The New Testament book of John was written by the Apostle John to document what he saw, heard and experienced as a disciple of Jesus. John did not create or embellish the story of Jesus as those who do not believe try to suggest.

As far as holidays I've already replied Christmas and Easter.

Messiah (derived from the Hebrew) means anointed one. Christ comes from the Greek word for anointed one. Jesus was born the anointed one: he did not become the anointed one at the crucifixion. At the crucifixion he became the sacrificial lamb. He was the Messiah, Christ, anointed one from the time he came into the world.

When Jesus asked who the disciples though he was Peter said "The Christ, the Son of the living God". If Jesus only became Christ at the crucifixion than Jesus would have corrected Peter. But he didn't.

FWIW, the early church did not celebrate "Christmas". December 25th was the celebration of the winter solstice. In Rome it was called Saturnalia. In order to convince pagan Romans to come into the Church Constantine began renamed many Roman holy days with Christian names.

The early Church understood that Jesus was crucified and buried over the Jewish Passover. He resurrected on the day after the Passover often called the Lords Day in the Book of Acts.

In order to make this day acceptable to pagan Romans he renamed it Ishtar. Easter is the English name for the ancient Babylonian goddess of fertility Ishtar who was worshiped in Rome.

Is it wrong to celebrate Jesus' birth and the The Lords Day? I don't believe so. Most people have no clue as to the historic beginning usages of these two terms/days. The Roman Catholic Church changed the names of pagan gods and holy days in Europe for the next 1,000 years. The same thing happened with the conquests of South America, Central America and Mexico.

Unfortunately some of the Catholic priests in South America and Central America still serve their locals as shamans of the early Inca and Aztec religions when not in the confines of the Church building.

This I'll have to challenge. On several occasions Jesus stated he was the messiah. When asked who the disciples believed him to be, Peter said Thou are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus replied that flesh and blood has not revealed this to you.....

Jesus didn't become the messiah, he was born the messiah: God incarnate.

I've been on Mingle2 for 7 years. The subject of marital affairs has come up many times. What has really stood out is that single women seldom make judgemental comments toward married women who have affairs with married men. This topic is typical: men here have stated that married men have no business having affairs. Women seldom, if ever, address frustration toward married women who are part of those affairs: it's always toward the men.

If women refused to become involved in affairs men who are open to affairs would have no one to have an affair with. These women are always made out to be victims: "Their husbands don't pay attention to them" justifies what they are doing. Well, the same, often, happens to the wayward husband. Lack of attention is an accepted excuse for the woman but not acceptable for the man. Sounds like gender bias.

FWIW, Both partners are Consensual to the affair relationship.

Men are automatically demonized for having an affair, as well they should be. But society doesn't delve into who they're having affairs with. All women want to do is be able to malign men without giving a thought to who are these men having affairs with.

My point is there are significant multitudes of married women having affairs and women and society will not acknowledge this fact. ALL divorced women claim to be the innocent victims and men the problem.

By the sources I quoted if 1,000,000 married men are having affairs there are 910,000 married women having affairs with them. Married women should be coming down on married women.

Translation = From his ribs

Hebrew = מִצַּלְעֹתָ֔יו

1. The Hebrew term states Adams rib.

2. "The creation myth"
I can write for hours on this subject but I'll only respond with one question that pulls the support from under the theory of evolution: please quote what university or private lab has created life from non-life? All of the evolution arguments fall on their face with this question.

The National Domestic Violence hot line:

Nearly 3 in 10 women (29%) and 1 in 10 men (10%) in the US have experienced rape, physical violence and/or stalking by a partner and report a related impact on their functioning.

http://www.thehotline.org/resources/statistics/

At the Hotline, we know that domestic violence can affect anyone – including men. According to the CDC, one in seven men age 18+ in the U.S. has been the victim of severe physical violence by an intimate partner in his lifetime.

Although they make up a smaller percentage of callers to the Hotline, there are likely many more men who do not report or seek help for their abuse, for a variety of reasons.

http://www.thehotline.org/2014/07/22/men-can-be-victims-of-abuse-too/

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Interesting that women organizations and the news media NEVER report on this part of relationship abuse.

By the way, when the ex-wife and I were going through the divorce (2009) I spent time reading articles on Psychology Today and other marriage counseling sites. On Psychology Today I ran into a number of interesting articles (written by men and women psychologists) that, likewise, are never reported in the news.

Of every 100 married men who are having an affair 91 of them are having that affair with a married woman. Of course the mass majority of married women deny this. So either there are only a few married women having affairs with boat loads of men or the quantity of married women having affairs is significantly higher. Our society assumes that women are always the innocent parties but Psychology Today's documented statistics speak otherwise.

Really frustrating that "all men are created evil" but all women are assumed "pure as the driven snow".

From all of the responses I still believe that as men and women age (after a divorce) we trust the opposite sex less and less. When we were all younger (teens and 20's) we didn't assume the opposite gender had lots of baggage (we call wisdom today) and were willing to open ourselves up, being emotionally vulnerable.

Now we have huge walls to protect ourselves but we, also, experience a small fraction of romantic possibilities. Rapunzel refuses to let down her hair and is safe but laments that men do not approach her.

Abuses around the #meto movement are causing men to step back for fear of being falsely accused of anything and everything. Are there jerks out there who plan on using women's emotions against them? Yes, and there always will be. Something that I feel is counter productive is a woman filling her profile with anti-jerk rhetoric. This tells a good man she's been burned and will show no respect or trust so they shy away.

On the other hand the jerk will see that and figure she's vulnerable if I bide my time.

