Human credulity knows no bounds peacfulpete -- so true sadly!
Is the Bible a coded book?
by JH 19 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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JamesThomas
Why would God.....the supposed author of the book called the bible, ......hide messages for thousands of years from all it's readers, and then decide it's time for him to tell everyone his book is "coded"?
I agree Gumby. It makes no sense. In my opinion the entire Bible makes no sense. A god of love that destroys and murders makes no sense. That people give their lives to such senselessness' makes no sense. j
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gumby
A god of love that destroys and murders makes no sense.
JamesThomas, First of all.....I always enjoy your good input When I was first beggining to look into the bible and it's truthfulness, how it was formed and such.....was a result of things I heard and learned from this site. One of those posters was Farkle, who pointed out time and again, the attrocities that a loving god commited against women, babies, and children. I always knew he did this.......but I had never heard of it from a sensable, believable, skeptical, point of view before, and for some reason.....never figured it out on my own as a dub. Many scriptures were combined that drove the point home that...."Jehovah was quite the killer". For Jesus to show up on the scene and be the exact representation of his pop, and to turn his cheek, and promote peace, and to teach that all who live by the sword will die by it, made me wonder how he could have honored his daddy's Israelite army. That was the next thing that made no sense. ......I'll quit now. Gumby
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barry
I beleive people are trying to make the bible hard when in fact the simple understanding is the most obvious. eg. 1260 days or 42 months = 1260 years useing the day for a year principle but the answer is there all along the 1260 days is the ministry of christ on earth and the christian church goes through the same experiance in revelation. Barry
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JamesThomas
Right on again Gumby (whose broadminded intelligence and kindness I have admired). Jehovah + Jesus = no sense They do not compute. Not fundamentally anyway. One kills, and allows killing, rape and destruction. While the other, as you say, turns the other cheek. They are an extreme contradiction and total opposites. It seems such problems always arise when we anthropomorphize Divinity. A result of the human minds limited capabilities. The only time the Bible began to make any sense to me was when it was seen metaphorically. Seeing Biblical events and characters reflecting emotions, thoughts and energies within ourselves. Such as the Christ standing for our True-nature, that most true, pure and intimate within us. There are ways less confusing and muddled than the Bible in which one can find guidance, direction and wisdom; both Buddhism and Hinduism come to mind, and perhaps more specifically Zen and Taoism. But these too can easily become a religious trap, a mental whirlwind of does and don'ts which supports and reinforces further blindness to the silent yet vibrant Truth within. j
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gumby
There are ways less confusing and muddled than the Bible in which one can find guidance, direction and wisdom
Yes I agree......these things can be found elsewhere..........but the sad part for me is.......they cannot answer my question/s such as.......who put us here and why?
Thanks for your feedback......... and kindness in the way you handle others.
Gumby
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JamesThomas
who put us here and why?
Yes, those kind of questions can be disturbing. They are the reason religions are created. But still there never seems to be any concrete answers. This is because they are ask within the confines of some very strong conditioning, assumptions and beliefs which are incorrect themselves. We don't know this. So we never ask the right questions. Imagine a dream character asking "who put me here and why". The question is invalid because the subject "me" within the question does not exist. There is no "me" there, no real entity or individual. Just the illusion of such. Which may seem very, very real, but is not. Once the "me" is seen as false, the entire string of questions pertaining to a me fall apart. There is no need any longer to ask them.
who put us here and why?
Such questions are based on the extremely strong and supported belief that we are all individual entities. Entities, who have been "put here" by some other unknown force, for some reason or "why" (we hope, because we certainly don't want our precious and fragile little lives to be meaningless). But is it TRUE? Are we individual entities? Is there a valid and real "me"? It certainly seems there is. But then again we have not really questioned this assumption before. We have just taken it for granted because our parents, family and society, thoughts and emotions have all strongly reinforced this idea.....but is it true? Who am I really? Perhaps this is the question that needs to be ask and answered first before we start asking "why am I here?". We need to know in complete certainty who or what "I" is. This may sound crazy. But why are there so few enlightened like Jesus and Buddha? Why so few that seem to have discovered a deeper Truth that ends their search for Truth? That ended questions? Perhaps it is because they ask the questions that really mattered and found answers. They took nothing for granted and looked under the most fundamental rock of all -- the belief and understanding of their own sense of self. Who the hell am I -- really? Perhaps once that one very simple question is answered, the string of all other questions will be broken. Perhaps the answer is just waiting, and waiting, and waiting....for the question to be sincerely and earnestly ask. This is not as easy as it sounds. It seems there needs to be a fiery burning within. An intense hunger to know, so strong, that we are willing to let go of all our sacred cows. Especially the entire story of who I have believed myself to be up to this moment. In other words "you must die before you live". Physical death is not necessary. Actually physical death is easy. This death requires us to be very much aware and conscious. Very much present. You will breath through this one. j
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JamesThomas
they cannot answer my question/s
This seems to be the reason Gumby and I kind of went off JH's thread somewhat (sorry JH). The Bible, coded or not, religions and belief systems of all kinds, do not offer the "answers", the food that some of us yearn for. In my experience the reason for this is the ache is too deep for words and beliefs to effect. Other people interpretation of God/Truth, or whatever word you want to use for the Source of existence, just do not feed the hunger. Something must be found closer and far more substantial. Something must be found as real as the sense that I do exist. Perhaps, it is within this very sense of being that the answer, the atonement -- will be found. j
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RunningMan
You can use his technique on any book, and find any message that you want. Drosnin challenged one of his critics to find a message in "Moby Dick". The critic then proceeded to do exactly that. He even proved that Drosnin's own book could be used to predict his own death.
The mathematics behind the code are really stupid. What he does is takes a line of text, then offsets the next line by a specific number of characters, placing it under the first line. He then repeats it and looks for messages being read forwards, backwards, vertically, or diagonally.
The number of possibilities in a book the size of the Bible (or even much smaller) is stupendous. In other words, you can use that technique to find any message you want in any book you want. It is completely and totally meaningless.
As well, don't forget that his "predictions" only work in the past tense. He has been unable to accurately predict the future.
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peacefulpete
Gumby....Friend it is a huge adjustment to make, the coming to terms with life's brevity and injustices. When as a teenager I learned my parents had not really planned on a second child (me) it was at first crushing, I couldn't say exactly why,(probably ego) but it seemed to deminish my meaningfulness. Of course it is not a rationally arrived at conclusion that i am less valuable or less important to others because I was an oops baby is it? Instead of wallowing in self pity over being unplanned or pouting about my insignificance to the greater universe, it is far healthier and much more fun to do things that ADD MEANING TO LIFE rather than brood about the inane concept of the meaning of life.
Biologically speaking the meaning of life is to procreate and as many times as possible. That is the only factual answer that can be given. Is that helpful?
Now that that is out of the way, START LIVING!