I'm re-reading the Bible

I liked Moby Dick as an allegory to Religous Hypocrisy, and how Religion in general has nothing to do with Holiness or Salvation.

 

When we're young, we're susceptible to conditioning from the state or church or whatever.

 

Remember the Pharasee ?
He was thankful he was not like other people too, he even mention the Tax collector as an example of people he was happy not to be like, yet in the end ??

 

I wasn't.

 

Adultery isn't a sin, adultery is a weakness if you love your spouse or a get out of jail free card if you don't. IMO

 

Luke 18:10-14 King James Version (KJV)

10 Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican.

11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.

12 I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.

13 And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.

14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

 

The Bible is pretty clear on divided loyalties, and as such has pretty clear consequences, each person can for a season justify their actions, but in the end, must reconcile one's actions.

 

There is no arguing with the Holy Bible, but you don't have to read the thing.
If someone cites it in an argument, wish them well, move a long; if it's important, stand on your own two feet, but never cite the Bible, because you're not the Bible, and to people who don't read the Bible, you're wasting your time with them, like they're wasting theirs with you - and if you've read the Bible, read something else because it's better to learn more, than go over 1 conditioning.
The Bible's good, The Eight-Fold Path is good, be good.

 

No ?
My own two feet are meaningless.
As are arguements, I merely point out greater wisdom than my own, but if someone wishes to lean on their own understanding, that is fine too.
Then all attendant responsibilities are upon them too.

 

I stand by what I say @DoctorWho
I believe in God and feel blessed to be here on Earth because it's like a lottery and my lot in life is okay.
God is there as well for the oppressed and the butchered victims of those slaughtered in that entity's name. - Because that is evil by humans who think themselves God; I wrote a whole song about it; well, it wrote itself to be honest.

 

Keep on praying.
And you will be sustained.

 

Face your fears, and just do.
If it's scary but you must do it; less time reading the Bible or posting on internet forums (me) and more time closing your eyes, doing the right thing, getting on with it.

 

....
Productivity, the mother of all buzz words at the moment.
How productive are you?
How productive is your time?

These are open questions for everybody to ask themselves.

If we can force our selves, get out of bed, maintain our bodies, we'd be ready (more ready in fact) for work; for example.
By waking up earlier and having a whole morning regiment of exercise to wake up to and get the juices flowing (so to speak).

 

Perfect love casts out fear.
I at my age fear G-d and not doing the things I should as revealed to me.
Pray and rely on G-d.

 

Reading's fine, but preaching?

 

I am listening to it right now........




One of the reasons why I am so hyped on NDE accounts is that I gave up quite a bit because of them........
I got myself kicked out of two churches.......
that I had many awesome friends in...... partly due to my complete inability to go along with the Soul Sleep doctrine any more.

So psychologically.... I would like to think that what I sacrificed was a good decision.

For the record..... most of my old friends followed my lead.... and got themselves kicked out as well.... and virtually none of them honoured the decision by the pastors to disfellowship / ostracize / excommunicate / shun me...... (And for the record I suggested myself to Pastor G... M.... that he should disfellowship me..... because I just could not behave myself well enough to remain entirely silent about what the church was teaching that annoyed me).

Oh... I am 95% certain you will kind of like this discussion:
Could the Christian gospel be much worse news?

 

That is what is going on in my head as well........
with only 41 votes in all four of my previous campaigns combined.....
I really would prefer to not bother with a fifth campaign........ but I do know
that I am in a position to set something up that could make life better for a lot of people if
i am willing to tackle the Goliath of Fame........ (ok, relative fame)?!


http://www.politicalforum.com/index.php?threads/should-sorek-2-be-in-australia-or-california.530861/

 

Some thoughts after finishing Exodus and Leviticus: The instructions on how to manage slavery made my blood boil. Here's an idea Yahweh: How about we have no slaves?

Honest question for Christians and Jews: If this is only a cultural thing from the past, why is it still read from the pulpit in places of worship as if it is some kind of timeless truth?

Another observation: I learned the value in reading different Bible translations. My NIV Bible reads 'wave offering' while my NRSV Bible reads 'elevation offering'. At first I honestly thought that the priest waves a piece of meat or a loaf of bread with their arms like they would a fan. With the word 'wave' replaced with 'elevation', I now understand that it's raising the piece of meat or loaf of bread above their head with their arms.

 

It's probably a waste of time to explain that "slaves" is not what you think it means, a slave in those days was an indentured servant.

If you go to a Catholic Mass you will see the Priest elevating the body and blood during the Eucharistic celebration.

 

Regarding slavery, remember that the Gentiles will become slaves to the Jews. So that's why the Bible is in favor of slavery.

Isaiah 14:1-2 (CEB) = "The Lord will have compassion on Jacob, will again choose Israel, and will give them rest in their own land. Immigrants will join them, and attach themselves to the house of Jacob. 2 The peoples will take them and will bring them to their own place. The house of Israel will possess them as male and female slaves in the Lord’s land, making captives of their captors and ruling their oppressors."

 

I think the KJV gets too much of a bad wrap as far as translations go, but NRSV is superior in terms of textual scholarship. Before the KJV penned, scribes of Greek had to compile a full text (there is no "original" surviving text). They had to compare the discrepencies between the Greek bibles and fragments that existed at the time and decide what should go in and what shouldn't. Erasmus made several such compilations, and the KJV is an English translation of his 11th edition. There were some "political" decisions that went into that edition, rather than scholarly ones, and Erasmus himself wasn't satisfied with it. For example, there's a verse in 1 John that doesn't appear in most Greek versions and doesn't appear in the early versions of 1 John, but Erasmus was pressured to include it because it was more overtly Trinitarian.

With the NRSV, translators were able to work from a larger pool of texts and had access to earlier copies, so the Greek they are translating from is probably better off for it, though most of the differences are small. Plus the

 

Slaves in those days were captured in wars and raids, and they were slaves.
Indentured servants are a completely different thing.

 

I can't make any assumptions about where you live, but in my country, you'd be a laughing stock - if not considered downright suspect - if you used the KJV. Here, it's regarded as an antiquated tome for freaky Baptists and other rustics.

 

So what's the point of those things?

 

It's not what I don't understand about the bible that scares me,

It's what I do understand.

Samuel Clemems