Year Of The Bible?: Pa. House Urges ‘Faith In God Through Holy Scripture’

[G.K. Chesterton]

Why does cultural context even matter here? The bible is still obviously used and taught today........did God all of a sudden change his philosophy on life?

"then try to make it seem as if the Bible is so backwards and irrelevant"....your delusional thoughts not mine.

[VICanucksfan5551]

Of course cultural context matters. Take slavery: people often accuse the Bible of condoning slavery but they usually do it through Western, twenty-first century eyes that have witnessed the horrors of the African-American slave trade. But slavery in Biblical times was different than the African slave trade as people would often sell themselves into the service of another if they became indebted or needed food. And the Bible teaches Christians to treat their slaves fairly (Ephesians 6:9).. Plus, it just wasn't plausible for slavery to be completely abolished back in Biblical times because the resulting conflict would have probably claimed more lives than it saved.

[Buddhas Hand]

Of course cultural context matters. Take slavery: people often accuse the Bible of condoning slavery but they usually do it through Western, twenty-first century eyes that have witnessed the horrors of the African-American slave trade. But slavery in Biblical times was different than the African slave trade as people would often sell themselves into the service of another if they became indebted or needed food. And the Bible teaches Christians to treat their slaves fairly (Ephesians 6:9).. Plus, it just wasn't plausible for slavery to be completely abolished back in Biblical times because the resulting conflict would have probably claimed more lives than it saved.

Many of the verses you quote are only events that occur once (e.g. 5, 8). Find me a church that actually preaches that husbands should regularly do what happens in 5. Furthermore, the fact that the events that happened in 5 are included in the Bible testify to its authenticity, because why would you include a heinous act like that if you wanted people to adopt your religion?

As for 9, tell me what you think this verse, found just a little later in the same chapter means: "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her" (Ephesians 5:25).

I could go through each misrepresented verse, but I need to get back to reading about Russia as a multi-ethnic empire.

[Heretic]

Except the US was officially a country about a hundred years earlier, which doesn't refute whatsoever the claim made in what you quoted.

[G.K. Chesterton]

Quotation from the 21st century:

"If we apply sola scriptura to slavery, I'm afraid the abolitionists are on relatively weak ground. Nowhere is slavery in the Bible lambasted as an oppressive and evil institution: Vaughn Roste, United Church of Canada staff.

Biblical passages recognized, controlled, and regulated the practice. The Bible permitted owners to beat their slaves severely, even to the point of killing them. However, as long as the slave lingered longer than 24 hours before dying of the abuse, the owner was not regarded as having committed a crime, because -- after all -- the slave was his property. ₄ Paul had every opportunity to write in one of his Epistles that human slavery -- the owning of one person as a piece of property by another -- is profoundly evil. His letter to Philemon would have been an ideal opportunity to vilify slavery. But he wrote not one word of criticism. Jesus could have condemned the practice. He might have done so. But there is no record of him having said anything negative about the institution.

Eventually, the abolitionists gained sufficient power to eradicate slavery in most areas of the world by the end of the 19th century. Slavery was eventually recognized as an extreme evil. But this paradigm shift in understanding came at a cost. Christians wondered why the Bible was so supportive of such an immoral practice. They questioned whether the Bible was entirely reliable. Perhaps there were other practices that it accepted as normal which were profoundly evil -- like genocide, torturing prisoners, raping female prisoners of war, forcing rape victims to marry their rapists, executing religious minorities, burning some hookers alive, etc. The innocent faith that Christians had in "the Good Book" was lost -- never to be fully regained

[G.K. Chesterton]

The Bible's rules for slavery were absolutely not humane in any way

Frankly, I don't see any way that Yahweh's rules quoted here could be defended. They're barbaric and sickening.

[Mr. Ambien]

Not that what you said refutes anything whatsoever.

What I quoted refuted that "In God We Trust" came out in 1864, not 1956 as the person mentioned in the post that I replied to.

[Heretic]

What you quoted also included:

"Hardly instituted by the Founding Fathers, wouldn't you say?"

That person said this in response to post #3:

"America was built on is the word of God, hence the quote, "In God We Trust" "

You said in the previous post I quoted from you in response to be a pedantic douchewad as if you actually were correcting them on something relevant but it blew up in your face.. as usual.

