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When you finish a book of the Bible, post it here
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<blockquote data-quote="Viktor Zeegelaar" data-source="post: 1497407" data-attributes="member: 22108"><p>Great topic. Summer last year I read the New Testament for the first time, amid pretty hectic suffering in my personal life that was what me pushed to finally do it. Then over the course of the first half of this year I read/scanned through the old testament, getting the core out of it and getting familiar with the characters, the story and above all the overall integration of the NT and the OT. To be honest I kinda feared to dive into the OT as I was under the impression that that would shatter my very positive impression of the NT, as we always hear about this angry God in the OT. However the takeaway I made was that it truly is an integral story, Christ mentions the OT too many times and in fact talks about separating the ''weed from the chaff'' more times then the OT. What I found that God did demand wrath and termination of entire cities/groups of people in the OT, but never without warning or without the chance to repent. That was the red line to me. Sure seeming atrocities did happen that we might never fully understand, but at least my impression was that this was separating ''weed'' to avoid the chaff would be contaminated by evil. Moreover coming from a secular background in a 99.9% secular country it was interesting to see that almost all of our proverbs stem from the Bible. </p><p></p><p>I did have some questions that I dove further into, for example should we resist evil and can we judge. I found that there are many examples in the Bible where Christians put their faith above the earthly authorities, such as John/Peter maintaining to preach in Jerusalem after being forbidden to do so by the authorities, Daniel refusing to not worship God and being thrown in the lions den and the Christians refusing to worship the golden statue of Abdulnazzar. The second question I had was about judgment and I found the idea of righteous judgment very appealing. Christ wasn't a hippie as He is portrayed so often now, He did call us to judge righteously and we saw that in his behavior towards the Phariseans too very poignantly. Therefore the argument that I hear so often about Romans 13 just obey to the authorities is not accurate in the broader context of the Bible. We must view the Bible holistically to understand its meaning, and not take one quote out of context and pose that as ''this is what Christ said'' or ''this is what the Bible says''. Sure, respect for authority is an element, but as I've shown there are many sides of the same coin. That would be the main takeaway for me, life and also the teachings in the Bible are multifaceted, integral and holistic. Beware of interpreting yourself or draw conclusions based on a single quote, chapter, verse or character.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Viktor Zeegelaar, post: 1497407, member: 22108"] Great topic. Summer last year I read the New Testament for the first time, amid pretty hectic suffering in my personal life that was what me pushed to finally do it. Then over the course of the first half of this year I read/scanned through the old testament, getting the core out of it and getting familiar with the characters, the story and above all the overall integration of the NT and the OT. To be honest I kinda feared to dive into the OT as I was under the impression that that would shatter my very positive impression of the NT, as we always hear about this angry God in the OT. However the takeaway I made was that it truly is an integral story, Christ mentions the OT too many times and in fact talks about separating the ''weed from the chaff'' more times then the OT. What I found that God did demand wrath and termination of entire cities/groups of people in the OT, but never without warning or without the chance to repent. That was the red line to me. Sure seeming atrocities did happen that we might never fully understand, but at least my impression was that this was separating ''weed'' to avoid the chaff would be contaminated by evil. Moreover coming from a secular background in a 99.9% secular country it was interesting to see that almost all of our proverbs stem from the Bible. I did have some questions that I dove further into, for example should we resist evil and can we judge. I found that there are many examples in the Bible where Christians put their faith above the earthly authorities, such as John/Peter maintaining to preach in Jerusalem after being forbidden to do so by the authorities, Daniel refusing to not worship God and being thrown in the lions den and the Christians refusing to worship the golden statue of Abdulnazzar. The second question I had was about judgment and I found the idea of righteous judgment very appealing. Christ wasn't a hippie as He is portrayed so often now, He did call us to judge righteously and we saw that in his behavior towards the Phariseans too very poignantly. Therefore the argument that I hear so often about Romans 13 just obey to the authorities is not accurate in the broader context of the Bible. We must view the Bible holistically to understand its meaning, and not take one quote out of context and pose that as ''this is what Christ said'' or ''this is what the Bible says''. Sure, respect for authority is an element, but as I've shown there are many sides of the same coin. That would be the main takeaway for me, life and also the teachings in the Bible are multifaceted, integral and holistic. Beware of interpreting yourself or draw conclusions based on a single quote, chapter, verse or character. [/QUOTE]
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