Christianity beyond the bible

Every time I clean, throw out, organize, etc. I find myself shortly thereafter needing some of the very things I threw away. So I wouldn't touch the Bible works in that regard. Besides, if one is inclined to cleaning, it may be best to do it with ones own heart, mind, life, and soul. That is after all what the Bible is essentially about.

 

I'm not clear on your point and probably it would be best for a Mormon to field any questions you have about their faith.

 

Mormons believe Jesus was in America

 

Good comments.

I think there are better interpretations of the Eden allegory. Clearly, god is the judge of good and evil. Partaking of that tree is a clear, if symbolic, indication of the individual seeing himself worthy of being the judge and taking on that role. There are Christian denominations who see it this way. God's proscription was clarifying the difference in the positions of God and man. Man was instead saw himself as equal or above God.

While that act was a sin, it's deeper than just disobeying god. It carries through to the nature of humans today - not merely a one time sin that we somehow get blamed for.

God creating the universe could be considered the biggest possible plaudit, of course.

It seems like a claim designed to justify being able to give god credit for literally anything and everything. It really doesn't seem deeper than that.

To your list of messed up Biblical stories I'd add:

- Joshua's abject terrorism at Jericho, designed to create an irresistible threat against other city states in support of Joshua's land theft - a slaughter of all men, women, children and animals fully supported by God.

- The slaughter of the Midianites, men, women, children, captives, and all, EXCEPT for the virgin girls distributed among the generals.

- God's OK of the drunken sex between Lot and his daughters - leading to multiple majorly blessed family trees of Israel.

- Isaiah. Need one say more?

 

Also, Jephthah's daughter. Jephthah had just won a battle over the Ammonites, and vowed that he would offer the first thing that came out of his house as a burnt offering to Yahweh. And of course it was his loving daughter coming out to welcome him home. Yaweh didn't tell him to stop at the last moment as with Abraham and Isaac.

 

Remember the sequel to Jephthah's story, found in Matthew 5:33-37 (ERV) = 33 “You have heard that it was said to our people long ago, ‘When you make a vow, you must not break your promise. Keep the vows that you make to the Lord.’[a] 34 But I tell you, when you make a promise, don’t try to make it stronger with a vow. Don’t make a vow using the name of heaven, because heaven is God’s throne. 35 Don’t make a vow using the name of the earth, because the earth belongs to him.[b] Don’t make a vow using the name of Jerusalem, because it also belongs to him, the great King. 36 And don’t even say that your own head is proof that you will keep your promise. You cannot make one hair on your head white or black. 37 Say only ‘yes’ if you mean ‘yes,’ and say only ‘no’ if you mean ‘no.’ If you say more than that, it is from the Evil One.“

That passage also applies to the silly practice of swearing on the Bible. It plainly says not to do it.