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I never watch the news. And the only time I hear the news is on accident on my classic country station 910 AM every now and then between songs. I figure if something big enough happens I'll hear about it. But this morning on the news a guy was being interviewed after a guilty verdict came down on a murder case. He mentioned how that guy would be in Hell and blah blah blah.

When I talk to people about Heaven and Hell they usually say something like this, "Well I'll probably go to heaven, it ain't like I ever killed anybody". Is murder the cut off point for being banned from Heaven? Is everything else OK as long as we don't murder some one?

Maybe the murderer would say something like this, "We'll I only killed 1 person, Hitler killed 6 million people, so he should be in Hell, not me"?

If there is a God, and you were God, would you have rules on who gets in?

And if you would have rules, why can't God?

God's only rule is this, you can't get to me unless you get here through my son.

Later, feeno

I'd like to cash in my 401k please.

I had a busy week and have missed talking with you guys. I'm glad to be back. JD did well in my absence in the continued debate about "where we get the idea of right and wrong" from?

Any ways, the kids are away in San Antonio visiting relatives. Me and the Mrs. are "Home Alone". I'd mentioned how my Pastor showed a clip of the movie "2012" at church a couple weeks ago. So last night after I took my wife to one of the finer eateries in town, we stopped at one of those vending machines that rents dvd's.

We got the movie "2012". I'm very hard to please when it comes to movies, so don't take my advice, but this movie was average at best. If you haven't seen it, rent something else?

The movie is about the how the Mayans predicted the end of the world to be on 12/21/2012. Some people knew this was really gonna happen and were making plans to avoid it. (if that would be possible) It got me thinking about King Hezekiah. Hezekiah was a good King in the days of Isaiah the Prophet. He was real sick, the Lord told Isaiah to tell Hezekiah to get his "house in order" because he was gonna die. The King didn't wanna die, so he prayed to God. God thought it over and then told Isaiah to go tell the King he was gonna give Hezekiah 15 more years to live.

This brings up 2 questions. #1. Would you want to know the exact date you were gonna die? And #2. If you knew the exact date you were gonna die, what would you do to get your "house in order"?

Later, feeno

can I get a glass of milk with that, granma

1/3 of Americans believe the Bible should be taken literal.
1/2 of Americans believe in the rapture.
1/5 of Americans believe the rapture will take place in their life time.

Maybe Jeff who according to "nobody cooler Schuler" "is da man" can let us know if those stats seem about right for those north of the border?

I have no idea what percentage of Americans will be caught up in the rapture. I know about 70% of Americans claim to be Christians, but only God knows. But for the sake of this post, let's assume you wake up tomorrow and 25% of the population is missing.

Your sweet granma is one of those missing. That kind, sweet ole lady that you could always count on for love and support, and who made a damn good brownie is gone. Do you remember her words about how the Lord was coming back for her. Or do you chalk it up to alien abductions or some bizarre coincidence. Or are you just happy all the Bible thumpers are gone?

Deuces, feeno

I'm sorry little horsey

This poor horse has been dead for about 2000 years and we're still beating the shit out of it. But if you've been following JD and T-Vick's discussion on my last post this question needs to be answered by the Atheists. Because Christians already have an answer. Tristan has said "If you want an absolute universal morale law... you'll never find that".

OK then, how do we distinguish between right and wrong? Good or bad? Morale or immoral? A positive or negative action? Who gets to decide these things and why?

If there is no absolute morale law there would be difference between greed and generosity. Hate is no better or worse than love.

Where did our conscience come from? If it evolved, why are humans the only ones seeking a creator and feeling bad after doing harmful things? If there is no "absolutes" then we should be held accountable to no-one.

Everyone thinks that what they think is "morale" should work for everyone. But how about if everyone has to live by what I think is morale? That's why we don't want to believe in God, because if he is real, then we have to answer to Him. We'd rather come up with our own morale's. Which brings us back to who gets to decide what those are?

What's it all about Alfie?

Is life more confusing for the Atheist or the Christian? As much as science is teaching us it doesn't show us any purpose to our lives. And maybe that's OK for some people. We eat, drink, party and die. Science can teach us that an axe head doesn't float, or a donkey can't talk or that people who have been dead for 3 days can't come back alive. Christians aren't a bunch of dummies, we know this ordinarily is true. That's why we go to church and praise Jesus because if it happened all the time we'd be home on Sunday mornings too, catching up on sleep or getting the grass cut or whatever it is you all do?

