tdekeyser

Do Not Be Yoked With Unbelievers

Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial ? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?

I'm not much of a bible reader (never have been), but this passage always comes up. I have read this passage, and I see a very different translation:

Lets start with this: "Do not be yoked together with unbelievers."
Fair enough, but the next sentences explain what this really means.

For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial?
Righteousness and wickedness? Light with darkness? God with the Devil? It is clear to me that this passage did not intend on seperating one religious belief with another (or lack of one). It seems to me this passage was clearly trying to say, "Do not become yolked with an opposite. I can agree! A nice honest girl should not be dating a serial rapist. A nice sucessful young man should not be dating a homeless murderer. Back then, were unbelievers considered evil? like a murderer/rapist? (I thought the xians were the only ones doing that! )

Today an unbeliever is not darkness, wicked, evil or the devil now are they? So how is this passage applying to today?

[ June 11, 2002: Message edited by: tdekeyser ]</p>

Godless Dave

Many fundies (your fiance's family included) consider unbelievers to be inherently evil, yes.

IvanK

From my experience as an atheist married to a Catholic I can state conclusively that anyone who thinks it's impossible for a believer and a nonbeliever to have a good married relationship is full of something besides the Holy Spirit, something that's soft and smells bad. That's worth more to me than any words out of any book, and I'll presume to speak for my wife as well on that one.

tdekeyser

So an unbeliever is like a satanic murderer??!!

That is bullshit! What is wrong with these people?

[ June 11, 2002: Message edited by: tdekeyser ]</p>

Perchance

One thing I've never understood is...

If we're inherently evil, then why do they want to campaign for political reform in front of large non-believing audiences, hand out Bibles to non-believing children, go to restuarants or stores run by non-believers, and so on and so forth? Aren't they afraid they might catch evil, like a virus? Wouldn't it make more sense, if they held this to be the literal truth, to stay locked in their own churches and ignore the rest of the world?

Of course, I suppose they might hope to make the rest of the world into believers, so that then they can have a larger non-contaminated place to move around in.

Or is it something else entirely?

-Perchance.

Queen of Swords

I don't know...

love?
a wish to raise happy and healthy children?
a liking for classical music?
enjoyment of sex?
humanity?
they both vote Democrat?
tastes in food?
respect for other people?
tolerance of differing viewpoints?
communicative ability?

Which of these are necessary to maintain a good marriage, Brent? Come, advance the discourse and explain this to me.

[ June 11, 2002: Message edited by: QueenofSwords ]</p>

IvanK

Does 6 out of 10 count? Extra credit: guess which 6.

Veil of Fire

"From my experience as an atheist married to a Catholic I can state conclusively that anyone who thinks it's impossible for a believer and a nonbeliever to have a good married relationship is full of something besides the Holy Spirit"

My teacher is a female Wiccan who's been romantically involved with a female Episcopalian for 5 years now.

I consider it a bit of a fluke, myself...

wildernesse

As a Christian who will be happily, gleefully, maddingly marrying one of you infidels (in what, six weeks! Yippee!), I have heard this time and time again from my family. Along with “how can two walk together unless they agree”! I try to take it in the spirit in which it is meant—they truly want me to be happy and to have a beautiful and very loving marriage, but they worry that our basic (non)beliefs will pull us in opposite directions.

I understand their worry. BUT, my Rufus is the most fantastic person I have ever met, and I cannot imagine a world in which I would ever choose to walk away from him. Why would anyone voluntarily leave their best friend and companion?

Also, most of the Christian guys I know are either doofuses or they’re not True Christians ™! I’d much rather have an ultra-sexy, brilliant, and confidant atheist!

Do Rufus and I see eye-to-eye on everything? Hah! Can I think of anyone who agrees with someone about everything? (It makes it worse because I’m a born arguer—who cares if I’m right! Heehee)

Does this “yoking” make me rebellious against God? Sometimes I think so. Do I ever want to stop this particular “rebellion”? No. This is much more frightening to write down than you might think.

I think that the “unbelievers are like murderers” is in the same weird train of thought that people without Christ cannot really, truly love anything, or that Muslims don’t worship God, but Jews do. Part of this is just making people who aren’t you “other”. Part of this is never putting yourself in another person’s shoes, or thinking about things from a different perspective. Part of this is arrogance. Part of this is ignorance.

Just my two cents.
--tiba

bonduca

That's it. It's our outrageous sex appeal. They hate and fear us because we're dynamos in the sack. Most of them probably can't handle the competition.

[ June 11, 2002: Message edited by: bonduca ]</p>