April 18, 2010, 9:31 am by dc-agape.

The doom and gloom that is being preached as a weapon against the American Protection and Affordable Care Act is almost as hypocritical as the first reason I introduced last week.  Second, these same people are supposed to trust YHWH will protect them from harm.  Of course, they are doing neither.  They have lost the focus on heavenly things and are completely engrossed in the affairs of this earthly life.  But I want to introduce a few passages from the Bible that will explain the errors (and sins) of today’s Christian better than I can.

Let me start with this passage:

1^st John 2:15-17 Do not love the world or anything in the world.  If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For everything in the world – the craving of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does – comes not from the Father but from the world.  The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.

Notice the word “anything” at the beginning of this passage.  When you add the “craving of sinful man” to that word “anything” guess what John is speaking of?  BTW, this passage was written by John the same man who wrote the Gospel of John, so this is an important passage written at the very beginning of Christian history.  Money and security are “cravings of sinful man”.  The fear of the financial collapse of the US of A is the fear of losing both money and security.  The only way to fear the loss of these two items is to love the world more than to love YHWH.  This is in direct contradiction to the teachings of Jesus and the Apostles.  In other words, to possess this fear is to be hypocritical.

So why should Christians not fear the loss of money and security, other than these are concepts related to the world and not to YHWH?  How about this passage from the Gospels:

Matt 6:25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear.  Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?

This is a direct teaching of Jesus.  If someone is to follow Jesus and to act like Jesus, a person must follow what Jesus taught.  Jesus directly tells his followers to stop worrying about food and clothing, is money more important to him than food and clothing?  Of course not!  In fact he clearly states this in the following passage:

Matt 6:31-4 So do not worry saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.  But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Plainly, Jesus is telling his followers to stop being fearful and trust YHWH.  If YHWH will supply the needs of his people (food, water, clothing) then money is not important.  And hence, whether the US of A has a financial crisis is of no concern to the Christian.  Yet instead, because the modern Christian does not trust YHWH and loves the world more than YHWH, the fear of a financial crisis in the US of A is more important to Christian than loving the citizens of this “Christian nation”.  And by loving the citizens I mean allowing all US citizens to have the same health care as the wealthy!

What hypocrisy the modern Christians of the US of A are showing for the whole world to see.  Not only does this hypocrisy fail to live up to the standard of true Christianity, to leaves a nasty image behind for the non-believer.  To the Atheist, we see Americans that are worried about their own well-being (not very Christian-like image).  But maybe worst of all, the international community (Muslims, Buddhist, and Hindu) see an image of Christianity that is only worried about one thing: personal gain.  No wonder the Muslims extremist see Americans as infidels!  There is no sign of spirituality in the image that American Christians broadcast to the world. 

Posted in Contradictions, Becoming an atheist | Print | 1 Comment »

April 10, 2010, 4:53 pm by dc-agape.

Recently the United States has had a monumental bill passed in our Congress and signed by President Obama.  The Bill of interest is the National Health Care bill actually called the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.  The future implications of this Act are yet to be determined, with lots of hope from many and just as many people moaning about DOOM.  But I would like to mention the historical implications of this Act.  The first President that attempted to enact such a bill was none other than US President Theodore Roosevelt in 1912.  Further attempts were made by US Presidents Franklin D Roosevelt, Harry S Truman, Richard M Nixon, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton.  For over 100 years the US of A has been attempting to improve the health care of the citizens of this nation.   During this time period we have had some successes: such as Medicare signed into law by Lyndon B Johnson.  It would seem from these past results that it was true that the US government was protecting the citizens the democracy was formed to protect.  Yet oddly, now that we have a much stronger health care plan enacted, it would seem that people believe that the US government has failed and will ultimately destroy the foundation of the US of A.  Who is it that seems to believe this line of thought?  It would be the Christian right-wing conservatives of the Republican National Party (RNC or GOP).  This combination of religious and Doom Sayers is odd for two reasons, which is the reason for this post.  It is exactly those who claim the US of A is a Christian Nation that does not want this health care Act to succeed.  Yet both their strongest reasons for denying this legislation are in direct conflict with the teaching of Jesus – the person they are supposed to mimic.  I want to take a closer look at what Jesus actually taught which conflicts with the opposition to this Act.  First, I will address the concept of saving the US of A’s economy.  Second, I will address the fear use to strengthen the opposition to this Act. The first teaching of Jesus I want to use is that of the Rich Young Man from this passage: 

