Comments by "Matthew Loutner" (@Matthew_Loutner) on "Van Life? 78 Year Old Couple Forced To Move Into Truck??" video.
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@wolfc8755 You do way too much thinking and rationalizing.
They did stone people to be good. They stoned people who committed adultry. That is stoning people to be good.
Everyone knows that adultry is wrong -- so that is stoning people to be good.
Further, that was a CIVIL LAW -- not a religious law. It was to maintain order in society. We have civil laws today, so that should not be difficult to understand.
There are some places today where they cut off people's hand for stealing. That is cutting off someone's hand to force them to be good. Forcing people to be good is not about religion. It is about maintaining order in society.
Even the famous Muslim law about women wearing headscarves is a civil law -- not a religious law. It was enacted to maintain order in society. That makes it a civil law.
You are getting civil laws criss-crossed with religion -- they are not the same thing.
Now about people being lost if they had never had a chance to hear of Jesus:
That is not what the Bible says happens. It says:
"for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them) in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel."
Roman's 2:15
That is to say that people know in their hearts what is right and wrong and will be judged accordingly. There is nothing unfair about God's judgment -- He is perfectly fair and never makes mistakes.
Now about waking up in darkness:
That is not going to happen. Your spirit cannot die. When your body dies your spirit slips out of your body like a hand slipping out of a glove. It is as dark as the room around you because you can still see just like before.
While you are hovering there, you can see the doctors and nurses trying to resuscitate you and you can hear your relatives talking about you.
Then, while you are still floating around the room, either you will be met by demons or an angel and they will escort you to the place where you will be staying.
This is easily confirmed by reviewing the HUNDREDS of accounts of people who died and come back to tell what they saw.
There are hundreds of videos on uTube and books written about it. It is easy to find out. They call them "near-death experiences" and you can look them up if you choose.
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@wolfc8755 You are radically overexaggerating on your adultery description.
On the adultery thing and the hand thing, whether you think it is fair or right or not has nothing to do with this discussion. So they have a completely different view of society than we do? That is not our discussion. That fact is that those are laws made to maintain social order in their society.
Now you are right that there are some instances where religious rules and civil laws overlap -- that is when you live a theocracy. For example, Afghanistan, Iran, or the Jewish State -- those are all theocracies.
But even so, laws are made to maintain social order. An example of a purely religious law would be a law requiring the entire citizenry to go to church every Sunday morning. That would be a religious law and they rarely exist in the real world.
The way the headscarf maintains social order is this:
Arab women are so beautiful that when Arab men see their beautiful faces, they have difficulty with their own thoughts and behavior -- which leads to fornication, adultry, and problem pregnencies.
Because Arab women are so beautiful, they cover their faces, heads, and bodies so the men can control themselves.
Most westerners would jump in and say that is the man's problem -- not the women's. But that is not our discussion. The fact is that the practice was started to maintain social order.
Now what I told you (and what the Bible says) about how gentiles can be saved by obeying their conscience . .
That only applies if you have never heard of Jesus as the Messiah. If you hear about Him and understand His message clearly, that makes you fall under a completely different rule. If you still reject Him at that point . . . You are condemned. As Jesus clearly said here:
"For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."
John chapter 3
Now your final statement about near-death experiences is just plain propaganda on your part. What do you mean, "It is well known"??
Whenever a person uses that phrase with me, I automatically know they are about to tell me something that is not true.
In philosophy, we call that "calling an unknown witness."
It is one of several types of false logic.
What you stated after using that phrase is not "well-known" at all. In fact, it is not even true. It is gobbledygook and it is just your convenient way of explaining away the facts.
At any rate, I do not want to argue with you over NDEs. I have listened to hundreds of them and I have my opinion and you are certainly welcome to have yours. I only brought them up for your benefit.
See you in Hell. 🌅
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@wolfc8755 You can explain away the sun, the, moon, and all of the planets if you choose. But your explaining them away will not make them any less real.
My brother believes the Earth is flat and he can explain it -- but it is still a globe. His explanation does not change the shape of the Earth.
People born into religious families, have a conversion somewhere in their family past. You do not get from 12 to 2.5 billion without having a few conversions.
