Are we sure this isn’t just that there is some set of bots that just vote contrarian opinions on polls that are nearly 100% in one direction just in hopes of gambling on the high return? It’s possible none of the bets on this topic are even aware how bizarre it is to vote yes.
The Polymarket users betting on when Jesus will return
531–540 of 649 posts
Re: The Polymarket users betting on when Jesus will return
#532Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is that how the rich men are squeezing into heaven these days? "It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of the needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven" There's a theory that the eye of the needle was a narrow gate in Jerusalem's city wall that was notoriously hard for camels to squeeze through. But seems the hard evidence for that is limited.
That story is only tracked back to the 1400's, so not credible. The currently favoured theory is that this was a translation error. Apparently in Aramaic (the language of Judaea and Galilee), the word for "camel" is very close to the word for "rope". As with all parables (and this does qualify as a parable) it may be intended to reward some thought - e.g. the only way of getting a rope through the eye of needle is to…
The key of the teaching comes after that metaphor, when the disciples ask how one can be saved and Jesus answers that “with man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
These words eventually became the foundation of Christian charity in an Ancient world that until then despised and rejected the weak and infirm.
Many of our modern day institutions trace their origin to that Christian charity, to those few enigmatic words.
(Peter Brown's “Through the Eye of a Needle” is a great book to know more about this process.)
Re: The Polymarket users betting on when Jesus will return
#533Earlier quoted context omitted.
Asking logical critical questions will not get you far with any hardcore believer, at least I havent met any, ever. What you will get plenty of depends on personality - outright attack, run away in some form, or usual blanket statements with 0 actual meaning like "its faith", "you have to believe". As if anything else mattered but a clean moral behavior. Made up rituals very specific to given sect, on different dates…
;) i love critical questions > As if anything else mattered but a clean moral behavior this is actually a strongly non-Christian view point: 'all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God' i.e. no morals are clean enough unless it's 100% of God (why should he accept less?). yes, our harsh moral failures, or even successes could never be enough hence 100% humanity and divinity of Christ -- he alone provides a 100…
There are plenty of denominations- Catholics foremost among them- who agree that good morals and works are not contributing to your redemption, but a natural consequence of having genuinely accepted Christ.
To "believe" without good morals or works entirely is to put on a false face, essentially. Therefore, some manner of effort is expected of believers. It's a bit of circular reasoning, but not much.
Re: The Polymarket users betting on when Jesus will return
#534Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's not a reason. That's an excuse for why the vigorous handwaving of the religious is insufficient. We have people who are catching measles because they don't believe in measles vaccines, like right freaking now even though we know that the vaccines are safe, effective, and work. Every dimwit who is against their children getting those vaccines was once a child whose parents were intelligent enough to get the vac…
i don't understand how the freedom to believe or reject god has anything to do with vaccines. what are you trying to say here?
Whether or not something exists has zero to do with whether someone accepts that it does. Your free will argument makes absolutely no sense to anyone who actually thinks it through.
Re: The Polymarket users betting on when Jesus will return
#535Earlier quoted context omitted.
1) We can start with the fact that Historians believe Christ existed. 2) I can grant you he might have just been a harmless mentally ill person. 3) You must now grant me that we crucified someone for that. 4) The above is evil. There is your proof. If you need more, you can check out Nazism. 5) This mentally ill person was pretty adamant about the nature of sin. 6) At the very least , it’s worth considering if he mig…
>2) I can grant you he might have just been a harmless mentally ill person. The same could be said for the "prophets" of any major religion. Muhammadﷻ (SWT) arguably went into a state of psychosis after the premature deaths of both of his sons. Joseph Smith, a local drunk in a small western NY town, said a magical rock in a hat that only he could see told him the garden of Eden was in St. Louis and that the native Am…
If God was so perfect, why would he create beings that have free will to destroy the life of another?
That is the ultimate intellectual question. But pay attention to the key word, intellectual. You cannot get spiritual answers from an intellectual question. That's what makes faith rather hard at times and often requires meditation.
It actually gives me reason to reject religion as a whole.
Christ, allegedly, died due to the pride of religion. He was very much on a mission to call out the pride, power and arrogance of organized religion. Again, the answers are simply not available in the intellectual domain and must be sought in the spiritual domain.
I'm not even a member of a Church as I mostly do my reading on my own and do my own reflection. I think one of the main things God tries to hammer home is that we are to all have an eternal life in the after-life (which is mercy, because he could just erase us). If eternity is what is at stake, it is probably in our interest to cleanse our soul of whatever makes us shitty humans, lest we enter eternity tainted and unreformed, for a soul like that will be shitty for all eternity.
