I still believe that Hell is a place in the underworld, where Hades rule the dead souls.
According to ancient Greek mythology, Hades and his wife Persephone were the king and queen of the underworld. Persephone was the daughter of the goddess of the hearth, Demeter, and every winter Demeter would cover the earth with a white blanket of snow to mourn the departure of Persephone from the heavens.
If the Christian conception of God is translated into the Shangdi, the supreme sky deity in traditional Chinese religion, then it would not be so far-fetched to think that Zeus is the equivalent "God" to the pagan Greeks.
Unfortunately, modern-day Greeks no longer worship the ancient Greek gods and goddesses of Olympus anymore. Most of them probably belong to the Greek Orthodox Church, and some of them practice a form of neo-Paganism.
Well, at least we still have the Olympic Games. Hopefully, that may keep the Olympic gods happy, even though we somewhat have ignored them.
Hey, who's your favorite saint?
St. Mary Magdalene? St. Francis of Assisi? St. Peter? St. Andrew? St. Paul? St. Thomas?
A teasing Catholic joke about Protestants would probably be: "Ha-ha! Look at those Protestants! They believe in preserverance of the saints, so they pretty much worship themselves! Ha-ha! Idols!"
@CharlesAlsobrook Do you like her because she is known to be pure, chaste, and a perpetual virgin, caretaker of young women and all that?
@Anonymous mainly because the God of the Universe was so physically/intimately connected to her that she is called "Theotokos." No other human being was physically closer to God
@Anonymous After her its a 3 way tie between Ignatius of Antioch, Pope St. Gregory the Great, and Maximillian Kolbe
@Anonymous Ignatius because of he coined the phrase "Catholic Church," St. Gregory the Great for his invention of Gregorian Chant and his uber-humility, Maximillian Kolbe because of his witness to the Nazis
I guess I like St. Thomas Aquinas best. He's cool. I have a good impression of him, because he was mentioned before in one of my elective science classes.
@waxeagle So, you were born on October 5, 1985, Saturday. October 5, 2013 is also a Saturday. You might be born in the morning, afternoon, or evening at home or in a hospital. If at home, you may have been delivered by a midwife. If at the hospital, you may have been delivered by a nurse-midwife.
Sometime after your birth, your parents had you circumcised and baptised in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Then, you were raised in the PCA faith as a missionary kid, traveling with your parents and preaching the gospel to people.
Congratulations, wax eagle! You belong to the Millennials!
Basically, it's about a guy who (1) cheats on his wife, (2) tries to kill his wife, and (3) wastes gas to spend time with his mistress instead of actually looking for work and serving his family.
You know, people can get all the things they want when they just learn how to exhibit self-control and delay instant gratification.
There was this study by Green, Fry, ad Myerson in 1994 that was about asking people of different ages whether or not they wanted $500 today or $1000 in one year? Adults in the '60s were more likely to choose the bigger reward; college students were somewhat less likely to choose the delayed, bigger reward; and 12-year-olds almost never chose the delayed reward -- preferring immediate gratification. Sort of like the famous Marshmallow experiment. :)
Christianity started off as a cult religion before becoming a major religion today. The major event that put Christianity on the road to world domination was the conversion of Emperor Constantine into Christianity.
What strategic value did Christianity hold for Constantine that made him convert...
@Wikis The accounts of Mt., Mk., Lk, & Jn. that describe the crucifixion of Jesus are not congruent with the conjecture you've posted in item 4 of your answer. Further your conjecture asserts that Jesus' crucifixion is a direct benefit. That is not true for crucifying him was the sin of murder.
@Anonymous There is nothing that prevents you from worshiping the Greek's mythological gods. However the outcome of that impudent decision results in looking forward to a hell of a final ride. "You shall have no other gods before Me." is not an idle comment.
@TheodoreA.Jones Actually, I can think of two ways how a person may be prevented from worshiping the Greek gods of ancient times: (1) social pressure and (2) the Abrahamic mindset that any god other than the god of the Bible is considered idolatry.
