MoreheadEagle

I remember the campus minister at the BSU at college getting really mad over the Left Behind series and their interpretation of prophesy. He was going to do a study on it but it didn't pan out. He is one of the few progressive Baptists I've met.

All apocolyptic literature makes sure the bad guys get their just desserts in the end. If we look at Revelations as a letter to persecuted Christians, a hope for Rome to be judged by God would be included in the writing. I'm not saying I agree or disagree but it's a compelling argument. We see in the old testament prophets saying Babylon, Assyria, etc. will be judged for their crimes against Israel and later books are very similar.

This is a good description of one interpretation of Revelations as being about Rome http://www.scs.unr.edu/~fdaniels/rel/rev.htm If we look at the book in context we realize a few things. - John (the author) is writing the book as a letter to churches he knows - Much of the imagery is pretty easily interpreted as referring to the old testament and the gospels. - It is very similar to Jewish apocolytic literature. - The "beast" imagery is very easily interpreted as Rome and Babylon is code for Rome since Babylon was one of the powers that occupied Jerusalem.

Every Baptist I have ever heard talk about it believes in the pre-millenial pre-tribulation rapture. I however, do not. There's also a compelling case to be made that the entire book of Revelation is commentary about Christians' plight under Roman rule.

Have you read the "Left Behind" books? Basically the rapture doctrine is the belief that at some point Jesus returns to take the dead in Christ and the Christians on Earth. Then the tribulation and the anti-Christ follows and then the final judgment and Second Coming. This belief was made popular in the 1800's among evangelicals. In order to come to the "Left Behind" scenario, you have to find a bunch of different and unconnected verses and try and connect them.

My main problem with the death penalty is that it is not a deterrant and is usually doled out to minorities more than whites. Our whole prison system is messed up for that matter.

Great job by Kansas to stick with it and win the game. I also believe that Memphis should look at a better conference in order to give their team more experience against better teams.

Every Southern Baptist church I ever went to held the rapture as the truth. They even talked about it at a SBC church camp I went to once.

I think it's great. You have a guy running for Bush's third term possibly teaming up with one of the architects of the blunder that has been the Iraq War. Bring it on.

GO KANSAS! I can't stand Memphis.

One of the reasons I left my church and am having second thoughts on being Baptist altogether is that I have a hard time biblically justifying the "rapture". I've done some research and all of the "scholarship" behind it is pretty iffy. It's interpreting a lot of different verses that don't really seem to have any relationship.

That's very good to hear. Mr. Wildcat was loved by more than just UK fans.

the whole Mayan calendar thing is a misinterpretation of Mayan time. The 2012 thing is the beginning of another cycle of the calendar. Kind of like if every 5,000 years we switched over to an AD or a BC. Read 1491 by Karl Mann for a good insight on Native Americans and a little about the Mayan calendar. Jack Van Impe is using the Mayan 2012 thing to try and get more $$$ now. I've always looked at it this way. Jesus said "I come as a thief in the night". I thief isn't going to show up if you're sitting on the front porch with a shotgun. I think Christians need to worry less about an iffy interpretation of prophesy and more about service and salvation.

If my family had a dollar for every time my dad came home from teaching and said some version of "stupid $&*! kids" we'd have been millionaires.

:thumb: The only people I think of off the top of my head that have to continually go through education in order to keep their jobs are doctors, pilots, teachers, and a few people in the technology industry. We pay doctors a lot of money for their services, and the same with pilots. Why do we think teachers, who have to continually get re-certified and get a master's, are overpaid? My dad is a teacher and he's far from overpaid. He has to put up with huge amounts of stress, idiot school boards, and he does it all b/c he loves what he does. And he only makes in the 40,000's

I can vouch for Ohio since my dad has taught there for 30 years in a small rural district. They have never had much problem attracting math and science teachers. In fact several teachers at his school live in Mason, Lewis, and Bracken counties and commute to his school. Special Ed has a shortage wherever you go b/c unfortunately a lot of people don't want to do that job.

So you make the claim that KY's teachers are overpaid, then you show that the neighboring states (which many KY teachers go to) pay more. You also fail to take into account that teachers are required by law to get a masters degree. In any other field a Master's usually means a big raise. In KY is just means that you get to keep your job and maybe get a small pay increase. To get a masters may cause a teacher to go tens of thousands in debt and further increase their cost of living.

LLBC. You're right, we should trust teachers. We should also raise their pay and fund their schools so we don't lose more teachers to other states. We do that by finding more revenue. The 70 cent cigarette tax was a great idea IMO, b/c it put us on par with other states in that tax regard.

I would say you pay more, but not for less. I am in tens of thousands of dollars in debt for my education. I came to KY to get it b/c it cost less, but unfortunately this state doesn't understand that education really does pay and doesn't want to raise the money needed. Also you thing every progressive is misguided? I don't think conservatives are misguided. In fact I can agree on some things (very few) with conservatives. I just think about 90% of their policies can't work or are just dead wrong.

I'm just curious why you thing young people are so un-informed. And do you feel that about all progressives?

He's probably going to win the nomination this time and I am pretty confident he'll beat McCain.

The I am all fine with some cuts if it's done right. In Kentucky they cut heath services, an education. That's something that I wasn't used to when I lived in Ohio. Cutting education (especially higher ed) isn't going to help anything. There are a lot of out of state students who come to KY b/c college is less expensive, but the state is doing less to entice those folks to stay. I only stayed b/c my wife got a job in the state. Had that not happened, my degree would have gone to Ohio and my wife with me.

Took the words out of my head and typed them for me.:thumb:

Where I went to high school in Ohio we had about a week of sex-ed from 5th to 10th grade. In 5th grade we learned about the difference between male and female reproduction. In 6th we learned all about STD's and the rest of the time was an STD prevention education. We learned that abstinence was the best way to prevent all the bad stuff but we also learned what condoms were and what they do. We had 1 girl out of 100 get pregnant in my senior class and I know more than that were sexually active. I went to visit a girl I dated in college from Eastern Ky. when I was an undergrad. We went to watch the kids walk into her sister's prom and I noticed how many of her HS friends were pregnant or had kids. I asked her if she had been taught about condoms in HS and she said all they learned was not to do it. The fact is that abstinence only doesn't work. You don't tell the kids it's OK to do it, you give them the information and let them make their own choice. I'm just stating reality. Teens are going to have sex, and jamming abstinence down their throats isn't going to stop it. I went through True Love Waits at my church twice. I've heard all the stuff they tell you and all it does is promote ignorance. You hear all this propaganda about how condoms don't work and how you can get pregnant through your clothes and it makes a lot of kids scared, and confused.

So all of the pro-choice elected officials who were elected by the people who agree with them serve no purpose?