David Mooney

Hi Lee,

I noticed you used an edition of Strong's concordance the other day that had the total number of times each word appears in the KJV. Was is the name and edition of strong's and where did you find it?

Thanks,
David M

David Mooney

This is a test for quotes...

Okay.

lee_merrill

Hi David,

Thanks for sharing, I do hope you'll find your way to faith again! You might have been aware of that already, though.

About my conversion … I grew up in a Christian home too, my dad was a Baptist choir director, and I grew up in church! My dad led me to pray to start following Jesus when I was nine, and (forty years later!) I'm starting to feel more settled in what I believe.

Partly from discussing in such forums! It helps me to see if I can find satisfying answers, though the place I have the most difficulty is in reconciling the Genesis account with the fossil record…

Did you know that the World-wide Church of God has become evangelical? Standard Christian doctrine there now. I would expect you would be aware of that, if your family was or is involved with them still.

Now about this handy concordance…

Well, it's free, it's the Online Bible, downloadable here, though I bought the CD, and it has both Strong's and NAS word lists for how they translated each word.

Regards,
Lee

David Mooney

Hi Lee,
Yes, I am aware of the changes in the WCG. After HWA died in 1986, Joseph Tkach Sr. took over and within six years began making some dramatic changes. They were considered a cult by most cult organizations until the mid-1990's when they went mainstream. Since then, there have been many splinter groups break off, remaining loyal to the "truth" as taught by HWA, among them the Philadelphia Church of God, the United Church of God and the Global Church of God.


I am not computer savy enough to download anything and I will look to CBD and see if they have the hardcopy of a Strong's that lists frequency of word counts in the KJV or NASB. They have listed a NIV one in their catalogue but I hope to get one that I can actually use.


Here am I trying to download stuff off the internet (I have a very old computer) :banghead:

Later...

David Mooney

Lee,

here is more about my deconversion...

http://edwardtbabinski.us/fundamenta.../dave_lee.html

John A. Broussard

Do you have any difficulties with Joshua stopping the sun? With Satan doing evil at god's bidding (Job?) With the angels sounding their trumpets from the "four corners" of the earth? With god ordering the Israelites to massacre enemies who have surrendeed? With...but I could go on for pages.

What I'm curious about is why you bridle at the account of the fossil record when there is so much explaining to do about so much of the rest of the bible. You sound very much like a thinking individual, so I wonder if you have thought about all of the many, many biblical contradictions.

Jim Larmore

I too made a move to a sabbath keeping church. I came to realize that Sunday keeping is a tradition of man and not a commandment of God. I couldn't find anywhere in the Bible where it said the 7th day Sabbath was changed to the 1st day or Sunday.

Wallener

You also won't find anywhere in the texts that Sunday is, in fact, the 1st day, or that Saturday is the seventh.

lee_merrill

Hi everyone,

I appreciate what you shared about your experiences, David, yes, I do find some of the standard answers to Bible difficulties unsatisfying, that motivates me to look more! And discuss more…

Such as with the different geneologies in Matthew and Luke, couldn't there be an adoption in Jesus' lineage? It seems that could be why there is a difference, and people would indeed have wanted to have an account of Jesus' lineage via both lines.

I do believe there are some answers to these other questions, though…

As far as the sun stopping, I suppose that wouldn't be difficult for a God who can say "Let there be light!" That's just divine ability, I would say.

And if Satan does God's plan unintentionally, well, that's kind of neat! People do hold that God might be able to turn some evil to good purposes, well, what if he can do this with all evil? I don't mind…

With the four corners of the earth, the angels were also holding back the four winds, and I would expect people would have seen that as a symbol for all winds, not that any breeze is due to one specific set of four winds, and thus similarly with the four corners of the earth, which would mean to the farthest reaches of the earth.

As far as the question of killing even surrendered enemies at times, this depends on whether God has the right to mark out the day of a man's death. And whether people are inherently innocent…

Genesis 32:30 So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, "It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared."

I have been thinking about contradictions! It doesn't take very long in these forums to have these questions come up…

Regards,
Lee

John A. Broussard

Thank you for answering, at least in part, some of my questions. I have many questions about your answers, but let's stick to this one.

God can, of course, do anything. However, nowhere else in the world did anyone notice the sun stopping at that time. Can you explain that?

Thanks in advance for your answer.