Matt 19:20-22 “All these I have kept,” the young man said.  “What do I still lack?” Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.  Then come, follow me.”  When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.

The most important word in the previous passage is a simple “then”.  Notice that this word comes after the requirement from Jesus that the young man sell his possessions.  And notice as well that Jesus did not say “sell some of your possessions” or “sell just enough of your possessions”.  Jesus required that the rich young man sell his possession before following Jesus.  Is it not completely clear to the Xtian that Jesus does not teach a comforting message?  Is it not clear that living the life of Jesus is not done from your comfortable couch in your comfortable house in your comfortable neighborhood in your comfortable earthly nation?  Yet somehow Xtians have deluded themselves that they can have their cake and eat it too.   To understand this further I want to bring to your attention the Book of Acts:

Acts 2:44-46 All the believers were together and had everything in common.  Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.

Even after Jesus’ death his followers did as Jesus taught.  You should pay close attention to the words “All”, “everything” and “anyone” in the passage from the Book of Acts.  This clearly states that everyone who believed shared everything that they owned with each other!  They took care of the weak, the sick, the poor, and the hungry.  They did not fear or hoard their personal money or possessions…for they did not have anything to hoard.  They had already sold everything of value to help the poor and sick in their community.  So how exactly is the US of A considered a Christian Nation?  It certainly cannot be based on providing for those in need!  Where has the desire to follow Jesus if the exact examples that he required of his followers, and his followers continued cannot be seen today in the US of A?   I will have to post on the fear side of this heath care Act next week.  I would like to finish with this quote from Jesus: 

Matt 19:24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

Let’s be completely clear here: if you are reading this post you are a rich man (or woman)!  If you drive your own car to work, you are a rich person.  If you buy your vegetables from a grocery store, you are a rich person.  Let’s face it; if you live in the US of A and do not live in a homeless shelter, you most likely are a rich person.  Yet Jesus clearly states that being rich and going to heaven are mutually exclusive! Yet here in the US of A not a single Xtian church teaches to give everything you own to the poor!  But the poor are part of this Christian Nation.  Would not Jesus give to the poor in this Christian Nation?  Let’s face it… the US of A is not a Christian Nation.

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April 4, 2010, 2:10 pm by dc-agape.

It is another Christian Holiday here in the US of A.  I have posted previously about Xtains stealing holidays from other cultures due to cultural pressure.  Easter is no different.  Xtians claim that Easter represents the death and resurrection of their savior, yet three things make that questionable to the non-believer.  These three points are: Easter falls on the Jewish Passover, the date of Easter is calculated on the lunar year, and an interesting mathematical quandary. 

If Jesus was born on a single day in the winter – Dec 25^th – of (most likely) 4 BCE, how is it that his death is randomly chosen each year to land on the lunar date of the Jewish Passover?  As with Xmas, Easter was an attempt to convert Jewish citizen to the new religion.  People could hide their celebration behind a Jewish custom.  People could continue to look outwardly like the Jewish people, yet celebrate an Xtian holiday.  People would not miss their old customs of family and communities while being Xtians.  In other words, Xtians did not have to give anything up to fit into society!  Great Xtian traditions start early…fit into the world, don’t give it up.  Don’t make waves…it might get you killed.  To say the least, imitating other religions holidays is cowardly!  It is hypocritical; Christianity is about giving up the earthy desires and no longer belonging to the world.  Hiding the true meaning of you calibrations behind other religions holidays is contrary to the teachings of Jesus.

