There’s a huge difference between welcoming the kid home and throwing a multi-day, hugely expensive bash. It’s perfectly fair that the kid is welcomed home. It’s not fair that his debauchery is celebrated while the older son’s years of service get him…well…nothing. (He gets the half of the inheritance he would have gotten anyway).
It’s neither kind nor just to give the screw-up son a huge bash–it’s a slap in the face to to the faithful older brother.
[QUOTE=John 5:39]
You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me,
[/QUOTE]
All of scriptures are of the exact same story, so yes we have part 2. From Moses, King David, Jesus etc it is all the same story. We know that the Son of the Father is the King (actually the King of Kings but let’s not nitpick)
This is very clear of what Jesus removed from us, (& there is scripture about Jesus being a drunkard). We are free “who the Son sets free is free indeed” this would have to include the Law. Since the Law leads to death, we need to be freed from that to live.
[QUOTE= Col 2]
21 “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? 22 These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings. 23 Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.
[/QUOTE]
When you live by the Spirit of Love there are no rules, actually rules would get in the way of the work of God. You can not do God’s work with your "No, boinking hookers, getting drunk, gambling, " restriction, and you could not reach those people with God’s Love, which is the reason for grace.
Just when I think you can’t top yourself, you post what I think has got to be the most ridiculous thing anyone has ever said about The Bible.
Caholic priests agree. Hell’s bells, how is one expected to do God’s work with some sort of restrictive ‘don’t fuck the alter boys’ rule in place.
Actually in part 2 the younger son kills the older son, which takes care of the inheritance problem. And gets forgiven.
(Been watching too many mysteries lately.)
Evil men do evil things. How is this relevant except that God will eventually turn every evil committed on earth for the good.
Jesus of His day rebuked the high priests, today is no different.
Wait…what?
The story of Esther is the story of, say, the Revelation of St. John? Because I don’t remember the Whore of Babylon in Esther or Hamen palling around with the Anti-Christ in Revelation. And where does the baby Moses in the rushes figure into, say, the Song of Solomon?
So–Jesus is Saul, reincarnated? And he’s Lot and Elijah? Who is he in the Cain/Abel story? Cain or Abel? He can’t be both. Or…can he?
And just to be clear, as a Jew, “we” do not know that Jesus is the Son of the Father.
So you’re point-blank saying that I’m doing God’s work (in your religion) if I blow half of my dad’s money on prostitutes and pot and porn? You encourage this behavior? Because…dude. I might like to sign up.
RE: The Prodical Son
For the prodigal son, the lesson is in that he swallowed his pride, and came back after he figured doing so would be met with disdain, punishment or a life of servitude.
For the father, someone he loved, and who had deserted him for a hedonistic life, had little hope of ever seeing him again. So when he returned, it was as if his son had come back from the dead, and without need for explanation, threw a huge shindig.
For the elder brother, all he saw was the waste and insolence, what his brother “deserved” according to the material, so the celebration his father threw was a reward for misdeeds in his eyes, rather than the celebration of a returned brother and son, assumed lost to the world, never to be seen again.
It’s punishment and reward vs. mercy and love. Jesus was trying to convey the love and mercy His Father has for humanity, in this parable (and how humanity might view such mercy as a reward for behaving badly).
Which is fine, but still doesn’t really address the problem of suffering the untold billions have to endure, not of their own choices, but because of their given circumstances.
CMYK—I don’t agree with the moral, but this is one of the best explanations I’ve ever read of the Prodigal Son–thank you (and Hamster King) for taking the time to explain.
The standard apologetic(s) answer is that everyone is born guilty and flawed and everyone is a sinner because of Adam and Eve, and that’s why they suffer.
(This assumes, of course, that A & E existed, among other things.)
Of course, which brings everything full circle.
God created Man and Woman, putting them in a “Garden” supplying all their needs. But He also threw in the ultimate wild card: Temptation.
He’s omniscient, so he knew we’d fail, and then be cursed for all generations. What’s the reasoning to put the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in there in the first place?
Skimming of the various responses out there–and they vary tremendously–reveals several answers in particular:
No one can seem to agree on an answer.
Though it is helpful to have Jesus as Son of God, you can also see God living inside the Prophets. They are one with God, and scriptures state God is one. So those Prophets were not just messengers but one with God at the time therefor are God and are God’s children.
Since there is one God, God’s child has to be God.
So the scriptures are about the life of God’s child, which is also the life of God.
The scriptures testify to this and tell the story of God’s child’s life, death and resurrection over and over from different aspects in different books. The Prodigal Son died and was raised back to life by the Father. King David was treated very badly, hunted to death till the Father gave him his seat of power. Since you brought up Ester, it is the same thing, family carried off into slavery and basically death, and she was given her seat of power to confront the evil, much like Pharaoh was confronted by Moses and Satan was confronted by Arch Angel Micheal and many more.
Those are all different tellings, different aspects of the life of Jesus, which we also have the 4 aspects, and they are only some more aspects, in the 4 Gospels.
In Revelation we have the whore of Babylon, this just another aspect of Jezebel and Elijah. The plagues in Exodus are just another telling (aspect) of the seals and bowls of Revelation.
Cain and Able, yes both, in each one. The question is did Jesus ever do things that may be considered bad, such as Cain did. We have what is known as the infancy gospel that tells of Jesus’ youth, which He was mischievous to say the least, but in the Book of Isaiah we have the answer:
[QUOTE=Isaiah 7:14-15]
14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you[a] a sign: The virgin** will conceive and give birth to a son, and[c] will call him Immanuel.[d] 15 He will be eating curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right,
[/QUOTE]
Bold mine, it is clear that there is a time when Jesus (or a child called ‘God with us’) doesn’t know right from wrong. Cain seemed to murder before he understood the consequences, or what murder really was, as it was apparently the first murder and first human death for that matter.
I’m not sure where Abel is, either following the rules, or have broken away from the rules, and living by Love, though I think I could support that Abel was in the bound by rules.
Yes, in that you have to break away from rules of others including religious rules, and figure out what you need to do for your life, start defining your own life and see where it goes and learn from it who you are (God’s child). So it’s not a religion, as there is no rules at all just a desire to live by Love.
Perhaps an all knowing father would know this, but then an all knowing father would make sure his son knew how to act to begin with, and could have prevented the situation to begin with. and would see that things were equal for the son who acted as he should.Perhaps make it up to him for his loyalty?
I never understood that the priests were evil, just judgmental and made a big public display of their religiousness,and looked down on others!
It makes no sense to not use fore knowledge,then punish every one who was born after that! Of course if God likes to play cruel games, then that is another story!
Scriptures are the word of humans, written by humans for humans , called God’s word by humans,called inspired by humans so it is a human book or writings just like all other religions writings.
Then you missed perhaps the greatest teaching of Jesus, We are the children of God. Jesus reveled to us that we are the temple of God and the true name which we should be calling God - Daddy.
Jesus identified the priests in the religious system as the sons of the devil (though not all, such as Nicadeamious, as God has His children at all levels). They lay burdens on people. OT scriptures state the priests (Levites of His day) do not receive any inheritance, as their inheritance is the Lord (the Lord will deal with these people directly). Jesus confirms they will die in their sin.
Daddy? Seriously? Should I be sucking my thumb while I call out to Him too?
My favorites are boxers who thank Jesus after a winning fight. He just spent an hour trying to kill someone and god helped him?