Before you comment, please understand, I'm not saying your lives can't be fulfilling or that you can't have meaningful relationships without God. But if we miss out on the most important relationship, the one with who created you, to me, would be anti-climatic?

Does every decision we make have to be grounded in science? Can't you use your emotions and instincts to draw conclusions that differ with science?

Christians also suffer from confusion. It's just a different set of things to be confused about. Why did God allow this to happen or that to happen? What does he want from me. Am I screwing up in this area or that part of my life. How come Fred accepted Christ and his twin brother rejects Christ? When will you answer my prayer.... yadda yadda yadda.

I don't think this is Biblical or anything, but I think the Christian can go through this life a bit confused, but we are looking forward to the hope we have in Christ. While the Atheist can go through this life confidently but with no hope when it's finished?

Peace out, brown trout. feeno

My Brother the bad ass reads my blog and left this e-mail to pass on to T-Vick

RESPONSE TO TRISTAN

It’s not butter; it is soybean oil, palm oil and some other stuff
Since “disbelief” is not being able to believe something which in all likelihood
is true, “disbelief” is the perfect word to describe the atheist. Christianity
is true, not because it works (i.e., here is how it changed me) but because it
is factual, founded on facts and the internal evidence of the Bible shows this
to be so. Here are some examples:
We read in Ezekiel 26, the prophecy concerning the city of Tyre, a powerful,
walled city of ancient times. “Therefore, this is what the Sovereign LORD says:
I am your enemy, O Tyre, and I will bring many nations against you, like the
waves of the sea crashing against your shoreline. They will destroy the walls of
Tyre and tear down its towers. I will scrape away its soil and make it a bare
rock! It will be just a rock in the sea, a place for fishermen to spread their
nets, for I have spoken, says the Sovereign LORD.

What happened to Tyre? A few years after Ezekiel made this prophecy,
Nebuchadnezzar paid them a visit. For 13 years he laid siege to the city and
finally broke down part of its wall and destroyed the city. Many thousands of
people of the city fled to an island a half mile off shore and built ANOTHER
city there.

250 years after that another conquer came and he demanded that the city
surrender to him. The city laughed at him but the new conqueror didn’t like to
be trifled with so he came up with a plan to reach this city in the sea that
seemed completely untouchable. He would take all of the walls of the old city
and build a causeway out to the new city so he could overtake it. Which is what
he did and in doing so he scrapped the city bare. BTW that was Alexander the
Great.

The causeway that he built (and he actually did help carry the rocks to inspire
his men) remains to this day. You can go see it on your next trip to the Holy
land. But be careful as you walk along it ----- not to step on any of the nets
of the local fishermen. That is where they dry them.

There are countless OT predictions about Jesus the Messiah validated in the NT
that prove what we believe is true, it is not a fairy tale. They concern many
things like His name, things He would do, be done to Him, and even some things
He would say. Since it is Easter here are a few in that regard:
The Triumphal Entry was foretold in the book of Zech. 9:9 and was written about
520 BC, We see Jesus fulfilling this in Mark 11: 7 -9.
How about Jesus betrayed by a friend – David wrote this a thousand years before
Christ in Psalm 41:9 when he said, “Even my close friend, whom I trusted, he
who shared my bread, has lifted up his heel against me”. Judas of course
fulfills this.
I wont display all the passages, you can read them if you want to but here are
a few more:
That Jesus would be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver, the price of a slave.
Foretold by Zechariah (11:12) 400 years before His death, Matt. 26:15
That He would be spat on and struck, Isaiah 50:6 & Matt. 26: 67, made about 700
years before this happened.
That He would be crucified with sinners, Isaiah 53: 12 & Mark 15: 27, 28, this
prophecy also was made about 700 years before the birth of Christ.
That His hands and feet would be pierced, Zechariah 12;10 & John 20:27
That the soldiers would gamble for His clothes, an amazing detail! Psalm 22: 17,
18 & John 19
Even some of the very words He would say were foretold centuries before. Psalm
22: 1 & Matt. 27:46
That not a bone of His would be broken, again made many centuries before it
happened. Psalm 34: 20 & John 19: 32 – 34
That is just a few. Over and over again the Bible says that this was done in
order to fulfill Scripture so we could weigh the evidence.
I was never an atheist but I was an unbeliever, a doubter, a skeptic that I was
convinced by the evidence. As for the atheist, they have no holy men of old
that spoke the word of the LORD, I guess that makes them a “non – prophet”
organization.