by smmcroberts 47 Replies latest watchtower bible
Why do Christian religions continue to pretend that the Hebrew Scriptures (aka the Old Testament) is God-inspired and that it describes a loving God? Don't they see that the OT is largely an embarrassment to its believers?
Please read my blog to see why I think Christianity should dispense with the OT all together:
http://smmcroberts.net/blog/dispensing-with-the-hebrew-scriptures/
One reason is that the Old Testament contains hundreds of prophecies about the coming of the messiah, his life, and death. You can't have Christianity without Judaism.
They ignore the OT unless it is to enforce stupid rules. Its funny how Christians will say "Oh, well that was in the Old Testament, so it doesn't apply anymore" and then so quickly will cite OT scriptures to back up their dogma.
Christians need the OT though. It is how they justfiy their belief in the Messiah and how he was promised to come by God.
Marcion would agree
CA: It sounds like you didn't read the blog.
Qcmbr: That Marcion was my kind of guy! At least insofar as he could see that Jehovah was a radically different god than the one Jesus reputedly called "father".
Don't you see smm? God had a kid and it completely changed him. He is unchanging though.
@MrFreeze: LOL! I like that explanation!
Back in my believing day I used to think that Jesus as Jehovah ( lds belief) was harsh because even though a god he had not experienced mortality and being perfect he couldnt so held them to insanely harsh standards. Jehovah as Jesus in the NT finally understood what it was like to be weak, tempted and impotent and became a much more nurturing being though I still saw flashes of the angry, petulant being he was before birth. I saw the bible as the story of a god growing up to be like his father Elohim, a being made perfect by understanding not by form.
One way a NT believer may regard the OT is of followers only taken so far
from their cultural habits and various things dropped already--ANE cosmology,
monotheism only taking popular hold in the days of Isaiah, religion as law of the
land for a 'centric group with punishment and war dropped, etc.
Search Google for explanations of the OT verses given in the blog. One example
regarding stubborn son: the Jewish laws made the conditions of this such that no
son was executed for it and it served to limit punishment of a son and discour-
age rebelliousness. See the article at the next link.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0017_0_16525.html
glenster: In other words, the people were more HUMANe than the god their priests had created. The prophets etc., make up the law: "God says you must stone your sassy sons". But the people, with their inherent empathy, reintepret the command so that they don't stone their sons. Humankind's own empathy is shown, once again, to be more moral than the gods foisted upon them.
Unfortunately, it doesn't always work out that way. As we all know, the JW's have had their sense of empathy over-ridden by the laws of the WT when it comes to such things as blood transfusions and shunning.
