What is the overall message of Christianity? With so many contradictions in it, the Bible cannot be read literally, so how can we tell what the overall message of the damn thing is?
Originally posted by one_raven
1.) Humans have dominion over the planet.
2.) Women are inferior and should be submissive to men.
3.) No matter what you do you are bad, evil worthless crap (because of original sin that had nothing to do with YOU) so you should be eternally grateful to Jesus since anything good you go comes through him.
4.) Because of number 3, pride is a horrible sin since it take away from what Jesus should be proud about.
5.) If you are suffering in pain in this life to such an extent that you can no longer bear life and kill yourself, you will not be comforted in the afterlife, you will continue to suffer for eternity.
6.) Everyone is equal, but some people are ignorant and stupid so need help to understand that they are wrong and need to be saved by converting them to Christianty (even if it takes torture and murder).
7.) All science is bullshit, since it was discovered by feeble human minds that are unable to understand the ways of God... Except of course if teh science SUPPORT what the Bible says, then it's brilliant.
8.) The Bible is the word of the God almighty and should be taken literally... Except where it should be taken as metaphor.
9.) All other religions (oder and newer) are crap, even though Christianity was based on these religions in an effort to build a religion that will appeal to the masses and keep the power within the Roman empire through the shameless process of blatant self-serving syncretism.
10.) I am going to Hell.
Did I miss anything?
Originally posted by Cris
If the message is from God then it is -
Do as I command or I will torture you for eternity.
Originally posted by one_raven
1.) Humans have dominion over the planet.....
From a PM I just sent someone:Originally posted by Zack_Kinney
Um... about # 2. Are you sure that is the case? Or is it just YOUR OWN justification to show how bible doesn't make sense in that God created women later than men. When Eve was created out of Adam, it shows that they need one another, that "oneness" as one calls it.
What gender are the people in Heaven? God? Male. Jesus? Male. The angels who visited Lot? Male. And what of all the storied figures, such as Noah, Abraham, David, Solomon, Joshua, Samson, and Gideon? Hmmm ... male. Who came first? Adam, a male (Eve was created because he needed a "helper"). What about Jesus' 12 disciples? All male. The "Angel of the LORD" who runs around wreaking havoc, and who David saw poised over Jerusalem with sword in hand in 1 Chronicles 21? Male. In the Bible, females almost always hold positions of subservience; men take them at will and lord over them.
Timothy 2:11-14 (NIV): A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner.
1 Peter 3:5-6 (NIV): For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful. They were submissive to their own husbands, like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her master.
Numbers 31:14-18 (NIV): Moses was angry with the officers of the army--the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds--who returned from the battle. "Have you allowed all the women to live?" he asked them. "They were the ones who followed Balaam's advice and were the means of turning the Israelites away from the LORD in what happened at Peor, so that a plague struck the LORD's people. Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man."
Judges 21:12-22 (NIV): They found among the people living in Jabesh Gilead four hundred young women who had never slept with a man ... So the Benjamites returned at that time and were given the women of Jabesh Gilead who had been spared. But there were not enough for all of them ... the elders of the assembly said, "With the women of Benjamin destroyed, how shall we provide wives for the men who are left? The Benjamite survivors must have heirs," they said," so that a tribe of Israel will not be wiped out ... But look, there is the annual festival of the LORD in Shiloh, to the north of Bethel, and east of the road that goes from Bethel to Shechem, and to the south of Lebonah. So they instructed the Benjamites, saying, "Go and hide in the vineyards and watch. When the girls of Shiloh come out to join in the dancing, then rush from the vineyards and each of you seize a wife from the girls of Shiloh and go to the land of Benjamin. When their fathers or brothers complain to us, we will say to them, "Do us a kindness by helping them, because we did not get wives for them during the war ..."
Judges 19:24 (NIV): Look, here is my virgin daughter, and his concubine. I will bring them out to you now, and you can use them and do to them whatever you wish. But to this man, don't do such a disgraceful thing ... the man took his concubine and sent her outside to them, and they raped her and abused her throughout the night, and at dawn they let her go. At daybreak the woman went back to the house where her master was staying, fell down at the door and lay there until daylight. When her master got up in the morning and opened the door of the house and stepped out to continue on his way, there lay his concubine, fallen in the doorway of the house, with her hands on the threshold. He said to her, "Get up; let's go." But there was no answer. Then the man put her on his donkey and set out for home. When he reached home, he took a knife and cut up his concubine, limb by limb, into twelve parts and sent them into all the areas of Israel.
Isaiah 3:12-17 (NIV): Youths oppress my people, women rule over them. O my people, your guides lead you astray; they turn you from the path ... The LORD says, "The women of Zion are haughty, walking along with outstretched necks, flirting with their eyes, tripping along with mincing steps, with ornaments jingling on their ankles. Therefore the Lord will bring sores on the heads of the women of Zion; the LORD will make their scalps bald."
You are guilty of sin from birth because of Original Sin.Originally posted by Zack_Kinney
# 3... Again, that ignorance and nescience of yours are too much to bear. It is not that anything good we do is necessarily bad, but nothing compared to HIs holiness and Goodness. It's like a criminal giving you a cup filled with dirty water and saying "oh look how good and righteous I am."
