Part 36 of Post Your Tough Questions Regarding Christianity

Since all of the biblical stories illustrate the Ten Commandments the story about the pigs at Gerasenes seems to be about the First Commandment in Exodus 34:10-16.

In this story the pigs represent the Gentiles that were the people slated for ethnic cleansing in Exodus 34:11. Jesus arrives on the scene and the crazy guy, representing the lost children of the house of Israel, run out to meet him and to acknowledge him as the Messiah. The crazy man had been worshiping foreign gods and making covenants with the foreigners (the Gentiles who were called pigs/swine). Jesus drove the Gentiles from the land just as the passage from Exodus 34:10-11 had said. In the remainder of Mark chapter 5 Jesus does some magic tricks as stated in Exodus 34:10.

Remember, all of the biblical stories illustrate the Ten Commandments from Exodus 34:10-28. If you keep that in mind you will be better able to understand them.

 

Pigs are natural swimmers. Humans aren't.
There's Island, I think in South America, called the Isle of Pigs because it is 'occupied' by pigs. If a boat visits the Island the pigs are known to swim out to the boat on the chance of food. Something ingrained into them over many generations.

Jesus was in an area occupied by Greeks - the Decapolis - (10 cities established when Alexander the Great took over) These cities were autonomous - governed themselves. Greeks had no problems with providing the Romans with pork.

Taxes are completely irrelevant to the situation. There would be no rebellion because of the trial etc. Jews would pay their taxes - hated though they were - and life would go on. Jesus posed no threat- had no army of armed men. Other messiahs of the time had gathered a few hundred armed men, often Sicarii, but the Romans had disposed of them. You make too much out of the story of the death of the Jewish preacher.

Regarding taxes, Jesus said "Pay taxes to Rome because it's Caesar's head on coins", that's another reason why Pilate didn't want to execute him. If this had happened a few miles away the conversation would have gone like this.

Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not?”

But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”

And they replied 'What Image?'.

Ethnarch Antipas - the Herod at Jesus trial - did not put Caesars head on the coins he minted for his area in deference to Jewish objections. And Rome had no objection to his actions either.

 

1- Thanks, I said in PF a while back that Jesus came to save the whole world, but somebody argued with me and said he only came for the Jews, but now that you've pointed out that he also preached to Greeks it proves he didn't limit himself to the Jews..

2- Right, Jesus was no threat at all to Rome which is why Pilate pronounced him "not guilty" at his trial, and only signed the death warrant under pressure from the snooty priests..l

 

Where did I say he preached to the Greeks? After this incident Jesus went back over the water. The Decapolis was 10 cities with Greek occupants. There were plenty of Jewish villages too. Many that were Hellenic in thinking, but Jewish by birth and tradition. This is a story. Good versus evil. Good wins. Why would Jesus sail over the Sea of Galilee just for a few hours. The Sea of Galilee was subject to sudden violent storms and the loss of lives. The Bible tells us that. If you believe the story as factual we must accept he landed at a place where non-Jews lived - because of the swine. But Jesus didn't preach to them. As with other Gentiles who came for help, he didn't turn them away, but healed.

Sorry. If you read the story of Pilate he could quite as easily had Jesus put to death at the request of the Sanhedrin without a trial. He didn't try to appease Rome. The story makes no sense. He knew Rome's latitude with regards to the Jews and chose to ignore it several times. Hardly one who cared about what Rome thought. Thanks to ignoring Rome's attitude to the Jews and deliberately provoking the Jews, he ended up before Caesar.

What happened to him no-one knows.

 

There is not my God how willing to help my faith.

 

And I suppose they had fridges and freezes to keep the meat, veg. fruit, greenery etc fresh for all that time. Cold departments for the arctic aninmals, temperate zone for the animals needing it, and a Rain Forest for the rest. And all without the warmth of the sun. Wow. I forgot the Electric fridges and freezers, fan heaters etc. invented by Noahs grandson - Oh no - he wasn't alive till later.

 

If God was omniscient He knew before Day 1 that...

• Eve would disobey Him
• He would wipe out (almost) all of His creation

His plan didn't go wrong. He planned to wipe out all of humanity by drowning them. He planned on placing the blame on a woman.

