If the Bible is the end all be all for morality, was everyone immorral before Guttenberg printed it?
369129
Every time you catch these people in a lie/ignorance they change their story.
228267
Of course.  All of the bible has been translated and re-translated hundreds of times, and all subject to the political and social morals of the monks keeping the records through the centuries. Don't kid yourself about it being "God's Word" and thus unchangeable and infallible.
899217
Yes.  Biblegod is supposedly the biggest kid on the block so he gets to declare "do as I say not as I do" when he commits or endorses mass murder in his "Word".  As described in the Bible, he is a tyrant and an egomanic regardless of his claims of being "loving' and "just".  Heck, the creation myth at the very start of the tale says all you need to know:  God set Adam and Eve up for their fall, knowing full well what would follow, then blamed them for what happened.  Some "love and justice".
869143
The Bible was not given to us as a basis of government.  We are supposed to apply it to our personal lives.  If more people applied the Bible to themselves (don't steal, lie, commit murder, commit adultery, etc.), the country would be better off because of fewer broken lives and fewer people in prisons.  That is how the Bible should play a bigger part in society.  I think that too many Christians get caught up in trying to turn the Bible into law rather than convincing other individuals to use the Bible's guidance.
741345
My source of morality growing up (and up until Pangel helped me to see things differently) has been what was drilled into my head by very conservative Christianity, as it relates to the Bible.  I'd probably consider it my church teachings first, ego second, Bible third, and fear of damnation fourth.\n\nNow, however, I still consider myself a Christian, but I would call human decency first, and the Bible second (interpretted very differently than before).  They practically go hand in hand.  I now interpret the Bible based on the world I see around me.  How do the teachings of the Bible fit with the observations I see in my day-to-day life?\n\nGod bless!
984552
One source says "I never wrote anything against anyone in hatred. And I always kept before me, what I thought would redound to the glory of God." (But this is only ONE source, and NOWHERE else)\n\nA few sources say "I have lived here amid continual bickerings. I have been from derision saluted of an evening before my door with forty or fifty shots of an arquebus"\n\nBut there are no sources anywhere that suggest what you have quoted. He did once mention that all human additions to the bible (specifically, the parts where god was speaking) were lies.
398578
King James Bible:  Psalms 37:29  The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein for ever.\n\nModern Translation:  29 The righteous themselves will possess the earth,\nAnd they will reside forever upon it.\n\nI grew up in the Church of Christ, they teach that approved persons go to Heaven, bad people go to Hell, if what they say is true, then no one is left on the Earth, and King David told us a lie.\n\nThis one scripture is what caused me to start studying the Bible, and what a large amount of Bible knowledge have I consumed.
383530
Catholic monks hand wrote couples of the Bible for centuries before Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1453. Bibles were then mass produced, giving the poor opportunities to learn how to read. It also created several religious and cultural changes when the poor began questioning the Catholic hierarchy and deciding their beliefs for themselves.
941106
The bottom line of Poki's post is "because someone said so". But that isn't true. \n\nThe oldest book on earth, a copy of Isaiah found with the dead sea scrolls, is essentially identical to what we have today. Through the dead sea scrolls we have again proven that the Bible that we have is reliable and accurate and consistent in it's message. There is no scholarly authority or archaeological evidence that proves otherwise. Nada. \n\nSaying the Bible is corrupt is just the same old lie; "Yea, hath God said...?"
609320
Yep! Thats the way it is! \n\nThese people claim to have all knowledge and morals.\n\nI never did figure out where they got their moral standards from seeing as they don't believe.\n\nLike Ikemann, Hitler, Stalin, they just invent them.\n\nREMEMBER- WE ARE NOT OF THIS WORLD- JUST PASSING THROUGH.
268068
Nope,it's one of those passages that I disagree with.What you quoted was one of many unethical verses in the bible.I don't believe or follow everything I read.
