I hope you know that the laws in the Hebrew scriptures don't apply to Christians because Jesus' sacrifice cancelled the Mosaic Law for his future followers. Divorce, premarital sex, and homosexuality however are still considered wrong...ya know, by the people who still have morals in this twisted world.
It seems that many Christians seem to forget that though, they still quote Old Testament scripture when affirming their beliefs... Seemingly forgetting that Jesus broke the old covenant with his crucifixion, ushering in a new one.
From the standpoint of argumentative logic, it undermines their position to misquote and seemingly misunderstand their own belief system. They may be taken more seriously if they were to quote New Testament to affirm their beliefs. Just my $0.02.
The Old Testament is included in the Christian bible to demonstrate how the New Testament fulfills the old. I advise checking it out, it's actually really cool how they match up.
Guys, its all up to interpretation. and i mean interpretation from its original language and also understanding the culture of the time the bible was written.
Guest and those that agree with their stand on this issue: WHY is being gay considered "wrong" if you are saying the Old Testament doesn't apply. What is your reasoning for passing judgement on the lifestyle of other human beings? You can't say because God said so because we are throwing out the Old Testament right? So how is it morally wrong? Are you sure you just didn't mean to say, "I think gay people are icky" instead of morally wrong?
Im going to base my comment on the high hopes that you have biblical knowledge. I don't want to sound like a butt, but God's view on homosexuality is clear in 1 Corinthians 6:9,10, which is in the New Testament ;) BUT YOU'RE RIGHT! Who the heck do we are to think we can judge other's way of life? That right belongs to God, and God only. However, many of us don't hate homosexuals, in fact we might get along with them pretty well in school or work, we simply don't agree with their lifestyle, in accordance to God's view. And the Old and New Testament compliment each other, because even though the Mosaic Law was directed to the nation of Israel and Christians don't abide to it, it allows us to better understand God's views on many things because how could he go from completely detesting a lifestyle to being okay with it? Doesn't add up to what Malachi 3:6 or Hebrews 6:17,18 say
Yes, I was raised Catholic and as an atheist now ancient mythology and ideology has always fascinated me. However, I cannot understand the mental gymnastics you are doing in order to state that the bible is the literal word of a deity. Forget that the oldest scrolls found date back to approximately 4 decades after Yehoshua ben Yosef was crucified. Obviously you know your biblical text so I am simply going to ask how, after many translations, some from dead languages, the political manipulation by Constantine, and the hack job done by the Nicene Counsel (to name one group of "Holy Men" who took it upon themselves to "decide" what was to be considered the word of God) can you possibly tell me that the text written in the bible is "The word of God". Also I am interested in how you can discern between true scripture, and the fairy tales of ignorant superstitious Bronze age camel herders and how ANY of it applies to us today.
Ran out of room, just wanted to add that you can throw in your opinion regarding the indoctrination of young children who are very impressionable and why religious beliefs often depend solely on your geographical location. For instance, can you say with any certainty that if you were born in the Middle East and raised with another doctrine that you would still be able to, and more importantly, would want to, accept Christianity as your chosen faith? Or do you think you would be reading an entirely different religious text as a result of random chance and be solid in your belief that the Quran is to be revered? Honest answer if you can without using terminology like "I know God chose for me" or any response that includes attempting to convince me that you know what some omnipotent deity is\was thinking, etc. Nothing irritates me more than flimsy reasoning explaining why you chose your lifestyle and ideology. For the majority, it is chosen for them at birth and spoon fed to them.
Im actually very much impressed and to answer your question, I'll further on give more detail to the senario so I can answer it as honestly as I can. Had I'd been raised as a Jew in the time that Jesus was being indentified as the Messaiah, I probably would have scoffed at the possibility of such idea, however, that would have been before having heard him teach, witness him making miracles, and most importantly, before rereading all of the prophecies that are all over the Hebrew scriptures that foretold of the Messiah and how he would be able to be identified! Now, of course, none of us can really go on based on the first two, it's impossible, but like then, the last one is totally within our reach. But going back to your question, yes, I most likely would have been reading other religious text, would I have accepted Christianity as my lifestyle and ideology? Honestly, I don't know, it would all depend how strong my love and faith for God were, on the kind of person I were.
