The Mark of the Beast Identified

reply to post by yahn goodey


Yawn...what ARE you rambling about exactly? Do you even know? What is going on at ATS these days....jeez.

J.

Originally posted by themillersdaughter
Jesus (If, indeed, there ever was any such person... contrary to any evidence, whatsoever).

Wrong. There is much evidence to verify Jesus as an actual historical person from first and second century secular, pagan, and non Biblical sources. It's a common misconception repeated... er... repeatedly because so many are ignorant of the facts.

Your name-calling is certainly not a good example of that "meekness" your signature touts.

Show me where I have name called anyone. You can't. But I can show you possibly one dozen examples of where the above poster name called me and other Christians. Not that the opinions of others faze us but you will need to point out name calling. You won't be able to because there is a difference between calling someone a name like "idiot" and pointing out someone's stereotyping behavior.

And the rest of your comment was too silly to even reply to.

Originally posted by TheWalkingFox
"True Christians?" Isn't anyone who accepts Jesus as their savior is a "true Christian," at least to the protestant way of thinking?

You are a former Christian, correct? Then I'm sure you are aware of the passages that refer to wolves in sheep's clothing, those who claim to be Christians but are not, the false teachers and doctrine we are to avoid, those who kill believing they are doing so in the name of God (but are rebuked by Jesus), those who call Jesus "Lord" but who are told they never knew Jesus, etc. The list goes on. We are warned there will be fake Christians but they will be exposed due to the "fruit" they produce.

And I was too lazy to read the rest.

Originally posted by defcon365
Where do you come up with this stuff

I think it is in a secret manual they all share and pass around. I can't think of any other logical explanation for this phenomenon. We've got our manual so surely they have one, too.

reply to post by AshleyD


Indeed. But isn't it God's place to separate that chaff from the wheat? The point to the passages about the wolves in sheep's clothing is for you to remain to what you believe, what you know is true. To them, YOU are that wolf, perhaps. It is not your place, nor theirs to judge the dedication of the other... but you'll both do it anyway, of course.

Laziness is no excuse. Get to work! *whipcrack*

Both you and Defcon300 have your answer, assuming that darned selective literacy doesn't flare up again

[edit on 30-1-2008 by TheWalkingFox]

Originally posted by TheWalkingFox
Indeed. But isn't it God's place to separate that chaff from the wheat?

I wholeheartedly agree. We are told to not judge people- only things, including doctrine. If a Christian says, "Psst! Let's go bomb this mosque!" We're to call them out on it. And even distance ourselves from them. And even call the police if need be. We're not allowed to judge anyone's salvation or walk with God. Mother Theresa could have been a closet Satanist for all we know and Hillary Clinton might be a born again Christian who falls on her knees every night in prayer to the Lord. We're not supposed to say one way or the other. President Bush makes my head spin and sometimes I doubt where he stands but we're still not to make any judgments about his or anyone's salvation. Including Fred Phelps, as nauseating as he may be to us.

reply to post by AshleyD


Shouldn't we not judge because of an intrinsic desire to treat others as we would like to be treated and strive for greater social relations with a natural desire to get along with our fellow human beings better, rather than do it just because we are told to?

reply to post by skyshow


Well, there needs to be a carrot, of course. Being nice to people is hard work. If you're not going to get eternal salvation out of it, man... Why bother?

Originally posted by skyshow
Shouldn't we not judge because of an intrinsic desire to treat others as we would like to be treated and strive for greater social relations with a natural desire to get along with our fellow human beings better, rather than do it just because we are told to?

It's human nature to judge other people even if we're too self righteous to admit we all do this. You, me, and the pope. No one is immune to doing this privately or subconsciously. The trick is keeping our holier-than-thou mouths shut.

[edit on 1/31/2008 by AshleyD]

reply to post by AshleyD


Perhaps another trick might be learning to love yourself.

reply to post by skyshow


I'm a borderline egomaniac. Humility is more my problem than self esteem. You can't tell?

