Christianity 101

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09

In the beginning, marriage between a man and a woman wasn't meant to be a convenience, rather, it was an institution; nor was marriage between a man and a woman meant to be voluntary, rather, in the beginning it was mandatory.

● Gen 2:20-24 . .The Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.

Although a variety of birds and such mate for life; they are under no compulsion to do so. Whereas birds and such are regulated by instincts; mankind's marriages are regulated by divine edicts; for example:

● Matt 19:4-6 . . Haven't you read? At the beginning the creator made them male and female, and said; "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.

There are zealous folks at large insisting that people are living in sin when they get married with no intention of producing children. But in the beginning, reproduction wasn't mandatory, rather, it was a blessing.

● Gen 1:27-28 . . So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female He created them. God blessed them and said to them: Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.

It's always best to regard blessings as benefits, approval, and/or empowerment unless clearly indicated otherwise. And anyway, in the beginning women were created for companionship rather than baby mills.

● Gen 2:18 . .The Lord God said: It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.

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Edited June 9, 2024 by EveningBird

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10

FAQ: How can Rom 5:12 be valid when the Bible says a man's children are not held accountable for his mistakes? For example:

"The soul who sins is the one who will die. The son will not share the guilt of the father, nor will the father share the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous man will be credited to him, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against him." (Ezek 18:20)

REPLY: The secret to this is simply timing. According to Deut 5:2-4, Rom 4:15, Rom 5:13, and Gal 3:17, the laws of God-- especially His codified rules and regulations --are not enforced ex post facto, i.e. they aren't retroactive.

The good news (if it can be called that) is Adam's disobedience wasn't a sin unto Hell; it's only a sin unto death. In other words; when Adam passed away, justice was satisfied for his conduct in the forbidden fruit incident, and when his posterity dies, justice is satisfied for them too; but of course justice isn't satisfied for their own personal actions: those are another matter on track to be settled at the great white throne event depicted by Rev 20:11-15.

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11

It's sometimes alleged that capital punishment isn't Christian; and to a certain extent, that's true because God initiated the death penalty right after Noah's flood when as yet no Christians existed.

● Gen 9:5 . . But for your own life-blood I will require a reckoning: I will require it of every beast; of man, too, will I require a reckoning for human life, of every man for that of his fellow man.

That law is universal regardless of one's age, race, gender identity and/or religious preference. It applies to every family of Man and Beast; no exceptions-- and we can't lay the responsibility for enforcing it at God's doorstep because He requires it to be enforced by mankind rather than Himself.

● Gen 9:6a . .Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed;

God requires an investigation into the death of a human being whenever it is caused by another human being or by a member of the animal kingdom. If the killing cannot be justified, the perpetrator has to be executed at the hands of human beings: no exceptions.

The death penalty here in Gen 9:6 is mandatory only for murder; which Webster's defines as: the crime of unlawfully killing a person; especially with malice aforethought.

The key word in that definition is "unlawfully" because  not all homicides are illegal.

* Murder wasn't prohibited because it's immoral, rather, because it demeans the dignity of God.

● Gen 9:6b . . For in His image did God make man.

Apparently, were humanity lacking His image, people could go on safari and stalk each other like game animals and mount human heads as trophies of the hunt.

The bottom line is: capital punishment for murder isn't immoral; au contraire, capital punishment for murder is divine; and Christians should expect that if and when they murder somebody, they will be required to pay with their lives the same as any other criminal. (cf. Rom 13:1-4, 1John 5:16)

FAQ: Don't you think it's better to lock all murderers away for life rather than risk taking the lives of those who are innocent?

REPLY: It is never better to disobey God. The first couple did, and you see what that got them.

Resistance is on a scale with dark arts and the worship of Shiva and Vishnu.

"Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry. (1Sam 15:22-23)

In war, commanders expect a percentage of casualties by human error and/or friendly fire; and those kinds of casualties are usually factored in as acceptable losses. But it isn't wise to turn off a war just because somebody might get hurt by friendly fire. Accidents happen; even under ideal conditions.

It's the same with the war on crime. Just because a percentage of innocent people get executed for something they didn't do, is no excuse to get in bed with the Devil and oppose God's edicts.

