Summations Only

So two fowl and seven fowl are the same number?

But they do not corroborate one another and in fact they often contradict one another as you have been shown repeatedly.

But the evidence has been shown to you and that you cannot deny.There are the two mutually exclusive flood stories.There is the evolution of the Great Commission as the story gets revised over time.

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Actually living the Great Commission is a bummer. Trying to do what Jesus charged us to do was a hard sell in his day and near impossible today. So shortly after his death the various folk trying to market the franchise started making the product more attractive, selling the sizzle instead of the steak.

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That is not just a new tactic, by the time the author of John's Gospel was writing the advertising it was pretty obvious. Look at the Great Commission as found in Matthew 28:

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16Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
  —"Matthew 28:16-20:"

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"19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you."

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Obey what I have commanded you.

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If you read all of Matthew, you will find that what we are commanded to do is "try to do our best for others."

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There is nothing in there about salvation, nothing in there about an afterlife, nothing in there about any benefits that the disciples would get. It is about going and doing, about feeding and clothing and seeing that folk have clean water and shelter and jobs.

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By the time the advertiser came back and revised Mark adding the "Long Ending", the Great Commission had begun to change.

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14Later Jesus appeared to the Eleven as they were eating; he rebuked them for their lack of faith and their stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen him after he had risen.

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15He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. 16Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. 17And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well."

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19After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God. 20Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it.
  —"Mark 16"

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Originally Mark ended with just an empty tomb and the women running away afraid, but that was a really hard sell. So at sometime someone came back and added the parts from Mark 16:10-20.

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This version is much different. It now has some real benefits, salvation just for believing and getting baptized and the chance to do some really neat tricks. It is a much easier sale, all you need to do is go profess the "Good News" rather than just doing little stuff like feeding and clothing and shelter. AND it offers a real reward.

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Then along came the author of John, and he makes the deal even sweeter.

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19On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" 20After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

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21Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." 22And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. 23If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven."
  —"John 20"

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Now the doors are locked and Jesus still shows up and for the first time, the disciples are given the power to even override GOD. If they forgive sins the sins are forgiven but if they don't forgive sins then the person is damned.

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Now that is real power.

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This trend of marketing Christianity has continued on down until today.

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You gotta admit that telling someone all they need to do is believe and get baptized is a whole lot easier to sell then telling them they gotta do for the least of these with no guarantee of reward. And you gotta admit telling folk "I have the power to damn you" is a pretty strong incentive.

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So was the evolution of the post resurrection story and the Great Commission driven by marketing pressure?

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And if you want I will happily provide additional examples.But the fact is that the different authors often contradict what the other authors create.

Note what is said and you even quote.

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6 And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.

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Note that the God character says if people have a common language, common purpose then they will be able to do anything they imagine.Just as in the Garden of Eden fable and the Exodus fable the God character sees this as a direct threat to be dealt with by force.In the GoE fable the God forces the man and women to leave the Garden because he fears that they will become immortal. In the Exodus myth the God character hardens Pharaoh's heart to show how big a dick he has and in this fable the God character screws up everyone's language and scatters them all over the globe.In each of the stories there is one common theme; the God character is not someone to love or like or worship except through fear.OR... the fable can be simply another "Just So" story to explain why there are different languages and not really about God except as a plot device.That is true about all three fables; you have two choices. You can see the God as a nasty, fearsome, insecure asshole or understand that the stories are not about God but rather about the world folk lived in explaining why we fear snakes, why childbirth seems more painful for humans than other animals, why we farm, why we grow old and die, why we create moral societies, why there are different languages in different places or the origin of a "Peoples identity".

Since Islam is simply another of the Judaic religions where is the rip off? Could it be any more a ripoff than what Christianity did with the Old Testament?

