Red Flags You Are In A Crazy Church

[Thackerie]

Yes, that is about your level, I agree.

 

Typical 'meat-drink-copulation' cage-dweller. I see now why you don't take your philosophy of life too seriously. It is commendable that you give to animal charities though, I respect that.

 

Best wishes,

Paul.

 

Well, you just lost me, Mr. Arrogant Judgmental. Not that I'd believe the god crap, anyway, but I'd have at least listened. Now, I see that you have nothing to say -- other than that you're wholly holy and better than normal people.

[Paul]

I never said I was holy. I am arrogant, but not judgmental, so you're half right. I must say though, for a lady you have a rather dirty mouth.

 

Best wishes,

Paul.

[midniterider]

Yes, that is about your level, I agree.

 

Typical 'meat-drink-copulation' cage-dweller. I see now why you don't take your philosophy of life too seriously. It is commendable that you give to animal charities though, I respect that.

 

Best wishes,

Paul.

 

So tell me, why is it important to take your philosophy of life seriously?

 

I guess if you're very serious and judgmental then Jesus will love you, eh?

[Thackerie]

I never said I was holy. I am arrogant, but not judgmental, so you're half right. I must say though, for a lady you have a rather dirty mouth.

 

Best wishes,

Paul.

 

Ohh, I see that I can now add to the list that you are also a sexist pig.

 

Move along, little Trolly, you're not going to pick up any converts here.

[midniterider]

I never said I was holy. I am arrogant, but not judgmental, so you're half right. I must say though, for a lady you have a rather dirty mouth.

 

Best wishes,

Paul.

 

"Typical 'meat-drink-copulation' cage-dweller."  <-- Judgemental. But so am I.

[midniterider]

 

I never said I was holy. I am arrogant, but not judgmental, so you're half right. I must say though, for a lady you have a rather dirty mouth.

 

Best wishes,

Paul.

 

Ohh, I see that I can now add to the list that you are also a sexist pig.

 

Move along, little Trolly, you're not going to pick up any converts here.

 

 

He says he's a Christian. Wouldn't it be fun to go to a church full of Pauls?

[midniterider]

I never said I was holy.

 

Just self absorbed.

 

I can't see you worshiping Jesus. Or anything else. 

[Thackerie]

 

 

I never said I was holy. I am arrogant, but not judgmental, so you're half right. I must say though, for a lady you have a rather dirty mouth.

 

Best wishes,

Paul.

 

Ohh, I see that I can now add to the list that you are also a sexist pig.

 

Move along, little Trolly, you're not going to pick up any converts here.

 

 

He says he's a Christian. Wouldn't it be fun to go to a church full of Pauls?

 

 

I think I did. Just one of the reasons why I want nothing more to do with these nasty, self-absorbed, judgmental, sexist piggies.

[raoul]

"You can try and pretend you're not a fundy but we know you are.  None of your points apply to us because we are EX-christians.  We don't have to worry about any of that shit now.  Neither do you, if you would only open your mind."

 

FreeThinkerNZ,

 

I am a fundamentalist concerning the core teachings of the scriptures. 

 

I am against all the crap that has been attached to the Christian faith that has enslaved so many

and driven many more away from the faith.

 

It may not worry you, but it really ticks me off. 

 

My mind is not open, it's thinking.

Why are you here? As you were told, this is for ex Christians. People like you coming along here reminds me of an analogy where we're former drug addicts who have kicked the habit (jesus myth following, etc.). But then a drug dealer (you) comes along and tries to hook us back into that insidious habit.

[Jeff]

Troll or nutty was my first thoughts.

I'm going with troll at this point.

[mymistake]

Troll or nutty was my first thoughts.

I'm going with troll at this point.

 

 

Paul has already admitted to being a troll in the other thread; the thread that is locked.

 

http://www.ex-christian.net/topic/68874-the-real-god/page-4#.VbfTpXjT55g

 

Post #61

 

"I am indeed just a troll who wants to argue."

 

 

 

Seeing how he came in with a chip on his shoulder and a fixation with us proving he is "mad" I am wondering

 

it he has been here before under a different name.  He is acting like he has some baggage.

[midniterider]

Per Florduh's request in the other thread:

 

http://www.funnycatpix.com/

[florduh]

Thanks. Looking at cat pictures is more fun than interacting with a troll. More useful, too.

[TheOutsider]

Per Florduh's request in the other thread:

 

http://www.funnycatpix.com/

 

Can't... Stop... Clicking...

[bdp]

I honestly don't know why you guys still humor 'ironhorse' at this point.

[bdp]

'Paul' - ignored.

[sdelsolray]

Prophesy:  Paul won't last much longer around here, either by his own decision to leave or because he will be banned.

[Brother Jeff]

A fair question Brother Jeff.

 

I believe the scripture's core teaching is that Jesus was God.

 

When asked he said the greatest commandment, was to love God with all our heart, soul and mind, and to love our neighbors as ourselves.

 

This is how we understand the biblical message and our relationship to the world.

 

Actually, only the Gospel of John has Jesus claiming to be God. John is the latest Gospel (written around 95AD), and while I hate to be the bearer of bad news for you, few if any of the sayings of Jesus in the Gospels are actually authentic. The earliest Christology we are aware of from scripture is Jesus being elevated to divine status after his death (but not God), Paul believed Jesus was an angel (see Gal. 4:14), and only later did Jesus come to be viewed as fully human and fully God at the same time. It's a process of gradually moving from a "low" to a "high" Christology that can be traced. 

 

 

I strongly recommend that you take the time to read "How Jesus Became God" by Dr. Bart Ehrman. You'll learn a lot and that knowledge might help you out around here.