America's justice system, although far from perfect, has a pretty good batting average. The overwhelming majority of people dead from executions fully deserved what they got. Only a tiny percentage are victims of error; and those percentages should always be considered acceptable losses in any legitimate endeavor to protect domestic tranquility.

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Edited June 12, 2024 by EveningBird

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12

In the beginning; mankind was instructed to sustain himself with a vegan diet.

● Gen 1:29-30 . .Then God said: I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.

After Noah's flood; God revised mankind's diet with permission to include meat.

● Gen 9:3 . . Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.

* Mankind isn't required to eat meat-- it's optional seeing as how Gen 9:1-3 is clearly a blessing rather than a commandment.

Apparently the inclusion of meat in Man's diet after the Flood was intended primarily as a source of natural supplements to make up for the human body's gradually lessening ability to manufacture all its own essential vitamins; much the same reason that modern vegans resort to synthetic supplements in order to avoid contracting deficiency diseases.

According to an article in the Dec 10, 2013 Science section of the New York Times, scientists believe that the early human body was able to manufacture all of its own essential vitamins; but over time gradually lost the ability to manufacture all but K and D.

That seems plausible to me seeing as how Noah lived to be 950 years old, but by the time of Abraham, the human life span had decreased considerably to 175; which the Bible describes as a ripe old age (Gen 25:7-8) so the human body was obviously a whole lot stronger back in Noah's day than it was in Abraham's.

Incidentally, the Hebrew words for "green plants" includes tender young shoots rather than established adults. An excellent example of a shoot is asparagus. We typically only harvest the spears because the established adult isn't even tasty.

However, mankind doesn't have permission to eat viable meat-- in particular; responsive flesh that's suitable for grafts and/or transplants.

● Gen 9:4 . . But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it.

Life-blood speaks of meat that has not yet expired beyond recovery; viz: it still contains enough active ingredients to carry oxygen and heal wounds.

This rule has never been repealed, and remains among the list of primary laws imposed upon Christians.

● Acts 15:28-29 . .You are to abstain from blood that's from the meat of strangled animals.

A strangled animal still has all of its blood in it. The animal's heart may have stopped beating, and it may be unable to breathe on its own; but the animal's flesh will remain alive for some time by reason of the active blood still in its veins.

The prohibition against eating active flesh and blood is universal-- it was instituted with Noah right off the ark long before organized religions began influencing mankind's behavior, i.e. the prohibition applies to everyone, everywhere. (Gen 9:9 & Gen 9:18-19)

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Edited June 13, 2024 by EveningBird

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● Gen 2:1-4 . .Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it He rested from all the work of creating that he had done. This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created.

Though the seventh day of creation was made a special day in Genesis, it wasn't made a liturgical day until Moses' people entered into a covenant with God per Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy whereby they are required to memorialize intelligent design by observing a 24-hour work-stoppage once a week, a.k.a. the Sabbath Day.

NOTE: The Hebrew word translated "sabbath" has little in common with the number 7; it basically pertains to an intermission, e.g. hiatus, interruption, coffee break, lunch hour, holiday, leave of absence, time out, pause, inactivity, rest, etc. There are other covenanted sabbaths besides the usual day, e.g. the first & final day of the Feast Of Unleavened Bread, Yom Kippur, The Feast of Trumpets, and the first & final day of Sukkot.

Anyway; there is a significant difference between the usual sabbath and the creation's sabbath.

The usual sabbath is a calendar day and lasts at most only 24 hours. After that the people are free to pick up where they left off with their daily lives and carry on.

However the creation's sabbath is unlimited. In other words: all the other six days of creation were bounded by evenings and mornings; whereas the seventh day wasn't bounded like that, to wit: the seventh day wasn't capped, i.e. God has yet to terminate the creation's sabbath and pick up where He left off, viz: the creation's sabbath is a perpetual rest as opposed to the covenant's temporary rest primarily because the entire work of creation, from beginning to end, was completed in six days and God left no unfinished business awaiting His return to work.

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Edited June 14, 2024 by EveningBird

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● Gen 7:11 . . In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.

(The Flood isn't dated relative to solar years; rather, to Noah's years. In other words: let's say hypothetically that Noah was born in July. Had that been the case; then the second month would've been August)

The ark beached exactly five months later for a total of 150 days at sea.

