Bible Questions?

So an unassuming person who is open to others suffering and someone who the exactly opposite of an elitist is someone you see as a insult to the world? I know many meek people and if they ruled the world instead of the elitists, their would be peace.


Meek:

Showing patience and humility; gentle.

Sounds good to me.

 

And I'll probably keep coming back to them until you explain them.

I can't say what you would do but it's fairly plain that God loves all of mankind and not just those who love him back or put faith in him and yet some of those that he loves will not see the paradise.

Thanks, I like the parable.

It is interesting that you mention that the son made every effort to live without the father but where is the "Make every effort to enter through the narrow door? Surely you're not suggesting the the narrow door is a person's attempt to live without their heavenly father and Jesus was telling us that is what we should do.

Also just because the father welcomed the son back when he returned does not show that all we need is to have faith and believe.

It just shows that the father never stops loving his sons, regardless of what they may have done.

It shows is that no matter what we have done, we should never think that God will not welcome us back with love and open arms.

It also shows that the son didn't think that all he had to do was believe and his father would help him and everything would be okay.

He had to make the effort to literally return to his father, he had to make the effort to travel all that distance to physically return.

Which to me shows that he not only had to believe his father would help him but that he had to act on that belief before he could receive the benefits of that belief.

PS The exerting himself to return did not "earn" him his welcome back but if he had not done it he would not have received his welcome back.

 

For those who who actually have read the Bible and believe it to be true there is no confusion.

The bible clearly states later how long those days are.

To translate the word youm into something other than day would be a mistranslation.

I didn't say the Good News of agape, I said spread the Good News with agape.

Agape is Greek for love based on principle and the Good News is the Good News of what God's Kingdom has done, can do and will do for mankind.

The Bible's purpose is not simply to teach morals, although it does.

Perhaps you would be so good as to quote that for me, as I have done many times in the past for the things you say you haven't said.

You only look at the surface of things and do not see the true meaning.

Jesus' purpose was not just to die but to exchange his perfect human life for the one that Adam gave up and put us in this situation that we find ourselves in, which he did.

He was dead for three days and gave up his perfect human life forever so that mankind will now have the chance to live forever and some of mankind may never see death and may continue to live forever on the paradise Earth that God will provide.

None of those who have died have been forgotten by God and they will be resurrected to back life on a paradise Earth and given the opportunity to live forever.

Eve was the first to sin but she was deceived.

Adam could have chosen not to follow her course of action, seeing as he was not deceived and by not eating of the fruit he could have prevented mankind's fall into sin and thus he generally is held accountable for mankind's fall into sin.

 

So God should just have made us all robots with no difference between us? Interesting.

If people are truly happy and content, what would be a better life than that?

I don't think you know what meek means in this context. Meekness is a personality trait meaning; showing mildness or quietness of nature, it does not show an inequality with others.

Is this another of your "subtle" comments?

 

Whether you're striving to obtain him or striving to obtain something else you're still apart from the Father.

You hit the nail on the head. It is true that by putting all our trust in God everything will be O.K. I agree with this.

God knows what's in our heart. Are you saying that unless we have the physical energy to return home then God won't help? So what if the son dies 2 ft from reaching the father? Will the Father say "wow he almost made it. Oh well"

Plus, 2 Tim 2:25 tells us that repententance is also a gift from God.

God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, 26and that they will come to their senses

 

No thats what it apparently wants us to do in death, I never said that all people should be robots, I said they should be equel and not meek.

Enlightenment and discovery, space the final frontier and all of that, as opposed to holy wars and god hates fags cults or people killing abortion doctors becasue god told them to.

How is what I said in contidiction to what you have just posted, why would they inherit the Earth, why not no meekness simply the power of enlightment that goes with equality and understanding, I don't believe you understand the meaning of the word and as such you attempt to change it's context, something you often do to defend your faith.

what was so subtle about it, you made a thread asking people to state questions of the bible and then went on to say anyone could ask a question not just your fellow sheep, but for some reason decided to put it into the sanctuary, why not attempt to answer the questions that the multitudes of people who would have qualms with your religion might ask?