Some would argue that Eve had a choice. But God knew what her choice would be long before He created her.

 

That is just an un-evidenced assertion. It is not proof that you never cheated on your wife because you have not proved you were never married.

Obviously many modern Christians do take Genesis literally.

You imply that you do not take Genesis literally, but you quote Job and Jesus. How do you decide where to draw the line between allegory and literal interpretation?

At least Mitt Ryan's beliefs are consistent.

 

And "Satan" is a metaphor for the worldly mind of man.

 

Mitt, please explain:

Rev 2:26-28 - "And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, . . . I will give him the morning star."

Please explain "morning star".

 

Mitt, one more....

Luke 17:20-21
Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, "The kingdom of God does not come with observation; "nor will they say, 'See here!' or 'See there!' For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you."

Please explain the last 7 words.

Thanks.

 

Well it's not certain when it all began and so I hate to put a number to it.

 

Yet, in the Noah story it seems pretty clear that God changed his mind.

God changed his mind!!

That's an interesting take on what God knows, as it implies he didn't know what the situation would actually be (not aware of Noah's righteousness) and he wasn't aware of the future that would be the case after his change of heart.

For this reason and others, the Noah story works better as an allegory - an allegory more full of meaning than would be the simply events as transpired.

 

Not necessarily. For example when God ordered Abraham to kill his young son as a test, he stopped him as he raised the knife with the words-
“Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me” (Genesis 22:12)
See, God said "..for now I know.." which indicates he didn't know before..

 

Yes and we could go further and speculate that bad human vibes are the "food" that Satan needs in order to exist, just as the invisible monster in 'Forbidden Planet' draws on Dr. Morbius's dark subconcious to give itself life-

 

So Jesus was lying when he claimed that he had only been sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Guess he won't be going to the golden cube because all liars are supposed to be excluded.

 

And 600 years later 'Moses' is able to write this story and the lives of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Lot, the family of Judah and the descent into Egypt. Then he has the detailed history of the family and generations of Noah. The detailed generations of Shem. He tells us of Abrahams purchase of land from the Hittites - at least 300 years after Abrahams death. Land that the Hittites never owned/ruled. He tells us that Abraham comes from a city controlled by a people who will not come into existence for another 1000 years.. That Sarah, Abrahams 75 year old wife/half-sister, was beautiful enough to be attractive to a Pharaoh possibly living 900 miles away.

AND ALL THIS AFTER THE HEBREWS WERE SUPPOSED TO HAVE BEEN SLAVES IN EGYPT FOR 400 years. No contact with Abrahams god. After 400 years the people almost certainly became Egyptianised - as Joseph had in the few years he was there before Judah arrived.

Stick to driving your tanks, that's more realistic.

 

Think 'Cavern Club' mate..
Just as the Beatles started with Cavern gigs and then spread across the world, so did Jesus start with Israel then became big everywhere else..
"..I came not to judge the world, but to save the world" (John 12:47)

 

You state He changed His mind. I assert He didn't.

God is a sadistic misogynist.

 

So, unlike Mitt Ryan,you don't believe God is omniscient.

 

The Noah story illustrates how the God character kept his first commandment promise about about driving out the the ethnic groups in the "Promise Land".

 

1- God was helping Moses, and if you've got God on your side there's nothing you can't do..
2- As I've told you before, as a computer wargame tank driver I always keep my tank pointed at where the action is, like in this village below, but all too often some gunners will get in who swing the gun crazily about all over the place like the berk in the picture who's pointing the gun backwards, sheesh!
The moral?- stay focussed on Jesus and don't get over-obsessed with looking back into the Old Testament..
"Let us fix our eyes on Jesus,the author and finisher of our faith" (Hebrews 12:2)

 

You really think bad human vibes are the "food" that the worldly mind of man needs in order to exist?

 

Don said-



But that doesn't mean he's a sadist!
Neither was God who had to zap the same sort of savage tribes..

As for God supposedly hating women, nah, he sent Jesus to rescue women from the mob didn't he?..

 

Think of 'Satan' as a mass of bad human vibes sloshing around the earth disrupting the peace and health and harmony.
Hence the instruction that we should only radiate good vibes that Satan can't feed off..-
"Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy,think about such things" (Philp 4: