Why does the Bible get misinterpreted so often????

Let's start with the creation of earth and heaven:

Genesis


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Chapter 1
1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

A: Who created god?

2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

A: If the earth was without form, how did god "moved upon the face of the waters?"

3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

A: Was this a light not associated with our sun?

4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

A: If the light came from the sun, we alrady had darkness and light on the earth. Simple logic and physics.

5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

A: Must be a 24-hour day.

6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

A: Any interpretation will do.

7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.

A: E = mc2.

8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

A: Air?

9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.

A: Is "one place" earth? Otherwise, god forgot about the lakes.

10 And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.

A: What, no lakes? Just seas and oceans?

11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.

A: Must mean vegetation.

12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

A: It must be good, but some are poisonous.

13 And the evening and the morning were the third day.

A: 72 hours.

14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:

A: Our day and night, or 24 hours, is based on our sun and earth. The millions, if not billions, of stars have different time periods.

15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.

A: Kind of late for the sun to be showing up on earth, because all them vegetation require sun light to survive.

16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.

A: Getting a bit confusing. According to verse #3, he said "let their be light."

17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,

A: Them poor vegetations would be dead by now from freezing and no sun light.

18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.

A: I thought I already answered this one. If the source of light is from the sun, we already had light and darkness - or day and night. Simple physics.

19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

A: I thought verse #14 already covered this subject of "light?"

20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.

A: All the animals, but not man?

21 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

A: Swimmer and flyers. That is good!

22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.

A: Too bad many of them became extinct such as dinosaurs during the intervening years since his "creation." God said, "be fruitful and multiply." How come many didn't survive?

23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

A: Another 24 hours?

24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.

A: The rest of the animal kingdom, I suspect.

25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

A: Noah must've had a heck of a time finding all these creatures before the floods. I wonder how many were seeking and collecting them for his boat besides his family members? There's a slight logistics problem here, but what the heck!

26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

A: Don't forget to bring that weapon with you! I wouldn't be walking alone where grizzly bears roam even if man has dominion over them.

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

A: Does god really have a penis?

28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

A: God was fruitful when he created Satan.

29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

A: Don't forget about those poisonous fruits.

30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

A: Every green herb? What about poison ivy?

31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

A: Okay. All this can be traced back to Egyptian mythology.

Go read "150 mythologies of the bible."

My point is that maybe what we tend to see as negative may not actually be the case because we cannot see all ends, we do not know all things. How would we know if a far greater evil might have come upon the world had God not acted the way he did. We can't see into the future.

The bible says Joseph's brothers were jealous of him and sold him into slavery in Egypt. The wife of his master would falsely accuse him and Joseph would be thrown into prison. Back then prisons were stinking cesspools of disease and misery. Later these same brothers would stand before Joseph beholden to him for their lives and scared of the power their brother now had over them as the right hand man to pharoah. Yet Joseph tells them, "Fear not: for am I in the place of God?" It seems he is asking his brothers what right does he have to judge them for what they have done. Can any of us know all things that we can judge whether a person is in the wrong if it is something God has allowed? He goes on to say they may have meant it for evil, "but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive." If ever a person had reason to wonder what God was doing it was Joseph for all that he suffered, yet he trusted in God and he was able to see that God did it all for good. Gen.50: 15-20 Christians don't always understand, but they believe God loves them.

I think if you want to know who God is then look at Jesus. He was the son of God. Some say Jesus was God incarnate. I believe the spirit in Jesus is the same spirit found in God and that everything you see in Jesus you'll find in God.
When you look at the account of Jesus' life do you see a jealous, murderous, vengeful person? I see those attributes in some of the so called learned knowledgable religious men of that time, but not in Jesus. The bible says Jesus is to be our example.

Christians believe that there is more to life than what we see and hear. They believe in an all powerful God who came before the world and created everything we see and hear, and they believe he will continue to go on long after we die.
Christians believe that God loves us and will raise us from the dead through his son Jesus Christ as he promised. Through Jesus sinners can find that connection to God that will allow them to go on forever with him.

The bible says nothing is to be judged before the time that the Lord returns when all things will be brought to light. 1Cor.4:5&6 The reason for this is so that "no one be puffed up for one against another" until that time. It sounds like everyone will always be a little in the dark about what God is doing to protect us from judgemental pride. Jesus says in the bible he didn't come to judge but to save. He came to save. God loves us. Jesus' love is restorative love that forgives. The bible says God will forgive us our trespasses/sins as we forgive others of theirs. Jesus' love is love that frees us from hate and anger and worldly lusts and pride so that we can love as he loves.

Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.........the ten commandments.

tr, The ten commandments as a stand-alone is fine, but if you care to read the rest of the bible, you'll find many contradictions in them. The one that stands out the most is "thou shalt not kill." You'll find verses in the bible where god commands followers to stone unbelivers, homosexuals, and war losers. God even condones slavery.

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thunder_runner32 wrote:
>>>>>Does he send us to hell? or Do we send ouselves to hell?
We know the rules, we know the consequences, he forgives us....if we ask.

If you ask. What about the poor bastards that 1) have never heard of christianity or 2) were raised or believe in another religion?

The bible says God does make allowances for both 1) and 2).
God is very forgiving. I don't know if I would say that forgiveness comes only from asking. A change of heart/ actions might be another instance. The bible seems to say only God truly knows what 's in a person's heart. Don't forget that Jesus died so that we might have forgiveness of sins. John 3:16

>>>>Also, i'm a bit shadey on the whole "ask for forgiveness" bit. We must beg forgiveness for doing something he created? Indulging in whims he gave us? It boggles me.

Asking for forgiveness is important for us because it serves to remind us that we are no more perfect then anyone else. It keeps us from becoming "puffed up" and judgemental so that we don't feel justified in hurting others. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone."

Uhhhhhhhhh, the ten comandments must mean nothing considring no body follows them to a T. Rules are just a suggestion put in place by those who have power, break them, and those in power will use their power to punish you for violating their "laws" In the case of the ten commandments, they must have expired cuase i don't see people getting swallowed into great clouds of sulfer and brimstone for "barrowing with out the intent to return" from their neighbors or for sleeping with another mans wife,(which happens all the time here at the base, shooper trooper{thunder runner}, you know who this is). or for back talking your parents, which every child has done. So the rules don't apply, except in the case of the UCMJ (Uniform Code of Military Justice) cuase they take lots of money.

Rules are just a suggestion put in place by those who have power, break them, and those in power will use their power to punish you for violating their "laws"

Define power......
Is there some power that punishes us for violating the laws of gravity by stepping off a fifty foot cliff? Or are the laws of gravity just something that is and if we don't respect them we will get hurt?

Children learn very quickly not to touch a hot stove after their mother tells them not to.

"Pain is ready, pain is waiting, primed to do it's educating..."

more rhyme

we know you are clever Ros but really, poetry and evolutionary science


well its pretty good actually

CI's post left Depeche Mode ringing in my head

oh dear, I hope you soon feel better.

ros, I'm not musical at all; I'm a listener.

Power is something that can be used to control others, those "IN" power are those who have the ability to control others, lets say God, he supposedly makes us and gives us free will, but then he writes a set of laws (AKA the TEN COMMANDMENTS) and says if you violate these then i'm going to send you to a place were you will suffer for all time untill i feel like forgiving you or until you kiss my stinky feet and make me feel important. I'm not athiest, i just don't belive in god the way you all do or don't.

the sleeper, Welcome to a2k. Over and above your opinion concerning the bible god, there's the simple fact that the bible is full of god's jealousy, vengefulness, discrimination against women, approves of slaves, and commands his followers to stone and kill unbelievers and homosexuals. You might find a verse or two about "god's love," but the rest are all criminal commands and threats.

Since you do not believe in God, tell us, was matter eternally pre-existent or did it have a beginning?

You are also not a bible reader or you would have noticed that Adam and Eve were given only one law which, even if taken metaphorically, is simply to be regarded as a test of their willingness to accept God's sovereignty.

If you're going to post, check out these definitions:

You may wish to pay particular attention to the defintion of straw man.

Wolf will accuse me of kissing a dead horse, but I don't think this topic should have died just because Frank lost his nerve.

The early Hebrew Language did not have vowels and spaces between words thus there are more interpretations than Jews present discussing the meaning of any verse or passage. Besides people in those days were illiterate so religion was heavily into plays, musical verses or staged drama - part entertainment and propaganda just like today on late TV with the televangelists. Anyway, religion is all made up so it doesn't matter as there is so much material there that one can take chapter and verse and twist it to what you like.

Frank doesn't lose his nerve, he gets banned.