Which proves what I've always believed: If you want to believe the Bible implicitly, then New Zealand (and Australia), simply should not exist!
It isn't just that you can't raise your hands to heaven by lifting your arms in the air -- you have to have your hands at your sides... at an odd angle. Moreover, you shouldn't kneel and bow your head in reverence, because you would be looking down toward the Throne of God.
And if you want to keep the Feast Days -- well, don't get me started! You people are just WRONG! The beginning of the year is Fall and the Feast of Tabernacles is in the Spring. Firstfruits? In the middle of winter?
And that silly Dateline! You people start keeping the Sabbath before the Jews in Jerusalem! That's just so wrong!
So in order to assure the validity of Scripture for true believers, can you just go away?
It would all be so much more convenient if you did.
Alas, Douglas, the truth is the we are the ones who are the right way up. You want proof? Are maps sanctioned in the Bible? No, they're thoroughly pagan through and through. We have a free booklet on the subject, which we'll send you - totally gratis - along with our newest title, "The Wonderful Law of Tithing." Don't hesitate - time is short!
The operative phrase of that blog being "Let's read literally!"
Which the Worldwide Church of God never did. The Worldwide Church of God, which was teaching about translation errors in the book of John in 1964 (You don't believe me? It's in the Bible Correspondence Course.) Not to mention the fact that they were teaching the falsity of the Johannine Comma from the beginning!
Yeah, the WCG taught that the Flood was real, and was worldwide; but, then so do all those "orthodox Christian denominations" that used to hue and cry about how evil we were.
Some disconnect there, no?
As for whether or not I think the Flood was real, and actually happened; yes, I think it happened, as recorded; whether or not it was worldwide, or worldwide in the sense that it was "the KNOWN world" that was destroyed, is that really important? Or is it more important to consider the teaching that the account contains, for us today?
(I personally believe that it occurred, I believe it was global, and I believe the Hebrew Bible offers the most unaltered version of same.)
Looking at the Big Picture, is it really important whether or not the Flood was a global event, or an event confined to the known world of the earliest recorded history? (Being that it is also recorded in that epic of Gilgamesh you so love, Gavin, although not even close to being the same narrative at all.)
But if you want to rely on cold, hard, science...might I refer you to the fact that there have been global extinction events before?
Well, wouldn't it just be a gas if a colony of thylacines were discovered somewhere in Gavin's part of the world? What a pity for a species to have survived on the Hebrew and Gilgamesh arks, only to become extinct during the twentieth century!
You're deliberately misreading my point, Bob (And, uh, shouldn't you be arguing for the defence, solid, professing, Christian, that you are?)
As I said, whether it was the whole world or "the known world" that was destroyed, or even if a global event like the Cambrian Extinction was conflated, through the inspiration (NOT the inerrancy, you note) of God through the author of that part of the Bible, with the narrative of Noah, it's all speculation, distraction, and hand-waving.
Ask yourself, what does the story mean to you, personally? As a parable or a myth, or a solid, nursery-like truth, doesn't matter; what does it mean is the real question people should be asking.
Getting tied up in knots over inerrancy or historicity or "proving" this or "proving" that (taking the text itself completely out of the times it was written in), is what ultimately allows the powers and principalities of the air to creep in, with that nagging seed of doubt, obscuring the Truth contained therein.
Which proves what I've always believed: If you want to believe the Bible implicitly, then New Zealand (and Australia), simply should not exist!
ReplyDeleteIt isn't just that you can't raise your hands to heaven by lifting your arms in the air -- you have to have your hands at your sides... at an odd angle. Moreover, you shouldn't kneel and bow your head in reverence, because you would be looking down toward the Throne of God.
And if you want to keep the Feast Days -- well, don't get me started! You people are just WRONG! The beginning of the year is Fall and the Feast of Tabernacles is in the Spring. Firstfruits? In the middle of winter?
And that silly Dateline! You people start keeping the Sabbath before the Jews in Jerusalem! That's just so wrong!
So in order to assure the validity of Scripture for true believers, can you just go away?
It would all be so much more convenient if you did.
Alas, Douglas, the truth is the we are the ones who are the right way up. You want proof? Are maps sanctioned in the Bible? No, they're thoroughly pagan through and through. We have a free booklet on the subject, which we'll send you - totally gratis - along with our newest title, "The Wonderful Law of Tithing." Don't hesitate - time is short!
ReplyDeleteSorry Gavin, I'm busy this summer. Maybe after the Spring Feast in October.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, truthfully, I am very appreciative of your help and support over the years.
Gratitude, however, does not extend to tithing....
The operative phrase of that blog being "Let's read literally!"
ReplyDeleteWhich the Worldwide Church of God never did. The Worldwide Church of God, which was teaching about translation errors in the book of John in 1964 (You don't believe me? It's in the Bible Correspondence Course.) Not to mention the fact that they were teaching the falsity of the Johannine Comma from the beginning!
Yeah, the WCG taught that the Flood was real, and was worldwide; but, then so do all those "orthodox Christian denominations" that used to hue and cry about how evil we were.
Some disconnect there, no?
As for whether or not I think the Flood was real, and actually happened; yes, I think it happened, as recorded; whether or not it was worldwide, or worldwide in the sense that it was "the KNOWN world" that was destroyed, is that really important? Or is it more important to consider the teaching that the account contains, for us today?
(I personally believe that it occurred, I believe it was global, and I believe the Hebrew Bible offers the most unaltered version of same.)
Looking at the Big Picture, is it really important whether or not the Flood was a global event, or an event confined to the known world of the earliest recorded history? (Being that it is also recorded in that epic of Gilgamesh you so love, Gavin, although not even close to being the same narrative at all.)
But if you want to rely on cold, hard, science...might I refer you to the fact that there have been global extinction events before?
Well, wouldn't it just be a gas if a colony of thylacines were discovered somewhere in Gavin's part of the world? What a pity for a species to have survived on the Hebrew and Gilgamesh arks, only to become extinct during the twentieth century!
ReplyDeleteBB
You're deliberately misreading my point, Bob (And, uh, shouldn't you be arguing for the defence, solid, professing, Christian, that you are?)
ReplyDeleteAs I said, whether it was the whole world or "the known world" that was destroyed, or even if a global event like the Cambrian Extinction was conflated, through the inspiration (NOT the inerrancy, you note) of God through the author of that part of the Bible, with the narrative of Noah, it's all speculation, distraction, and hand-waving.
Ask yourself, what does the story mean to you, personally? As a parable or a myth, or a solid, nursery-like truth, doesn't matter; what does it mean is the real question people should be asking.
Getting tied up in knots over inerrancy or historicity or "proving" this or "proving" that (taking the text itself completely out of the times it was written in), is what ultimately allows the powers and principalities of the air to creep in, with that nagging seed of doubt, obscuring the Truth contained therein.