Biblical Doubletalk
(Investigator
135, 2010
November)
JC's sermon on the
mount? Where did he do it?
Matthew
chapter 6 …he
went up into a mountain. OR
Luke
6:17 ...and he came
down with them and stood in the plain... OR
Neither
Mark nor John
mention any such sermon.
Conclusion:
It never
happened; just another myth.
Be wise or a fool?
Proverbs
3 Happy is the
man that findeth wisdom... OR
Corinthians
1 I will
destroy the wisdom of the wise...
Conclusion:
A
contradiction?
God loves you? Hates
you?
John 4
God is love.
OR
Psalms 7
God is angry
with the wicked every day...
Conclusion:
A
contradiction?
See God and die? or be
o.k.?
Exodus
33 See God and
die. OR
Genesis
32 "I [Jacob]
have seen God face to face and am alive...
Also
Moses, Aaron, Nadab,
Abraham, and 70 elders of Israel saw God and were o.k.
Conclusion:
What a bunch
of conmen, how can you see something that does not exist.
God knows everything
or nothing?
Proverbs
15. God sees and
knows everything. OR
Exodus
12 ...and when I
see the blood I will pass over you...
Conclusion:
If God knows
everything, why did he require the Israelites to mark their houses with
blood so that he could "pass over" them? This imaginary God sees and
knows nothing.
JC's ascension — taken
up into heaven
Matthew
16 At a dinner in
Jerusalem OR
Acts l
Near Mount Olivet
OR
Luke 24
Outdoors near
Bethany OR
Matthew
28 Near a
mountain in Galilee.
Conclusion:
Just another
fairy tale.
Was JC the seed of David
via Joseph or the son of God?
Romans l
JC our Lord was
made of the seed of David according to the flesh... OR
Matthew
l Mary was
espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child
of the holy ghost… (dirty devil)
Conclusion:
Who is your
daddy?
Thou shalt not kill —
except on God's orders
Exodus
20 Thou shalt not
kill. OR
Deuteronomy
20 ...But
thou shalt utterly destroy them, the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites,
Perizzites, Hivites, Jebusites.
Judges
14 ...and the
spirit of the lord came upon him and he went down to Ashkelon and slew
30 men of them...
Ezekiel
9 "and the lord
said unto them, defile the house, fill the courts with the slain, go ye
forth," and they went forth and slew the city...
Conclusion:
A killer god.
Thou shalt love thy
enemies or curse, hate and slay them?
Matthew
5 ..."whosoever
shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also..." OR
Luke 11
"he that is not
with me, is against me and he that gathereth not with me,
scattereth..."
Deuteronomy
6 "...lest
the anger of the lord thy God be kindled against thee, and destroy thee
from off the face of the earth...
Deuteronomy
29 ...and the
lord will not spare him but then the anger of the lord and his jealousy
shall smote against that man…
Luke 19
"but those mine
(JC's) enemies which would not that I should reign over them, bring
hither and slay before me..."
Conclusion:
Our mythical
god does prefer killing.
Honour
thy father and
mother, but it's not JC's way.
Exodus
20 Honour thy
father and mother...
Luke 18
Honour thy father
and mother...
Matthew
15 ...for God
commanded saying-honour thy father and mother... OR
Matthew
l0 ...for I have
come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter
against her mother...
Luke 12
...the father
shall be divided against the son and the son against the father...
Luke 14
...if any man
comes to me and hate not his father and mother and wife and children
and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my
disciple...
Conclusion:
Double talk.
JC commands his
disciples to preach only to Jews? or to all nations?
Matthew
l0 JC sent forth
and commanded them saying, go not unto the way of the Gentiles, and
unto any city of the Samaritans enter ye not...but go rather to the
lost sheep of the house of Israel… OR
Matthew
28 ...go ye
therefore and teach all nations
Conclusions:
He cannot
make up his mind?
JC and God are the
same? or God is greater than JC? or JC was just an ordinary man?
John l0
"I and my father
are one." OR
John 14
"I go unto the
father for my father is greater than I" OR
Acts 2
JC of Nazareth
(Nazareth did not exist at that time) a man approved of God among you.
Conclusion:
Double talk.
It would
take a book
larger than The Bible to record all the double talk and contradictions
contained in the world's greatest fairy story book, The Bible.
