Wow, this thread is really cutting back the list of people I plan to give Christmas gifts to.
nothing from nothing is still nothing.
You gotta have something, if you want to pray with me.
OP, I’m sorry you have such a… misinformed perspective on what the Bible says, versus what people who don’t read it think it says.
Mom? Is that you?
If it is, you had one seriously fucked up childhood.
Hey, I would’ve loved to have Billy Preston for my mom…
Where exactly does it say all that stuff in the Bible?
Uhhh… somewhere in the back.
Near where it says that gambling is OK.
Ah, Bless your heart.
May God Bless you and you always! 
no. Christianity teaches that the God’s law is king, not the king is law.
don’t understand this one. Christianity insists that all people are to be helped, but again, I don’t understand what you’re saying.
alot of Bible scholars believe that this very story was put in the Bible to show God’s abhorrence of child sacrifice.
I don’t see the contradiction. ?
Here is the key to the bible, it defines 2 paths, one of the law, the other living by love. You get to chose. The law will only lead to death as we are incapable of living by law - that includes all law, including things like speed limits. Living by love and trusting that God is Love and will protect His children from the penalty from the law is the other path, which leads to life eternal.
So in the case of Hitler, those who lived by love, and resisted, fled opposed him under the basis of love for humanity were (basically) the ones who were saved. I say basically because of with God there are no laws.
In the case of stoning homosexuals, the bible states that any sin is ‘equivalent’ to any other sin, so by stoning homosexuals under the law you are condemning yourself unless you are sinless, in which case, as sinless Jesus states (to the woman caught in the act of adultery = also a ‘sin’ so equal to ‘sin’ of homosexuality) I don’t condemn you. So God does not condemn sinners.
The tricky thing about the Bible is both paths are stated with almost equal authority that it is the right way. The key to this is seen in Job 1, and in some other places where Satan gets to speak as if he was God. Satan is the lord of the dead so to speak. So the laws are Satan’s, living by Love is God’s.
You also get into strange situations because of the gifting of the Holy Spirit, to be able to determine what is right and good by divine knowledge which may seem counter-intuitive - hypothetical example, someone may be lead to not resist Hitler, this for a purpose to help others who Hitler has condemned to death.
This gifting however lets you learn what of the bible is God’s teaching (loving others) and what is Satan’s (any hard and fast law). And the very important 'if you fall under any of the law (tithing, speed limit, stoning homosexuals, keeping the sabbath) you are obligated to keep the whole thing.
So the law is all or nothing, you are either under the whole law (including civil law), and under Satan, or under ‘grace’ which no laws apply or God’s child, protected from worldly powers and spiritual powers, but you may be disciplined by God, but only as a loving father would do so for his child who has gone astray- you chose.
The Bible has 3 faiths in it, the commonly 2 known are Christianity and Judaism, the 3rd is ‘The Way’. Only The Way is what Jesus taught, only Jesus (with the possible exceptions of Arch Angels, sons of God etc.) is divine, yet many follow the teachings of Paul, even though Paul states he is not Jesus and also states he makes up rules that the Lord does not approve, and also opposes instruction that the Lord states is true. The Christian church’s power is only from the teachings of Paul which in places outright oppose the teachings of Christ.
So what is Paul’s teachings? A example of God’s refinement of a person. Paul went from Saul ‘Pharisee of Pharisees’, bound by the law to a gradual process of letting go of the law and letting God (Love) rule his heart. In the process he imposes rules and laws, the only thing he knows. But Paul also speaks of the gifting that unlocks the scriptures, a gift of God (called distinguishing between the spirits), that you can find out for yourself what of the Bible is from God and what is Satan’s input.
2 most important verses in scripture to help one determine what spirit is talking (God or Satan), is:
- God is Love
- Scriptures can not be broken
So if you are reading a passage that makes God look unloving, you are deceived and that is Satan pretending to be God, you have the right as God’s child to call him on it.