Why instead to you attempt to just preach to the choir as it were?

 

For those who have read which bible, which translation?

Where in an English translated bible does it state that the six day creation story is not intended to be taken as six 245 hour days?

Where at in the English bible?

So you agree that the universe was created in six days but that the days were not days as we see them but actually just random amounts of time, it would seem that to keep up with scientific findings those who claim that the bible is infallible must continue to stretch it further and further.

Fine whatever.

.

What has it done for mankind, you have said that it is not the foundation for morality, it has not cured any diseases and it has started wars that killed multitudes, what is the good news?

What morals?

Where is the true meaning in not allowing a witch to live, or the instruction of buying slaves?

What about killing your son because god wanted to see if you would?

Why would a human sacrifice change anything, why are we responsable for the supposed wrong doings of fictional characters who were said to exist thousands of years ago?

This illustrates what is in my opinion the most ghastly teaching of Christianity, that being take no thought for the morrow and do not dwell to deeply in your current fleshy body, for there are far greater rewards in death, it is the definition of a death cult.

As a grown man how can you not read the passage you had just surmised and not realize that it is the basis for the wanting to somehow escape death, to live life immortal, it betrays a terror of true death it would seem.

So how is it her fault then?

What for, he had free will did he not, he chose to exercise it probably out of curiosity, so why does all of creation forced to pay for his sins (of eating an apple?) How can any rational person take this seriously?

We have had many discussions over the past year ans a half maybe even two years I'm not sure and I would like to ask you a personal question which I will not hound you about if you choose not to answer it, was there ever a time when you had any doubt in any of these stories or was there ever a time that you have found a discrepancy in the bible that you simply could not rap your mind around, besides the sermon on hellfire that is to which you had already said was simply wrong?

 

You do realize we can read this, right?

We have our own brain. We can discern for ourselves what is true and what is not true, but if we decide to respect the knowledge another has to share then that is our business.

 

It was meant to emphisize people who think in the same way, that vicarious redemption can be salvation for our supposedly wickedness that we are born into.

I could of said fellow members of your cult but thought it sounded tacky,

FOUR LEGS GOOD! TWO LEGS BAD! sort of thing, well that is if your into Orwell at all.

 

I see. Well, many people think in the same way and we all have our own views on how to improve on the world.

The 'attitude' (to simplify) described in the Bible is said to be an attitude that is ignored by many and because of that, we get the kind brutality that you mention so often. I mean, how else do you describe the brutality of non-Christians and the so-called Christians?

Many psychologists debate whether or not we are born good or bad and none really have come to a consensus. I know that to many that good and bad are subjective, but that is also a perspective, so which side do we choose?

I personally chosen the side that makes most sense to me, according to my own reasoning and experience.

I just don't understand how these are really questions. What you say may be the truth, but how exactly does this pertain to the Bible?

I enjoyed Orwell somewhat. I just concluded that he was wrong with his assessment on some things, not that he didn't touch up on something interesting. I just thought that his understanding was a bit lacking...

 

Again, what is wrong with being meek? How does that make us unequal? It just makes us different.

How does being truly happy and content prevent that?

And how does being truly happy and content cause this?

The meaning the word meek is showing mildness or quietness of nature, look it up.

So what you seem to be implying is that the world would better off if it remained the way it is, with those who are not meek running the show, need I remind you that such ones have not done such a good job in the past or even as we speak.

I was just indicating that you might want to return to making just subtle comments, just reminding you that you said; you only ask questions and with only "subtle comments".

Why in Sanctuary? Because the thread is Bible questions, and it's hard to answer some Bible questions without using the Bible. Sanctuary allows for the Bible to be quoted and used for the answers.

As for the rule that only Christians can post here, that has been relaxed in this thread or you wouldn't be here. So non-Christians are allowed here and discuss to their hearts content, as long as they don't get abusive, although we have let you get away with it from time to time. Such as your comment; "More evidence pointing towards that religion hucksters the desperate into it's masses, like vultures.", which is borderline trolling.

