#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…

[wolfythewitch]

Favorite part of the Old Testament?

OH that one time Moses asked God if he could see His face, and God was like naw but you can see my back tho

[purple-confusion]

Some shitpost for pride and confirmation for the orientations of these bible OCs i share custodies of with @allsortsoftsofthings and @foronelittlekiss and how for a moment in my headcanon they occupy the same universe

Helate, Jedas, + Caiannas mention

(If God and their co-parent be willing you'll see the Jedas design again soon)

[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--)

[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????

[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"

[chad-danaki]

Sad, But True

[sveetbabied0ll]

“Until he realizes his rib is missing, don’t try to convince him.”

[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.

[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.

[thedeerman]

am i projecting all of my emotions and trauma onto fictional characters? yes. yes i am.

am i gaining anything by doing so? no, but im having a kickass time making old men cry.

[thebirdandhersong]

??????????????

[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)

[stromer]

i desperately need to study the brains in the canucks front office because you mean to tell me your team has a great couple of games, your two drama-ridden star forwards finally get some points, fans are happy, and your idea of a good pr move is to continue talking about how unfixable this rift is and they’re to blame for pretty much everything

[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 𝒐𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒏𝒔𝒆 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

[sveetbabied0ll]

nobody talks about how depressed you get when you’re in that in-between stage where you’re trying to prioritize your journey and walk with Christ but at the same time your sense of self and identity is crumbling because you’re trying to kill your sin and secular strongholds. you don’t know who you are anymore and all you do know is that you want to live with Him in your heart. the things you once idolized and let rule over you only confuse you now and leave you feeling broken.