I know most everyone here have made up their mind about religion, but for anyone who’s interested in Christianity I’ve posted some verses.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
John 3:16
Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.
Luke 17:19
Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
Romans 3:24
My favourite verses are from the Books of Chronicles.
The First Book of Chronicles, Chapter 1, verses 38-42
[sup]38[/sup]Sons of Seir: Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah, Dishon, Ezer, Dishan. [sup]39[/sup]Sons of Lotan: Hori and Homam. Sister of Lotan: Timma. [sup]40[/sup]Sons of Shobal: Alian, Manahath, Ebal, Shephi, Onam. Sons of Zibeon: Aiah and Anah. [sup]41[/sup]Son of Anah: Dishon. Sons of Dishon: Hamran, Eshban, Ithran, Cheran. [sup]42[/sup]Sons of Ezer: Bilhan, Zaavan, Jaakan. Sons of Dishan: Uz and Aran.
Now try saying that five times really fast.
LOL! And I thought memorizing the 10 commandments was tough.
My favorite …
“Any attempts at witnessing shall hie thee to Great Debates.” Euty 4:5
Euty, you’re my hero.
First, full disclosure lest we speak past each other without knowing it: I’m not a believer. Not just in the Christian religion, but in the existence of an Omni-Whatever God. I’m (mostly) not anti-religion; I can see the benefits that many religions have had on socialization, enforcement of moral codes and even sometimes on science. I just don’t happen to believe that any of them worship something that actually exists.
Also, I won’t be around this forum much tomorrow because of board business. I’ll be around this weekend, though.
I went out a couple of weeks ago and bought a bible. Haven’t read the whole thing yet, of course, but I got through most of the OT (except for the “begats” and some of the “rules” chapters), and I read the Gospels. I’m just starting on the post-Gospel books now.
OK. To my questions. From the Gospels alone, it doesn’t seem like Jesus is the kind of person I would worship even if I did believe in His divinity. I’ll leave aside “He killed the pigs” and all that stuff. My questions are more basic. Sure, He had some good ideas about moral behavior. Most of His Sermon on the Mount was a doozy. I’m confident that Ghandi and Dr. King said similar things. BUT:
Jesus kept telling people to forsake everything except devotion to Him. I’ll give cites this weekend if you need them, but they tended to be “Don’t work for bread of this earth but rather for Heaven, and my Father will give you all the bread you need (knead?)” kind of stuff. Am I to understand all of this to be allegorical, or did He really expect living, breathing people with children to drop everything and follow Him? If the second, isn’t that asking a lot of the needy creatures He created?
His own disciples didn’t buy it. They were constantly asking for proof. IIRC, at one point they even got Him so exasperated that He looked up and said something to the effect of “How much longer do I have to put up with this?” If He was aware that His closest followers had problems believing even with miracles occurring right before their eyes, by what token does He expect someone 2000 or so years removed from the events to believe?
Why, precisely, does belief/worship equal salvation? Well, OK, because He said so. But more generally, why would he say such a thing? I’ll accept for purposes of this thread that true belief automatically leads one to live a life that God would want one to, but why would He set it up such that that is the only way to lead such a life? Does He have so little faith in humans that He has determined that the only way to lead a proper life pleasing to Him is to believe? Or are we back to the Jealous God of the OT? Or am I missing something here?
I guess that’s it for now. I’m sure I’ve missed capitalizing some He’s and Him’s, and I was a little fast and loose with my pronouns generally because I don’t fully understand how the Trinity is supposed to work for believers. I apologize in advance for both those oversights.
Reveation 1:18- I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.
Ahh, the wonders of your Christian bible.
And let’s not forget Joshua 10:40 (NIV translation):
“So Joshua subdued the whole region, including the hill country, the Negev, the western foothills and the mountain slopes, together with all their kings. He left no survivors. He totally destroyed all who breathed, just as the LORD, the God of Israel, had commanded.”
Although I’m not a Christian, I try to see the truths in the positions of people who disagree with me. (Hey, I even agree with the Canadian Alliance about some things.)
My favourite Biblical quotation is the following. It is one of the nuclei of my humanist philosophy.
“The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath.” Mark 2:27
Basically, we need to remember that the structures we have come up with to help us deal with the world are our creations, and they are subservient to us, and not vice versa. When an abstraction and a person are in conflict, the abstraction is not always right.
