I'm curious what the message in the Bible is to you?

by blueviceroy 28 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Gopher

  belief of anykind fundamentaly points in the general direction of what is there ,sort of. But it hides entirely the clarity needed for a complete understanding that any human anywhere is capable of at any time.

  There is such a confusion of beliefs -- how can "belief" point in any general direction. Beliefs point all different directions, all over the map.

  Unproven beliefs, when enforced as part of organized religion or society, set society back. Religion halts the progress of science and interferes in education and politics. People "believed" the earth is the center of the universe. They "believed" evolution science to be a work of the devil. They "believed" that the Bible teaches 'blacks are a cursed race'. They believe homosexuality is a cursed way for humans to express love.

  The number of "beliefs" that are irrational and downright hateful just rings in my ears.

  Once belief stops, rationality, logic and reasoning can begin.
• 

  jaguarbass

  We all have our own understanding of the christian belief , but I was wondering what others interpret the stories as .

  And if it isn't what guides your journey what does?

  I have read the bible cover to cover 5 times after leaving the wactower. 3 of the times I read the Life application bible by tyndale. 2 times I read the King James. I was praying back in those days and asked for understanding. I made notes and then analyzed my notes. I had no bias or preconcieved idea when I started reading and making notes.I am no longer a bible believer but this is what the notes told me.

  Life is like a book that has been writen. Or its like a movie that we are watching. Each one of us is here to play a part. Some of us got good parts and some of us got bad parts. But life is predistined and god is in control. When good happens god is in control, when bad happens god is in control. God even controls the debil. That is the predominant theme that repeats over and over in the scriptures. Predestination.

  There is even a Christian religion that teaches the message of the bible, Calvinism. It's not very popular or lucrative. Religion is a money making enterprise and if you cant buy or sell your way to heaven or favor you got a hard road to hoe.

  Also the god of the bible has a lot of bipolar personality disorder going on, and when he gets upset he wrecks his toys.

  Contradicting themes are: whatso ever you ask from god he will give you. You can try that one out and see that it doesnt fly. Or you dont understand the meaning of whatsoever.

  What soever means what ever.

  The bible is a book of contradictions and errors.

  http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=list+of+bible+contradictions&btnG=Google+Search

  Apparently written buy a lot of guys who didnt know each other or what the other had written, or by a very confused diety.

  So since the bible doesnt guide my journey what does. Budweiser, actually Icehouse.

  I have no guide. My first 31 years in the wac tower I had a blind guide, that wasn't cool.

  The next 15 years I read and studied the bible went to church some watched a lot of bible tv made notes and voi·là I got to where I am today.

  If your looking for something to guide you check out the desidirata.

  I made it to 55, I can tell you this. Make a lot of money, more than you can spend. Money is a protection from the evils of this world.

  Whoever tells you money cant buy happiness isnt spending it right or doesnt have any. When you make and save enough money you have your freedom. Freedom to come and go when you want. And even if money cant buy happiness. I'd rather be sad and depressed with a thousand dollars in my pocket than sad and depressed with nothing in my pocket. Do the math.

  Get out of debt and stay out of debt. Pay cash for everything. Thats a good way to beat the system.

  Learn how to fix things, know how and why your car runs and how to repair it. Buy the best, most popular car so theres lots of them for parts and you can find people who can tell you how to fix them. The last I checked the most popular car in the world was the toyota corolla.http://www.automotoportal.com/article/Top_5_Worlds_Most_Successful_Cars_Ever

  Dont watch tv. Do you remember what you watched on tv 2 nights ago. If you dont and you keep watching tv your whole life will become a blank. Thats how they control you. And the world.

  Be selective on how much of the newspaer you read. Most of its negative and depressing. But you do need to know whats going on locally and nationally. Thats a tricky one. How much do you need to know to make your life better?

  Stay out of jail, its not a nice place they keep the lights on all night and people talk and you cant sleep well.

  Do unto others as you would have them do to you.

  You can believe in God if you want, but your dog will still die and your parents and your friends and then you. Just live long enough youll see.

  Success is preparation meeting opportunity.
• 

  *summer*

  Right now, I am at a confused stage {to say the least} about the message in the Bible...
• 

  Pioneer Spit...oh, i mean Spirit

  Great topic.

  After some thought, I view the bible as an evil tool to divide families and people. We have laws, wherever we live, that tell us what is acceptable behavior and they are enforceable, easy stuff for the majority--stealing, murder, driving while buzzed, trepassing. They are written to protect people from harm by other people.

