#Bible problems

[gospelborn]

What's Your Problem?

Sometimes, when we read the Bible or study theology, we are left confused. I’ve found that being able to categorize the specific type of problem helps bring some clarity on the best way to approach it, and to triage its level of importance. Exegetical Problems Think of a part of the Bible that is hard to understand. Let’s take Paul’s comment in 1 Corinthians 11:10, “That is why a wife ought to…

[katerinaaqu]

People who criticize others for disliking the changes of Greek mythology when gods are twisted to look like some sort or final villain boss fight video game I honestly wanna see how the reactions would be if someone created a biblical musical where the Pharaoh of Egypt takes revenge against God of Israelites for killing the first born of Egypt by smiting him with his own sword or justice and claim he does it for his people while God begs for mercy.

Food for thought

[eraserheadadult]

no matter what i'm always of the opinion that while they're both bizarre mentally ill women marcy is the more normal one between them. marcy is like your average she/they who takes estrogen. she might get her meds from a haunted vending machine or something but its regular hrt. pb is the one whos doing insane fantasy world diy, it would be in character / really funny if hrt and surgery was fully an option but pb was like "no. i can do it better myself"

[dr-cruces]

Happy Pride ^^!!! + close ups

i wanted to experiment with my? Jesus design??? So I drew all of them, kind of going in order from young Jesus to the more modern interpretation. (I mean there's def a ton more, like drawing Jesus in your own image which is interesting but I'm on a time crunch so--)

[francesderwent]

Mansfield Park paints a very vivid picture of a world convicted of sin but without any access to or even imagination of grace or forgiveness. Edmund, whose morals are held up as impeccable, is literally ordained to the priesthood in the course of the novel—but where, in all his principles, is Jesus? is redemption? is the Cross? Fanny is held up as Henry’s salvation, but she can only guarantee the right guidance of his future actions, there is no repentance or forgiveness for his old ways. and if there is no way for his former sins to find their place in the story of his salvation (if I’d chosen differently I never would have met you! o happy fault!), is it any wonder he falls back into them?? there is no Christ figure, there is only Victorian duty. it leaves everyone but the perfect out in the cold.

[idylls-of-the-divine-romance]

Okay this is really irritating so i need this to stop happening: "Oh I am a Christian but I don't believe in like the bible or anything; I just follow the teaching of Jesus. But like, whether Jesus was God or rose from the dead or was even real at all, doesn't really-" Stop.

STOP. This is not Christianity. You are not Christian. Christian comes from "Christ" and it is the Christian belief that for Jesus to be the Christ and the Ben Adam (Son of Man/Humanity) is form him to be both human and divine. If you think he was just some moral teacher you're a fool whatever, that's fine, it's fine. BUT DON'T CALL YOURSELF CHRISTIAN!!! There is a separate thing: Jesusism or something like that. Call yourself a Jesusist (not Jesuit) or whatever. Not. Christian.

You are not Christian if you disregard the Tanakh, or Paul, or if you cannot affirm the Nicene Creed. I am not an elitist, just a gatekeeper :). Leave my religion alone.

ALSO. If you are a hater, a supporter of oppression, or otherwise concerned with controlling people's lives, also STOP CALLING YOURSELF CHRISTIAN!!! We have words for those things now. Words like "patriarchy" and "white supremacy". And if you think your Christian because "I am American! And Christianity is the religion of America!" No. No no no no no. America is Babylon. Actually do some study into Christian Political Ethics and you will find (in both the first and second testaments) criticism of many of America's policies. A country that murders innocent people cannot be called the country of Christ. It can be called the City Where Our Lord Was Slain. Stop just being a racist and misogynist and a nationalist and then claiming it's because you're religious. Cause you're not.

I will go Frederick Douglas on you so quickly do not freaking try me (Frederick Douglass wrote an awesome piece on the religion of America and how it was not the religion of Christ. #new favorite prophet)

[waywardlampcookieturkey]

The one thing I still haven't seen anyone talking about when mentioning Xie Lian's gigantic statue that Hua Cheng carved when he was inside the kiln is that... Well, He Xuan also went into the kiln... years after Hua Cheng came out I'm pretty sure... Do you see where I'm going with this????

[thepatristictradition]

Suffering is not What You Think

(The Penitent Magdalene)

So often you hear, when people leave their churches, their gripes surround suffering. Why would God allow suffering? Why would God allow babies to be murdered and die of cancer? Why would He allow war and cannibalism and pedophilia? Why did God allow me to see my mother die? Why did he allow this or that?

What I cannot help but notice is that the people saying this are never talking about their own suffering.