Brian de
Kretser
Institute
for Research
into Religions Darwin, N.T. Australia.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
BIBLICAL CLARITY
Anonymous
(Investigator
136, 2011
January)
Mr De
Kretser's examples
of "Biblical Doubletalk" (#135) are easily answered.
1.
Was the Sermon
on the Mount on a mount or on a plain?
Probably
both. The sermon
"on the Mount" was on the mount, and a similar sermon was on the plain.
Politicians, evangelists and others who speak publicly may repeat their
message at different venues and so did Jesus.
An
alternative
explanation is that "plain" can be translated "level place" (Luke 6:17
NRSV) so that Jesus descended from the mountain-peak to a level place
on the mountain.
2. The book of Proverbs
teaches wisdom but 1 Corinthians 1 says, "I will destroy the wisdom of
the wise"?
The
"wisdom" in Proverbs
consists of rules and attitudes that promote health, long life,
prosperity, good relationships, fine reputations, and peace.
"Wisdom" in Corinthians Chapter 1, however, refers to Greek philosophy
and rhetoric.
An interesting study would be to investigate whether 1st
century Greek "wisdom" has survived scientific scrutiny and is relevant
today. Has it done as well as the Bible or is much of it "destroyed"?
Proverbs is still relevant in the 21st century and gives scientifically
validated counsel in numerous areas including child rearing (#131) and
sexual morality (#48).
3. "God is love" yet
is "angry with the wicked".
This is
not a
contradiction. We've all known parents who loved their children but, on
occasion, were angry with them. Love and anger are compatible emotions
which can exist concurrently in the same person.
4. No one can see God
and live (Exodus 33:20); yet 70 elders of Israel saw God (Exodus
24:9-11).
In
Exodus 24:10 where the
elders "saw God" the Hebrew "raah" corresponds to the English "see" and
like the English can refer to either literal sight or to mental sight
i.e. comprehension. In 24:11 the Bible clarifies which is meant by
switching to the Hebrew "hazah" which refers to seeing figuratively
i.e. an event in the mind. The Companion Bible (which is the
King James with explanatory notes) explains:
"Heb.
Hazah,
to see with the mental eye, or in vision (Isa. 1:1; 2:1; 13:1. Ezek.
13:7. Amos 1:1. Mic. 1:1. Hab. 1:1. Num. 24:4, 16) Hence to discern,
observe, contemplate, understand."
Humans cannot see
God
literally but can experience Him.
5.
Were the biblical
writers "conmen", as De K accuses, since God does not exist?
If God doesn't exist, then let De K demonstrate that a Universe based
on scientific "constants" compatible with intelligence and life able to
understand the Universe, can originate from non-intelligence and
non-life and without planning.
6.
God is
all-seeing and all-knowing yet the Israelites had to mark their houses
prior to the Tenth Plague on Egypt so the "Angel" would "pass over".
When the
Israelites
marked their doors with blood, it was not only to identify themselves
as Israelites but to demonstrate faith and acceptance of God's judgment.
7. From where did Jesus
ascend to heaven: At a dinner? A mountain in Galilee? Near Bethany"?
Mount Olivet?
The
dinner (John
20:19-23) and the mountain in Galilee (Matthew 28:16-20) have no
mention of Christ's ascension.
Bethany near where Jesus ascended (Luke 24:50-53) is not the Bethany
across the Jordan River (John 1:28) but a village: "on the farther side
of the Mount of Olives on the Road to Jericho." (New Bible Dictionary,
1982, p. 132) Acts chapter 1 likewise locates Christ's ascension on the
Mount of Olives.
8. Was Jesus the "seed of
David" through Joseph, or was Jesus God's son?
Both.
Jesus, according to
the Bible, was King David's heir by human descent through Mary and by
adoption through Joseph, but also God's "son" by supernatural pregnancy.
Today,
non-sexual
pregnancy including virgin pregnancies can be achieved by "in vitro
fertilization". Such pregnancies, however, do not prove that doctors
are, in De K's words, "dirty devils". Any doctor so-labeled could sue
for slander. Similarly Mary's supernatural pregnancy from "the holy
spirit" was not anything "dirty".
We can
believe Jesus'
birth happened as the Bible teaches because: