by sabastious 50 Replies latest jw friends
Tells us how you really feel Finally-free ;)
What can I say, it's been one of "those" years and it's getting to me. I've even decided to celebrate anti-Christmas in my own personal act of rebellion. Instead of turkey, I will eat hot dogs, french fries, meat pies, and a McCain cake for Christmas dinner. I will also spend the day watching spagetti westerns and drinking the cheapest wine I can find.
W
What can I say, it's been one of "those" years and it's getting to me. I've even decided to celebrate anti-Christmas in my own personal act of rebellion. Instead of turkey, I will eat hot dogs, french fries, meat pies, and a McCain cake for Christmas dinner. I will also spend the day watching spagetti westerns and drinking the cheapest wine I can find.
W
Dude, whatever you think you may have done, there is no need to punish yourself in that way !!
PSacramento
In other words, we not only evolve to be where we are, we must also evolve to find God and evolve to be God, but that stage is only possible with Gods' help ( as the beginning was only possible with God's help).
The first part of this I can concur with. The second part: 'that stage is only possible with Gods' help,' is something that remains a possibility for me. I rule nothing out and nothing in.
Slippery enough for you?
why does the [God of the] Bible COMMAND us to love God?
Greetings, dear Sab... and peace to you! I would like to respond, if I may, and ask that you try to "listen" and "hear" what I am going to share with you. I am going to be candid, but please know that I mean NO offense. I truly do not wish you or anyone else to misread my tone or intent because I am only going to share what it TRUE... and if you listen... you will know what I mean.
You asked why the Bible (and/or the God of the Bible) commands us to love God. First, dear one, the problem lies with the word "us." Here's the account you quoted:
"One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that [Jesus] had given them a good answer, he asked him, 'Of all the commandments, which is the most important?' 'The most important one,' answered [Jesus], “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.'"
Who, may I ask... is "us"? WHO is commanded to "love God" here? Is it the entire world, including the nations? Or is it Israel? Who asked my Lord the question? Someone of the nations... or someone of Israel? And to whom was the scripture (from Deut.) quoted? Egypt? Assyria? Greece? Or... Israel?
Given those questions, I have to ask: why do... and others... assume that what is written in the Bible is to YOU? Why do you assume that those addressed are OTHER than Israel? It is not, dear one... with the exception of those who GO WITH Israel.
With that said, you should be able to answer your next question:
Why does such a command even need to exist in the first place?
Because Israel kept FORGETTING that truth... that One was their God... that they should love Him... and they should love their neigbor as theirselves... which was the PLEDGE they agreed to... the COVENANT they entered into... at Sinai! The Bible... particularly the scriptures... and all kinds of other writings are chock FULL with examples of their "forgetfulness"... and the repeated efforts of the Most Holy One of Israel to REMIND them.
What an odd thing to demand of your subjects (creations).
It was not a demand: it was the TERMS of a two-party agreement... between God and Israel... mediated by Moses. Which Israel (and those who went with her) was supposed to "inculcate" in themselves... and in their children. Which they kept "forgetting" to do. In default of the covenant. Which default God kept overlooking and forgiving them for... and still does. Because even still... ALL Israel will be saved. Just not all of them will be a "[holy] nation of kings and priests." Most will be subjects of the kingdom in which that "nation" rules... and thus, ruled over BY such ones, including people of the nations... to their great chagrin.
Didn't have to be that way, though. Doesn't still, for some of "us" (Israel).
I hope this helps you "see" what this is all about a little better, dear Sab. And if you actually ARE Israel... well, then, "us" is totally applicable to you and your household... and perhaps now you can better understand the reminder.
Again, peace to you!
A slave of Christ,
SA
Why does the God of the Bible command us to love him?
Because no one could possibly love him based on his biblical resume.
Force is his only option to fill his mammoth ego. [even though he is just a fable, we must pretend he is real to answer the question]
Jeff
Because no one could possibly love him based on his biblical resume.
If a person looks at God through Christ (the only way we can see Him, for who He truly is), then that 'resume' gets a lot more compelling. In fact, I don't know of a reason for a person not to love Christ.
Sab - someone asked Jesus what was the most important commandment. Someone who already had all the commandments, but needed to know which one meant the most. Love God and love neighbor is that answer, and all the others (as Jesus said) flow from these two. And besides what Shelby said above, if you love God and Christ, and they love us, or show mercy to us, then we would strive to love or show mercy to all our neighbors anyway - as a natural benefit of putting God and Christ first.
Tammy
The bible was written by man many, many years ago, as a way to control the masses. If you tell someone to obey you, they might do it, but then they might not. If you tell them "An all powerful being will ruin you forever if you don't do as he says, and well, what he says just happens to work in our favour, but, GOD wanted us to butcher you, humilate you, molest your children, burn your women at the stake, tear apart families if they don't conform to our, I mean GODs wishes." well then they might just believe you, because the masses are as smart as a tic tac. Always have been... yadda yadda yadda
Because he doesn't deserve it. This Almighty Lowlife Scumbag wants us to love him, yet he doesn't want us to ever have a reason to. Rather, he wants to give us every reason to HATE him, yet demand under death and/or hell threats that we love him anyways. Hopefully, this will not work--and all the more so with the Internet exposing this Almighty Lowlife Scumbag as being nothing more than a Baghead.
Hyperbole is very common in the Bible and needs to be read with some objectivity to what was occuring in the culture. For instance this idea that the Jews kept abandoning God and get all of this flack about not doing so and so is a little off the mark. Even in the odd accounts of the Gospels you have Jesus showing up at Sabbath Readings, if everyone was so bad and negligent why are the Jews at every Sabbath Reading Jesus shows up at, he walks in and there everyone is already sitting around, curious no?
