Christianity, Bernie Madoff Style

Have you ever noticed that Christianity is a lot like a Ponzi scheme?

Jesus went out and got 12 people.  These 12 people went out and got their own people.  Of these people, the best of the best started their own regional "offices," and these offices trained their own people that went out into the world and did it all again.  This continued on throughout the ages, and now your priest/ preacher is doing the same thing to you and your family.  And this will continue into the future indefinitely.

The reason that I call it a Ponzi scheme and not multi-level marketing is that what exchanges hands only goes up. The people at the top get everything and the people at the bottom only get to give everything to the people at the top, not knowing if this is an MLM or Ponzi scheme until the end.

Sure, they tell you that you will get into heaven when you die (assuming that you have given the people at the top enough of your time and money), but how do you know that you are involved with the right church?  What if your preacher taught that you had to go to his church every week or you would go to Hell, but come to find out that the church down the road was right when they taught predetermination?  If you weren't picked before hand, it wouldn't matter what you did or how many times you went to church, you would be screwed. The people running the scheme tell you everything you want to hear, as well. They tell you that you will be rich, there's no risk, and whatever else they have to tell you to get you involved and loving every minute of it.

With a Ponzi scheme you don't know that it failed until the end.  Once everything is said and done, and the guys at the top have spent all the money, you realize that you got screwed.  Christianity (and most other religions, as well) work the same way.  You won't know if it worked out like you thought until its all over.  When you die you will 1.) go to Heaven, 2.) go to Hell, 3.) nothing.  By this time the guys at the top have spent all of your money and they have moved on to the next sucker convert.  With the Ponzi scheme, it may work out good for you or it may not.  Of course, you don't know its a Ponzi scheme until it doesn't work, which is the same with Christianity.

If you want to be a part of a Ponzi scheme you can.  There are many, many people out there willing to screw you out of your money.  But remember, not everything is what it seems, and not everyone is looking out for your best interests.  It is up to you to do the research and find out for your own.  And your own brand of Christianity is no exception.

Methuselah and the Ancient Ones

Did you know that the oldest person ever lived for 969 years?  Sure, his name was Methuselah, and he was the grandfather of Noah (yeah, THAT Noah).  The average age of the 9 Patriarchs leading up to Noah was 912, which means that everyone back then supposedly lived for a really, really long time.

The argument that I have heard most is that since man originally had everlasting life, his life span was much longer at the beginning and slowly dwindled down to the 80-100 years that we have today.  There is also the argument of the water vapor canopy that surrounded the Earth blocking out much of the harmful radiation of the Sun, thus allowing us to live longer.

But, according to Genesis 6:3:

3 And the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.”

So according to the Bible itself, Man can only live for up to 120 years.  Why the discrepancy?

If you use months instead of years, Methuselah lived 80 years and 8 months (969/12=80.75).  80 years old in those days was ancient.  They didn't have the health care system that we do, so the average life span was probably in the mid 30s to early 40s (based on life spans in much of modern day Africa).

There are numerous ways to determine his age, and the above is using the Gregorian Calender in use today by the Western world (aka Christianity).  Lunar months would make him 78 1/2, but would have made his father, Enoch, 5 years old when Methuselah was born.  But regardless of how you determine it, the age comes out to what we know of today as the average life span for a healthy human being.