Sometimes when I play the devil adovacate and play the pros and cons of the bible as it is I often wonder what if the bible really does support homosexuality, premarital sex, masturbation, and other things believers "cringe" at the thought of. Maybe Jesus really only taught us to love people and not spend so much time debating religion. I know some "evagelical christians" that have so much "hate" in their hearts against others that don't believe as they do it makes you wonder where is the christian love? I just cannot believe Jesus would hate Jews, Catholics, Mormons, JWs and other religions that don't follow the fundermentalist interpretation of the bible. He would look at the person's heart and not so much how they interpret the scriptures. The bible is suppose to make us change our ways and try to live christlike. So much energy is used debating the bible. I hope that when Jehovah and Jesus do decide to end the world they will look at my heart and accept me as any parent would accept their child.
Have you ever wondered if the bible has been totally "rewritten" and the real message Jesus taught was love.
by booker-t 8 Replies latest watchtower bible
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FlyingHighNow
1 John 4:8 and 1 Corinthians 13:4-8. Weigh every scripture against these two. If it isn't based on love, it doesn't wash.
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Diest
Good thinking. Look closer and you will really start to see how the bible was added to and amended. No NT manuscript exists before 150 AD, yet we are suposed to be impressed by Jesus saying Jerusalem will be destroyed in 70 AD. I can do that too. Let me write about 9/11 today and pretend I wrote it in the 70s.
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Glander
I was always impressed with the idea that the New Test. was written long after the events in the gospels.
Rewritten is sort of a misnomer. It was re-remembered to start with under the influence of heresay and legend plus the influence of the writers contempory awareness that this thing had legs and who's to say them nay when they decide that Jesus resurrected Lazarus ?
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Nambo
I like to think all the laws and condemnations of the Bible are there to make us realise what undeserving sinners we are, so that when we find we are saved by Gods grace, we Love him for his mercy.
Surely the only thing God cannot create or force is our Love for him, it can only be earned by his actions towards us.
Without the knowledge of how unworthy we are and deserving of death, we would be just like the JWs who are so perfect and do so much field service that God owes them everlasting life, they are going to miss out on gratitude if they feel they have nothing to be gratefull for.
Jesus said the miserable sinner was more righteous than those who felt they where allready righteous enough.
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transhuman68
It's impossible to take the Bible out of its original context and time period, and say that it really conforms to our politically correct ideals. Of course, the Bible has been re-written: Mark's was the first Gospel, and the other three Gospels (Matthew, Luke, John) are more or less copies of it. But men wrote the Bible; and they had their motives for including or excluding every story they told. Without a time-machine to go back to the 1st century we have no idea what Jesus really said, or meant- but maybe it doesn't matter anyway.
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mP
@trans
Of course, the Bible has been re-written: Mark's was the first Gospel, and the other three Gospels (Matthew, Luke, John) are more or less copies of it
MP -> Trans:
Not quite, Mark is the first gospel in our bibles, but there are literallty dozens and dozens of gospels with different messags and points of view. The religious writers in those days were certainly a creative lot. When we realise that Mark was not the first, it because more obvious that lots of evolution was involved. Who was the first , we will never know, as over time more an dmore interesting gospels are found.
This all reminds me of the dead sea scrolls. No christian religion ever discusses or publishes their contents, simply put because they show evolution and changes in theology at work. AFter that we have the Nag Hammadi (Sp) text and many many others.
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Phizzy
It has long been my hope that a contemporaneous writing at least of Jesus' teaching , if not also his doings , surfaces that sheds light on his actual teaching.
He had a huge effect on the people of his day no doubt, but no doubt too that as a figure he was hi-jacked by people like the writer/s of "Matthew" who had an agenda far different from Jesus' own.
By the time of the writing of the Gospels that we have in the Canon ,( chosen by the Roman Church in the late 300's AD), and certainly by the time of the writing of Acts and Luke there was not a unified Jesus Cult, but the Myth or Mythos was growing, the sects and schisms had started.
The Christology of Paul probably bears little relation to the teaching of the Historical Jesus, so Paul was creating a myth too.
If such a writing of Jesus actual words were to surface, I do hope the "Christians" don't get hold of it, they would be sure to destroy or at least suppress it, for it would ruin their hold on their flocks, a bit more than did the translation of the Bible into the vernacular.
I hope it goes first to true scholars of such works. I have a horrible feeling that such a work existed and the Church got rid of it.
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OnTheWayOut
It was disguised as fiction, but actually the man known as Jesus was a Buddhist who never really died for a completely different reason than any connection with the spirit world. He just happened to be immortal, he could be killed but it isn't easy. Not something weird like Highlander, but something that actually makes sense.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=lVMhEAI3pvg
2007’s The Man From Earth, the story centers on John Oldman, a college professor who, during a party with some friends, makes the bizarre claim that he is immortal. He explains that he was born in Cro-Magnon times, but never aged, and that for 10,000 years he has been walking the Earth, moving every five years so that no one will catch on to his secret. His friends are understandably skeptical, but they are willing to play along with what they think is a game, and what follows is a lengthy dialogue on the nature of time, knowledge, and aging that never ceases to be fascinating.