Ol' Doc

After an eight month deployment, I'm back.

Did Y'all miss me?

--It is the soldier, above all others, that prays for peace. For it is he that must bear the wounds and scars of war. - MacArthur

--I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are nothing like your Christ - Gandhi.

Then why didn't he reveal himself to everyone?

In the last chapter of Matthew, Jesus only reveals himself to two women and 11 disciples. Why so few?

If eternal bliss depends on faith in Jesus, why didn't he make this bliss more accessible by showing more people that he in fact was resurrected?

This is designed to be an intelligent debate so please be courteous.

For those of you that are tired of answering questions about the death of Wacko Jacko, my daughter sent me this thought:

When Farrah Fawcett got to Heaven, G-d said he would grant her one wish. Her wish was that all the children of the world would be safe, so G-d killed Michael Jackson.

Now for the question: is your sense of humor warped enough to find this funny?

I know mine is...

My family and I adopted a new puppy yesterday and we are looking for a name. She's a black terrier/lab mix. So far, not much of a personality, but we did rescue her and she's still getting used to us.

Any ideas?

I'm asking here just because I'm an R&S regular.

Be nice, this is for my family.

As I understand it, Catholic men are not allowed to wear hats while in the presence of G-d. Catholic women, on the other hand, have to keep their heads covered. Now, in the Jewish religion it is just the opposite so someone has things completely backwards.

The pope wears two hats; the big mitre over the zucchetto that's underneath. And the zucchetto he isn't allowed to remove. So, here is the question; why, if Catholic men aren't supposed to wear hats, does the pope wear two?

I get a lot of hate mail because of my quotes. Particularly the Gandhi quote. Tonight's was the proverbial straw. The email I got told me that I am un-American; I have served in the US military for over 20 years. And, that America was founded as a Christian nation. Well, here a few quotes from our "Founding Fathers".

Lighthouses are more useful than churches. - Benjamin Franklin

This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it - John Adams

Christianity is the most perverted system that ever shone on man - Thomas Jefferson

Now, go back to the original question: You think the US was founded as a Christian nation?

As always, be respectful

Three men - a Canadian farmer, Osama bin Laden and a Biker are all walking together one day. They come across a lantern and a Genie pops out of it. 'I will give each of you one wish, which is three wishes in total', says the Genie.

The Canadian says, 'I am a farmer and my son will also farm. I want the land to be forever fertile in Canada '

POOF! With the blink of the Genie's eye, the land in Canada was forever fertile for farming.

Osama was amazed, so he said, 'I want a wall around Afghanistan , Palestine , Iraq and Iran so that no infidels, Americans or Canadians can come into our precious land.'

POOF! Again, with the blink of the Genie's eye, there was a huge wall around those countries.

The Biker says, 'I am very curious. Please tell me more about this wall.' The Genie explains, 'Well, it's about 5,000 feet high, 500 feet thick, completely surrounding the countries. Nothing can get in or out; it's virtually impenetrable.'

The Biker sits down on his Harley, cracks a beer, lights a cigar, smiles and says, 'Fill it with water.'

First off, I am a decorated US military veteran, giving over 20 years of my life to serving. Second, it is stated in my profile that I am neither Atheist nor Christian. Third, I have always made it plain that there is a difference between faith and religion, and it is the religion that I detest not the faith. Last, at no time do I ever swear or threaten in my arguments, that is just ignorance coming out.

All of that being said...

Last night, out of the blue, I received an IM from a woman in Rogers, Arkansas. This woman was looking for a fight, and try as I might, she got her wish. This woman was a so-called Christian - 46 years old - and the first thing I get is that I am to leave the country because I don't agree with her views on Jesus. I was also called a traitor. I was literally chewed out because I disagree with Christians. She was very insistent on getting my religion, I gave her three to choose from, none of them true. She also used the most profane language and condescending terms for blacks, gays, Muslims and Islams. Oh, and she didn't really seem to know the difference between Muslim and Islam. She said that she was a DEVOUT Christian and there was no doubt in her mind that she was going to heaven and I am going to hell. And the fact that I use that Gandhi quote sent her off to no end. The words that this woman typed were atrocious, profane, ignorant and proved the quote 100 times over.

Now for my question: At what point is being a devout anything going too far? I tried expressing my opinions, but she has such a closed mind that nothing got through. When is it too much?

As always, be courteous when answering my questions as I am in answering yours, whether I agree with your views or not.

Doc

Found this and though it was funny.

Top 10 signs your a Fundamentalist Christian

10 - You vigorously deny the existence of thousands of gods claimed by other religions, but feel outraged when someone denies the existence of yours.

9 - You feel insulted and "dehumanized" when scientists say that people evolved from other life forms, but you have no problem with the Biblical claim that we were created from dirt.

8 - You laugh at polytheists, but you have no problem believing in a Triune God.

7 - Your face turns purple when you hear of the "atrocities" attributed to Allah, but you don't even flinch when hearing about how God/Jehovah slaughtered all the babies of Egypt in "Exodus" and ordered the elimination of entire ethnic groups in "Joshua" including women, children, and trees!

6 - You laugh at Hindu beliefs that deify humans, and Greek claims about gods sleeping with women, but you have no problem believing that the Holy Spirit impregnated Mary, who then gave birth to a man-god who got killed, came back to life and then ascended into the sky.

