Part 36 of Post Your Tough Questions Regarding Christianity

So you do understand these stories are parables and allegories.

 

And one of that even discusses the fact that the compressed atmosphere would be lethal.

 

How did those 8 human beings spawn multiple empires spread out across the globe, each with a population in the millions, in the span of just a few hundred years?

 

A parable is a truth contained in a story or example.

 

We aren't talking about normal water levels but about extra water that covered 57,506,000 square miles of the Earth's surface to a depth of about 5.5 miles above current sea level. That's over 316,283,000 cubic miles of additional liquid water. And each cubic mile of water weighs 9,185,152,204,800 pounds.

 

And don't forget that those civilizations co-existed with the Garden of Eden and that they survived the flood without any negative effects at all.

 

Ah. I get you. You're talking about the mythological story and the extra rain that mysteriously appeared on the earth. The answers to that is obvious. It came from Mars. That's why Mars is so dry now. Of course, after the flood it got carried by solar winds to Europa, where it turned into ice.

 

You might have solved a cosmic mystery. If you do it right you can start a new religion based upon it.

 

Your statement is expressing doubt that Jesus even existed and you're also expressing that you have an issue that Josephus wasn't even born at the time Jesus was alive. Does that really matter?...It really shouldn't matter at all that Flavius Josephus, who is regarded as the most famous Jewish historian, wasn't even born at the time Jesus was alive especially when you consider, in terms of ancient evidences, writings less than 200 years after events took place are considered very reliable evidences. And we know the historian Josephus was born in AD 37, just a few years after the crucifixion of our Lord Savior Jesus Christ, which most scholars believe it to be April 7, AD 30. And so obviously Josephus historical writings are well within that 200 year mark when he began it in his adulthood.

Well, the person who is considered one of the more accurate historians of the ancient world, is the 1st-century Roman Tacitus. He mentioned superstitious “Christians” (from Christus, which is Latin for Christ), who suffered under Pontius Pilate during the reign of Tiberius.

Then we have Suetonius, chief secretary to Emperor Hadrian, wrote that there was a man named Chrestus (or Christ) who lived during the first century.

Julius Africanus quotes the historian Thallus in a discussion of the darkness which followed the crucifixion of Christ.

There are a few others but I've given you enough for now to research them further on your own if you wish to.

The fact is we have overwhelming evidence, both in secular and biblical history, for the existence of our Lord Savior Jesus Christ.
Most profoundly is the fact that literally thousands of Christians in the 1st-century A.D, including the twelve disciples of Jesus were willing to give their lives as martyrs for Him, no doubt that this has to be the greatest evidence that Jesus did indeed exist.

No one will die for what they know to be a lie but people will die for what they believe to be true.

We read in Scripture:

"For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life." ---John 3:16 NLT

 

We don't have evidence of Jesus CHRIST. There is evidence of a man named Jesus - a great Jewish preacher.

In this country (UK) we have evidence of two great preachers - the Wesley Brothers. We are told that they founded the Methodist Church. The truth is that they were Anglicans who adopted a different way of propagating the Gospel. They actually never left the Anglican Church. THEIR FOLLOWERS were the founders of Methodism. Just in Jesus case. He never intended to found a religion, it was his followers that did that. He was simply a great Jewish preacher who was disposed of because he threatened the Jewish Religious Heirarchy's authority.

But belief is not always reality

 

Well, I am not surprised that you would consider a iron age history written 200 years after the events to be a "reliable" source. Perhaps you should consider that there were no newspapers, no contemporary written accounts, no concept of science or causation of natural events. Hell the illiteracy rate was in the 99th percentile. Broken telephone is not a recent human phenomenon. It has been evident throughout history.

But I realize it is an absolute requirement of faith to ascribe the "miraculous and unexplainable" to one's god, with archaic non-contemporary scriptures the sole evidence presented.

 

Are you saying that William Shakespeare wasn't actually there with Julius Caesar recording all of his deeds and dialogue as they happened? Surely Lew Wallace was with Ben Hur on all of his adventures. He wrote a book about it and there's been movies to show that it really happened.

The reality is that most of the cultural things that we accept as real are pure BS and have absolutely no basis at all for being true. Humans love stories and will believe 99.8% of what they're told without a second thought. Coat it over with religious nonsense and the percentage jumps to 99.999999%. It's the constant repetition in different forms that do the brainwashing.

 

The belief in Christianity is not based on myths. Rather it is fact based on the true historical figure Jesus Christ, who lived a little over 2,000 years ago. His birth, His teachings through His ministry, the miracles He performed, His death and resurrection are all recorded in the New Testament of the Holy Bible.