Also, whenever anyone starts quoting Leviticus 20:13 at me, I just look at them in the eye and say, “Deuteronomy 22:12!”
Go look it up! And I want to see some tassels on those prayer shawls!
And finally, I submit Leviticus 11:13-19:
“And these [are they which] ye shall have in abomination among the fowls; they shall not be eaten, they [are] an abomination: the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the ospray,
and the vulture, and the kite after his kind; every raven after his kind; and the owl, and the night hawk, and the cuckow, and the hawk after his kind, and the little owl, and the cormorant, and the great owl, and the swan, and the pelican, and the gier eagle, and the stork, the heron after her kind, and the lapwing, and the bat.”
Well, so much for the pelican barbecue with the Rabbi!
And finally (the last one, I promise!)
When I was a baby, my dad was labouring in the hot sun one summer’s day, digging up a leaky water main in the back yard or something. Of course, our neighbour the fundamentalist Christian took the opportunity to “discuss their faiths”… and was quoting bible verses at my dad. After the third or fourth day of this, finally, my dad looked back at him, and said, with the unshakeable authority of a Preacher’s Kid, “Well, let me just remind you of the gospel according to St. Matthew, chapter 30, verse 5, where our Lord reminds us, vex not thy neighbour whilst he toileth!”
Of course, bible dude scurries away to look the passage up and, not finding it there, spends the rest of the day puzzled, while Dad continues to work in peace and quiet.
Gaudy…
My take on it is that Jesus was “about half smart-ass” (as we say here in Texas.)
When He told someone to drop all their wealth and follow Him, He was generally speaking to some rich bastard…Jesus knew that the guy loved money and things more than spirituality and righteousness.
In at least one case, I think that the rich guy was trying to bribe Jesus for passage into Heaven…
Now THAT’S gall!
“I am the Son of God.”
“Ok, you drive a hard bargain…TWO goats and a donkey!”
-David
Ack! That should have been to Manhattan…why’d I say “Gaudy”?
-David
Manhatten: What JC was saying is that 1st you gotta believe in Him, everything else is secondary. You, know it’s very strange that I find myself on this board defending the Bible & JC, usually (altho, see my rant re Paul, that, that,…). I guess I just like to play, umm, er, “… advocate”. 
As to my favorite, there are some HOT verses in the Song of Solomon, but I also like Lev 19:17-18 for those who hate homosexuals “for biblical reasons”. My favorite quote is (from Daniel, of course):“MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN”, which I like to mention to the characters in role playing games they see written on the wall…
matt_mcl writes:
Talitot do have tzitzit on them.
Reminds me of a time at mass. Was a real small tight group, all friends. One of the readings was a big list of begatting. The priest said, “Now there’s just a good list of names! Everyone nowadays is always complaining about the names parents are giving kids, and why can’t they just give them a good old fashioned biblical name. But you never see any Uz’s or Zabaan’s running around, do you?”
I know most everyone here have made up their mind about nursery rhymes, but for anyone who’s interested in Mother Goose I’ve posted some verses:
Jack be nimble.
*
Jack be nimble, Jack be quick,
Jack jump over the candle stick.
*
Rub-a-dub-dub.
*
Rub-a-dub-dub three men in a tub,
And who do you think they be?
The butcher,
The baker,
The candle stick maker.
Put them out. Knaves all three!
*
Mary had a little lamb.
*
Mary had a little lamb
Her fleece was white as snow
And everywhere that Mary went
Her lamb was sure to go.
She followed her to school one day
Which was against the rules.
It made the children laugh and sing
to see a lamb at school.
*
jenkins -
I know you feel you are saved and redeemed and you have the love of god racing through your veins. But every now and then, don’t you feel just a little bit like a congenital idiot?
Sorry folks, but I just could not wait to get to the pit.
We now return you to the regularly scheduled sermons from Rev. Jenkins…
Akat: I know. And you would be amazed how often Christians who quote Leviticus at me are not wearing their Deuteronomy-mandated talitot, with or without tzitzit.
Well, just because some shegetz thinks he gets to pick and choose…
[Moderator Hat ON]
I think you could have waited, QuickSilver. Try to do so next time. Thanks.
[Moderator Hat OFF]