[BREAKING NEWS] World To End....THIS SATURDAY!

probably the most inadvertently revelatory post in your long career.

We waited 50K posts for the heart of the matter to come out but there it is.

Citation please.

That would be the eschatology based on, among 65 others, THAT VERY Book?

Eschatology which - as you might have notced - doesn't have anything remotely like a consensus on the interpretation of the figurative language in that book?

Here's a nugget for ya - do you know what, over the last 2,000 years has been BY FAR the most popular understanding of the book of Revelation among Christian scholars?

That it already happened.

That it HAD already happened before the canon was even set.

They may or may not have been right, but THAT was the majority view of the "centuries of eschatology" you refer to.

The whole business of a rapture and a tribulation and all that stuff? less than 200 years old and never held by the majority of contemporary scholars.

Maybe you wasted all those nights watching Jim Bakker on TV?

See above. The majority view of the church over the centuries is that whatever was "predicted" by Revelation has already occurred long ago.

So no, in their view there is not set date when a specific event is supposed to happen.

Sorry.

This isn't EXACTLY what Bulldog meant when he said his 33 years of study made him more qualified to speak on these things than you misinformed bozos - but it is a good example of how that's true.

I've renewed the world for two more seasons at least. Y'all have nothing to worry about, provided your ratings stay at least level.

What was this thread about anyway? It's gotten too long!

Anyway, just remember that I'm always right.

Fucking hell, that's one of the silliest things I've ever read.

If your 90 year old grandmother doesn't want to be exposed to views that might strip her of her hope, then I suggest that she not choose to post on a fucking notoriously heated online debate forum.

Nobody is being forced to read my posts, any more than I'm being forced to read about the highly offensive suggestion that I and most others on the planet are shortly to begin our agonising eternal punishment for not thinking the right thoughts about the Judaeo-Christian deity.

Reading the bible and making claims about it is not a full definition of the field of theology. Are those engaged in unpicking the redacted sources that make up the Torah or researching the relationship between Genesis, Pslams and earlier Semitic polytheism engaged in that because they're reading the bible and making claims about its content? I think not. They're studying mythology.

It is possible, but yours requires a faith-based belief in the divine origin of the texts.

To conclude that Campings teaching was at odds with that of most Christians is no special insight requiring an entire field of study or decades of learning. We all know it.

The issue, which you continue to avoid, is the justification for Bulldog's differing view on the rapture.

No, it's the very nub of the issue, despite your dismissal.

Now, now, RickDeckard and Diacanu are just as free as any other member to spout off about most anything. Sure RickDeckard is a simple troll but I think Diacanu is actually having fun and isn't that why we're all here?

Either way, neither one is worth taking seriously when it comes to an actual discussion concerning [-]religion[/-] Christianity. That doesn't mean you can't join in the fun too, just recognize the obvious trolling.

Besides it's kinda RickDeckard's thing, without Christianity and capitalism to rail against he hasn't much of an identity, he'd just be aimlessly contrary.

So give 'em a break, let them say their piece, we all know that no one can prove or disprove the existence of a god, and only a fool would waste time arguing otherwise.

How so?
Be specific.

Why do you keep arguing from the "majority view", when you know it's argument ad populum, and even set it up as so?

It's like you're saying "I know this means nothing, but..", and then proceeding to blather on anyway.

Yeah, if you're Richard Donner.

Shut the fuck up you whiny bitch.

This is Wordforge.

If your 90 year old grandmother doesn't want her last bit of hope ripped away from then don't let her post here.

Oh and BlackDove,

"GHOSTOLOGY" CAN'T HOLD A CANDLE TO THEOLOGY.

You're just making shit up left and right. I hereby declare myself and everyone at Wordforge a expert in ghost hunting.

Bulldog on the other hand studies religion and its effects on humanity. That's real even if you don't believe in God.

Because you say so!

Dude!

Look you don't have to believe in religion to realize that it has had a major effect on human history.

That is something that to some is worth studying.

From a neurological/evolutionary perspective.
So we can make a pill.

Ok whatever......

So studying the consensus of bullshitters, charlatans, and the self-deluded, then?

Why should that be compelling or authoritative?

They are equally valid and meaningful. I can pile up a stack of ghost fiction and let you pore over it for 30 years, if you'd like.

In two years, I'll be a 30 years expert on the film "Ghostbusters"!!


Then, when the Gozer worshippers come out of the woodwork with their predictions, I'll be right there!

And y'all better respect mah authoritah!

WTF! That is NOT a majority view.

He's being quite slippery with his terminology, I think.

The majority have accepted that "the kingdom of God" has come in a spiritual rather than literal sense, in order to get around those pesky passages in the NT where it is explicitly prophesied that Jesus will return within a couple of decades.
They are still expecting a judgement at some point, one that is in the future.

They have a whole load of bullshit terminology for all this stuff. Pre-millenialism, post-millenialism, the tribulational, the rapture...
All invented to make excuses for why nothing has happened. All complete rubbish.

I'm not sure that's a majority view either.

Of course I guess it depends on your domination. I can't speak to the Catholic viewpoints since I was raised protestant.

Catholics expect the day of judgment at some point. I'm pretty sure that most Protestant denominations expect either that or something similar too.

^
Yes but they accept Revelations as a literal truth. No spiritual kingdom of God stuff for them!

I've heard of that view before, but I've yet to see a pastor preach it (and I've been dragged to many a church up and down the eastern seaboard). In fact I've been to more than a few places where I'm pretty sure they'd throw you out on the curb for bringing it up.

I thought most Catholics believe in a literal telling of Revelations, I'm sure most protestants do.

I am pretty sure that it's only the most fundamental Protestant denominations who adhere to a literal interpretation of Revelation. The American Baptists seem to be a bit ambivalent on that issue, and the Methodists, except for EUB Evangelicals, don't seem to be on board with that either.

When it comes to Presbyterians, ymmv.

I know Southern Baptists do. I've yet to be in a Southern Baptist church that didn't. And the Southern Baptist are the largest section of baptists.

However, I've been to their official site and it seems like they duck the question or just leave it open ended. It seems like your expected to believe in a literal teaching but no one wants to come out and say that, so they just leave it vague.

Simple.

You made a secific claim about "centuries of christian teaching" or some such (not going to take the time to find the exact words) in regards to the whole rapture business.

Except that's not what the church has taught over the centuries. so you were wrong.

Translated: "I must for every discussion to say what I want it to say, i must twist every comment by those i disagree with into a form I can mock, dismiss, or defeat as i see fit.

In other words - it doesn't matter what people ACTUALLY SAY - they say whatever you need them to say to set up your cleverness. You force it to be so within the kingdom of your own mind.

it shouldn't - unless you happen to be discussing bullshitters et al.

Right.

Read a book.