5 - You are willing to spend your life looking for little loopholes in the scientifically established age of Earth (few billion years), but you find nothing wrong with believing dates recorded by Bronze Age tribesmen sitting in their tents and guessing that Earth is a few generations old.

4 - You believe that the entire population of this planet with the exception of those who share your beliefs -- though excluding those in all rival sects - will spend Eternity in an infinite Hell of Suffering. And yet consider your religion the most "tolerant" and "loving."

3 - While modern science, history, geology, biology, and physics have failed to convince you otherwise, some idiot rolling around on the floor speaking in "tongues" may be all the evidence you need to "prove" Christianity.

2 - You define 0.01% as a "high success rate" when it comes to answered prayers. You consider that to be evidence that prayer works. And you think that the remaining 99.99% FAILURE was simply the will of God.

1 - You actually know a lot less than many atheists and agnostics do about the Bible, Christianity, and church history - but still call yourself a Christian.

Oh yeah, you need a question...

Your thoughts?

I found an interesting article and I would like the thoughts of everyone:

Was the Christian Messiah the first to have that name, or were there a lot of Jesuses running around back then?

Many people shared the name. Christ's given name, commonly Romanized as Yeshua, was quite common in first-century Galilee. (Jesus comes from the transliteration of Yeshua into Greek and then English.) Archaeologists have unearthed the tombs of 71 Yeshuas from the period of Jesus' death. The name also appears 30 times in the Old Testament in reference to four separate characters—including a descendent of Aaron who helped to distribute offerings of grain (2 Chronicles 31:15) and a man who accompanied former captives of Nebuchadnezzar back to Jerusalem (Ezra 2:2).

The long version of the name, Yehoshua, appears another few hundred times, referring most notably to the legendary conqueror of Jericho (and the second most famous bearer of the name). So why do we call the Hebrew hero of Jericho Joshua and the Christian Messiah Jesus? Because the New Testament was originally written in Greek, not Hebrew or Aramaic. Greeks did not use the sound sh, so the evangelists substituted an S sound. Then, to make it a masculine name, they added another S sound at the end. The earliest written version of the name Jesus is Romanized today as Iesous. (Thus the crucifix inscription INRI: "Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum," or "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.")

The initial J didn't come until much later. That sound was foreign to Aramaic, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. Not even English distinguished J from I until the mid-17th century. Thus, the 1611 King James Bible refers to Jesus as "Iesus" and his father as "Ioseph." The current spelling likely came from Switzerland, where J sounds more like the English Y. When English Protestants fled to Switzerland during the reign of the Catholic Queen Mary I, they drafted the Geneva Bible and used the Swiss spelling. Translators in England adopted the Geneva spelling by 1769.

In contrast, the Old Testament was translated directly from the original Hebrew into English, rather than via Greek. So anyone named Yehoshua or Yeshua in the Old Testament became Joshua in English. Meanwhile, the holy book of the Syrian Orthodox church, known as the Syriac Bible, is written in Aramaic. While its Gospels were translated from the original Greek, the early scribes recognized that Iesous was a corruption of the original Aramaic. Thus, the Syriac text refers to Yeshua.

Bonus Explainer: What was Jesus' last name? It wasn't Christ. Contemporaries would have called him Yeshua Bar Yehosef or Yeshua Nasraya. (That's "Jesus, son of Joseph" or "Jesus of Nazareth.") Galileans distinguished themselves from others with the same first name by adding either "son of" and their father's name, or their birthplace. People who knew Jesus would not have called him Christ, which is the translation of a Greek word meaning "anointed one."

Here's the question: what are your thoughts on this?

Some Christians have admitted that Christ was indeed a Jew, while others say that the man that Christianity was named for was born a Christian.

For those of you that acknowledge that Jesus was a Jew, that he was essentially a Rabbi;

Do you celebrate Hanukkah as Jesus did? Why or why not?

No sermons, or venom in your answers, please.

1844 - William Miller predicted Christ would return between March 21, 1843 and March 21, 1844, then revised his prediction, claiming to have miscalculated Scripture, to October 22, 1844. Miller's theology gave rise to the Advent movement.

1977 - William M. Branham predicted that the Rapture would take place in 1977.

1981 - Chuck Smith undogmatically predicted that Jesus would likely return by 1981.

1988 - Publication of 88 Reasons why the Rapture is in 1988, by Edgar C. Whisenant.

1989 - Publication of The final shout: Rapture report 1989, by Edgar Whisenant. More predictions by this author appeared for 1992, 1995, and other years. Posters placed in public locations around the New England area in 1992

1992 - Korean group "Mission for the Coming Days" predicted October 28, 1992 as the date for the rapture.

1993 - Seven years before the year 2000. The rapture would have to start to allow for seven years of the Tribulation before the Return in 2000. Multiple predictions.

1994 - Pastor John Hinkle of Christ Church in Los Angeles predicted June 9, 1994. Radio evangelist Harold Camping predicted September 27, 1994.

2011 - Harold Camping's revised prediction has May 21, 2011 as the date of the rapture.

2060 - Sir Isaac Newton undogmatically proposed, based upon his calculations using figures from the book of Daniel, that the rapture could happen no earlier than 2060