Starting to read the bible

[crossnote]

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.)

Methinks it goes deeper than a cultural gap, it's a natural mind / regenerate mind gap.
That's why from the beginning I was hoping a different approach.

1 Corinthians 2:14 (KJV) But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

 

[flob]

if by naturally you mean...............what do you mean?

 

[AllanSnackbar]

if by naturally you mean...............what do you mean?

I mean if the whole world is going into reset mode, I can't expect natural explanations.

 

[flob]

well a big flood...........sounds supernatural. I mean a really big big flood.
There's other supernatural stuff in the OT after Genesis,
yes the whole disbursement of mankind after Babel (in Genesis) sounds supernatural to
me in some respects. What was natural was them living to be so old--------and then that quickly, or gradually,
declining. Because of death.

But as for 'natural,' man is naturally made to contain God. That's simply............. reproduction

 

[mwc68]

Be very careful of the advice you get here on CC! Once you deviate from their formula, you will be accused of following satan. Just a heads up!

 

[Jason0047]

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.

How did the Kangaroos go to Australia from Noah's Boat after the Flood?

Most of the 140 Marsupial (pouched animal) species are found exclusively in Australia.

Post Flood (i.e. after the Flood): After the one world language was split into many languages at the Tower of Babel, man had separated into many different groups; This resulted in man being spread out all over the world (as God intended) (Genesis 11:1-9). I mean, if you think about it, it makes sense that these groups of men might have built or owned ships smaller in sized to Noahs' and carried some of these animals with them (because they were carrying on the traditions of Noah) when spreading out all over the globe. Therefore, the ancestors who became the Aborigines must have taken most of the Marsupial species with them to the continent that we now know as Australia (Just as Noah took animals onboard the Ark).

 

[crossnote]

well a big flood...........sounds supernatural. I mean a really big big flood.
There's other supernatural stuff in the OT after Genesis,
yes the whole disbursement of mankind after Babel (in Genesis) sounds supernatural to
me in some respects. What was natural was them living to be so old--------and then that quickly, or gradually,
declining. Because of death.

But as for 'natural,' man is naturally made to contain God. That's simply............. reproduction

I would say it's a miracle when man 'contains' God, either by new birth or the incarnation.

 

[Jason0047]

I mean if the whole world is going into reset mode, I can't expect natural explanations.

Anyways, there are a thousand explanations as to the issues of the Ark that one can simply Google for themself. However, if one just believes God and His Word by faith then the question of "why" does not matter. You trust and believe God at His Word that there is a reason or explanation (whether it be a natural explanation or a super natural explanation). See the Bible is a book where God calls you to have faith in Him and what He says is true. The more and more you trust God's Word, the more and more God will open your eyes to the hidden spiritual truths that are within His Word.

 

[atwhatcost]

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?

Factually. Mind boggling huh? Really old man and three sons (who, since Dad was old weren't spring chicks themselves... or maybe were, since people lived much longer back then) made a boat roughly the size of a battleship. Then every kind of land based animal -- a single pair of unclean animals and seven clean, so the family had food -- showed up. Think about the animals. How did they keep two mosquitoes? (Apparently, the female didn't bite a family member, or wed have no mosquitoes anymore. lol) How did they keep T. Rex? How did meat eaters not eat up other varieties? (When the animals disperse 13 months later, notice what God changed about the animals. Seriously evolved them at that moment, so it explains some.)

And how do you not go nuts being stuck in a boat nonstop for 13 months with just your family knowing all other people in the world were just wiped out?

So feel free to accept real and you can also see divine too.

 

[atwhatcost]

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.

I can answer some, but not all. There was this huge lake on a mountain in what is now Colorado. One of the sides broke and the water tumbled out. Poof! The Grand Canyon. If just lake water can do that, how does flooding the whole freaking earth change the geography. In my mind the Garden of Eden was in what is now Cleveland. Granted, not likely, but since all the geography changed, it would have been. lol

How did the animals get to Australia? How did huge tortoises end up only on Galapagos? Sure, they can explain the sea iguanas, because there are land iguanas in South America, so maybe they adapted like evolutionist think. BUT there aren't any other mongo tortoise anywhere else but the Galapagos. And what about the Madagascar lemurs? No other place but Madagascar. They say the sea iguana used to be land iguanas and came by way of a storm. They were hanging off a limb over the ocean when the storm came. The branch broke, so they floated to the new digs.

There is no island on earth that hasn't been reached by drifting and surviving the ocean. Even those in-the-middle-of-nothing islands in the Pacific. If humans can get there by accident, why not animals?

As for what did the animals eat? Have you gotten there yet? The flood receded a lot quicker than the time when Noah opened that door. Months! My family used to go to the same Canadian cabins to fish every year starting in that summer between me being in first grade and second grade. The winter before our first trip, there was a cave in on the highway right next to the cabins, so they made a new highway right next to the cave in. The first year we could play on that road without worrying about cars. By the time I was in high school that road was a meadow. That's the earth recovering right through a blacktop highway. How much easier to regrow without pavement in the way?

Check out what's happened to Mt. St. Helena. They thought it wouldn't even start recovering until 2010. Ha! The volcano killed the lake. The lake has fish again -- good fish, not merely crappy water fish like carp and bass. Fish that need pristine conditions to live. It has trees again. It has fields of flowers. It's beautiful.

What did Noah and his family have to eat? Got to figure all the veggies they had to eat before hand, right? And what do you do after you eat? (It better have been a huge bathroom. lol) My brother didn't have indoor plumbing for years, so he dug spots on his ground for his outhouse. Once it got stinky, he covered up that hole with a sapling, and moved it to another location. He laughs, because he can tell what season he planted the sapling by what bushes grow around it. Strawberries means he planted in May. Blueberries mean July. Seeds are like that and humans and animals "drop the fertilizer."

