NFB: The Passion

[markd79ta]

Originally posted by TraceZ


Mark.. do you really think you are an a-hole and it is your fear of burning in hell that makes you a nice guy? C'mon now.... I'm sure you were told to do on to others as you would have them do on to you. I dont think you are all that bad

No, it is not the fear of anything that makes me believe as I do. However, It is the love for what was done for me that tempers my nature. My nature untempered is not all that great...really, it is not! However, I have a lot of love and reverence of what was done for me that makes me want to be a better person. ...that is what the "Passion" is all about. ...what was done for us believers, and why we live in reverence for our Lord and Savior!

[TODD 2000 V6 CAMARO]

This has been a great thread! Man, we are a well behaved bunch of guys aren't we? Anyway, I think I am done posting in this thread too. I just have a favor to ask of my fellow Christians who read this, I think we should pray for Sean and Tracy, and the others who don't believe. Kind of our own little F-bod prayer chain. Sean, Tracy....I hope you don't mind being prayed for...but if you do then uhmmm...well I'm gonna do it anyway. heheh Sorry...I feel led to do so. Just keep your "open minds" open....to believe in the "unproven" and unseen. Thanks for being so respectful in your posts.....at least we seem to be able to agree to disagree. Ok...back to reading the regular posts!

[TraceZ]

Originally posted by TODD 2000 V6 CAMARO
This has been a great thread! Man, we are a well behaved bunch of guys aren't we? Anyway, I think I am done posting in this thread too. I just have a favor to ask of my fellow Christians who read this, I think we should pray for Sean and Tracy, and the others who don't believe. Kind of our own little F-bod prayer chain. Sean, Tracy....I hope you don't mind being prayed for...but if you do then uhmmm...well I'm gonna do it anyway. heheh Sorry...I feel led to do so. Just keep your "open minds" open....to believe in the "unproven" and unseen. Thanks for being so respectful in your posts.....at least we seem to be able to agree to disagree. Ok...back to reading the regular posts!

I have no problem being in peoples prayers, it is very flattering. I speak to myself at night sometimes too, kind of like a prayer, but more just to help me sort out what is important in life and not really directed at god per say. If he exists, and hears me that all even better. I just cannot have the faith some of you here do until it is proven to me. It is a possibility, though. I am open minded.

[Jay 02 TA ws6]

Tracy, I do have a question for you. Have you spent any time reading/studying the Bible, or participating in a class or discussion group about it?

I encourage you to do this -- even if you are approaching it as an objective learning experience about religion. Take it as a class to learn, not as something to grow your faith. I think a lot of answers to the tough questions you have asked will be given or discussed.

I am not Buddhist or Muslim, but I would definitely like to take some classes learning the intricacies of those religions. I guess I just have a thirst for knowledge I can't see anything bad coming from spreading your wings and increasing your knowledge.

[Sean 94z28]

I am extremely appreciative of anyone's outward expression of care and well being for others. Prayers would certainly fall under this category.

Tracy and I both seem very willing to offer the most we can give back, genuine concern for our friends and an open mind towards your beliefs.

Thanks for all the references and the forum to discuss this rationally.

Sean

See pic:

Here's a sobering image from JPL/NASA. In his book, "Pale Blue Dot" (1994) Carl Sagan showed just where he obtained that provocative title. It's a photo that was taken by the space probe Voyager 1 on February 14, 1990. As the spacecraft left our neighborhood for the outer fringes of the solar system, engineers turned it around for one last look back at its home planet. The camera was about 6.4 billion kilometers (4 billion miles) away from Earth when it captured and sent back this lonely portrait of our world. Caught in the center of scattered light rays (a result of taking the picture so close to the Sun), Earth appears as a tiny point of light, a crescent only 0.12 pixel in size. Carl wrote beautifully of the significance of that tiny image:


Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there — on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.

[N20LT4Bird]

Maybe this will be my last one too. Good discussion f'ers (as wolfman would put it).

Originally posted by Sean 94z28
So I got called out (and failed?), and am now turning it around; So is there any part of the Bible, that the majority of Biblical scholars agree is not literal? Which? How do they know it is a metaphor and that other parts are not? And it doesn't count if the text specifically says it is a story or example. Like the 7 days, biblical scholars mostly believe what? Is even this mutually agreed upon?

Im not sure what you're getting at here but, Biblical scholar disagree on a lot of things. It depends on who you talk to: conservative or liberal, protestant or catholic, stupid or smart etc... The only metaphors I think everyone agrees on are the parables of Jesus. He pretty much lays them out as just stories.

Originally posted by Sean 94z28

Now tell me this. Are there any good examples of real "divine" knowledge in the book? Like where something specific was said that couln't be proven until now. For example, if Jesus had suggested the world that was round. Or that the earth is moving around the sun. Seems to me, the only thing the Bible knows is what is was attempting to explain. Kinda like their best shot at a science.

Its interesting you bring this up because part of what makes me realize the Book is divine is the fact that ALL of the prophesies of the Messiah in the Old testament (written 1000's of yrs B.C.) were fulfilled in Christ. The books of Isaiah and Psalms are filled with prophesies of the lineage, birth, life and crucifixion of Jesus Christ. I forget the number (over 100 though) of prophesies for the Messiah in the Old Testament, but EVERY one was fulfilled in Him. Its a no - brainer to me.

Originally posted by Sean 94z28

It is far from faith that allows us to sit in a chair. It is experience and knowledge. Would you sit in a one-legged chair, or one with invisible legs?

I guess it's part experience and knowledge that allows me to put my faith in Christ too! I have read His word (knowledge) and I have experienced Him personally. So, it doesnt have to be blind faith - but faith is required.

[TraceZ]

I thought I'd add a little humor to the subject as it seems to be winding down.

http://www.theonion.com/news/