 

http://www.amazon.com/How-Jesus-Became-God-Exaltation/dp/0061778192/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1438127792&sr=1-1&keywords=how+jesus+became+god

 

Glory!

[mymistake]

¹Paul called to be an aposTROLL of Jesus Christ through the will of the Real God, Dionysus our divine Brother.

 

²Unto the ex-church of the not-Jesus which is at Ex-Christian dot net

 

 

I think I've read this before . . . somewhere else.

[Brother Jeff]

Brother IH,

 

This glorious video explains who the Lard Jesus is:

 

 

Glory!

[sdelsolray]

- You are required to only read the approved Bible translation.

 

- Speaking in tongues is taught as a must do. You must seek it to be a real Christian.

 

- You are forbidden from certain foods or drink.

 

- If you come down with a terminal disease, don't worry, God will heal you.

 

- Don't be friends with non-Christians.

 

- Whatever you ask, Jesus will give it to you. You must have faith and be pure.

 

- Never question the pastor's teachings.

 

- You must hold up your hands up during praise and worship. 

 

- Give your offering or God will punish you.

 

- The Last Days are explained easily by a huge chart. You are told exactly the way it will unfold.

 

Your "dispute" is with other Christian denominations.  Why raise it here?  Most, if not all, of us Ex-Christians are well aware of the petty and infantile tit-for-tats thrown back, forth and among the members of the dizzying number of Christian sects, denominations, cults and sub-cults.  You are just a member of one such group who (not surprisingly) claims to adhere to the True Christianity™.

 

From another perspective, your post is old news and quite boring.

[amateur]

     So "community" and "charity" are reasons for going to a church?  Nothing more?

 

     I could just sit in a park with other people and toss money into a fountain.  That's pretty much the same thing.

 

          mwc

That's a beautiful thought.  Sitting in a park on a sunny day with relaxed people and tossing coins into a fountain.

 

Thank you for that lovely image!

 

Peace.

[Castiel233]

Well, whichever way you cut it, at least going to church is an active thing, as opposed to the passive position of carping from the sidelines.

 

Positivity and negativity. I can't see anything positive in your comments. Conversely, someone going to church is at least experiencing the positive aspect of belonging to a community, and will probably be giving to charity at regular intervals too, another positive thing.

 

Best wishes,

Paul.

I like carping from the sidelines and one day I trust I will be an old man that yells at cloud 

[Brother Jeff]

 

Well, whichever way you cut it, at least going to church is an active thing, as opposed to the passive position of carping from the sidelines.

 

Positivity and negativity. I can't see anything positive in your comments. Conversely, someone going to church is at least experiencing the positive aspect of belonging to a community, and will probably be giving to charity at regular intervals too, another positive thing.

 

Best wishes,

Paul.

I like carping from the sidelines and one day I trust I will be an old man that yells at cloud 

 

 

[ironhorse]

Brother Jeff,

 

I am familiar with Ehrman's book, but I have not read it yet.

 

Here is part of a reader's review on Amazon that takes a critical view.

 

By Robert M. Bowman Jr, 

 

 As I see it, Ehrman gets a surprising number of things right. Jesus was a real historical person. The New Testament Gospels are our best source of information about that person. Jesus was crucified at the order of Pontius Pilate and died on the cross. Some of Jesus’ original followers sincerely believed not long afterward that they saw Jesus alive from the dead. Already, we’ve eliminated about 90 percent of the nonsense we so often hear from skeptics about Jesus, and we’re not done yet.

 

Ehrman agrees that the earliest Christians regarded Jesus as in some sense divine and that within about twenty years, even before Paul, at least some Jewish Christians believed that Jesus was a preexistent divine being. (Skeptics usually try to blame this idea on Paul.) The belief that Jesus existed before creation as God (and yet not God the Father) arose even before the Gospel of John. One could hardly wish for more agreements and even concessions from the world’s most influential agnostic biblical scholar.

 

 

Having given credit where credit is due, I must move on to identify what I think are some of the weakest links in Ehrman’s argument. For sake of brevity I limit the list to five.

 

1. Ehrman’s foundational premise of the fluidity of ancient concepts of the divine is certainly a major problem. Ehrman rightly finds such fluidity in Greco-Roman thought, but what he never addresses even once is the consistent, pervasive opposition to Greco-Roman notions of the divine throughout the New Testament—even when he touches on obviously relevant passages. For example, Ehrman discusses the tale of Jupiter and Mercury (or Zeus and Hermes) visiting Phrygia (19-22), commenting on the incident reported in Acts when Barnabas and Paul preached in Phrygia and were mistaken for Zeus and Hermes (Acts 14:8-18). But Ehrman glosses over Paul’s response to the Phrygians, in which he summoned them to turn from their idolatrous beliefs to accept the God of Jewish monotheism (Acts 14:15-17). Generalizations about “divine humans” in antiquity are simply irrelevant to understanding the origins of a monotheistic Jewish movement that regarded its crucified human founder as God.

 

 

Ehrman presents three models of the divine human in Greco-Roman culture: “gods who temporarily become human” (19-22), “divine beings born of a god and a mortal” (22-24), and “a human who becomes divine” (25-38). He admits that the case of Jesus does not fit any of these: “I don’t know of any other cases in ancient Greek or Roman thought of this kind of ‘god-man,’ where an already existing divine being is said to be born of a mortal woman” (18). He could have added to that sentence, “or Jewish thought.” This is the Achilles’ heel of Ehrman’s whole account of Christian origins. By his own admission, the Christian view of Jesus—a view he admits emerged within twenty years of Jesus’ crucifixion—was literally unprecedented.