Using the lunar calendar is perfectly acceptable, except in the fact that both Islam and Judaism both use it as well.  Why follow the old religion (Judaism) if the birth of Jesus was not celebrated based on the lunar calendar? Since we no longer use the Jewish calendar that indicates that the Sabbath is on Saturday, why use the old religions calendar for an important holiday such as Easter?  It seems odd that a new religion, based on ignoring the desires of the world, would choice to hide the most important date in their religion behind another religion’s holiday. 

But here is the best part of Easter:  The mathematical quandary!  You see Good Friday is the day Jesus died on the cross, yet Easter Sunday is the day that he was supposedly resurrected.  Simple enough, right?  Not even close!  What is missing from this mathematical equation is that Jesus was dead for 3 days.  One must remember that the recorded time of Jesus’ death is at the end of Friday.  The recorded resurrection of Jesus is Sunday morning.  This adds up to only 36 hour!  Unless days were 12 hours 2000 years ago this does not equal 3 days.  For 1685 years Xtians have had to do some fantastic mathematical leaps to double the number of days from 1.5 to 3.  That’s right for Jesus to have been dead for 3 days; he would have to have risen from the dead on Tuesday morning (or at least Monday night)! 

Posted in Resurrection, Contradictions, Traditions of Men, Inerrancy - My Ass, Becoming an atheist | Print | 2 Comments »

December 8, 2009, 7:55 am by dc-agape.

A Vision of a New Jerusalem

The good news is that I finished the proposal for my trip to Korea!  The bad news is that I still have 2 journal articles to write and prepare 2-3 presentations for upcoming professional conferences!  Hopefully I will have time to devote to this blog again.

In attempting that I want to discuss the next Scroll from the Dead Sea Scrolls entitled “A Vision of a New Jerusalem”.  But this scroll will take two posts.  This post is dedicated as an introduction, whereas the second post will be the actual reading of the scroll.  The concept of a new Temple and a New Jerusalem is the reason for this scroll and I want to cover a little history before delving into the actual Scroll.

Of course the Old Testament has a number of references to a new Temple.  But only the New Testament (Ezekiel, Isaiah, Ezra and Tobit) has a reference to the New Jerusalem (Ezekiel and Revelation).  The Dead Sea Scrolls has an additional Scroll call the Temple Scroll that only deals with the New Temple itself.  What I want to do in this post is look at the other religious documents that relate to the Vision of a New Jerusalem.  These would be the five that I mentioned at the beginning of this paragraph.

The Book of Ezekiel was written between 593 and 565 BCE.  During this time Nebuchadnezzar and his armies destroyed the original Temple in 586 BCE, which Solomon built in 960 BCE.  Interestingly, when one does physical research on this “First Temple” there is not documentation (except the Bible) of it ever existing and worse is that there is no archeological proof that it existed either!¹  To add to this, even the Jewish Talmud claims that the Temple was not destroyed until 420 BCE.²  But if we should take Ezekiel at face value…his writings were either recorded as the Temple was destroyed or after the destruction.  One must keep in mind that the war between the Babylonians and the Israelites had been in progress since 597 BCE, prior to the recording of the Book of Ezekiel.  The chapters in the Book of Ezekiel of importance to this post are chapters 40 – 48.  Here Ezekiel has a vision of a new Temple surrounded by a new territory for the Israelite community.  As recorded in Ezekiel 45:1 the Temple grounds would be 25,000 cubits by 20,000 cubits (4.73 x 3.78 miles, 7.62 x 6.096 km) and the city itself would be an additional 4.48 sq. miles.  Yes that is right the temple would 8 times the size of the city of Jerusalem.  So the Temple plus the city would be 22.4 sq. miles, as big as Dover, Delaware, USA (the capital of that state)!  But 88% of the city would be devoted to the Temple.  The Levites would live in 11% of the city and the rest of Israel (the other 11 tribes) would have the remaining 11%.  This would be a very large city to cross by horse!  It is also the oddest organization of a city ever designed.  Most likely Ezekiel was fantasying about the good old days and exaggerated the size of the city.