[Mr. Ambien]

As usual - nothing but attacks...I also said "NOT THAT IT REALLY MATTERS' but you missed that as usual.

[Satan's Evil Twin]

1) I am rather skeptical of anything coming from the United Church. One must also consider that we have our own bias, living in the twenty-first century in Western culture that does not (publicly) endorse slavery (although their are more people shackled to slavery today than there ever was in ancient times).

2) Slavery was a basic fact of life in ancient times and it was more akin to an indentured servant than a slave during the African slave trade. Some historians estimate that slaves composed the majority of the populace in Rome. Historian Milton Meltzer wrote that "...it is thought that every household in Athens and Rome had slaves". It just was not plausible for all the slaves to be freed because it was such a far-ranging mode of life.

3) The Bible explicitly tells believers, both the Israelites and Christians, to love their neighbours and even their enemies (Lev 19:18, Lev 19:34, Matt 7:12) What is implied with loving your neighbour? You shouldn't mistreat them. But because of sin, mistreatment and abuse is bound to happen, which is why the Bible takes measures to regulate slavery. I'm not quite sure where the idea comes that Paul does not speak out against slavery in Philemon. That's simply false (Philemon 1:15-16). What Paul does not do in his letter to Philemon is force Philemon to free Onesimus because he feels that Philemon should be spiritually transformed by the grace of God to be moved to free his slave.

Here's a good article on slavery and the New Testament, the fourth in a series.

http://withallyourmind.net/?p=1018

[Heretic]

If I post:

You're a nice guy but..

You're an asshole douchebag bigot moron coward pansy.

Who is going to care about the nice guy part when the following blatantly invalidates it? Case in point.

"Not that it matters" is basically moot, because if it didn't matter, it wouldn't be posted. It was being used as a crutch to try and be above criticism, which doesn't work for me. You were clearly being a pedantic douchewad trying to pointlessly correct him (and didn't do so by the way, he was also right, and so was the person who mentioned Founding Fathers), regardless of what your first sentence said.

It's pretty sad that I have to explain this, but not all that surprising.

[Mr. Ambien]

I can think of something sadder but I'll refrain from posting it.

[Heretic]

This has turned into God Thread 7.1.

[VICanucksfan5551]

1) Individuals have abused the Bible since its compilation and they will continue to do so. This doesn't dispel the validity of the Bible, for the error is on the person who misuses it.

2) Reading verses and then not properly looking at scholarly commentary to explain difficult or challenging verses is not very good research.

3) The creator of the video doesn't do anything to dispel the fact that slavery in Biblical times was different than during the African slave trade.

4) Yes, slaves were mistreated in Biblical times and by the Israelites, but that is because we live in a sinful world and that truth has been blared since Creation. But consider the African slave trade...read about Harriet Jacobs and Frederick Douglass - American slave owners could do a lot worse to their slaves without any form of punishment whatsoever. The Bible does regulate the practice of slavery.

5) See previous post about Paul and Philemon.

[morrissex95]

As a Jew, I'm sitting here getting a good laugh because you're all reading scriptures from the New Testament. The name "New Testament" in itself implies that the Torah(Or Old Testament) isn't relevant any more because you've come up with a better, new testament which must now be imposed upon people. The Jewish received the torah while Moshe(Moses) was on a mountain/cliff. He received the torah from g-d himself. When Moshe was done as the first scribe of the first torah ever, he overlooked the land of Israel for the first time as the Jewish people finished wandering in the Sinai Desert for 40 years. G-d would not allow him to enter the land of Israel because he had destroyed the 613 Commandments(they're commonly known as the 10 commandments, but there's actually 613 in Judaism) on the Mount Sinai when he saw the Jewish people worshiping Golden calves. How is this relevant to our discussion? You see, the Jewish people had the freedom to worship Golden Calves even in ancient times. The only power the priests and the prophets had to prevent them from doing that was the word of G-d himself.

This legislation removes the power of the people to chose g-d or to chose the calves. G-d will be forced upon them and this was not what Judeo-Christian values were supposed to be about from the beginning. The Babylonians, Romans, Germans, Assyrians, Greeks, Soviets have taken their shot at assimilating the Jewish people into their culture. Now, the great empire of our time, the United States of America will take their attempt at assimilating us. What else did you think this was about?

