You are a bad man/woman in God's eyes!

[chongjasmine]

When compared to the sins of someone like Saddam Hussein, your sins might seem small in your own eyes. You might think to yourself, I am really a nice guy/gal. You might think your life is pretty okay and most likely you will make it to heaven. After all, you never steal, never commit murder and is faithful to your spouse. Dear friend, when a child rapist compares himself or herself to someone like Hitler or Saddam Hussein, he will think of himself as a nice guy. But, is he really nice? Anyone will tell you a child rapist is a horrible man. Yet, compared to someone like Hitler or Saddam Hussein, he will seem a saint in his own eyes.

It is the same for yourself. When you compare your morality with a child rapist, you might think of yourself as a nice guy/gal. But what if you compare yourself with the holiness of God? God, who is perfectly righteous and holy consider telling a lie a terrible sin. Do you ever tell a lie? If you do, that takes away any nice guy/gal image you may think to portray yourself in God's eyes. God look at you as a bad guy/gal because you tell a lie. That is because compared to your morality, God's morality is so much higher. God keeps all His promises and never tells a lie. You are a liar and that means, in God's eyes, you deserve to go to hell. God, who is perfectly just, cannot spare you from hell just like how you, who think you are a nice guy/gal, cannot spare a child rapist from jail and how a child rapist, with still some conscience in himself, cannot spare someone like Saddam Hussein or Hitler from the justice he deserves.

Therefore, even if you never steal or murder or commit adultery, as long as you ever tell a lie or break a promise or disappoint your father/mother, you are heading for hell. You are not going to heaven as you might think. And hell, I tell you, is a terrible place. It is a place of extreme heat and utter thirst. Nothing in your life, no matter how bad it is, can be compared to hell.

So, what can you do to avoid hell? Well, Jesus is the answer. Jesus, the only man on earth who never tell a lie or break a promise or commits any sin, and the only man who deserved to make it to heaven on His own merit, came down to earth 2000 years ago to die for your sins. He chose to die in your place that you might live in what is His place.

However, to avoid hell, you have to make the free choice to accept Jesus as your savior. You need to confess your sins to God, accept that you cannot make it to heaven on your own merit and invite Jesus into your life as your savior.

That way, when God looks at you, He no longer sees your sins but Jesus' righteousness. Jesus had traded place with you. God cannot punish sin twice. Since He punished your sins by punishing Jesus, He will never punish you. Your sins had been placed on Jesus when He died on the cross for you. When God looks at you now, He sees a holy man/woman, one who deserves to make it to heaven. You have moved from eternal death in hell to eternal life in heaven.

Won't you accept Jesus into your life before it is too late? If you want to accept Jesus, say out loud and mean it, "Father, I confess I am a sinner. I accept Jesus into my life as my savior. From now on, I will do my best to obey your will in my life. Thank you for sending Jesus to die on the cross for me." Have you prayed that prayer? If so, congratulation, you are now a perfect man/woman in God's eyes. Find a good church where the members love Jesus to continue your journey with God.

And I will meet you in heaven one day, my beloved brother/sister-in Christ!

 

['Amir Alzzalam]

Reply removed at user's own request

 

[Thomas]

The Serpent in the Garden of Eden points out to Eve that God is a liar and she will not die that day if she eats of the fruit of knowledge, which she did and did not die.

This may well be an overtly literal reading of the text. There is also a literary meaning, which means not a 24-hour period, but I assume you know that.

One would have to ask why God would need to lie ..

 

['Amir Alzzalam]

This may well be an overtly literal reading of the text. There is also a literary meaning, which means not a 24-hour period, but I assume you know that.

One would have to ask why God would need to lie ..

Reply removed at user's own request

 

[muhammad_isa]

Yahweh's consort was the fertility Goddess Ashira...

God does not have a husband or wife. Neither does God have male/female relatives of any kind.
It's pure assumption based on nothing but "hearsay".

In fact, God created male/female creatures, and is not a creature by definition.

