Tribute Thread For the Recently Raptured Faith

Bigfoot doesn't want to be known. Leprechauns don't want to be known. The Loch Ness Monster doesn't want to be known. The earth doesn't want you to know it's flat so it pretends to be round. The moon doesn't want you to know it's made of green cheese, so it spits up bogus "rocks" for astronauts to find.You know that's a silly argument. Why do you keep using it?

How come they want to be known occasionally by a few in private?Dowsers can do their thing anytime they like - except when there's a real test, then they all fail. Randi has never paid out. But all this superstitious crap continues. Well of course they don't, it's just damn childish.

Don't know about the others, but I don't believe the resurection happened because there's no evidence of it. Period. Your book is not evidence. The story is an obvious myth.Exactly like Mohammed's splitting of the moon. I guess you think that is just a story too?

I believe that there is a truth behind the mythos. Knows what, exactly? I know what I experienced. I draw no conclusions, including your null hypothesis.Even in todays enlightened society, there is a lot that *we* don't know.What is so childish of a concept as a Creator of all seen and unseen who exists at some level? You gaffers would be much more impressed with alien slime found on Saturn or some voyager spacecraft....only because evidence confirmed it to your minds. This whole idea of evidence....methinks God purposefully wants to avoid being pinned down by it.Tim Minchin expresses it eloquently. Based on my experience, I cannot in good conscience stop believing.

Well it sounds like we're making progress. Of course there's 'truth' behind the myths. Just like there's truth behind Santa Clause - it's 'be nice.' It's wishing on a star. Mummy will look after me. It'll be alright in the end etc Sure would As has been said, just like the Loch Ness monster. It really is a pathetic argument, if for no other reason than he made such an enormous fuss about it 2,000 years ago when apparently he wanted everyone to know about it.

Faith wrote The Old Testament texts found among the Dead Sea Scrolls are just about exactly identical with our Old Testament text today, not in any way a change from that text.GDR writes You missed the point Faith. The point is that we gained considerable understanding of how to translate the Scriptures by uncovering all of the additional writing that was done in that era and then translating it.Faith wrote Not at all. A huge array of documents was available to the earliest theologians who hammered out the orthodox view and separated the wheat from the chaff, the truth from the heresies. Changes after that wree mostly refinements, nothing new, and anything actually new today really isn't, it's just old heresies recycled for an arrogant new set of "scholars."GDR writes However you accept the changes that came with the reformation. The point of the new perspective that is the reformation today is about going back to the original meanings of what was written and we are now better able to understand what was written and there is much greater ability to share thoughts and ideas.Faith wrote It's more like it nauseates me to see truth undermined. Scripture certainly shows a progressive revelation, but what that means is that more light is shed over time on the same facts and tenets that existed from the beginning. Nothing new in the sense of different from the first revelations is given, it's simply greater exposure of the depths and ramifications of the same truths. Dedicated exegetes may still find new depths, but they will never find anything that contradicts the "faith once given to the saints."GDR writes Frankly, to use your term, it nauseates me how someone like yourself can turn the God of love, forgiveness, mercy and sacrifice that we see embodied by Jesus, into a god that commits and commands genocides and advocates public stonings.That brand of Christianity is the worst heresy I can think of. It boils down to the fundamental sin of calling that which is evil good, and then attributing it to God.

Utter nonsense. Erasmus was an excellent translator, so was Luther, so was Tyndale, so were the King James translators. And no greater ability to share anything today either. Nope, the God of love, and He really is love, did all those things because He is love, because His severe justice is love. And this is orthodox traditional Christianity while your fleshly wimp stuff is not.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

You must be thinking of some weird Roman Church thing, because casting out demons is not a ritual in any other context, in fact it is different for each situation.As for evidence I claim what Phat described is evidence that you willfully ignore without cause. However, I am checking out some sources for myself and if I run across an actual casting out on video I'll post it.

Scripture says we can even control prophecy so that we can choose when to state it and when not to, and prophecy is given by the Holy Spirit so you are wrong that we can't control His gifts. Besides, He inspired all the prophecies of the Bible, who had to write it all down. As for tongues, I don't believe it is from the Holy Spirit anyway.

this one looks somewhat staged but is in general what ive seen at church. I myself am skeptical of the crowd behavior. My event was more personal and in my. Opinion not staged.

That video just confirms for me that the charismatic context is not trustworthy. The woman yelling "come out" doesn't seem to have a clue what she's doing. People who have studied demonic possession and deal with it responsibly take it a lot more seriously than that. They know it can be pretty complicated. It involves sin that has to be confessed and repented of, and people may leave out important information, not necessarily intentionally but it makes a difference in whether they are really delivered or not. It's not a simple thing of just yelling "come out" at a person. According to Karl Payne, the Baptist pastor who has spent years dealing with these things, you have to take into account that demons are ranked in a hierarchy of authority, having to answer to ranks above themselves and not having to answer to somebody just yelling "get out." I don't have his book but I've been watching some videos of him. Very down to earth kind of guy, no showman, very serious and thoughtful. So I don't trust anything in that video.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

GDR wrote ---- Frankly, to use your term, it nauseates me how someone like yourself can turn the God of love, forgiveness, mercy and sacrifice that we see embodied by Jesus, into a god that commits and commands genocides and advocates public stonings. That brand of Christianity is the worst heresy I can think of. It boils down to the fundamental sin of calling that which is evil good, and then attributing it to God.Faith writes ---- Nope, the God of love, and He really is love, did all those things because He is love, because His severe justice is love. And this is orthodox traditional Christianity while your fleshly wimp stuff is not.It is hard to know what to say to that. What you wrote speaks for itself and there really is not anything to add. It has more in common with ISIS than it does Christianity.

It has NOTHING in common with ISIS and that comparison is false and very dangerous.ISIS kills people willy nilly for no reason whatever except that they aren't Muslims. God in the Old Testament, in the time of the theocracy of Israel, enacteds the death penalty for specific reasons, for specific sins and crimes, such as child sacrifice which was the practice of the Canaanites, gives plenty of warning and then acts. Stoning was the death penalty for individual Israelities convicted of a capital crime. Your comparison is dangerous and evil.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

The main difference between the jesus saga and other myths is that people *wink wink, nudge nudge* know that the other ones are myths yet go along with them anyway. While some treat the Jesus saga the same way, many do not honestly believe that it is a myth. And many of them have some sort of subjective "evidence" such as someone they knew that was healed, or some miraculous event that happened to either themselves personally or to others whom they know.
Many believers have a lot invested in their belief. For them, even if God did not exist it would be necessary to make One up. What's so childish about it? And why does your tone nearly suggest anger over the whole affair? By and large, today's religion never hurts anyone. Perhaps a few dozen people blow themselves (and others) up every year, but this arguably could occur in a purely secular world as well.IIRC, the last time you showed this much anger towards me was when I was listening to ICANT. He is on sabbatical (or a fast from social media, I believe) and hopefully is doing something useful for others. But again I ask: Why does this belief stuff make you angry? Were you ever harmed by religion personally?

Not just weird Catholic stuff, no.

quote:

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After the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther abbreviated the Roman ritual used for exorcism.[12] In 1526, the ritual was further abbreviated and the exsufflation was omitted. This form of the Lutheran Ritual for Exorcism was incorporated into the majority of the Lutheran service-books and implemented.

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Phat witnessed something. Even he doesn't know what it was. That is not evidence of demon posession. Instead of scraping the internet for pointless videos, why don't you ask is what evidence is?