sk8fool,
That's not much of a defense
what if? Possibilities don't evidence actualities.
bandwagon fallacy (many believe, so . . .)
And true premises and sound/valid arguments support the truth of my conclusions. It's not just what I think. Criticizing logic as subjective is like criticizing math as subjective.
As to prophecy, it's not evidence to say a made up story fulfills the prophecy of another made up story. Or to retrodict - say some past prophecy fulfills some past event.
And your focus is wrong, it's not what was right (better explained by chance, retrodicting, making up stories), but whether any were wrong - especially big ones. Like the end-times, son of man returning.
But Christians are batting 0 when it comes to prophecizing the end times. Every generation thinks they live in end times, and every generation has been wrong.
Including Jesus - he's clear what it means for the son of man to return (divide us up, sheep get eternal bliss and goats get damnation), and he prophecizes that it will happen in his generation.
We might not know day/hour, but this generation will not pass until these things will come to be, can't go to every town in Israel before son of man returns, and some here will not taste death until all these events shall pass.
if Jesus is divine, then his prophecies will come true (especially the big ones)
his prophecies do not come true (a big one - end of days)
So, Jesus is not divine.
But I like your civility and I'll read the article.
My 'what if' possibilities were directed more so at your way of thinking, not any doubt on my part as I fully believe in what I am saying.
Ignorance in some cases cannot be defined as logic.
"For the wisdom of this world (unbelievers) is foolishness in God's sight. As it is written: "He catches the wise in their craftiness." (1 Corinthians 3:19)
I quoted this passage before, it shows that even human logic can not fully fathom the divine, the only way to come to true understanding is to seek God yourself.
And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. Hebrews 11:6 - You must read this with the faith that this is true or you can't even begin to try and comprehend what God wants to reveal to you.
"Including Jesus - he's clear what it means for the son of man to return (divide us up, sheep get eternal bliss and goats get damnation), and he prophecizes that it will happen in his generation.
We might not know day/hour, but this generation will not pass until these things will come to be, can't go to every town in Israel before son of man returns, and some here will not taste death until all these events shall pass."
This is a total misinterpretation of scripture.
Gill's Exposition on Matthew 24:34 Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.
Verily I say unto you, this generation shall not pass,.... Not the generation of men in general; as if the sense was, that mankind should not cease, until the accomplishment of these things; nor the generation, or people of the Jews, who should continue to be a people, until all were fulfilled; nor the generation of Christians; as if the meaning was, that there should be always a set of Christians, or believers in Christ in the world, until all these events came to pass; but it respects that present age, or generation of men then living in it; and the sense is, that all the men of that age should not die, but some should live
till all these things were fulfilled; see Matthew 16:28 as many did, and as there is reason to believe they might, and must, since all these things had their accomplishment, in and about forty years after this: and certain it is, that John, one of the disciples of Christ, outlived the time by many years; and, as Dr. Lightfoot observes, many of the Jewish doctors now living, when Christ spoke these words, lived until the city was destroyed; as Rabban Simeon, who perished with it, R. Jochanan ben Zaccai, who outlived it, R. Zadoch, R. Ishmael, and others: this is a full and clear proof, that not anything that is said before, relates to the second coming of Christ, the day of judgment, and end of the world; but that all belong to the coming of the son of man, in the destruction of Jerusalem, and to the end of the Jewish state.
Barnes Notes:
This generation ... - This age; this race of people. A generation is about 30 or 40 years. The destruction of Jerusalem took place about forty years after this was spoken. See the notes at Matthew 16:28.
Till all these things ... - Until these things shall be accomplished. Until events shall take place which shall be a fulfillment of these words, if there were nothing further intended. He does not mean to exclude the reference to the judgment, but to say that the destruction of Jerusalem would be such as to make appropriate the words of the prediction, were there nothing beyond. Compare the notes at Matthew 1:22-23. So when "death" was threatened to Adam, the propriety of the threatening would have been seen, and the threatening would have been fulfilled, had people suffered only temporal death. At the same time the threatening had "a fullness of meaning" that would cover also, and justify, eternal death. Thus the words of Christ describing the destruction of Jerusalem had a fulness of signification that would meet also the events of the judgment, and whose meaning would not be "entirely filled up" until the world was closed.
"Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom." Matthew 16:28
"The reference, beyond doubt, is to the firm establishment and victorious progress, in the lifetime of some then present, of that new kingdom of Christ, which was destined to work the greatest of all changes on this earth, and be the grand pledge of His final coming in glory".
- Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
The kingdom of Christ has already begun thus the prophecy Jesus made has already been fulfilled. His second coming is the day and hour which is unknown when the God will judge the living and the dead.
Topic: Jamie vs. Ed (Read 17666 times)