Part 28 of Post Your Tough Questions Regarding Christianity

If they claim it is the true word of some god then yes it should be ignored.

I'm of the opinion that if an all knowing, all loving creator of this universe wanted to impart to it's creation the things it expects of it's creation it would use very direct language that can in no way be reinterpreted by fools who think their interpretation of the creators words is better than the words the creator chose in the first place.

 

Gullibility is believing what you are told by some self proclaimed zealot simply because they spent years practicing theological interpretation masturbation.

Not being gullible would be admitting there is more evidence from numerous sources against the one and only chosen source some use to create their version of truth and or reality.

 

It is clearly a parable even if it was based on a factual event, because it is making the point about true charity irrespective of religion.

If a verse states something which is symbolic, the idea comes from ancient usage of the symbols which have pretty much remained the same as we find in the Symbolic Dictionary.
We also need symbolism for ideas which otherwise have never been defined or known when the ancient Bible was written.
And things which we KNOW are impossible, like men living for 900 years, for instance, are also clearly hints to metaphorical ideas which the ancient people would never have fathomed, while they DID accept the incredible idea a men living unbelievably long times.

The Language Art of the bible is not strange nor unusual.

 

?
Jewish Tradition is not scriptural but Kabbalah, of the spiritual understandings of the ancient Jews from 800 BC until 32AD, when Jesus appeared.
To dismiss that Kabbalah while pretending to an existing Kabbalah without this Seven Miracles of Elijah is just lying to oneself.

 

There are no things in scripture which require gullibility, but many things ignorant readers or gay/atheist people try to make difficult so they can attack the scriptures in general.

 

What if they claim Truth is the word from Reality which says truth is the son of Reality?
What if they say Truth is the image of Reality, an ideal??

What if the Creator IS reality, which unfolds from second to second, with Truth born in its wake???

Is that a lie?

 

If it's based on a factual event it's not a Parable. Why does 'because it is making the point about true charity irrespective of religion' make it a parable.
I could tell you how my friend did 'such and such', and then say why he did it. The event happened and my friend acted in a certain way because .......

 

They definitely teach about separation of yourself from others. This is part of the second phase of indoctrination.

First is the fear factor. (If they question, reject, or simply do not believe teachings in some holy book they will be tortured for eternity in the afterlife)

Those that internalize this idea, really believe that it is true, are deeply affected psychologically on a subconscious level.
The subconscious has an effect on the conscious that the adherent is not aware of.

The subconscious is triggered when the adherent comes across ideas, that conflict with cult doctrine. The adherent becomes consciously averse to such ideas, often having a physical reaction. Their minds then start to work overtime trying to deny, refute, or shut these ideas out as accepting these ideas means the worst possible thing the mind can imagine - torture in hell for eternity.

The adherent is not yet been turned into a genocidal lunatic but the first and very important step in the process has been taken.

The next step is to turn some authority figure, Pope, Imam, local pastor into a messianic leader of sorts. It is a short step from not questioning "The Book" to not questioning the leader's interpretation of the book.

How often do we hear extremist evangelical Pastors using phrases like "God says this, God says that". I said to my son one time when passing a sign on outside a church (God says - something in relation to abortion) "hey son, look at that, I wonder of God sat down with those folks the other day and told them his thoughts on abortion.

The leader assumes a position of speaking for God.

The third step is to create a black vs white, good vs evil, God vs Devil, paradigm and further ramp up the fear actor. Cult doctrine is Good, the words of the leader are Good, our group is Good..... anything that contradicts or questions cult doctrine is evil. Those that do not believe are "lost", demonized and ostracised from the group.

"Your either with us or against us" This demonization of people who do not accept cult doctrine is key. Those who question or reject cult doctrine do so because they are under the influence of Satan or demons. These people have in effect become dehumanized and their worth diminished in the eyes of the adherents.

The fear factor is then ramped up further. The leader talks of "Spiritual Warfare" Life on earth is a constant struggle against the powers of darkness. The Devil is around every corner trying to trick you. Better to worry about gaining one's place I the afterlife than one's life on earth, and so on.

This is a war against Satan an anything done in that war against Satan becomes justified including killing the agents of Satan = anyone who disagrees with or rejects cult doctrine.

Another part of ramping up the fear factor is often some apocalyptic threat. God will come to destroy the earth and this is going to happen soon. The adherents need not worry as they will avoid this terrible fate "rapture", or be compensated for their efforts in the afterlife.

