(Oops! Hit a button before I wuz done... trying again...)
May you all have peace... and yeah, some of you "knew" I was coming, but truly, what is the point of being one's servant/slave by choice, if you have no loyality or love for such one? None, yes? And so, I must "stand in the gap" and speak up for the Truth (John 14:6) WITH truth.
First, I must say that your choices to judge God based on what is written in the Bible is folly: the Bible does not depict God; you can only SEE God... HEAR God... and KNOW God... by knowing Christ. Do you want to know what God is truly LIKE? Then all you need do is know what His Son, the "image of God and EXACT representation of His being," was/is like. The Bible itself tells you this! And you can know His qualities, by the "creation". NOWHERE in the Bible does it say that by reading it (the Bible) and knowing what it (the Bible) says, can you know God. It DOES say, however, that folks keep searching IT... thinking they will find everlasting life... apparently, to no avail. Methinks, then, that many here are judging someone guilty, because they have not yet been proven innocent.
Second, we, earthling man, in our arrogance, always tends to overlook the FACTS! Let's take the account of Job, for instance: above, someone made comment about how Job went through this and that, even the emotional abuse of his "friends," and then was pretty much lamblasted by God, poor thing! What seems to ESCAPE folks is that GOD was not the "bad guy" here... and yet, JOB was accusing Him of being so! Let me run this by you:
1. You are a "blind" man/woman. Dannybear keeps coming up and slapping the mess outta you, taking your stuff, harming your family. Now, you know Danny exists (sorry, Danny for using you this way, but please... accomodate me? Thank you!), and that he's pretty much a bad guy. But, rather than even THINK it might be Danny, you call yourself "defending" poor MULAN... by saying, "Well, if Mulan wants to slap me, I'm sure she has a good reason!" Now, rather than jump up and say, "Hey, wait a minute, I didn't TOUCH you, you little..." well, you get the picture, Mulan stays quiet. Why? Because she THINKS that at SOME point you're gonna come to your senses, realize that you KNOW her, and know that SHE would NEVER do such a thing! But, you never do. You never come to your senses, but rather than right out accuse Mulan of being a wicked girl, you just say, "Well, I am SURE Mulan has her reasons."
Finally... let's see... ummm... Big Red stands up and says, "Hey, you... you're WRONG! God isn't doing this to you! You know better than that! You KNOW Him, don't you? Don't we ALL?"... and everyone gets silent for a sec to contemplate, well, yeah, we DO know God. But rather than think that PERHAPS someone else (dear Danny) is slappin' the heck outta Mulan, you go... "Yeah, we DO know God, and we DO know He wouldn't do this... so why is He DOING it?"
Get the picture, folks! Eventually, Mulan is going to HAVE to stand up for herself... 'cause you didn't give her a CHOICE. You COULD have pardoned yourself for your error when Big Red corrected you, but... you were SO certain of your OWN rightness (could I have been WRONG in accusing Mulan? Me?!)... that you did not. Not until Mulan herself said, "Hey! I could exterminate you with one breath. Why in the WORLD would I play these games with you?! You KNOW me, don't you? Or DO you?"
Think about that for a minute... and then consider this: Sabine wrote:
1. God's love is totally conditional, if you don't follow all his rules (mostly inforced to prove he is the boss) you are deserving of death.
As is everyone's. EVERYONE's love... is conditional. And JAH does not have to "prove" that He is boss... He IS boss. You... and MOST folks... have been MISLED into thinking that the Law... was written for ALL of mankind. It was not. It was written for Israel... and those WITH them... that AGREED to be BOUND by it! And by joining the WTBTS or any other religion that pushes the Law... you, too, AGREE... to be bound by it! But God did not hold you hostage and make you answer "yes" to those questions propounded by the WTBTS, if indeed you were of such ones. I was. Praise JAH... He set me FREE from that Law... by means of Christ.
2. God cursed Cain, and his descendents who unfortunately are black. This has given all good christians just the excuse they need to perpetuate racism.
Yikes! Sabine, dear one, this is not true. Black people are descendants of Cush, who was a son of Ham, whose OTHER son, Canaan, was cursed. As a result, the land of Canaan... was given to Abraham... and his seed. (Please note that I find it peculiar that you fault God for 'cursing' Cain - although God actually issued a decree that Cain NOT be harmed - even though Cain was the first murderer, and killed his own brother. But then, you are, after all, flesh with its blood... and "reason" as such!)
