Zombie apocalypse

@mchill said
This is akin to God speaking to Joseph Smith from inside a hat.

God spoke to Moses from within a burning bush: Ex: Ch 3.
God spoke to Joseph in a dream: Genesis Ch 3 and 7.
God spoke to Daniel in a vision. Daniel Ch 2 and 7.
God spoke to Paul in a vision. 2 Cor Ch 12:1-4.

I can't change what happened. But look on the bright side folks. No one is forcing you to believ ...[text shortened]... e you make the right choice.

This has been mildly entertaining, but the workday beckons. Bye. 🙂

I think you are missing the point. If Matthew's account of people rising from their graves can be deflected as a vision or dream, how do we know the telling of the crucifixion or resurrection of Christ wasn't merely a vision or a dream?

As I said, your vision/dream defence disintegrates the entirety of scripture and should probably be retracted. (If you do this quickly we can pretend you never proffered it).

@fmf said
If you see the concept of God speaking to mortals through visions and dreams, as opposed to a set of apostles as "disintegrating" in some way, I'm sorry, but it doesn't make what I said here any less true.

"God speaking to mortals through visions and dreams" makes it sound like it is written by humans without divine inspiration.

The story goes: God sends himself dow ...[text shortened]... new religion go for "God speaking to mortals through visions and dreams" as well. It seems mundane.

"makes it sound like"

Maybe to you.

John 5:27-29 corroborates by foreseeing that all who are in tombs would come out, and Luke 23:45 did mention the temple veil cracked in two. It doesn't take visions to explain it away, the more correctly called 'mummy' apocalypse. Each of the saints' glorified appearances is not to reflect their own glory much.

Are you saying Einstein disproved forward time-traveling, or a rock solid seal, a tiny hole for it not to be airtight, still can't let out

Peculiar then in Matt. 27:65-66 the sepulchre was shut with stone a day before the guards' seal was applied to stone.

@ghost-of-a-duke said
This is akin to God speaking to Joseph Smith from inside a hat.

That must have been a very large hat. But one thing one can say about Joseph Smith, is that he too was lost in the woods with his visions. I can also say that the Mormons are all loyal club members, which help one another, exclusively. And some have more than one wife hidden inside their hats.

Seriously, they at least don't believe that Jesus is his own Father. Another Mormon idea which may merit a second look, is that they believe that Jesus Christ will quietly return, unnoticed, to prepare the earth for the formally promised Greatest Show on Earth; the second coming and millennial reign, which will occur in the United States.

@mchill said
Any particular reason the other Gospel writers (or indeed any other writer from that time) didn't make mention of it?

No, there isn't. As I've explained to you folks many times, the gospel writers wrote not only the lessons Jesus taught them, but lessons that came to them from God through visions and dreams. You're not going to find a complete set of logical, and verifiable facts in many of the scriptural books. There are some things you have to take on faith.

But you have to admit that even Jesus did not take it on faith, when the devil tempted him in the desert, when Jesus was physically weak from fasting 40 days. He outwitted the devil not by faith, but by wisdom, and the knowledge of the written word.

I hope they don't ask us how the writers of the Gospels knew what the devil said to Jesus, and vice versa. That's a matter of faith.

Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.

And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungered.

And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.

But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, and saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.

Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; and saith unto him, all these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.

Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.

You need to outsmart all those making trial of faith. But it's not easy when the one questioning you majored in theology. And like the devil, probably knows the written word better, or at least as good as professing theists.

@moonbus said
Because it didn't happen. That story was invented later, for dramatic effect.

I'm dramatizing Richard Burton's line here.

Were you there? Did you see it?