Matthew 20-21

[wolfpurplemoon]

Ok, I'm all for treating people equalling and fairly, but if you worked for 12 hours and someone else worked for 1 hour you would be well within your rights to complain if they got paid the same as you for the whole day, equal in this case would be the same amount per hour worked. The unions would love Jesus.

Jesus hasn't got the power to grant shotgun rights to anyone who wants to sit next to him in heaven.

Jesus decides to make an entrance when he arrives at Jerusalem, riding on a donkey with crowds shouting his praises and scattering branches on the road. He then evicts the market set up on the steps of the temple because they are defiling his house of prayer.

Jesus gets unnecessarily annoyed with a fig tree that happened to not be bearing fruit, he curses it and it dies. If he hadn't evicted the market traders then he could've had a meal and not been so hungry that he was moody.

Jesus asks the leaders some riddles in parable form because they questioned his authority, their answers seem to condemn them. They want to arrest him but fear his groupies.

Comments

Please Stop Reading

[allusionist tlamar (from livejournal.com)]

It is your choice to believe or not believe but is a disservice to you to read the book the way you are. You are not reading for the sake of inlightenment. This is more of an attempt to say that you tried but it (the bible) failed. You are not reading from a bible writen by a believer or using any of the resources that those who believe use to educate them selves on the subject. This tatic is as open minded as reading a Gleen Beck book to develop a defensive understanding of progresives.
Please pick up some of the Sartre, Camus or other existentialist, they would provide more productive reading for you.

Re: Please Stop Reading

[wolfpurplemoon]

I don't think I need to read a bible written by a believer as I get plenty of alternative perspectives through the comments here, which surely means the bible and its believers are getting plenty of chances to convince me - presumably the people who come here have made use of these resources you speak about.

The fact that all of this has failed to move me from my position of non-belief doesn't mean I'm not open minded, but that I have logic and reason on my side so I'm waiting for the extraordinary evidence to back up the extraordinary claims (to paraphrase Carl Sagan)

But, I'm guessing it's the mention of the Skeptic's Annotated Bible that has you concerned for the fairness of my bible reading, I've actually changed tactics since I wrote my intro, so what I am reading now is a modern translation and I'm only skimming the annotations in the SAB as they mostly relate to the KJV and its quirks and strange turns of phrase.

Re: Please Stop Reading

[(Anonymous)]

Please go back and read my comment one more time. Really, go back and read it.


No where in there did I request you to believe. The bible teaches that no matter how good of any arguement a believer gives some people will never beliver. Coming to belief is always between the individual and God. The believer is there to educate people on the faith when they are interested in learning. When Believers attempt to educate mockers they are casting pearls to pigs.
I only requested that you properly study the content like you would any other subject. Instead you hide behind the statement 'I am being open mind; I am just to smart to believe.' Even if you think that every word in the book is crap you should have a better understanding of what is being said. You come on here talking like you get what the text means to the believer, belittling the bible and demanding that others beg you to come to believe. He who gives little, gets little.
I am not here to sway your view of Christianity. I am here to promote productivity. You are wasting your time and the time of those whom try to explain the passages to you.
If you want to learn act like you want to learn get the right material and study the way believers study. Or continue to let you ignorance shine as you make elementary jokes and commentary that show you don't know what you are talking about. You don't have to believe but please speak educatedly.

Re: Please Stop Reading

[liedownlovely.livejournal.com]

If I'm hearing you correctly, you're telling a non-believer who has never read the Bible before that her commentary shows she's never read it and doesn't know what she's talking about. When she's never read it.

...the whole point of her reading it, and writing her initial gut reaction is to become educated. Of course her initial thoughts will not be believer-centric, because she is not one. But she is not "mocking" the Bible just because she doesn't believe in it - when you read books, do you believe 100% of everything written in order to "understand" it? I certainly hope not.

I don't understand this process of "You can't read the Bible because to understand it you must believe, and to believe, you must read the Bible" logic that you as well as another commenter last month brought up. Perhaps you can address it better than the last: how can a non-believer be saved if they will not understand the Bible unless they're already saved? This is excluding having Christian witnesses explain it, because it's a never ending chain; where did they hear it from? Who was the first believer? How did he, in his sinful ignorance, understand something he could only understand if he believed in it before reading?

If you wish to promote productivity, may I humbly suggest doing something else besides telling someone to stop reading a book? I doubt after going through the whole Old Testament she is going to stop now, especially when the modern Christian movements put so much weight into the New Testament and Jesus' teachings. This is "the good part", so to speak, and supposedly it applies to modern day society, so what harm can it do for her to finish?

Just my thoughts.

P.S. "Educatedly" is not a word. Therefore, she can't speak "educatedly".

Re: Please Stop Reading

[wolfpurplemoon]

You tell me to read your comment but you've obviously not read my disclaimer (try visiting: http://community.livejournal.com/wolfbiblemoon/profile), I definitely don't talk like I get what the text means to the believer because I've never been one. As I don't have much prior experience of the text I'm just writing about what it appears to mean from my point of view, if what I come up with from just reading the text is wrong then you're welcome to correct me.

