one of the greatest lies of our time

[Sharp_Kid]

Right, a couple of points, then I'm going to leave this one, because it is pointless (and indeed rude) to try to change someones faith away from what they show great devotion to and good reasoned belief for, especially when it so obviously enriches ones life to hold such belief.

I'm not going to quote edits of the bible, theja. For you to deny that this has happened is strange. The Vatican holds copies of sections of the bible it has deemed unsuitable, or possibly not of genuine origin (the latter of which I can understand), which to me is editing.

Fear. For the fact that the Vatican holds such control over the oldest versions of the bible and the distribution worldwide of it, as do other branches of Christianity hold control over their versions, and the fact that there are numerous religions which show such common factors, proves your 'branch theory' to be right, and add further complication as to the authenticity (sorry, I couldn't think of a better word) of the bible, or rather the claims within.

Anyway, enough is enough. I wish to argue no more, especially with Theja, since he/she is developing an unhealthy disliking for me.

[Theja]

Sharp_kid, I keep saying nothing should be taken on a personal level here. We are debating over facts and theories. So please don't interpret my contrary views as 'disliking' you.

The integrity of the Bible is so rock solid that to this day it holds respects from people who dug mountains of records and evidences to check its veracity. Only they can either agree or disagree with what is said is God's Word. It is in the interpretation where spiritual fistfights occurs.


Stho...

The core of Christianity is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (John 14:6; Luke 24:19-27; Matthew 16:21-23; John 1:29; etc).

The early Christians were called saints or 'followers of the Way'. Paul thought these people were following a deviant religion from Judaism so he fervently persecuted the believers, even agreeing to their deaths.

After his conversion, Paul simply confirmed and went along with the belief in the salvation in Christ (1 Corinthians 3:11; 15:1-7; Romans 1:16; Galatians 1:8-9; etc).

At 45 AD, about 15 years after the death and resurrection of Christ, with thousands and thousands of believers confessing Christ, people began to call them FOLLOWERS OF CHRIST (Christians) (Acts 11:26). Its an appropriate description and the name stuck. So we are CHRISTians, not PAULians.

People from all over the world come to America, get citizenships and call themselves Americans. Any problem with that?

[Edited by Theja on 22nd July 2003 at 05:58]

[Sharp_Kid]

You overlooked the winking graemlin, me thinks.
Theja, I think you're brilliant. It's nice to have a bit of fisticuffs in here; it's a lot less painfull than the real world variety.

[Fear_nam_Beanntan]

Originally posted by Sharp_Kid
The Vatican holds copies of sections of the bible it has deemed unsuitable, or possibly not of genuine origin (the latter of which I can understand), which to me is editing.

When I say editing, I mean consciously changing the text so that it says something other than what the original manuscripts say. For example, a Calvinist might want to change Mt 19:17 from "If you would enter life, keep the commandments" to "If you would enter life, get My righteousness legally imputed to your account." I don't particularily care if biblical scholars remove such passages as "this happened to fulfill the following prophecy..." which were scribal glosses and not present in the original texts.

I also fully understand why the early church chose to include some books but not others.