one of chris hitchen's common objections

[jeremiah]

you mean to tell me that such an compelling orator of all things natural as christopher hitchens didn't convince you?...i'm just kidding. it makes me laugh sometimes. i once thought hitchens was a challenge to the faith. then one day i stopped listening to how he spoke, and instead to what he was actually saying, and that all changed. i'm a young earther as well, as for the return of christ seeming more probable later down the line, i am inclined to agree.

grace and peace...

[darinhouston]

I find that when I examine the time of Christ in the context of World History, it is actually pretty remarkably well timed. The “silent” intertestamental period before Christ is remarkable to me in its philosophical, social, and intellectual development through the lives of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Euclid, Archimedes, Cicero, Julius Caesar, with the rise of the Roman Empire from the West, and the rise of technological and engineering applications from Rome, Egypt, and the Middle East, and coming right on the heels of such developments and self-discovery having the philosophical way paved by other teachers and philosophers so that culture and its excesses were primed and ready to receive (and either accept or reject) exactly the message Christ brought about culture, sociology, government, and so much more. At no prior time was an empire in place sufficient to illustrate Kingdom principles and to permit the prolific spread of the message. The model had been laid over more than a thousand years through Israel. It’s as if God said – “OK, now that’s done – let’s sit back and let the chemical reaction take place, let the bread rise, and at just the right moment I’ll pop it in the oven.” To me, that’s a real testament to God’s providence in History and the timing of Christ.

[steve]

I like that! Well put!