And if disagreeing with the bible is belittling it, then I'm very sorry but no idea has the right to 100% protected from disagreement or criticism.

Re: Please Stop Reading

[(Anonymous)]

I'm just curious if you don't believe in God. What is your logical explanation for our miraculous creation...I have no doubt but it always boggles my mind with the atheist and their disbelief..it is beyond our finite human comprehension and I think those who choose not to believe just can't deal with that which they don't understand.

Re: Please Stop Reading

[wolfpurplemoon]

Or more likely: those who choose to believe just can't deal with that which they don't understand. It may make you feel special to believe that the entire universe was created for us finite humans, but the fact is we just adapted to the world around us, and I find that being the product of a long line of 'lucky' chances is so much more astounding than 'God did it'.

Re: Please Stop Reading

[(Anonymous)]

Oh I believe that we are all incredibly special..I feel blessed to have the relationship that I do have with God and realize that everyone's relationship is different...I just pray for all to enjoy such a relationship...it is freedom and peace that I could never put into words..I will pray for you and that the Word will speak to you in such a way that your heart will be opened...please keep reading and surely "question with boldness even the very existence of God..."
Praying for you and all non believers :)

Re: Please Stop Reading

[(Anonymous)]

Hey! Unfair! Don't put me in that box! I believe in Science. I believe in God. I don't claim to understand either fully. That would be ignorant.
Antimatter exists. Awe-inspiring, yes?

:)

[(Anonymous)]

If I may ask, what has led you into wanting to read the Bible?

Re: Please Stop Reading

[(Anonymous)]

The bible makes the wisdom of the world foolish and the least of this world great beyond belief. I have been a sceptic of the bible and what it teaches before and there is nothing that anyone can say to convince you of the truth of the bible if god doesn't open your heart and mind first and foremost to understand. To an objective reader the bible is just a story, to me it tells my story, my past and my future, its very relevant to today because of the things that have happened in my life and how god has used that to open my eyes and my mind to see things I never saw before and understand things I never understood before. I pray that one day you will come to know what I now know, that you'll wake up one day and the lights will go on and you'll get it. Till then the bible will continue to be folly and folishness to you - without faith, the bible is near to nothing to a person.

Re: Please Stop Reading

[hypatiaslore.livejournal.com]

I don't think I've ever heard of anyone who believes in the bible telling a non-believer to actually stop reading the bible. Do you honestly believe that it will harm anyone to read the bible? Assuming you think this is the word of your god in some fashion, whether literal or inspired, you truly believe that even reading that word of god with a closed mind is a disservice in some way? How is that even possible with an omnipotent being and an infallible word? I truly mean no disrespect to you or your religion. However, while her interpretation of this book may not be the same as yours, I am seriously surprised at the reaction of anyone giving the advice to drop the project altogether.

Re: Please Stop Reading

[allusionist tlamar (from livejournal.com)]

If Jesus stood before people time after time showing that he is God and they called him everything but... Go back through your bible and you will see many people will not believe by choice. I sad that because the commentaries are writen out of hate for the word not ignorance and a longing for understanding. Even Jesus said things that meant leave me alone when they reflect they are not being real. "let the dead bury the dead" "sell everthing and join me."
Believers are doing God a disservice by seeing people mock God with the mask of reading the bible and making observations and not calling them out. If the reader wanted to read and not comment fine but to read just to mock God... I was telling a mocker to stop reading to mock God not the Ethiopian in Acts.

Re: Please Stop Reading

[liedownlovely.livejournal.com]

This comment doesn't even direct any of the questions hypatiaslore raised. So perhaps we can try again, because I'm really interested why anyone would say "please stop reading the Bible, which is the key to salvation. Please stop reading even though I have been instructed, as a follower of Jesus Christ, to share His word with the whole world":

Do you honestly believe that it will harm anyone to read the Bible?

Do you believe reading the word of God, even with a closed mind, is a disservice in some way?

Re: Please Stop Reading

[hypatiaslore.livejournal.com]

I am still not understanding your intent by telling a person to stop reading the bible. Just because she is not coming to the same conclusions that you came to, how does that do a disservice to her or anyone by her giving her honest opinion about what she reads?

She's being real here. What possible motivation does she have otherwise? You think that she is mocking God just because she disagrees with him? Why bother giving me a brain at all and a choice of free will if I'm allowed to disagree with every mind in existence except for His? What if I just simply disagree with God's morality? That's not mocking him. That's making a decision.

Re: Please Stop Reading

[wolfpurplemoon]

I think this God fellow must be quite thin skinned if a little disagreement or even mocking can harm him or if he needs the protection of his believers.

I also think you just strayed into silencing free speech territory there by saying I have the right to read but not the right to comment on what I've read, I would never tell a believer they have no right to talk about the bible because I disagree with their views.