"Why does God allow war?" said a cowardly young man who has never seen bloodshed. "Why does God allow cancer?" said a woman who is perfectly healthy. "Why does God allow abuse?" said a man who had the privilege of watching the sex abuse crisis of the RCC play out on the TV screen and not in the sacristy. "Why did God allow my mother do die?" said a daughter who is still alive.

We may mourn, and we ought to mourn, the sorrows and the fallenness of this world, but witnessing suffering is not the same as suffering.

(Just Take Them and Leave Me Alone)

This was never more clear to me than when I spent a summer arguing with my anti-natalist, atheist sister. She would spend hours berating my poor mother and father for the heinous crime of having children. During one of these spats, my sister turned to me and said, "How can you support natalism?" which she said like a slur, "your grandmother abused you from the moment you were born."

Now, this is true. Truer than she knew, or, if I have it my way, will ever know. My grandmother (who was my and my sister's primary caregiver) always despised me because I was born with a deformity. Her hatred only intensified when my sister was born. My sister was, in her eyes, perfect. As a child, my sister would ask for me to be abused in front of her, for her amusement, by my grandmother.

My sister witnessed plenty of my suffering, but she experienced not an iota of it. And yet, she used my suffering as a way to say that all of human life is suffering. She used it to discredit the worth of all human life.

(Ophelia)

I find this is always the case. When I was an atheist, I was confused by people who brought up the "problem of suffering". I never viewed my suffering as something that made my life worse. Even as an atheist and a child, I saw clearly how the suffering I experienced and was experiencing was driving me toward a larger purpose. This pattern of thought followed me into the sexual abuse I experienced in middle school and into my conversion.

My atheist associates, whose suffering I know well, likewise never cite their suffering as a reason for their disbelief. When you really get down to it, "God is a big meanie" is not a reason to reject His existence, say these associates of mine.

It is only being a witness to suffering-- usually an impotent witness-- that causes this specific kind of apostasy. Even if my sister had stopped encouraging it, I still would have been abused. Her behavior would have made little difference. It is the same for the sufferings I listed earlier. Regardless of what we tell ourselves, no boycotting, no Instagram post, and not even tax evasion or immolation will stop the Genocide Israel is purporting against the Palestinians. We, far removed, poor, and powerless foreigners, are impotent. We can do nothing to help someone with a terminal illness not die-- it's terminal. We can do nothing to help the kidnapped children we see on the news, taken from their homes halfway across the country. We cannot bilocate, live forever, or have infinite money.

When these people say, "Why does God allow suffering?" they are actually asking, "Why does God allow my impotence?" The implication is that, of course, they would solve these sufferings if only they were not impotent. Is this the case? I don't know; who am I to judge the heart of another man?

Whatever the case, it is clear to me that witnessing suffering is of some different metaphysical nature than the actual experience of suffering. I've written a little about this privately, so I will get around to expanding upon it in further posts.

[causeimabrookelynbaby]

”𝑳𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒂𝒍𝒘𝒂𝒚𝒔 𝒑𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒅. 𝑰𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒏𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒋𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒐𝒖𝒔. 𝑳𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒏𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒃𝒐𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒇𝒖𝒍 𝒐𝒓 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒊𝒕𝒆𝒅. 𝑰𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒏𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒓𝒖𝒅𝒆 𝒐𝒓 𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒇𝒊𝒔𝒉. 𝑰𝒕 𝒅𝒐𝒆𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒐𝒇𝒇��𝒏𝒔𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒊𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒇𝒖𝒍. 𝑳𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒔 𝒏𝒐 𝒑𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒑𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆’𝒔 𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒔, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒅𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒕𝒉. 𝑰𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒂𝒍𝒘𝒂𝒚𝒔 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒚 𝒕𝒐 𝒆𝒙𝒄𝒖𝒔𝒆, 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒔𝒕, 𝒕𝒐 𝒉𝒐𝒑𝒆, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒔.” – 1 𝑪𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒂𝒏𝒔 13:4-7

[kinnbig]

someone needs to take this app away from me... [part 1 here]

[yujeong]

Okk. I don't want to compare or anything but I don't get the people who's getting mad on Korn Tonkla scenes saying they had more screen time? Or shit. I mean tbh, I am understanding the plot of the series better because of the two of them because they are somehow related to all of the events. And Tonkla's situation is...... he somehow senses the other timeline which I think is an important role. And also, Korn! Like what you've said he knows Dome is dead, and at the same time he's with his brother who ’saved’ Dome. Both of the characters are pivotal in the series.

