Don’t take my position as just-in-case. That position strikes me as being better than rejection in the case of someone on the fence is all.
Especially when the Bible teaches you to stone adulterers to death.
World can be a harsh place, anon. It’s not that stoning adulterers is good, it’s that adultery is bad and we should fear committing it, fear it for our lives if need be. Other things are of the same type. People will abandon what’s best for the long term all the time if they think they can get away with it in the moment. It’s just how we are, and it’s not among our best traits. There are many verses like this. “If you dare get that match near the stove again, you’ll see what’s going to happen”, but imposed from .. I currently prefer to keep the consequences I consider confined to the material plane, which tends to be true enough. Most of these consequences are for believers, too, though there are some things that get applied to everyone, regardless of their beliefs (“Hi, Planned Parenthood! God sees you.”). There have been longstanding connections that indicate to me that the God of Abraham is real. I actually tend to suspect that the old Pagan gods were real (in a bad way, obviously) and several of them are currently remanifesting themselves spiritually, which is … not a good thing for anyone, and also ascribes more reasoning for the behaviors and beliefs of our ancestors than mere superstition and mass cultural deceit. I don’t agree with their character, but if some supernatural being was imposing itself on your town, 4000 years ago, in the absence of an opposing force or directive, you’d probably do what it demanded, too!
It's not a matter of just deciding to believe in God or not. It's a matter of why you believe or not. If the concept of God makes no sense at all to someone, it's not simply a matter of rejecting God. It's a matter of not having a reason to believe in God in the first place.
Meanwhile, I have had proven to me, from a logical standpoint (mind you, not one that I can recreate for others, but to where I personally have zero doubt, as a fairly logic-based person) that spiritual existence is real. I have had experience with several “coincidental” miracles, and several “experiential” miracles, and have no doubt that a hand of providence, for whatever purpose, has guided aspects of my life and kept me here and safe, however much suffering it has taken me to get through some of those passages (which in my life are admittedly relatively minor compared to the shocking traumas of many people i know) and pointed me in this direction. To what ends, I don’t yet know.
It's not a matter of rejecting it. It's a matter of not believing it exists in the first place. To reject something means that one believes there is something there to reject.
The character of God is reflected in His instruction. Whether you believe some superior being exists or not, that instruction absolutely exists. Let it be known that I have a great deal of beef with the church for what I see as failing to teach it adequately or correctly, and in many cases, actively opposing what is written. The current church as a whole is a poor reflection of the scripture. No knock on any specific congregation.
I also don’t necessarily agree with the concept of “bringing everyone into the faith as converts” while neglecting to make disciples in full - to the point that there are almost no disciples at all. There is a lot of validity to the mockery of the Flying Spaghetti Monster with the way that Christians teach the Bible.
I’m not trying to convince you, but only to let you know that if we start getting it right, you will see the light, in a manifest way, as it once was, and that when we get there, you don’t need to be able to visualize or imagine God to believe, but only to know His character, and we have that character written down. It just takes a lot of earnest humility and struggle.
I will happily write this up for you, but it’s going to take me some time. I know they’re there, but it’s going to be some effort to find them and aggregate and write and whatnot.
Forgot all about this, but it should definitely be a thread. Marked it to my “topics” list.
I will happily write this up for you, but it’s going to take me some time. I know they’re there, but it’s going to be some effort to find them and aggregate and write and whatnot.
Forgot all about this, but it should definitely be a thread. Marked it to my “topics” list.
Apologies, but one more thing - in another post since you read/responded already.
It’s not that stoning adulterers is good, it’s that adultery is bad and we should fear committing it, fear it for our lives if need be. Other things are of the same type. People will abandon what’s best for the long term all the time if they think they can get away with it in the moment. It’s just how we are, and it’s not among our best traits.
Note how the communists are actively attacking the family structure, and have been for decades, if not centuries. They understand, rightly, that parental ownership of children will always result in some degree of defection from their programming, and the method to resist it.
The end goal of communism is one central, inescapable worldly point of power - the capstone of the pyramid. Our goal is decentralization of power. Tear that damned thing to the ground.
While stoning an adulterer could be seen as harsh, which I noted, one purpose of that harshness is to protect, as being of utmost importance, a foundational building block of the societal structure standing in the way of their pyramid.
As we’ve broken down here, as we’ve allowed our families to disintegrate, they’ve stepped in and taken those children and made them theirs, made them to serve The Eye. The penalty is harsh because honoring the practice is of critical importance to [them] not winning, and they know it.