● Gen 7:24 . . The waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days.

● Gen 8:3-4 . . At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down, and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.

At face value, those five months consisted of 30 days each; thus introducing us to prophetic time keeping.

Prophetic months and years are sort of like baker's dozens and metric tons. Though a baker's dozen isn't a dozen of twelve, and though a metric ton isn't 2,000 lbs; they're both true values in their own way-- the same goes for mean solar time vs sidereal time, and geographic north vs magnetic north.

As long Bible readers are aware of the use of such a thing as prophetic time, they won't be tripped up when they run across it in prophecy; for example those below:

"And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days." (Rev 12:6)

"And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent." (Rev 12:14)

Those two passages speak of a 3½ year period of exactly 1,260 days. Well, 3½ solar years adds up to 1,274+ days; which is almost fifteen days too many. But if we reckon those 3½ years as prophetic time, then it comes out perfectly to 1,260 days.

12 months x 30 days each = 360 days.
360 days x 3.5 = 1,260 days.

* An especially important use of prophetic time is relative to Dan 9:25 --the date of Messiah's official introduction to Jerusalem, a.k.a. the Triumphal Entry, a.k.a. Palm Sunday (Zech 9:9 & Matt 21:1-12  )

NOTE: The Hebrew word for "Ararat" appears three more times in the Bible: one at 2Kgs 19:36-37, one at Isa 37:36-38, and one at Jer 51:27. The Bible always, without fail, uses that word to identify the country of Armenia --never to identify a specific geological feature by the same name. Folks that go about seeking Noah's ark up on Turkey's Mt. Ararat are sort of like a blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat that isn't there.

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Edited June 18, 2024 by EveningBird

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● Gen 2:7a . . And the Lord God formed a man's body from the dust of the ground and breathed into it the breath of life,

If the breath of life were atmospheric gases, it would be possible to revive a corpse with artificial respiration; so I think we have to assume that it's an energy vastly more powerful than anything found in nature.

● Gen 2:7b . . and Man became a living soul.

The Hebrew word translated "soul" isn't unique to human beings. Its first appearance is at Gen 1:20-21 in reference to aqua creatures and winged creatures; again at Gen 1:24 as terra creatures; viz: cattle, creepy crawlies, and wild beasts; and yet again at Gen 9:10 to classify every living thing aboard Noah's ark.

Soul is somewhat ambiguous. It can be said that creatures are souls and also that they have souls. But here in the beginning, nephesh (neh'-fesh) simply refers to consciousness, individuality, and self awareness, i.e. sentient existence.

All fauna life was created sentient in the book of Genesis. However, I've yet to discover a passage in the Bible indicating that flora life was created sentient, ergo: flora life isn't self aware; flora life has no soul.

So then it's safe to say Man is a person, and it's safe to say that parakeets and meerkats are persons too (in their own way) but it would likely be unwise to posit that lettuce, saguaro cactus, and kelp are persons because it's necessary to be a soul and/or have a soul, in order to qualify as a person.

According to Matt 10:28, the body and the soul are perishable. However; though the body is perishable by any means, the soul is perishable only by divine means; i.e. the deaths of body and soul aren't necessarily simultaneous, viz: the soul lives on until such a time as God decides to give it either a thumb up or a thumb down.

● Matt 10:28 . . Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; but rather fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in Hell.

FAQ: If people are already a corpse when they pass away, then how is it their body dies in Hell?

REPLY: The current afterlife has no effect upon the human body because for now when people pass away, their bodies stay here rather than going there. But out ahead in the future; the bodies of people down below in the netherworld will be restored to life when called up to face justice at the Great White Throne event depicted by Rev 20:11-15. Should the judgment go against them, their restored bodies will be terminated yet once again by a mode of death akin to a foundry worker falling into a kettle of molten iron.

FAQ: I've heard the soul is immortal. How then can it be destroyed per Matt 10:28?

REPLY: Jesus said one's soul can be lost, i.e. one's soul isn't necessarily a permanent possession. (Matt 16:26)

Well; the thing is: soul is that part of human life that made Adam a sentient being as opposed to the mindless existence of cacti and sandstone, i.e. soul is the part of human life that makes us all unique individuals, a.k.a. the self.

