jakeWrote:
Do you know what a dispensation is? The Mosaic Law had under its Law the provisions against relations with a woman while she was menstruating and not eating pork or wearing mixed linens etc. But, the question is "Are we in that same dispensation today" "Do those same laws apply to us today?" The answer is no. We are not under the Law any longer. We are under Grace, ushered in by Jesus who brought Grace and became the fulfillment of the Law. Do you understand?
Secondly, how can you be a big fan of Jesus unless you accept Him as God? His teachings were that He was God in the flesh--so either He actually was and is or He is a lunatic. There is no middle ground when you consider who Jesus actually claimed to be--that is--God manifest in the flesh.

LouisWrote:

First of all -- you are quite the apologeticist -- kudos on a complete rationalization of your faith.

As for the doctrine of dispensation...why would an omnipotent god change the rules? You say 'dispensation', I say 'contradiction.' A perfect, all-knowing being comes up with a plan for humanity that includes the radical reworking of his own law? That is the best solution? I am a mere human, and I could improve upon almost all of gods methods and actions...as could you, were you willing to entertain such conjecture.

And Jesus...you are seeing things from a literalist point of view, here. Point out the passage in the gospels where jesus says this: "I am literally the son of the jewish god yaweh, and am their long-promised messiah, who, according to prophesy, will lead the jewish people from the very earthly subjugation of foriegn rulers. I am going to be crucified by pontius pilate on golgatha and buried in a tomb by Joseph of Arimathea. Three days later, I will arise from the dead, because I am god, and I am all-powerful."

Such a passage does not exist, my friend. What does exist in our version of the bible are cryptic annalogies, hegography, and poor translations of 3rd hand accounts, altered for 2000 years until today -- lots of "I am the son of man" and "I am he that is" mysticism. There is NO WAY to prove that ANYTHING quoted by the authors of the gospels accredited to Jesus is accurate.

However, if one looks at jesus from a socio-political standpoint, what do we have? A radical egalitarian with progressive, modern, and humanistic views of women, criminals, and social justice. We have the beatitudes. We have jesus' rejection of the bloated, corrupt churches. We have the 2 greatest commandments. We have the episode with the money changers. We see a political rebel, mocking ceaser by entering jerusalem on a donkey, lauded with palm fronds instead of laurels. We see that jesus most likely anticipated his trial (for political rebellion) and his martyrdom (what other sentence was there to be had for a dissenter of rome?) and, in order to protect his apostles and amplify his message of self-sacrifice, allowed himself to be killed, rather than flee. THAT I can respect.

SO, to sum up:

1) God changes the rules almost schizophrenically half way through the bible, when it is supposedly in his power to execute his 'plan' in a much more cogent fashion.

2) The bible is either the literal word of god, in which case god is a horribly contradictory writer, the earth is 6000 years old and created in 7 days, and there was a flood that literaly covered all of the land on earth....or the bible is figurative, and therefore open to interperetation, and addmittably changed through translation and hegography, in which case the few passages in which jesus hints at LITERALLY being the son of god could have easily been changed. You can't have it both ways.

3) The either or fallacy comes into play when claiming that jesus was either the son of god, or he was a crazy liar. I don't agree with all of bob marley's agenda, but that doesn't mean I can't admire him for putting an end to the political strife in jamaica. Stop thinking in absolutes -- you sound like your god.