Isn’t that sort of, I don’t know, a really arrogant attitude? I mean, if your beliefs prove to be wrong, isn’t it smart to change them? Changing your beliefs doesn’t make you a hypocrite.
Changing my beliefs because I’ve acquired more information and learned they’re wrong wouldn’t make me a hypocrite. Changing my beliefs only because I’m afraid of what would happen if the other guy’s right or because the other guy’s threatening me in some way would make me a hypocrite. While I can understand agreeing with a man who’s holding me at gunpoint saying he’ll kill me unless I renounce my old faith, I’m afraid I can’t consider renouncing them solely because if I don’t, I’ll die, to be the morally right thing to do, however sensible.
On a more practical note, that doesn’t exactly seem to be the way to go about making converts who’ll stay converted. After the guy with the gun goes away, what’s to stop me from going back to my old faith?
I’ll also admit ephraim brings out the worst in me.
CJ
Somehow, I doubt it. We’ve had false prophets and heretics before, so my skepticism is well founded, and the quotes I invoked are directly from The Book, and one of the greatest biblical scholars in all of Church history. There is no Rapture. It is pure invention, and is relatively recent. There is no “Left Behind” either. There is no set date for the End Times. Jesus himself said nobody knows when it will come (the “thief in the night” words). Nobody will know until it happens. In short, you are wrong. I see no need to believe you, over the Bible, Augustine, or the teachings of the Catholic Church (which also denies your claims).
I predict that when Abu Mazen dies, ephraim will try to weasel out of it again with something like:
-some significant sidekick is actually the second beast, no, really this time.
or
-It wasn’t actually Abu mazen that was the beast; ‘the beast’ is a term that describes the regime that he set in place
How many times has he been wrong so far? Anyone keeping count?
So YOU WON’T BE HERE TO READ OF HIS DEATH. When the headline “Abbas dies” appears on the news websites, you’ll be away in the Rapture.
So stop being a coward. Accept my challenge. Copy and paste this into your next post:
Since I, ephraim, firmly believe that I will not be here for Abbas’ death, then in the unbelievable event that I am making a false prophecy here, I will post here admitting my fetishization of Revelation.
If you are right, ephraim, we will all live to regret it, including the “saved.” They have to go to Heaven and be with that abominable monster Yahweh forever and ever. There could be no damnation more profound.