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All the above is part of Free Will, something that faith and ethics both agree that we have for a reason. If your view is that God does not want these things to happen then I ask you why we keep getting the ability to do so?

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ORIGINAL: vincentML

So, okay. God created man with free will. If God is perfect he would know in advance the decision man would make, that man would sin. So, is God playing a mindfuck game with man? If not, is the choice that God is not perfect?

Another iteration of the same question: if God is perfect and he is the creator why did he create Evil?

If he did not create Evil then he is not omnipotent. Otherwise he would stamp out Evil.

Why did he not grab the snake by the throat and kill it? And how could adam/eve hide from god in their little garden?

Just askin..

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ORIGINAL: AQuietSimpleMan

For someone who thinks so lowly of the Human Species I would believe that it is YOU who is letting it happen not God, he gave us all the ability to think for ourselves and to make changes where we can, you have just given up.

Like I said, Kevin Spacey, Se7en.

QSM

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ORIGINAL: Brain

I think he did die in vain. I think we could have had or would have much more peace in the world without Christianity; which is exactly what he wanted, peace. Jesus would be horrified how many people have died in his name.

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ORIGINAL: Owner59
Jesus was a Rabbi

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ORIGINAL: Owner59

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ORIGINAL: FatDomDaddy

No.

Well,if one believes the hyperbole....he didn`t really die.

Just say`n.

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ORIGINAL: AQuietSimpleMan

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ORIGINAL: Owner59
Jesus was a Rabbi

Please OH PLEASE, OH PLEASE tell me where it is said that Jesus held the position of Rabbi?

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ORIGINAL: Aneirin

A strong subject I know

So, what's the point in Christainity, as to me it appears to be a contradiction and there a free for all, a do as you like scenario, which is hardly a guide for moral living.

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For example, post 9/11, Bush quoting God and lets wage war, kill, destroy and everything else that comes with it, similarly Blair also quoting God just before forces are sent to kill and destroy, so what does this say about Christaianity and what is pertinent today what other religions understand about Christianity.

But back to Jesus

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The governments of the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah were based on a system of Jewish kings, prophets, the legal authority of the court of the Sanhedrin and the ritual authority of priesthood. Members of the Sanhedrin had to receive their semicha ("ordination") derived in an uninterrupted line of transmission from Moses, yet rather than being referred to as "rabbis" they were more frequently called judges (dayanim) akin to the Shoftim or "Judges" as in the Book of Judges.

All of the above personalities would have been expected to be steeped in the wisdom of the Torah and the commandments, which would have made them "rabbis" in the modern sense of the word. This is illustrated by an two-thousand-year-old teaching in the Mishnah, Ethics of the Fathers (Pirkei Avot), which observed about King David,

"He who learns from his fellowman a single chapter, a single halakha, a single verse, a single Torah statement, or even a single letter, must treat him with honor. For so we find with David King of Israel, who learned nothing from Ahitophel except two things, yet called him his teacher [Hebrew text: "rabbo"], his guide, his intimate, as it is said: 'You are a man of my measure, my guide, my intimate' (Psalms 55:14). One can derive from this the following: If David King of Israel who learned nothing from Ahitophel except for two things, called him his teacher, his guide, his intimate, one who learns from his fellowman a single chapter, a single halakha, a single verse, a single statement, or even a single letter, how much more must he treat him with honor. And honor is due only for Torah, as it is said: 'The wise shall inherit honor' (Proverbs 3:35), 'and the perfect shall inherit good' (Proverbs 28:10). And only Torah is truly good, as it is said: 'I have given you a good teaching, do not forsake My Torah' (Psalms 128:2)." (Ethics of the Fathers 6:3)

With the destruction of the two Temples in Jerusalem, the end of the Jewish monarchy, and the decline of the dual instititutions of prophets and the priesthood, the focus of scholarly and spiritual leadership within the Jewish people shifted to the sages of the Men of the Great Assembly (Anshe Knesset HaGedolah). This assembly was composed of the earliest group of "rabbis" in the more modern sense of the word, in large part because they began the formulation and explication of what became known as Judaism's "Oral Law (Torah SheBe'al Peh). This was eventually encoded and codified within the Mishnah and Talmud and subsequent rabbinical scholarship, leading to what is known as Rabbinic Judaism.

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four Aramaic words appear as titles for Jesus: Rabbi, or teacher; Amen, or prophet; Messias, or Christ; and Mar, or Lord.

The most neutral and least controversial of these words is probably Rabbi, along with the related Rabbouni. Except for two passages, the Gospels apply the Aramaic word only to Jesus; and if we conclude that the title "teacher" or "master" (didaskalos in Greek) was intended as a translation of that Aramaic name, it seems safe to say that it was as Rabbi that Jesus was known and addressed. Yet the Gospels seem to accentuate the differences, rather than the similarities, between Jesus and the other rabbis. As the scholarly study of the Judaism of his time has progressed, however, both the similarities and the differences have become clearer.

Luke tells us (4:16-30) that after his baptism and temptation by the devil, he "came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up; and he went to the synagogue, as his custom was, on the sabbath day. And he stood up to read." Following the customary rabbinical pattern, he took up a scroll of the Hebrew Bible, read it, presumably provided an Aramaic translation-paraphrase of the text, and then commented on it. The words he read were from Isaiah 61:1-2: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." But instead of doing what a rabbi would normally do, apply the text to the hearers by comparing and contrasting earlier interpretations, he declared: "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." Although the initial reaction to this audacious declaration was said to be wonderment "at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth," his further explanation produced the opposite reaction, and everyone was "filled with wrath."

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Both are interesting reads.

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how much the political operatives of their times inserted things

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ORIGINAL: DarlingSavage

Did Jesus die in vain ? Yes, it was a foolish move on his part and he never really should have gone through with it.  It was just a very bad idea, all the way around.  But he was so intent on scening with those guys.  He really should have used the safe word.

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1. The New Testament Books were written ... years after his death .... (generations).

2. The New Testament was written in Greek, but the language Jesus and his disciples usually spoke seems to have been Aramaic, a Semitic tongue related to Hebrew but not identical with it.

Tends to cast ... a bit of doubt ... about every detail contained in the bible.

Add to it ... that for at least a thousand to fifteen hundred years ... no on could read it ... except monks in monasteries ... translating old manuscript in Greek to Latin ... or worse ... Latin to Latin.

We really do not know ... how much they changed ... as well as ... how much the political operatives of their times inserted things ... for there own uses ...

So unscrambling the mess ... appears to be ... a pure exercise in futility ....

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ORIGINAL: Aneirin

I recently asked the same question that I have asked here of a Baptist friend who has the alpha course under his belt, his answer was don't go there for it is a mess just believe if you want or disbelieve, but don't question. My reply to that was one of astonishment as how could my friend just believe without question. I said you are aware of what I am asking yet you can't answer and you believe, how come. His answer was simply that he was a devout Christian and he believed and that was that, and he also being a scientist who is used to questioning things, but not his faith.

Now I can understand some people just need to believe without question, but me, the things I accept, I do so via much reasoning on the subject.