So we all window shop and then go back to watching DIRECTV.

The Urantia Book most seems to be an amalgamation of the Theosophical literature of the late 19th century or early 20th century.

The Urantia Book contains pronouncements on evolution, cosmology, physics and quantum mechanics, which Martin Gardner ( former Scientific American mathematics columnist) finds deeply flawed, and it includes a biography of Jesus that asserts he toured Rome and Greece at ages 28 and 29, becoming an adept of Greek philosophy, mathematics and art. The Urantia cult was founded by two former Seventh-day Adventists--Chicago psychiatrist William Sadler (1875-1969) and his brother-in-law, Wilfred Kellogg (1876-1956), a businessman. The Urantia Book is filled with plagiarized passages from other cult books. There also exist bitter schisms among the Urantians, notably David Koresh's Branch Davidian cult consumed by flames near Waco, Texas.

The Urantia Book is a collection of channeled writings mostly from the 1930s, compiled and published in 1955. The writings combine Christianity and an alleged history of the work and teachings of Jesus with a cosmology of extraterrestrial spirit beings.

The book presents an elaborate pseudo-history of the universe (the book actually claims there are many universes, super-universes, and so on), and that the name of planet Earth in this cosmology is "Urantia". The portion on the life of Jesus remains fairly true to the Bible stories of his life and teachings, except that in the Urantia Book Jesus was the most important spirit being in this universe who came to "Urantia" (Earth) to solidify his superior status, and the ideas of original sin or any need for Jesus to atone for human sins are rejected. In this, it departs from most Christian theology.

A new age book.

Answer: The word astrotheology (or astro-theology) comes from the Greek word astron, which means “star,” and the word theology, which means “the study of God.” Since ancient times, man has worshiped deities associated with the heavenly bodies—the stars, moon, and sun (Zephaniah 1:5)—and this practice is called “astrolatry.”

The term astrotheology is more specifically applied to a religious system based on the observation of the heavens. Astrolatry is usually polytheistic, while astrotheology allows for monotheism. In fact, some people attempt to combine astrotheology with Christianity.

True theology looks up at the stars, moon, and sun; sees proof of God’s glory; and worships Him for what He has made. it does not worship the creation (which astrolatry does), and it does not view the creation as a symbol of God (which astrotheology does).

Astrotheology attempts to twist Scripture so that Jesus Christ, instead of being God’s SON, is actually God’s SUN. Big difference.

Zoroaster was hardly the first belief in god. Zoroaster existed around 600bc in Persian.

Burning as heretics was something Roman Catholics did many centuries ago. People who state this are trying to attach this to all christian believers in the present age in an attempt to undermine any discussion they participate in. Roman Catholicism (in it's true form) does not teach nor practice the new testament. During the dark ages (500ad - 1500ad) the Roman Catholic leadership prohibited the distribution and reading of scripture. May I suggest that instead of labeling all people with the same stamp you look at individuals.

Women now have a new advantage: being able to try, convict and execute a man (and his career) before it goes to court. He's guilty until proven innocent in the court of the media.

Yes, women were mistreated decades ago. Could women do much about it? In a lot of cases no. But now women are mistreating men who, now, have no recourse. So does this make women feel good? Are they happy that they now can beat up on men and get away with it? Vengeance is great, right?

Women need to remember that what goes around will (usually) come around. Something will happen that will turn the tables against women.

Feminists really love this arrangement. Unfortunately men are distancing themself from women in general because of the abuses that have happened. So if women complain that they are not the problem they can thank and donate money to the local feminist group.

If a man is accused of something he should "be tried in a court of law" not in the court of the media. If proven guilty he should suffer the consequences. If she lied she should be tried in a court of law for misusing the legal system. Equality for all.

On January 13, Margaret Atwood, the 78-year-old, multi-award winning Canadian novelist, poet and literary critic published a forceful comment, entitled “Am I a Bad Feminist?” on Canada’s Globe and Mail web site, opposing #MeToo and defending the right of every accused person to due process and natural justice.

“The #MeToo moment,” Atwood writes, “is a symptom of a broken legal system.” She warns that if “the legal system is bypassed because it is seen as ineffectual, what will take its place? Who will be the new power brokers?”

#MeToo has already initiated trial by Internet, with the world’s corporate media assuming the role of judge, jury and executioner, as, in Atwood’s words, “stars fall from the skies.” Anyone daring to disagree is treated as “an apostate, a heretic or a traitor.” And punishment directly follows accusation, with no redress.

Atwood has put her beliefs into practice. In her Globe and Mail piece, she explains that in 2015-16, she publicly defended the rights of academic, novelist and friend, Steven Galloway, former chair of the University of British Columbia’s (UBC) department of creative writing, against whom a number of accusations of sexual misconduct had been made.

“The public—including me—was left with the impression that this man was a violent serial rapist, and everyone was free to attack him publicly, since, under the agreement he had signed, he couldn’t say anything to defend himself.”

Atwood’s primary concern is to uphold the right to due process, that is, a guarantee that the rights of any accused are respected.

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A man should be innocent until "proven" guilty. Otherwise it's mob law. If he's guilty then he should face the consequences.

Texas steak house size party!!!

Profiles relay only what the profiler believes to be true. Not always accurate. I've met women who their description had some basis of truth but not a good personality evaluation. The only item somewhat accurate was her picture and that can even be 15 to 20 years old. Meeting in person is the only and best way.

Months ago I was only getting a couple per week. I tried blocking but new messages keep appearing. I've NEVER responded, not that gullible, they keep appearing. Over all I ignore them. Just an annoyance. Women arn't the only ones receiving unwanted mail.