One point of many as to why I agree with the practicality of the Character and the Logos of it. To hell with their big club, and that’s from a big soft bleeding heart, who hates seeing anyone suffer the consequences of their deviations. All it costs to not get stoned for committing adultery is keep it in its home till getting home. It’s not that hard. (rimshot). Also worth noting, this law was not enforced very often. Mercy is a thing, too.
Better late than never fren! No worries!
Don’t take my position as just-in-case. That position strikes me as being better than rejection in the case of someone on the fence is all.
World can be a harsh place, anon. It’s not that stoning adulterers is good, it’s that adultery is bad and we should fear committing it, fear it for our lives if need be. Other things are of the same type. People will abandon what’s best for the long term all the time if they think they can get away with it in the moment. It’s just how we are, and it’s not among our best traits. There are many verses like this. “If you dare get that match near the stove again, you’ll see what’s going to happen”, but imposed from .. I currently prefer to keep the consequences I consider confined to the material plane, which tends to be true enough. Most of these consequences are for believers, too, though there are some things that get applied to everyone, regardless of their beliefs (“Hi, Planned Parenthood! God sees you.”). There have been longstanding connections that indicate to me that the God of Abraham is real. I actually tend to suspect that the old Pagan gods were real (in a bad way, obviously) and several of them are currently remanifesting themselves spiritually, which is … not a good thing for anyone, and also ascribes more reasoning for the behaviors and beliefs of our ancestors than mere superstition and mass cultural deceit. I don’t agree with their character, but if some supernatural being was imposing itself on your town, 4000 years ago, in the absence of an opposing force or directive, you’d probably do what it demanded, too!
Meanwhile, I have had proven to me, from a logical standpoint (mind you, not one that I can recreate for others, but to where I personally have zero doubt, as a fairly logic-based person) that spiritual existence is real. I have had experience with several “coincidental” miracles, and several “experiential” miracles, and have no doubt that a hand of providence, for whatever purpose, has guided aspects of my life and kept me here and safe, however much suffering it has taken me to get through some of those passages (which in my life are admittedly relatively minor compared to the shocking traumas of many people i know) and pointed me in this direction. To what ends, I don’t yet know.
The character of God is reflected in His instruction. Whether you believe some superior being exists or not, that instruction absolutely exists. Let it be known that I have a great deal of beef with the church for what I see as failing to teach it adequately or correctly, and in many cases, actively opposing what is written. The current church as a whole is a poor reflection of the scripture. No knock on any specific congregation.
I also don’t necessarily agree with the concept of “bringing everyone into the faith as converts” while neglecting to make disciples in full - to the point that there are almost no disciples at all. There is a lot of validity to the mockery of the Flying Spaghetti Monster with the way that Christians teach the Bible.
I’m not trying to convince you, but only to let you know that if we start getting it right, you will see the light, in a manifest way, as it once was, and that when we get there, you don’t need to be able to visualize or imagine God to believe, but only to know His character, and we have that character written down. It just takes a lot of earnest humility and struggle.
Forgot all about this, but it should definitely be a thread. Marked it to my “topics” list.
I would really be interested in seeing it.
Apologies, but one more thing - in another post since you read/responded already.
Note how the communists are actively attacking the family structure, and have been for decades, if not centuries. They understand, rightly, that parental ownership of children will always result in some degree of defection from their programming, and the method to resist it.
The end goal of communism is one central, inescapable worldly point of power - the capstone of the pyramid. Our goal is decentralization of power. Tear that damned thing to the ground.
While stoning an adulterer could be seen as harsh, which I noted, one purpose of that harshness is to protect, as being of utmost importance, a foundational building block of the societal structure standing in the way of their pyramid.
As we’ve broken down here, as we’ve allowed our families to disintegrate, they’ve stepped in and taken those children and made them theirs, made them to serve The Eye. The penalty is harsh because honoring the practice is of critical importance to [them] not winning, and they know it.
One point of many as to why I agree with the practicality of the Character and the Logos of it. To hell with their big club, and that’s from a big soft bleeding heart, who hates seeing anyone suffer the consequences of their deviations. All it costs to not get stoned for committing adultery is keep it in its home till getting home. It’s not that hard. (rimshot). Also worth noting, this law was not enforced very often. Mercy is a thing, too.