Ephesians 1:4-5

Did I read something earlier that Helen describes herself as a pastor?

Absolutely not.

from Craig: Have you studied every ancient culture on this planet? Out of the several hundred of them that have been studied by cultural anthropologists, can you name just 10 of them that “remember in legend and story the creation and the flood”—or is this just an extravagant exaggeration and a gross distortion of reality?

It has been a field of study of mine for years, Craig, and I think I have studied just about every ANCIENT culture at least somewhat and some a bit thoroughly. I can name far more than ten which remember creation and the Flood, though! But then these lists are also available on the net:

http://www.nwcreation.net/noahlegends.html
http://ragz-international.com/floods.htm
http://www.apologeticspress.org/articles/40

Very often the creation and flood legends are interwoven. But when we start stripping away mythology and look at the facts of what is being remembered, they can often be untangled.

Here are some other interesting links:
http://www.indians.org/welker/legend.htm
http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v7/i2/noah.asp
http://www.teachinghearts.org/dre04legends.html

I've done a lot of my own research as well, but these pages should at least answer the accusation -- or implied accusation -- that I was exaggerating or grossly distorting reality.

 

Calvibaptist

IF Jesus died for and tasted death for all men, then everyone goes to heaven. You are a universalist. You say, "Oh, no, but people go to hell for rejecting Jesus." I ask, is rejecting Jesus a sin? If Jesus died for all sin for all men, then He died for that one too. Your position is unbibilical.

All sin is atoned for. Not all sin is forgiven. Even rejecting Jesus is ATONED for, as not one insult will be left standing in front of God for eternity. All sin has been paid for. Jesus, Hebrews tells us, tasted death for every man. But Jesus says just as clearly that not all sin is forgiven. Rejecting the truth causes God's anger to be poured out (Romans 1). It is what a man does in regard to the truth that is evident to him which determines where his life, and eternity, is headed.

 

Craig, I have done too much research in this area to be even vaguely disturbed by your characteristic mocking. I simply linked you to pages with a number of legends listed.

 

I was not pretending they were all Christian websites, although some were. And they are definitely additions to my own research.

If you are interested at all, I have some books I strongly recommend which verify what I have stated about the memories of the Flood and Creation, and also of the other catastrophes at the time of Babel and Peleg. Each of these books is here in my own personal library and each has been read by me:

Gods, Goddesses, and Myths of Creation,
Mircea Eliade, Harper and Row, 1967

The Babylonian Genesis, Alexander Heidel, University of Chicago Press, 1942

The Book of Tea, Okakura Kakuzo, Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1956

Ebla Tablets, Secrets of a Forgotten City, Clifford Wilson, Master Books, 1979

Mythology, Edith Hamilton, A Mentor Book, 1942

The Tale of Genji,Murasaki Shikibu, Charles E. Tuttle Company, translated 1976 by Edward G. Seidensticker (2 volumes)

Aboriginal Stories of Australia, A.W. Reed, Reed Books, 1965 (4 volumes)

Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection, E.A. Wallis Budge, Dover Publications, 1973

Maya, the Riddle and Rediscovery of a Lost Civilization, Charles Gallenkamp, third revised edition, Viking Press, 1985

Hmong, History of a People, Keith Quincy, Eastern Washington University Press, 1995

The Egyptian Book of the Dead, as translated by Wallis Budge, Dover Publications, 1967

Atlantis in Spain, Elena Maria Whitshaw, Rider and Co., 1928

African Mythology, Jan Knappert, Diamond Books, 1995

The Inca Empire, Thomas C. Patterson, Berg, 1991

The Myths of the North American Indians, Lewis Spence, Dover Publications 1989

Myths from Mesopotamia, Creation, the Flood, Gilgamesh, and Others, translated by Stephanie Dalley. Oxford University Press, 2000 (I also have other translations of Gilgamesh)

Primitive Mythology, the Masks of God, Joseph Campbell, Penguin, 1976

Mysteries of the Ancient Americas, Reader's Digest, 1986

Mythology, The Illustrated Anthology of World Myth and Storytelling, C. Scott Littleton, editor, Thunder Bay Press, 2002

Larousse World Mythology, Pierre Grimal, editor, Gallery Books, 1989

and the entire 17 volume set of "Myth and Mankind" put out by Time Life.

There are others, but that is all the bookshelves I want to dust right now.

 

Then again I ask a very simple question. If all sin is atoned (paid) for, how come God still requires payment in hell? How come there is still a penalty to be paid if the payment has already been made? </font>[/QUOTE]Hell is not payment for anything. I would be interested in any biblical reference you have which says hell is payment for anything. Hell is the result, the consequence, of refusing Christ.

The payment for all sin was made by Christ. He did it all.