Try me. :) I consider objective arguments. It's just when they morph into pink unicorns on Jupiter based on faith alone that I begin to disregard such "objective" arguments.
God specifically ordered certain people to commit massacres at specific times
Like that psycho who drowned her five children? Anyone can make such a claim, especially when it is politically desirable or when you need a divine "justification" for your conquests, crimes, whatever.
I ACCEPT God's word. I do not hold it up to needing to pass my test of what I think is right and wrong
But your acceptance that it is God's word is based on your own conviction, as it is that the Koran is not. Muslims would believe just the opposite. It all defaults to us individually. Maybe one day you will realize that the world starts with us and that what is true to us is not necessarily the objective truth.
Kosta: Doesn't the OT imply that massacres are "just" if they are Theopneumatos (God-breathed)?!?
FK: I don't think it implies it at all...
Oh yeah? I think it makes it very clear that they are "just" because they were God-inspired. That's not what Jesus taught, however. John the Baptist maybe would have, but not Jesus.
God contacts me every day, but not like that
Really? Why would that be necessary if there is an "indwelling Spirit" inside of you? Isn't that presence always "on?"
Try me. :) I consider objective arguments. It's just when they morph into pink unicorns on Jupiter based on faith alone that I begin to disregard such "objective" arguments.
I HAVE tried. :) But the majority of my arguments are based directly on scripture, which I don't think you accept as objective. I presume you want me to use SOLELY non-Christian sources to prove the truth of my Christian arguments.
FK: God specifically ordered certain people to commit massacres at specific times.
Like that psycho who drowned her five children?
No, I don't recall that passage in the Bible. :) If you would put them on the same footing, then you can see where my opinion at the top comes from. If in your view you put Andrea Yates and Joshua in the same boat, then I don't think there is anything I can do to overcome that. It would seem you would declare Joshua as just some psycho who made up a mandate and went on a rampage, UNLESS, there was a credible, extra-Biblical non-believer there to back him up. At least, that's how it appears to me.
Maybe one day you will realize that the world starts with us and that what is true to us is not necessarily the objective truth.
And that is the HEART of Renaissance thinking. The world starts with man. And it was because of this thinking that they were never able to find unity between God and man. There is no way to do it if man is the starting point. Man wasn't around at the start so he cannot possibly know about it from himself. But, that never stopped those philosophers from trying to make it fit anyway. It never will.
Kosta: Doesn't the OT imply that massacres are "just" if they are Theopneumatos (God-breathed)?!?
FK: I don't think it implies it at all...
Oh yeah? I think it makes it very clear that they are "just" because they were God-inspired.
My whole statement was: "I don't think it implies it at all, it says it plainly. :)" So, I was agreeing or going even further than you did. :)
That's not what Jesus taught, however.
Yes, it certainly WAS. Jesus did not teach in the NT that we should go out and massacre at will, but He DID teach that we should always obey Him. The OT massacres (carried out righteously by humans) were always IN OBEDIENCE to God according to the scriptures. Therefore, they were implicitly following Christ's commands. In fact, many believe as I do that many/all of those OT commands were coming from Christ in the first place.
FK: God contacts me every day, but not like that.
Really? Why would that be necessary if there is an "indwelling Spirit" inside of you? Isn't that presence always "on?"
I didn't say anything about anything being necessary. I just think of the HUGE things that God asked of certain (many times unwilling) people throughout the OT and assume that His communication was sufficient enough such that it would "take". God hasn't asked of me anything like leading a nation of millions out of slavery. He hasn't asked me to kill my son or massacre an entire city. The communications I receive from the Holy Spirit just haven't been anything like that............ YET. :)