This was a fairly brief summary of the basics of some sophisticated mind control techniques and how normal people can be induced to believe that killing others in the name of God/beliefs can be justified.

 

There are a number of prophets mentioned. None of them are named Jesus (unless I am wrong...) until, perhaps, Michael.

 

Of course much of Jewish 'tradition' is not scriptural. Stick to scripture. Kabbala is so-called 'esoteric' knowledge. It is found not just in Judaism. If you want to believe in mysticism and ecstatical explanations, please do so. Secret, revealed knowledge. Rather like Gnosticism.

 

Immanuel...or Jesus?

Well...I looked at the first one and it is not a prophecy, but an actual curse actively being placed on mankind. Further, it is not about Jesus. This makes 59.

I did not bother with the rest...

The next one is 7:14. This talks about a man being born of a virgin. It also says he will be called Immanuel.

At this point, you might be saying, well, it's obvious that Jesus is Immanuel. However, when you put that particular part of the Bible into context, you get Isaiah 7 Verse 13 - 17...

Which says that these things that are mentioned are supposed to happen at or around the time of the King of Assyria. There are other parts of the Bible were it has been shown that the prophecy never seemed to have "the distant future" in mind when making it's calculations, but much like many modern doomcryers, it is supposed to happen relatively soon and the actors or agents of this prophecy are usually relevant to that time period. If you want to stretch it, I suppose you cn say the King of Saudi Arabia- in as much as you want to stretch that the King of Saudi Arabia (since part of Assyria is on modern Saudi Arabia) is an actual King...

I then looked at the next one which is similar to the first and I stopped there...

 

Everything in scripture is gay and requires gullibility. In fact I'm pretty sure Jesus was gay as he never married and spent all his time hanging out with 12 other men.

Care to cast any other aspersions?

 

I am not aware of any of the major Christian groups "Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox" or denominations within those groups that do not accept the Trinity doctrine as given at the council of Nicene.

Jesus is claimed to be "homoousios" "one substance" with the Father. To people of that time - based on Greek philosophy and this was the science of the day- there were only two types of substances. That of which God was made and that of which everything else was made man, earth , trees, water, and so on.

Most Christians likely have little or no clue what they are saying when they recite the creed but most have some understanding that Jesus and God are connected by more than a father and son relationship aka - the Trinity.

In short - Jesus "is" God

In other words, it was Jesus that was doing the things attributed to God in the OT. It was Jesus that was commanding the Israelites to slaughter whole towns, kill children, babies and pregnant women.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but it is what it is.

 

Then I would reciprocate their word salad with just as much nonsensical word salad as they first demonstrated...

It would look something like this; Reality is the truth which reveals the son who's image claimed an ideal and concealed it's self in a word!

See how I'm just as good as you in this irrelevant nonsense, you are not helping your cause any you are simply confirming the notion that you're out of your league here.

Even your fellow christians on this thread keep correcting you!

No it's more word salad... here let me correct you

Reality is from second to second born from unfolding the creator which IS wake and truth!

Yeah me... I can make word salad too!!!!!

 

Did you know that the Congress Critters adopted the Noahide Laws?

 

Notice that Isaiah is trying to force his God on other people. That's one of the major aims of religions = worship my God or die!

 

If it was LITERALLY true, but had a message related to morals, then it was a factual story with a moral instructive.
But if it was not literal, it was a parable.

 

The Ten Commandments are found in Exodus chapter 34. Not lying is not one of them.

 

Yes,...

The 10 tribes had just be "lost" from the Kingdom of Ephraim.
Isaiah was warning the kingdom of Judah that the Babylonian captivity was just around the corner, and yes,... almost all of the Jews remaining were about to die.

 

What about Exodus 20:16.... Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

 

That's a law; it's not one of the Ten Commandments that was written on the stone tablets and identified as being part of the Ten Commandments as the items in Exodus chapter 34 are.

 

Isaiah 53 is about Israel as the adult Lamb that would be offered in burned sacrifice during the Holocaust, and also about Jesus as the messiah ben Joseph, in 32AD.

These two tales were prophesied in Gen 22, when the lamb of God was saved from death at the last second, but replaced y the adult Ram of Israel which also is just saved at the last second too.

 

They were always changing the number and names of the tribes but they tried to keep it at twelve. They kicked one of the Egyptian tribes to the curb.

 

I know I certainly didn't say the conversation was about GraspingforPeace.