Starting to read the bible

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flob

Guest
#41
What's wrong with just going cover to cover?
Nothing. Go for it.
And thanks for sharing your first thoughts about light.




It's OK, their passion is encouraging. :)
awesome
 
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atwhatcost

Guest
#42
OK I'm going to sit down and try reading a bible. I've never been a believer but I'm not closed minded.

I've dismissed other religions because of their lack of relevance in today's society (the Asian gods) or because they are represented by backwards idiots (Muslims)

I've got my problems with Christianity too, but alot of that is down to admitted ignorance of the bible so I'm going to give it a chance.

Christianity appears to be the most relevant religion of all the others, and seems to attract fewer nut cases than the others so I'm prepared to devote some time to reading the source material.

No doubt I'll hit some hurdles and I'm aware it won't fit in with what I percieve to be 'reality' at times, but I'll be as open as I can.

There seems to be some very knowledgable people here so I hope to take advantage of your expertise and perspectives.

Wish me luck!!
Cool! Glad to hear it.

Good place to start is assume it has nothing to do with luck though. lol

Feel free to ask when you hit a "Huh?" There ought to be quite a few huhs as you read.
 
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atwhatcost

Guest
#43
Shouldnt I read if from beginning to end in its entirety? I don't see a value in just the odd verse here and there.

Your already Making it sound like I won't do too well lol
Go from beginning to end. And remember most of us have read it often enough that we do have favorite parts. (I'm tempted to give you my favorite part, but, if you read from beginning to end, you'll read that too. lol)

There will be a final when you're done.

Nah! Just messing with you. lol
 
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atwhatcost

Guest
#44
OK we have a flag up in Genesis with the day and night cycles being referred to as being in place before the sun was created.

Obviously science throws in a spanner there..

But It's not a huge problem. For a while I used to switch the heating on manually when I came home from work and manually switch it off around 9pm.

However I don't need to manually control it anymore because I've set a timer to do it automatically.

So is it safe to assume God may have "manually controlled" the day and night cycle initially.. Was happy with it so then set things in motion so they took care of themselves on their own? Like my timed heating? Lol.

Don't worry I won't be doing this every verse. Just want to get a feel for how I'm approaching it.
Take it as you see it. It says what it says. If you want to think of it as your heater, you can do that, but keep taking it for what it says. We're going to make it into images we can understand, but just as long as we don't get into stuff like Eng. Lit./World Lit teachers do, (the wallpaper in the study was blue to represent blahblahblah, when in reality maybe the author just liked blue wallpaper), you'll be all right.
 
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#45
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atwhatcost

Guest
#46
Your post #10 has you trying to ferret out mechanics and timings and techniques. This is why I said if you are approaching this as a science book or a Technical Manual, there really isn't much point in messing with it.... unless, you HONESTLY are open-minded enough to be able to shift your paradigm as you are led to see different things.
His post 10 merely hit the same thing the rest of us caught when we read Gen. 1. It really is mind boggling. It really is "I never knew that before." It really is a brand new experience that does make us envision the whole of the universe and yet try to put it into something we can understand, because not a one of us can imagine how big that creation was. So let him be mind boggled. Let him think as he will. Have a little faith that Allan is smart enough to get this, and God will do what God does do while Allan reads the Bible.

Have fun, Allan. There's a lot that will surprise you. Great read.

Now I'm going to stop or you're going to spend too much time reading this stuff when you could be reading the book. :x
 

crossnote

Senior Member
Nov 24, 2012
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#47
Whatever order you read, remember Jesus, after all He is the central figure of the whole Bible.
 
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BettyAnn

Guest
#48
Shouldnt I read if from beginning to end in its entirety? I don't see a value in just the odd verse here and there.

Your already Making it sound like I won't do too well lol
Welcome!

Starting from the beginning is one of many ways. I preferred to read one book from Old Testament and one from New at a time. A full cover to cover is very common as well. It's really how you decide.

Just keep in mind that Old Testament is a record of early times in to the creation of Israelits as a group so the OT laws and standards are going to be ancient Judaism that has morphed in to modern Judaism and pre-Israelite mores.

