re: A stellar resume to gain entry into the gates of hell

quote:

---

Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding,

---

Oh yeah, flat earth stuff. The earth is laid on a foundation and is unmovable, and the sun moves across the sky. The four corners of the earth are visible as you reach the heavens, even as late as when Revelation was written when they should have known better that the earth was a sphere (due to Greek knowledge). The devil takes Jesus onto a mountain and literally shows him the entire world.

I like this one from Daniel 4:

quote:

---

10The visions of my head as I lay in bed were these: I saw, and behold, a tree in the midst of the earth, and its height was great. 11The tree grew and became strong, and its top reached to heaven, and it was visible to the end of the whole earth.

---

Funny you chose Joshua 24:15. Do you acknowledge or deny the gods this verse speaks of, from a time when they did believe in many gods that were not all powerful or all knowing or omnipresent, when each god lorded over a small kingdom and was bound by geographical location? Deuteronomy 32:8-9

You are taking about two visions (like dreams).

I don’t think you have had a good take on a biblical passage yet, from what I’ve seen.

Repent of your sins and put your trust in Jesus Christ who is Lord and God before it is too late for you.

quote:

---

How is it bastardizing scripture? Is that not what the scripture says?

---

context matters

quote:

---

Oh yeah, flat earth stuff.

---

Have you considered that the Bible may not be literal? Have you considered that authors may have made mistakes? Have you considered that regardless, the Bible has a core of truth and reality that reveals a greater purpose and meaning to existence emanating from a creator?

Myself, I believe a knowing and willing denial of God has severe consequences. I suspect even worse is intentionally leading others away from God. The Bible puts forward the concept of hell but what does that really mean??? The NDE provides subjective evidence of an afterlife and a spiritual creator but also experiences of a "hell". Hell appears to be a spiritual existence outside the presence of God and all the good that he represents-a realm of hopelessness and despair.

Rejection of God is free will. Leading others away from God is a choice. Knowingly and willingly rejecting God appears to mean God will not exist for you when this material existence ends. If either the Bible or NDE experiences are correct, your choice has immense and eternal consequences.

Either you struggle to see the light or you dwell in the darkness. All your choice.

quote:

---

You always interpret these passages with complete ignorance of their context. God did not command humans to be killed as sacrifices. They were taken into service as priests to serve God as living sacrifices.

---

Only your ignorance surpasses your stupidy.

Here is Ezekiel 20:26 for you:

ESV

quote:

---

and I defiled them through their very gifts in their offering up all their firstborn, that I might devastate them. I did it that they might know that I am the LORD.

---

KJV

quote:

---

And I polluted them in their own gifts, in that they caused to pass through the fire all that openeth the womb, that I might make them desolate, to the end that they might know that I am the LORD.

---

quote:

---

Squirrelmeister

---

You really need to stop this. You are embarrassing yourself with how ignorant you are of the Bible when you spend so much time attacking it. It's as if you are reading off of some poorly researched website for things to criticize the Bible for without actually reading the Bible for yourself.

quote:

---

Here is Ezekiel 20:26 for you:

---

I suggest you read the full chapter. Just a few verses later, God is telling the elders of Israel that they are defiling themselves by offering up their children as sacrifices. The entire chapter is a recounting of how the people have not obeyed God, but have gone after the false gods and idols of the nations, and that God was condemning them for it.

This is what happens when you don't read the Bible through eyes of faith. You bastardize the text, forcing in your own putrid views rather than seeing the truth that is there.

I suggest you read the entire chapter and you'll see that God was condemning the Israelites for what you are doing: worshipping idols and rejecting the one, true God.

quote:

---

Are you denying that your God said that he caused required his people to sacrifice their firstborn? He said it in Ezekiel 20:26 and per your own words God cannot lie.

---

Yes, I'm denying that.

What God said is that He defiled the people through their sacrifices, meaning that He used their illegal sacrifices to judge them. Within the context of the chapter (much less the entire Bible), God was recounting all of the bad things the people were doing that He commanded them not to do. They, time and time again, He says, went back to worshipping false gods and idols rather than staying faithful to Him. That was the entire point of the message in this chapter: the elders wanted to know what God had to say to them and He said He wasn't going to allow that since He gave them His law, was their faithful God in sparing them from their sins time and time again, yet continued to "whore" after other gods as the other nations did. God was telling them how what they were doing was evil.

Verses 30 and 31 makes this clear: after God just spent several verses condemning the fathers of the elders of Israel (the chapter begins by those elders coming to inquire of God) for their idolatry (including sacrificing their children), God asks them (the elders) if they are going to continue to do what their fathers did in provoking God to anger? In verse 30, God specifically says that the people defile themselves and whore after detestable things through their idolatry, and in verse 31, God says that in offering of their children and gifts, they are defiling themselves because of their idolatry. Why is this? Because they've adopted the practices of surrounding nations, that offered their children in fire, like 2 Kings 17:31.

So all of Ezekiel 20 is God recounting the evil practices of idolatry done by the people of Israel and you think verse 26 is God randomly changing course for a single verse to talk about how God commanded them to do that, only to switch back a few verses later and condemn them again for it?

That doesn't even account for Ezekiel 16, where God condemned the people for that very practice of sacrificing children (vvs 20-21).

quote:

---

Your stupidly is astounding

---

Very ironic considering you have no idea what the text says

Time and time again, you've shown yourself to be entirely ignorant of the biblical text. You cherry pick a verse and then force your own perverted interpretation into the text rather than letting the context speak for itself. This example is no different.

quote:

---

You’re illiterate.

---

I've spent quite a bit of time proving that I'm not illiterate. I'm giving you a coherent interpretation of the text based on its words and the context. All you're doing is throwing out a single verse and acting like your interpretation is correct without any additional support.

Prove your position and rebut my arguments if you think I'm in the wrong.

quote:

---

Ezekiel 20:25

He didn’t say that either, did he?

---

He did, and your ignorance is shown further.

Romans 1 explains in New Testament terms what God was doing here by giving them (over) to their sin. God didn't create bad laws and rules of religious worship for them, but gave the people over (let them go on their way, abandoning God's life-giving law for the laws of the nations that only produce death) to laws and rules that were bad from the surrounding nations that Israel adopted for themselves, such as worshipping on high hills and under leafy trees (v. 28) as the pagans did. God nowhere commanded the people to worship in those ways but commanded time and time again against such worship.

God often times gives people over to their sins for their own judgement. He's basically saying, "if you don't like me and my statutes, I'll let you worship the gods of your own choosing and live according to the laws you want, so you can receive the death and destruction that comes from it".

quote:

---

I always find the "dark" passages of scripture interesting, which we are clearly discussing here. They are difficult to understand and rationalize so to speak, but we can understand the reasons why certain things like herem warfare, aka the complete destruction of the people you are fighting.

Something else to consider is that many of the Old Testament passages happened over 2000 years ago, some even over 4 or 5 thousands years ago. Culture and society was much different back then and understanding it in their culture and society is just as important as reading the text in context with the rest of the scripture.

---

That's all true. Context is important to understand the text. As the saying goes, "text without context is pretext".

I believe the Bible is truly the word of God, and it is infallible and inerrant. I don't have a problem with people who want to have good-faith discussions regarding things that are considered difficulties in the text, but this person does nothing in good faith, and many of the difficulties he brings up can be addressed simply by reading the verses surrounding the one he's calling out. He's being incredibly lazy with the texts for the sake of destroying the faith of Christians.