What would it take?

[Aegon]

What's interesting here is the complete lack of response from xtians. Clearly the thought experiment is a little too much to take. Imagine living in the year 10,000 CE and Christ has not returned for each of the millennium anniversaries. That has got to hurt!

Ask Buddha, maybe he was reincarnated.

[Wyrd of Gawd]

According to christian scriptures, the end of times was "imminent" at the time the bible was written, most likely in the lifetimes of the "apostles". There are a number of references which support this view:

8 …the coming of the Lord is near.
(James 5:8)

9 …the Judge is standing right at the door.
(James 5:9)

Children, it is the last hour;
and just as you heard thatantichrist is coming,
even now many antichrists have appeared;
from this we know that it is the last hour.
(1 John 2:18)

Moreover, Jesus was reported to have told his disciples, "Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened."
(Matt. 24:34; Mark 13:30; Luke 21:32)

But after Christ did not return in the 1st century after his death, xtians have expected Christ's return at various times - some of the more prominent ones are:

1st Century CE: As per the "imminent" predictions in the bible
2nd Century CE: Prophets and Prophetesses of the Montanist movement predicted that Jesus would return sometime during their lifetime and establish the New Jerusalem in the city of Pepuza in Asia Minor.
1000-JAN-1 CE: Many Christians in Europe had predicted the end of the world on this date. As the date approached, Christian armies waged war against some of the Pagan countries in Northern Europe. The motivation was to convert them all to Christianity, by force if necessary, before Christ returned in the year 1000.
Around 2000 CE: Various predictions of Christ's return by Harold Caming, Jerry Falwell and others.

Even after all these failed predictions of Christ's return, xtians still hold on to the belief that he will miraculously appear to claim his "flock" of "chosen ones".

So I would like to run a little throught experiment here. Christ has not returned in year 100, 1000 or 2000 but xtians still believe. What if the year is 10,000 CE - would you still be an avid xtian expecting Christ's return? What if you lived in the year 20,000? 100,000? 200,000?

What would it take for you to finally admit that Christ is not returning and xtianity is false?

Remember, if Yeshua never returns not only is Christianity false but so is Islam and Mormonism as well as a swarm of other religions.   Besides, Yeshua can't return until a bunch of prophecies have come true.  Sodom has to be rebuilt to its former glory.  All life in the Levant area has to be exterminated.  Egypt has to be devoid of people for forty years.  And a magic number of believers must be killed for their faith.  So until those things happen don't sweat it.  But when Egypt starts getting empty it'll be time to start worrying.

[Godscreated]

Jesus said that no one but the Father knows the day and hour not even the Son. All the verses that were posted have to be held to this one positive statement. A statement that is short and simple with no room for contradiction. There are some prophecies that are being fulfilled at this time and the time remaining is short. You have asked a question that has only one answer for those who would live in those times and it would be yes. No need to worry about it, this world will not be here then. There is another verse that says the generation in which Christ will return will know He is coming, they will not know the day or the hour, they will know it will be soon. Those who have predicted the day of His return have gone against what the Bible teaches, I'm assuming they are glory hounds seeking attention because they can't get it any other way.

GC

[Edwardo Piet]

What would it take for you to finally admit that Christ is not returning and xtianity is false?

I don't think there's anything that could change their mind on that one besides losing their faith altogether.

---

After all, Jesus was crucified TWICE for their sins.  Sez so in the Holy Bible, so it's gotta be true !!

I mean DUHHHHHHHH!

Hang on a second! Are we being sarcastic?

Are you telling me that you're trying to say that religious people are gullible and will believe silly shit just because it's written down in an old dusty book full of garbled shite?

When I was a kid I never even realized that anyone actually believed in the Bible for realsies until I became an adult and I was like "Wtf?"I assumed they were just fables.

Aseop's fables has better morals in it than the Bible anyway. And they're more coherently written. And I'll take country mouse and field mouse over a talking snake any day.

In the original tale, a proud town mouse visits his cousin in the country. The country mouse offers the city mouse a meal of simple country cuisine, at which the visitor scoffs and invites the country mouse back to the city for a taste of the "fine life" and the two cousins dine like emperors. But their rich and delicious metropolitan feast is interrupted by a couple of dogs which force the rodent cousins to abandon their meal and scurry to safety. After this, the country mouse decides to return home, preferring security to opulence or, as the 13th-century preacher Odo of Cheriton phrased it, "I'd rather gnaw a bean than be gnawed by continual fear".

The story was widespread in Classical times and there is an early Greek version by Babrius (Fable 108). Horace included it as part of one of his satires (II.6), ending on this story in a poem comparing town living unfavorable to life in the country. Marcus Aurelius alludes to it in his Meditations, Book 11.22; "Think of the country mouse and of the town mouse, and of the alarm and trepidation of the town mouse"

Stories like this are more coherent, concise, better written and have an actual clear point to it, with a proper moral, more than anything in the entire stupid fucking Bible.