3. God had a choosen people...any parent dumb enough to admit one of his kids is his favorite is just asking for trouble....oh yeah, hence the whole middle east problem.
Again, you err. Israel was chosen only as means to fulfillment of a PROMISE... made to Abraham. When Abraham proved that he would withhold HIS only-begotten son (by his free wife, Sarah) from God, God promised not to withhold HIS only-begotten son (by HIS free wife, the spirit realm, Jerusalem Above) from Abraham; not Abraham only, but his entire lineage! Can YOU imagine gaining such favor with God that no matter WHAT they did, incorrigible as they might be, your "brats" would be saved ANYWAY... because of YOUR friendship with God?! Who could laugh in the face of that? Certainly not me. If I can save must my two... then praise JAH!
4. Men are superior to women, just under Jesus. This has only affected half the world's population adversely.
That was neither mandated nor taught by either God OR Jesus. Both regarded women highly. May I suggest that you forget about Paul's supposed position until you better understand what he wrote and WHY, and concentrate on the women revered by God: Deborah, Sarah, Ruth, Rahab (a prostitute, but that had NOTHING to do with the price of tea...), Mary, Mary the Magdalene (another prostitute, but so what?)... etc., etc., etc.
5. Spare the rod, spoil the child. God gives permission to beat the crap out of kids...great.
May I suggest you read this verse in its Hebrew form? Again, a mistranliteration has occurred, rendering this verse to presume child abuse. It is talking about the "rod... of discipline," which is not a literal stick (although earthling man, in his evil heart, has made it out to be and USED it!); this is NOT the "rod" of PUNISHMENT! Discipline is TRAINING. Which of his "disciples" did my Lord abuse? Beat? Act harshly with? You've got to stop reading these things in ENGLISH... and listening to what earthling man has taught you they mean. Please!
6. Your heart is treacherous, you are a good for nothing slave, etc. How can you love your neighbor as yourself when the bible teaches self loathing????
But it's TRUE... whether we wish to hear it, see it or acknowledge it: our hearts ARE treacherous! How many times have they led into mistakes that we WISH we had done differently? This wasn't meant as means to teach self-loathing; it was MEANT to tell you to KNOW YOURSELF! For if you KNOW yourself... if you are HONEST about who... and WHAT you are... you MIGHT be able to save yourself SOME trouble (maybe; maybe not. depends on whether you listen... even to yourself! Most don't, including me, from time to time!)
As for being good for nothing slaves, in truth, that is what we ALL are... or, at least... OUGHT to be! Servants... to one another! Can you imagine what the world would be like if we ALL put serving the next one in FRONT... rather than BEING served? ALL of us? No matter what our skin, our race, our religion, our age, our country, etc.? If we all woke up every day saying, "What can I do for...", rather than, "What can someone do for me?"
But that is what we SHOULD be doing... for it is the example... the "footsteps" we were left to follow.
7. There is only one way to God's favor, all the other billions, tough!!!
Yes. Love. And is that truly SO hard? Sigh! Nevermind; I know the answer.
Dear ones... you are slinging false accusations based on "circumstantial" evidence. You are putting God on trial... and yet, you yourself weren't there; you were/are not an eyewitness. So, you are deigning to rely on the "testimony" of others, although such testimony ITSELF says that the "stylus" of the scribes was "false". Tell me, how would YOU feel if you were on trial before people who weren't even there, who were relying SOLELY on what APPEARED to be the case... rather than the facts? Would you not want your day in court? And would you not want all to be silent until you've had it?
I exhort you, then, beg you... do not commit this error. Do NOT judge God in your hearts based on "circumstantial" evidence. Job did that, and was corrected. You have that very account to go on. Please, then, let the matter play itself out. Let the PROOF of who is at fault, who is guilty... be brought to the fore. When? Whenever. It may come in your lifetime; it may not. However, your lifetime... and mine... is but an exhalation when compared to God. We, then, can we judge hastily in what, to Him, is a matter of days? Would YOU want to be judged inside of, say, 10 days... and without a proper trial? Should the ants that YOU kill, call YOU to task? Is not their lifespan to them, as important as yours is to you?
If, therefore, you do not wish to BE judged... I admonish you... do NOT judge. For with the same judgment that you are judging, you will BE judged. And if you think HARD enough, you know durn well you've done something, somewhere... somehow... to someone or something... for which you NEED forgiveness.
I bid you peace!
A slave of Christ,
SJ
Edited by - AGuest on 29 September 2002 0:0:23