This New Jerusalem’s design is almost as staggering as that proposed by John of Patmos who describes a city in the Book of Revelation.  In Rev 21:9-27, John of Patmos describes a city that is 1,350 x 1,350 miles in size.  That is nearly the entire area of the planet when the oceans have been removed (1,822,500 sq miles or 4,720,000 sq km)!  For a reference to this size: the USA is 9.6 million sq km and India is only 3.3 million sq km.  Heaven will be only half the size of the present day US.  I certainly hope there are not too many souls there!  India has become over populated at the present count of 1.2 billion people.

Two more of the references describe the dreams of the Israelite people and how they long for a splendor of the old days.  In the Book of Isaiah (Isa 54:11-12) the New Jerusalem is described as having layers on layers of fine jewels.

Isaiah 54:11-12 “O afflicted city, lashed by storms and not comforted, I will build with stones turquoise, your foundations with sapphires.  I will make your battlements of rubies, and all your walls of precious stones. 

Will we can certainly say that this Zion has never been built!  Earlier in this chapter two other promises from YHWH have still not been fulfilled either (Isaiah 54:3 or 8).   Reading this chapter it is quite obvious that Isaiah was describing an earthly kingdom.  Nothing of the description of the New Zion indicates a heavenly city.  It is beautifully written, and beautifully described but these three promises have not been fulfilled.  So we can be sure that these were fantasies of a misplaced society wishing for better days.  The other Old Testament reference is only found in the Catholic Bible. 

Tobit 14:5 And that again God will have mercy on them, and bring them again into the land, where they shall build a temple, but not like to the first, until the time of that age is fulfilled; and afterward they shall return from all the places of their captivity, and build up Jerusalem gloriously, and the house of God shall be built and it forever was a glorious building, as the prophets have spoken thereof.

The Book of Tobit was canonized in 397 AD.  So if it existed as an Old Testament book written by the Jewish people we have no proof of that.  So here we have a catholic writer pretending to be a Jewish writer wishing for the better Jerusalem.  Is it just me, being an Atheist that this sounds wrong?

One verse in the Old Testament does describe how the people of Israel were disappointed by the New Temple.  This would be from the Book of Ezra.  In verse 12 of that book it describes how the older members of the community wept bitterly for they knew that the New Temple was not what the prophets had described.  So here the bible explicitly indicates that the Second Temple was not the prophesied Temple of YHWH.  So even though an earthly temple was described by the prophets, as of this date no such temple has been built.  As an Atheist this would seem to be an unfulfilled prophecy, making it a false prophecy.  Yet to get around this problem, Christian apologist claim that the prophecy is related to a heavenly Jerusalem instead of an earthly one.  What a load a crap!

¹ D. Langmead and C. Garnaut (2001). Encyclopedia of architectural and engineering feats (3rd, illustrated ed.). ABC-CLIO, Inc. pp 314-319.

² Seder Olam Rabbah; An Ancient Post-exilic Judaic document written in the Hebrew language.

Posted in Contradictions, Vision of a New Jerusalem, Dead Sea Scroll, Inerrancy - My Ass, Tall Tales, Readings | Print | 1 Comment »

October 14, 2009, 9:59 am by dc-agape.

John Chapter 21

This post will be the final post from the Gospel of John.  John does not write about the ascension of Jesus.  I will say more about this in the next paragraph.  He also writes a prophecy of Jesus that took place in his own lifetime…and just happens to have taken place before he wrote this Gospel.  That will be one of the major topics of this post.  The third most interesting thing that occurs in this Gospel is the number and locations of Jesus’ appearances after his crucifixion.  John, the only Apostle to be an eyewitness to everything that happened to Jesus, only records three visits. 