But the rules have not been relaxed to the point where non-Christians can just come here and be abusive, such as the one poster who just said; the Bible is .... and didn't even care to discuss why they felt that way, sorry but that is just trolling and they shouldn't be here.

First, as I've already mentioned non-Christians are free to participate in this thread, as long as they aren't abusive and second, even the choir has questions about things in the Bible they don't understand.

 

I just don't understand why you won't address what Jesus meant when he said; "Make every effort to enter through the narrow door".

Interestingly, that is not what happened in the parable.

The son knew that just putting all his trust in his father and doing nothing else would not make everything okay.

The son knew that for everything to be okay, he not only had to trust in his father but had to travel all the way from a distant land, back home and then his trust and his actions in combination would make things okay.

If he had just trusted in his father and had stayed in that distant land things would never have gotten better and thus his trust would have been without value if he hadn't taken action, just as James says.

Many people have good intentions in their hearts but never act on them.

And yes, God will help you to take action, even give you the strength when needed but he will not make you do it.

But God will not force any one to take action, action is something you have to do for yourself.

Is a gift of any value to you if you don't even bother to unwrap it or use it?

 

Could it have meant that the only way to the Son is through the Father? As in, if we don't already believe in the word before Jesus then we cannot enter into the gate of Jesus. Those that have not already believed in the Father cannot know the Son.

Wouldn't that take a lot of exerting to accomplish? The only ones genuinely seeking out the truth will find it. If we found it, and this is God's way of separating the Goats from the Lambs then isn't this the way God ensures that we have been lead back to the Father?

When the woman touched his garment she was healed because she had faith that he was who he said he was. "Your faith has healed you".

 

That's an interesting question. Why would he tell us to strive as hard as possible to reach him. How did the prodical son return to the father? He came to the conclusion that he was a sinner and not worthy and needed help. So after striving vigorously with all our might we finally realize that we'll never reach him and must humbly accept the free gift much like a helpless child.

18I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.

If he had just trusted without any action then this proves that he never really trusted at all. You are right true faith is always accompanied by action, but it's the faith that justifies not our action.

If the free gift is righteousness based on what Jesus paid in full why would we need to use it to get it. Did Abraham have to use his gift of righteousness before it was credited to him? No, he simply believed truly as seen by God.

 

I was thinking. How does the ending of the story of Jonah play into this question? Jonah chapter four, God pleads to Jonah that he needs him to help fulfill his plan. Jonah throughout the book struggles with whether or not he should act, probably because he feels that God's plan will be fulfilled anyway. But in Jonah Ch. 4, God pleads to Jonah that he needs him to help fulfill his plan.

 

Any translation for the most part is good and if you have a question about how something is translated you can always look it up.

As you know this has been discussed before, seeing as you were part of the discussion. But once again, if you look at Hebrews 4:1-10 it talks about God's day of rest, you know the 7th creative day and there Paul says that we can enter into that day of rest, thus that means that day of rest had been going on since it had started some 3000 years earlier and now since that creative day has still not ended, it would appear that creative rest day is, at this point about 6000 years long and there is no reason to believe that all those creative days were not of the same length.

Once again, we've been though this before.

No, I don't believe that either the Earth or the Universe were created it six "days".

The Bible starts with the statement; "In [the] beginning God created the heavens and the earth." and there is no mention of how long that took.

It could have been 15min or hundreds of billions of years, the Bible just does not say.

The six creative days start with the Earth already formed and now in the next six creative days God prepared the Earth for human habitation.

Well obviously you can't see what it's done because you have no spiritual vision but millions of people of all tribes, nations and peoples now live together in peace, amongst them there is no war or violence, they have peace mind knowing soon this wicked system of thing will be replaced with a new system of things based on love rather than hate. As for cures, you are right no diseases have been cured yet, unless you want to count the diseases of alcoholism and drug abuse or hatred and prejudice.