 

[Thomas]

Gnosticism states that Yahweh is a demiurge and not the true God. For them, the Serpent exposed this.

My point is the argument in not conclusive.

The first part – that they did not die on that day – depends on a literal reading of the text, when the whole context is figurative.

yome can mean literally a day from sunrise to sunset, or from one sunset to the next), or figuratively an age, always, continuance), daily, for eve or everlasting, perpetually ... in fact a whole raft of figurative meanings. Taken in context with the narrative, it strongly suggests a figurative reading, else the scribe would have had Adam and Eve drop dead.

The other question is why God should have to lie.

+++

Yahweh is a typical ancient Near Eastern "divine warrior", who leads the heavenly army against Israel's enemies. Yahweh is a God of War, make no mistake.

That said in pre-Christian mythology this Yahweh is the Bad Guy.
In MY opinion, coming from a Western Left Hand Path adherent, the Christian god is mythology and a very dangerous one at that.

The understanding of Scripture has moved beyond the literal meanings as we have learned more about Hebrew language and history. I think that view is not uncommon, but somewhat archaic.

 

['Amir Alzzalam]

God does not have a husband or wife. Neither does God have male/female relatives of any kind.
It's pure assumption based on nothing but "hearsay".

In fact, God created male/female creatures, and is not a creature by definition.

Reply removed at user's own request

 

['Amir Alzzalam]

My point is the argument in not conclusive.

The first part – that they did not die on that day – depends on a literal reading of the text, when the whole context is figurative.

yome can mean literally a day from sunrise to sunset, or from one sunset to the next), or figuratively an age, always, continuance), daily, for eve or everlasting, perpetually ... in fact a whole raft of figurative meanings. Taken in context with the narrative, it strongly suggests a figurative reading, else the scribe would have had Adam and Eve drop dead.

The other question is why God should have to lie.

+++


The understanding of Scripture has moved beyond the literal meanings as we have learned more about Hebrew language and history. I think that view is not uncommon, but somewhat archaic.

Reply removed at user's own request

 

[muhammad_isa]

..what I replied is historical fact.

Mmm .. history has a habit of being totally different, depending on the party narrating.
..and it is a fact .. God cannot be a creature, as otherwise He created Himself .. a logical impossibility.

 

['Amir Alzzalam]

Mmm .. history has a habit of being totally different, depending on the party narrating.

Reply removed at user's own request

 

[muhammad_isa]

It doesn't when you use anthropologists, archeologists, historians, and geographers..

Appeal to authority fallacy.,

 

['Amir Alzzalam]

Appeal to authority fallacy.,

Reply removed at user's own request

 

[muhammad_isa]

Then what is left?

Plenty..
I'm not saying that ancient historians have got nothing right.
..but it's no different to saying "Allah used to be an Arab moon god" and had a wife etc.

just words .. people of old believed all sorts of things .. most had little formal education,
and myth passed from generation to generation.

That does not mean that YHWH / Allah / God / Dieu / Gott etc. is one of many [gods].
That is a conclusion due to disbelief, and not sure knowledge.

 

[wil]

If you're G!d don't have unconditional love, don't like what I do, I ain't losing no sleep!

 

['Amir Alzzalam]

Plenty..
I'm not saying that ancient historians have got nothing right.
..but it's no different to saying "Allah used to be an Arab moon god" and had a wife etc.

just words .. people of old believed all sorts of things .. most had little formal education,
and myth passed from generation to generation.

That does not mean that YHWH / Allah / God / Dieu / Gott etc. is one of many [gods].
That is a conclusion due to disbelief, and not sure knowledge.

Reply removed at user's own request

 

[muhammad_isa]

But the historical data does say... ... ...

No, it doesn't.
It is the conclusions of disbelieving historians, that interpret "the data".

There are Christians today who believe in Allah .. and polytheists before Muhammad was born, believed in Allah.
One may assume that the word "Allah" derives from some historical root .. the same for all words.
People can assume all sorts of things .. satan merely wishes to confuse.

