Godless Bible Study: The Gospel According to John

[KayBeeEee1983]

(1) The King James Version is like a foreign language.

(2) If you haven't read any of the gospels, you should start with Mark. It was the earliest, it's the shortest, the simplest, the most basic, and it tells the most interesting story. It's the easiest to read, all around. Matthew and Luke were written sometime after Mark and used Mark as the basis of their own gospels. John was written last and it's very different from the other three.

[j919or]

This dude is so desperate to convince himself that Jesus is not God.

1. Light was a common term to refer to truth and darkness, lies

2. Johns audience was greek and well acquainted with logos/word.

3. Johns goal was not to present a historical narrative of the life of Jesus but merely to show who Jesus was using the form of historical narrative. I AM is repeated thru out

4. Jesus said that "my sheep hear my voice" plus an awareness of Jesus might have spread after the baptism by John.

[1993sugarbowl]

reading the bible without acknowledging God will never yield anything, I could have saved you all the time you wasted reading. That being said I hope for you that you try believing in him, that is what John said would help you have everlasting life in the third chapter and sixteenth verse. I dont really care what you think about this comment because I would have put it anyway. I am not ashamed of the father.

[FIXIErider]

Too bad you'll learn the truth the hard way.

[theboombody]

I believe God's very mysterious and plays a lot of mind games. Why else would the Angel of the Lord have wrestled with Jacob in the book of Genesis? It's very hard to trust someone like that, but I say, what the heck, he looks like a fun guy.

[neoi78]

the beginning of john starts the same way genesis does. thats why. to show that infact jesus christ was God. God bless.

[thaiamer]

If I am 100% sure I was smarter than another person I wouldn't challenge them. What is the challenge? If the Atheist believes 100% that there is no God , why are they bothering with the people who believe there is? Why do Atheist mainly attack the Christians? Why not the other religions? I always wondered that makes me believe the whole devil and God war. Like the devil knows the Christians are true so he fights them harder , and that they other religions are wrong so he doesn't care about them.

[Insomnium2188]

we challange them because they try to use these false superstitions to infuence polotics for the worst. to many atheist christianity is closer to home becuase in most cases the either live in a country with many christians or where once christians them selfs, where as in the middle east for instance their goverments are far more radical and non secualer and being an atheist can cost you your life. all of this is moot however bacause there are plenty of atheists who challange other religions.

[theboombody]

It's probably because Christianity was so dominant in the western world for so many centuries. Pretty much every western painting you can find in a 600 year period is a portrayal of some Christian scene. So of course there's going to be some cultural backlash. I like sticking with the old tradition myself though.

[robbugman]

@thaiamer What rock have you been living under. First...atheist don't believe in a God, yours or anyone else's, now or then. Second....we live in this world too. We think this is the only one we get, so yeah, we take it a little serious when Nice religiouspeople fly planes into buildings or blow up Doctors because its Gods work or tell people not to wear condoms when over-population and HIV is rampant. This craziness is everywhere. Europe,Sharia Law, Science/Creation in schools. Hello.

[thaiamer]

the truth of it is , is that they knew just like you believe you know there isn't a God. If there isn't a God who are you trying to prove your point agaisnt? If there is no argument about it why bother? Let the Christians continue in their 'fantasy'. Why read their book and call out all of the flaws if there isn't anything true about it or if it is just a poetic fairytale? And why do they seem much happier and at peace than any Atheist I have ever met?

[Insomnium2188]

as for christians being supposidly more happy then atheists, thats appeal to emotion and straight bullshit

[shepherdschapelDOTco]

There is no rapture

[emancoy]

your brutally frank interpretation hits the bullseye mark.

Keep it up.

[Lohitaksha]

In spite of his constant praise of faith, John's Jesus offers little doctrine to believe (beside the interminably repetitive "I am's") or moral code to follow. The ever popular "Kingdom of God" of the synoptics is used only twice in John, to Nicodemus as the reward for being "born again", both terms left undefined. Later on, Mary's profession of faith in a future resurrection for her brother becomes merely a lead-in line to yet another "I am".

This Jesus must have been one insufferable teenager.

[jtspang]

Well done, brotha. Fight the good fight. :)

[DocFosters]

a german flag and what looks like a "fussball wimpel". whats that about?

[morsec0de]

My grandparents are from Deutschland.

[KingHeathen]

goatee is gone...I assume the role is over? How did it go?

On the "first" comment...Way to make such a thing important all of a sudden....DAMN YOU!

[morsec0de]

The role is indeed over, and it went well, thanks! Strangely, due to the positive response from certain members of the opposite sex, I may be growing it back.

[KingHeathen]

For some reason there is an episode of Family Guy that comes to mind...

I hope you don't own a dog.

[morsec0de]

No.

Plus it's just fun looking like the 'evil mirror universe' version of myself.

Hella fun.

[KingHeathen]

AHHHH....Southpark instead of Family Guy....got it

[AnethSvartalf]

Glad to hear he's on the mend. Hope things keep heading in the right direction.

[DeletedDelusion]

Glad your dad is beter now.

I'll watch the whole series.

[someweirdgayguy]

I think I would have prefered the monty python intermission but yours was quite nice too.

Five out of... well you know how many stars there are.

[ChuckyJesus666]

The sad thing is that the end of the world might be near, not because the end-timers are right, only because it could be brought about by them as a self-fulfilling prophecy. Sarah Palin is one of them -- do we want her with her finger on the button? This could very well be the case with a 72 year old, cancer prone John McCain. For that matter, with McCain's temper and total lack of foreign entanglement understanding (anyone know where Spain is?), do we want HIM with his finger on the button?

[shepherdschapelDOTco]

If it did come about by the end timers, that would mean there would be no atheists around to tell them they're wrong. They would get there way! lol

[unclexbob]

the music during the intermission was excellent

looking forward to this series

[ShaundalynChic]

Why John? Rather than another gospel?

[morsec0de]

Don't ask me, ask the rapture Christian who challenged me.

[ShaundalynChic]

Okay. Just be aware that it is a minority of Christians that seem to read this "rapture" business into the Bible. As far as I can see it stems from a misreading of a single verse. Certainly the word "Rapture" is not in the Bible.

[morsec0de]

A vocal minority that should not be ignored, I think.

[Hellraiser717]

First, gimme gimme.

[thumbsdownman]

Damn it. I like stuff. :(