John ends his Gospel having left out the ascension of Jesus.  As far as John is concerned, this event, if it happened, was not import enough to record.  The other possibility is a John was not present at the ascension.  But it seems difficult to believe, since our only sources come from two men: John Mark (a follower of Peter while in Rome) and Luke (a follower of Paul).  In both these reports the ascension of Jesus is recorded as having happened in the presence of all the believers.  So what is John not include this very important Christian concept?  Why is it not important?  Of all the miracles, attributed to Jesus, is not the ascension of Jesus by far the most important?  It almost seems as if, the apostles themselves, either did not experience witnessing this, or but nothing about it!  It is only the followers of the original disciples that record this event.  Even the Gospel of Matthew does not record the event.  Relying on secondhand (or third hand) records seems very dangerous to the non-believer.  Stories always get manipulated, distorted, or exaggerated with extended retelling.  This seems to be the same case.

In the Gospel of John the prophecy and the death of Peter is record.  Unless, the death of Peter is a later addition, the date of writing this gospel can be insured to have occurred after Peter’s death in 67 AD.  As a result, recording a prophecy after the prophecy has occurred weakens the power of the prophecy.  Adding that this book was recorded some 35 to 40 years after the prophecy, the memory of the specific words Jesus used should be taken into account.  To make matters worse, our records of how and when Peter died are sketchy at best.  The truly are Traditions of Men and not sanctified holy script.

John ends his gospel with an interesting twist:

John 21:25 Jesus did many of the things as well.  If every one  of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.

This most certainly is an exaggeration.  Recording the events of a ministry that lasted less than four years would not create that many books.  But we are told:

John 21:24 This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down.  We know that his testimony is true.

This is a very odd addition to a personally written document.  Basically he is saying, since I wrote these down they must be true.  To  the non-believer, this is arrogant, this does not prove the trustworthiness of the document, and adds nothing to validate the testimony given in this Gospel.

To the non-believer these issues are not solved by faith.  They only add more confusion, lack of unity in the Gospels, and create more questions that cannot be answered.  If these Gospels were inspired by an all-powerful Holy Spirit it would seem that these problems would not have occurred.  If these Gospels were inspired by the loving YHWH, who wants everyone to believe, these problems would not occur.  Instead, we have different stories (not different perspectives), Tall Tales, differing accounts, disorganized chronology, and difficulty tracing Jesus’ actual route used in his ministries.  I do hope that I get the chance to make a full scale map showing an organized chronological description of Jesus’ ministries.  Unfortunately, it will be very difficult since only the Gospel of John describes the additional trips to Jerusalem.

This is my last post from the New Testament for the time being.  My next posts will be from the Dead Sea Scrolls.  I have still not decided which order I will present the scrolls that I want to focus on.  But They Will Include: the Book of Secrets, Charter of a Jewish Sectarian Association, Charter for Israel in the Last Days, the Book of Jubilees, Work with the citation of Jubilees, the Secret of the Way Things Are, and the Temple Scroll.  This may seem like a large number of documents to cover before I start back into the Nag Hammadi Library.  But no actuality, many of these scrolls are either very short or very fragmented.  The total number of pages covered in the seven scrolls is actually only 105 pages.  Many of the pages are introduction to the scrolls.  Since the meaning of the scrolls are not as complex as the gospels, and that print type is much larger than in the New Testament, the pages should not take that long.  In actuality, only the Charter of a Jewish Sectarian Association, the Book of Jubilees, Secret of the Way Things Are, and the Temple Scroll have any length to them at all. 

Posted in Contradictions, Gospel of John, Dead Sea Scroll, Traditions of Men, Tall Tales, Readings | Print | 1 Comment »

October 12, 2009, 9:06 am by dc-agape.