And, hey. Let's not judge others because it should be an intrinsic desire to treat others as we would like to be treated and strive for greater social relations with a natural desire to get along with our fellow human beings better... without being told.

But it would be a sad society if people only worried about loving themselves and not each other. IMO, that is the root of many problems in the world today with the ME ME ME IT'S ALL ABOUT ME attitude.

[edit on 1/31/2008 by AshleyD]

Islam is not a religion of peace and tolerance. As soon as we all realize that we will understand what we are fighting. Islam is spreading like the plague. Christians don't kill innocents and islam does it intentionally. In islam people are killed for not believing in whatever, not in christianity. This is coming to a front, just pick up a paper and read. There are some areas in London that you can not even walk down the street without physical harm coming to you, unless you are muslim. Wake up.

reply to post by dj05544


Love your avatar

Whew......just stopped laughing. What a thread. Oh hang on, does such behaviour bring down the wrath of God? Tremble tremble. Despite the rather annoying religious paranoia that pervades most threads these days this one is quite entertaining.

The only sad point for me is that some people actually believe in such things and waste their lives preparing for a mythical ending instead of getting off their arse and doing something constructive for our fellow less fortunate human beings of all faiths and colours. Oops thats me damned again, is it?, oh dear, tremble tremble.......NOT!

reply to post by AshleyD


I"m really beginning to suspect that AshleyD is actually an on strike person from the writer's guild who is bored out of their freakin' mind with a ton of time on their hand, and decided to play the "bible thumper" role in all of these threads (an adversarial role purely for amusement)...I've been reading her posts, and must say they are entertaining in that they are absolutely hilarious the way they fit the role of what most everyday Americans would consider the stereotypical religious robot. If you are as I suspect, then kudos on your wonderful work, if you are actually the Christian in real life as you portray yourself to be, wow, even a Hollywood writer couldn't do it better me thinks... lol:

She IS a good writer and she
brings stuff out that a lot of people don't know, but, she is not role playing for
kicks.

Being a Christian is 24/7.

"Wrong. There is much evidence to verify Jesus as an actual historical person from first and second century secular, pagan, and non Biblical sources. It's a common misconception repeated... er... repeatedly because so many are ignorant of the facts."

Could you elaborate, please? Just one source would be fine with me. "Secular sources,..etc.." just isn't good enough for me.
And since the Old Testament doesn't count because you arent Jewish, does that mean the "selected" 10 commandments are no longer important?

If Christians abhor murder so much...what was all that death meted out during the crusades? How about the Spanish Inquisition? I guess you'll say those were Catholics, they hardly count as Christians?

I know a couple of Christians -- they're in Iraq right now on the Christian Peacekeepers Team. They put their faith (and their bodies) where their mouths are. Google Art Gish and Hebron...that's him in the picture in front of the tank. His wife Peggy was kidnapped in '06 (in Iraq) and released because that picture was in her pocket.

It's easy to spout rhetoric..the fact is that you have no earthly idea what the Bible says...unless...you happen to be an expert in Aramaic, Hebrew and the (common) Greek languages?

I can't believe you don't believe Harry died for your sins. Geeze..it's in the BOOK!

"Our documentary sources of knowledge about the origins of Christianity and its earliest development are chiefly the New Testament Scriptures, the authenticity of which we must, to a great extent, take for granted." (huh?)

"The Gospels do not go back to the first century of the Christian era."

(Catholic Encyclopedia, Farley ed., vol. iii & vi)


The Bible is a compendium of stories. Many are taken from ancient Egyptian texts (Psalm 104 in the Old Testament is an almost-dead-on-copy of the Great Hymn to the Aten, written by Pharoah Akhenaten several hundred years prior to the authorship of the Psalms); the Indian epic "Mahabahrata" supplied the verbatim text for 22 verses of the Book of Matthew - and on it goes. Christ, as it turns out, is the invention of the Council of Nicaea; his 'acts' are the simple adoption of stories from several ancient religions (for example, Mithra was crucified on a cross, bound in linen, rose on the third day after his burial in the third week of March - now called "Easter" after either the Babylonian goddess Ishtar or Astarte, or the Celtic equinox-festival, Eostar).