Ran out of room as well...there's more I wish to add, but I want to answer that first opinion you wanted of me. First, translating a concept from one language to another doesn't mean every word being strictly translated, since no language is structured the same, something said in English, for example, can have a totally different meaning translated word by word to Spanish. It doesn't matter how you structure the words from one language to another, what truly matters is translating the concept, that must stay the same. Now, none of those original scriptures Are known to exist, BUT, Before and after the Babylonian exile, with the growth of Jewish Communities the demand for Scriptures increased, thus professional copyiests made extraordinary efforts in that the accuracy was attained in their hand written manuscripts, and Ezra was one of them. Later, followers of Christ also labored in completing the same task of reproducing the Holy Scriptures of the growing number of Christian
Congregations, and these are the scrolls that we have at our disposal, which were written before Constantine was even born. And how I can discern between Devine Word from fairy tale...well, one, not all of the writers were herders, some were Kings, others Judges, tax collectors, fishermen, priest, physician, etc. but yes, while some had had amazing education, others had not, yet, despite that and the fact that many of these books were written years, decades, centuries apart, they all maintained in harmony the same theme and purpose, nothing contradicts at any given point, and that is how I know it's not fairy tales, but rather that the Scriptures were divinely inspired by God. How else would it be possible for them scriptures to be in harmony with one another? I think I answered the questions you'd asked me...though I feel like I left some unanswered..I apologize if I did
Ummm... The bible is literally full of contradictions. Please attempt to recall an accurate timeline and circumstances surrounding the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ using all biblical text on the subject as reference. There are multiple glaring contradictions in each version or "book" written in the bible. Also, ignorance regarding mental illness surely had a lot to do with miracles. These days it seems all the lord can manage are manifestations in our breakfast foods. I do appreciate your honest reply however!
Old Testament was for the Hebrews who were trying to please God but were in fact sinning. Levicus is all about rules to keep the people from continuing to sin against God.
Well those "primitive" people had divine inspiration to write what they did. So if you could actually, oh, I don't know...READ the Bible and actually SEE what it says, then you would see what these people are saying. I agree, though, homosexuality is wrong. But, we can't hate the people who practice it. However, you can hate what they are doing. What they are doing is definetally wrong. But the people themselves may have a good heart. So, before you go throwing around the word "primitive", how about you look at the source first before you open your mouth?
I was raised Catholic and I will say this (hate me or not...i dont care), Christians are some of the hypocritcal people out there. NOT ALL! but usually the ones deep, deep, deep in the religion and brain washed. The bible is like the history books, all dumbed/watered down to control the masses. Either way, whether you agree with me or not, we should all just agree to let each other think/live/say the way we want and stop acting like our way is the right way. We are all human...imperfect....there is no right way. If indeed the bible was written by people inspred by God, the meaning is totally different (any bilingual people in here that can back me up on the whole "you loose meaning in translation"?). Imagine a book written now-a-days with the slang/lingo from another country/language and that book is sent back in time and dropped off in "biblical" times, you think the lucky person that found it could understand it (and this is considering that its in the same language but using lingo/
lingo/jargon of this time).....anybody see what I'm trying to say? Maybe I'm not communicating myself very well on the count that its very early in the morning.
The way I see it as a Christian our duty is not to convict people but to show them a path, it's their choose what they do.
We are not to judge the people of the World with the Bible but our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.
Most are but not all. There are those few that think differently and love people for who they were created. Some people actually live the way Jesus did. And guest's have feelings too, they just don't have the commitment to make a username.
I'm not sure whether this point has been made, but history is written by the victorious. If God told man that gay marriage was ok and a few men didn't like it, if they killed all the other men then their side of the story is lost. Sorry about the late comment. No criticism intended, everyone is entitled to their own opinion.
In Quran it is said clearly that homosexuality is forbidden and everything else that's forbidden is clear like drinking and eating pork and premarital sex and other ....
Muslims believe in Jesus and Moses and all the prophets , Mohammad was mentioned less than them , There's a whole Sura (which means that it is kind of like a chapter) named Merriam , and for the ones who say that Islam treats women wrong there's a whole Sura walled Nissa (Women) that preserves their rights
Homosexuality is a huge sin in Islam ...
i'm just saying that everything is clear , Islam has severe punishments with sinners that's why you don't see any homosexuality in the Islamic countries
From the standpoint of argumentative logic, it undermines their position to misquote and seemingly misunderstand their own belief system. They may be taken more seriously if they were to quote New Testament to affirm their beliefs. Just my $0.02.
We are not to judge the people of the World with the Bible but our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.
Muslims believe in Jesus and Moses and all the prophets , Mohammad was mentioned less than them , There's a whole Sura (which means that it is kind of like a chapter) named Merriam , and for the ones who say that Islam treats women wrong there's a whole Sura walled Nissa (Women) that preserves their rights
Homosexuality is a huge sin in Islam ...