a friend of mine and i were discussing chritianity the other day and he mentioned that, at times, jesus seemd rather cruel and outside the proper tradions of the jewish people.. how so i asked?.
ex:matthew 8:21-22, where a man wants to follow jesus and askes to be allowed to bury his dead father and jesus replies for him to let the dead bury the dead.. there is also the case of matthew 15:21-28 with the cannanite woman who's daughter was possed and jesus said that he was their for the jews and that it would not be right to take the childrens bread and toss it to the dogs.. both passages are rather, well...cruel.. but.. in my view, and this is mine, they seemed to be "tests" that jesus was doing, in regards to the cannanite woman, her answer to the crule comparision was simply that even dog's eat the crumbs off their masters table and jesus' reply was that she had great faith and that her daughter was healed.. it seemed to me as a test of how much we are willing to give of ourselves ( in this case pride) for the betterment of our loved ones, she was more than willing to be humble and as such, her duaghter was saved.. in regards to the man who wanted to bury his father, something that was crucial in jewish law (honour they father) it seemed to me as being another test, i would think that if the man has said yes right away that jesus probably would have said, " go and bury your father, i will be here for you", the man's faith haveing been demonstrated to be true and willing.. .
thoughts?.
Jesus was a man on a mission... mission to die as ransom for the sake of mankind... that in itself is the greatest care ever shown to man....
Matthew 10:34 is a prophecy and not a policy statement....
The occassions wherein he appears uncaring can be interepreted reasonably to be meaning different as already done by some of the previous posts... the larger picture of giving his life for mankind should be kept in mind...
can anyone confirm what i read on another website that the aid to bible undertsanding, 1971 pages 884-885, admit that the term jehovah is a combination of yhwh and the words adonia and elohim and that scholars generally favour "yahweh" as the correct pronunciation?.
is this correct?.
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Whats in the name anyway? Even Jesus is not the exact replication of the Greek name ... God is intelligent ... and so he will understand the complexities of translating...
And i dont seem to know any scripture in the Bible which prohibits people from pronouncing his name... In fact the Old Testament prophets and many others in the Old Testament did call out to him using his name. Why would he reveal his name, if he wanted people not to use it!
This idea of God not wanting his name to be used arose from Jewish traditions and is quite a vivid example of how the Jews embraced style over substance. Profaning God's name refers to doing things against God's principles while claiming as God's people. It is not over-pronouncing God's name.
i posted this a before under an other topis, but i think it's a good question for a new topic!.
one of the things i never understout as a young kid was this:.
the question i had as a kid was: if god is almighty than he would of known that adam and eve and....satan... and demons....would sin before he even created anything.. my father who was an elder back then could never give me a good answer.... my dad would say something like because it's was necessary for god to show us and the angels, we can only have a good live if we live it like god wants .
Finally Free says a death sentence for eating a piece of fruit is a poor example of punishment fitting a crime. Extending this sentence to all offspring is not something that you could call divine justice. It seems more demonic to me.
Actually, Adam died because he was thrown out of Eden and hence he could not sustain his life. God did not kill Adam. God had told Adam precisely what was expected of him and what would befall him if he acted to the contrary. Adam chose to act contrary. It was not as if God cheated Adam. Eating a piece of fruit or not, Adam knew what he was getting into.
As per extending the sentence to all offspring... Adam is a product and his offspring are the byproducts and hence if the source is corrupted, naturally the byproducts get the same disease. God did not have to extend the punishment. Adam brought it upon all. God is only intending to save everyone despite the fact that it was Adam who broke the rules of engagement
i posted this a before under an other topis, but i think it's a good question for a new topic!.
one of the things i never understout as a young kid was this:.
the question i had as a kid was: if god is almighty than he would of known that adam and eve and....satan... and demons....would sin before he even created anything.. my father who was an elder back then could never give me a good answer.... my dad would say something like because it's was necessary for god to show us and the angels, we can only have a good live if we live it like god wants .
Hi dutchstef,
God is almighty but i am questioning the way we define almighty...
God can do anything but does that essentially have to involve knowing everything beforehand? Even human kings were called mighty....
There are occassions in Old Testament when Israelites do some mistake and God is genuinely surprised and angry... all that would be a farce if God knew everything beforehand!
i posted this a before under an other topis, but i think it's a good question for a new topic!.
one of the things i never understout as a young kid was this:.
the question i had as a kid was: if god is almighty than he would of known that adam and eve and....satan... and demons....would sin before he even created anything.. my father who was an elder back then could never give me a good answer.... my dad would say something like because it's was necessary for god to show us and the angels, we can only have a good live if we live it like god wants .
Hi... i am kind of new to this forum... so hi to all here... i have moved away from JW very recently... but then i was not in touch with them for very long...
I think this question of did God knew and if so why allow sin arises only because we have been taught to have this image of God as an all-knowing person... I believe that God can control history, much like how firgures of history like Napoleon or Alexander controlled and influenced history... him being God, he can do it much more effectively but i don't think he can predict individuals and their free will... God did not know Adam and others would sin... he must have been as surprised as anyone else when they did... when they did Sin, he improvised and laid out a plan for their redemption.... this does not paint God as the usual image we have in mind of an all-knowing person but paints him rather as someone like us human beings... which i believe he is... we were created in his image after all... but ofcourse he is infinitely powerful and hence he does decisively influence history...
