@Celestial_Teapot - Nonetheless whether or not you want to believe or not want to believe, it is up to yourself.
Even if there were pictures a scoffer will still not believe. If it did not happen, there is no faith either. Definitely what separates a believer and a non believer is faith.
Even Thomas could not believe that Jesus arose until he saw the wounds on Jesus.
this surely is not related, but shouldn’t all these bunnies that lay eggs thing should be changed or something, so that people would actually come back to the actual thing being celebrated? not to mention kids would actually think bunnies do lay eggs.. i mean, just like santa, when they come to realize that those are not true, they might just conclude everything about it is just fiction and should just be thrown out of the window.. (just my thought from personal observation from afar, but i’m interested in your take about this)
@PPhilip - “Nonetheless whether or not you want to believe or not want to believe, it is up to yourself.”
Our ability to believe is directly determined by the sort of evidence available. And if true, it would be nice if there are clearer support for the resurrection.
My comment was partly meant as a joke, but it was also partly getting to this point.
“Even if there were pictures a scoffer will still not believe. If it did not happen, there is no faith either. Definitely what separates a believer and a non believer is faith.”
I’m in agreement here– even with photographs from the moon landing, even with footage from the 9//11 plane crashes, and even with President Obama having released his birth certificate we continue to have deniers and conspiracy theorists.
But of Jesus did exist and his coming back was meant to win his people over to his teachings, I wonder why didn’t he choose a more decisive and wider-affecting demonstration. Recall that even being a Jew himself and teaching amongst the Jews, most of Jesus’ remained unconverted to Christianity. And similarly, despite the resources available to him, the most we have in the way of supporting the truthfulness of the resurrection are the questionable accounts of the Gospels and Acts.
Your wife couldn’t be more pleased, I’m sure!!
I have no problem believing that Jesus fully died and then rose from the dead.
@Celestial_Teapot - They didn’t need pictures back then J,they had the real thing and yet not only did they not believe,they gave Him a criminal’s death.And the proof is that it all was told of 100′s of years beforehand.You could’ve had a video of it saved til now and people would still make excuses to call it fake or just simply not believe because they love their sin too much to believe it.There is plenty of proof without pics and videos.There are eyewitness writing.You believe a bogus history book of things that it says happened in American history that are false but denigh truth thats laid right before you.If only you could at least say like the centerion,”I believe Lord,help my unbelief”
@Celestial_Teapot - ”But of Jesus did exist and his coming back was meant to win his people over to his teachings, I wonder why didn’t he choose a more decisive and wider-affecting demonstration. Recall that even being a Jew himself and teaching amongst the Jews, most of Jesus’ remained unconverted to Christianity.” I have a couple thoughts on this, if I may interject. I see where you are coming from, but I think you have a misunderstanding about the resurrection. The idea that Jesus’ resurrection happened to win people over to Christianity is a misunderstanding of the resurrection. Christians believe that we will resurrect just like Christ did. The resurrection wasn’t meant to win people over, but to give people hope for what’s to come. If it had been for the sake of conversion, he would have appeared to more people than simply those who already believed in him. Also, it seems to me that Jesus was less interested in converting and more interested in teaching others how to live. Not that telling others of Jesus is unimportant to our faith, but the idea of converting others didn’t come into play until hundreds of years after Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension, when Christianity became the state religion of Rome… Christianity is still bearing those scars. Before those days started, people were coming to Jesus not out of fear of the state, not out of fear of hell, but out of seeing the sincerity of the people in the Religion. These days, that is very hard to come by… and that’s one of the scars of the Church given by merging the Church and state.
@maniacsicko - I don’t know what to think. I’m very conflicted over the issue. I can see how it would cause a problem, but my family celebrated Easter with the Easter Bunny and Christmas with Santa, and I seemed to have turned out fine… Either way, I am all for celebrating these days for their intended purpose.
Comments (11)
Pictures or it didn’t happen. =P
@Celestial_Teapot - Nonetheless whether or not you want to believe or not want to believe, it is up to yourself.
