Thoughts
A week or so worth of thoughts on the Bible and Christianity. I've been meaning to sit down and write this out, but I just never did. But there's no time like the present, eh?
Lets start here and work backwards, shall we? (note: I use the New English Bible)
Jeremian 21:6-7
"I will strike down those who live in this city, men and cattle alike; they shall die of a great pestilence. After that, says the Lord, I will take Zedekiah king of Judah, his courtiers and the people, all in this city who survive pestilence, sword and famine, and hand them over to Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, to their enemies and those who would kill them. He shall put them to the sword and shall show no pity, no mercy or compassion."
-Ok, he says "I will strike down those who live in the city... they shall die of a great pestilence" and then a verse later states, "...all in the city who survive pestilence, sword and famine..." Hold on, I thought he killed them? He says that he struck them down and they died, but some how by some miracle, some didn't die. Do what now?
-God sounds very angry and vengeful. He is going to kill off everyone in this city, then everyone who doesn't die when God kills him is going to die an even more painful death at the hands of thier enemies. That does not sound like a very loving God to me. But, oh yes, God had given them a chance, many chances even, and they blew it, so he's wiping them out. That's fair. Wait... it is? Amy (North Point youth leader person) says that when people get bad enough and hinder the work of the Lord enough, He will just remove them. Somehow, in my mind anyways, that does not jive with everything else I've heard about God.
-Not at all relating to the verse, this was brought up in the session bit last night. When the flood came, it wiped out everyone, save Noah and his clan, right? Ok. So, a bunch of children died. That brought up the "Age of Accountability" and that its ok that the kids died, because they went to heaven, though somehow before Christ came, no one went to heaven, they went to another place, except the people who died went to heaven **blink** (this lady, Amy, makes my mind go in circles). So at any rate, Emily added that her (and my) old youth pastor once put it this way, "The kids were being raised by such wicked people, that they would have grown up to be just like their parents. So, by taking them when they were children, he really saved them." Phrase it this way and think about it (I did). God drowned children to save them. Hmmmm... Of course you must understand that they were OK though! Under the Age of Accountability and all. On that "they would have grown up to be just like their parents" bit... is that 100% for sure? I know that I for one have grown up (as "grown up" as you can say that I am) to be very little if anything like my parents. So why asume that t he children will be like theirs?
-While on the topic of the flood, some translations of the Bible (mine does not, but NIV and I think KJV does) say that the entire world was evil, hence the flood. The entire world except Noah, of course. But what about his wife, kids and kids-in-law? Since everyone except Noah was evil, that makes his family evil, right? And therefore God didn't really wipe out evil, he just wiped out most evil.
-It does say in Genesis 6:7-8, "He said , "this race of men whom I have created, I will wipe them off the face of the earth - man and beast, reptiles and birds. I am sorry that I ever created them."" Wow... and I thought I was moody! So God creates this world and states that "it is good" and then six chapters later is ready to wipe them all off the face of the earth? What happened? And lets not forget the whole who let Satan into the Garden to start with debate. At any rate, God changes all the time... merciful then vengeful, loving then full of wrath. But, oh that's right, God never changes. He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow... except that he isn't, but he is! Get it straight! Gosh!
- And entirely off subject, the bible makes a big deal about sex. I find this extremely odd. Though abstinency is a moral issue I suppose, I don't understand why such a huge deal is made out of it. It seems very 1984-esque to me. But that's just me.
posted by that girl @ 8:46 AM
3 Comments:
YAY! Lots of fun stuff.
On the Jeremiah bit, you'll note that it doesn't say he will kill them, necessarily. Just bring disease to them. But I understand what you're saying. Seems a bit redundant.
And no, the OT God was not merciful at all. I keep saying, if Christianity dumped the OT entirely, people might take it more seriously. It's just too much of a leap otherwise.
I've heard the same argument about the children wiped out. I made the same counter-argument. No use. Can't argue with "But see, God..."
Never thought about *everyone* but Noah being evil, family included. Interesting point. Shall have to look into that.
I've tried bringing up the "God never changes, except when he does, but even then, he doesn't" bit. Doesn't work.
As to sex, I think it's about control. Very 1984 indeed. As is mentioned in the book, sex is something rather beyond control, rulings, or comprehension. People might start getting ideas, so to fix that, you institute monogamy and nosexbeforemarriageorelse. Even better, complete abstinence for life. Paul recommended it, if I recall. I say he just couldn't get any, and so was pissed.
Oh, but want some fun? Check out Song of Solomon, or even better, some of the Christian Marriage books. They're extremely horny buggers, they just have to keep it within the boundaries of marriage.
Brave New World rocks. Yes... soma and orgy-porgies! Great stuff. Why bother keeping everyone in fear when you can make everyone happy? Sure, the lower castes are pretty much slaves, but they're happy, because they don't have to think. It's like a utopic dystopia.
The way I see, God or whoever or what you concieve the power of love and light within us all is very different from the religion that surrounds his/her/its image. So, religion often is simply a way of controlling people or making them fearful. Also, a lot of the Bible has been changed and reinterpreted and could I say manipulated by people, humans with particular agendas. If bits of the Bible don't ring true for you, don't try and reconcile them. Just don't worry about those bits. And if you want a bit of spiritual loving reading, you could try The Prophet, By Kahlil Gibran. Lots of beauty, love and compassion in there.
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