Re: The Polymarket users betting on when Jesus will return
#536To be fair, if we're living in a simulation, Jesus does feel a bit like a Chekhov's gun.
Re: The Polymarket users betting on when Jesus will return
#537Earlier quoted context omitted.
Purpose. That there was a purpose for all of this. If we believe there was no purpose for all of this, then what a hopeless thing. I just look at the erasure of Gaza and have become more and more religious, because my god what a hopeless end if this all isn’t saved at the very end. I feel that way about many of today’s ills. Purpose and hope, even if the answer is utterly magical.
> If we believe there was no purpose for all of this, then what a hopeless thing. That's a huge leap that speaks to your own perspective. It's not some sort of objective fact. That there is no purpose and we are still here is in fact quite beautiful and amazing.
Oh, I know it doesn't prove anything. It is a veritable leap of faith. No one said faith was easy.
Re: The Polymarket users betting on when Jesus will return
#538Earlier quoted context omitted.
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That's why Jesus said "Better pick up a stone otherwise you're just encouraging adultery!" I'm not for encouraging people to get abortions. I think abortions are a terrible and sad thing. I wish for a world where nobody would ever need to have such a procedure done. I also think its terrible to have the state force people to carry risky pregnancies to term. I also think its bad for us to then go on and be hateful to…
> That's why Jesus said "Better pick up a stone otherwise you're just encouraging adultery!"
Your implied argument is what, exactly? That JC opposed the death penalty for adultry, ergo he's against shaming single mothers, even if it leads to better outcomes? Bit of a stretch.
> I also think its bad for us to then go on and be hateful to those who have had an abortion, and I also think its wrong to firebomb places which give healthcare.
These opinions are shared by all mainstream Christian churches and the overwhelming majority of Christians.
Re: The Polymarket users betting on when Jesus will return
#539Everyone just seems to assume that whether Jesus has returned will be obvious and easily verifiable. As if they could prove that Jesus isn't already here.
Matthew 24:4-31 describes -the exact- method of His return. The description is very much like an alien force deceleration within our solar system, and arriving en masse. It'll be noticeable worldwide. Read this and tell me if there's any ambiguity.
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4 And Jesus answered and said to them, “See to it that no one misleads you. 5 For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will mislead many people. 6 And you will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pains.
9 “Then they will hand you over to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name. 10 And at that time many will fall away, and they will betray one another and hate one another. 11 And many false prophets will rise up and mislead many people. 12 And because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will become cold. 13 But the one who endures to the end is the one who will be saved. 14 This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.
15 “Therefore when you see the abomination of desolation which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place—let the reader understand— 16 then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains. 17 Whoever is on the housetop must not go down to get things out of his house. 18 And whoever is in the field must not turn back to get his cloak. 19 But woe to those women who are pregnant, and to those who are nursing babies in those days! 20 Moreover, pray that when you flee, it will not be in the winter, or on a Sabbath. 21 For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will again. 22 And if those days had not been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short. 23 Then if anyone says to you, ‘Behold, here is the Christ,’ or ‘He is over here,’ do not believe him. 24 For false christs and false prophets will arise and will provide great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect. 25 Behold, I have told you in advance. 26 So if they say to you, ‘Behold, He is in the wilderness,’ do not go out; or, ‘Behold, He is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe them. 27 For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes as far as the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be. 28 Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.
29 “But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30 And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. 31 And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet blast, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.
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Sun darkened. Heavens shaken. Loud trumpet sound. Host arriving. God didn't originate on Earth. Alien. Alien invasion. Re-invasion?
Neat huh? OH! Did you know the Bible also mentions a Dragon, called Leviathan. And zombies: "...they shall seek death and not find it. Death will flee from them..."
His story. Best story ever.
Re: The Polymarket users betting on when Jesus will return
#540Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's clear that that proper practice for a wealthy person would be to immediately jettison the wealth. Matt 19:21 NIV: "Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” So if you're wealthy and poor people exist , you're in a state of sin. Christianity is an apocalyptic religion, you're to assume the world could en…
The story in Matthew 19:21 has exactly the same point and precedes this very parable. > But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions. [Then follows the camel and the needle.] The rich man fails the test because he is unable to give up his wealth; his heart is not in the right place. He loves the world and he loves his riches more than he loves God. It is entirely poss…
You left out Jesus' reply: "“Leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial." She was using the expensive oil to honor him/God, not keeping it for personal use. So not really a rebuttal.