The seven deadly sins:Originally posted by Zack_Kinney
# 4... Wrong terminology. Not "pride" but arrogance. Pride and arrogance are of different degree.
And if you are in so much pain that you can no longer bear life, then you will be punished for an eternity.Originally posted by Zack_Kinney
# 5.... This is purely based on which side you are on. If you are a Christian, you'd see suicide as morally wrong because you believe that God gave you life and He's the only one that should take it away.
In the history of the world, more people have dies by the hands of Christians in the name of God than ANY OTHER REASON.Originally posted by Zack_Kinney
# 6.... What a blatant interpretation.
No, not my ignorance, Christians' ignorance to sciance nature and reasoning.Originally posted by Zack_Kinney
# 7.... That's your own overgeneralization, perhaps caused by your own nescience. Please, learn to set the boundaries correctly.
And who is to say what is obvious?Originally posted by Zack_Kinney
# 8.... Well, some of the passages are so obviously literal and some of them are obviously metaphorical. This deals with Kantian thought, empirical absolutism and transcendental relativism. This one was actually pretty good. not bad.
History.Originally posted by Zack_Kinney
# 9... Where did you get this junk? I think your brain is filled with worthless junk yourself. Syncretism? Perhaps you are rather referring to Christianity in Axum. Bah. Nice try there.
Originally posted by eddie monkey
Can we get an explaination that doesn't bash the religion or prostlitize it either?
'Originally posted by Cris
If the message is from God then it is -
Do as I command or I will torture you for eternity.
What are you talking about?Originally posted by eddie monkey
one, can you provide a less biased, less bitter reply?
Overall Message of Christianity?
God message is: If you are not like me, you won't want to be in my midst. I'm Love, joy and peace. If you seek those things, you will find Me. If you seek misery, hate and sadness, you will receive it, not from Me, but from the one that is opposed to Me. I give only life. No death comes from Me. But the one oposed to Me (Satan) who is everything that I am not will give you those things, if you want them. It is your choice. Knock and the door shall be opened. Seek and you shall find. Whatever you want, that you will receive.Do as I command or I will torture you for eternity.
God did NOT ordain those things. Men did them by their own. And for some scriptures you MUST go back to the greek, because the Catholic church screwed up with all the verse about women. There is one that they clearly took out a part of it, because of what it said. It is this one:From a PM I just sent someone:
Originally posted by TruthSeeker
John 15:17
"17 "This I command you, that you love one another."
John 13:35
"35 "By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." "
1 John 4:7-8
"7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. "
1 John 4:12
"12 No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. "
1 John 4:16
"16 We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him."
John 15:12
"12 "This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. "
God does not condemn us. The enemy does. And we do ourselves. The world condemns itself.You are guilty of sin from birth because of Original Sin.
I don't think so...We can NEVER live up to Jesus' example no matter how good we live.
God does not condemn us. And we do need supervision. Just look at how messed up we are nowdays...We are lowly creatures that need constant supervision and relentless condemnation.
First, where it is written those "seven deadly sins"?The Seven Deadly Sins all go against the grain of human nature.
True.Not a single person can live an entire life without experiencing some (or ALL) of these emotions.
True.It is not the acting upon them that is is sin, it is simply experiencing them.
True.It is impossible for a human beiong to NOT sin according to these rules.
# 3... Again, that ignorance and nescience of yours are too much to bear. It is not that anything good we do is necessarily bad, but nothing compared to HIs holiness and Goodness. It's like a criminal giving you a cup filled with dirty water and saying "oh look how good and righteous I am."
They weren't following God's will. Look at Bush today. He says: "I'm a Christian. I follow God's will. God bless America."The above quotes tell humans to love one another, but what about the contant demands by God the the Jews kill neighboring tribes in the Old Testament?
Hell is simply the absence of God.1) Why is there so much talk about hell in the "good news"
It depends on wheter you believe in what He said or not. If you believe in Him, you are able to receive what He promised for you, but if you don't believe He has a gift for you, how can you receive it if you don't first believe He is giving it to you?2) Jesus was sent to save the world from its sins, but people can still go to hell because of their sins. How is this so?
He wants everyone in. When Jesus talked about the narrow gate, He was talking to the Jews, because the Jews HAD to follow the Law to become like Him and rest in His presence. When Jesus came, He provided it for us, as long as we receive it. If we say: "no, I don't want that", then you won't receive it: your choice. He is putting it in your hands. "Here, everlasting life for you." If you throw it away, it is your won choice.3) If god wants everyone to enter heaven why does he let so few in? Remember that few are going down the straight and narrow path
4.) Because of number 3, pride is a horrible sin since it take away from what Jesus should be proud about.
# 4... Wrong terminology. Not "pride" but arrogance. Pride and arrogance are of different degree.
The seven deadly sins:
NUMBER ONE: Pride
2: Avarice/Greed
3: Envy
4: Wrath/Anger
5: Lust
6: Gluttony
7: Sloth
Again, NUMBER ONE is PRIDE.
It is a sin to experience pride.