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Well, keep in mind that the Hebrew word "olam," usually translated as "forever" is less precise than that; it\ just means "for a long time."
Also, keep in mind progressive revelation and Paul's declaration that "Christ is the end of the law for everyone who believes (Romans 10:4)."
Hey Paul, does it matter if we worship on the Sabbath or Sunday?
"One man esteems one day above another. Another esteems every day the same. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind."
But Paul, this thread is judging us for worshiping on Sunday instead of the Sabbath?
"Let no one...
Neo Deist: A rational person could look at my user name and instantly be able to identify the basis of my beliefs.
On another site, I have been debating an ordained Christian minister who is a panentheist. Some liberal Christian ministers are functionally deists. So your claim to be an...
Neo Deist
Neo Deist: "At what point did I ever say I was a "Christian" minister?"
A rational person would draw that inference from this introductory remark:
Neo Deist: "I am an ordained minister, I live in the USA, and I grew up as a very conservative Southern Baptist in Alabama."
Neo...
(5) My next premonition was clearly the most edifying and I do consider it a manifestation of the spiritual gift St. Paul calls "the word of knowledge." I had just finished my year of teaching and was looking forward to a much needed vacation. It was Friday and I was contemplating travel plans...
(3b) A UNIQUE SHARED NDE:
Albert Baldeo was a friend of my Uncle Larry. Perhaps he was also the most universally respected pastor in Kelowna, BC, Canada--so well respected that he was given a weekly column in the local newspaper. In one column he shared this shared NDE, an NDE which I...
OK, you have no sane reply to my last post and seek to save face by raising an bogus issue--bogus because I've made it clear that we can trace connetions to eyewitness testimony, but have no eyewitnesses who wrote any of our 4 Gospels. But Paul is an eyewitness to the risen Jesus, and his...
Neo Deist, consider these two points:
(1) You, an ordained Christian minister, reject the claim that disciples chosen and trained by Jesus would just make up all the miracle stories?
(2) You reject eyewitness testimony as hearsay even though:
(a) It is often the basis of legal convictions, when...
So anything your wife says she heard your friend say or saw him/ her doing, you dismiss as hearsay, until you can confirm it directly? After all, your wife ":hasa tendency to embellish a story," so why should you just take her at her word?
Neo-Deist: Can you name one source that is not the Bible, that corroborates the Jesus story? Sorry, but I don't rely on a collection of contradicting, handpicked "books" that have anonymous authors, were written decades after the fact and contain no eyewitness accounts.
To educate yourself on...
As we speak, the United Methodist church(UMC) is having their General Conference in Portland. The issue of gay marriage comes up every 4 years that the conference is held and is always voted down. Like other U. S. mainline denominations, the American UMC is in slow decline By contrast...
You have imposed your own agenda into my posts and thus read false ideas into my position; and obviously you are oblivious to the scholarly literature which I have brought to your attention. It seems best to start my own thread about the unity and diversity of early Christianity to clarify the...
METIS: what is written in the scriptures themselves, then what we see written in the early 2nd century such suffice,
Poor diction!
Metis: I have studied and taught theology for many years (like 40 of them), so you are certainly not impressing me one iota.
Now you wax pompous. I have been...
The application of the title "Papa" first to the bishop of Alexandria proves that it means "father," not "pope" and that it does not in itself imply a unique authority to Rome. True, the church of Rome gradually gained increasing authority, but Leo marks a transition towards the modern papacy...
No, I'm not rambling and you are ducking my points. The theological coherence you impose on Paul is missing. His own thought clearly evolves over his epistles and he even has a different theology from his travel companion Luke. Early Jewish Christianity was a multiplicity of conflicting...
(3a) I've decided to temporarily skip NDE type (2) and post examples of the most evidentially compelling type of NDE--shared death experiences. Dr. Raymond Moody has co-authored a new book of this type and indeed has experienced a shared NDE at his own mother's passing...
First, the term "papa" is a Latin term for "father" and later for pope. In Greek, then, it is a Latin loan word.
As such, it is applied to a bishop before Leo, but not to a bishop of Rome.
Second, Leo is widely considered the first true pope because he is the first to be widely recognized as...
Thanks for opsting. Yes, both experiences have several precedents and please elaborate if you wish. I'm surely interested.
George, I think people are enslaved by the tyranny of standard expectations, even devout Christians who believe in miracles. What they can embrace as miracles seems...