I had originally intended to make this a reply to one of my Aunt's posts, but it was getting rather lengthy, so I thought I'd post it here for the world..... :-)
Okay, first of all, most Christians would argue the whole "girlfriend" thing. Mary was not his girlfriend. Not sure where the prostitute thing came in, obviously I need to check up on that one...
I've had way too many literature classes...
Now, before I get myself in trouble, first let me tell you I am a Christian - I believe Christ was the son of God, he came to Earth, died for our sins (partly so we wouldn't have kill goats and sheep anymore), and rose from the dead.
Having said all of that, I believe the Bible is man's written record of many things that were previously only told by mouth. Before the Bible was written, there was the story of Gilgamesh and a world-wide flood.... Which is right? Noah or Gilgamesh? Could they both be right? How many things are we supposed to read LITERALLY in the Bible and how many are FIGURATIVE? How many things were recorded in all kinds of books? I dunno...
People ask me about "faith." Here is my take on it... God is like a super version of the battery in your car... Think about this: How do you know your car will start? You don't. You have faith that it will. Put the key in, turn it, and your car starts. Did you know it would start? Nope. How do I know that? Because you DON'T know when it WON'T start... If you knew when it WASN'T going to start, then you would have bought a battery ahead of time, right? Of course. The difference (well, one of about a zillion, really) is that God never fails to "start." He's always there, always ready.
"Oh, but how could God let all this death and destruction happen, etc etc?" Because we are not PUPPETS. We have free will. Since we have free will, we can choose to blow up a building or pick flowers. Some people choose to fly airplanes into buildings. Were the innocent people that were killed any better or worse than those who survived? No. Things happen. God "lets" things happen He gave us free will. They happen for reasons we may never understand. Do I believe in fate and destiny? To an extent.
As children, we have little to no say in what happens in our lives. So, we are 'fated' or 'destined' for what happens until we reach the point we are able to make our own life choices. For example, I grew up near Pittsburgh. We moved a few times, and during High School we moved to Colorado. I had little to no say in that or in what life held for me up until the time I was able to make my own choices. For me, that came in the form of graduating high school and going to college. I made the choice to stay in Colorado when my folks moved back East. I made choices and ultimately ended up in Arkansas. Was that fate? Destiny? Free Will? In my opinion, a little of each... Basically, I see things as 'forks in the road.' If you choose a certain 'path,' you are destined for what lies down that path. Because there are MANY paths throughout life, each time we choose, a slightly (or hugely, I suppose) different 'destiny' awaits us. I'm not talking huge, life-changing things either. Remember my story about being pulled over? Had I made the choice to go to Sonic that night, I never would have been pulled over. How do I know? Sonic doesn't go anywhere near the road where we met the officer. But, choosing to go to Sonic may have had some other 'destiny' or 'consequence.' We never know...
I am NOT one of those people who thinks that every choice we make spins off some new parallel universe... Sorry, but that is not where my mind goes. For me, when I make a choice (whether knowing full well, or just by turning left instead of right one day), all other outcomes for my life have been altered in some way. At the end of life, however, it is my CHOICE that determines what happens after I die - for me, there is Heaven and there is Hell.... I digress...
Look at some of the stories in the Bible... Many times, the protagonist (good guy) is "lead" to a place in his/her life and then is given the choice as to what he/she should do... Take Job, Noah, Peter, Mary and Margaret, etc. God is not going to beat you over the head (well, maybe sometimes) to do things 'His' way. What's the point in that? That would just make us puppets. He does not want puppets. He wants people who look to Him for guidance, security, comfort, etc.
Do I understand everything the Bible has to say? No way. Does anyone?? I believe many of the foundations of a surviving society are in there - don't kill, don't steal, honor your mom and dad... love your kids, even if they run away and come back again... Are there things that that don't make sense in there? Yeap. Do I believe there are only 144,000 that will be saved and taken to Heaven? No. Do I believe a world-wide flood wiped out most of the people and life on Earth? Yeap. Do I understand why God bothered with Adam and Eve if He knew the world would be so corrupt that he would have to start over with Noah and his family? Nope. Do I have to understand it all? Nope.
I know how computers work. Do I understand all the intricacies of microns and capacitors etc etc? Nope. Do I have to understand it all? Nope. It works, and that's what I need to know.....
I don't even know if I answered the questions I set out to answer, but there ya go... :-)
Nope. Sorry. I believethat the Bible for all intense purposes is an exageration of wine and herb inpired stories. Have y ou ever played the game Telephone? One person says a sentence in the next one's ear like "The zebra had black and white stripes, a purple hat with a pink feather, satin shorts and a willow camusal" By the time the 20th person gets it and recites to the first again, it becomes "Zeva is s half black and half white stripper with satin sheets and pillow case". I think that some one tried to write these things down after years and years of verbal relay, but the stories were embelished through time that by the time they were written, the Bible stories got pretty, well, out there. Just my opinion. If you have faith and want to believe, that's fine. I'm just sayin'.............
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