educated means knowing how things work... if they knew about weather patterns, they wouldn't be praying to the god of the ocean, or the god of thunder... if they knew about Irrigation, they wouldn't pray to a god of rain for rain... if they knew why a volcaneo was erupting, they wouldn't need to sacrifice a virgin to a god... uneducated just means ignorant of what they should know, not stupid...

Please do not mismatch beliefs. Nobody was talking about sacrificing a virgin to stop a volcano from erupting nor does that reflect that specific belief we are in discussion about.

And again as mentioned don't mismatch beliefs and stay on topic to the specific belief in discussion for there is no "god of the ocean, or god of thunder" in the belief we are talking about.

at that time, there were many gods... don't confuse things here

Not confusing anything, just because many people worshiped "different" gods, doesn't mean there were multiple Gods, as there's always only been one true God almighty my friend, don't confuse things here :)

people before/at the time of JC would disagree... JC evolved religion into a monotheistic type... simplified things so that people could pray to one god instead of several...

nothing changed on that level. There has always only ever been one true almighty God that has always been worshiped by the followers that chose to worship God.

Don't get this confused with, I understand that there are many "beliefs" out there about multiple different gods. But bottom line in actuality there has ever only been one true God almighty whom is the God of gods and Lord of lords :)

maybe, i don't know... but he didn't really appear until about 2000 years ago.... greeks, romans, Babylonians - all the predated JC timeline cultures used multiple gods...

"Jesus Christ" didn't appear till then as that is his "flesh" name, the name he took upon himself when he came in the flesh. But he has always been but which has absolutely no connection to greeks, romans, babylonians, and not even 100% certain on the reason for their mention in this post lol.

And nothing predates the entire belief thereof Jesus Christ, as the "belief" has been their since the start of time in the Garden of Eden. Again not by the specific alias "Jesus Christ", but the being itself eg., LORD God was the one that created Heavens, Earth, Mankind, ect. So the belief there of Jesus Christ/LORD God has ALWAYS been there since the dawning of mankind.

you do know history, right? real history, not biblical history? i'm saying facts here, something we are all taught as children... before JC, there were very few monotheistic religions, so nothing predates JC? get real, even the old testament doesn't say anything about JC...

To verify your statement my friend, when was the "OT" written? What time area did it date to? If you know that, you'd know who wrote it and when exactly were each books of the OT written? And not just specifically the OT as a matter of fact, but the original scrolls they were written on.

Of course it predates "Christianity" as "Christianity" in itself didn't even begin to start till Jesus Christ walked the Earth. So roughly 2000 years ago give or take.

dead sea scrolls are estimated at 2500 years old...the earliest know references to the OT...

Oh??

It was written from approximately the 1660s B.C. to the 400s B.C.

http://www.biblestudy.org/beginner/when-was-old-testament-written.html

1660 BC was approximately over 3600 years ago.

and if it was based off the dead sea scrolls, 400 BC would fit right in.... which a lot of scientists think is true...

The admonishment for not having any gods besides the "one true god" was issued solely to the jewish people. The salvation that the biblical jesus offered the jewish people was a clinging to their belief system instead of allowing it to be adulterated by the adopting/mingling of the polytheistic beliefs of the romans and losing their cultural identity as they had done before in egypt.

I've heard the assertions that jesus was "sent" as a sacrificial lamb of god (or according to you he sent himself as a sacrificial lamb of himself)to die (although I cannot fathom how the ever living god can die, even for three days) for my salvation. Strangely, the beast, too, will appear to die for three days and "rise from the dead". (Jesus and this beast/satan sure are on a close parallel).

But what am I being saved from? I am told death, but even the prophet (or according to you, god himself) is purported to say that when you die there is nothing and you are forgotten. So all this eternal life jazz is nothing but fluff. Used car salesman tactics that no longer work on a learned population. There are no witches that can change me into a newt, tithes enrich the religious corporations not my life (religion tax - go figure), and people are no longer stoned to death for cheating on their spouses.

Somewhere along the line a man thought, "hey, i can use this stuff to control, wield power, and bilk my fellow man". And that evolved into "christianity" which is representative of nothing "christ like". Throw in a few gentiles welcome here, gentiles welcome there and poof - instant religion for anybody. It worked as a system of despotic rule, murdering and torturing the "children of god" in the name of jesus (or according to you, god) for hundreds of years. Now, it does not.

How did this evolve from, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself."

And just one more question, why didn't jesus just say, "love ME with all your heart and all your soul and with all your mind" instead of this third person style of speaking. Reminds me of "The Jimmy" episode of Seinfeld (ironically also jewish)

All I know is....you know if god walks with you. You can feel him in your heart. I was working in Wilmington, DE. A stranger came unto me and said, "I have message from god for you. He wants me to tell you he loves you." I felt the power of the lord within her as she held my hands. She knew me through the lord. I feel him with me everyday. I answer unto him daily in the path he gave me. Some say I do not know how you do it, how do you have so much patience, how do you not break down. I tell them how the lord has touched my heart and blessed me with the most wonderful gift of understanding others. The inner strength and determination to overcome, face life with determination, and perserverce by what he gave me. I am prepared for what must come.

amen Seakolony :)

so everyone before JC is burning in hell? if god was there and they were praying to different gods, wouldn't tha piss him off? and that was the old god, before the rainbow and the fire and brimstone from the old testament...