during the watchtower study today, i browsed genesis and looked for evidence of noah ever preaching to anyone.
from what i could glean from the scriptures, it was a foregone conclusion that noah's family would be it on the ark.
(unless they towed some rafts behind) my wife says that building the ark could be considered a witness of his faith to the wicked world, but that seems kind of lame to me.. so, should i just assume that god decided not to give anyone else a chance for redemption?
The fact that the world was caught off guard
shows there was no preaching!
Because,
about people who continue their habit of smoking even after the warning seen on the cigarette packet, we will not say they were “caught off guard” when succumbed to cancer.
ezekiel 16 gives a brief history of israel.
surprisingly, it has no resemblance with what we already know about israel—their origin and progress as given in the prophecy genesis 22:15-18 and also in the description that follows.
ezekiel repeatedly says (16:2, 45) “your ancestry and birth were in the land of the canaanites; your father was an amorite [descended from one of the sons of canaan (genesis 14:7), occupied large parts of southern mesopotamia, and their god was amurru] and your mother a hittite [ancient anatolian people who established an empire centered on hattusa].
Nice to see you discerned the spirit of my post.
Ever since I noticed contradicting ending of the four gospels (regarding resurrection of Jesus), I made it a point to see more of the sort. I was really awe-struck—there were too many. Thus I made the habit of taking only things that have universal acceptance.
I will give you one sample.
Jesus said: “If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.” (Mathew 5:39) When reached John 18:23 I see Jesus himself is acting against his own preaching: “But if I'm speaking the truth, why are you beating me?”
I began to pause and think—hey, That is not possible. What could have really happened is that Jesus may not have said what is given in Mathew 5:39. This makes sense because, think of this situation: someone goes on slapping you on the right cheek, and you go on turning to him the other cheek also. What do you really accomplish? You are only encouraging someone to continue in sin?! Thus one is sinning, and other is encouraging to sin—both are sinning—something Jesus would not advocate.
But see what happens if you return more than what you receive in view of the principle God Himself follows. (Exodus 20:5, 6) You probably succeed in correcting the other person. We have modern example in this regard. Japan attacked Pearl Harbor as part of their aggressive/imperialistic policy—that was their choice, but they could not have chosen its results which were in the hands of US, and US made them reap the consequences [it was like jaws for tooth, not just tooth for tooth—bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima], and Japan learned the lesson: JAPAN STOPPED ATTACKING OTHER NATIONS ALTOGETHER. If such a good result can come to a nation, it is same with individuals too.
during the watchtower study today, i browsed genesis and looked for evidence of noah ever preaching to anyone.
from what i could glean from the scriptures, it was a foregone conclusion that noah's family would be it on the ark.
(unless they towed some rafts behind) my wife says that building the ark could be considered a witness of his faith to the wicked world, but that seems kind of lame to me.. so, should i just assume that god decided not to give anyone else a chance for redemption?
Noah's flood has always been a fairy tale for me. Noah and his family loaded 8.7 millions of species (some as pairs and others as group of seven) in seven days. Wouldn't that be in a lightning speed?
ezekiel 16 gives a brief history of israel.
surprisingly, it has no resemblance with what we already know about israel—their origin and progress as given in the prophecy genesis 22:15-18 and also in the description that follows.
ezekiel repeatedly says (16:2, 45) “your ancestry and birth were in the land of the canaanites; your father was an amorite [descended from one of the sons of canaan (genesis 14:7), occupied large parts of southern mesopotamia, and their god was amurru] and your mother a hittite [ancient anatolian people who established an empire centered on hattusa].
Ezekiel 16 gives a brief history of Israel. Surprisingly, it has no resemblance with what we already know about Israel—their origin and progress as given in the prophecy Genesis 22:15-18 and also in the description that follows.
Ezekiel repeatedly says (16:2, 45) “Your ancestry and birth were in the land of the Canaanites; your father was an Amorite [descended from one of the sons of Canaan (Genesis 14:7), occupied large parts of southern Mesopotamia, and their God was Amurru] and your mother a Hittite [Ancient Anatolian people who established an empire centered on Hattusa]. Things not only did not unfold as foretold in Genesis 22:15-18, but went in opposite direction!
1) “On the day you were born you were despised and were thrown out into the open field, …. I made you grow like a plant of the field. (Eze 16:5-7)
2) The splendor I had given you made your beauty perfect (Eze 16:14)
3) But you trusted in your beauty and used your fame to become a prostitute (Eze 16:15)
4) You made Egypt your slaves (Eze 16:26)
5) “In your prostitution you are the very opposite, for you give payment and none is given to you” (Eze 16:34) and became a proverb (mother) for others (16:44)
6) “You will bear the consequences of your lewdness and your detestable practices, declares the Lord” (Eze 16:58)
It is interesting to note that very famous prophets like Ezekiel, Jeremiah … have different accounts to say about very important subjects, but they all have virtually been clouded by other irrelevant details.
if scriptures are written by people who have no sense of justice, it is natural that god would be misrepresented—something that happened to the biblical god.
to mention a few:.
