re: Bible Question - Genesis - Did Sarah Ruin Everything?

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No it is not a laughing matter

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It kind of is, though. Or at least should be.

I don’t know all about that but I do have an amateur’s understanding of Islam and from a cursory look at it it’s like a 1400 year old Bahai faith or an Arab Mormonism. Muhammad goes in to some caves, comes back out and says God gave him a special message and he’s the last and greatest messenger. All the old great religious people of the area were declared prophets of his revealed god and message. He then uses that as a cudgel to unite many Arab tribes and pacify the others. It’s a political movement mascarading as a syncretic religion.

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since JC being the son of God is the main theme of the Bible and the Christian faith it’s kind of a big deal. Islam, buddism, etc are works based religions, man working himself toward God. Biblical Christianity is God extending grace to mankind is faith based, we can’t earn it.

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Well you have a point there. I mean there is absolutely no other religion where a deity ran around knocking up young women. Certainly only Christianity can lay claim to that and its not at all like virtually every religion out there has featured the human offspring of deities.

Buddhism, as an aside, does not have gods or God. You might be thinking of Hinduism which has a butt load of gods. Buddhist do not, as a rule of thumb, try to become closer to God or gods.

The Old and New Testament are filled with references of people earning their way through the Pearly Gates, not having it handed to them on a silver platter. Unless you are making the pre-determination argument that we are either saved by Jesus before we are born or doomed to burn in hell. Which seems very cynical.

Also most (if not all) of the sources in the Bible claiming JC was the son of God were written well after both Jesus and anyone who actually knew him were gone. And they were written in the Roman Empire where it was commonplace for Emperors and other important people to declare themselves... the sons of gods.

I know, it deeply offends people that Islam is basically Christianity and Judaism with a new paint job. We are special because our religion is special loses a little pop off its fastball when you acknowledge a good chunk of the world shares some form of our religion.

Are we wallowing in a Chick Tract when we declare that a vile pedophile who accepted Jesus on his death bed is going to Heaven while a charitable and good willed Muslim or Atheist is doomed to Hell?

Because, if that is true, then send me to Hell. I'm an Arkansas sports fan. Hell holds no particular terrors for me. After 6 years of John L. Smith and Bert having flaming pine cones shoved up my rectum sounds kind of relaxing. Flay the skin from my bones, it can't be worse then missing a routine pop up fly ball for the NCAA championship.

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Did Sarah totally ruin the world when she cast out Ishmael?

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Following this thread, the Sin introduced into our world by Adam and Eve is what "totally ruined" it...As for Sarah, her misstep was when she didn't trust God and convinced Abraham to have a child with Hagar in the first place.

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Is a large portion of conflict in the world over the last 1,000+ years due to Sarah's inability to accept the child her husband had with another woman at Sarah's request?

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No...a large portion of conflict in the world over the last 1,000 years was due to Sarah trying to figure out how to make things happen (have children), rather than having faith in what she was told.

Definitely not a Bible scholar. We start with Adam and Eve, who had kids. To have more kids there has to be incest, right off the bat. And the incest continues from there. I never understood this.

The other possiblity is that neither one is wrong or a liar and Jesus never claimed to be "God."

Possible, but not likely.