What's all literal and metaphor? I don't know. I just know certain things are to be taken as metaphors and others literally.

The quote you have taken from the bible is referring to something what is called a "ban" is Hebrew. It's referring to a spiritual war between Satan and God. God is saying he will have no mercy, pity, nor spare Satan and his minions.

Anyone can take a quote and put it to their own use. Look at the Davidians from Waco and many other cults. They took single verses and made it to their own benefit.

in peter when it says that slaves should be subject to their masters with all reverence is that a metaphor too?


i definitely don't think anyone should take the bible literal. it seems to have tons of contradictions, and things that just don't make any sense. whenever something doesn't make sense then i'm told it's just a metaphor.

like in genesis, when god creates the earth. it lists that this is what happens on day one, this is day two, this is day three, then all the sudden on day four god makes the sun and the moon. so how were the first three days divided into days? we judge days by when the sun comes up and goes down, that clearly wasn't happening since the sun and moon didn't exist yet.

things like this make no sense to me. but the answer i always get is, well god can do what he wants, or god works in mysterious ways. ok that's great, but backing up everything with "god just did it" isn't answering anything for me. it's a completely circular argument, god can do whatever he wants. that doesn't cut it for me

Why doesn't god heal amputees?

Like I said earlier, there are many times where people have used the quotes in a wrong way to prove their point, like with the Southern plantation owners saying the quote from Peter to the black slaves trying to justify all that.

There are many points in the Bible where things can only be explained through the worldy tongues, meaning days, weeks, hours. In the spiritual realm, there is no real day. No hours, nor weeks. They are put there so that we as humans can get a general idea of it.

Let me give you an example. Angels are spirits. You cannot see them. Look at Isaiah 6:2. "Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying."

Angels cannot be seen, but how did Isaiah see them? This is not how angels look. It's an example of anthropomorphism. ( No, not furries ) He was shown everything from a worldly view so that others can understand. If the Bible was to be explained all in spiritual terms, noone would be able to understand.

God does not have to heal everyone. Just because you are a Christian does not mean you are going to be healed.

but the bible says slavery is ok. it gives instructions on how we slaves should act. why would god be ok with slavery?

i would think the bible would preach against slavery rather than explaining slaves should obey their masters

Slaves were, in that time, and in other countries NOW are still prevalent. The Bible is not saying that slavery is OK. But what it IS saying, that if you do have slaves, to treat them fairly, honestly, and with care. This showed that the Bible was way ahead of times because nobody cared about slaves in ancient times.

what?????
it's still not saying slavery is wrong though. it's not ok to just say that u should treat ur slaves good. u shouldn't have slaves in the first place! if the bible was ahead of it's time this is what it would be preaching

What's right in one country is wrong is another. It's all I can say the most about this topic. I wish I knew more on this subject, but I don't.

well i think that's extremely messed up. slavery is not right no matter where it is. slavery is wrong, it's always been wrong. god surely knows this, and any god that teaches how to treat slaves rather than that we shouldn't have them isn't a god that i want to worship.

wow, yeah, i don't know. things like this are things i can't just ignore.

Damn Podomaht, you've impressed me with this topic.

How do other religions fit in with Christianity? Are they false idols or do they all stem from a common belief?

You know, I agree with you, though. I wish I knew the entire idea on this, but I don't. I really don't agree with slavery, like most people should, but I'm going to try to keep an open mind for other countries where slavery still really exists.

But that said, I'll try to find some more information on this topic and get back to you on it.

Christianity stems from Judaism, that's for sure. Other religions, such as Muslim seems to base it's religion off parts of Judaism and Christianity. Buddhism, Hindi, and others I can't explain. There really seems to be no correlation between those.

everyone believes their god is the one true god. how do u know that ur god is and all these other people god isn't. none of them seem to be more provable than the other. it's also strange to me how demographic religion is. had many of these christians grown up somewhere else they would be another religion and would believe in it with the exact same conviction. that alone indicates to me that something is wrong here.

which is why i dislike when people point out that i'm going to hell because i don't believe blah blah blah. who's to say they're worshiping the true god. just because it's what they were born into believing doesn't make it right. they can just as easily be going to hell if they die and it so happens they should have been worshiping the wrong god this whole time.

Again, American-Christians tend to whip out the " you're going to hell " card wayyy too much. Why? Because they're not God. Who are we to judge?

And also, yeah, makes me glad to know Christ without having to deal with another religion. Another question I cannot answer.

How do we know that God's a man?

Wow, this is deffinately an interesting topic. Going back the women having no power thing, I always thought that it was against god for women be pastors of the chruch. When I used to go to church that's what I was taught. I was also taught that god won't save homosexuals. But he's the one who makes them like that.

To err is man. Thus, God cannot be man. God is perfect.

That's Catholicism. We're talking about Christianity, but I guess Protestant to be specific. Martin Luther and John Calvin did a lot with the reformation of the Church.

Christians welcome men, women, blacks, whites, pinks, golds, anyone to be a leader in a church.

And no, God does not make man homosexual. Man will always have tendencies to do wrong, but that does not justify homosexuality. I'm not here to bash on homosexuality or to condemn it, but God does not make homosexuals, homosexual.

Though I do believe that we as Christians have no right to say who's going to hell because they're homosexuals and whatnot. That's just wrong.

i actually have a lot of respect for the fact that u realize that. there's so many people i know who hold religious views but can't understand that simple fact

Yeah, to be honest with you, there's a lot of people we could really work with if they just hadn't been hurt by some many "Christians" who just go around saying "You're gay, go to hell."

Really stupid on their part, and makes people like me look really bad.

Maybe I just had a pastor who was didn't like homosexuals When I went through catechism my pastor told me that women couldn't be pastors and that god doesn't save homosexuals. It wasn't something I agreed with, and it played a major part in why I stopped going to church. But my pastor was against people using "bad words", hah, so maybe he was just trying to make us think like him.

You know, it's a sin to draw people away from God. Sounds like he's got a big count against him.

Guys, I'm done for now. I'm going out for the night. I'll probably be around later tonight answer some more questions.

But he heals other people, right?
Why never an amputee? Does God just not care about the amputees?