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Difficult Passages in the Christian Holy Bible

You should really be above this.

That page is garbage, taking a single verse (or even a fragment of a verse) out of context & trying to draw any conclusions from it is absolutely pointless.

Not to mention trying to subject God to your own beliefs ("Personally, I believe that violence is never the BEST solution to any problem.").

Nothing but flamebait, & poorly done at that.

Viper GTS
 
Originally posted by: Viper GTS
You should really be above this.

That page is garbage, taking a single verse (or even a fragment of a verse) out of context & trying to draw any conclusions from it is absolutely pointless.

Not to mention trying to subject God to your own beliefs ("Personally, I believe that violence is never the BEST solution to any problem.").

Nothing but flamebait, & poorly done at that.

Viper GTS
Click to expand...

Having grown up the son of a minister, the MANY inconsistencies in the bible have ALWAYS bothered me.

And you can't say there aren't any...
 
I've been a deeply committed Christian for 50 years, pastoring a church with 55,000 members and always tithing 90% of my income. Thank goodness you showed me that Geocities page, which caused me to realize the error of my ways and renounce my beliefs. Where would we be without the moral compass of Geocities?
 
Originally posted by: FoBoT
reading scripture is fine, but to learn, you must have the spirit to guide you
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Meaning you should never take anything you read in the bible literally?

That I WILL agree with.
 
Originally posted by: jagec
I've been a deeply committed Christian for 50 years, pastoring a church with 55,000 members and always tithing 90% of my income. Thank goodness you showed me that Geocities page, which caused me to realize the error of my ways and renounce my beliefs. Where would we be without the moral compass of Geocities?
Click to expand...

Good for you!

Seriously!

It sounds like you are a good Christian (Unlike MANY I encountered growing up in the church) there should be more like you!

Though the source my not strike you as "legitimate", are you saying the passages quoted are false?
 
Originally posted by: tnitsuj
I submit that we shouldn't take passages out of any "holy" book out of context.
Click to expand...

Then how do we interpret them? 😕 & 😱
 
Originally posted by: Brutuskend
Originally posted by: Viper GTS
You should really be above this.

That page is garbage, taking a single verse (or even a fragment of a verse) out of context & trying to draw any conclusions from it is absolutely pointless.

Not to mention trying to subject God to your own beliefs ("Personally, I believe that violence is never the BEST solution to any problem.").

Nothing but flamebait, & poorly done at that.

Viper GTS
Click to expand...

Having grown up the son of a minister, the MANY inconsistencies in the bible have ALWAYS bothered me.

And you can't say there aren't any...
Click to expand...
yes you can, there is nothing inconsistant with the bible (at least none I've found in my studies). I'd have to agree with Viper on that one.
 
Originally posted by: lobadobadingdong
Originally posted by: Brutuskend
Originally posted by: Viper GTS
You should really be above this.

That page is garbage, taking a single verse (or even a fragment of a verse) out of context & trying to draw any conclusions from it is absolutely pointless.

Not to mention trying to subject God to your own beliefs ("Personally, I believe that violence is never the BEST solution to any problem.").

Nothing but flamebait, & poorly done at that.

Viper GTS
Click to expand...

Having grown up the son of a minister, the MANY inconsistencies in the bible have ALWAYS bothered me.

And you can't say there aren't any...
Click to expand...
yes you can, there is nothing inconsistant with the bible (at least none I've found in my studies). I'd have to agree with Viper on that one.
Click to expand...

Then you haven't read it enough.

Just the over all attitude conveyed in the New Testament and the OLD is a inconsistency in and of itself.
 
Originally posted by: Brutuskend
Originally posted by: jagec
I've been a deeply committed Christian for 50 years, pastoring a church with 55,000 members and always tithing 90% of my income. Thank goodness you showed me that Geocities page, which caused me to realize the error of my ways and renounce my beliefs. Where would we be without the moral compass of Geocities?
Click to expand...
Though the source my not strike you as "legitimate", are you saying the passages quoted are false?
Click to expand...

I'm saying that the Bible was written by people. The content may be true, but the phrasing was rather culturally defined.

Example: God says "So-and-so is evil, kick them out and call it a day"
Israelites say "OK, we slaughtered every last one of them, including women and children, and burned all their cities to the ground. Because God told us to."

And, of course, the second version is what gets written down.

People who believe in the absolute and literal truth of the Bible might indeed have trouble with those passages. I have a somewhat more liberal interpretation. Of course, that can be dangerous since one has to be careful not to use their own prejudices when deciding which verses were "probably just the culture", but as long as you talk and debate meanings with a lot of different people you should be in good shape.
 
Originally posted by: Brutuskend
Then you haven't read it enough.

Just the over all attitude conveyed in the New Testament and the OLD is a inconsistency in and of itself.
Click to expand...

See, that's exactly what I'm talking about. The message was the same both times, but the people who wrote it down had their own ideas, and put their own slant to it.

It's like reading a movie review from two very different critics...it takes a lot of work to figure out what the movie was REALLY like.
 
Originally posted by: jagec
Originally posted by: Brutuskend
Then you haven't read it enough.

Just the over all attitude conveyed in the New Testament and the OLD is a inconsistency in and of itself.
Click to expand...

See, that's exactly what I'm talking about. The message was the same both times, but the people who wrote it down had their own ideas, and put their own slant to it.

It's like reading a movie review from two very different critics...it takes a lot of work to figure out what the movie was REALLY like.
Click to expand...

The message was NOT the same, the Old & New Testament were written under vastly different circumstances for different purposes.

Viper GTS
 
So then is God a vengeful and jealous God, or is he a caring loving and forgiving god.

Is murder wrong, unless God asks you to KILL?

If God asked YOU to sacrifice your son to HIM, how would you feel?
 
Originally posted by: Brutuskend
So then is God a vengeful and jealous God, or is he a caring loving and forgiving god.
Click to expand...

God's love is part of God's eternal character; wrath and vengeance are not--they are short-term responses to acts of treachery and malice. God is 'slow to anger' and seeks the best for His creatures. When forces arise which threaten to destroy the goodness of life and the pursuit of warm community, the Creator will begin to intervene. He may wait as long as He can--to give the treacherous time to re-think things--but He will eventually act decisively with them, in fulfillment of His commitment to grant peace and rest to us.

The negative notions of these words as used in modern parlance are not at all present in the biblical usage, as the above examination of the data should indicate.

Vengeance and Wrath are the words the bible uses for God's intervention of liberation, recompensing the victims, and restructuring reality to insure that "atrocity will be no more"...

They are acts born from a Heart that passionately loves people, that seeks our good, that weeps over oppression, that grieves over His own 'wrath', and that always seeks 'another way'...

Good Question...God is Wrathful, Vengeful, Jealous, and Angry every day--and you want me to have a relationship with Him?!
 
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