Great example of this deception. God saves the people of Sodom, through Lot’s wife. Lot’s wife became a pillar of salt, look up ‘pillar’ and ‘salt’ in the new testament to find out that both words mean God has glorified her to help others, and did not pronounce a death sentence on her - as is commonly thought in Judaism and Christianity.
:o I may have been misquoted!
P.S. It is now on my office door, above my XKCD snow tracking guide (winter is coming).
I don’t have to read the bible. I’m Catholic. We have guys who do it for us.
Ok lapsed catholic. Whatever.
As a Christian, I’m just going to point out that Christians are weird.
Yeah, God saves the people of Sodom by incinerating every last one of them… except Lot’s wife, through whom they are all saved. Whew!
Feel free to fight my ignorance of why there’s no contradiction in this interpretation. And, this is an unusually lame pitting.
The subject of which I posted on and posting stuff which isn’t necessarily the full story because I was angry (things which may sound right but there are possibly still holes), I will offer some counterarguments:
-It says it was good to follow Hitler. (Follow all the rulers and laws of the land)
Maybe it is saying only follow the laws of the land where it doesn’t contradict what God wants. Jesus DID run from the Pharisees.
-It judges you as immoral for not helping the same needy person that their bullshit God passed by as well, with more means to do the exact same act you chose not to
Maybe its not about the help and what’s in your heart. Maybe it is more of a “what would you do in this situation” rather then judging you on the ultimate outcome.
**-It says it’s right to burn people for all eternity because they are homosexuals or because they told one lie, or stole one candy-bar. **
As far as homosexuality goes, maybe it truly ISN’T the way things are supposed to be. I mean biologically speaking a penis is there for a vagina, whether it was created or we evolved. Besides, different cultures have different taboos. If it is perverse for us to do our family, or perverse to do animals, or perverse for us to do boys, where is the line drawn where it is okay to do our own sex? Who knows for sure where that stands?
Also with the candy bar thing, I don’t think that a candy bar=hell. But a candy bar may put a sin on your soul which if it’s not removed will stay there permanently, and needs to be punished for however long it stays on you. Plus it might also be that God is kicking you out of heaven and there is no other place for you to go but with the devil who will go to the lake of fire (or the devil owns you instead of god now because you have done wrong)
**-It says that if you pick up sticks on a day when God wants you not to work, you need to be put to death. **
Imagine a dimension of absolute holiness and sanctity, where one drop of sin would kill the soul. Like, that is not so far fetched. I wouldn’t find it so odd if that were in a movie or something. Well, what if the land on that day was so hallow that according to the highest truth that if you sin against it in the slightest your life is forfeit. Maybe the whole picking up sticks thing had something to do with that.
**-It would have been IMMORAL according to the Bible for Abraham to NOT try to kill his son just because he was told to.
**It may not be the same as it is now with someone killing their son. It may have been that a son might be more like a prized possession rather than a human beings with a right to his life. In other words, God might have been testing Abraham to give up his greatest possession, realizing how big of a deal it really was to kill a child didn’t have him go through with the full thing.
-God CREATED you to sin, and then blames YOU when you do.
If you think about it, if how you are is different, then it wouldn’t be YOU. Plus if He made a way for you to go to heaven anyway then it shows that he cares about you possibly more: He’d prefer you to be you even if that means that what you do isn’t the best in his eyes, but will still want to be with you in heaven.
**-The God of the Bible should learn what it is to invade someone’s privacy
**Its not necessarily the same for God. If He is omniscient and omnipresent than he HAS to know. Maybe the idea of Him knowing what people do actually does stop people from stealing, hurting, etc. other people.
Plus it is possibly good that he would know what you look like naked so you don’t end up weird down there. In any case since God is a higher being, it might be akin to us looking at the privates of an animal.
Plus he beat up Kubla Khan.
Well at least that’s constructive criticism. While I can agree the OP is a little like getting up on a soap box and yelling at winter for being cold, I also appreciate knowing there is one more soul out there in the world who isn’t buying Yaweh and his avatars.