Annuals only take 1-4 months to grow and Noah and his family didn't move out for about 4 months (give or take a month. I forget.) And, as already mentioned, the animals never got scared of people naturally, until God put that nature in them, so they booked when the doors opened with enough to eat. Even the carnivores, because very few animals take 13 months to have babies. (Think of rats and mice. That was carnivore food in the ark. lol)

Freshwater dwellers? No idea how that worked out, other than I know striped bass can live in both. Sea dwellers? Nothing to worry about since there was plenty of sea. lol I wonder if that flood didn't kill many of the sea dinos. Probably killed a few other species too. Then again, the evolutionists say 99% of the species have gone extinct. Why not some then? I still can't figure out what happened to the carrier pigeon.

It makes sense in the time given.

 

[crossnote]

Lynn clueless in Cleveland, don't you know Eden was in East Los Angeles...if you don't believe me, Google it.

 

[atwhatcost]

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?

Might have. Might not have. He set the mechanics of the universe in order when he did his "Let us make" thing in the very first chapter of the book. The law of gravity was his idea. The spinning around the sun was his idea. The distance from the moon was his idea. He set the laws of physics, so he could use those or not. In my mind a miracle is only when God decides to break the laws of physics. All are his to do as he wants, so he could have gone either way. I think mostly he goes with using what he set up originally to work right. No matter how you fall on that one it's got to be "God did it."

 

[atwhatcost]

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

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

Keep count of how many ways God gave another start. And then count how many times Man screwed that up too. It is, very much, a theme of the book. (And, yes, it can be, and is, natural. After all, what is nature, but something God created? lol)

 

[atwhatcost]

I mean if the whole world is going into reset mode, I can't expect natural explanations.

Why not? (Even though, again, nature is through God.) New Orleans got washed away quite a bit ten years ago. It's back! Florida? How often does that get a good washing? It's still there. Mt. St. Helena? Java? Japan? All along the Mississippi? Didn't some river in the UK truly flood big time last year or the year before? God still floods. The land still comes back. You don't have to look at 5000 years ago and wonder what happens after a flood. We've got pictures. We have evidence of what still happens after a flood, after volcanoes erupt, after cave ins, after all kinds of massive destruction. Nothing has changed.

 

[popeye]

I'm well aware I'm not reading a science book.

I'm reading what is regarded as the perfect word of God. If the stuff your referencing is so important why isn't it at the front of the book?

Let's just imagine I'd ñever heard about the bible. If I found it lying around and decided to start reading it. I would naturally read it from the beginning. Now your saying its not the right way to do it?

I commend you. Go for it.
I personally skip around,and once you get to the begats ,you probably will to.

One thing is for sure,you will come away with what we all did. There is not anything on the planet like it.

 

[popeye]

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.

Well,most warned you start in the NT.

You re reading a book from a spirit being. We do not understand him,we follow him and he reveals understanding. (he understands....we do not)

But do you like fish?

What do you do with the bones?

Well,the bible has many "bones'

(figuratively speaking)

BTW, you will be robbed if you do not skip what is "impossible"

 

[flob]

I would say it's a miracle when man 'contains' God, either by new birth or the incarnation.

I'm not offended by your use of 'miracle' for that.
I only try to point out that God made us in His image..........(intelligently) designed us.........to contain Him.
Like a glove is made for a hand.
And likewise God created human reproduction with a view to, once, joining, the human race, by means of conceiving the
virgin's egg.

 

[HePaidForUs]

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!!

The Bible is the Word of God, written by God's Spirit. First you need to establish this by studying prophecy.

Here are some links to help you.
Reasons To Believe : Fulfilled Prophecy: Evidence for the Reliability of the Bible

Isaiah 66:8
Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.

This is an example of a prophecy about Israel. Israel was brought forth in 1 day in 1947 (thousands of years AFTER this prophecy was written) and it was birthed before the birth pains (the war for Israel was fought AFTER the nation was reformed).

AccordingtotheScriptures.org :: 353 Prophecies Fulfilled in Jesus Christ

The KJV is the only preserved Word of God. It uses texts from Antioch. The other Bibles all use texts from Alexandria Egypt.


READ THE GOSPEL OF JOHN FIRST. Everything in the Word must be considered from the perspective of who God is (God is Love) and what His plan was (to send His only begotten Son to save us - to die for our sins). John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

 

[HePaidForUs]

Well,most warned you start in the NT.

You re reading a book from a spirit being. We do not understand him,we follow him and he reveals understanding. (he understands....we do not)

But do you like fish?

What do you do with the bones?

Well,the bible has many "bones'

(figuratively speaking)

BTW, you will be robbed if you do not skip what is "impossible"

Yes it is important to understand the the Word of God was written by the Holy Ghost. God is spirit. You are not reading a book that was written by humans, although humans were used to write it.

Everything in the Bible will seem like it is impossible - but when you study prophecy you will see that it HAS to all be true or NONE of it is true - and you will see that it is ALL true.

Start with prophecy and the Gospels!!

If you want to be assured it is God's Word you must start with prophecy.

 

[crossnote]

I'm not offended by your use of 'miracle' for that.
I only try to point out that God made us in His image..........(intelligently) designed us.........to contain Him.
Like a glove is made for a hand.
And likewise God created human reproduction with a view to, once, joining, the human race, by means of conceiving the
virgin's egg.

I'm glad you're not offended, we have enough thin skins running around CC that I don't even think can 'contain' themselves