Remember when Reagan asked...

[August West]

kj wrote:
And in fact, if the apocalypse was coming that soon, I don't see much reason for most of what he said.

If you examine some of the quotations that are considered to be accurate, they are easily interpreted as apocalyptic. In Jesus' time, the impending apocalypse was thought to bring the kingdom of god to the planet earth. There was not the conception of heaven as Christians now understand it. The idea, then, was an earthly paradise in which the righteous were blessed and the unrighteous were punished. This was a meme repeated throughout the Jewish Biblical literature, of which Jesus was well aware and of which he was schooled. The Jews had lived under varying forms of occupation for centuries and imagined, through religion, of escaping it.Thus Jesus had every interest to speak of the impending apocalypse and the means through which his followers would ensure their survival into the coming paradise.

ETA: I recall you took umbrage of my posting from Matthew in an earlier thread, where Jesus spoke of taking the sword to family. This is an example of his lack of concern for social structure in accordance with his belief that it was more important to worry about the impending apocalypse that to show concern over social stability.

kj wrote:
Further, you don't believe (as you've said) that we have any real idea what Jesus did or said (or even that he existed at all), so I don't see a point in discussing it.

I am open to conjecture as to what Jesus preached and have previously examined it. Further, I don't believe I have ever questioned the existence of Jesus, if I did, I misspoke, I do consider him a major historical figure.

kj wrote:
At any rate, alternative interpretations are really easy to come by if you expand your search beyond "badbible.com"

I have no idea what "badbible.com" is and have never visited such a site. Based on your responses to Biblical topics, I am confident that I have examined more alternative interpretations of Biblical literature than you are even aware exist. This is one reason being able to compare ideologies is important.