Anti-Gay Pastor Allegedly Propositions Male Officer

I don't want to talk to a pastor about this, I've been there and done that. The concerns that I have are not answered and I do not entirely subscribe to the "The Bible says it, I believe it" philosophy. I think that is warm and fuzzy response for a lot of Christians. "Oh look at his uncompromising faith." Sorry, it doesn't make sense. I guess I do not understand how saying that a story that explains certain truths to people is just a story compromises the Bible. As I said in a post yesterday, Jesus spoke in parables. That doesn't mean the story is true, it was a way for Him to make His point. If Jesus is God in the flesh, why do you not think that the same God wouldn't have spoken in parables then? Why do you think He wouldn't have divinely inspired Moses to write that story so that the people of that day could understand sin better?

 

sexually pure - no sex before marriage.

after marriage, go at it like jack rabbits.

 

The entire Bible is built on the foundations of Genesis. If you have a problem with the book that was taught you about your faith (or the person who taught you about your faith), then I can't see how that doesn't damage your belief somehow.

 

Perhaps we could. I thought I had heard that our technology would not be able to make them as perfect as they are now. If so, then I stand corrected.

 

I don't have any toruble believing Genesis.

 

I saw Rocketstrikes comment on that and responded to it. I understand that from a Biblical standpoint but I was getting at something less literal and more visceral. While yes the Bible taken literally then sin, Original Sin, is the cause of all death and disease. The problem I have with that is that essentially pre-condemns all humans for something that we have no responsibility over. To me that strikes me as problematic since Christianity preaches salvation through faith, or for Catholics faith and good works, but still as a human there is no hope of avoiding death. Heaven seems to be a compromise to that by saying that salvation comes after death but still you have to suffer through life and die. Even if you've lived a pious life or in the case of my example, you're a 2 week old who hasn't had the chance to sin.

Again I don't doubt that many Christians might understand this intellectually but I have a hard time believing that if a 2 week old dies of whooping cough or an 80 year old of heart failure most Christians will chalk it up to sin. For one that removes any responsibility since we're pre-condemned already and two it does make God out to be unjust since he's pre-condemned everyone and even although Jesus redeemed Original Sin we still have to die and our only hope of salvation is after death.

Again I will stress that I'm not a Christian and I don't want to belittle Christianity because there are certainly questions like this or even greater in other faiths but I would still say that we need faith as humans.

 

I'd love to see where that is specifically forbidden in the bible. I'm pretty darn sure it isn't.

Once I realized that I was really perplexed, peronally. One of many things that drove me away from christianity...

EDIT: good article here: http://www.libchrist.com/bible/adultery.html

 

Is it really? I thought the Ten Commandments were God's "most important commands to us" and the only thing regarding sex in there is a prohibition on adultery and coveting your neighbor's wife.

Where is the command to be "sexually pure?"

 

I don't want to derail the thread too much but as an architect I am interested in ancient construction technology. Up until the 20th C. this might've been true but now it wouldn't be that complicated. There are still a lot of questions about how the pyramids were built using the technology they had then and the biggest one I've heard is how could they have made the sides so perfect. Now that we have things like radar, lasers, and GPS it would be very easy to create huge structures that accurately but prior to that no one is sure how the ancient Egyptians did it. Some theories I've heard are they used star and solar positions and essentially navigated their way as they built it like using primitive GPS. That would still be monumentally difficult to maintain that level of accuracy.

 

After 5 pages of posts I'm surprised I'm the only one who finds this law problematic. I'm not familiar with this law but strictly reading it it seems to me that if your wife offered you a BJ because she loves you that would be a crime.

 

Hey guys...I'm sorry my answers weren't complete. I was just trying to give brief answers because I didn't have time to do that. Maybe I should have. I believe sin has infected all creation and that death was not the original part of God's design. All of creation I believe in winding down. About the question concerning plants. I think one can make the case that plants are distinct from humans and animals and that they're not a live like we are. I also believe that we were originally created to eat plants and animals were originally made to eat plants.

 

^ OK well that makes two of us Meowgi.

IMO the fact that dirty talk is outlawed in OK is far more troubling and relevant than a hypocrtical priest or whether sin is the cause of death.

 

That was probably a bad thing on my part. I should have spelled it out more clearly...I was just trying to write quickly to answer questions. I sacrificed depth for speed.

 

Ok I see what you mean. Admittedly, it's a little tough for me to swallow that a 2 week old's death is a direct result of that baby's "sin". Think of it this way, having to wait until your death to be saved is the ultimate test of faith, isn't it. If all Christians were granted immortality and not ever have to face death, what choice would there be for peopel born 500 years later who sees these Christians as still alive? There would never be any test of their faith. They would never WILLINGLY choose Christ as a result of Blind Faith. In short, it would be just too easy. Can you imagine what religion you would choose if the 12 disciples are hanging out in Rome right now?

Well if he was really unjust, he coulda just said "screw you Adam and Eve for not listening to me, both of you aint having any kids, I'm wiping your entire species from existence." And even then, he woulda been perfectly justified. If you create a computer program that doesn't do something you wanted it to do, would you be labeled an unjust person if you decided to simply delete it and start all over again?

No worries here Sishir, we've talked before, and I know how you approach things.

 

Jesus said the most important commandment was to love the Lord with all of your heart, soul, and mind. I think its in Matthew 22.

 

rhad,

the article distorts things. Just because Jesus did not condemn the sinners, does not mean he condones the sin.

Jesus was so against sexual immorality, he warned us to not even look at a women with lust, and that if we did, we were to gouge our eyes out and throw it away.

Here are some verses about immorality.

Yet the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord; and the Lord is for the body... Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? May it never be!... Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body... For you have been bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body."
--I Corinthians 6:13-20

Do not sharply rebuke an older man, but rather appeal to him as a father, to the younger men as brothers, the older women as mothers, and the younger women as sisters, in all purity.
--I Timothy 5:1,2


EDIT:

Mat 5:27 Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery:

Mat 5:28 But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.

Mat 5:29 And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast [it] from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not [that] thy whole body should be cast into hell.

 

Oh I agree the article is very biased. But it is never called out in the bible - never. In the old testament it seems to be accepted as standard practice!

And letters from Paul don't hold much weight with me, personally.

 

And the woman in adultery...He tells her to sin no more (adultery)