So if you're looking to focus on Christianity you will most likely be better off focusing on New Testament and following references. But keep in mind that footnotes and editor's note after often just option or the preferred theory or teaching of something. So it's better to just read first, reference then footnotes on the second readthroigh.
 
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purgedconscience

Guest
#49
Allan, it's certainly true that one can get bogged down or confused by many things in the Old Testament if limited by their own human understanding and that is precisely why I asked you to ask Jesus to reveal Himself to you in those books as He did for the two men on the road to Emmaus and His disciples after He rose from the dead. He's no respecter of persons. He opened their understanding in the past and he'll open your understanding in the present if you but ask Him to. He is Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever.

Since Leviticus has been mentioned, when you read that book and read about the ministry of the high priest who was to mediate between God and the people, think on Christ our true High Priest and mediator. When you read of all the different sacrifices and the purposes or sins for which they were offered, think on Christ our sacrifice and recognize that He died to rectify these same purposes and sins in the lives of His people. If you're still confused at that point, then it might be best to jump over to the New Testament epistle to the Hebrews to see the distinctions between the Old Testament priesthood and sacrifices and the New Testament Priesthood and sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

The Old Testament comprises something like 75% of our Bibles as far as volume goes and Christ can be found in all of it. We are by no means limited to the New Testament in our quest to know Christ. He truly is from everlasting to everlasting and He existed even before Genesis. In fact, He is the One Who did the creating in the first chapter of Genesis.

Again, may God bless your reading of His Word and bring you to know both Himself and Jesus Christ for this truly is what eternal life is all about.
 
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wwjd_kilden

Guest
#50
Hi Allan

hope we haven't scared you off. How is the reading going?

PS: if you have a look at the bottom of each page there is probably (though not guaranteed) some cross references that take you to other parts of the bible speaking of the same/ a similar topic. It gives more context :)
 
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AllanSnackbar

Guest
#51
I'm hitting a major wall with Noah's ark.

I ask this respectfully about Noah's Ark, is this supposed to be factual or symbolic?
 
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wwjd_kilden

Guest
#52
I'd say it was a very real thing

Could Noah's Ark really hold all the animals that were supposed to be preserved from Flood? • ChristianAnswers.Net



Most Hebrew scholars believe the cubit to have been no less than 18 inches long [45.72 centimeters]. This means that the Ark would have been at least 450 feet long [137.16 meters], 75 feet wide [22.86 meters] and 45 feet high [13.716000000000001 meters]. Noah’s Ark was said to have been the largest sea-going vessel ever built until the late nineteenth century when giant metal ships were first constructed. Its length to width ratio of six to one provided excellent stability on the high seas. In fact, modern shipbuilders say it would have been almost impossible to turn over. In every way, it was admirably suited for riding out the tremendous storms in the year of the flood.

The total available floor space on the Ark would have been over 100,000 square feet, which would be more floor space than in 20 standard-sized basketball courts.

According to Ernest Mayr, America’s leading taxonomist (deceased), there are over 1 million species of animals in the world

However, the vast majority of these are capable of surviving in water and would not need to be brought aboard the ark.
(...)
Doctors Morris and Whitcomb in their classic book,The Genesis Flood state that no more than 35,000 individual animals needed to go on the ark. In his well documented book, Noah’s Ark: A Feasibility Study, John Woodmorappe suggests that far fewer animals would have been transported upon the ark. By pointing out that the word “specie” is not equivalent to the “created kinds” of the Genesis account, Woodmorappe credibly demonstrates that as few as 2,000 animals may have been required on the ark. To pad this number for error, he continues his study by showing that the ark could easily accommodate 16,000 animals.


But, let’s be generous and add on a reasonable number to include extinct animals. Then add on some more to satisfy even the most skeptical. Let’s assume 50,000 animals, far more animals than required, were on board the ark, and these need not have been the largest or even adult specimens.
Remember there are really only a few very large animals, such as the dinosaur or the elephant, and these could be represented by young ones. Assuming the average animal to be about the size of a sheep and using a railroad car for comparison, we note that the average double-deck stock car can accommodate 240 sheep. Thus, three trains hauling 69 cars each would have ample space to carry the 50,000 animals, filling only 37% of the ark. This would leave an additional 361 cars or enough to make 5 trains of 72 cars each to carry all of the food and baggage plus Noah’s family of eight people. The Ark had plenty of space.
 