The miracles of the Bible are to be taken literally, in other words they truly happened, just as all Scripture is to be taken literally except those portions which are clearly intended to be symbolic.

The most profound miracle of all was that of creation. The miracle of the universe coming into existence, do you see this miracle as nothing more than what you stated in a), b), and c)?

I'm sure you're aware that our beloved scientists proclaimed/theorized that the universe had a beginning. The Bible also tells us of that miraculous event.

We read in Scripture:

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." ---Genesis 1:1 NLT

Is it a myth that the universe had a beginning? Like I already mentioned our beloved scientists support the view that the universe had a beginning using their scientific methods of deductions. And no, there are no scientific evidence that conclusively proves that the Bible is nothing more than myths. It is just your opinion/belief that they are myths.

Sure you rest easy now but are you 100% certain you will you rest easy in peace after you leave this earth and pass on? According to Christian beliefs you will not rest in peace after you pass on because you will not be saved if you continue on until your death in not coming to our Lord Savior Jesus Christ in asking Him for forgiveness of your sins and declaring Him your Lord Savior, for you will have sins and you will be punished for them.

We read in Scripture:

“Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a fishing net that was thrown into the water and caught fish of every kind. When the net was full, they dragged it up onto the shore, sat down, and sorted the good fish into crates, but threw the bad ones away. That is the way it will be at the end of the world. The angels will come and separate the wicked people from the righteous, throwing the wicked into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Do you understand all these things?”

“Yes,” they said, “we do.” ---Matthew 13:47-51 NLT

Yes, I rest easy and I'm very comfortable with my Christian belief. I respect what you believe but at the same time I feel sorry for you. But there is time for any non-believer to become a believer in the Christian faith but the thing is you will never know when your time is going to run out and so the sooner one comes to the Lord voluntarily the better for that person, for tomorrow is never promised to anyone nor is the next second, minute, hour, etc. for that matter. In other words don't dillydally in coming to the Lord, you might run out of time.

But if you just can't come to the Lord then so be it, it is your choice/decision.

 

How much of the New Testament was written by people who met the historical figure known as Jesus Christ?

 

You know what else you can read in Scripture?

2 Maccabees 15:38 (CEB) = 38 If the story was told effectively, this is what I wanted. But if it was told in a poor and mediocre fashion, this was the best I could do.

 

Of course Shakespeare wasn't with old Julius, I was. We got into a lot of scrapes together, Julius and I, but alls well that ends well. But I did manage to make, and keep notes, on my tablet (stone, of course). I passed them on to Bacon who then past it all on to Willie the Bard Oh dear. That makes it secondhand then. Well, that's nothing new. As the Bard would say it's only much ado about nothing. A comedy of errors perhaps?.

 

Science does NOT support the claim that the universe had a beginning. The Big Bang is not the beginning of the universe. It is the expansion of the universe from the Singularity.

By definition, the laws of physics require that the universe have always existed.

 

Science DOES support the universe had a beginning.
http://www.harvardhouse.com/Scientific_Evidence_for_Beginning.htm

 

The Universe is the sum total of all matter and energy. The Big Bang did NOT create all matter and energy. It expanded it from the Singularity. Matter and energy predated the (incredibly colloquially used) "beginning" in your link and thus the universe predated its own supposed "beginning".

Per the laws of physics, matter/energy can be neither created nor destroyed. This is must have always existed.

 

BTW, "Harvardhouse.com"?

You seriously are going to link to a pseudoscientific blog whose first entry is on "spiritual technology" and wormholes (a discredited theory) and try and pass off that bull(*)(*)(*)(*) as peer reviewed science?

 

There is more than one scientific view. Expand your universe.

 

Yeah, there's legitimate peer-reviewed science based on the scientific method, experimentation, and empirical evidence. And then there's bull(*)(*)(*)(*) pseudoscience that propagates the existence of "spiritual technology" like you linked to that should be rightly ignored.

 

How about Stephen Hawking?
http://www.hawking.org.uk/the-beginning-of-time.html

 

"Time" is not the universe.

The universe is the sum total of all matter and energy. Neither Hawking nor any other scientist is claiming the matter and energy that exists was created in the Big Bang. It predated it.

Notice how he uses the word "recollapse" within the first paragraph?

 

I'm currently talking about something that's over your head. Look I understand, you believe there was no Great Flood as written in the Scriptures...fine but the thing is that's all you can do is believe it didn't happen, to be in denial.