knighty, one good argument for the validity of the bible is that about every religious group, including christianity, finds much of it objectionable, so they reject it.
a few simple examples:
it doesn't get more simple than this, no?
Ro 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
yet 99% of christian organization reject this and teach the wages of sin is LIFE in hell fire.
they argue that death is *really* life, god just has some terminology problems.
this is funny in light of the fact the bible tells us the state of the dead... again, in simple terms.
Ec 9:5 For the living know that they will die; But the dead know nothing, And they have no more reward, For the memory of them is forgotten.
nearly the whole of christianity rejects plain and simple verses in order to uphold their dante based inferno tradition.
one christian told me that it is well known that king david was mentally unstable in order to discount Ec 9:5 as being both untrue and not god's fault. well, if that's the case, we can't believe anything in the book, right? maybe every author was unstable, right?
even worse, they butcher the meaning of lazarus and the rich man in order to misapply it and, well, they end up hiding the intended meaning of lazarus and the rich man.
the parable is about helping the less fortunate or, when brought back to life in a resurrection, one will feel bad about being so selfish on this in one's first life (ezekiel 37 depicts israel's mass resurrection from the dead, as an example of a resurrection abck to physical life). the point was to be good and care about those in need while on earth.
i've *never* heard that verse used to portray its intended meaning. rather, in an effort to hold onto pagan based hellfire tradition, christian "leadership" tries to convince you that a man who can talk normally and requests a drop of water for his tongue to cure his dry mouth is literally on fire - and will be in such a state for the rest of eternity!
of course, they neglect to mention that abraham was depicted as talking to him, so i guess that means salvation is an eternity of being face with and talking to the eternally tortured, no? that would be the extended logic of this type of scriptural abuse, but they don't want to believe that portion of the parable so they deny it.
my best guess is that, prior to the printing press, the christian leaders taught dante's inferno pagan idea of eternal hellfire in order to manipulate the masses and scare them into allowing the leadership to exercise maximum amount of control over the people. then the printing press came out. the bible didn't say what they taught, but they were too proud and arrogant to admit error, so they covered it up by rejecting clear and concise scriptures and butchering the meaning of basically a single parable to hold tightly onto their tradition and reject plain and simple explanation within scripture...
Ge 3:19 In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return."
imho, there is a lot of *noise* in the bible that allows just about anyone to fly off on some crazy tangent, should that be the desire of the their heart.
Isa 28:13 But the word of the Lord was to them, "Precept upon precept, precept upon precept, Line upon line, line upon line, Here a little, there a little," That they might go and fall backward, and be broken And snared and caught.
i have found the bible to be an eloquently simple book once you drop the noise issues (and this took me a lot of time and experience to do).
mat 22:36 "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?" 37 Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."
that's it. when anyone out of everyone fails to show proper concern for others (equal to concern for yourself), society will break down and all the things god promises (peace, joy, happiness, abundance) will be impossible. god is focused on relationship skill b/c they are the key to determining the success of a group of beings over, well, eternity.
read the new testament and see how kindly jesus spoke to the down and out, the poor and the needy. then see what he did to the big religious institution of his day (calling them the offspring of satan comes to my mind, but he had other creative ways to call them evil to the core, too).
caring for others equal to oneself is hard to do, though. so the human mind starts going off in all sorts of weird directions. some dig the prophecy and think they have some super relationship with god b/c they have some super prophecy insight.
1Co 13:2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
gal 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control.
again, god is relationship focused. everything else is literally nothing. what benefit will knowing the truth in advance be a trillion years from now (if time is even relevant in the spirit realm)? nada. but yielding god's fruits will still be CRITICAL to the quality of life that everyone leads - and this will never change...
imho, these are some nice expressions of god's thought process:
luke 14:11 For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." 12 Then He also said to him who invited Him, "When you give a dinner or a supper, do not ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor rich neighbors, lest they also invite you back, and you be repaid. 13 But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind. 14 And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you; for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just."
Ro 13:10 Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
Mt 15:9 And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.' "
Col 2:8 Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.
Mt 24:5 For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and will deceive many.
(notice the quotes. they weren't inspired and the verse makes little sense with the quotes. how many people come in jesus' name and then claim that they are the messiah? it is very few people. remember, true spirit led christians are said to be the "few." "many" likely means more than a "few," at least on my block.
who are the many that come in christ's name and claims that jesus is the christ? they are the same as those who would deceive you. i think i've portrayed the bible accurately by focusing people on caring for others equal to themselves and not holding onto pagan traditions of sadistic eternal torture, but everyone has to decide for themselves.
i think it is also important to realize that this first human life is not the only scriptural time allowed for conversion. if you read ezekiel 37, you'd realize that the "whole house of israel" wasn't even offered spiritual salvation until AFTER they were raised from the dead in what appears to be their physical resurrection.
bottom line, do the best you can with what you know and god won't treat you like the human justice system - jack you over a technically. if you have the capability of being a decent person, god will work with you, in this life or after an ezekiel style resurrection, and you will see the perfection and beauty in god's character.
sorry - you have to blame some of this one the zone diet. i have so much energy and intensity, i just pour it into stuff and take most stuff over board. i know most folks likely tuned out well before they got to here!
in short, its all good. god will deal with everyone he's ever created, in this life or after an ezekiel 37 style resurrection, in a fair, just and reasonable way. he loves each person he's created EQUAL to himself. that's his law and he follows it. perfectly. only those people who know the truth and are of sound mind will be put out of their misery, as it were, by being killed a second time, from which there is no resurrection.
a loving, caring decent god couldn't do it any other way, yet i've NEVER heard that simple message before from any organization, christian or other.
the god of the human imagination, though... all bets are off. |
