No, Jesus has not returned yet; but soon. Just look at how this world has changed in the last 10 years. I have talked with many Agnostics and Atheists and listened to their side of the story with an open mind. How can you NOT believe??

Because of a total lack of evidence for the existence of any gods

(May 20, 2022 at 1:36 am)medusa53 Wrote: No, Jesus has not returned yet; but soon. Just look at how this world has changed in the last 10 years. I have talked with many Agnostics and Atheists and listened to their side of the story with an open mind. How can you NOT believe??

Easily.

Humanity has gone through many crises over even the past two thousand years. And there has been no return by a Jewish messiah.

This is just the latest in a series of such cycles.

And the "soon", "any day now" and other such claims will continue for the foreseeable future.

(May 20, 2022 at 1:36 am)medusa53 Wrote: No, Jesus has not returned yet; but soon. Just look at how this world has changed in the last 10 years. I have talked with many Agnostics and Atheists and listened to their side of the story with an open mind. How can you NOT believe??

Hi! Welcome to the forum!


How can someone not believe?
It's simple, just never start believing in the first place.

Think about how you started to believe. Did it happen because someone told you about the divine? Multiple times? If yes, then just think about how removing that contribution can so easily lead to not believing... or rather... lead to continuing to not believe (unless you think that people are born believing in the things that their parents believe in, in which case we need a whole thread to go over that)

(May 20, 2022 at 1:36 am)medusa53 Wrote: No, Jesus has not returned yet; but soon. Just look at how this world has changed in the last 10 years. I have talked with many Agnostics and Atheists and listened to their side of the story with an open mind. How can you NOT believe??

I find it remarkably easy to not believe in an invisible, ineffable, unfathomable, insubstantial, non-physical Being that I’m told is - by its very nature - beyond my understanding. 

I would ask why you DO believe, but I already know the answer: you believe because someone told you to. Maybe you should start thinking for yourself.

Boru

(May 20, 2022 at 1:36 am)medusa53 Wrote: No, Jesus has not returned yet; but soon. Just look at how this world has changed in the last 10 years. .... How can you NOT believe??

How could you believe that he came the first time? Specific criteria for someone to be a messiah according to Torah is that He must gather the Jewish people from exile and return them to Israel. He must bring world peace. He must influence the entire world to acknowledge and serve one God.

And yet this criteria has not been fulfilled.

So Jesus was not the messiah because he didn't fit the criteria.

I believe the Nigerian prince who I sent all those prepaid Visa gift cards to will be contacting me soon. Just you wait. You'll be sorry you ever doubted.

(May 20, 2022 at 1:36 am)medusa53 Wrote: No, Jesus has not returned yet; but soon. Just look at how this world has changed in the last 10 years. I have talked with many Agnostics and Atheists and listened to their side of the story with an open mind. How can you NOT believe??

Welcome medusa53, I hope you'll be starting an introduction thread soon.

How can I NOT believe? I'm glad you asked. I was raised Pentecostal and totally bought into it. As a young man over 40 years ago I too was certain Jesus would be back any minute. After all,there were wars and rumors of wars; drought and famine, earthquakes and plagues; just like the Bible said there would be before Jesus returned. But that's all been true throughout human history, predicting that is like predicting winter will come. It would be far more remarkable if any of those things stopped happening. My dad said it would be within the next five years or so for sure my whole life.

Reading the Bible cover-to-cover twice didn't make me an atheist, but it did make me stop being a fundamentalist, literalist Pentecostal. The Bible does not describe a deity worthy of respect, and the Hebrews clearly did not have access to the insights of an omniscient being; and that's without getting into contradictions and events that clearly never really happened.

(May 20, 2022 at 9:25 am)Fake Messiah Wrote:

(May 20, 2022 at 1:36 am)medusa53 Wrote: No, Jesus has not returned yet; but soon. Just look at how this world has changed in the last 10 years. .... How can you NOT believe??

How could you believe that he came the first time? Specific criteria for someone to be a messiah according to Torah is that He must gather the Jewish people from exile and return them to Israel. He must bring world peace. He must influence the entire world to acknowledge and serve one God.

And yet this criteria has not been fulfilled.

So Jesus was not the messiah because he didn't fit the criteria.

He's not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy!

(May 20, 2022 at 1:36 am)medusa53 Wrote: No, Jesus has not returned yet; but soon. Just look at how this world has changed in the last 10 years. I have talked with many Agnostics and Atheists and listened to their side of the story with an open mind. How can you NOT believe??

Hi Deepend