Now Christianity is about finding out about Jesus and making your own personal decision whether you believe in Him or not. One cannot be born into Christianity by being born into a certain family or social group.
If they do that, they are not saved.
They have to make their OWN choice.
And again, you are trying to explain away something when you do not know what is really going on out there (you do a lot of that) because all children of Christians reach a point in their lives where they are REQUIRED to consider carefully and make a final choice either for or against Christ.
Why do you think our churches are emptying out and when you go to church you only see elderly people there? It is because many of the young people have chosen to leave (but they will be back).
The 2.5 billion figure is the ones who have decided for themselves -- without undue influence -- that it is where they need to be.
The very best thing that could happen with the societies which you grieve for is that we send Christian missionaries into all of those countries. Faith in Christ is the ONLY THING that will turn that situation around.
My viewpoint is that if there is no afterlife, your life has no meaning at all. It is like turning off the television. Once it is off it no longer matters what it once said and there is no enduring meaning to life.
There is no "waste of human life" as you say because life has no meaning anyway.
But if there is an afterlife, your good works (and bad works) follow you and remain alive. If your good works remain alive forever, they have enduring meaning.
Also if mankind just evolved, there is no real morality. People can do just whatever they choose and it is right. That system works just fine for the animal kingdom . . . Right?
So if humans are just evolved animals, then they go by an evolved instinct and nothing is really right or wrong. Survival of the fittest is morally right -- everything else is morally wrong.
On the near-death experiences, (which you have never researched them as I suggested) I was not talking about the "momentary" ones. I was talking about the ones where the person was dead for at least 20 minutes and generally 2 to 4 hours. And I know of one where the person was dead for 2 days.
Those would not exactly be explained as a "last gasp of oxygen" would they??
Those are the ones that would really tell you something (if you would listen to them, but you will not).
Now I know you are going to Hell because you told me so.
You said you do not believe in God and the story of Jesus is a fairy tale.
This is not rocket science.
If you accept Christ as your Savior, you are going to Heaven. 🌌
But if you reject Christ as your Savior, you are going to Hell. 🌅
Get it?
Do not complicate it.
I am just saying exactly what Jesus said in the verse I quoted you.
You reject Christ . . so you are going to Hell. 🌅
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@wolfc8755 If you believe in the fake theory of evolution, there is no such thing as "good works." Good is whatever each individual decides is good for themselves.
Actually, you are explaining away the moon, sun, and stars.
The events of Christ are not a "myth" as you call them -- they are a real event that happened in history. Trying to explain away real events that took place in human history is equivalent to explaining away the moon, sun, and, stars. You are a revisionist attempting to rewrite human history to suit yourself.
I know that and you know that. You are faking.
I really do not think Christianity is "fear-based" at all. And I do not think we use the emotion of fear to keep people in line.
The Holy Bible has about 1260 pages and in all of those pages the fires of Hell are only mentioned twice. Once in a parable of Jesus and once at the end of Revelation.
If it was supposed to be fear-based, Hell would appear in the Book much more often.
Christianity is about understanding and choosing to follow the words of love that Jesus Christ taught, appreciating that God loves us enough to die for our sins, and about wanting to be included in the Kingdom that He is building.
As part of joining the Kingdom, one must acknowledge and repent of their sins. For people who do it, it tends to give them a great relief and release of emotional burdens that they were carrying.
I am sure that having a clear understanding of the existence of Hell encourages people to consider what their spiritual position is. But once you have been saved, you cannot go there. So they cannot really hang that over your head to force you to be good . . can they?
So how could they use the concept of fear to force people to be good (or whatever it is that you are trying to say in your comment)?
I already explained to you that saying you are going to Hell is not judging. Look at it this way:
You are riding on a train. I walk up to you and say, "You are going to New Orleans."
Did I judge you?
No. I stated your destination.
That is not judging -- why do you keep saying that stating someone's destination is "judging"?
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@wolfc8755 You did not answer my question. The question was . . .
When someone states your destination, why do you say they are "judging"?
Myself and yourself and most of the people you know all know that you are on the train to Hell, right?
You bought a ticket for the Hell train . . you boarded the Hell train . . you know you are on the Hell train . . and you do not hide it . . right?
So that would be the same as everyone knowing that you are on the train to New Orleans.
Why is saying it "judging"?
Rock carvings are neolithic and paleolithic. Why would we be looking for rock carvings in 1st century Rome? All writing was done on paper in the 1st century. And paper does not really last 2000 years that well.
They cannot find much because Jerusalem is built on top of several meters of rubble.
The Jesus movement was not really that significant. There was a crowd of 5000 at one time. But most of them turned back when He said some things that were difficult to take. On the day of Pentecost, there were only 100 believers in the upper room. So archeologists do not really expect to find anything about Jesus and are surprised when they do.
But why are you saying there is NO archeological proof that Jesus ever lived? Of course there is.
This is from Science Daily:
"The archaeological examination by robotic camera of an intact first century tomb in Jerusalem has revealed a set of limestone Jewish ossuaries or "bone boxes" that are engraved with a rare Greek inscription and a unique iconographic image that the scholars involved identify as distinctly Christian.
The four-line Greek inscription on one ossuary refers to God "raising up" someone and a carved image found on an adjacent ossuary shows what appears to be a large fish with a human stick figure in its mouth, interpreted by the excavation team to be an image evoking the biblical story of Jonah.
In the earliest gospel materials the "sign of Jonah," as mentioned by Jesus, has been interpreted as a symbol of his resurrection. Jonah images in later "early" Christian art, such as images found in the Roman catacombs, are the most common motif found on tombs as a symbol of Christian resurrection hope. In contrast, the story of Jonah is not depicted in any first century Jewish art and iconographic images on ossuaries are extremely rare, given the PROHIBITION WITHIN JUDAISM OF MAKING IMAGES of people or animals.
The tomb in question is dated prior to 70 CE, when ossuary use in Jerusalem ceased due to the Roman destruction of the city. Accordingly, if the markings are Christian as the scholars involved believe, the engravings represent -- by several centuries -- the earliest archaeological record of Christians ever found. The engravings were most likely made by some of Jesus' earliest followers, within decades of his death. Together, the inscription and the Jonah image testify to early Christian faith in resurrection. The tomb record thus predates the writing of the gospels.
"If anyone had claimed to find either a statement about resurrection or a Jonah image in a Jewish tomb of this period I would have said impossible -- until now," Tabor said. "Our team was in a kind of ecstatic disbelief, but the evidence was clearly before our eyes, causing us to revise our prior assumptions."
The findings and their interpretation are likely to be controversial, since most scholars are skeptical of any Christian archaeological remains from so early a period. Adding to the controversy is the tomb's close proximity to a second tomb, discovered in 1980. This tomb, dubbed by some "The Jesus Family Tomb," contained inscribed ossuaries that some scholars associate with Jesus and his family, including one that reads "Jesus, son of Joseph."
"Context is everything in archaeology," Tabor pointed out. "These two tombs, less than 200 feet apart, were part of an ancient estate, likely related to a rich family of the time. We chose to investigate this tomb because of its proximity to the so-called 'Jesus tomb,' not knowing if it would yield anything unusual."
The tomb containing the new discoveries is a modest sized, carefully carved rock cut cave tomb typical of Jerusalem in the period from 20 BCE until 70 CE.
The tomb was exposed in 1981 by builders and is currently several meters under the basement level of a modern condominium building in East Talpiot, a neighborhood of Jerusalem less than two miles south of the Old City. Archaeologists entered the tomb at the time, were able to briefly examine it and its ossuaries, take preliminary photographs, and remove one pot and an ossuary, before they were forced to leave by Orthodox religious groups who oppose excavation of Jewish tombs.
The ossuary taken, that of a child, is now in the Israel State Collection. It is decorated but has no inscriptions. The archaeologists mention "two Greek names" but did not notice either the newly discovered Greek inscription or the Jonah image before they were forced to leave. The tomb was re-sealed and buried beneath the condominium complex on what is now Don Gruner Street in East Talpiot.
The adjacent "Jesus tomb," was uncovered by the same construction company in 1980, just one year earlier. It was thoroughly excavated and its contents removed by the Israel Antiquities Authority. This tomb's controversial ossuaries with their unusual cluster of names (that some have associated with Jesus and his family) are now part of the Israel State Collection and have been on display in various venues, including the Israel Museum. These ossuaries will be in an exhibit running from late February through April 15 at Discovery Times Square.
Because of its physical location under a modern building (making direct access nearly impossible), along with the threat of Orthodox Jewish groups that would protest any such excavation, Tabor's team determined to employ a minimally invasive procedure in examining the tomb.
Funding for the excavation was provided by the Discovery Channel/Vision Television/Associated Producers. Jacobovici's team at the Toronto based Associated Producers developed a sophisticated robotic arm to carry high definition cameras, donated by General Electric. The robotic arm and a second "snake camera" were inserted through two drill holes in the basement floor of the building above the tomb. The probe was successful and the team was able to reach all the ossuaries and photograph them on all sides, thus revealing the new inscriptions.
Beyond the possible Christian connection, Tabor noted that the tomb's assemblage of ossuaries stands out as clearly extraordinary in the context of other previously explored tombs in Jerusalem.
"Everything in this tomb seems unusual when contrasted with what one normally finds inscribed on ossuaries in Jewish tombs of this period," Tabor said. "Of the seven ossuaries remaining in the tomb, four of them have unusual features."
There are engravings on five of the seven ossuaries: an enigmatic symbol on ossuary 2 (possibly reading Yod Heh Vav Heh or "Yahweh" in stylized letters that can be read as Greek or Hebrew, though the team is uncertain); an inscription reading "MARA" in Greek letters (which Tabor translates as the feminine form of "lord" or "master" in Aramaic) on ossuary 3; an indecipherable word in Greek letters on ossuary 4 (possibly a name beginning with "JO…"); the remarkable four-line Greek inscription on ossuary 5; and finally, and most importantly, a series of images on ossuary 6, including the large image of a fish with a figure seeming to come out of its mouth.
Among the approximately 2000 ossuaries that have been recovered by the Israel Antiquities Authority, only 650 have any inscriptions on them, and none have inscriptions comparable to those on ossuaries 5 and 6.
Less than a dozen ossuaries from the period have epitaphs but, according to Tabor, these inscribed messages usually have to do with warnings not to disturb the bones of the dead. In contrast, the four-line Greek inscription contains some kind of statement of resurrection faith.
Tabor noted that the epitaph's complete and final translation is uncertain. The first three lines are clear, but the last line, consisting of three Greek letters, is less sure, yielding several possible translations: "O Divine Jehovah, raise up, raise up," or "The Divine Jehovah raises up to the Holy Place," or "The Divine Jehovah raises up from [the dead]."
"This inscription has something to do with resurrection of the dead, either of the deceased in the ossuary, or perhaps, given the Jonah image nearby, an expression of faith in Jesus' resurrection," Tabor said.
The ossuary with the image that Tabor and his team understand to be representing Jonah also has other interesting engravings. These also may be connected to resurrection, Tabor notes. On one side is the tail of a fish disappearing off the edge of the box, as if it is diving into the water. There are small fish images around its border on the front facing, and on the other side is the image of a cross-like gate or entrance -- which Tabor interprets as the notion of entering the "bars" of death, which are mentioned in the Jonah story in the Bible.
"This Jonah ossuary is most fascinating," Tabor remarked. "It seems to represent a pictorial story with the fish diving under the water on one end, the bars or gates of death, the bones inside, and the image of the great fish spitting out a man representing, based on the words of Jesus, the 'sign of Jonah' -- the 'sign' that he would escape the bonds of death."
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@wolfc8755
Okay. So your most important thought here is this:
"Personally, if I had to invent a God, he would be a great guy. Loving, kind, thoughtful, helpful. Maybe he would magically clean my house for me once in a blue moon, just to surprise me and make me really, really happy. There'd certainly not be any war, or poverty, or children going hungry (let alone being shot and bombed and starved to death)."
You just described Jesus.
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"On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding. And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine.”
Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.”
His mother said to the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it.”
Now there were set there six waterpots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing twenty or thirty gallons apiece.
Jesus said to them, “Fill the waterpots with water.”
And they filled them up to the brim.
And He said to them, “Draw some out now, and take it to the master of the feast.”
And they took it. When the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom.
And he said to him, “Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior. You have kept the good wine until now!”
John chapter 2
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