God has a soul. (Lev 26:11, Lev 26:30, Judg 10:16, Isa 42:1, Jer 32:41, Zech 11:8) So if it were possible to somehow destroy God's soul, then He would become as wooden as carrots and turnips, viz: God would no longer be a person, instead; He'd be a vegetable.

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Edited June 20, 2024 by EveningBird

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16

● Gen 8:20 . .Then Noah built an altar to The Lord; and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings upon it.

"clean" in this respect is specifically relative to liturgy rather than hygiene and/or sanitation. Exactly how Noah was able to discern between the clean and the unclean can only be attributed to his personal association with God seeing as how the books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy had not yet been penned.

A representative specimen from each species of clean birds and animals were offered on Noah's altar. Apparently that was essential in order to effectively dedicate the new world to God.

Although the unclean species of birds and animals benefited from this sacred ceremony; they were not allowed to contribute themselves towards it.

Noah and his family benefited too; but seeing as how humans are basically unclean (Gen 8:21) then even had one from among Noah's group volunteered to offer their life, they would've been refused.

Now; this incident with Noah may seem trivial, but it permanently set the tone in God's association with mankind; from thence requiring that any man selected for human sacrifice would have to be very unique; and seeing as how it is impossible for mankind to produce such a man on its own; then God would have to intervene and lend a hand in such a way as to bring this man into existence as a clean man right from conception and keep him clean throughout life till he's ready to be offered.

Jesus is that man, and we have to wonder how God did it because Mary's baby didn't come into this world of ours in divine flesh, rather, in ordinary flesh. (Rom 8:3 & Gal 4:4)

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● Job 14:14 . . If a man dies, will he live again?

It's believed by some that when people die, they cease to exist; sort of like road kill. In contrast; Christian death is depicted as a nap, i.e. sleep.

● Dan 12:2 . . Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.

For example:

● Matt 9:18-25 . . A ruler came and knelt before him and said: My daughter has just died. But come and put your hand on her, and she will live. Jesus got up and went with him, and so did his disciples.

. . .When Jesus entered the ruler's house and saw the flute players and the noisy crowd, he said: Go away. The girl is not dead but asleep. After the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took the girl by the hand, and she got up.

Also:

● John 11:11-44 . . He went on to tell them: Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up. Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep. So then he told them plainly: Lazarus is dead.

. . . So they took away the stone and Jesus called in a loud voice: Lazarus, come out! The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them: Take off the grave clothes and let him go.

Christianity calls death "sleep" because it's not a permanent condition, rather, it's temporary because folks who've undergone death don't cease to exist-- they're merely on hold, sort of like the silence that musicians and singers observe when they encounter a rest symbol in their sheet music, viz: the symbol doesn't indicate the piece is over; its progress is merely paused for a specified moment and then the performers pick up where they left off and continue.

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Edited June 22, 2024 by EveningBird

[Debp]

6 hours ago, EveningBird said:

17

● Job 14:14 . . If a man dies, will he live again?

It's believed by some that when people die, they cease to exist; sort of like road kill. In contrast; Christian death is depicted as a nap, i.e. sleep.

● Dan 12:2 . . Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.

For example:

● Matt 9:18-25 . . A ruler came and knelt before him and said: My daughter has just died. But come and put your hand on her, and she will live. Jesus got up and went with him, and so did his disciples.

. . .When Jesus entered the ruler's house and saw the flute players and the noisy crowd, he said: Go away. The girl is not dead but asleep. After the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took the girl by the hand, and she got up.

Also:

● John 11:11-44 . . He went on to tell them: Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up. Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep. So then he told them plainly: Lazarus is dead.

. . . So they took away the stone and Jesus called in a loud voice: Lazarus, come out! The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them: Take off the grave clothes and let him go.

Christianity calls death "sleep" because it's not a permanent condition, rather, it's temporary because folks who've undergone death don't cease to exist-- they're merely on hold, sort of like the silence that musicians and singers observe when they encounter a rest symbol in their sheet music, viz: the symbol doesn't indicate the piece is over; it's progress is merely paused for a specified moment and then the performers pick up where they left off and continue.

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I do believe "to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord"...that is a wonderful comfort.

There will be a resurrection of the body, of course.

My mom who was on hospice care passed on last night peacefully...I believe she's now with the Lord.