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AllanSnackbar

Guest
#53
Aside from the space issue. We have the question of how did the animals get to the ark from places like Australia etc, then how did they find their way back?

After the flood wiped out everything, what would the animals eat when they got back on land? What would the meat eaters eat if everything was gone?

Then we have the salt water and fresh water mixing which would kill alot of the sea dwellers.

I shudder to think how the cleaning duties would be handled lol.

All seriousness though. I'm struggling with this already. Before I continue I have to be assured of the facts of the Ark story.
 

crossnote

Senior Member
Nov 24, 2012
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#54
Aside from the space issue. We have the question of how did the animals get to the ark from places like Australia etc, then how did they find their way back?

After the flood wiped out everything, what would the animals eat when they got back on land? What would the meat eaters eat if everything was gone?

Then we have the salt water and fresh water mixing which would kill alot of the sea dwellers.

I shudder to think how the cleaning duties would be handled lol.

All seriousness though. I'm struggling with this already. Before I continue I have to be assured of the facts of the Ark story.
Scriptures are full of miracles. If you got past this (Genesis 1:1,3) with no problems the rest should be easy...

Genesis 1:1, 3 (KJV)
1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
 
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AllanSnackbar

Guest
#55
Scriptures are full of miracles. If you got past this (Genesis 1:1,3) with no problems the rest should be easy...

Genesis 1:1, 3 (KJV)
1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
So your saying he used miracles to feed the animals after the ark landed. And used miracles to get the animals to and from the ark? Also used miracles to prevent the deaths of sea creatures due to the mixing of fresh and salt water?
 
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#56
So your saying he used miracles to feed the animals after the ark landed. And used miracles to get the animals to and from the ark? Also used miracles to prevent the deaths of sea creatures due to the mixing of fresh and salt water?
Why are you jumping to the conclusion that there were two different kinds of water from the beginning?

You have just come face-to-face with one of our problems of reading a 6,000 year-old book from only our narrow, focused view of limited 21st Century awareness.

(Don't try to make the Bible a science book.)
 
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crossnote

Senior Member
Nov 24, 2012
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#57
So your saying he used miracles to feed the animals after the ark landed. And used miracles to get the animals to and from the ark? Also used miracles to prevent the deaths of sea creatures due to the mixing of fresh and salt water?
Perhaps. With God nothing is impossible.

Mark 10:27 (KJV) And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.

A truth you'll have to grapple with through Scripture.
 
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AllanSnackbar

Guest
#58
Why are you jumping to the conclusion that there were two different kinds of water from the beginning?

You have just come face-to-face with one of our problems of reading a 6,000 year-old book from only our narrow, focused view of limited 21st Century awareness.

(Don't try to make the Bible a science book.)
Again I'm not making it a science book.

I'm viewing it from a reality perspective.

In reality bow does a kangaroo get to Australia from the ark? How did it get to the ark and what did the animals eat afterwards?

That's not science, they are basic questions.
 
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flob

Guest
#59
I ask this respectfully about Noah's Ark, is this supposed to be factual or symbolic?
both.
it was real.....................and as 'miraculous' as creation, no doubt. This 'second start.'
well........I guess creation out of nothing's even more 'miraculous.'
On the other hand, God by definition isn't miraculous.
He just Is.
In regard to kangaroos, i'm guessing the Lord puts 'em there.
I've never been to Australia.


As to the symbol---it signifies the Triune God (3 stories), embodied in the man Jesus Christ,
as the New Testament says, as the rescue not only for mankind, but all life that He's created.
From His judgment on sin.
And the fact that it's a building, a construction, signifies the Body of Christ.
The Lord Jesus Christ said, I will build My church
 
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AllanSnackbar

Guest
#60
Of course!!! I never viewed it as a second start.

Obviously miracles had to be in place if your resetting eveything. That's not something that can happen naturally.