Posted on 05/20/2017 10:17:33 PM PDT by Olog-hai
A new Gallup poll shows that only 24% of Americans believe the Bible is the “literal word” of God, which is a decline from the 1970s, but the survey also shows that the number of Americans who think the Bible is the “inspired word” of God, 47%, has stayed pretty steady over the last 40 years.
In addition, an overwhelming majority of Americans, 71%, believe the Bible is a holy document, inspired by God or containing God’s own words.
“Fewer than one in four Americans (24%) now believe the Bible is ‘the actual word of God, and is to be taken literally, word for word,’ similar to the 26% who view it as ‘a book of fables, legends, history and moral precepts recorded by man,’” reported Gallup on May 15.
“This is the first time in Gallup’s four-decade trend that biblical literalism has not surpassed biblical skepticism,” said the survey firm. “Meanwhile, about half of Americans — a proportion largely unchanged over the years — fall in the middle, saying the Bible is the inspired word of God but that not all of it should be taken literally.” …
(Excerpt) Read more at cnsnews.com ...
The Torah is not fluff, but compared to the great precept of the higher world, it is luft, vapor, vanity. Fluff.
That’s how great the greatest commandment is.
Regarding the legendary doctrinal battles on this religion forum - where character assassination and weaponized Scripture is justified in order to “contend for the faith” - if people knew what they were doing, they wouldn’t do that.
The Torah of the Messiah is not found among the subtle creatures that live to scrape around in the dust.
I did not provide the Veda quote to belittle the Bible, only as an illustration of the use of numbers in religious tracts. There is a reason why those numbers are there.
When one begins to study and peel away the onion skin like layers of not only the Bible, but other tracts, one begins to see the message encoded within, We are to remember something, something that is very very important and the only way to get us to remember it was to encode the numbers in oral and later written traditions.
Think about it for a moment, what were our ancients trying to tell us?
Nope. Sorry. Your sophmoric attempt failed to account for the part where I said “...the meaning we sense in the words.” God made you and he made the words. The fit is synergistic. We cannot be deaf to Gods words but we can try to clap our hands over our ears or lawyer up etc.
That’s not what the Bible itself says. No fluff among its contents, according to Deuteronomy (Devarim) 8:3 and Matthew 4:4; being so written down, that’s what I’ll believe. Though that does not restrict the words of God to the Bible, it does not exclude any of it.
Again, recognizing the different forms of language God chose to use in literally giving us His word - which as in everyday communication is necessary and typically easily discernible - simply does not translate into sophistry or clapping our hands over our ears or lawyering up, though this necessary function can be abused in order to do so.
The reality of God-ordained different forms of language and the necessary God-ordained function in recognizing such is not the cause of sophistry, etc. though such lawyering may abuse this function in order to justify its false teaching.
Hope that is clear by now.
Psalms 40
6 Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required.
7 Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me,
8 I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.
Great timing that "hevel" should drop into my lap this evening, after my previous posts, seemingly out of nowhere:
Gen 35.19. And Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Beth-Lehem:
And Rachel died, and was buried in the 'place of fruitfulness', 502 (the gematria of the words in bold: 'hi beit lechem', she is Bethlehem)
502 (for the sake of this particular study, as there is much much more) = ani ohev otacha/otach, which is a man saying:
"I love you."
Hardly irrelevant, for the first letters of the words 'hi beit lechem' spell HEVEL, the vapor, breath, luft, which is also ha-lev, the heart. The Torah of the World to Come summed up by "I love you."
After all, it's not work if it is love.
I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart. ~ King David
Gen 29.20. And Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and they seemed to him but a few days, for the love he had for her:
Love. It not only bears fruit, it brings the dead back to life.
The place of fruitfulness is the place of fruition, the harvest, end product, the totza'a (= 502) which is the result, outcome (root yatza: yud tzaddi alef, to go out, as in Rachel's soul departing).
Bethlehem = house of bread. A bakery, as it were, where the final product of the wheat harvest is made manifest.
