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There's more if you want to read more. Here are my thoughts:

According to this "logic," the vast majority of men are not president; therefore George W. Bush is not president.

Particularly in the Gospel of Mary, Mary Magdalene is depicted as having special knowledge of Jesus: "Peter said to Mary, 'Sister, we know that the Saviour loved you more than the rest of women." In the Gospel of Philip, she is described this way: "There were three who always walked with the Lord: Mary, his mother, and her sister, and Magdalene, the one who was called his companion." Some scholars point to these passages as possible proof of the Jesus and Mary Magdalene relationship.

So even though there is NO mention of a relationship between Jesus and Mary in the canonical New Testament or even in the apocyphal "Book of Mary," Jesus had a relationship with Mary.

Nevertheless, popular culture continues to grab at bits of biblical text to answer perplexing questions. How will the world end? Left Behind takes a piece of I Thessalonians to answer. Those who are “left” alive on earth when the Lord “comes down from heaven” will be “caught up together in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.” The word rapture doesn’t even appear in the text.

So even though the book of First Thessalonians says specifically that we'll be caught up in the air with Jesus, it's not real because Paul didn't use the popular word "rapture." And notice the sneering quote marks in the passage.

Forgive me if I don't understand Biblical scholarship. And the modern media panders to the most liberal of them.

1 posted on 06/08/2003 7:24:10 AM PDT by TenthAmendmentChampion
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To: TenthAmendmentChampion
"Most mainstream biblical scholars do not believe Jesus was married to anyone, because........"

He seemed to be able to go out fishing with his buddies whenever He liked?
2 posted on 06/08/2003 10:46:26 AM PDT by John Beresford Tipton
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To: TenthAmendmentChampion
Everybody was married. The epistles were the wives of the apostles.
5 posted on 06/08/2003 2:27:54 PM PDT by gcruse (Superstition is a mind in chains.)
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To: TenthAmendmentChampion
TenthAmendmentChampion wrote:

"So even though the book of First Thessalonians says specifically that we'll be caught up in the air with Jesus, it's not real because Paul didn't use the popular word "rapture."
Is it possible that the Bible contains symbolic language and that "air" doesn't mean what a literal, surface reading would suggest?


Is this the same "air" that Lucifer is the prince of in Eph. 2:2? (Eph 2:2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:) or perhaps, as this passage suggests, "air" is simply symbolic of spirit. Of course, the "air" that we're going to be caught up into with Christ would be holy spirit instead of evil spirit?

Speaking of being caught up, is that the same thing that Paul meant when he wrote in 1 Corithinians: "I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago . . . such an one caught up to the third heaven.
How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter."

Did Paul go somewhere physically when he was "caught up"? Or did he go somewhere in his mind? To a deeper depth of spirit, perhaps.

To paraphrase Jesus, one "errs" when trying to understand spiritual things on a physical level as they know neither the scriptures nor the power of God. Or, put another way (as Paul said):

"Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." (1Co 2:12-14)

The rapture is not scriptural. It only comes from a misunderstanding of scriptures combined with man's ideas and opinions. Paul, the author of 1 Thessalonians writes often of being lifted up into a deeper depth of spirit -- When he wrote in Ephesians that God "hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" was he saying the Ephesians actually WENT somewhere. Of course not! He was saying that those believers at Ephesus -- who were still alive physically -- were in a HEAVENLY place.

Read the New Testament. That is the message. We can be lifted up or exalted in God! Does it make sense to take one isolated verse you don't understand and build a childish doctrine about some supernatural event around it? No. It doesn't. God is not the author of confusion!
9 posted on 06/09/2003 11:18:27 AM PDT by stranger and pilgrim
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To: TenthAmendmentChampion
Those who are “left” alive on earth when the Lord “comes down from heaven” will be “caught up together in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.” The word rapture doesn’t even appear in the text.

Sure it does -- just not in the English translations. The Latin word from which we get "rapture" is translated "caught up" in the above verse.

10 posted on 06/09/2003 3:13:14 PM PDT by Constitutionalist Conservative (http://c-pol.com)
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To: TenthAmendmentChampion

The DaVinci Jesus or The Real Jesus?
In the book the DaVinci Code, the author has written untrue statements about Jesus. The author states that his book is fiction; nevertheless, these statements have been written and now must be answered.

Was Jesus married and did He have a child?
Jesus is a man and while on earth, He certainly could have enjoyed the blessings of both marriage and descendants. However, Jesus is also the Christ, the Messiah, and it was necessary for the Christ to suffer much for our sakes. Yet another suffering of the Christ, this man of sorrows, was that He would not take a wife and that He would not have descendants.
The Holy Scriptures define the Christ, so that we will clearly know who He is. In both the Old and New Testaments, the Bible takes care to say that the Christ would not have descendants. This is simply one more definition of who Christ is.

In the Old Testament:
“By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken.” (Isa. 53:8 NIV)

In the New Testament:
“In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.” (Acts 8:33 NIV)

What about marriage, could Jesus have been married and not have had any children? Jesus often spoke of Himself as the bridegroom. He even made it clear He would leave the earth still a groom.

“And Jesus said to them, ‘Can the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom [Jesus Christ] is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast. But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.’” (Mark 2:19–20 NKJV)

However, whom would Jesus marry since He is a bridegroom? Again, Jesus is the Christ, and Jesus Christ kept Himself for His spiritual bride, the Church, not just one individual within the Church.

“This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.” (Eph. 5:32 KJV)

When people publish untrue statements about Jesus, whether or not they claim it is fiction, it is really their intention to say that Jesus is not the Christ. When people do this, we need to remember that the Holy Scriptures also provide us with a clear definition of who they are:

“Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son.” (1 John 2:22 NASB)

If you would like more insightful Bible truth about The Real Jesus, please see the books: Tabernacle Gifts, Our First Day in Heaven ISBN 0970454813 and Pray Like This, God’s Secret to Answered Prayer ISBN 097045483X, by Michael Zarlengo, to order go to amazon.com or call 1-877-323-4550.
By Michael Zarlengo & Steven Zarlengo. © Copyright Pray Like This. www.praylikethis.org


14 posted on 04/19/2006 6:10:19 AM PDT by helloo1234
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