Challenge to atheists: I find your lack of faith disturbing!

[Godscreated]

I was enjoying our debates, but if you're going to stoop to such low levels I will lose interest quickly.

I lost interest when you suggested Jesus' dinner date with his disciples could have lasted 40 days in order to reconcile the contradiction with Acts, even though the narrative of Luke 24 spells out everything happening within a 24 hour period.

It was at that point I just wrote, "you just go on believing that". That's not a concession. It's an expression of "I'm wasting my time trying to reason with you."

I did not even begin to suggest that Christ tarried at dinner for forty days and you know it, you're trying to protect your a stupid statement. I never said you gave a concession either, you're imagining things to defend what you wrongly think. You also did nothing to prove a 24 hour period.

GC

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I still can't understand your reply, you have not answered what your opinion is about the conflicting info. He tarried 40 days doesn't answer which is correct.... He hung or was he crucified

I said nothing about forty days. I gave you verses from scripture and you ignored them like most atheist do.

GC

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They are one and the same, different ways of expressing what happened. Besides the Romans were very efficient in their method of killing. Prove the apostles did not write the NT.

Actually, the burden of proof is on you to show that the apostles, or eyewitnesses of Jesus' ministry, did write the New Testament.

No it's not, the claim was made by MsTricky, when one makes the claim one needs to explain why they believe their claim.

Even the most conservative commentators acknowledge that we do not know for sure who wrote the four gospels. Nobody signed them and the authors never explained their connection to the subject matter. The headings "According to Matthew, According to Mark, etc.) were added decades later on the basis of traditions handed down by the Church Fathers.

And that's proof of what exactly, it doesn't eliminate the apostles.

We are reasonably sure that Paul wrote half of the epistles attributed to him. As for the others, like it or not, Ehrman is quite right that forgeries were common enough in the ancient world. Galen, the pre-eminent physician in 2nd century Rome, was outraged to find a book for sale under his name, which he had never written. Tertullian, a very early Church Father, records that a forger tried to pass off a third letter to the Corinthians. You have no way of knowing that a forger did not slip by Ephesians or 2 Thessalonians, which appear to differ in style and content from the other epistles. Anyway, what authority does Paul have as a witness? He saw Jesus in a vision? Do you accept all the "visions" which modern Pentecostals throw out?

What makes you believe Ehrman knows any of them are forgeries. Forgeries where caught and eliminated, you yourself said so. Because there were forgeries you assume they found their way into the scripture, I believe they did not because all the NT lines up in it's teachings.

However, on the dispute about crucifixion vs. hanging on a tree, I will side with the Christians. Although the NT is riddled with self-contradictions, this is not one of them. It is one of those silly, out-of-context references to the Old Testament which pop up in the NT. Matthew and Paul are especially fond of doing that.

I assume you're speaking of OT verses that can through prophecy fit dual situations.

In Galatians 2:20 Paul says "I have been crucified with Christ" but then in the next chapter he says "But by becoming a curse for us Christ has redeemed us from the curse that the Law brings; for the scripture says, 'Anyone who is hanged on a tree is under God's curse.'" (Gal. 3:13) which is a reference to Deuteronomy 21:23. In Paul's mind crucifixion and hanging on a tree are equivalent so that he can see the crucifixion as foreshadowed in the OT.

Paul is trying to show us what Christ actually sacrificed for our redemption, he was absolutely correct in the way he used the OT verse to demonstrate part of Christ's real sacrifice. It's to bad that some here can't reason things well enough to understand what the scriptures say and in this case I'm not referring to you. Also when I refer to what the scriptures say does not necessarily always mean what they reveal.

GC