There is no magic in these words .. it is part of language, and not the name of "a god" as satan would have it.
satan is the imposter .. he is cunning, and misleads those with little knowledge.

 

[Thomas]

But the historical data does say that al-Lah was a pre-Islamic moon god and his consort was al-Lat the sun goddess, there is also historical evidence that Yahweh was a North Arabian War God who was worshiped by the Semitic tribes living near the Gulf of Aqaba originating with the Midianite, Hebrew, Moabite, and Edomite tribes of southern Jordan and Palestine. Yahweh's consort was the fertility Goddess Ashira.
Both patriarchal religions (Christianity & Islam) eliminated the female energy.

I'm not sure the historical evidence is as conclusive as you assume?

But the major point is that, surely, while the Divine Name evidences possible etymological origins, the insight and understanding into and of the Divine changes over time and across cultures. One cannot assert any intrinsic connection between the deity Islam perceives as Allah, and pre-Islamic uses of the letter 'Al' in their divine names.

An example is the Divine Name El Shaddai. El derives from Ugaritic/Canaanite language, but Shaddai is uncertain.

There is a suggestion it means something like 'God of the Mountain', bit it doubtless would have been a local deity. The name was carried forward into Hebrew Tradition, and in the Greek Septuagint, Pantokrator was used both for YHWH Sabaoth "Lord of Hosts" and for El Shaddai "God Almighty".

In the NT, Pantokrator is used once by Paul and nine times in the Book of Revelation. You can't really argue that either Paul or the author of Revelation used the term Pantokrator to infer a pre-Abrahamic understanding of El Shaddai.

 

[Cino]

To me the broader question remains: How do believers integrate such historical findings?

Modern Christianity, working off translations of translations, tends to convey these ancient divine names more like titles or epithets: They all get collapsd into either "God + something" or "Lord + something", which is very different from the way the texts read in literal translation, keeping the names intact (or in the original).

Getting back to my question, what is it like for believers? Did God reveal himself through all these local gods prior to the rise of Monotheism?

 

[muhammad_isa]

Did God reveal himself through all these local gods prior to the rise of Monotheism?

By means of illustration..

Some variant forms of the name Odin such as the Lombardic Godan may point in the direction that the Lombardic form actually comes from Proto-Germanic *ǥuđánaz. Wōdanaz or Wōđinaz is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of a god of Germanic paganism, known as Odin in Norse mythology, Wōden in Old English, Wodan or Wotan in Old High German and Godan in the Lombardic language. Godan was shortened to God over time and was adopted/retained by the Germanic peoples of the British isles as the name of their deity, in lieu of the Latin word Deus used by the Latin speaking Christian church, after conversion to Christianity.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_(word)

Clearly, the above shows that the revered "God" [ Gott ] did not used to be Odin .. it is more about language,
and how the use of words evolve.
Those with a motive of showing that scripture is "not what it appears to be", seek to confuse by claiming YHWH is/was one of many gods etc.

 

[wil]

How do believers integrate such historical findings?

While this believer does not believe what that believer believes...

I do believe it is upto the believer how to interpret all scripture. The stories, the parables, the allegory can be impact differently based on what you are going thru, be it a divorce, economic downturn, or anticipating your first dive into you new swimming pool....the biggest thing you will get out of song lyrics, or a bird singing, or the smell of fresh baked cookies, Or a poignant line in scripture will be based on your attitude, perspective, demeanor and willingness to be affected, to be introspective.

As I said before, if a literalist read that the sky was falling and it was raining cats and dogs, little chicken little would be standing on a soap box on the corner with a megaphone screaming fire and brimstone doom and gloom.

But if one chooses to sit with any scripture during our times of need and spend some time in circumambulation we can find solace in the book where others will find jibberish.

The Bible, is a living Bible, the writers and editors come in every night and change the words in case you pick it up at a moment of need and prepare the understanding that will benefit you on your path.