Bible Read Thread

[Goodbook]

Christians are being raputred all the time. But we havent yet been resurrected, which will all happen at once.

Does that help?

 

[SarahsKnight]

I havent decided on what camp I am most in but I know at least two are wrong and unbiblical.
I think there is both a spiritual and a historical application of revelation, relevent to the time it was written and relevent for all time. So two are correct. Maybe its a blend of both.

I would like to hear more of your input on this through pm, then, Miss Book, if you are willing to take the time to share.

 

[SarahsKnight]

Sunday: The Epistles


Today we shall be reading Romans 3 and 4.

 

[SarahsKnight]

St. Paul certainly is a man of constant paradoxes and rhetorical questions, isn't he?


I like how Paul is certain to give us a good hint of how people who lived before Christ's time on Earth were redeemed by God the Father here in chapter 4. By telling us how even Abraham's mere obedience in faith, in believing God's promises, were credited to him as righteousness, despite his status as a sinner just as anyone else. As a fairly new believer throughout my last year of high school and first few years of college, I admit that I was always curious as to how "one who lived in the Old Testament before Christ could have made it to Heaven if Christ had not come to die for their sins yet" (according to my newbie-like thinking, you understand ), but I was too afraid to ask for fear of embarrassment that this is common knowledge a Christian should have already. Then one day in college one of my instructors from the Association of Baptist Students mentioned in passing during one of his lessons that people were able to be saved before Christ's time by believing in God that He would send a Savior to them in the future. And while that is the short and simplistic answer, I believe it is basically the right one. As Paul seems to emphasize it here in chapter 4 with Abraham as a prime example: "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness."

Our obedience to the Law - if indeed the Law refers to the ten commandments (I'll admit that off-hand I am not sure if it's that or perhaps Jesus' specific teachings in the Gospels, which expand on the ten commandments in many directions) - will not justify us, however I think it is common sense and heavily hinted at throughout the New Testament that it should come about as a result of our faith. We will not be perfect at it, of course, but praise God the Father that to Him, we are already made perfect in His eyes through obedience to the Gospel.

After all, after you were saved, did you have near as much an inclination towards lying, stealing, and even murdering as you used to? (Hopefully by now any inclination to murder someone is entirely absent. )

 

[Goodbook]

I like the way Paul asks those kinds of nonsensical questions (or rhetorical ones) and then proceeds to answer them.

Esp, is he a God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes of the Gentiles also:

 

[Swan7]

Chapter 4 was a good read. All about Faith and Grace, and how they work. Not saved by the law, but through faith and grace because of Jesus.

 

[SarahsKnight]

Monday: The Law


This morning we go back to Genesis chapters 8 through 11.

 

[SarahsKnight]

Okay, I'll be honest, someone please help me out here. Why is it that Noah cursed his son Ham's offspring just because Ham saw fit to have his brothers Shem and Japheth come to Noah's tent and cover Noah up so that he wouldn't be fully exposed to the world in his drunken state? I mean, was that actually a wrong thing to do?

_______

Also, in chapter 11 it appears we can see at a glance how Abram (Abraham) is descended from Noah. I did not add up the years exactly, but it would appear that Noah's son Shem would be the 8-times-great-grandfather of Abram, with Terah as Abram's father and Lot as Terah's grandson, and Lot of course being Abram's nephew.

___________


Another part of this reading today I really like is how Noah's faith had apparently pleased the Lord so much that, after the waters receded from the great flood, the Lord actually vows to Himself after receiving Noah's burnt sacrifice in Genesis 8:21 that He would never again smite every living thing on Earth at once, as He had just done (virtually every living thing, that is, since of course He intended to spare Noah and his family in the flood). Now, I am not one to make a definite proposition on whether free will or predestination in all aspects of life is the truth of God's ways, so i am not going to say for sure that I think Noah's sacrificed "influenced" God to "change His mind" in any way over the subject of using drastic means to wipe out all evil in the world ever again or not, but I just wanted to observe that I personally am touched by God's vow here in verse 21 to never destroy every living thing in entirety again. It just speaks to me of the constant reminders of His tender mercies.

 

[Goodbook]

Interesting things

1. the dove was female. the holy spirit is likened to a dove.
2. the rainbow covenant applies not only to man, but animals as well

Sarah Knight, not sure what version you reading from, but I'm reading from KJV. Ham sees the nakedness of his father (i.e. Mrs Noah) and tells his brother to watch them in bed like a voyeur, but his other brothers Shem and Japheth did not watch instead they covered their mum and did not see her naked.

In leviticus 'nakedness of someone' is hebrew euphemism for ones intimate spouse. To uncover someone is something that nobody but their spouse should do.

Canaan is cursed because the generation that came from Ham, apparently, was exposed to this, its like Ham was the original pornographer. And you see all their descendents were obsessesed with sex, culminating in Sodom and Gomorrah. Some people say its because of an actual incestous union, but I think it stemmed from being exposed like that.

 

[SarahsKnight]

Interesting things

1. the dove was female. the holy spirit is likened to a dove.
2. the rainbow covenant applies not only to man, but animals as well

Sarah Knight, not sure what version you reading from, but I'm reading from KJV. Ham sees the nakedness of his father (i.e. Mrs Noah) and tells his brother to watch them in bed like a voyeur, but his other brothers Shem and Japheth did not watch instead they covered their mum and did not see her naked.