And how many times do I have to tell you true Christianity has started none of the wars you keep talking about.

Most would say; "You must love your neighbor as yourself" and “All things, therefore, that YOU want men to do to YOU, YOU also must likewise do to them" are good moral teachings from the Bible.

First, yes there is instruction on how to treat slaves in the Bible but if there is instruction on how to buy slaves in the Bible, please show it to me because I've missed it.

As for witches here is some more fuel for your fire; “You must not preserve a sorceress (witch) alive.” (Ex 22:18) “You must not practice magic.” “As for a man or woman in whom there proves to be a mediumistic spirit or spirit of prediction, they should be put to death without fail.” (Le 19:26; 20:27) “There should not be found in you . . . a practicer of magic or anyone who looks for omens or a sorcerer, or one who binds others with a spell or anyone who consults a spirit medium.”—De 18:10-14.

But then I don't expect for you to understand, seeing as you don't really believe in God, how could you believe in Satan and his demons. To those who believe in what the Bible has to say, they know that Satan and his Demon can be a source of great evil and so God was understandably concerned about the presence of those who would try to call the demons into the midst of his people. Although the Israelite were not to go seek out these ones in other nations to put them to death, all in the nation of Israel had been forewarned and the Israelite stand on this was well known in the nations around them and thus anyone practicing such things in Israel knew that they where taking there life into there own hands by doing so.

Please show me where the Bible says someone killed their son because God wanted to see if they would.

If someone owed you a million dollars would you be happy if he gave you a chicken and said that makes us even? No, of course not, you would expect to be paid back a million dollars. The "fictional character" Adam had perfect human life and all his children could be expected to inherit that from him but he gave up his perfect human life and so just like if your parents both had the same genetic flaw they would pass it on to you, Adam and Eve both had the same flaw, imperfection and passed it on to their offspring. The only way to lift that imperfection off of mankind is to for someone to offer their perfect human life to make up for what Adam had given up. A million dollars for a million dollars so to speak.

There is no great reward for us to die. We aren't going to heaven, even if we die we will just be resurrected back to the Earth and some of us now living may never die and could live right though the Great Tribulation and on into the paradise Earth. Christians do not want to die they want to live forever.

What? Somehow it's wrong to want to live forever? Somehow death terrifies me? Now who's the one wanting to start a death cult.

Who said it was her fault? It would have been nice if she hadn't eaten the fruit but like I said; she was deceived but Adam was not deceived thus he takes more responsibility than Eve for what happened.

Yes, he had free will but that does not mean because you have free will, there is no consequences for the decisions you make. Not, all of creation is paying for his sins (the Bible does not say it was an apple), just his descendants.

 

Interesting but it doesn't quite seem to fit, Jesus didn't say after you have tried to get in the door and can't, then give up, then you can get through the door, he just said exert your self to get through the door. Could you fix it for for me? (sorry, I'm a bit picky about illustrations; if there is no, one to one correspondence, I just like to know why, especially since Jesus was so good with them.)

I do agree that works without faith are without value, no one is ever saved by works alone.

Righteousness and salvation seem like two different things are you saying they are the same thing?

 

Or the illustration Jesus used where a father asked his two son to go work in the fields and one said yes father I will but didn't go and the other said I won't but went anyway. Then Jesus asked which one truly did the will of his father?

 

Give up on everything but him. Having a relationship with him. Then picking up your cross and following him.

This interpretation is still in harmony with the prodical son.

The son gave up and decided to return to the father. They had a relationship, then the son worked as a hired hand out of duty.

If I'm found to be righteous in Christ through faith then I'm depending on him to save me. If my faith is true then works will follow. So he provides both Godly righteousness and salvation.

 

Sorry I'm still not getting it.

Okay here is what Jesus said:
“Exert yourselves vigorously to get in through the narrow door, because many, I tell YOU, will seek to get in but will not be able..."

It seems Jesus is recommending that we exert ourselves vigorously and to do that to get though the narrow door.

What exactly are you saying that exertion is and what is that narrow door?