Rachel went out, and David came in. The traditional date of David's birth and death is the wheat harvest (Shavuot). People might think that her naming Benjamin 'Benoni' was a superfluous data point in the narrative, but the name is quite the prophecy regarding 'another (achar = 209 = hatzaddik) son' within the context of Joseph's birth and naming. As usual, Rachel had the long view in mind, as evident with the story of the dudaim ('mandrakes'), which took place during the wheat harvest. Dudaim - two Davids.
For example, Benoni premutes to 'Yinon comes'. Ben-oni, son of '67. Binah = 67, and so does Elul, which is the well-known acronym for "Ani l'dodi v'dodi li". Again with the two Davids. I am for my David and my David is for me. Yay Rachel! She's just the best. No wonder Jacob loved her.
Jerusalem's big golden day is coming up, so excellent timing with all this.
I don't want to miss a detail. There's a lot more [that I didn't include] regarding the names/meanings/numbers...
"Fewer than one in four Americans (24%) now believe the Bible is 'the actual word of God, and is to be taken literally, word for word,' similar to the 26% who view it as 'a book of fables, legends, history and moral precepts recorded by man,'"
Those are not “all the tribes of Israel” which are listed there. Both the people of Levi and Joseph are listed. Neither of these were part of the traditional 12 tribes. The tribes of Dan and Ephraim are missing from that list.
I know you notice the trend, but even about 90% of “FReepers” think literal belief in the Bible is idiocy.
This is the modern world we live in.
Being Salt & Light has no meaning to them.
Well this came from the Bible Revelations..
So God failed to communicate what he wanted to comunicate? The only people who seem to have trouble with what God communicated are people who are doing something that God proscribed which they want to keep right on doing. Otherwise there is no need to “wonder” what God meant.
The only trouble with what is communicated is on your end. Just how do you get God failing to communicate what he wanted to communicate out of the fact that He sometimes used non-literal language in the literal word of God?
Where did i see there was a problem with what God communicated? Whatever you are fighting it should not be God sometimes using non-literal language in the literal word of God. Fight those who abuse that in order to justify doing something that God proscribed. I just reproved a lady who disagreed with me that Jesus was a fundamentalist, a literalist, which He was.
Ez...
I have gone through a lot of suffering.
Some it mentioned it here.
I can’t handle life well anymore...
I see Trump dancing with the swords....
Killed myself I wanted.
Then I felt this spirit come over me.
And it said “love”
But, I have helped so much.
Given this website money, when I have no money to give.
Whatever.
I have read the entire Christian bible back to front.
And prayed since I was a very little child.
The answer in my heart is love and truth.
I have no money.
Infact I want to die.
But, the little money I have I give away.
I called a suicuide hotline tonight for help....
Well, it did help.
I am still here.
I am not about to throw bible verses around.
Butm people will send hate your way..... a lot.
Just they way it is.
The people who send the most hate are “the most righteous”
““Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’”
God bless you for helping a very depressed man.
*hugs* and God bless.
Love and truth.
That is it.....
If you can master it.
Move to level 2
Hint?
You will never make it to level 2.
So work on that love and truth bit.
Are you a Christian.
If you pray?
The holy spirit will tell you and teach you and guide you.
I have studyied the Bible since I was a child.
Always praying as ny dad though me...
Pray for wisdom then read,
Then pray more.
Btw, Olog Hai. I love many of the pslalms too
And Jesus himself talked about things from the psalms.
Like building your house on solid ground.... aka faith...
So “fluff”. Remember English is my second language. I am quite good at it so people forget. But, do the love part.... and the truth part....
And you cannot fail.
I have missed that. I just spent 2 hours on the suicuide hotline.
And you know what, that woman, Berit was her name.
Never mentioned Christ.
But, she showed me love.
No idea what her religion is, but she is the most Christian person I have met in many many years.
Love and truth.
I am a descendent of Adam and eve...
So I share that mischievous spirit.
And was then God, the first troll?
Here is this awsome apple.
Never touch it.
And, he created man and woman.
With our curiousity and all.
Just leaving it there.
Stop worrying about prohesy.
Live every day as it your last.
Because, hey, it might just be anyhow.
As God said. Judgement day comes as a thief in the night.
When you least expect it.
So just be nice always.
And remember love.
The first and greatest commandment.
[ Being Salt & Light has no meaning to them. ]
Yep, in fact they hate it and try to stop it.
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