Christians help me with this...

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the greatest trick the devil ever pulled wasnt convincing you he didnt exist. the greatest trick was convincing you he did

Small critter, I could care less about him.

Well, I have to somewhat agree with what bully says here. If Jesus were simply a great teacher/philosopher/reformer as many like to say He was, then He was promoting some pretty messed up stuff. The problem, though, is that those who were the closest to Him and witnessed the miracles and got His teachings privately, straight from the man Himself, ought to have seen any kind of crazy or schizo behavior and recognized it for what it was. OK, maybe they wouldn't have known what schizophrenia was back in the day, but those people certainly knew what "crazy" was. Those guys believed Him. Many of the people who followed Him believed Him. The Greeks and Romans that got the Gospels and Epistles second-hand believed. So either all those people are messed up just as bad and believe a messed-up false "prophet," or Jesus really was who He claimed to be. Most Christians I know are perfectly sane. I'm talking about doctors, lawyers, psychologists, the occasional politician as well as the normal, every-day kinda people like me. We all have issues, but so do unbelievers. There's no difference here. Those people have enough good sense to know the difference. And if they are perfectly capable of discerning truth for themselves and have all their facilities available to them, then there's certainly no reason to believe Jesus was crazy. And if Jesus wasn't crazy, then He had to be who He said He was.

well tell me what happens to a person here in 2010 that says he is jesus christ?

I know I'm not being asked, here, and I apologize if I'm stepping on any toes. The NT had completely gone straight to Greek by A.D. 200 when our first complete sets of books appear, and we have translations that actually go back earlier than that (mid 100's). No other ancient text had ever gone from the events as they happened to mass copying, translation, and dissemination quite like the NT. Those ancient manuscripts, even the OT ones, are still available in copies, and modern Bible translations are taken directly from those early texts. It is EXTREMELY unlikely that the text and meaning of the Bible has changed at all since then.

There are only two exceptions that I'm aware of (not trying to offend anyone, just stating a fact). Watchtower Society (Jehovah's Witnesses) have a unique translation of the Bible that is known to have been altered. Mormons (LDS) rely on the KJV, but will make a point of saying the believe the Bible as far as it's correctly translated. What's really odd, in my opinion, is many truths they hold cannot be corroborated by the KJV Bible nor the Book of Mormon. Again, not trying to offend any JW's or LDS, just stating facts as I understand them--these approaches are unique as they do not fit in with much of mainstream Christianity as it relates to translating/interpreting the Bible.

Not exactly sure what you mean by that? It may have been revolutionary when held up against Jewish law, though that needs revelatory basis to mean anything either.

he would have lost me at the dont eat meat on friday. nothing i like better than a steak during lent

I've never known anyone to do that in 2010, though Obama seems to be the Messiah for a lot of people these days.

The Jesus warned His followers not to follow after anyone else claiming to be Him. His return would be very obvious and undeniable, recognized by everyone--believer and unbeliever alike. For someone to claim that they've FOUND Jesus somewhere would make Jesus a liar, something we know to be false, and therefore such false stories are not to be believed.

Nothing too different from what would happen in 29 AD, we just wouldn't let them starve to death on the street in 2010.

oh sorry your both wrong, the correct answer is people that claim to be jesus are actually locked up in mental hospitals.

You're sure about that? There are many paranoid schizophrenics out there - believing they're everyone from Ricky Richardo to Napoleon, one of the later supposedly owns a rather successful French restaurant out in Vegas? So long as they don't show a proclivity to ice pick someone in the neck or play with matches and gasoline the mental health world doesn't typically see the point of locking them up (and unless they are proved harmful to others its against their civil rights).

In 25-29 AD they had many reasons to not nearly be that kind.

i live in a town with a maximum security mental health facility and know people that work there and there is a jesus christ in there, he was arrested for disturbing the peace and was found unfit to stand trial

Keep in mind that Jesus Himself observed Jewish law. He loved to debate the Pharisees, a group known for in-depth discussions on law and doctrine, and they couldn't ever trick Him on anything.

As far as what was messed-up, though, think about the Last Supper. Jesus told His disciples that the bread was His body and the wine was His blood. A lot of people would misinterpret this as cannibalism, even (today) vampirism. Even some people of Jesus' day would have misunderstood some of the things He said, perhaps taking Him TOO literally.

But take the Last Supper. It wasn't JUST a regular evening meal. It was an observance of the Passover. The way unleavened bread is prepared, it's striped. Jesus was trying to paint a picture of how He'd be beaten and whipped, leaving stripes on His body. The custom was to break the bread, a picture of the crucifixion. The wine was a picture of the blood sacrifice that, in the past, covered sin. By symbolically taking Jesus' blood, sin is taken away, not merely covered up. The blood on the doorpost at the original Passover kept the Israelites from the plague of the death of the firstborn. Jesus is saying that His blood will save all (who believe) from eternal separation from God.

Someone looking at Jesus as just a regular man would have a lot of trouble buying into all this because of its gruesome implications. You'd have to be out of your mind to make those kinds of claims.

Another issue that is problematic for unbelievers: Jesus said "Take up your cross and follow Me." Many of us think that just means a life of heartache and trouble, just the burden we share for being Christians. Not true. The cross doesn't represent the mere burden of life itself. The cross was an instrument of death. People back in those days would have understood that clearly. "Follow Me and be ready to die." Sounds great, doesn't it? Sounds like a lot of suicide cults, doesn't it? Many people who'd followed Jesus to that point only to find out He wanted them to be ready to die probably would have left then and there.

Obviously, we live in a day and age when we don't have to worry about dying for something we believe in. We're free to practice whatever religion we want, however we want, without worrying about someone putting a couple of 2X4's together and nailing us to them. But I bet a lot of us would quickly change our minds about this whole Christianity thing if someone started doing that. Being willing to die because of your faith wouldn't sound quite like a very smart thing to do.

Messed up.

That's why I say Jesus had to be who He said He was. If He wasn't, then that means you have millions (I'm guessing) throughout history giving up their freedom or their lives for the sake of a crazy guy. I find it hard to believe that people would go that far for a village idiot. They had reason enough to believe, and I see no good reason why I shouldn't believe.

Countless times into various languages. The old testament: biblical hebrew/aramaic -> Greek -> English; twice, new testament just the once.

It would be far simpler to just have Jesus here to tell us all in esperanto or something, shame he had to ascend right after he resurrected, like we're told by Luke. Actually didn't John say it was a week and a day? Nonono wait I got it as 40 days in Acts...

It is wrong because Jesus was trying to teach God's people that they were missing the whole point of God's laws.

The Jews were masters at obeying the LETTER of the law, and they felt self-righteous and justified in that.

In their hearts, they were hypocrites. They didn't follow the law in their hearts nor did they adhere to the SPIRIT of the law.

It is wrong to lust upon a woman in your heart because the heart is where sin begins. It is in the heart where the transformation needs to take place. It's not enough to act the part, you must live it within your being.

It's wrong to have strong sexual feelings toward any women? So every relationship that isn't prearranged by a third party or platonic is based on sin and therefore against God?