Even if there were pictures a scoffer will still not believe. If it did not happen, there is no faith either. Definitely what separates a believer and a non believer is faith.
Even Thomas could not believe that Jesus arose until he saw the wounds on Jesus.
this surely is not related, but shouldn’t all these bunnies that lay eggs thing should be changed or something, so that people would actually come back to the actual thing being celebrated? not to mention kids would actually think bunnies do lay eggs.. i mean, just like santa, when they come to realize that those are not true, they might just conclude everything about it is just fiction and should just be thrown out of the window.. (just my thought from personal observation from afar, but i’m interested in your take about this)
@PPhilip - “Nonetheless whether or not you want to believe or not want to believe, it is up to yourself.”
Our ability to believe is directly determined by the sort of evidence available. And if true, it would be nice if there are clearer support for the resurrection.
My comment was partly meant as a joke, but it was also partly getting to this point.
“Even if there were pictures a scoffer will still not believe. If it did not happen, there is no faith either. Definitely what separates a believer and a non believer is faith.”
I’m in agreement here– even with photographs from the moon landing, even with footage from the 9//11 plane crashes, and even with President Obama having released his birth certificate we continue to have deniers and conspiracy theorists.
But of Jesus did exist and his coming back was meant to win his people over to his teachings, I wonder why didn’t he choose a more decisive and wider-affecting demonstration. Recall that even being a Jew himself and teaching amongst the Jews, most of Jesus’ remained unconverted to Christianity. And similarly, despite the resources available to him, the most we have in the way of supporting the truthfulness of the resurrection are the questionable accounts of the Gospels and Acts.
Your wife couldn’t be more pleased, I’m sure!!
I have no problem believing that Jesus fully died and then rose from the dead.
@Celestial_Teapot - The tomb is EMPTY!!!
He is Risen indeed!
@Celestial_Teapot - They didn’t need pictures back then J,they had the real thing and yet not only did they not believe,they gave Him a criminal’s death.And the proof is that it all was told of 100′s of years beforehand.You could’ve had a video of it saved til now and people would still make excuses to call it fake or just simply not believe because they love their sin too much to believe it.There is plenty of proof without pics and videos.There are eyewitness writing.You believe a bogus history book of things that it says happened in American history that are false but denigh truth thats laid right before you.If only you could at least say like the centerion,”I believe Lord,help my unbelief”
@Celestial_Teapot - ”But of Jesus did exist and his coming back
was meant to win his people over to his teachings, I wonder why didn’t
he choose a more decisive and wider-affecting demonstration. Recall that even being a Jew himself and teaching amongst the Jews, most of Jesus’ remained unconverted to Christianity.”
I have a couple thoughts on this, if I may interject. I see where you are coming from, but I think you have a misunderstanding about the resurrection. The idea that Jesus’ resurrection happened to win people over to Christianity is a misunderstanding of the resurrection. Christians believe that we will resurrect just like Christ did. The resurrection wasn’t meant to win people over, but to give people hope for what’s to come. If it had been for the sake of conversion, he would have appeared to more people than simply those who already believed in him. Also, it seems to me that Jesus was less interested in converting and more interested in teaching others how to live. Not that telling others of Jesus is unimportant to our faith, but the idea of converting others didn’t come into play until hundreds of years after Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension, when Christianity became the state religion of Rome… Christianity is still bearing those scars. Before those days started, people were coming to Jesus not out of fear of the state, not out of fear of hell, but out of seeing the sincerity of the people in the Religion. These days, that is very hard to come by… and that’s one of the scars of the Church given by merging the Church and state.
@maniacsicko - I don’t know what to think. I’m very conflicted over the issue. I can see how it would cause a problem, but my family celebrated Easter with the Easter Bunny and Christmas with Santa, and I seemed to have turned out fine… Either way, I am all for celebrating these days for their intended purpose.
@HUMOR_ME_NOW - Neither do I