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First of all, all the Christians should really have it settled one way or another. Either follow their God's words or just say it's a bunch of lunatic words and move on. Before they do that, they may consider keep that religion to themselves and stop feeding others on something they aren't even sure what to do.
And your authority as to what other people should do is based on...? And your proclamation that the 66 different writings that comprise the Bible really are all "God's words" is based on...? (Ahem--it's a rhetorical question--please do not begin submitting bible verses--I beg you!!!!!)
Quote:
Originally Posted by lifeexplorer
Secondly, it is my great concern when I have it in writing telling me to stone non-virgin wife and kill gay people and many others. When someone, anybody advocating such hatred, it is MY concern!
Well, good, you would love us Episcopalians. We're anti-violence, pro-social justice, and we welcome gay people--we even ordain them!
But there is one verse that all Christians seem to agree on, and that's the one about removing the plank from your own eye before you complain about the splinter in your brother's. You seem to be carrying quite a bit of anger and hate around yourself--it's not healthy, my friend.
And your authority as to what other people should do is based on...? And your proclamation that the 66 different writings that comprise the Bible really are all "God's words" is based on...? (Ahem--it's a rhetorical question--please do not begin submitting bible verses--I beg you!!!!!)
Well, good, you would love us Episcopalians. We're anti-violence, pro-social justice, and we welcome gay people--we even ordain them!
But there is one verse that all Christians seem to agree on, and that's the one about removing the plank from your own eye before you complain about the splinter in your brother's. You seem to be carrying quite a bit of anger and hate around yourself--it's not healthy, my friend.
The first question is how can you pick and choose from your religious "bible"?
Here was my answer:
As I understand, a "religious" person is one who believes in a god and does what they believe their god wants them to do.
Some of these people actually think for themselves and make their own decisions. They decide what they believe their god wants them to do, and then live their lives accordingly.
So, the answer to your original question is simply THINK FOR YOURSELF.
The first question is how can you pick and choose from your religious "bible"?
Here was my answer:
As I understand, a "religious" person is one who believes in a god and does what they believe their god wants them to do.
Some of these people actually think for themselves and make their own decisions. They decide what they believe their god wants them to do, and then live their lives accordingly.
So, the answer to your original question is simply THINK FOR YOURSELF.
OK fine, I'll give you that. Hey, I have nothing against this practice. I actually like it because it benefits me.
If a god doesn't demand human followers, you don't need to believe him or worship him as he never demanded you to do so.
If however a God wants human followers He must do the following;
1) He must leave humans with an infallible book as a reference for humans to follow, else humans will not be able to know what and who to follow.
2) He must assign an earthly authority as the keeper of His book, and to carry forward His book along history. Or else, anyone in the timeline of human history can pop up to say that he owns the genuine book. Moreover, as an earthly authority is subject to corruption, it must be re-assignable when needed.
It happens that Christianity is a religion (most likely the only one) which claimed to have an infallible Bible. At the same time, an earthly authority was with the Bible all the times in human history. Although this authority shifted from originally the Jews to the Catholics till the Protestants, canonically they are keeping the same version of OT, and with the Catholics and the Protestants sharing the same NT.
3) A true God must have understood the nature of history and thus must take measure on who should be legitimate in editing His book.
The nature of history is that basically "history cannot be proven". You have to rely on the humans (we usually call them historians) to write about what happened. Then other humans at a later time of humanity will have to choose to believe or not what was written down. This can be referred to as human witnessing. To put it another way, what is the best measure in order to indicate that what was written down is the truth? The best measure humans can achieve is that,
1) to write down what is witnessed
2) willing to die for what was written
that’s already what can be done. Among all the religions on earth, Christianity is the only religion put much emphasis on the importance of human witnessing. It is the only religion where the direct witnesses of Jesus Christ were willing to die for what was witnessed. Out of the 11 disciples, 10 martyred themselves. John is the only exception which seems to be arranged and prophesied by Jesus Christ (John 21:19-22).
The Jews are specially educated on how to do the witnessing, not to bear false witnessing is one of the commandments. A false witness is one the 7 abominations God hates. In the Jews culture, a valid witnessing requires more than 1 human to be the witnesses. In NT there are several places where "don't do false witnessing" is mentioned. In the book of revelation it is even said that liars will be burnt to the lake of fire.
Moreover, it's well known that only God's witnesses are authenticated to be the authors of His book. The witnessing itself is valid only in the sense that more than 1 person and well spread along the Jews' history that multiple witnesses have been authenticated to write about Him consistently.
Only a true God will be able to understand the nature of history and human witnessing is to take such a kind of measures.
As for the issue of slavery, slavery is a human establishing and practice. If all the Jews' surrounding nations are with slavery legalized, it's difficult for the Jews not to be affected culturally by this practice. And it's no point to disallow the Jews to enslave others but allow others to enslave the Jews. In OT a policy called "eye for eye and tooth for tooth" was adapted, basically for the Jews' own survival in such an environment. So if the non-Jews can enslave the Jews, then the Jews are allowed to enslave the non-Jews.
God actually showed the Jews through this practice/establishment that if the Jews follow God, God will bring them out of the system. If however they are unwilling to follow God, God will let them to be enslaved. On the other hand, the Jews are not allowed to enslave the fellow Jews actively. At the time when they were just out of Egypt, culturally they practiced slavery, and the Law was set such that only those who willingly sell themselves out can be slaves to their fellow Jews in a 6 year term. They must be freed by their fellow Jew masters after the 6 year term unless the slaves beg to stay wholeheartedly.
More importantly, this kind of human practice is not the priority in God's plan of salvation, God allows human freewill to be fully exercised on planet earth. His priority is to save humans souls by employing the Jews as a messenger carrying His message of salvation.
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