Have you looked up the text of either Josephus or Tacitus?Let's first look at Josephus:

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Festus was now dead, and Albinus was but upon the road; so he assembled the sanhedrim of judges, and brought before them the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some others, [or, some of his companions]; and when he had formed an accusation against them as breakers of the law, he delivered them to be stoned: but as for those who seemed the most equitable of the citizens, and such as were the most uneasy at the breach of the laws, they disliked what was done; they also sent to the king [Agrippa], desiring him to send to Ananus that he should act so no more, for that what he had already done was not to be justified; nay, some of them went also to meet Albinus, as he was upon his journey from Alexandria, and informed him that it was not lawful for Ananus to assemble a sanhedrim without his consent.[24] Whereupon Albinus complied with what they said, and wrote in anger to Ananus, and threatened that he would bring him to punishment for what he had done; on which king Agrippa took the high priesthood from him, when he had ruled but three months, and made Jesus, the son of Damneus, high priest.

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Now remember that this was written about sixty years after Jesus death and that there is only a passing mention that might refer to Jesus and another reference that most certainly is not Jesus Christ.The second passage from Josephus is:

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3. Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man; for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross,[9] those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day;[10] as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.

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Again it is simply a secondhand report of what we know, that there was a group that called themselves Christians and claimed that Jesus performed miracles and that there were prophecies regarding Him.And from Tacitus, written over 75 years after Jesus death.

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Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular.

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Both sources simply repeat the same material that was current in the Christian culture but are just reports of what people believed not evidence of any facts beyond belief.

There is actually external evidence for that miracle, a hoof print from his steed in a rock.

But there is absolutely nothing in either Genesis 2 or 3 that says or implies that the serpent was Satan, was possessed by Satan, related to Satan, ever knew Satan or was even in the same room as Satan; plus in the story found in Genesis 2&3 the serpent tells the truth while the god character lies.How can you not see that the story in Genesis 2&3 is not about God, that the god character like the serpent are just plot devices and that it is a "Just So" story?

Faith I am not giving any false reading, and folk (as long as they are not "Biblical Christians) can even go and read what is actually written in Genesis 2&3.We don't need the Book of Revelation to be able to actually read what is written in Genesis 2&3.AbE: Also, I've read the Bible Faith and in Revelation Satan is called the serpent that deceives mankind while in Genesis 2&3 the serpent actually tells the truth and deceives no one. It is the God character that deceives mankind so the God character in Genesis 2&3 is Satan according to Revelation?Edited by jar, : see AbE:

Utter nonsense Phat.The Bible is filled with examples of God asking questions to find out the answer.Have you ever actually read the Bible Phat?Where do you find support that Satan made a choice to oppose God?Have you ever read the Bible Phat?

So you are saying that Jesus was just a conman, a carny snakeoil salesman just using common beliefs to make folk think he was a Messiah?

I even quoted what you wrote. Why do you continue to make Jesus look like a crook and God like a fool?What would you call someone who knowing what was written in scripture tried to manufacture the conditions predicted? "Hey John, go get me an ass for tomorrows entrance scene?"Did you not say " I'd suggest that He saw Himself called to fulfil the prophesies such as the suffering servant is Isaiah, Son of Man in Daniel as well as the prophesies in Jeremiah. "?Did you not say "I'd suggest that the man Jesus, along with His cousin John the Baptist went about consciously fulfilling the prophesies that were consistent with the vocation that He on faith believed He was called to. The most obvious one would be riding into Jerusalem on a donkey as foretold in Jeremiah."?How else could that behavior be described other than as a con job and Medicine Show sales?

How is it not a con?You are saying that he and John deliberately set out to make people think he was some kind of messiah. Whether he believed he was a messiah or not is hardly relevant when what is being discussed is the behavior; trying to manufacture evidence to convince folk.A scientist that manufactures evidence to support his position is called fired regardless of whether or not the position is valid.And as I have pointed out Jesus resurrection and even Jesus death were not unique either in the Bible or throughout religious mythos. Even Jesus ascension is not a unique event in the Biblical stories.

And as long as we are alive we can never answer that question so is it even important? Of course it is manufacturing evidence.Edited by jar, : hit submit instead of preview

Nonsense and utterly wrong.If a scientist made a claim and made up evidence, manufactured evidence then they would be fired.If Jesus had simply said "I am a messiah" then that would be comparable to making a claim in a scientific journal but you say he didn't; instead he provided evidence in the form of fulfilling a prophecy; making up evidence.