re: The New Testament

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If the "fairy tales" were so blatant, then they would have died out a long time ago.

You're right, I was reading the 10 commandments the other day and thinking "How barbaric!!!"

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Well how are these fairy tales real? You are the smucks who believe in it and try to force it down everyone's throat. So you must prove it is real, which no christian has. How can one say the bible is real, when using quotes from within the bible?

Also, how does one know what to believe in the bible, as most christian rarely has read the bible completely and ignore the primitive parts and believe the 'sunshine' parts? Plus we know for a fact that the garden of eden is just a fairy tale. The animals of earth was not created in a day or two, evolution and bones prove this. 2 of every animal on Earth CANNOT be put on a boat, yet alone be found by a 'chosen' family (noah). Not to mention all the incest that would take place.

Other earlier religions mention of the same stories found in the bible, so the bible is not the originator of them. Yet christians will use this as proof that their religion is correct since an earlier civilization mentions it, yet ignore the fact that the christians stole the stories from these different religions. Yet most would laugh at these other religions as being primitive.

Plus do we really need the bible to give us the 10 commandments? If we didn't have that, would we just continue on to raping and plundering the Earth? Oh wait, we still do that. Its common sense, don't kill, or steal from anyone, and try to do good. Bam, knocked them all out in one sentence. Any ethical and moral person could obviously come up with this.

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There is only one God, He has been around FOREVER.

the fictional ones have only been around since the time they were made up

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Wow, it just got a little spackley in here. I'm gonna try to clean some of this spackle up so we can get a good look at what you just said.

You're saying....

(From before there was time)
Your Christian God has always been.

(Just from 100,000 BC - 5,000 BC)
Then came along a bunch of other religions that were established/flamed out prior to Christianity/Judiesm/Islam. These religions were able to accurately discern that there was in fact a god, making sense of the world around them, but they couldn't figure out the right name to acknowledge him by, so the God of love let them go to hell for not figuring the rest out within the one lifetime he gave them to do so.

(5,000 BC - Present)
Middle Easterners establish Judiesm. And correctly, for the first time in any religion, put the magic two pieces of information together. There is a God, and the name he likes to be acknowledged by.

The same God that all the people in religions before it were able to discern and gave credit to for their understanding of the world around them, but just couldn't figure out what he liked to be acknowledged by.

Christianity then spawns from Judiesm, because like many others who also spawned from Judiesm, there's a messiah gold rush and plenty are applying for the job.

And here you sit with the adopted God of a middle eastern religion. Those middle easterners, his very favorite people. If you don't believe so, just ask them. They'll show you in the book that their ancestors wrote.

It's totally like him, for thousands of years, to just not accept when prior religions were created to try and acknowledge him and his certain existence, but instead allow them to burn in hell for their efforts, and then endorse one that happens to be middle eastern, when low and behold, the coincidences don't stop there, that happens to be his favorite people.

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to the OP: the simple answer is that the entire Bible is God's inerrant word. Whether it is Jesus being quoted in one of the gospels or whether it is a letter written by Paul to a church, it is all equally inerrant and all the word of God.

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I understand this is the line of thinking, but I don't quite follow why some Christians believe this.

It seems intuitive that words spoken by Jesus would the inerrant Word of God, but He didn't write down anything. Paul was never a divine being to begin with, and was never any more qualified to speak on these things than anyone else at the time (and certainly LESS qualified than a person with the immense amount of knowledge available to them today).

Any claim pointed back to the Bible requires the concept that it is the literal word of God, and I think therein lies the issues most others can take. IF you are of the belief that it is this infallible book, then anything that can possibly contradict it must, regardless of anything else, MUST be false.

That feels like a very closed of method of reasoning to me. It is likely why I was never comfortable in church.

"You MUST think this way."
"But I think this way..."
"Well, then, enjoy Hell."

It's also why I firmly believe that, if there is a God, He is either:

Very different in many ways than what is portrayed in the Bible, or...
He is neither "just" or "loving"

My point is the concept of Hell. In no way is it just to condemn a person to infinite torment for finite sin. Including, of course, simply being born in a place that never even heard of Jesus.
"Good person but wrong beliefs? Hell."
"Bad person but right beliefs? Come on in."

The concept of love and justice have very strong definitions in my core, and the God of the Bible adheres to neither. So, I cannot accept all the passages in there as literal truth.

Because I questioned, I was ostracized. I find more cohesive thought and debate on internet forums than I did in church.

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Jesus did say something about homosexuality..Matthew 19:4 in which he says male and female. This excludes a man and a man...a man and two women...a woman and two men...two men and a donkey...etc...

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Odd that people so strongly adhere to a passage as anti-gay that was clearly intended to be anti-divorce.

It still resonates with my original post. Why are divorcees, for example, given free reign and treated like "Good Christians" while homosexuals were treated like lepers. It isn't just that being gay is a "sin" or being "unrepentant" - I can assure you, plenty of divorcees are unrepentant as well, and never are told that they should be in church.

"Don't misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose."

Jesus







Divorce and a homosexual lifestyle are both sins and both can be forgiven if repented.

God is also clear that He hates divorce, it is quite clear that divorce hurts and harms entire families. I know that I will have to stand before God and be held accountable for mine, regardless of its circumstances. I'm thankful I've got Jesus's sacrifice to cover me.