Spoken as a true sheep being led down a path with blinders on. You've apparently missed the last 14 pages of discussion on this. If you're too blind to see the truth that most of the Bible is fiction, that's your problem. There's plenty of proof presented by leading theologians with the amount of proof growing constantly. If you're too out of touch to see it, don't blame though who do.

Something to consider: Maybe he did... Maybe one or more of the original also wrote too but we'll never see any of it...

And countless dupes will actually believe that.

I tried but the John 3:16 soap box Bible-pounding preachers of hell fire and brimstone showed up. Good luck with your search for truth.

And it leaves you free to keep going through its text over and over, trying desperately to get the contradictions, mistruths, multiple meanings for singular words, mistranslations, mistakes, and Rome's insertion of outright lies, to fit together - for the rest of your life until you learn what a waste that was. There will be new versions coming out that are different regularly so see if you can keep up with them too.

I put myself on the line every day as I row upstream toward God and counter to the delusions of contemporary christianity that you choose to wallow in as a sheep being led astray. My belief works, my belief gives me fulfillment and inner peace, my belief gives me access to the power of God in my life, and God is apparently pleased with what I'm believing and doing because I see blessings in my life on a regular basis. I don't need to be hunched over one book of man-made fiction with reading glasses on until I go blind.

Have a happy holiday weekend.

I will do what I want, which is to terminate this exchange and give up on you. Yes, I'm backing out. Not because you win or have proven anything to anyone on here, but because you're boring me to death with your trivial personal slams that are unfounded and guesses on your part. I presented here what has been verified by the world's leading theologians and your reply is "I've studied this for a long time." Unless you're a leading theologian renowned internationally, and I definitely suspect you aren't, what I've learned from those seriously seasoned sources is far more trustworthy for me than what you've concluded from your detailed studies of a book that is unworthy of detailed study. The Bible is an interesting read, although half of it is about a vengeful angry God who has no qualms about murdering thousands and thousands of humans who were also God-approved polygamists, while the other half is about a loving and peaceful God who loves all of us monogamists and wants us all to be saved and live for eternity in "heaven" - but only if we've heard of Christ so we can believe "in him." Indians, African tribal natives, babies of any nationality, Aborigines, non-Christians such as middle easterners, Buddhists, etc. need not think they're going to have a nice eternity because they're definitely all going to hell according to those of you with blinders on. It's also a nice operation manual for living a moral and upstanding life as long as you don't get drunk and sleep it off in a cave while your fertile daughters have sex with you and you're too drunk to know it. You probably also shouldn't feel like God is going to stop you from cutting your own son's head off on a mountain top to prove your loyalty. I suspect you'd have a headless son when it was over.

I'm definitely not going to bet my eternity on a book of [mostly] fiction. I'm into the spiritual side of this, learning and knowing what God is and where "he" is, learning everything I can from various sources about what aligns me best with God to assure my ascension into the realm of God upon physical death, learning how to automate my decision-making by listening to the whispered voice of God inside me so I don't hear and act on my much louder carnal self telling me the evil opposite, and much more. You can study every dot and tittle of Bible text in various languages and versions for the rest of your days if you like, but my gnostic eyes are wide open and searching for God's truths that are piled high everywhere I look except in the shadows of extinction where Atheists lurk.

If it were still the era of the Inquisitions, the Catholic Church would have had most on this thread strung up, beaten to death, all of their possessions taken including their land, their families raped and killed or put into imprisonment for life by representatives of the church and their thugs - and all because the person "may have" or may not have spoken something that didn't exactly fit the teachings of the Bible and church leaders. Later after millions were dead and when it was proven that some died because their neighbors got a reward of the dead one's property for "squealing on them", the response from the church was silence signifying "Oh well." Then they covered over these atrocities with more silence and still won't talk about it. All to keep followers in line with their Bible.

You can't even read the words I write so I'm sure you have no clue about mistranslations every Bible scholar is keenly aware of. As you said earlier, I'm not going to waste the time. I also didn't say a couple DVDs. And I'm not kidding about the Bible being a mistranslated, not missed translated, mess. Everybody knows it except bullheads with blinders on who pretend it's a wonderful singular composition of truths - which it is not. God didn't write it. Men of various eras and various derivatives of Christianity wrote a bunch of fiction sometimes based on mythology, and the Catholic church twisted it around, changed it at will, combined the works of mostly unknown authors, and shoved that out here as the truth. If you want to depend on that for your understanding of the spirit world and assuring your eternal destiny, good for you. I don't.

I'm not upset with you and can appreciate that this is your personal belief, but I'd like to know where Jesus himself said to "Believeth in Me." He didn't. He downplayed Himself with an attitude like, "I'm just the messenger so listen to what I'm telling you and do it to have eternal life" (before anybody jumps on this, I'm not saying this is a direct quote) and he always promoted God and God's power - not himself. He focused his all on "Believeth in God the Father" and don't give me the old saw that he WAS God.

You must have faith (okay) and believe in God's word, the Bible. Says who? Would that be someone in the Bible who didn't know there was going to be a Bible hundreds of years later? I think not.

I'm sorry but I believe mainstream Christianity is duping you into a false security of everlasting life with no effort so you won't bother to question their authority over you. How nice for them. Believe what we tell you, believe the mistranslated book we teach you from, and that's all's to it. So keep handing us money to herd you through this life like conforming sheep, everybody is happy and smiling, and you'll be fine when death comes knocking - at least that's what we've been told and what we've told you.

