RE: Jesus Christ appears in Lebanon!!
December 30, 2008 at 6:43 am
(This post was last modified: December 30, 2008 at 6:46 am by CoxRox.)
(December 29, 2008 at 9:47 pm)Dotard Wrote: Let's assume the whole 'Jesus Story' was made up.
Easy 'nuff.
I have no problem with interpreting the transfiguration as a display of the coming Kingdom and its glory.
But..... it.... never.....got here. His robes get bright, a cloud looms overhead and a disembodied voice bellows "This is Jesus, he is my son. You'd better listen to what he says!" And...... that's it. Doesn't quite demonstrate the coming Kingdom of God in all it's glory to me.
Events in the OT as well as events leading up to the transfiguration in the NT all have a bearing on the significance of the transifiguration and the kingdom. Here is a short article if you are interested enough to explore it in more depth:
http://www.bible.ca/ef/expository-matthew-17-1-7.htm
...careful analysis of the NT shows that many things had to occur BEFORE the Kingdom of God becomes a reality ie a physical government with Jesus as the ruler.
Eggzactly! And Jesus said to the dudes standing there before him that some of them will not taste death before they see this happening.
But you are entitled to your interpretation, as I am mine. I see no liar.
Yes ma'am. However I do try not to 'interpret' anything. I read the bible at face value. Literally. If it says God hangs out in the Kingdom of God and the faithful goes there when they die, and the place has gold streets and they refer it this place as heaven in other passages and they say the Kingdom of God (heaven) is coming to earth and you will not die until you see it happening then THAT is exactly what it means.
Well you have to be careful when taking things at face value. If I were to read Jesus' words at Luke22:19 literally:
''Then he took a loaf of bread, gave thanks, broke it in pieces, and handed it to them, saying, "This is my body, which is given for you. Keep on doing this in memory of me."'' I might believe like some 'christians' that the bread magically transforms into the literal flesh of Jesus, and so too the wine = blood. I don't of course. I see and understand from context and past history, that Jesus uses the bread and wine as symbols to represent his body and blood. So too, his words here:
''And if your eye offend you, pluck it out, and cast it from you: it is better for
you to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast ...'' Matt 18:9- of course this isn't meant to be literal, but symbolic. The alleged 'lie' of Jesus regarding the coming Kingdom etc, once all things are considered ie context, history, I 'interpret' the meaning to be as already explained. This is not me 'making' stuff 'fit' and trying to riggle out of the possibility that Jesus lied, but I suspect you will not 'allow' for such a possibility. You seem to want it to be a lie, or you haven't understood the 'whole' picuture.
I do this because it is too easy to 'make up' ways around problems using "interpretation". For example if you or another said that when Jesus said '...you shall not taste death...' he really meant spiritual death not physical and it would be just as 'valid' as the one you're offering up now.
Literally, Jesus lied.
Again, I maintain Jesus did not lie.
(December 29, 2008 at 7:44 pm)bozo Wrote: CR, my point is simply this, how do you people who want to believe come to accept or reject such claims as I might make?
I don't do either. I have met people who have had 'experiences' of God or Jesus. They are very sincere about what 'happened' to them etc but you always have the suspicion in the back of your mind that they dreamt it or imagined it. If a group of people came to me and had witnessed something amazing etc, then I might take more note. It's a hard one.
"The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility"
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein