this theme continues for much of the material Matthew adds to the story. Virgin Birth - lineage back to David - and how could we forget .. the "Smoking Gun" stories about Jesus wandering around in the Flesh after death . Jesus doesn't explode into full God-hood until John never mind immaculate conception .. like hero's such as Perseus and other half man half God .. sons of God characters.. Jesus was now with God at the Beginning of Creation .. somewhat like a Gnostic emmanation. So with time .. we have a progression in Christs divinity .. in Mark Jesus is made divine at his Baptism .. has to undergo a classic ritual .. this is a ritual that "Humans" undergo mate .. not Gods. In this story .. our hero dies and we are left to wonder what happens to him In Matt Jesus is now divine at Birth .. somehow he still has to go through trial at baptism .. one of the interesting incongruencies. In this story Jesus returns from the dead and then ascends back into heaven .. but does maintain human characteristics .. a Son of a divine Father who lives in Heaven ... although he does rebuke his Father while dying on the Cross like in Mark. by the time we get to John .. early in the second century... Jesus is not pre-incarnate -- existing with God prior to creation. .. his divinity quotient has been upped a few notches but also explained .. as being "The Logos" emissary between man and God. In this story Jesus does not rebuke his Father while hanging on the Cross .. this is a painful one "Pious Fraud" as every Christian at the time would have known Jesus last sentence before he dies. .. its not the type of thing someone forgets either .. it is as deliberate a change as one can make .. full on Sin of Omission coupled with interpolation .. Cut and Paste over. Somewhat of a death knell for the Trinity this one as well.
So what? The Jan. 6 committee is also a dangerous organization for the vulnerable to pay attention to. In any case, it's always best to think for oneself even if everyone around you demand you bow to their ideologies. BTW, demanding the bowing down to others' ideologies is a sure sign of authoritarianism, neofascism or neocommunism, for examples.
Not so much .. Paul made Jesus divine by his Vision .. in which obviously Jesus has been resurrected .. but Paul does not believe in the Physical Resurrection .. Jesus wandering around Jerusalem after his death asking folks to put finger in the holes. Paul likens the resurrection to his own vision .. similar to folks seeing Mary in the Clouds type of thing referred to as a spiritual resurrection ..
"The Whore Of Babylon" in Revelations is Jerusalem, not Rome; Jerusalem is the 'City on seven hills'. The book makes a lot more sense when one realizes that. To understand why, one needs to refer to Ezra and the returning Babylonian Jews and their setting themselves up as 'the pure Jews' and their becoming a racist cult with the help of Cyrus and the whole invention of an 'oral Torah'. The Christians were an 'old school' revival advocating a return to the written Torah of Moses, and rejected the elaborate 'racial purity' nonsense the Babylonian cultists had developed the over the previous 500 years. They also weren't the only dissidents, there were many groups, like the Essenes and Madaens, for for example, as well as the native Samaritans. Jews were never a race, they were a tribal people, not just Hebrews. Universalism is implicit in monotheism. This is clearly pointed out in the New Testament, at the end of Galatians 3, I think, where all believers were of 'the seed of Abraham'. Christianity is a Jewish sect; Baptists and other Christian sects are more Jewish than the rabbinical cultists who re-invented themselves after the Bar Kokhba revolt some 120 years after the Christians came along. Christians are an older Jewish sect than the current Orthodox and Hasidim are, and more Jewish theologically. Jewish racists hate that fact being pointed out, of course.
David was one of the more disgusting major characters in the fairytale. If there's a lake of fire he needs to be in it.