Carin Nel

The Old Testament is a dispensation where God, after sin came into the world through Adam and Eve's disobedience, had to step in after hundreds of years, and save a righteous family (Noah) from a corrupt world where evil prevailed and a mixed race existed out of the seed of the fallen angels (sons of God) and the daughters of men. That is where the giants of that time came from. God could not allow the corrupt human race to continue, as His Messiah had to be born out of a pure bloodline. He saved Noah from the flood and the rest was destroyed. At first they served God, but like in all families, some of them did not follow the Lord, moved away etc. and after a long period of tme and of course with the deceiver always there to deceive them, they eventually became estranged from God again and the idoatry was at the order of the day. After generation who covered the earth servng other gods and living unrighteous lives, forgetting God who saved them from the flood and who loved them, God decided to once again choose a man called Abram to becaome the father of a naton who would eventually become the Jewish nation. Abram was a heathen, but God saw something sincere in his heart. God always looks at a person's heart. He spoke to Abram, called him out of Ur with his whole famiy, his wives and slaves, to move to a land which God will show him. Isn't that faith? A heathen listening to a God he didn't know, has not seen, but knew who spoke to him and obeyed.
You see, when it happens, yu just know it, and you don't have to prove it. YOU DON'T EVEN WANT TO PROVE IT!!
Al the evidence that Abram existed and where he trekked is all over history.
Slavery and polygamy already existed and was part of that culture when God called Abram, so God did not initiate it, it was already there when he called Abram. Then God made rules to make it better for them, like every seven years they had to let a slave go free etc. and the laws on marriage.
To keep His people pure and safe from corruption, God had to be very strict with them and He treated them like children-1) because they were His chosen children out of whom the Messiah had to be born and therefore had to stay uncorrupt, and (2) they could not stay uncorrupt without those strict rules and the punishment for breakng the rules. God had to protect the purity of His people at all cost. That is why they were not allowed to mix with the corrupt other nations out of which He took them. He knew that if they intermarry again, they would be tempted into serving the idols of their wives etc. If you read the Old Testament with this background knowledge in mind, don't you understand why God had to be like that?
Let's face it-we all feel relieved when the "bad" guy in a movie gets caught and punished. Isn't that cruel? Wil you say its cruel when Saddam Hussein gets hanged or shot or whatever? What about Bin Laden? We live in a world ruined by sin because of the fall of man and womenand children are not excluded. It is not God's fault. He sent Jesus , if you read the New Testament which applies to us now. We live in the dispensation of the New Testament where Jesus came not only for the Jews, but for us all.
There is more prove that He lived on earth than Napoleaon Boneparte. If you read The complete works of Josephus", a Roman historian, not a Christian, you will find the most remarkable evidence that the Bible is true.

I love you all
Carin Nel

DBT

I'm out of time today so just a quick comment.

The Josephus reference to Jesus was inserted by a later(christian)writer and is considered to be a fake.

"Josephus Flavius, the Jewish historian, lived as the earliest non-Christian who mentions a Jesus. Although many scholars think that Josephus' short accounts of Jesus (in Antiquities) came from interpolations perpetrated by a later Church father (most likely, Eusebius), Josephus' birth in 37 C.E., well after the alleged crucifixion of Jesus, puts him out of range of an eyewitness account. Moreover, he wrote Antiquities in 93 C.E., after the first gospels got written! Therefore, even if his accounts about Jesus came from his hand, his information could only serve as hearsay."

Jack the Bodiless

No, it is a fiction, a myth.
Several misconceptions here. Which "deceiver" was "always there"? Not Satan, he hadn't been invented when Genesis was written, and is first introduced in the OT as a loyal servant of God, "God's tester".

Also, the "idolatry" in the OT is generally the worship of other deities in the Caananite pantheon. For instance, the "Golden Calf" was the symbol of El, the original chief God of the Hebrews, the God of the Genesis creation story. Similarly, Asherah of the "high places" was El's consort, and later YHWH's consort. And Baal was YHWH's brother.
Not an excuse. He COULD have abolished slavery, but did not.
In Numbers 31, Moses instructs the Hebrews to take captured Midianite virgins as sex slaves.
Utter nonsense.

We have contemporary writings from both supporters and enemies of Napoleon, and from Napoleon himself. We even have portraits of Napoleon, painted by those who actually saw him with their own eyes. And, of course, Napoleon made a massive impact on history in his own lifetime: the world was changed by the man himself, NOT just by a group of followers long after his death.

Julian

[MOD]

Preaching is not allowed in BC&H. This thread is now locked.

Julian
Moderator BC&H
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