If i remember correctly (it’s been a while), then the Bible becomes a lot more coherent if you throw out the old testament, and keep to the new testament only - which actually is what christians should do, because the sacrifice of Jesus is a new covenant which supercedes the old one with Moses.
If you keep to the NT, then there isn’t so much ambiguity - evangelicals who cite from the OT are even more backwards than catholicism itself is.
Not exactly. In fact, this is a gross oversimplification. The New Testament contradicts itself and plenty of mainstream Christian beliefs. Different NT authors have drastically different views of OT law, ranging from the view that the OT law should still be upheld (Matt 5:17 where Jesus says “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill."), to completely rejecting the old covenant (Hebrews 8:13 “In speaking of a new covenant, he has made the first one obsolete, and what is obsolete and growing old will soon disappear.”), and a range of nuanced views in-between. You can torture the text to reconcile to make it fit a particular view, but that’s not an honest way of reading a text.
Also, wholesale rejecting the OT on the basis that the new covenant supercedes the old is incredibly problematic. I can understand saying that in the case of a contradiction between OT and NT you would go with the latter (although even that is an issue), but if you reject the OT, you’re missing out on essential developments in Israelite and Jewish history, thought and literature which is essential to understand the NT. It’s bad enough as it is that the tradition of mystical literature which so heavily influenced post-exilic Jewish and early Christian thought is overlooked. The last thing people who want to understand the NT need to do is throw out the OT.
If i remember correctly (it’s been a while), then the Bible becomes a lot more coherent if you throw out the old testament, and keep to the new testament only
You mean the one that starts with four tellings of the same story, that contradict each other heavily ?
Including a fabricated census of the entire Roman Empire which for some reason required men to return to their birth towns and left no historical or archaeological record
The sermon on the Mount and specifically Matthew 5:18 I think or something like that explicitly says that nothing from the law has been removed or invalidated by Jesus.
This is a common sentiment in American Christianity but it doesn’t really seem to be backed up by the text.
I think most modern exegesis of that verse rather tightly constrains it to rabbinical law, bearing in mind that the Sadducees and those upstart Pharisees (of which JC was one) were battling out questions of the law at the time JC was doing his thing.
So just saying I think you’re right. Otherwise, no football on Sunday for many multiple reasons!
Jesus came to fulfill the 10 Commandments and spread the word of God being a loving God; not the ritualistic laws of the early-Israelites.
I’d say the book has meaning, but the lens in which one applies when reading it matters. There’s the text as it’s written, there’s the perspectives of the respective authors, and then there is your own lens being three main ways of reading it.
I think the biggest issue is people that are Christians in name only that pick up a Bible and call themselves Christians without even knowing the teachings of Jesus. The types that think what you do on Earth doesn’t matter so long as you believe, so they go on to do near the exact opposite of Jesus. A short comic about this: Supply Side Jesus
If i remember correctly (it’s been a while), then the Bible becomes a lot more coherent if you throw out the old testament, and keep to the new testament only - which actually is what christians should do, because the sacrifice of Jesus is a new covenant which supercedes the old one with Moses.
If you keep to the NT, then there isn’t so much ambiguity - evangelicals who cite from the OT are even more backwards than catholicism itself is.
Not exactly. In fact, this is a gross oversimplification. The New Testament contradicts itself and plenty of mainstream Christian beliefs. Different NT authors have drastically different views of OT law, ranging from the view that the OT law should still be upheld (Matt 5:17 where Jesus says “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill."), to completely rejecting the old covenant (Hebrews 8:13 “In speaking of a new covenant, he has made the first one obsolete, and what is obsolete and growing old will soon disappear.”), and a range of nuanced views in-between. You can torture the text to reconcile to make it fit a particular view, but that’s not an honest way of reading a text.
Also, wholesale rejecting the OT on the basis that the new covenant supercedes the old is incredibly problematic. I can understand saying that in the case of a contradiction between OT and NT you would go with the latter (although even that is an issue), but if you reject the OT, you’re missing out on essential developments in Israelite and Jewish history, thought and literature which is essential to understand the NT. It’s bad enough as it is that the tradition of mystical literature which so heavily influenced post-exilic Jewish and early Christian thought is overlooked. The last thing people who want to understand the NT need to do is throw out the OT.
You mean the one that starts with four tellings of the same story, that contradict each other heavily ?
Including a fabricated census of the entire Roman Empire which for some reason required men to return to their birth towns and left no historical or archaeological record
The sermon on the Mount and specifically Matthew 5:18 I think or something like that explicitly says that nothing from the law has been removed or invalidated by Jesus.
This is a common sentiment in American Christianity but it doesn’t really seem to be backed up by the text.
I think most modern exegesis of that verse rather tightly constrains it to rabbinical law, bearing in mind that the Sadducees and those upstart Pharisees (of which JC was one) were battling out questions of the law at the time JC was doing his thing.
So just saying I think you’re right. Otherwise, no football on Sunday for many multiple reasons!
Oh. Well how convenient for them.
Jesus himself says that he didn’t come to abolish the old laws, but to fulfill them.
The whole book is worthless.
Jesus came to fulfill the 10 Commandments and spread the word of God being a loving God; not the ritualistic laws of the early-Israelites.
I’d say the book has meaning, but the lens in which one applies when reading it matters. There’s the text as it’s written, there’s the perspectives of the respective authors, and then there is your own lens being three main ways of reading it.
I think the biggest issue is people that are Christians in name only that pick up a Bible and call themselves Christians without even knowing the teachings of Jesus. The types that think what you do on Earth doesn’t matter so long as you believe, so they go on to do near the exact opposite of Jesus. A short comic about this: Supply Side Jesus
If that god was really loving, then hell wouldn’t be a punishment for rejection.
I’m not convinced that any gods are real, but I’m convinced that the Bible god absolutely isn’t.
Even then, might wanna stick to the Gospels