In leviticus 'nakedness of someone' is hebrew euphemism for ones intimate spouse. To uncover someone is something that nobody but their spouse should do.

Canaan is cursed because the generation that came from Ham, apparently, was exposed to this, its like Ham was the original pornographer. And you see all their descendents were obsessesed with sex, culminating in Sodom and Gomorrah. Some people say its because of an actual incestous union, but I think it stemmed from being exposed like that.

Well, shoot, that makes a lot more sense, then. Ham really was the original pornographer in that case. One who liked looking at his own mother, too, apparently. Ick.

 

[Swan7]

I was going to answer, but I was stuck at work

 

[SarahsKnight]

Tuesday: History

Joshua chapters 11 through 16.

 

[Goodbook]

Wow.
I wish I knew what all those hebrew names meant, if I was jewish I guess it would have a lot of meaning for me, as it would be my family history I could trace back...I mean, weve been adopted into this amazing lineage that had been chosen especially from all other peoples by God Himself, but still, its like, I wish I could go there to experience it all.
Being the daughter of immigrants (mum) and second generation (dad) and being born into a country that I didnt have to do anything to possess the land, much less drive enemies off it makes me grateful I have an inheritance.

Even if its just a suburban plot that is our own little patch of soil.

Another thing i found interesting is acsah, Joshuas wife. She asked him for blessing and springs of water. This reminds me of the woman at the well asking Jesus for a drink.

That Joshua smote those cities and the people were utterly destroyed is a picture of Jesus who will smote the enemies of the cross on judgement day. He is doing this to protect his people, to keep the righteous and remove the wicked. Its like weeding a garden, you have to destroy the weeds or they will keep coming back.

 

[SarahsKnight]

Wow.
I wish I knew what all those hebrew names meant, if I was jewish I guess it would have a lot of meaning for me, as it would be my family history I could trace back...I mean, weve been adopted into this amazing lineage that had been chosen especially from all other peoples by God Himself, but still, its like, I wish I could go there to experience it all.
Being the daughter of immigrants (mum) and second generation (dad) and being born into a country that I didnt have to do anything to possess the land, much less drive enemies off it makes me grateful I have an inheritance.

Even if its just a suburban plot that is our own little patch of soil.

Another thing i found interesting is acsah, Joshuas wife. She asked him for blessing and springs of water. This reminds me of the woman at the well asking Jesus for a drink.

That Joshua smote those cities and the people were utterly destroyed is a picture of Jesus who will smote the enemies of the cross on judgement day. He is doing this to protect his people, to keep the righteous and remove the wicked. Its like weeding a garden, you have to destroy the weeds or they will keep coming back.

You've said some true words there, friend. God invites everyone to come to Him now, I am sure, and His Son charges us to set good examples as believers to draw others on the outside in, but it is true that, perhaps just like the kingdoms that Joshua and the Isrealites smote, at one point in time evil and unbelief will have to be eliminated entirely. We can choose to have eternal life one day when we are called back out of our graves, or not have it at all, and be no more.

... Although, I personally would like to make it known that, while I am not a universalist, I do not completely discount the possibility of universal reconciliation, either (it's just that I myself do not think it has substantial Scriptural backup on the whole, but I could be totally wrong). And from the universalists I have already talked with or read their arguments, it seems to me that they are generally misunderstood by both traditionalists and conditionalists like myself. Just wanted to give some good for thought since I was on the subject. ^-^

(EDIT: Ugh .... Auto-correct ..... Make that "food" for thought.)

 

[SarahsKnight]

Whew .... I believe that was 31 kings and their kingdoms in all that it says in Joshua 12 that he and the Israelites conquered and destroyed. Couldn't have been a pretty sight.

However, let us remember that, while I do not believe it is our place as humans to cheer on for our enemies to have any amount of tragedy to befall them, God Himself is indeed a God of love and mercy, but sometimes His judgments must be harsh (at least from our perspective), and He always knows best. As always, let God do the judging. He can do it better than any of us.

 

[Swan7]

I thought these might help with visualizing the time periods.

Joshua 11-16 Timeline

http://biblehub.com/timeline/joshua/1.htm

The Flood Timeline

http://biblehub.com/timeline/old.htm

Wow, what a LONG feat that must have been. Years of war to uproot evil where it stands, quite literally. I can’t help but also think this has some relevance to His second coming with fire, since Joshua has some likeness to Jesus with this history.

 

[SarahsKnight]

Good morning, people.

Today we will be reading Psalms 6 through 8.

 

[Goodbook]

I like psalm 6 where David is really turning on the waterworks.

You often wont find grown men admit to crying, but..even Jesus wept.

 

[SarahsKnight]

Does anyone else here attend a Baptist church? That is my home church in Magnolia, Arkansas right now. And I noticed in the last verse of Psalm 8 that that is where we no doubt got the hymn "How Majestic is Your Name", which is one I have played through on the viola a few times at church. I don't know if other denominations have that hymn in their books, though. I never sang it in the presbyterian church, anyway.

 

[Swan7]

I have attended a Baptist church for most of my life. They don't use gym books, but words projected onto a wall to sing along. I can't recall a time where we had sang that hymn in particular.