1) david, murderer of the innocent and faithful, wrote portions of the bible.. 2) paul who set in opposition to genuine apostles who were directly trained by jesus himself sarcastically describing them as “superfine apostles” openly declared in some places that it was not spirit, but he was writing.
Says: “So who decides which bits of the bible are relevant? You?”
Even you can decide, anybody can decide.
When people find someone breaking a long queue and try to get things done ahead of others, everyone says it is wrong and unacceptable. We are all endowed with capability of knowing what is beneficial and what is not—especially when someone else does.
if scriptures are written by people who have no sense of justice, it is natural that god would be misrepresented—something that happened to the biblical god.
to mention a few:.
1) david, murderer of the innocent and faithful, wrote portions of the bible.. 2) paul who set in opposition to genuine apostles who were directly trained by jesus himself sarcastically describing them as “superfine apostles” openly declared in some places that it was not spirit, but he was writing.
if scriptures are written by people who have no sense of justice, it is natural that god would be misrepresented—something that happened to the biblical god.
to mention a few:.
1) david, murderer of the innocent and faithful, wrote portions of the bible.. 2) paul who set in opposition to genuine apostles who were directly trained by jesus himself sarcastically describing them as “superfine apostles” openly declared in some places that it was not spirit, but he was writing.
You say ‘I am contradicting what I originally said in the OP.’
I repeat much of the Bible is written by people with no moral sense. Yet it does’nt mean that it has no pearls of wisdom. You remember the presidential debate--when asked do you respect each other--both of them stopped seeing the 100% negatives they were seeing, but both Trump and Hilary saw some positive points in each other. so is with the Bible.
It is like a forest that contains wild trees and cruel animals, yet it also contains some sweet and pure streams and beautiful and fragrant flowers. Revelation chapter 4 is one such pure stream. Deuteronomy 10:17 which says ‘God does not distinguish between pagans and His people’ is another beautiful flower. That means whatever it says about what is universally acceptable—can be taken.
if scriptures are written by people who have no sense of justice, it is natural that god would be misrepresented—something that happened to the biblical god.
to mention a few:.
1) david, murderer of the innocent and faithful, wrote portions of the bible.. 2) paul who set in opposition to genuine apostles who were directly trained by jesus himself sarcastically describing them as “superfine apostles” openly declared in some places that it was not spirit, but he was writing.
if scriptures are written by people who have no sense of justice, it is natural that god would be misrepresented—something that happened to the biblical god.
to mention a few:.
1) david, murderer of the innocent and faithful, wrote portions of the bible.. 2) paul who set in opposition to genuine apostles who were directly trained by jesus himself sarcastically describing them as “superfine apostles” openly declared in some places that it was not spirit, but he was writing.
You say:
1. The
universe is vast for us to imagine it's there to teach us humility is a heck of
a wate of intellect.
[all right, you are free to take its opposite—try being egotistic and see
whether it benefits you and those around you or not]
2. We could be destroyed by a meteorite at any
time, it probably killed the dinosaurs.
[some meteors could have killed some dinosaurs or some species—so what? We
humans are still alive on earth along with many other species—who is
responsible for this big fact?. We are talking about the norm, not exception]
3. Do I have to list countless poisonous
berries, plants and fungi that we have only learnt to avoid through
heartbreaking trial and error? A few labels from God would have been helpful.
[poisonous beings exist—why worry about them as we always can find its proper
use. Petrol is inflammatory—so what? We know how to use its inflammability to
our own benefit]
4. You attribute the collected wisdom of human
literature and philosophy to God? Purely on the basis that a lot of it makes
sense? You give us so little credit. Get off your knees and engage your brain.
[I am not attributing human wisdom to God. I only meant this: If we want to see
God’s guidance silently being conveyed through beings—inanimate and animate, we
can. If we don’t want to see, we do not see]
great article with charts showing how the world is getting better, despite the attempts of the news and certain religious groups to say it ain't so (or try and make it not).. https://ourworldindata.org/a-history-of-global-living-conditions-in-5-charts/.
.
What you say is true.
However, when we have leaders [like Trump] saying “Let it be an arms race,“ [MSNBC said on Friday, Dec 23, 2016] “We will outmatch them at every pass and outlast them all,“ and have leaders like Kim Jong-un, Iran becoming a nuclear power, and terrorists trying to lay their hands on nuclear arms, things can go on reverse gear within no time.
