for all this brave talk, alistair,
WHAT "brave talk"? I'm not aware of having done any.
what are you going to do years from now on your deathbed.
Well, assuming that I will know at that time that I AM on my deathbed, I imagine that the only possible answer to that will be "not a lot".
just pretend that you have power over death, too?
Whjy on earth would I pretend that? - and, for that matter, why on earth would you assume that I would pretned that?
face it - if you know now that someday you're going to die
I've never doubted it!
why not have confession time now and get it over with.
Ah, this is where it's all been leading, has it?! To what do you want me to confess, Susan? And to whom? And even if I were to obliged, what would happen about anything that I do between then and my death that might also require "confession"?
then, on your death bed just say - 'take me home.' (and not to old virginny).
If I were dying in a hospital I might just say that, so that I could instead die at home (assuming that I was well enough to say it at all).
what do you want to do. jump around in limbo. don't you want a peaceful sleep? just kidding about limbo.
I should hope so. I don't know if limbo dancing involves jumping around, anyway; I expect you know whether and to what extent pole dancing does, though (just thought I'd mention that to raise the tone abit, you understand)...
but, as i read the bible you're going to wake up in the second ressurrection and be the odd man out.
I admit that it's rather a long time since I've read the Bible now but I thought that, in spite of the tricks that memory can play on one, I'm absolutely certain that I'd have remembered if there was, as you now tell me, a reference to me anywhere in it (I would also have been puzzled by it in a 2,00-year-old collection of volumes). But this whole business of me waking up in second resurrections is purely down to your take on Biblical texts, no more, no less...
i'm going to be in a different body and you won't recognize me. unless i let you.
But I wouldn;t recognise you in your present body, seeing as i have never yet clapped eyes on it!
then, i'm afraid i will ahve to say 'i told you so.'
You'd enjoy that, wouldn't you!
then, i'll say -i wish i could take you to my mansion. the one God built for me. he built one for you, too - but, it's being given to someone else.
If that happened, I'd get my lawyers to look into the contract and ensure that the deeds were correctly drafted in my favour - or I might just pass on it, say thank you very much and go find an architect, builder, etc. to design and build another - except, of course, that I won;t be alive t the time, so none of it will actually happen outside your Biblically-oriented imagination.
don't let your real estate go down the tubes, alistair. think about it.
If some of your dodgy American sub-prime mortgage deals really cathc the financial world alight, we might find that all of our real estate goes down the tubes!
and what about the scripture that says 'pleasures forever more....' if God makes things good now- how about later after we've 'run the race.'
What race is this? Oh dear, I can somehow sense that you're abot to tell me...
as i see it alstair, you need to get in shape right now for a marathon.
OK, I guess that you're at least right about that - I probably do need to get in shape abit, since I'm arguably not as fit as I ought to be...
since it isn't aphysical race - you don't need to worry about your back. just get your bible out. read it every day. even if it makes you laugh your head off. it is just as good for you to read the bible as for me to read all that poetry you sent me from that indian guru.
Which one was that? The texts I sent you are from a wide variety of sources, many of them not of Indian origin and I did not intend either that you should single one out for comment or "read it every day". And in any case why do you wnat me to read the Bible every day? What else will you start telling me to do with my time?
as far as i can tell, he's deluded himself that there is no such thing as evil. all is good. that is what the devil told eve. 'you will not die.' that in fact, she had eternity within her. everyone will find out otherwise when it becomes evident their choices did make a difference in this daily life. that good does triumph over evil. not that you are evil, alistair - but that you have to search for truth by dividing it FROM evil or untruth.
Here endeth yet another lesson...
Best,
Alistair