On Tue, 17 May 2005 02:47:49 -0400, Mark Weiss <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
>You got it right--the distinction between criminal killing and the offing,
>say, of a village of Philistines.
>
>Societies have tended to regulate the administering of death to about the
>same degree as fertility.
>
>The old testament is largely tribal myth and history, and a central concern
>is the tribe's survival, by almost whatever means. The new testament is
>about one man's career and what a few of his disciples did afterwards. Most
>of what made it particular to place was washed out of it. Then of course
>there's Revelation, a pretty violent fantasy. It took believers a couple of
>more centuries before they got to act on their fantasy.
Well,I would have thought that the OT is much more than
myth and history.I would have thought it a story of a chosen
people of God,chastened,disciplined,with a view of a coming
Kingdom,salvation from all this despair but then again I might
have been deceived by my Biblica scholars.
Revelation as fantasy? Hhmmmmmm,that's a hard one.
But then again the whole Bible is a book that records
the history of the world. HIS-STORY,my I wonder what
that could mean.
ALPHA and OMEGA.from beginning to the end.Surely
we do not have at our disposal a book that has already
recorded TIME finite.Where do we fit into this amazing
time-line. 2005 years and you are,'how old?'Just putty
in His hands.
We all have a destiny to fulfill.A destiny
that has already been fore-ordained,before time began.
Some of us have been destined to be Atheists,some Agnostics
some scoffers and skeptics.Some believers.
We are nothing but flesh and blood marionettes.
{I wrote a poem with that line]It is around
here somewhere.......and no I am not a Hyper-Calvinist.
Oh,and what can we do about?
I am a sinner,what do I know?
>It's good to remember that Christianity's triumph was the result of a
>pagan's emperor's decision to promote it by pretty violent means because in
>a dream he's been told that its dominant symbol would help him kick ass.
>
>Boy do I spell badly at three in the morning.
>
>Mark
A pagan Emperor fulfilling a destiny given him.
even the rise of Islam against the world
has been fore-ordained.but then,it is a
peaceful religion.I deceive you not.
>
>At 01:59 AM 5/17/2005, you wrote:
>>Mark Weiss said:
>>
>> > You might want to remember that Christianity as religion of piece is a
few
>> > small chapters in a large and violent text.
>>
>>What about the OT/NT split in this area? I don't see the NT as
particularly
>>condoning violence, anything but, even though violence has been committed
in
>>its name. But the same, of course, goes for the Koran.
>>
>>This is mostly irrelevant, but it's been in my mind.
>>
>>The KJV translation of the 6th commandment runs, "Thou shalt not kill."
>>
>>How does it run in the original Hebrew? I've always wondered if the
>>original meant something more like "Thou shalt not commit murder."
>>
>>I suppose I could chase it for myself, but it's simpler to ask you, Mark.
>>
>> <g>
>>
>>The Enigmatic Mouse.
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