Again you do have wonder how free will plays into "follow me or you will be taken out to the city gates and stoned to death."
We shall have a King. He is not to multiply wives, horses, silver or gold. He is to make himself a copy of these rules and keep it with him. God is to choose this king.
Back to the Levities. They get no inheritance of land. BUT they get all the best stuff. The firstfruits, the new wine (although we wine people know that that is no prize!), the good olive oil, the fall's new fleeses from old navy...
LOVE the word "soothsayer", absolutly underused.
We hear that me will raise up a prophet from their midst.
Manslyer review. Avenger of bood review. Eye for an eye review. Don't pity these people, this is one I have a problem with, I feel sorry for everybody. I'm a bleeding heart, although I must say teaching the under privleged has toughened me up somewhat. When I have student teachers I my room, I can see the look of complete horror on their faces as I speak to the children. Its the exact same look I gave to the teachers I was under when I was student teaching. After a few years you harden somewhat and learn that pity is going to get these kids NOWHERE. I still cry from time to time and I still REFUSE to have them paddled (yes, still leagal in louisiana) but I don't put up with most of their crap.
Know idea how I got on that track! About mid summer I begin to miss the little terds!
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Enough with the Free Will! You know you don't have it, if Christianity is to be believed.
This is a short mathematical proof that if God has a plan, then free will necessarily is an illusion.
2 + n = 4, if n = 2 then free will is an illusion.
Got your attention didn't it? It's really just a little joke used to make a point.
In response to the assertion that Jesus was a human sacrifice, some Christians keep saying that "God has a plan" and that Jesus sacrifice doesn't meet the criteria for a Human sacrifice even though Jesus was a Human whose sacrifice of his life saved us from Gods Wrath by his blood (Rom. 5:9).
Regardless of how that equivocation plays itself out, the fact that God has a plan and things seem to be going according to plan, nullifies the concept of Free Will.
Think about 2 + n = 4.
We don't know what the 'n' variable is but the relationships inherent in that problem were already worked out ahead of time whether (as some ancients believed) it is mystical or it is just naturally ocurring like the shape of water that fills a hole.
Even though we don't know what the 'n' variable is, it can only be one thing.
So when Christians say that God has a Plan, that means that things can only work out one way, and the variables only have the appearance of being unknown.
As long as God has a plan, free will only has the appearance of being unknown to us. To an omniscient God, it must be obvious.
This is why, free will is an illusion as long as God has a plan.
So, since Jamie keeps saying we have Free Will, the only logical truth we can develop as a result is that God has no plan whatsoever.
This is a great post Groman!
I wish Jamie would address the free will issue directly.
For me this is the clearest example of why the Christian concept of God is absurd...
Let's keep in our minds that we are already on our way to Hell. God is trying to save us from that. We are NOT on our way to Heaven and by not doing this or doing that we are condemned to Hell. We are already going there.
God's point about the king was He didn't want someone in there abusing his power and getting rich while the people suffered under him.
Nothing like a new fleece from Old Navy.
God is killing two birds with one stone...He's getting rid of the people currently in the land cause of their sin, and "planting" the Israelites there because of their covenant with Him. Hope that makes you feel a little better about the booting of the current inhabitants...lest you think they were ok people just being arbitrarily abused by a discriminatory God. I can almost see them saying like Curly, 'Aw, victim of circumstance!'. We see here, not so much.
Again, the point is reinforced that there is a difference between killing and murder. And I like the fact that the family members of the victims get first dibbs at retribution. How many fathers or mothers now would like to have this option. I know if someone hurt or killed one of my children I'd like first crack at 'em.
Don't remove your neighbor's landmark. Love this one, as my family has been involved in disputes where someone literally moved a property stake. Two or three witnesses necessary to convict. I mean really, how great are these laws? And if you falsely accuse, you get punished. That is just awesome. And it even says that this is not only for punishment or correction, but also deterrence. The punishment shall fit the crime. Right on. tbc...
We were supposed to read thru 20 as well, so I'm gonna go ahead on and comment on 20 before Crystal.
Some military stuff in here. I can dig that. Don't be afraid cause God will help you (and fight your battles for you). And it lists all the reasons you can get out of serving, or at least join something less combative...like the AirForce or the Navy. Kidding. I love both, everytime we've gotta go some where and fight, those fellas always give us a ride.
I particularly like and agree with the one that says, let the cowards go home so they don't "infect" the others with cowardice. This is a very real possibility. Morale, whether good or bad, is absolutley contagious. A soldier's attitude can greatly affect his fellow soldiers. Someone who can't grab a hold of their fears will undoubtedly, inevitably, eventually cause the death of other soldiers.
Foregin policy...diplomacy first (not unending), then lay the smack down if attempts at peace fail.
For the specific cities in the land set apart to God, they are to kill every living thing as we discussed before, but in other cities, they are to kill the males only (and only if they force a fight - diplomacy fails)....and it says why...so they don't cause them to sin by following other gods and their ways, etc.
And finally God reminds them to think before they act. Great military strategy...don't use the fruit trees which you can eat from to make siege works, you dummies! How many times in history have we seen military commanders do dumb things like this?
I'll write more if Crystal asks questions.
Tomorrow's reading is Deut. 21-23
Jamie says:
"Let's keep in our minds that we are already on our way to Hell. God is trying to save us from that. We are NOT on our way to Heaven and by not doing this or doing that we are condemned to Hell. We are already going there."
I hate to bring this up again, but it bears repeating. God is all powerful. He could have created the world in so many different ways, but he chose this one. Unfortunately for me (but luckily for Jamie!), God chose/created a reality that requires the vast majority of humanity (future and past) to burn in Hell forever.
Why would you worship a being who requires infinite suffering for all who "disobey" him?
Regarding our supposed "free will": God already knows how everything will happen (future and past) so there's no way to influence him through prayer. And if Prayer did cause God to control or alter our reality, doesn't that also negate the idea that we have "free will"?
If God is always in control, how can we be held accountable? We can only do the things God knew we would do before He even created a single atom. No amount of praying, preaching or debating will change a single outcome in Christian reality.
This is one of the reasons why I left the faith. It's absurd and there's no way to defend it without a heaping helping of "Bible interpretation" that raises a lot more questions than it answers.
Another reason I left the faith is that when I raised these issues I was ignored.
Kind of like right now.
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