Originally posted by photobug
reply to post by dj05544

 

Love your avatar

I love that guys' avatar, too!

Originally posted by skyshow
I"m really beginning to suspect that AshleyD is actually an on strike person from the writer's guild who is bored out of their freakin' mind...I've been reading her posts, and must say they are entertaining in that they are absolutely hilarious the way they fit the role of what most everyday Americans would consider the stereotypical religious robot.

You're so close! The "AshleyD account" is actually an automatic responder bot. No person behind the curtain. "There is no Dana. Only Zu'ul." But I do... er... I mean "the bot" finds it amusing that when you cannot rebut "its" arguments you have to criticize "AshleyD" as a "person." The humor is compounded by the fact you consistently preach against judging others. Hypocrisy? The bot thinks so.

Originally posted by themillersdaughter
Could you elaborate, please? Just one source would be fine with me. "Secular sources,..etc.." just isn't good enough for me.

My apologies. I've answered that argument so many times with exact quotes and links that I'm afraid of being accused of spamming so here is a brief rundown of secular citations. Tacitus documented Jesus' crucifixion under Pontius Pilate and states Jesus founded the Christian faith, Suetonius documents the expulsion of the Christians from Rome for following Christ (this event is also recorded in the Book of Acts), Thallus records the "darkness" that occurred during Jesus' crucifixion, Pliny records the belief by Christians that Jesus was a God (something that appalled his pagan beliefs as only the emperor only was allowed to be deified as a man-god in his time), Celsus records the beliefs of the crucifixion, virgin birth, and miracles although he tries to assign them logical explanations, etc.

And since the Old Testament doesn't count because you arent Jewish, does that mean the "selected" 10 commandments are no longer important?

I think they are but Jesus did something: He "summarized" the ten commandments for us to follow. If you notice, the first five refer to revering and loving God and the second five refer to respecting your fellow man. So Jesus paraphrases and gives us the commandment to love God and others. By doing so we won't use God's name in vain, murder, covet our neighbor, etc.

If Christians abhor murder so much...what was all that death meted out during the crusades? How about the Spanish Inquisition? I guess you'll say those were Catholics, they hardly count as Christians?

Yes, they were Catholics. Catholicism is only a sect of Christianity, albeit a large one. The fact remains, such atrocities were carried out by the elite minority in leadership positions. Many victims were also Christians falsely accused of heresy and witchcraft because they pointed out the church's corruption and refused to follow their distortion of the Gospel. Ask anyone today and I bet they will be appalled by the atrocities. Even the Vatican today is ashamed of what these corrupt men did in the past. As they say, absolute power corrupts absolutely and the Vatican at one time had absolute power of religion and politics. Woe to anyone who dare question them- including Christians who were often killed simply for having a Bible in their possession.

I can't believe you don't believe Harry died for your sins. Geeze..it's in the BOOK!

Tell you what. You have J.K. Rowling tortured and killed for her testimony that Harry died for our sins. This happened to all the apostles with the exception of John and hundreds of other church founders and original witnesses. We say confessions aren't acceptable under torture because people will say anything to get it to stop, right? These people still never recanted even upon torture and death. J.K. Rowling is making millions on her books. The apostles and other N.T. authors were killed for their books.

[edit on 1/31/2008 by AshleyD]

Originally posted by AshleyD

One problem. Those are Old Testament Jewish laws. We are not living under the Old Testament covenant and law nor are we Jews. We are Christians who live under Christian "laws" and New Testament covenant. The only two laws we are given is to love God and love our fellow man.

[edit on 1/30/2008 by AshleyD]

It would appear you have lost the entire purpose of this thread. There is no OLD covenant for "jews", only GODs law for mankind.............

(and I was so hopeful for this one)..................