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Jan 5, 2012

103 Do you get reprogrammed in Christian heaven?


Skeptic says: The New Testament teaches that God will magically change the minds of those who go to heaven. In that way, they won't care about those who go and burn in hell. 

If you go to heaven, God makes you ignorant so that you forget or never-mind old friends who go to hell. Thus the only way you can enjoy heaven is to become a different person.

Jan 4, 2012

102 Did people rule the earth like the Bible said to


In the Old Testament book of Genesis, God told humankind to subdue the earth  

Genesis 1:28 God blessed [the human beings] and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” 

But in a later verse, Genesis makes it sound as if it says bye-bye to human dominion over the earth  

Genesis 3:17 [The Lord said to Adam,] Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. 18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow 19 you will eat your food until you return to the ground. 

Recap: Humans haven't ever ruled over all the living creatures. Sometimes we can't subdue the living creatures, such as a plague of locusts. So it hardly seems that we have dominion over the earth. In fact Adam and Eve didn't subdue the earth. And they didn't subdue all of the creatures, either; for example, they didn't subdue the talking snake.

Jan 2, 2012

101 Did dead saints come alive in Jerusalem







In the Gospel of Matthew, many people in the graves came to life at the time Jesus died on the cross. And when they had been awake from death for about three days, they climbed out and walked into Jerusalem

I ask how the "zombies" passed the time for the two or three days before Jesus was raised. The risen "saints" lay in their graves for some days, then they headed for the city

Matthew 27:50 And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. ... 51 The earth shook, the rocks split 52 and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. 53 They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people. 

Scholars may suggest that they were "ghosts." But the Gospel itself fails to state clearly that they were just ghosts. Besides, other scholars claim that the Greek text definitely says that they came back to life. 

Recap: Many dead came to life in the graves when Jesus died on the cross. After his resurrection, the walking dead went into the city. I ask who saw them alive in their graves? And saw them climb out, stroll into the city and surprise many there. The question is, did the city people panic. And where did the formerly deceased go after visiting the city. Talk about a lack of detail.    

Jan 1, 2012

100 Would Jesus’ other deeds fill countless books







The Gospel of John declares:
That there were many other things which Jesus did, and if they were written down carefully, they would fill up the world with books 

John 21:25 And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written.

I’ll assume that John speaks of the more important things which Jesus did during a three-year career, and not of the less important things like having lunch. 

So let’s say every one of these many other things took a couple-three pages if written down. And each book 300 was pages. Okay, then, the collection comes to fifteen- or sixteen thousand books.

Let's even allow for a total of seventeen thousand books. That’s a great many books. But still the world would contain them easily.  

For the sake of argument let's pretend that the world could literally get filled up with books about the many other things which Jesus did. I find it strange, then, that the four Gospels mostly repeat the same stories. I would expect the New Testament to have more books than the Old Testament (about thirty-nine for the Old Testament). The New Testament has twenty-seven books. But John says the whole world would brim with books about “the many other things which Jesus did.” Thus it's peculiar that the New Testament is so relatively brief.

Recap: If Jesus said and did so many other important things, it's odd that the New Testament is so short.