God has shown up. The life of Jesus attests to that. Jesus demonstrated this by performing miracles such as healing the sick, calming the waves, turning water into wine and conquering death.
I've never seen any of these thing happen, and I see no more reason to believe them than I see reason to believe that modern humans have been abducted by aliens. Most religions tell such tales; in the old days it was an essential part of the priest's repertoire, whether the priest was a Christian or an animist shaman. Priests have to make their audience believes that as long as the priest gets the first crack at all available goodies, the spirits will favor the tribe with all kinds of nice stuff, and that if the priest is in any way neglected, all sorts of horrible things will happen. The bible has survived so long, in my opinion, because it has traditionally been a very effective collateral document with which to support this particular sales pitch.
Look at Jerusalem today. It was prophesied thousands of years ago that just before the return of Christ, Jerusalem would be the focus of the whole world and that in the end all the nations would be gathered together to come against the Jewish people. I believe that we could be on the verge of seeing that prophecy come to fruition.
Weren't they saying pretty much the same thing during the crusades? I'm hardly an expert on prophecy, but it seems that many of these documents are vaguely worded, somewhat malleable, and very much subject to interpretation. |
