Raithere,
Genesis 3:14-19
The LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, Cursed are you more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you will go, And dust you will eat All the days of your life; And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel."
To the woman He said, "I will greatly multiply Your pain in childbirth, In pain you will bring forth children; Yet your desire will be for your husband, And he will rule over you."
Then to Adam He said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, 'You shall not eat from it'; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life. "Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will eat the plants of the field; By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return."
Those are direct consequences of their actions...
Why would the actions of Adam cause me to be predisposed to sin?
Because He rebelled against God and his spirit of rebellion passed through all the generation until you.
Then you need to work on how you express yourself because that is certainly what it sounded like:
I quoted A LOT of scriptures talking about that. ALl of them saying that we are not under the Law, but it still applies. Romans 6, for example. Besides, I wrote like that to stress the differneces between the New Testament and Old Testament. Many people believe that they have to ask for forgiveness every time over and over again.
I was raised Christian but no one seemed to have very good answers to some of the rather obvious questions I had so I had to study to find out the answers myself. I might add that the course of this study led to my current disbelief.
And what is your current belief?
The events after Jesus' death is another area (besides Paul's chapters) where I feel that the NT diverges wildly from anything the historic Jesus taught. You have to realize that tend to look at this from a secular viewpoint. While I realize that this is somewhat self-serving as an argument I believe I have a fairly good point. The accounts of what Jesus said after he rose seem to differ significantly from those before hand.
Like what? Quote the differences.
Again; where did Jesus say this? Why would he not preach this before his death but only afterwards?
Matthew 26:27-29
"27 And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you;
28 for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.
29 "But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father's kingdom." "
I have serious problems believing Paul. There are two reasons for this; One, he never met Jesus in the flesh. Two, the teachings that he attributes to Jesus sometimes contradict and are often quite divergent from the things Jesus taught during his life.
Quote the "contradictions" and I will explain them to you.
Faith and Works vs. Faith alone
1 Peter 1:17 "The Father, who without pariality judges according to each one's work."
Matthew 16:27 "For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works."
Ephesians 2:8-9"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast."
Yeah sure...:
Romans 10:8-10
"8 But what does it say? "THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART"--that is, the word of faith which we are preaching,
9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;
10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. "
1 Peter 1:6-9
"6 In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials,
7 so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ;
8 and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory,
9 obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls. "
If you believe you can be forgiven and you don't accept your forgiveness, your faith is pointless. Paul never preached faith alone.
Law vs Faith alone
Matthew 19:17 "If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments."
Matthew 5:19
"Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
Romans 3:28 "A man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law."
In the first tow, Jesus was speaking to the Jews, not to Christians (there weren't any Christians by then anyways...).
The death of Judas
Matthew 27:3
Then when Judas, who had betrayed Him, saw that He had been condemned, he felt remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, "I have sinned by betraying innocent blood." But they said, "What is that to us? See to that yourself!" And he threw the pieces of silver into the temple sanctuary and departed; and he went away and hanged himself.
Acts 1:16-18
"Brethren, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit foretold by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus. "For he was counted among us and received his share in this ministry." (Now this man acquired a field with the price of his wickedness, and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle and all his intestines gushed out.
Acts 9:7 "And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man."
Acts 22:9 "And they that were with me saw indeed the light, and were afraid; but they heard not the voice of him that spake to me."
I have to read all that carefully... I don't have time now...
The point is not so much the stressing of faith as that Paul almost completely dismisses the Law.
Reading only this scripture is enough to understand why Paul certainly doesn't dismiss the Law:
Romans 3:19-31
"19 Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God;
20 because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.
21 But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,
22 even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction;
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
24 being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;
25 whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed;
26 for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
27 Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith.
28 For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law.
29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also,
30 since indeed God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith is one.
31 Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law. "