John Chapter 19

This post will describe some of the issues with John’s account verse the Synoptic Gospels and the Traditions of Men.  My last posts covered some issues with the prophecies about Jesus; death, events that occurred before the Sanhedrin and before Pilate.  This post will be an introduction to the problems in the records of the four Gospels about Jesus’ death and burial.

I will start in the Gospel of John, for obvious reasons:

John 19:35 The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true.  He knows that you tells the truth, and testifies so that you may also believe.

So we have one man’s testimony that proves these events occurred.  As of I pointed out before the Gospel of Luke is at least a third hand record of the events (the disciples → Paul → Luke).  I’ve also pointed out that the Gospel of Mark and the second hand (Peter → John Mark).  The Gospel of Matthew is a little more complex but there is no record of Matthew being at the events described in chapter 19 of the Gospel of John.  In fact, Matthew would seem to have been one the deserted Jesus at the rest:

Matthew 26:56 but this has all taken place that writings of the prophets might be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples deserted him and fled.

Even looking at all four gospels we see that only the number of people witnessed the crucifixion.  In the Gospel of Matthew it was only Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James Joses, and mother of Zebedee’s sons.  In the Gospel of Mark it is the same Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, but this time the only other name mentioned is a woman named Solome (possibly the wife of Zebedee).  In the Gospel of Luke no actual names are mentioned:

Luke 23:49 But all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these events.

If we want to be generous we can claim that all the apostles for their based on this verse.  But is that true?  No other gospel records it this way; in fact, the others mention names and do not make it apparent that anyone else witnessed the death of Jesus.  In the Gospel of John the only people mentioned are Jesus’ mother, her sister Clopas, Mary Magdalene, and we assumed the Apostle John.  From reading these four gospels, we have no idea who was actually witness to the crucifixion!  The only one we can be certain of is Mary Magdalene.  Yet we have no record of these events from Mary Magdalene’s perspective.  Worse, is that we have only one Gospel that could be held up as a true eyewitness, the Gospel of John.  As a result, in actuality we do not have two eyewitness accounts of the events occurring during the crucifixion.

So what about the burial of Jesus?  That one seems to be more accurate.  Starting with the Gospel of John we see that .Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus were responsible for the burial of Jesus’ body. They even brought 75 pounds of spices to prepare the body for burial.  In the Gospel of Matthew again it is Joseph of Arimathea, but Nicodemus seems to not be present.  Instead, Mary Magdalene and another Mary were present.  In the Gospel of Mark, it is even more confusing.  Again, Joseph of Arimathea was involved, Nicodemus is again missing, Mary Magdalene is prominent, and this time we understand that the other Mary was the mother of Joses.  For some reason, even though in the Gospel of John, Joseph had already prepared the body, both of the Marys and Solome came after the Sabbath to repeat the preparations for burial.  In the Gospel of Luke, we are told that only “the women who had come with Jesus from Galilee” followed Joseph of Arimathea to the tomb.  Again, they left to prepare spices and perfumes for the burial of the body.  Wouldn’t be pretty obvious to anyone following Joseph and Nicodemus carrying both a dead body and 75 pounds of spices that the body of Jesus had been prepared for burial?  Would not the odor of 75 pounds of myrrh and aloes be obvious to the women?  Why in the Synoptic Gospels would there be this tremendous difference from the only eyewitness account.

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October 8, 2009, 8:14 am by dc-agape.

John Chapter 19

This post will describe some of the issues with John’s account verse the Synoptic Gospels and the Traditions of Men.  Since only four Gospels have been canonized since 320 AD, we have four “eye-witnesses” to the events leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion. But as it turns out some issues do crop up with this Traditional view of events.  Events before the Sanhedrin, Pilate, Herod, his death, and burial are a jumble of different “points-of-view”.  Some add things that the other “reports” leave out, others suggest unforgettable events that are eliminated from all the other reports. 

