Does the Bible scare anyone else here sometimes?

missy04

Maybe I'm just messed up, but I get really freaked out sometimes. I can't understand the Bible,.....In some places it seems like it's saying all you have to do is one or two things, then it seems like it's saying you have to do different things to be saved...

So many different people and religions have so many different takes on the Bible. I don't know which to beleive, and it scares me that if I beleived the wrong thing that I could go to Hell, or just go to sleep forever as the Witnesses say. I don't even know where I'm going if I'm bad!

It seems SOOO complicated to me.

Maybe I was dropped on my head when I was a baby..lol

AHHHHHH HELPPP!!!!!

Really freaked out here.

czarofmischief

Okay... let me try to spell it out nice and slow:

A long time ago there was a guy named Constantine. He was Emperor of a place called Rome, which used to be a city but conquered most of the areas of Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. There was a small cult built around the teachings of an executed rebel named Jesus that was causing a fair bit of dissension in Constantine's Empire. Instead of persecuting and executing these madmen, as was the policy of previous emperors, Constantine decided to use the "Christian" cult to win his civil war and consolidate his power.

Upon winning the civil war - he appointed a clique of leading Christian madmen to select some of their holy writings as a "canon" and also defined several of the doctrinal disputes for them; including the Trinity and immortality of the soul. All of which was irrelevant to Constantine, he jsut wanted to reunify his fracturing empire.

The books that were picked were not declared "inspired" until much, much later. They were initially intended to be a Christian "reader" or a general synopsis of the complicated Egypto-Babylonian-Persian mystery cult that had adopted a huge dose of Greek philosophy on its way to coopting the monotheistic Judaic tradition. In a word, bullshit.

The Bible is a great book - it is inspiring and illuminating. It is also just a bunch of books written at different times for different purposes that were collected and chosen because they represented Imperial interests for Constantine's reign. That's why they seem to be coherent. They were handpicked for that purpose.

If you want to be saved, forget the Bible. It can't help you if you can't help yourself...

CZAR

frenchbabyface

I don't even know where I'm going if I'm bad!

Really I don't know what to say here ... maybe that you should know if you are bad or not, (scrutenise yourself but on realistic bases) what most of religions puted in your/our head(s) doesn't help at all ... it's nice to believe but it's better to live, cause maybe we only have one life ... it's a gift anyway ... live it fully in harmony with the reality ...

outbutnotdown

Missy,

Did Czar's post scare you more or freak you out more?

IMO, the Bible can be used for good purposes, as evidenced by its wise yet simple sayings such as "love your neighbour as yourself", etc. It can also be used for nasty purposes, as evidenced by the very fact that you are scared of going to hell.

Take the good stuff, toss out the bad.

Besides, there's only so much room in hell too, you know, and Czar has the last ticket for that ride.

Brad

Leolaia

The Bible is a library of different books written at different times by people with very different ideas about God. You get the old Canaanite ideas about El and Yahweh/Baal in some of the oldest parts of the OT, you get the post-exilic monotheistic view in some of the later OT books, Ecclesiastes gives the proto-Sadducee view of death -- while the Pharisee view is amply represented in the synoptic gospels. Paul argued that faith in Christ is what justifies sin, whereas James countered by arguing that faith without works is dead. Similarly, Paul said that everyone who calls on the Lord will be saved, whereas Matthew claimed that those who call on the Lord but do not do the will of God will be lost. Ephesians 2:15 says that Jesus abolished the Mosaic Law, Romans 10:4 said that "Christ is the end of the Law," while Matthew claims that Jesus did not come to abolish the Law and anyone who teaches otherwise is least in the kingdom of heaven. All this would seem to be contradictions if you regard the Bible as a unity, expressing a single religious perspective. But it is not a unity. If you really study it in detail, and understand the context in which biblical books were written, you will see that it is heterogenous, incorporating a diversity of different religious perspectives -- and representing to some extent the intellectually diverse nature of Judaism and early Christianity. I think of the OT as a "best of" selection of the literature of ancient Israel and Judea (including history, poetry, laws, proverbs, fiction), and I think of the NT as a selection of early Western, Gentile Christian works with a slight representation of Eastern, Jewish-Christian writings. Bear in mind too that the 66-book canon is not itself biblical but arose gradually over centuries and in the process, many other works were excluded and beyond that, many other sectarian and "popular" writings existed.

The basic point is that there isn't and never was a single, "true" teaching in the Bible about God, the future, and so forth. Narkissos said something pretty insightful about this recently:

This being said, I understand that there are many conflicting ideas and theologies in the Bible, and that any attempt to reconcile them into one consistent doctrine just results in creating yet another doctrine which doesn't exactly correspond to any single text. This is what the WT along with every church creed have done....Actually all "Bible believers" have to choose within the Bible what they (or their church) want to believe, and then read it into the rest of the Bible.

I hope this helps....a bit.

a friend in need

missy04:

Just by asking these questions shows you want to know the truth. The bible tells us that ' anyone calling on the name of Jehovah will be saved'. By seriously asking God for help, he will hear you. Personal bible reading will lead you in the right direction.

afin

gumby

By seriously asking God for help, he will hear you. Personal bible reading will lead you in the right direction.

Missy...welcome! Before you dive into the bible or religion to get answers, I would suggest reading backround on whatever it is first. Don't be afraid to look at the sceptical side, and .....continue examining the Christian/religious viewpoint. Then make an honest decision.

As far as did Jesus existed....why not go to a source OTHER than bible writers such as the 1st. Century Historian who lived at that time and see if he wrote about Jesus and the events that surrounded him. That would be a good start. Type in "Josephus" in your search engine.

I hope the best for you.

Gumby

avishai

OK, here is one thing that may help. Do you really think that a 100 year old shepherd could convince hundreds of grown men to cut part of their peckers off with flinty rocks?

gumby

Do you really think that a 100 year old shepherd could convince hundreds of grown men to cut part of their peckers off with flinty rocks?

Yea....s'pecially if that shepard convinced these same men that if they didn't, god would not only cut off their peckers, but he would incinerate their independent arses!!!!!

Gumby

Jez

I take the bible for what it is now. A book that gives us a teensy tiny glimpse of ancient ppl and their way of life.

It only scares me that it is totally from men's point of view, not one woman's.

Jez

Does the Bible scare anyone else here sometimes?

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