Hey there, I'm not aiming this post at Christians or general, nor is it intended to be offensive, but I am honestly curious ... one of the reasons why Christianity and/or Catholicism turned me off is because of this right here: If God is perfect, and the Bible is the word of God, why is God jealous? "Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me." - Excerpt from the King James version of the Bible If God is supposedly perfect, why is he jealous? And wherefore would he be jealous if non-belief in him is as simple as a mistake; imperfect human error? And why is such an error punishable by eternity in Hell? I ask this question to all Christians, not as a challenge, but as a simple question, how can you continue to believe as you do, with light shed here? Can you justify it? I thank you in advance for your responses. Edit: I also ruled out the possibility that it is a bad translation, because I did a bit of research into the original texts and checked out other translations of the Bible. The meaning intended is indeed the same as our English word, "jealous."
Can't tell you though. Think about it. I've read three versions of the good book right through, and parts of a fourth, and I finally figured out how YWHW can be so cruel, vengeful, jealous, controlling, and demanding. He told the Jews that when they entered the promised land they must kill everything, women, children, livestock, nothing spared. And he says to have no other Gods before him. He says He is a jealous God, a vain God, and on top of that, he created Satan. So when he gets tired of the bloodshed, he can tag off. Now, you may still wonder how its possible. Well, in the bible it clearly states that demons will disguise themselves as beings of light. That is all I'm saying, I'm not saying, but I'm saying....ya know? The serpent told Adam and Eve that if they ate the fruit they'd be enlightened.....and they were. God told them that that particular fruit was strictly out of bounds.... or else. And meant it, they became mortal, so God sentenced them to Capital punishment for them and all their children ad infinitum. We're still dying. Well, I cannot break my word and tell you my theory, but I know that you are very analytical, and with a little study, you'll come up with something.
Because it is not God. Its a bunch of arrogant, and rich men who wrote the the Bible. The conceited, unbalanced masculine minds are reflected in the book. Thus the authors created God in their own ideal image...
I agree to some degree, but in defence of the billion or so Christians out there, most of whom are great folk, Jesus is not described like you say. And the message that is attributed to him agrees nicely with all the other ancient spiritual teachers, like Rabbi Hillel, Buddha, Lao Tzu, Confucius, etc. Granted, they are all men. That is about to change though, so don't worry. The age of the patriarchal masculine competitive warrior archetype being on top of the totem pole is pretty near done. It won't be long and GAIA, or Terra, Bona Dea, Mother Nature, etc. will be back in vogue. I would bet money it will be done in my lifetime. It started long ago, around Joan of Arc's day, and then just kept growing. The creative, artistic, compromising, compassionate, nurturing side is nearly as powerful as the aggressive, calculating, critical, analytical side. And shall soon surpass it in importance, imho.
we have an idea of what jealousy is and god has an idea of what it is <oversimplification> god is perfect so all of his emotions are pure and ritcheous (I know I misspelled that) where as ours are tainted and filled with alternate motives there are occasions of okay jealousy, they are just few and far between, and you probably have a euphamism for them......
I see. Thanks for your response. Let's build on this, it's interesting ... Can you give an example of an instance where jealousy is acceptable and is not an impure emotion?
I agree with you BlackGuard. I was mostly bashing the bibles description of God... Jesus to me is a wonderful enlightened being who realized the divinity and cosmic love inside of him. He is blessed with the wisdom to see that God is not seperate from life. He was a great Buddha. I have a couple of books on the Gospel of Thomas, and the Essenes. I really enjoy them. "The Kingdom of Heaven is Outside of you, and Inside of you"
hello, i sort of stumbled across your thread, and i thought i would respond to it. im a Christian, and i firmly believe that what the Bible says is true. if i don't than i call Jesus a liar, because He certainly believed in the inspiration of Scripture. anyways, as to the idea of God being jealous, and how that can be good: i dont know if i will be able to explain this very well, and i hope i dont confuse you (or me), but this is how i believe that it works. God has every right to be jealous, because of the very fact that He is God. does that make sense? when we are jealous of something, like...when i am jealous that my brother receives a better present for Christmas than i do, i am totally off my rocker. do i deserve a better present than he does? do i deserve a present at all? God deserves all the praise and the glory from all the people of the earth, because he is God. and so, there is no problem with God being jealous, as long as we understand its not in the human sense. and that he owns all things and deserves our praise and worship. and i think above at the top you said that you didnt see why God should make such a big deal about something so little as us not praising him or something like that. (i apologize if i have this incorrect.) it is a VERY serious thing. what fools we are (myself included) to not honor God in all that we do, say and think. he is my Maker, my Lord, and my Saviour. it is a very serious thing indeed to commit cosmic treason, which is, in fact what we do everytime that we sin against the Creator of the Universe. i dont know if any of this makes sense or not, but...i hope it does. i created an account with this forum thing just so that i could post this, and i may totally forget that i have an account (and so wont check again). so if you have any problems or questions i would love for you to email me. rcerbus@purdue.edu
"""Because it is not God. Its a bunch of arrogant, and rich men who wrote the the Bible. The conceited, unbalanced masculine minds are reflected in the book. Thus the authors created God in their own ideal image...""" In your opinion. Remember that Jerusalem wasn't like Beverly Hills or something. They didn't have money to burn.
That's a good question. But God's jealousy is different from human jealousy, His is righteous our's isn't.
What is the definition of our jealousy? And. What is the definition of God's jelousy? What is righteousness, and how does it allow jelousy to be different?