Let’s start with the Sanhedrin. The Synoptic Gospels tell us that Peter followed Jesus into the Sanhedrin.  Only the Gospel of John tells us that John was the one who got Peter in!  The Synoptic Gospels forget that John was even there.  If the Gospel of John did not exist, we would believe that Peter (by himself) just strolled right on in behind Jesus…but this is not what happened.  Why would all three of the Synoptic Gospels leave out such a detail?  We are told in the Gospel of John that Peter need special permission to enter!  We know that only Peter (and John) followed Jesus to the Sanhedrin:

Matt 26:56 But this has all taken place that the writings of the prophets might be fulfilled.  Then all the disciples deserted him and fled.

So from the beginning of the Sanhedrin trial the Synoptic Gospels of Matthew and Luke are just hearsay.  At least the Gospel of Mark is recorded by a close friend of Peter, while the Gospel of John is as close as we can get to a first-person eyewitness account (recorded 20 -50 years after the events).  That would certainly explain why John is suspiciously left out of the Synoptic Gospel.  The Synoptic Gospels were not written by men who were actually at the scene of the events.

On the topic of recording these Gospels, one must remember the life expectancy of citizens of the Roman Empire was less than 40 years and may have been as low as 25 years!  Even for John (or Peter to transcribe to John Mark) to have written this Gospel the date of the 50 is pushing the limits of sanitary conditions.  For John (or Peter) to still be alive in the 50’s he would have had to be between 15 – 18 years of age when he began to follow Jesus.  For John to have written his Gospel in the 80’s and to have died 68 years after the crucifixion John would have lived twice as long (possibly up to 4 times as long) as the average citizen of Roman and he was not even a Citizen!  A modern example of this is not someone living to be 120 years old, no it would be living to the age of between 140 – 280 years of age. 

Well it doesn’t look like I will reach the other questions about these events in this post.  But just bringing these two perspectives up I think initial the reason that most non-believers have difficulty believing the written word of the only source material we have about the life and times of Jesus.  It certainly leads to a suspicion of the trial, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus. Now of course the True Believer, will say that there was nothing wrong with a 15 year old following Jesus, and becoming the most important man in the early Church (Peter or John).  But claiming that these men lived into their 60’s is pushing the limits of credibility.  And as to my first point, about eyewitnesses, the True Believer would only say that they were told how the events occurred by Peter and John.  But if that were the case, why record hearsay as authoritative documentation?  Should not the Gospels explain that only two of the Apostles actually witness the events leading up to the crucifixion (and the crucifixion itself)? 

Posted in Gospel of John, Contradictions, Traditions of Men, Inerrancy - My Ass, Readings | Print | 3 Comments »

October 7, 2009, 9:05 am by dc-agape.

John Chapter 19

I am going to split this chapter into two separate posts.  One will be about the “prophecies” that where fulfilled in Jesus’ death.  The second post will describe some of the issues with John’s account verse the Synoptic Gospels and the Traditions of Men.  Four prophecies were fulfilled in the Gospel of John.  Yet once again, for prophecy to be accurate…freewill must be suspended.  Or Scripture must be taken out of context to make it fit the circumstances. Let us see which is more likely.

The first prophecy is this one:

John 18:24 “Let’s not tear it,” they said to one another.  “Let’s decide by lot who will get it.”  This happened that the scriptures might be fulfilled which said, “They divided my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.” So this is what the soldiers did.

This passage is supposed to come from the Book of Psalms 22:18.  Surprisingly this is exactly what that verse says.  But if one reads the entire Psalm one sees that this was not about Jesus.  Take a look at this beginning:

Psalms 22:2 Oh my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, but night, and am not silent.

Psalms 22: 20-21 Deliver my life from the sword, the precious life from the power of the dogs.  Rescue me from the mouth of the lions; save me from the horns of the wild oxen.