Also, I think that they are more talked about because a Bas and Fuaiz couple was not expected in the series, and at the same time their plot line is really good as well as the build up of their characters. And I've seen more & more people are falling in love with Fuaiz & Bas (as an actor) in this series.

But somehow, I get them because the main couple is GreatTyme but why does it feel like they are becoming more of a side couple. Also saw people saying that their ’plot line’ or how they were introduced to eo /wasn't it./

Thank you for giving me the incentive to speak about this issue, anon. I'm going to do it now because the new episode will come out in a few hours and hopefully I won't have to do this ever again - which I honestly doubt but anyway. Since I haven't seen this type of discourse pop up on Tumblr (thank GOD), I'd like to inform everyone that over on Twitter, there have been massive complaints about Tonkla, aka Fuaiz, getting more screentime than the main characters, aka JesBible, to the point of people tagging BOC in posts and demanding they give them more scenes with TymeGreat - as if BOC can just pull footage they haven't filmed out of their ass or something. It got so bad that Sammon herself saw them and AGREED with these people, further explaining how it was important for some plot elements to be explored now, in order for the rest of the series to make sense. Now, with all due respect to her position as a screenwriter: she's factually wrong here. Someone on Twitter actually sat down and counted the minutes each character is on screen and came out with these results:

It's not in English, but I believe the results are clear: Tonkla doesn't even come close to Great's screentime. He's a little closer to Tyme's, but the main character is Great, so he's the one we should be looking at. Also, in case it hasn't been fucking obvious, Tonkla is an essential character in 4 Minutes, which is why we're getting many scenes with him. The reason I mentioned the actors is pretty self-explanatory - people are mad their favourite actors are shown a specific amount of time, giving space to other plot lines and characters, instead of being there for the whole episode, as if the point of 4 Minutes is the romance between Tyme and Great and nothing else. Meanwhile, Bible himself was laughing and clapping and enjoying the flashback scene between Korn and Tonkla when they had their first time, because Bible wanted to be part of a good production, which he is and he recognizes it. But no, God forbid we get more context over KornTonkla, which is one of the most important relationships in the show, which guides Tonkla's actions, which moves the fucking PLOT of the SHOW. I could give the benefit of the doubt to people being upset Tonkla was shown for not even half of episode 4, but I won't, and the reason for that is because I'm sick and fucking tired of people getting their panties in a twist because a character who loves getting fucked is actually getting fucked in almost every episode. Good for him honestly, even if it's making him worse. (I've already ranted about this whole thing here, I'm not going to repeat myself) I don't know how your social media feeds are like anon, but mine are flooded with BibleJes + GreatTyme content and I rarely see anything about KornTonkla or Bas and Fuaiz or anything of the sort, so I can't agree with you that they're more talked about than the main actors/characters. (That's not the case on Tumblr though: I have a very varied feed + my lovely anon asks which give me the chance to talk about my boys and I'm thankful for that.) And I'm sorry, anon, but I'm going to have to disagree with you in the end: Great and Tyme do NOT feel like the side couple at all. They are and they feel very much like the main couple and they've had multiple scenes together in every single episode so far (at the hospital, in Great's garage, at the park, at the university, at the arcade, inside Great's car, at the rooftop of the hospital, at the warehouse, inside the tent etc). We've gotten plenty of fucking content for them AND also BOC has made sure to give Bible and Jes the chance to do a million interviews together + magazine photoshoots, with only half of the show being done, so fans have zero fucking reason to complain about anything. That's all. Rant over.

[strogoff-era]

for your drawing requests, would love to see ned! :)

[id in alt]

i wanted him to be happy so he gets to play the nintendo ds :)

[coockie8]

"You can't create fiction about X problematic thing without explicitly condemning it otherwise your readers/viewers will think it's okay to do irl!"

Okay see well I was under the impression that since I'm not creating fiction for literal 5-year-olds that my readers/viewers would already be aware of the fact it's not okay to rape, torture, and murder people in real life without me spoon-feeding that to them like they're toddlers ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

If you're over the age of 10 and still don't know that it's bad to hurt people in real life without a fairy tale telling you so, then that is 100% a you problem, like I don't know what to tell you here :/

[ae-cha08]

God is working behind the scenes for the best.

Remember:

You're not going to lose. God is fighting for you.

You're not going to sink. The One who walks on water is with you.

You're not going to be overwhelmed. You were created to overcome!

When you have this faith-filled, hope-filled attitude, the blessings of God are drawn to you like a magnet. 💙

[jcalexandrewrites]

The "problem" of evil isn't a real problem! 🤓

Read my fantasy novel, The Light Prince: Grail, available on Amazon in paperback and e-book.