Oh, and the guy who said "The US wasn't founded on the beliefs of the Quran" well, you're right about that. George Washington and all the founding fathers were members of a clan of freemasons. None of these men were openly pious and weren't seen in church for anything but state functions. Don't pick and chose which belief systems are "right" and which are "wrong", every one of the 7 billion people have their own interpretation of Humanity and how to combat the Human condition. Don't you dare force it upon other people.

[Buddhas Hand]

As a Jew, I'm sitting here getting a good laugh because you're all reading scriptures from the New Testament. The name "New Testament" in itself implies that the Torah(Or Old Testament) isn't relevant any more because you've come up with a better, new testament which must now be imposed upon people. The Jewish received the torah while Moshe(Moses) was on a mountain/cliff. He received the torah from g-d himself. When Moshe was done as the first scribe of the first torah ever, he overlooked the land of Israel for the first time as the Jewish people finished wandering in the Sinai Desert for 40 years. G-d would not allow him to enter the land of Israel because he had destroyed the 613 Commandments(they're commonly known as the 10 commandments, but there's actually 613 in Judaism) on the Mount Sinai when he saw the Jewish people worshiping Golden calves. How is this relevant to our discussion? You see, the Jewish people had the freedom to worship Golden Calves even in ancient times. The only power the priests and the prophets had to prevent them from doing that was the word of G-d himself.

This legislation removes the power of the people to chose g-d or to chose the calves. G-d will be forced upon them and this was not what Judeo-Christian values were supposed to be about from the beginning. The Babylonians, Romans, Germans, Assyrians, Greeks, Soviets have taken their shot at assimilating the Jewish people into their culture. Now, the great empire of our time, the United States of America will take their attempt at assimilating us. What else did you think this was about?

Oh, and the guy who said "The US wasn't founded on the beliefs of the Quran" well, you're right about that. George Washington and all the founding fathers were members of a clan of freemasons. None of these men were openly pious and we ren't seen in church for anything but state functions. Don't pick and chose which belief systems are "right" and which are "wrong", every one of the 7 billion people have their own interpretation of Humanity and how to combat the Human condition. Don't you dare force it upon other people.

[Heretic]

It's just a word.

WhatI find interesting is how so many people get bent out of shape over the use of God.

Yet, many of these same people use God or Jesus or Holy as swear words.

When asked about it, the same response is given - it's just a word.

In God We Trust on a coin, it's just a word.

Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth so help you God? it's just a word.

God, keep our Land, glorious and free, it's just a word.

What are you afraid of?

That a book will be available in more languages then any other book?

That more copies of a book will me made way more than any other book in human history?

Maybe the reason this word bothers you so much is that deep down, something is pulling at your heart.

Maybe, just maybe, it's not just a word.

[Satan's Evil Twin]

It's just a word.

WhatI find interesting is how so many people get bent out of shape over the use of God.

Yet, many of these same people use God or Jesus or Holy as swear words.

When asked about it, the same response is given - it's just a word.

In God We Trust on a coin, it's just a word.

Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth so help you God? it's just a word.

God, keep our Land, glorious and free, it's just a word.

What are you afraid of?

That a book will be available in more languages then any other book?

That more copies of a book will me made way more than any other book in human history?

Maybe the reason this word bothers you so much is that deep down, something is pulling at your heart.

Maybe, just maybe, it's not just a word.

[Mr. Ambien]

It's just a word.

WhatI find interesting is how so many people get bent out of shape over the use of God.

Yet, many of these same people use God or Jesus or Holy as swear words.

When asked about it, the same response is given - it's just a word.

In God We Trust on a coin, it's just a word.

Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth so help you God? it's just a word.

God, keep our Land, glorious and free, it's just a word.

What are you afraid of?

That a book will be available in more languages then any other book?

That more copies of a book will me made way more than any other book in human history?

Maybe the reason this word bothers you so much is that deep down, something is pulling at your heart.

Maybe, just maybe, it's not just a word.

[Satan's Evil Twin]

1. The context used of "god" in "god damn" / "swear to god" , and our Anthem / American currency are different. A simple grasp of the English language would suffice, but bible thumpers are adept at playing dumb with words.

2. How would anyone be afraid of something that's long been the predominate western culture religion? I'm not afraid of Christianity or any religion whatsoever. I'm greatly opposed to them, however.

Words are words, but it isn't the word that gives meaning it's the intent behind it. You already know this, but assuredly will play dumb once again.