[Bow Before Zeus]

What's interesting here is the complete lack of response from xtians. Clearly the thought experiment is a little too much to take. Imagine living in the year 10,000 CE and Christ has not returned for each of the millennium anniversaries. That has got to hurt!

Ask Buddha, maybe he was reincarnated.

He's dead. Happened 2,500 years ago. Didn't you get the memo?

---

Jesus said that no one but the Father knows the day and hour not even the Son. All the verses that were posted have to be held to this one positive statement. A statement that is short and simple with no room for contradiction.

Not knowing the hour does not mean that the hour cannot be "imminent". So if it was so "imminent" why didn't it happen?

There are some prophecies that are being fulfilled at this time and the time remaining is short.

Yes, I've read Timothy Dailey's "Apocalypse Rising". The prophecies are not being fulfilled. All he has done and all others do is take obscure passages from the bible and interprets them to fit the events occurring today. One could have done that in the year 1,000 CE and still found events that match the biblical passages. And still he has not returned.

You have asked a question that has only one answer for those who would live in those times and it would be yes. No need to worry about it, this world will not be here then. There is another verse that says the generation in which Christ will return will know He is coming, they will not know the day or the hour, they will know it will be soon. Those who have predicted the day of His return have gone against what the Bible teaches, I'm assuming they are glory hounds seeking attention because they can't get it any other way.

GC

So, yes, you would give up being a xtian if he has not returned in the year 10,000 CE? What's your tolerance limit? 100,000 CE?

---

Aseop's fables has better morals in it than the Bible anyway. And they're more coherently written.
Stories like this are more coherent, concise, better written and have an actual clear point to it, with a proper moral, more than anything in the entire stupid fucking Bible.

That was how the Greek gods were seen. The stories always have a moral to them or give an example some ethical or moral point.

[Drich]

Riddle me this... did any f the people who wrote those words you quoted or anyone who read those words that are not still living Escape the judgement or anything written by dying?

Since there is no "judgement" of the type you are insinuating, the answer is yes, everyone escapes judgement.

No. So then can it then be said those words of warning were just as important then are they are now?

Oops, that No should be a Yes.

The words are less important as they are now because they have failed one simple test. The test of observation. They have not come to pass for over 2,000 years nor shall they do so over the next 10,000 years or 100,000 years.

An often quoted definition of insanity is to do the same thing expecting different results. Xtians have been praying and waiting for the return of their god but he refuses to return. That is the reason for my question. If we are now living in the year 100,000 CE and your god has still not returned, will you still be doing the same thing? Will you be praying and waiting for him to return?

Moron..

You can't ask, "Would an elevator be able to go up if Thor's Hammer was set in the middle of it." Then when the answer is given you can't say there is no such thing as Mjölnir.

When you ask a question based on a specific cannon, then you for the sake of the argument at least suspend the right to call into question the validity of the cannon. Why? because you question asks for cannon to explain itself. when it does to back out of the question is intellectual dishonesty.

In this case God Came to each and every person that was issued those warring or originally received them (and everyone since then) within their own life time everyone has experienced that judgement.. So the urgency you see in genuine because before those people were cool in the ground they stood judgement before God.

[The Grand Nudger]

Are you really insisting that the only way to make sense of your theology is to isolate it from any external reality?

Don't you think that might be the problem with your theology in the first place, far more troubling than the laundry list of internal inconsistencies? The latter is just bad editing, the former is a demonstration of inadequacy.

[Neo-Scholastic]

When you ask a question based on a specific cannon, then you for the sake of the argument at least suspend the right to call into question the validity of the cannon. Why? because you question asks for cannon to explain itself. when it does to back out of the question is intellectual dishonesty.

I know, right? Atheist questions about specific Christian doctrines are generally disingenuous. They can't see that it taints their brand.

[vulcanlogician]

When you ask a question based on a specific cannon, then you for the sake of the argument at least suspend the right to call into question the validity of the cannon. Why? because you question asks for cannon to explain itself. when it does to back out of the question is intellectual dishonesty.

I know, right? Atheist questions about specific Christian doctrines are generally disingenuous. They can't see that it taints their brand.

Drich has a point there, but the answer he gave in the first place was a cop out. You seem like a logical person, Neo. In regards to the OP, cant you see how a reasonable person reading the bible might think that it explicitly says that Jesus was going to return (at most) within 100 years? How long does a generation last? How do you reconcile what is said in the bible with a 2,000 year--and counting-- period? Jesus told the people who surrounded him that he was coming back soon. Doesn't that taint your brand?

[Aegon]

Ask Buddha, maybe he was reincarnated.

He's dead. Happened 2,500 years ago. Didn't you get the memo?

You think Jesus reached nirvana or he's running around a meadow right now waiting for the farmer to milk him?