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Actually, how likable the biblical god is has no relation to me not believing it exists. In fact, that I disagree with it in some instances should be expected in any being that isn't me. And I am certainly cowardly enough that I would willfully serve a being I viewed as a tyrant in order to receive the reward of a pleasant afterlife.
Oh, that.
I don't know if this helps at all. I have never felt or not felt what an atheist feels or doesn't feel about God. But I haven't always been a bible reader. I was Buddhist/Pagan with some brushes with Christianity most of my life. The steps that led me to Christianity as a conversion....finding in it, at last, my Lord, involved a lot of things. Not the least of which, was of course, the grace of the Holy Spirit to even pull me that direction as an interest. First, through history and study, I came to believe that Jesus of Nazareth was a real life person. Nothing in mythology had ever produced THAT before. This real life person was IN FACT put to death by the Roman authority at the request of the Jewish authority by crucifixion in approx 30 AD. His apostles were real. They all suffered martyrdom, except for the Apostle John who was imprisoned, and tortured, but died of old age. So if this person was real, and He is, then the next thing was that the fullest histories of this man's life, teachings, passion, death and resurrection were in fact the Holy Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. So to begin in the bible, I began by reading the Gospels. There are two eye witness histories by His apostles, and two histories written later with the actual living Apostle Peter (Mark), and also Mary and Paul (Luke). By the time I began the last gospel, I was already feeling like I was being put on the spot to make a decision regarding Jesus. After reading the Gospel of John, I was certain that I must in fact make a decision regarding Jesus. By the time one finishes John, it is clear that this Jesus claimed to be one and the same with God the Father. This was not a mythological God, nor a mythological God/Man. This was, according to Himself, the very Word of the living God through whom ALL THINGS were made. Incarnated among men. There is more written about this man than any other person in the history of mankind. His birth and death changed the way human beings mark time. No other single person since the dawn of man has had more impact, or been of more importance than Jesus. He can be reviled. He can be dismissed as lunatic, and therefore His billions of followers, the conduct, development, and creation of western civilization to all be an aberration of deceived persons, (so that would make Him in fact a dangerous lunatic, and sociopath as well), to have such influence that all who loved Him would gladly die for Him rather than give a pinch of incense at a Roman pagan alter, for instance. What a person who has educated themselves on Jesus can not do, legitimately, is ignore Him, and not make the choice. The Gospels, properly read, MUST have an impact on one's life. Either reviling this man, or falling on our fact to worship Him. I decided He was who He said He was, and also came to rely on the Gospels as the greatest documents of history. But I didn't begin to delve into the Old Testament, until I knew from the Gospels that I was a Christian. So from there, I re-read the Gospels, only this time, I used the footnotes in my bible, and whenever there was a tie in with the OT, I followed the link, and read that section of the OT. I came to discover the bulk of the OT in this way, as the NT is just jam packed with OT references. Many of them allusion to the OT made by Jesus, who was, in His human incarnation, an learned and practicing Jew, who knew the OT, (which He referred to as "The Scriptures" inside out). I then read the first 5 books of the OT, which tell the story of ancient man. I don't have any particular problem with these very early stories using a great deal of allegory. I began to pray the Psalms. I then read the middle history of the Jewish people, (Judges, Samuel, Chronicles, etc.). The philosophical work of the book of Job. The Song of Songs. The Proverbs. and finally, the prophets, who all pretty clearly point back to Christ when the OT is read through a NT lens. Approaching the Bible in this way......convinced of Christ, and always accompanied by prayer to the Holy Spirit, is a method, that for me gave the entire collection a different feel, meaning, and result. It has become for me a "living" document, and not a dead letter, because of the Christ. As with every other phenomena in life, I found that the answer, and meaning can only be unlocked through Jesus. God among us. Emmanuel. God's one spoken eternal Word. All things are made new in the light of Christ. Even the very Bible itself. So that is always my advice for someone who wishes to understand the Bible. First read the Gospels. Come to understand Christ. Then read the rest through Jesus. I'm convinced, that with prayer, anyone who did this, would be given the grace of Christian faith, unless they, themselves made a conscious effort not to accept it.
