Since I have joined Armorgams . . .I see a lot of Atheists and their threads about why people believe in God etc . . . I wanted to start a thread about the bible and christianity.
The purpose of this thread is to debate a different book of the bible each week. We will discuss lessons, morals, and different stories.
We will have friendly debates. Please . . . if you are atheist or of other beliefs . . . you may discuss in this thread, just PLEASE no fighting, flaming, spamming, trolling . . . etc
This week we will begin from the beginning . . . .Genesis
Alt, We are not going against our religion for we are to follow the teachings and laws yes, but first off, following the old testament to a point is what the Pharasies did and Jesus condemned them for this. You must read both and be dicerning as to what has and has not been fulfilled along with what does and does not still apply to today's time. Food and things like that were ruled off because they were a health issue in that day and age and cooking it just a bit off would make them very sick and die. As for the laws about immorality and bestiality we still follow these rules as they are obviously still meant for today. The Israelites were not to marry with the Cannanites or outside of their own people. But we are not Israelites are we? We are not God's chosen people we are what are known as God's elect. In reading through the new testament we see that currently it is the time of the Gentiles (all none jews) to be saved as in the old testament God's grace was almost exclussively among His own people. Not everything still applies and you must rely on the Holy Spirit to dicern this. But you cannot because you have not.
Then Jesus contradicted himself for condemning the Pharisees - because in Matthew 5:17, he says to follow the Old Testament. Also, how are you supposed to know which rules to follow and which ones to disregard? You may be following all the wrong rules - you just don't know, and Jesus said to follow the Old Testament. By only partially following the Old Testament, you are going against what Jesus said - you're making pointless conjecture by not following all of them.
After all, isn't god's existence too complicated for any human to understand? How would you know which things he thinks are reasonable and which are not? If the new testament was meant to be it's own holy book that didn't recognize the old testament, it would be published *without* the old testament.
Of course that's the entire argument of the Emergent Church. I don't disregard the Old Testament but Jesus can to fulfill the Old Laws, I fell like he came to in a sense abolish them. Either way if I'm wrong I still ask forgiveness for my sins so I'm pretty sure I'm good then again I'm not entirely sure but you know.
I agree with you Samy. The Old Testament is there for us to learn the seriousness of sin to God the laws are just a symbol of how serious it is to Him. The old laws have been fulfilled and are, thus, deemed history now and there time is past.
If it doesn't say that in the Bible, it shouldn't be followed as part of the Christian religion. Because Christians follow the Bible.
Eh, Christians follow the teaching's of Jesus. I follow the bible to the best of my abilities and take the laws into account and decide which ones I feel are relevant. Maybe I'm wrong I don't know, the bibles and absolute truth unfortunatly we don't have absolute knowledge.
Exactly Samy! God has given us His word, and He has given us the Holy Spirit which helps us to dicern what we are still to follow and what not to follow.
Guess what? The part of the Bible that says to follow the Old Testament was in Matthew, which is what Jesus himself said. . .the teachings of Jesus. . .yeah. . . .
We can discern from the Holy Spirit what is still appropriate for us in the Old Testament. For example . . .The first 8 chapters in Leviticus tell us how to sacrifice cows, goats, sheep, birds etc to atone for sin or to ask for God's blessing. That, we don't have to follow anymore. Then Look at Leviticus 15, 17:10, 18, 19. They are all things, for the most part, still use for today.
We can discern from the Holy Spirit what is still appropriate for us in the Old Testament.
But my point is, that's just conjecture. Trying to hit a bullseye in a pitch-black room. You don't know which laws have been officially waived by God, so wouldn't it be best to so what Jesus said and follow the entire Old Testament?
If Leviticus is done, I would like to go back and discuss Revelation again, if that's o.k. with you guys. I feel like there is so much to discuss and that we didn't really discuss enough about it.
We can start with the Two Witnesses . . .I think it is a good indicator of the end times when they do show up. I also think it is cool how God gave them the power to breathe fire to protect themselves. Also, how they can keep rain from falling and how they can turn water into blood.
You don't know which laws have been officially waived by God, so wouldn't it be best to so what Jesus said and follow the entire Old Testament?
So you are saying we should still slaughter animals to atone for sin? No, Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice, therefore we don't need to do that anymore.
