The Bible is a Deck of Cards

IslandWoman

There are a variety of playing cards and a variety of games to play with them.

The Bible's canon was selected with as much care and selfish intent as the makers of playing cards have when choosing their particular design or theme.

The "Hebrew" canon was decided by a nation comdemned by Jesus. They picked the design.

The "Christian Greek" canon was decided by men who had left the teachings of the Christ. They also picked the design.

The whole thing is a sad joke. A kissing up to the asses of men!

It is not real, it's just a sad game. Many people play the chronology numbers in the Bible, they just as well might benefit from playing the Lotto! The U.S. Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776, so!? Is there some mystical meaning to that date? NO! It's the same with ancient Israel, they did this or that, so!? There is no mystical meaning!

IW

Introspection

My momma always said, life is like a box of chocolates...

IslandWoman

Intro,

She was right. It's just that the Bible makes people believe life is a win/win situation if you buy into it's penny ante game.

IW

aChristian

IW,

You wrote: The Bible's canon was selected with ... selfish intent. ... The "Hebrew" canon was decided by a nation condemned by Jesus. ... The "Christian Greek" canon was decided by men who had left the teachings of the Christ.

What you fail to remember is that God has often used men with "selfish intent" who were fully opposed to His will to accomplish His will. Do you remember a pagan king of Babylon by the name of Nebuchadnezzar? For purely selfish reasons, because Judah's kings had not been paying Babylon its regular tribute payments which Babylon demanded from all less powerful nations in its part of the world, Nebuchadnezzar sent his armies to Jerusalem, completely looted its royal treasury and Temple, totally destroyed that city and then took all the residents of the land of Judah as captives to Babylon.

Yet God repeatedly called this very selfish, very pagan king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, His "servant." (Jer. 25:9; 27:6; 43:10) Why? Because God was able to use the very selfishly motivated, and very ungodly motivated, actions of Nebuchadnezzar to accomplish His purpose. In that case Gods purpose was to punish the people of Israel.

But with this in mind, I am firmly convinced that God was able to use, and did use, the very selfishly motivated, and very ungodly motivated, actions of various men at the time the the Old and New Testament cannons were being compiled to accomplish His will. I believe His will at those times was for those men to put together into one book the collection of writings we now call "the Bible."

You wrote: Many people play the chronology numbers in the Bible.

In regard to the Bible cannon which we now possess, I find it quite interesting that our Bible is composed of 70 books. ( The Psalms were originally written and compiled into five separate books and they remain so divided in all Bibles today. "Book 1," "Book 2," "Book 3," "Book 4" and "Book 5." The five books of Psalms along with the Bible's other 65 books makes 70. ) As you may know, the Bible often uses the number 70 to denote spiritual completeness. With this in mind, the fact that our Bible contains 70 books may be a good indication that the Bible cannon which we now posses contains all of the books God Himself wanted it to contain, no more and no less. However, this number never had anything to do with which books "men" chose to include in the Bible cannon. They never added books for the purpose of arriving at the number 70. Neither did they ever remove books from the Bible cannon in order to reduce their number to 70.

I hope you all is well with you.

Mike

Satanus

Achristian

A deck of cards has 52. It's been like that for a long time, therefore it must have been god's will that there be 52. There are also 52 weeks in a year. A card for each week, see... ummm ?

SS

aChristian

SS,

Comparing the fact that the Bible, which uses the number 70 to symbolize spiritual completeness, ended up also containing 70 books to the fact that the number of cards in a deck is the same as the number of weeks in a year, is hardly a similar comparison. For the number of cards in a deck has no intellectual connection to the number of weeks in a year. And even if it did, it is possible that the solitary person who first created a deck of playing cards may have based its number of cards on the number of weeks in a year.

However, the number 70 is clearly used in the Bible in relation to the spiritual completion of things. (For instance, Daniel 9: 24-27 tells us that the Messiah's work of bringing righteousness to mankind would be complete after "70 weeks.") And the number of books our Bibles now contain was determined over a period of almost 2,000 years through many debates between thousands of men, men who never discussed adding books to the Bible cannon, or removing them from the Bible cannon, in order to create a Bible which would contain a previously determined or previously desired number of books.

So for the eventual total number of books in the completed Bible cannon to have ended up at 70, when that same number is used in the Bible itself many times to picture spiritual completeness, is quite remarkable.

funkyderek

So for the eventual total number of books in the completed Bible cannon to have ended up at 70, when that same number is used in the Bible itself many times to picture spiritual completeness, is quite remarkable.

But the way they're normally counted, they number 66, 6 being a number representing imperfection or evil, used twice to show that both testaments are incomplete. Even more remarkable!

--
"Theology is never any help; it is searching in a dark cellar at midnight for a black cat that isn't there. Theologians can persuade themselves of anything." -Robert A. Heinlein

aChristian

Yes, what you have pointed out makes the number of books in the Bible "even more remarkable." For it appears that, even in this small matter pertaining to His word, God has as usual revealed the truth of things to those who are willing to see it and also presented things in a way in which His critics can find fault. By God frequently presenting things in this way He gives all people who are truly searching for Him the oportunity to find Him, while also giving all people who wish to reject Him the opportunity to do so.

Some see the Bible as being a "perfect and righteous" 70 books, since Psalms was originally written as five "books" and remains so divided in all Bibles today. While others, on the other hand, see it as an "imperfect and evil" 66 books, by counting the five books of Psalms as one book.

As you say, "Even more remarkable."

patio34

I agree IW. It's also like a fiddle that can be made to play any tune.

Pat

funkyderek

, God has as usual revealed the truth of things to those who are willing to see it and also presented things in a way in which His critics can find fault. By God frequently presenting things in this way He gives all people who are truly searching for Him the oportunity to find Him, while also giving all people who wish to reject Him the opportunity to do so.

So your god is deliberately ambiguous so that people will have the opportunity to reject him? Wouldn't it be fairer if he made his existence and intentions crystal clear so that those who "wish to reject Him" can make an informed choice?

--
"Theology is never any help; it is searching in a dark cellar at midnight for a black cat that isn't there. Theologians can persuade themselves of anything." -Robert A. Heinlein

The Bible is a Deck of Cards

Share this