First you look at who the text was written for, the origional audience. Then you look at the application for us today in our generation. The basic rules are Definition, Usage, Context, Historical Background, Logic, Enference, Genre Judgement. If you follow the rules then you can properly understand the Bible. If you violate the rules then you will not understand the message in the Bible.
I was just talking about the basic teaching they give you in Bible college on how to interpret the Bible. You can do a google search on the rules for Bible interpretation. We do understand more now that we are in the Church age. "Solomon was wiser than all the men of the east and all the sages of Egypt". Yet he still did not have the mind of Christ. "among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist! Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he."
I am convinced that everyone can be saved, and everyone must decide if they want to be saved or not.
Actually, historians clash over whether or not Jesus actually existed. Personally, I think the biblical Jesus is based off of a real person, or perhaps multiple people (lots of people were crucified), whose exploits ended up exaggerated thanks to the telephone game. Also, lots of mythological texts claim people to be the sons of (and other relations of) deities (nearly every hero in Greek and Roman myths) and have martyrs, and it is possible some of them were based off of real people as well. So, none of this is unique or historically sound, unfortunately.
Lots of believers start there. I read the bible in order. It probably would be a lot easier to believe this stuff if you read just the New Testament, but it references the previous texts too much to do that and understand everything within it... along with some texts that were actually removed from the bible. Also, out of all the Gospels, only Luke was written within a time frame that allows for the possibility that the person who wrote it was alive to see Jesus in person. The other three were written long after his death, and if I recall correctly, John is the most recent addition of the four and considered also to be the most flawed of the four.
Sorry, but only Luke even has the possibility of being written by "someone that was there", and it only remains a possibility, not a certainty. Also, these "testimonies" contradict each other a lot.
Well, a book that threatens hell for disbelief would put you on the spot... if you put any stock in it. I was 13 years old when I first read the bible in seeking faith, and even in my vulnerable state of having the first person close to me in my life die, I found those threats hollow. Also, like I said, I think John was a relatively late entry. Interestingly, three of the Gospels attribute different last words for Jesus during his crucifixion.
You do realize the BC and AD thing isn't nor has ever been universally practiced, and that there are a variety of calendars in use, right? Also, argument from popularity is a fallacy; the majority of humanity not only can be wrong, but has been wrong historically on many matters. At one time, the majority of people thought that the sun orbited the Earth, for example, but that didn't make them right. Nor did it make them crazy for believing something that was wrong. Also, the inventor of the printing press arguably was more important than Jesus, as his humble invention allowed for literature to be affordable to the common person, and without him, the bible would not have been read by so many, along with every other influential text. Also, I don't see how Jesus thinking he was the son of god would make him a sociopath or a dangerous lunatic, and there are historical and biblical reasons to think that his claim of being divine was added into the bible later than a lot of other details.
False dichotomy. I find Jesus to be a very respectable biblical character, especially when contrasted to the protagonists of the Old Testament. But, I don't think he was a deity, or was divine in any way. I have absolutely no reason to hate Jesus, and I also do not worship him or the god of the bible.
It almost sounds like you were purposely putting off reading the OT. Did you think it would shake your faith?
It's very easy to fabricate details about a life lived before photographs, video, etc. How do you know that Jesus actually fit the prophecy, and details weren't just added in to make it seem that way? In actual eyewitness accounts, when evaluating how reliable they are, too much detail is actually a negative, because it is rare for people to remember items that are small or relatively insignificant. If an eyewitness claims to know a bunch of forgettable details they had no way of knowing would be important (such as the amount Judas was paid to betray Jesus), that's considered a sign that the witness is fabricating the detail.
Waaaaaay too late for that, seeing as I have already read the whole thing. In order, like most books are supposed to be read.
I decided to be saved nearly 8 years ago. Still waiting on that.
... What???
