What Does the Second Coming Entail?

The bear story always interests me - it doesn't say he asks the lord for protection or the like but that he cursed them in the name of the lord.Then to show his love, he had some bears rip out their guts!

It can be one or the other. You presuppose one - and one which paints you in the best..er..light. Surprise, surprise! I was responding to your post where you said "if you take the whole of the bible as the true word of God, then that's the only conclusion I can come to about God". You started your reading on this presumption and I offered a further bit of advice as an outworking of that basic assumption, ie: if you hit apparent inconsistancy assume the problem lies with you. Here you hopped out of "bible as the word of God" and switched "to mangled old myth". Did I miss a step somewhere?ps: I don't take the Quran to be the word of God thus am highly unlikely to try and form views about God from it.ps: Any ideas about how one reads the bible "in context", the advice you offered to Larni. Simple one for you: what is the context of the Bible? Globally like.

An invite is an offer. It does not have to be accepted. You must accept an invite in order to excercise the rights it offers you. Hopefully we can agree on that much The location of the nightclub at the top of a skyscraper is not a catch. It is where it is and is not a condition placed upon your acceptance of the offer. And you have to be brought to it - you cannot make it up there by yourself. To step outside the analogy for a second: patently if you die then someone is going to have to bring you to heaven - you haven't a clue how to get there yourself.The person issuing the invite also includes a way for you to get there. All that happens is that the invite needs to be accepted and that issue will be taken care of automatically. Its part and parcel of the whole gig.Back to acceptance. From an earlier post to you

The bible has some value and some interesting parts... but it also has sections that were quite clearly written by ignorant primitives who didn't have a clue what they were talking about.It's in fact OBVIOUS that parts of the bible are just mangled old myth... even to many christians.Many parts of the bible were written by people who just weren't as informed or educated as many are now (which is not a slam on them, i'm sure they knew a lot considering the state of education and knowledge in primitive times).

The bits you think are interesting are interesting and the bits that you think are mangled old myths are mangled old myths. YOU is a dominant feature in your analysis You mean Christians-who-do-not-beleive-it-to-be-the-inspired-word-of God Christians? But lets avoid off topic no true Christian stuff can we? The no-true-God-inspired angle. But why would God need edumicated people to record what he wanted them to write. 1 John apparently uses only 200 different words indicating its authors lack of education (and making it a more difficult book to interpret directly) whereas Romans is the work of a scholar.No matter. "I love my mummy" is a true statement even if spoken by an uneducated 4 year old.

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The bits you think are interesting are interesting and the bits that you think are mangled old myths are mangled old myths. YOU is a dominant feature in your analysis

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But YOU would be an even more dominant feature in your analysis. At least he doesn't have a dogma that the Biblical text must be forced to submit to.

You mean his dogma that the bible isn't the word of God isn't a dogma?

How does the individual engage in an authoritative action or process when he is acting on his own?

are you aware of the difference between 'dogma' and 'conclusion' ?

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"In life, you have to face that some days you'll be the pigeon and some days you'll be the statue."

yes, the step where a non-assuming person thinks "the word of God cannot be full of factual errors, internal inconsistencies and false prophecies, therefore the Bible isn't the word of God".If, however, you're determined to follow the "if it doesn't make sense just forget about it" approach, thereby sidelining the critical thinking ability that your Creator gave you, then you can read any old crap and be convinced that it's the word of God. why not ?! it seems you arbitrary decided that the Bible is, even before reading it. Go read the Quran with the attitude you described earlier and you'll soon be converted. there is no 'global' context for the bible, it's just a mish-mash of stories spanning several centuries, authors and different cultural backgrounds.Larni should read each book in it's own context, i.e who wrote it, when, the intended readership and the geo-political circumstances of the time.so should you, BTW.

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"In life, you have to face that some days you'll be the pigeon and some days you'll be the statue."

em... yes thanks! You wanted the guy above me I thinks......

This presupposes a non-assuming person. The Bible says there are none. And it is only your disbelief which supposes that there is such a beast. Horns of a dilema? A word in your argument I have been fortunate. Things happened to me and THEN I went to find out what happened. The Bible describes it exactly, the Quran doesn't. Which to believe? The pre-disposition informs the context in which it should be read. No problem in that per se. But pre-dispositions can vary. So which predisposition do you recommend Larni draws his context. And why? I wonder what he would make of the Old Testaments Psalm 22 in general, verse 16 in particular...geopolitically speaking

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ASV: For dogs have compassed me: A company of evil-doers have inclosed me; They pierced my hands and my feet.

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BBE: Dogs have come round me: I am shut in by the band of evil-doers; they made wounds in my hands and feet.

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DBY: For dogs have encompassed me; an assembly of evil-doers have surrounded me: they pierced my hands and my feet.

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KJV: For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.

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JPS: For dogs have encompassed me; a company of evil-doers have inclosed me; like a lion, they are at my hands and my feet.

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WBS: For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.

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WEB: For dogs have surrounded me. A company of evildoers have enclosed me. Like a lion, they pin my hands and feet.

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YLT: And to the dust of death thou appointest me, For surrounded me have dogs, A company of evil doers have compassed me, Piercing my hands and my feet.

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Lets steer this BACK towards the Original Topic, which was essentially discussing the Second Coming. We know how each other think---so there is little point in attempting to focus too much more energy in our dueling analogies...

The Second Coming assumes that Christ is real and that no amount of human information nor education will negate this fact.It is debateable as to whether an uneducated goat herder is able to connect with a living God. If we are atheists, of course the source of our contentions will be human education and knowledge.If we are believers, however, education and knowledge do not wipe God away...they just allow us to consider the implications of God upon humanity in this enlightened age that we now live in.

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You mean his dogma that the bible isn't the word of God isn't a dogma?

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No, I mean that as far as I know he doesn't have a dogma that the Bible isn't the word of God. And if he did it would hardly influence his interptation in a bad way - unless you assume that God is a lousy writer or just plain deceptive.Of course the fact is that there is no book of the Bible that actually claims to be the Word of God. The closest you can find is sections where a prophet or the author is repeating a message which he claims comes from God. So maybe you do think that God is deceptive to so thoroughly obscure the authorship you attribute to him.
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