222239
Yes.  The right-wingers of Jesus' time were the ones who plotted his death.  They couldn't stand that he hung around with tax gatherers and "sinners", that he rescued an adulteress from stoning, that he accused them of putting heavy loads on men's backs and not lifting a finger to help them carry those burdens.  Also, they couldn't stand that he claimed to be the Messiah.\n\nTime and again, when a new idea, such as a new religion or new philosophy, is given to the oppressed people to liberate them, you can guarantee that 1)the powers-that-be will appropriate that religion or philosophy and bend it to their own agendas, or 2) the children of the oppressed, who are freed by the new knowledge, will establish themselves and become comfortable, and a few generations down, will become the oppressors themselves.  It happened in ancient Israel.  It happened time and again in Christianity.  (The Puritans' descendents became the persecutors of the Salem Witch Trials.)  It even happened with Communism.\n\nThere's a Jewish saying: "If God came down to earth, people would break his windows."\n\nI've heard it say, a few decades ago, that if Jesus came today, we'd all be wearing little electric chairs around our necks.  Today, it would be little lethal injection syringes.
971248
Not unbiblical, just unpopular to the "world"...\n\nTotal Depravity : does not mean that everybody is an ax murderer..it means ALL are guilty of some sin\nIsa 64:6  But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. \n\n(Rom 3:19)  Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.\n(Rom 3:20)  Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.\n\nUNCONDITIONAL Election...means you can't earn your way to heaven...goes hand in hand with total depravity..\n(Joh 1:11)  He came unto his own, and his own received him not.\n(Joh 1:12)  But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:\n(Joh 1:13)  Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.\n\nEph 1:4  According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: \n(Eph 1:5)  Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,\n(Eph 1:6)  To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.\n\n\nLimited Atonement:\n(1Co 8:6)  But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.\n(1Co 8:7)  Howbeit there is not in every man that knowledge: for some with conscience of the idol unto this hour eat it as a thing offered unto an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled.\n\nAct 10:41  Not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before of God, even to us, who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead. \n\nMat 7:14  Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. \n\nMat 20:16  So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen. \n\n(Joh 10:26)  But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you.\n(Joh 10:27)  My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:\n(Joh 10:28)  And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.\n(Joh 10:29)  My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.\n(Joh 10:30)  I and my Father are one.\n\nIrresistable Grace:\n\n(Gal 1:10)  For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.\n(Gal 1:11)  But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man.\n(Gal 1:12)  For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.\n(Gal 1:13)  For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it:\n(Gal 1:14)  And profited in the Jews' religion above many my equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers.\n(Gal 1:15)  But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace,\n(Gal 1:16)  To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood:\n\nPerseverance of the Saint's.. merely echoes the above (total depravity & uncond. election)..we are Christian's not by any great or good thing we do; but, by the will of God...who can stand against the Almighty God???\n\n(Joh 10:29)  My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.\n\n2Ti 2:13  If we
1096673
Morally? No-God permit this with the people. Until he changes things to a new way people were allowed to judge of earthy things just not the heart. it was a protection to the people.
278674
Genesis. Start at the beginning, end at the end. Many Christian denominations (and individual Christians) will decide for themselves whether to take the Bible literally, figuratively, or take some parts literally and others figuratively, or even ignore some parts altogether. To decide for yourself, you should read all of it so you can make an informed decision.
175554
No.  Before 1963 the bible was even read in the classroom.  So, if up to 1963 the Bible was allowed and all the sudden is in violation of the the separation of church and state.  Which do you think the Founders intended.  Read the Federalist Papers, Read what George Washington said.  It's a statement that even goes to the heart of the Declaration of Independence where it talks about Our Creator
779934
No.  The whole concept of "vicarious atonement" was invented purely to subjugate and control the masses. \n\n"All your righteousness is as filthy rags."  This is the sort of amoral callousness that passes for "morality" amongst the "pious."\n\nIt's quite a racket though - I'll give them that.  Concepts like "Original Sin" and the salvationist theology of christianity provide a nice system of threats and rewards with which the powers-that-be can exploit the ignorant peasants, and the peasants themselves feel vindicated by the idea that their oppression in this life is securing them a good seat in the Afterlife.