@ Anoy. What you refer to as the "Abrahamic mind set" is actually the stated mind set of the living God. By attributing what is stated to a personage other than God it is a violation "You shall not have any other gods before Me." In reading your posts from time to time they display the constant factoid of any god to your mindset is God. This factoid will result in a hell of a final ride for you.
@Anonymous maybe Saint Cecilia, Saint Boniface, or Saint Columba (for non-Biblical saints)
Boniface was killed when his cart was attacked by bandits, who'd heard he was carrying the most precious treasure in the world. Turned out it was full of Bibles.
Columba has a lot of fun stories about him. I have been to his abbey on Iona several times.
He started a small war over, essentially, copyright. He copied out a psalter belonging to St Finian, who objected, and the quarrel led to an actual battle.
@Anonymous Wow. I knew Brady had a lot of channels, but I hadn't noticed a Bible-themed one. I do watch some of his channels (Numberphile, Nottingham Science, Computerphile, and Sixty Symbols). I'll have to add Bibledex to my list.
I find that typically the recommend for deletion options are not usually the reasons why I would delete a post. Here are reasons I would use more often because I see these problems more often:
The post has many grammatical and spelling errors. It is extremely low quality and is an embarrassment...
@Anonymous The Jews were actually the only conquered people group that were exempt from the Roman laws regarding worship. Otherwise, they would have been forced to worship various Roman Gods, and the Emperor.
They were exempt because it was a topic that they all would have fought and died for. Rome allowed them to keep their religion rather than squash them like a bug.
@fredsbend And God has the same agenda for the rest. For the door into God's kingdom at a designated time is to be shut. Wouldn't surprise me that that hasn't already happened.
@TheodoreA.Jones Why are you so sure you have the facts? Why are you so sure you know so much while everyone else is entirely wrong? I'm not asking you to explain what you believe or why you believe it. I am asking why you are so sure of your conclusions. Have you had visions, dreams, etc.?
@fredsbend No. No visions or dreams. Contemporary"Christian" churches, all of them, are measurably in the negative stat category when statistically measured. Very few ever find out what the small narrow gate is, but there is a church of some sort on the corner every block and several more in between those. The common denominator between these things is the unilateral stat "Jesus died in your place", but the fact is no he didn't.
@Wikis Your statement item 4 asserts that Jesus crucified himself. That conjecture is not true. In Acts 7:52 and in other places of this record it states that Jesus was murdered when he was crucified. (I think I failed to send this.) Maybe you'll understand why I disagree with your item 4 conjecture.
@TheodoreA.Jones This is not an answer why you are right. This is an answer why the others are wrong. You say that because "few will find the gate" there is a statistical likelihood that any given church is teaching damnable doctrine. Okay, that is fine. But there is still a failure to provide real stats.
"Few" is not exactly a number. Also, the verse, I think is relative to the whole world for all time. That is then that there are the few in the numerator and all the heathens for all time in the denominator. You see that the numerator could be quite large still.
And, of course, the glaring question: "If only few enter, then there is a statistical likelihood that you are holding a damnable doctrine as well. How do you answer this?"
> "Jesus died in your place", but the fact is no he didn't.
Why did Jesus die then? What was his crucifixion for?
@fredsbend Placation of a fact does not reduce its significance. The text referenced does not say few enter rather it says only a few ever find it. "For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God's sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous." Rom. 2:13 You need to remember Jesus' warning about the leaven/falsehood of a particular type. All contemporary "Christian" churches view Rom. 2:13 as leaven, but it is not. And it is my belief
that few is more than likely less than five. It will be one hell of a situation to find out I am right won't it?
I find that typically the recommend for deletion options are not usually the reasons why I would delete a post. Here are reasons I would use more often because I see these problems more often:
The post has many grammatical and spelling errors. It is extremely low quality and is an embarrassment...
