re: Atheists die sooner, are ill longer, and lead less happy lives than non-atheists

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The bible specifically says being good will not get you into heaven. This has absolutely nothing to do with it. Good people go to hell all the time. This will not work for the heaven mentioned in the bible. This thinking is probably Satan's number one lie to deceive mankind.

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Seems like Satan's trick might be more along the lines of putting out a book that says good deeds mean nothing and you can do whatever you want so long as you merely say that you believe.

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Seems like Satan's trick might be more along the lines of putting out a book that says good deeds mean nothing and you can do whatever you want so long as you merely say that you believe

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That is some M. Night Shyamalan shite. What a twist!

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it's the back door clause.... "fire insurance", if you will...

and it will forever be a problem with "salvation"...

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Yep. Cue the apologist arguments about Grace and the limitations of human understanding.

"It's not what we would consider just, but who says we can understand justice the way God does?"

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We can all agree that all of these things are good things. However, none of these things will save you in the day of judgment. None of these things will get you into Heaven. It doesn't matter how good you may be; it doesn't matter how good you try to live your life; it doesn't matter how many good works you do; it doesn't matter if you devote yourself to serving others. Unless you have believed the Gospel message, and received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you are lost, and will not get you into heaven. l

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But according to God's own word, being a good person is not enough. Being a good person will not save you in the day of judgment, and being a good person will not get you into Heaven. Being a good person is not enough. The Bible says you must be born again. Jesus himself taught this very basic truth to another good man: Nicodemus.



There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. (John 3:1-3)

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The bible as you know it was compiled, translated, and edited by members of the church hundreds and thousands of years after Christ. Do we really have to go into how corrupt men of the cloth can be??

Jesus may have been as amazing and inspirational and holy as the gospels say, but we have ample proof that the men who followed him were far from that. And they're the ones who chose what words you're reading. All human men, all with an agenda.

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]The bible as you know it was compiled, translated, and edited by members of the church hundreds and thousands of years after Christ. Do we really have to go into how corrupt men of the cloth can be??

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The fact is that the Bible has not been rewritten. Take the New Testament, for example. The disciples of Jesus wrote the New Testament in Greek; and though we do not have the original documents, we do have around 6,000 copies of the Greek manuscripts that were made very close to the time of the originals. These various manuscripts, or copies, agree with each other to almost 100 percent accuracy. Statistically, the New Testament is 99.5% textually pure. That means that there is only 1/2 of 1% of of all the copies that do not agree with each other perfectly. But, if you take that 1/2 of 1% and examine it, you find that the majority of the "problems" are nothing more than spelling errors and very minor word alterations. For example, instead of saying Jesus, a variation might be "Jesus Christ." So the actual amount of textual variation of any concern is extremely low. Therefore, we can say that we have a remarkably accurate compilation of the original documents.




Comparison Chart

The following chart represents a compilation of various ancient manuscripts, their original date of writing, the earliest copy, the number of copies in existence, and the time span between the originals and the copies. If the Bible is singled out to be criticized as unreliable then all the other writings listed below must also be discarded.


Approximate Time Span between original & copy
Number of Copies Accuracy of Copies


Lucretius died 55 or 53 B.C. 1100 yrs 2 ----
Pliny A.D. 61-113. A.D. 850. 750 yrs 7 ----
Plato 427-347 B.C. A.D. 900. 1200 yrs 7 ----
Demosthenes 4th Cent. B.C. A.D. 1100. 800 yrs 8 ----
Herodotus 480-425 B.C. A.D. 900. 1300 yrs 8 ----
Suetonius A.D. 75-160. A.D. 950. 800 yrs 8 ----
Thucydides 460-400 B.C. A.D. 900. 1300 yrs 8 ----
Euripides 480-406 B.C. A.D. 1100. 1300 yrs 9 ----
Aristophanes 450-385 B.C. A.D. 900. 1200 10 ----
Caesar 100-44 B.C. A.D. 900. 1000 10 ----
Livy 59 BC-AD 17 ---- ??? 20 ----
Tacitus circa A.D. 100. A.D. 1100. 1000 yrs 20 ----
Aristotle 384-322 B.C. A.D.1100. 1400 49 ----
Sophocles 496-406 B.C. A.D. 1000. 1400 yrs 193 ----
Homer (Iliad) 900 B.C. 400 B.C. 500 yrs 643 95%
New
Testament 1st Cent. A.D. (A.D. 50-100). 2nd Cent. A.D.
(c. A.D. 130 f.) less than 100 years 99.5%


As you can see, the New Testament documents are very accurate. Therefore, when the scholars translate from the Greek into the English (or into any other language), we can trust that what is translated is accurate and reliable.

When was the Old Testament written?

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he has allowed us to perceive."

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This is a key word. Heaven is Knowledge. Earth (Hell if you will) is perception.

The enlightenment process is when perception moves toward knowledge, it is looking squarely at illusion, and letting Light shine it away.

The measure of our Peace, and/or our pain and suffering lies in the space between perception and Knowledge, illusion and Truth.

When perception is so very close to Knowledge, it is as if you are in Heaven while on Earth. God Himself will take the final step of carrying you over the bridge from perception to Knowledge, earth to Heaven.

Perception is like being caught in a dream, with no way of waking without help. God, in all His awesomeness did something that is so amazing. He basically installed His Memory into the dream. Now check this, It's not a memory of the past, but a Memory of the Present, this is called The Holy Spirit. It is the only way out, but the outcome is certain.

hell- perception -The awareness of complete separation
Heaven - Knowledge- The awareness of perfect Oneness

Ctiger is a quality troll