But yes, aside from that, saying that atheists only attack Christianity just shows that randy isn’t playing attention.

“Why is the Holy Bible and Christianity the only religion that all de-converts, atheists, and free thinkers attack?”
In all the years I have talked to any atheists or free thinkers not one time did they ever attack the Buddhist or Muslim faith not to mention any other religion for that fact.

Please do try to understand that your limited perspective on the world is NOT the whole world. Because you’re a westerner, the Christian faith predominates hugely. If you lived in a more Islamic area, you could see Islam get hit more. Of course given that many Islamic nations allow the imprisonment and killing of heretics (like the west used to do), you would not see so much outspoken opposition in such nations.

BTW, Buddhism is an atheistic religion. Hence you would not expect it to be addressed too much by atheists. Ditto Confucianism.

You might also consider that another reason why you would not see many people getting uppity about any religions except Christianity and Islam is that those two religions account for nearly half of the population of the planet. The biggest religions are going to be the ones that get hit on the most, just as they are the ones that are believed the most.

“Why is the Holy Bible and Christianity the only religion that all de-converts, atheists, and free thinkers attack?”

In all the years I have talked to any atheists or free thinkers (and there has been alot of them), not one time did they ever attack the Buddhist or Muslim faith not to mention any other religion for that fact.

First of all, these are two different stories. In vs. 6-7, the way that most English versions translate it, there is a continuous aspect- and there is absolutely nothing about the gospel already having gone out to all the world. The only thing that passage tells us is that the gospel has gone to the Colossians and that it is in the process of bearing fruit and increasing in the whole world. Paul doesn’t say that it has gone to the whole world, merely that it is doing so- which seem similar but are light years apart.

Verse 23 is a different story- and admittedly provides a better argument for your case. However, I see no reason to break the fetters and cast away “verbal plenary inerrant inspiration” from us just yet.

If Paul is speaking of the gospel of the glory of God, then it is possible that he was alluding to Psalm 19:1-3.

“The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. Day to day pours forth speech, And night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words; Their voice is not heard.”

If this is the case, maybe he is saying that this gospel of the glory of God, of which “the heavens are telling” and “their expanse is delaring” (Psalm 19:1) has been “proclaimed in all creation under heaven” (Colossians 1:23).

If this is the case, then isn’t it also possible that Paul is distinguishing the Colossians to whom Paul ministered from those over whom the Psalmist anguishes when he says, immediately after metaphorically saying that creation “speaks,” that their voice is not heard.

Paul could be echoing the Psalmist here and saying that, although creation is proclaiming the gospel of the glory of God, those who have not heard and believed the gospel of the glory of God in Christ Jesus “suppress the truth in unrighteousness” (Romans 1:18). Although they know God, they do not honor Him as God or give Him thanks (Romans 1:21).

So, Paul could be saying that the God, through creation, is proclaiming the gospel of the glory of God to all creation under heaven, and that he, Paul, is a minister of that same gospel- and the Colossians have heard it in a way different than the creation proclaims it- through the preaching of the word of God.

That’s my 2 cents, though I am far from a Bible scholar at this point. There are people who could handle these questions way better than I could. Alas, I guess not many of them visit “de-conversion.com”

Anyway, I just wrote a lil’ blog you folks might be interested in:

“The Most Outrageous Claim in the Bible”

Love to hear anybody’s thoughts- both here and there.

-David

I am sorry. I can’t stop. See what FF Bruce says below. Surely you have a little respect for FF.

“F.F. Bruce felt that this figure reflects the significance of Colossians 1:6, 23 (The Epistles to the Colossians, Philemon and to the Ephesians, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1984, pp. 42-43; 79). In other words, the apostle prophetically looked across the coming centuries and observed the vast influence of the Christian message, noting that its effect, from the vantage point of the first century, would be global.

(2) It must be recognized as well that the passages cited above are hyperbolic in nature. The word “hyperbole” derives from a combination of two Greek terms that signify “to throw above.” A hyperbole, then, is a figure of speech that contains an obvious exaggeration (with no intention of duplicity) for the purpose of emphasizing a truth. The Bible abounds with this figure, which, in most contexts, is perfectly obvious and draws no criticism.”

Bigham – if the bible writers were prone to use hyberbole and God did not correct them, then how do you take literally any of the predictions about the Gospel having to go into the whole world before the end will come?

Yes, my friend, Colossians does indeed bring into question a fundamentalist view of verbal plenary innerrant inspiration.

Since I have posted 4 times I am officially a troll so I will be quiet for awhile. My apologizes to the Decons!

Open your mind. Maybe Paul is just talking as a normal human would. Maybe he is using exaggeration. Shouldn’t this make you at least think a little bit about what inspiration means?

You could look at this verse and say, well he is talking about the gospel being proclaimed in nature, but this would be a week interpretation. Why? Paul says the Gospel that you “heard”. The gospel they “heard” is said to have been preached to every creature under heaven. The gosple they heard was Christ crucifiedand resurrected, not some gospel in the stars.

I must aplogize. You told me any further conversation was useless. I guess I should have obeyed! But I hate when people just gloss over clear difficulties. A brief google search will demonstrate that many people see why this passage is difficult.

Colossians 1:23 “this is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.”