Sorry, I can't buy it.

They are not Internet arguments. I have DVDs of lots and lots of lectures by one of the most famous theological archaeology university professors in the U.S. who is featured in Time magazine and in documentaries repeatedly. I have also read several books on the subject of ancient Christianity and the Bible by Doctors of Theology. The history of the Bible is available in great detail if anyone actually wants to know the truth and not make it up like you are. For a simpler version you could understand more easily there's a documentary for the general public on Netflix about it complete with video scenes depicting the narration for those who won't hear that the Bible is a mistranslated mess. The university professor I alude to is also featured in that documentary.

There IS something specific I'm here to discuss. It's the OP's original subject of Heaven and Hell and exploring it outside the Bible, which you don't and won't, although the subject of a fiery, burning hell and eternal damnation in a lake of fire was not in the original teachings of Jesus. I already explained how it got in the Bible several hundred years after the Crucifixion but you deny that as well.

Thousands of denominations use the Bible to make their own Christianities and you're right in there with them and me, basing your eternal destiny on NT books that have been proven by theological experts to have been written 80 to 450 years after the fact, and written by fiction writers of the time using pen names that were purposely also the names of Disciples. They're not sure who really wrote Revelations for example. The writings of Paul are the only ones of the NT that can be verified to have actually been written by him and many feel that Paul's (Paulian) Christianity is his own departure from reality and not at all what believers started out with in the First Century - and isn't even close to what Jesus taught. I suppose you also deny that the Catholics hierarchy slopped books from various sources together to create a semi-cohesive canon that contradicts itself in many places because the writers were from very different Christianities and sometimes not even Christian authors at all. I suppose you deny that King James and Henry the VIII had their own versions translated to their likings. I suppose you feel that transcribers who decided to add text themselves, change wording to their liking, and finish stories that didn't have good endings didn't actually do so. I suppose you deny that when the Bible was created the Catholic church didn't allow the inclusion of any text that didn't get close to agreeing with their mainstream plan and had all those extra texts burned so they could no longer be read. Sorry, but you're standing in a forest with your forehead against the bark of one tree, staring at it and missing the thousands of acres of wisdom around you.

True. I have difficulty when tree limbs are reflecting some light and the sky behind them is white. You can fuss with the "range" slider and it narrows the range of shades of color considerably. I start out with the range wide open so that when I'm masking the sky, it takes in a large variety of shades of cloudiness. Most times I'm in a hurry and I leave the range wide open while I'm doing green on the tree limbs and leaves but sometimes I'm not in a hurry and reduce the range to be more accurate. That may be the key to finding the differences between frosted hair and the wood behind it. Every time I use it, the situation is different and I have to try things to get it to happen. I don't have to be as accurate as you are because people haven't studied the trees around their yards to be able to see when I've erased a limb or a few leaves off the top, or a stray electric tower or wire in the distance. I've also found out that I can put a new sky into a pool cage roof or the front of a screened in lanai. The only things that need to be accurate are the support posts and crossbars. The good thing is that there is a back button to keep trying the same area over and over until you get it right!

That's great to know. I hadn't researched that because Win8 was on the side too so I figured that was the norm. I'd like to move it to the bottom and will! Thanks.

Well... all I can say is that while you claim yourself to be a Christian, your logic, blindness to the world around you, and desire to deface anybody outside your view is as close to being a self-centered Atheist with zero knowledge of the spirit world as I've seen. You show no outward signs in your reply of having a Christian attitude of love toward others at all and you make wild accusations about me based on total misunderstandings of what I said. Contrary to what you have concluded, I AM a Christian but not a mainstream one, DO believe completely in God, and live my life very much in accordance with Biblical principles although I don't depend on it 100% and I search out truths wherever they may be. This will come as a surprise to you but it's called being gnostic and searching out truths worldwide instead of putting on blinders and being stuck in a rut that is based on intentional and unintentional mistranslation that have gone on since the books were written. The Essenes were gnostics and theological experts now recognize that Jesus himself was one. He wasn't born with all knowledge of God and wasn't born as THE Son of God but became such later when he arose from death, despite what mainstream Christian religions tell you. Jesus is well known throughout the east, especially India, because he spent years (the lost year of his life that the Bible doesn't discuss) studying there, not preaching his message. My point of view is NOT made up but is based on facts and details I've found worldwide and accumulated that you refuse to recognize in your bullheaded desire to stay ignorant of them. God is within me, you would call that the Holy Spirit of the Holy Trinity (which is also a mainstream hoax), and when I learn a new piece of info I'm notified from within whether it's a truth, semi-truth, or complete falsehood. If you don't have that within you, I feel sorry for you, and can understand why you prefer to stay fearfully in the mainstream rut of ignorance. Only truths fit together like pieces of a puzzle to show you the big picture and I'm more than eager to see the big picture so I can grow toward God at a constant pace throughout the remainder of my life. I have so many excellent things that have happened in my life since embracing these truths that I have no doubt I'm on the right path whether you like it or not.

I didn't upgrade my Win7 unit and won't be, but bought two new computers with Win10 on them. As you said, I've had absolutely no issues with either one. I've been pleasantly surprised at how much like Win7 that it is allowing me to move back and forth between the two machines with almost no learning curve once I got used to the task bar being on the side instead of the bottom.