Posted on 02/23/2007 8:32:11 AM PST by Alex Murphy
My personal favorite:
Nothing is better than God
A ham sandwich is better than nothing
Therefore: A ham sandwich is better than God.
And that's why they call it Wonderbread!
Beyond the fact it draws the Incarnation into question, it is pretty silly. Most Early Church Fathers said that Cain's wife would have been a sibling.
True, but I see no biblical evidence that Paul was a bishop. And your interpretation seems to fly in the face of verse 5, that suggests that one is unqualified to be a bishop unless he's demonstrated the ability to control his own kids.
A large majority of humanity being condemned is explicitly stated by Christ: "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it." -- Matthew 7:13-14
I try to do the same thing with the kids in the high school Sunday school class I teach. I am a proponent of inoculation - it is far better that they be introduced to these issues earlier rather than later, and learn that questioning stuff like this is 100% acceptable.
There are many things that God can't do. God cannot act in an un-godlike way. God cannot do things that go against His nature. God cannot become non-god. I don't know if you were serious, but that is the kind of sophomoric question that is often raised by high school or college students.
St. Paul was superior to bishops; he appointed them.
... one is unqualified to be a bishop unless he's demonstrated the ability to control his own kids.
So, not only are celibate men ineligible to be bishops, but married men who are childless are also ineligible? Where does that leave Jesus (unmarried, no natural children)? Where does that leave men who take the Biblical command "Imitate me as I imitate Christ" (1 Core 11:1) literally, including obeying Jesus' words in e.g., Mark 10:29 or Luke 18:29?
Historically, the verse you cite has never been interpreted to prohibit the ordination of celibate or childless men to the episcopacy. It is true that married men were ordained in the early church. (A church consisting primarily of adult converts from paganism, of course.) St. Paul is setting limits on the sort of married men who can be ordained (married only once, with Godly children if any), not prohibiting the ordination of celibate or childless men.
For some folks, its all about the buggery.
That, or they see that some Christians actually do hat those whose sins are different than theirs. There is a strand of Christianity that is completely sex-obsessed.
Perhaps. There also seems to be a strand of heresy that begins below the belt.
My belief is that the answer to Cain's wife is in Genesis.
1:26.And God said, "Let Us make man in Our image..........
27.So God created man in His own image, in the image of
God created He him; male and female created He them.
31....And the evening and morning were the sixth day.
2:7.And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground,
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and
man became a living soul.
22.And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man,
made He a woman, and brought her unto the man. (notice
she wasn't formed at the same time as Adam, as the
females of the 6th day races, or mankind, were)
Adam and Eve were formed on the 8th day, after God rested on the 7th.
Cain married one of the 6th day creations. Mankind, all races, were created on the "6th day". Adam (eth ha adam - the man Adam)was formed on the "8th day".
Anyway, this is what I see written in Genesis and it has answered one of the questions I have had since I was a child.
I've been protestant all my life, I would like to know which portions differ between my Bible and yours please.
1 and 2 Maccabees, Sirach, Wisdom, Baruch, Tobit, and Judith were removed from the Bible by M. Luther & Co.
These are Old or New Testament books?
Old.
Thank you.
I'll see if I can find copies and read them.
As I recall they were included in the first edition of the KJV but removed from the subsequent versions.
These books are in every Catholic Bible. Try: http://www.drbo.org/
Indeed, Paul was an apostle.
So, not only are celibate men ineligible to be bishops, but married men who are childless are also ineligible?
That's certainly the prima facie reading of it.
Where does that leave Jesus (unmarried, no natural children)?
Unqualified to serve as a bishop, in any conventional sense.
Where does that leave men who take the Biblical command "Imitate me as I imitate Christ" (1 Core 11:1) literally, including obeying Jesus' words in e.g., Mark 10:29 or Luke 18:29?
The same. It's not as though the inability to serve in a particular role is somehow crippling, or evidence of spiritual unfitness. I assume you'd agree that a woman cannot be a bishop, but that hardly reflects badly on her or proves that it's an unreasonable criterion.
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