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In general when I hear BS as a means of defending one's position I generally dramatically lower my expectations for civil and constructive discourse. BS is just another word for I can't defend my position thus I must attempt to discredit yours with vulgarity. You claim to prefer Jesus and Paul...

Inquisitor: I appreciate your thoughtful response. I want to take up the conversation further on several issues. Historical timelines: You recognize there are biblical scholars that look at a series of facts and come to different opinions. The idea of the "Maximalists" and "Minimalists" are...

ScooterJackson, The fact on the ground before Rome took over the Church is that there was a very large and varied practice of Christianity. Not all congregations recognized the same scrolls as authoritative. Many revered as inspired books that modern Christians have never even heard of. What...

ScooterJackson I got your Radiocarbon dating is "so old." Very clever humor. Carbon-12 is a stable, non-radioactive atom that makes up about 99% of all carbon on Earth. It does not break down or change over time, providing a steady baseline for measurement.Carbon-14 is a rare, radioactive atom...

ScooterJackson As I have noted before, IMHO the idea of cessation only came about as the Roman Empire took control over the Christian church and booked no competition from those who claimed special knowledge from God or special powers from God. I also believe that by wrongly defining special...

Groovy & OMC I really enjoy the back and forth between the two of you in your hermeneutical jousting. In general, the two of you, as seen in this discussion, illuminate two broadly different ways of dealing with the Hebrew Bible in or out of context with the current theological needs. On one...

It has been my experience over the past 6+ decades that when I hear a person talk about their conversion, it essentially means one of two things. 1. They were born into a church going family and it was expected they would join the church via a "conversion experience" and the net sum of that...

Much of what you said is accurate to the degree we can expect to achieve "accuracy." However your idea the absence of counter facts is proof of the facts is not logical. The dating of many original composers of the Hebrew bible is exactly because they reflect the issues and the events of their...

Perhaps I not being clear....I hear that alot. My point is no matter what the few elite and literary knew, there is no evidence that any of that was known by the masses, pre or post exilic. Elephante was post exilic yet these Jews named their kids after all kinds gods. Yet they had a liturgy...

Inquisitor: You miss my point. I am not making any claim about when any part of the Hebrew Bible was WRITTEN. We do know it was under regular changes and merges after the original was written. Using the book of Joshua to prove anything is a big stretch. My point is not when something might have...

I might make the observation that the Jews did not come under the Law of Moses until approximately 250 BC. Prior to that, there is not only no evidence that the Jewish people and their Jewish culture had any knowledge much less practice of the Jewish law. They are non-kosher, they regularly...

OMC Perhaps the saddest thing we can say is that all Christians will never come to the same theological conclusions, we care more about that intellectual warfare than living and walking with Jesus in His sacrificial loving manner which comes so naturally to the redeemed.

OMC Well said, as usual and factual. However, sometimes in our scripture diving we lose sight of the Big Picture. Jesus acted in sacrificial love of the lost enough to give up his life in agonizing suffering as a human. His life is all the "theology" needed. "By this shall all men know you are...

Lamar: Miracles are in the eye of the beholder. If you are looking for a miracle you are likely to find one or more. There are lots of people out there who will promise you a miracle, given you can afford it. When Jesus was baptised by John some heard God say, "This is my beloved Son in whom I...

GWH: AKA, the Golden Rule????? If sacrificial loving as in modeling Jesus then the "Golden Rule" defunct. You must love those who oppose you. Those that demean you. Those who slap you on the face. Those that want you to be an intellectual lamb for theological slaughter, you must offer yourself...

Inquisitor: An interesting perspective - "In the New Testament we are more focused on the Church than the world." That may be the reality on the ground but is it the reality required by Christ Jesus? Let's remember leaving the 99 safe sheep to find the lost one. Lets remember the return of the...

IMHO, your expression of spiritual reality is much improved in this piece. I really like it. One reason I like it is that it contains the seeds for the reunification of all believers. Few quibble about what the spirit filled life God has through Jesus called us to. The problem is always the...

OMC: My response was to your use of the word "alignment." The list you provided, while coherent, is not an alignment with anything but your narrative. I can better understand attempting to align with a narrative, which you provided, than with the scriptures as suggested because they are...

Alignment is an interesting concept. Even alignment-adjacent is challenging. It assumes there is a coherent, consistent and navigable framework for that alignment stretching from 800 BC Canaan to 100 AD Rome. That unique alignment must align stories, wars, history, songs, poems, allegories and...