  The bible however condemns me for the way I think and what I feel and what I desire to do with my life.
• 

  Hortensia

  Lots of fiction has some useful nuggets of wisdom. The bible is just fiction, written by men who made god in their own image as Skeeter said. It has some useful advice, but mostly is a load of you-know-what.
• 

  Blueblades

  jaguarbasswe are connected, what you wrote mirrors my thinking. I too read the Bible five times,different versions and came to the same conclusions. Money$$$ is important, without it you are locked down, with it you are free to go and do what you want. I made it to 62 and spent over 33 years in the Watchtower. I'm free and trying to recover from all the money and opportunities that the Watchtower took from my life.

  Good response to this topic

  Blueblades
• 

  free2beme

  The Bible to me, is a regional history book mixed with a lot of Myths of the region. In the end, it is preachy and often controlling and judgemental. Over all, it is a tool used more in hatred and war, then any bullet or sword and killed more people then any weapon ever made.
• 

  moshe

  The Hebrew Bible/OT is an semi-fictionalized account combining oral tradition into a wtitten history of the Jewish people. Lacking a knowledge of science caused the writers to attribute the events happening to them to an Invisible God- The Greek part of the Bible is another semi-fictionalized account of the life and death of Jesus and the founding of a religion that followed the sayings of Jesus. The followers of this religion, called Christians, are still stubbornly waiting for Jesus to return, as he promised he would almost 2000 years ago.
• 

  OnTheWayOut

  The bible is a work of art like the Odyssey or Moby Dick.

  In some ways, it is a work of art.
  I personally think it started out as an "encouragement" book for the Jews captive in Babylon.
  The Bible did not exist before their time, the stories did. So someone put the stories together
  to make the Jews remember that they are a people together.

  The priests of Yahweh [or whatever you prefer to call him] were a minor faction up until they
  were allowed to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. Yahweh was just one God, probably a
  favorite for David as Yahweh was a god of war, David was a throne usurper (Warrior King.)
  The priests saw the opportunity to expand their power at that time. They wrote that the
  Jews used to have a glorious law that Moses got from Yahweh, and the people used to
  have a grand temple and brought glorious sacrifices to that temple. They made David and
  Moses and the judges bigger than life in their editing of the Bible stories. Many of the stories
  they edited praised the King of the Jews. Since the stories were of a past king, they either
  changed the name of the king in some stories, or totally removed it, thus praising WISDOM
  or the expected Messiah. (Yes, I am over-simplifying this. Would you read my post if I
  was able to type all the details involved?)

  I contend that not a single Jew ever lived under the law code in all the days before their
  captivity to Babylon. I contend that craftsmen built the Egyptian empire and the Jews were
  never slaves in Egypt. (There is much proof, but Christianity chooses to ignore it.)
  Moses was a myth or a legend as was the conquest of the land of Israel and the stories of
  the Judges. I contend that David was a minor king of a minor nation that was still fairly minor
  centuries later. I contend that the priests wrote the law in such a way to control the people,
  making it complicated enough so that you needed them to interpret some of it. Even then, it
  would be likened to all the rules of the Catholic Church- hardly any Catholics really obey all of it,
  but they would make confession regularly. Jews could never follow the law code, so they would
  make sacrifices. The priests enjoyed the sacrifices. They wrote the dietary restrictions according
  to the common diet of the Jews of the time. They allowed what most people ate, and
  disallowed what most people never ate anyway, but they threw in a few that would possibly get
  violated so that the people would have to sacrifice over their sins. I doubt any married man cared
  if he was considered unclean after having sex with his wife, and it seems that many rich men
  took the young wives of their father upon his death, regardless of what the priests of Yahweh said.

  Jesus was a smart guy. He knew the Jewish books very well. He tried to start some kind
  of dissent against Rome and was crucified. His followers either had to make a martyr out
  of him, or go back to work. Guess which one they did. They wrote fantastic stories about
  Jesus, and these were shortly thereafter heavily edited by the church. They chose which
  books to keep and which ones to ditch. A couple of the ditched ones survived to confuse
  the faithful today, but it was so long ago that Church promotion of Jesus has been highly
  successful.

  Still, intelligent men put much thought into the Bible and tried to put morality into it.
  Unfortunately, many of those men thought little of the value of women and figured it was okay to
  own slaves. Their morality had to be intermixed with a message of obedience and giving to
  the temple/church.

  I intend to think more of others than myself, but spend a great deal of effort on myself, too.
  I intend to live by my own developed sense of morality. If I am wrong about all I said above,
  why would the God of Jesus destroy me if I lived by morality? If the Jews were right, then
  why would I want to live to serve a God who instill all those rules?