Please help me interpret these scriptures!

There are a couple of important factors to consider when reading the bible. All of it is said to be worth while and instructive and I think it is, even the OT.

A major source of confusion is the popular belief that the bible is the literal word of God. Not all of it is. There are a lot of words from men who sought God but also were conditioned by the society they lived in. There were homophobic, misogynistic and men with every kind of predjuced view, JUST LIKE TODAY. It is important to know that there are men preaching God today with the same prejudices.

Second, the brutal sounding measures that God sometimes took only makes sense when you understand his goal. Without that he sounds like a homocidal maniac.

If you're thinking that it takes one hell of a good end to justify those means, you're right.

Sorry, but that is not correct to say

Some of the "sects" do that and more or less ignore the OT.
The more established denominaitons as Lutherans, Anglicans, Catholics etc read out of the OT as well as the NT every Sunday during the service
This is just one exampel of what it could be.
First Mose book 15:1-6
Mark 2:1-12
In the Lutheran church in Sweden it is planned a year ahead.

Asking a spiritual question on this Atheist Site is inviting the demons to your house. RUN!

the hamsters always win



run as fast as you can


bwahahahahahaha

The brother is stupid but you are mean.

Have you considered what kind of person you are.

Murder is the name given to taking innocent life. Neither you nor your brother nor anyone who answered got this.

Doesn't the Bible's first word on this make that clear...
"Whoever sheds human blood, by humans shall their blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made mankind.
The first is murder, the second is punishment of murder.

And all 10 statements are exceedingly stupid.

You show your ignorance by letting number 8 pass.

1 Timothy 5:8
But if anyone does not provide for his own, that is his own household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

Most atheists would have recoiled at that, but you bit. Why ? Sheer ignorance.

But that is illogical, the question is solely, Is the OT relevant? And it is. You are excoriating ignorance but showing that you yourself are ignorant.

I don't consider myself particularly mean. As I have said a few times on this forum, I used to be a Bible Believing Christian. In fact, I was training for the ministry.

I was challenged to question my faith. After all, if it is true than it can stand being questioned. I looked at what the Bible said, how people were interpreting the Bible, and the way people following the Bible acted towards each other an toward the World. When I thought honestly about what I believed about being a good person, and about how the world should work... I decided that being a Christian didn't make any sense for me.

I don't think this is mean. I have been a better person since I stopped trying to follow God.

There is nothing wrong with challenging people to question their faith. Everyone should question their beliefs based on what they experience and the world around them. I have no problem with anyone who after questioning their own faith decides to continue.

But I do believe it is always a good thing to be willing to question your own beliefs, and change them when they stop making sense.

(BTW, I love the idea of you calling one person "stupid" and another person "mean" in the same sentence. It made me chuckle.)

There are plenty of things in the Bible that I still think are great. Caring for your family is one of them. There are also things in the Bible with which I disagree.

There is no reason that I can't pick and choose.

Aaaah, but you don't understand the difference, do you??

"Ir you believe what you want in the Gospel and disbelieve what you want. You believe in yourself rather than in the Gospel."
Against Faustus, 17, 3, 400 A.D. ( St Augustine)

The meaning, if you still don't see it, is that you are not subject to change in life because you are close-minded.

Of course I understand the difference. And, I have no problem with saying that I believe in myself rather than in the Gospel. I tried to live according to the Bible for a number of years. My life has been much better, happier, and more productive since I learned to start believing in myself.

There are two reasons I don't believe in the Gospel is any source of authority (other than the parts I like).

1) The Gospel itself has a number of things that I, after my own study and thought, see as inherent contradictions.

2) More importantly... I see the lives of people who follow the Gospel. Everyone who claims to live by the Gospel ignore, or interpret away, important passages of scripture. There is no modern Christian who truly tries to live by Jesus' words in the Sermon on The Mount.

The Bible is a giant Rorschach test. Everyone takes what they want from the Bible and then explains or interprets away the rest. I am just honest about it.

Your criterion is odd for someone who lived according to the Bible for years.

As you know there are very few times where the Bible repeats itself but the famous example of repeating is where it says :

MANY ARE THE WAYS THAT SEEM RIGHT TO A MAN BUT LEAD ONLY TO DEATH.

... and yet I am not any more dead than you are. Does that count as another contradiction?

YOur reply is self-contradicting, do you see that ?

St. Augustine, whom most consider the greatest of all the Church Fathers, dedicated a book to just this question...

On Christian Doctrine (De Doctrina Christiana)

"we are all free to read Scripture and take from the text whatever the Holy Spirit inspires for our good. But we must neither claim to know the author’s intention nor assert a universal and definitive meaning of any text. The former is known only by the Holy Spirit. The latter belongs to the Church alone."

The question and your answer both demand that their be no Church but then you complain about Jesus and Moses that interpretation robs the Bible of definitness -- but that argues for a Church.

Do you really think people had their own Bibles and that they got their Faith from reading ? INSANE