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Author Debate on the Influence of Christianity on America's Founders
#26

Author Debate on the Influence of Christianity on America's Founders
(10-22-2019, 08:02 PM)Minimalist Wrote:
Quote:Well I'm simply suggesting that the most economical explanation is that it was a made up story, whether by John of Patmos of Clyde of Utmost. It matters not.


Absolutely, but Gone With The Wind was a made up story too but there was still a Civil War and Atlanta did get burned.  Just because someone wrote a novel does not mean that all the facts contained therein were invented.

Here's an example of what I mean.

https://www.biblestudytools.com/commenta...kings.html

This jesus freak asshole decides ( with no fucking evidence whatsoever ) that this is a simple substitution code.  Where the book says "kings" it means "kingdoms." 

Quote:The five kings which had fallen by John’s day (Rev. Rev. 17:10+) appear to represent kingdoms (see #4 - Seven Heads/Kings). Assuming Rome is the kingdom which “is” at the time of John, then five kingdoms precede it and one will follow. We know from the book of Daniel that the three kingdoms which precede Rome are Greece, Medo-Persia, and Babylon (see #8 - Four Beasts/Kings). Yet two more are required. If we limit our scope of inquiry to kingdoms of special relevance to Israel, then two additional candidates immediately come to mind: Assyria and Egypt. Since Israel was born as a nation in the Exodus from Egypt, the five fallen kings represent all fallen kingdoms of significance which oppressed Israel from her birth to John’s time—the time of Rome. The most likely candidates are Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, and Greece.

The five kingdoms of the past are the ones who have persecuted God’s people (Egypt, Eze. Eze. 29:1-Eze. 30:1; Nineveh or Assyria, Nah. Nah. 3:1-19; Babylon, Isa. Isa. 21:9 and Jer. Jer. 50:1-Jer. 51:1; Persia, Dan. Dan. 10:13 and Dan. 11:2; Greece, Dan. Dan. 11:3-4). The persecutor of God’s people during John’s lifetime was Rome. . . . So the angel’s clarifying word to John about the seven heads [Rev. Rev. 17:9-11+] spans essentially the entire history of Gentile world empires.1

I mean anyone can play that game.  If something doesn't say what you want it to say you simply say that it means something else.

Xhristards do that all the time.

The key word for all prophecy is "INTERPRETED"!    I could take Tolstoy's War and Peace and interpret it to mean whatever I want and turn it into a book of prophecy.  The Oracle at Delphi worked this way. The burning of laurel leaves and releasing of birds were interpreted to mean something special by the priestess who she got herself into a drug induced ecstasy.   Almost every culture has a book of prophecy or some sort of prophetic ritual.  Revelations is nothing special.   The Island of Patmos, possibly where John was written,  has some interesting spotted mushrooms that grow there.  Hummmmm  Consider
                                                         T4618
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#27

Author Debate on the Influence of Christianity on America's Founders
True enough.  The Romans had the Sibylline books which had a legendary origin and were consulted in times of crisis.  Jewish Apocalyptic writings seem to have flourished at times of crisis which is the opposite of the Sibylline books which were already there to be scanned for clues.  Some scholars try to assert hints of such writings in the Babylonian exile story but we have virtually no evidence of jewish literature at all from that time period.  The Book of Daniel qualifies and was written during the alleged Maccabaean revolt against the Seleucid Greeks c 164 BC.  

Supposedly the Romans were told of a prophecy that they would not take the Etruscan city of Veii until they drained Lake Alba.  They did and thus learned the engineering skills necessary for proper siege craft.  Horseshit?  Almost certainly.  They were ruled by the Etruscans for centuries and the Etruscans were amazing engineers.  The Romans learned most of what they needed to know from them.  But they also seem to have loved a good yarn!
Robert G. Ingersoll : “No man with a sense of humor ever founded a religion.”
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