Only by taking this Psalms out of context can one apply specific verses of this Psalms to the death of Jesus.  Verses 20-21 specifically indicate that King David was concerned about evil men, while dogs, lions, and wild oxen.  Obviously, Jesus was not exposed to dogs, lions, or oxen.  So grabbing one verse in claiming that it is prophecy is only taking that verse out of context.  But even if we give the benefit of the doubt to this being a prophecy a bigger problem occurs.  This particular prophecy relates to how the soldiers treat Jesus’ clothing.  Is there obeying prophecy they have no freewill.  They did not get to choice to fulfill this prophecy.  As a result, YHWH at any time can suspend freewill.  Hence, we can never tell if we are acting under freewill or under YHWH suspension of freewill.

Another possible prophecy fulfilled in this chapter is this one:

John 18:28 later, knowing that all was now complete, and so that the scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I’m thirsty.”

This supposed prophecy comes from Psalms 69:21 which says:

Psalms 69:21 they put gall inlet food and gave the vinegar for my first.

But let’s take a look at the following verse is in this Psalms:

Psalms 69:22-25 Let the table set before them become a snare; may become a retribution and a trap.  Many there eyes the darkened so they cannot see, and their backs be bent forever.  Pour out your wrath on them; let your fierce anger over take them.  May their place the deserted, that there be no one to dwell in their tents.

Is this the loving Jesus?  This is a direct combination to the “prophecy” verse.  Should we believe that in the last moments of Jesus’ life he became as vindictive as the most vile human nature can provide?  Or should we realize that this verse was taken out of context.  Again, the other possibility is that the guards had no freewill.  They had to obey the prophecy.  Once again this would indicate that YHWH can and does suspend freewill arbitrarily.  Hence, we can never tell if we are acting under freewill or under YHWH suspension of that freewill.

The third prophecy is found in this verse in John:

John 19:34 instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bring a sudden flow of blood and water.

Zechariah 12:10 And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication.  They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grief bitterly for him as one grieves for firstborn son.

Again, this “prophecy” has been taken out of context.  This verse talks about the people who have pierced Jesus as the ones who mourn.  No indication that the Romans mourned Jesus’ death.  They certainly did not mourn with the bitterness of the loss of a firstborn son.  Again, if we give the benefit of the doubt to this being a fulfill prophecy we end up with freewill being arbitrarily denied.  Hence, we can never tell if we are acting under freewill or under YHWH suspension of that freewill.

The final supposed prophecy is here:

John 19: 36 these things happen so the scriptures would be fulfilled: (delete that “not one of his bones will be broken,”

This prophecy comes from the book of Exodus 12:46:

Exodus 12:46 “It must be eaten in one house; take none of the meat outside of the house.  Do not break any of the bones.  The whole community of Israel must celebrate it.

The crucifixion occurred outside so the beginning of the verse has already been compromised.  The last sentence of the verse has also been compromised, the whole community did not celebrate this event.  So once again a “prophecy” has been taken out of context.  Again, if we give the benefit of the doubt to this being a fulfill prophecy we end Up with freewill being arbitrarily denied.  Hence, we can never tell if we are acting under freewill or under YHWH suspension of that freewill.   

To the non-believer, these so called “prophecies” are very suspicious.  There without doubt taken out of context, and as a result, are questionable at best.  Worst though, is the concept that they are true prophecy.  If they really are prophecy, and numerous people during the crucifixion of Jesus had their freewill removed.  Even if this removal was only temporary, this indicates that YHWH can do so at any time, for any reason, and we (puny humans) are completely helpless in these cases.   The whole argument of freewill becomes a mute topic with this understanding.    If humans can be manipulated as play toys to a supreme being at any arbitrary moment freewill does not exist.  The concept of prophecy only strengthens this concept.  For prophecy indicates that the future has already been recorded.  Prophecy also indicates that the outcome of our choices have already been recorded.  Hence, it may feel like we have freewill, but in the end we are just actors on a stage as indicated by Shakespeare:

Jaques:

All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages.

As You Like It Act 2, scene 7, 139–143

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