Interpretations on Matt. St.
Lord, our Lord! What is a person?
then Do you remember him?
THE RESCUE: John 1:12
And to those who accepted Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the power to become children of God. John 3:3
Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” John 3:16
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3:36
He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not believe in the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. John 6:37
Everything that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and whoever comes to Me I will not cast out. John 10:28
And I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. John 14:6
Jesus said to him: I am the way and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me. Acts 16:31
They said: Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you and your whole house will be saved. Romans 3:23
Because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 10:9,10
For if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; Because with the heart one believes for righteousness, and with the mouth one confesses for salvation. 2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the ancient has passed away, now everything is new. Ephesians 2:8,9
For by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God: not by works, so that no one can boast. Titus 3:5
He saved us not by any works of righteousness that we had done, but by His mercy. 1 John 5:12,13
He who has the Son (of God) has life; He who does not have the Son of God does not have life. I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that by believing in the Son of God you have eternal life. Revelation 3:20
Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.
JESUS CHRIST - SON OF GOD: Isaiah 9:6
For unto us a child is born; A son is given to us; the government will be upon His shoulder, and His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; and we saw His glory, the glory as the only begotten of the Father.
John 3:17 For God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.
John 10:11 I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
Acts 10:38 How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, and He went about doing good and healing all who were possessed by the devil.
Romans 5:8 But God proves His love for us by the fact that Christ died for us while we were still sinners. (See Isaiah 53 - the chapter that gives a prophetic portrait of Jesus)
HOLY SPIRIT:
Luke 11:13 So, if you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him.
John 7:38,39 Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture says, out of his belly will flow rivers of living water. This He said about the Spirit, which those who believed in Him were about to receive.
John 14:26 The Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you everything and remind you of everything that I have told you.
John 16:13 When He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth; for he will not speak from himself, but he will speak what he hears, and he will tell you the future.
Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the ends of the earth.
Acts 2:17,18"And it will be in last days, says God, I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters will prophesy, and your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams; And on My servants and on My handmaids in those days I will pour out My Spirit, and they will prophesy.
Acts 4:31 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness.
Acts 5:32 We are His witnesses to this, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him.
Acts 19:2,6 He said to them: Have you received the Holy Spirit when you believed? They said to him: we have not even heard whether there is a Holy Spirit. And when Paul laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they began to speak in other tongues and prophesy.
2 Corinthians 3:17 The Lord is Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
GOD'S WORDS:
Joshua 1:8 Let not this book of the law depart from thy mouth; but study in it day and night, so that you do exactly everything that is written in it: then you will be successful in your ways and will act wisely.
Job 23:12b He valued the words of His mouth more than His daily bread.
Psalm 119:11 I have hidden Your word in my heart, so as not to sin against You.
Psalm 119:89 Forever, O Lord, Your word is established in heaven.
Psalm 119:105 Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
Jeremiah 15:16 Your words were found, and I ate them.
Matthew 4:4 He answered and said to him: It is written: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”
Matthew 24:35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.
John 6:63 The Spirit gives life, the flesh does not benefit the least; The words that I speak to you are spirit and life.
John 8:31,32 Then Jesus said to the Jews who believed in Him: If you continue in My word, then you are truly My disciples. And you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.
Romans 10:17
1 Corinthians 10:11 All this happened to them like images; but it is described for the instruction of us who have reached the last centuries.
2 Timothy 2:15 Try to present yourself worthy to God, a workman who does not need to be ashamed, faithfully dividing the word of truth.
2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.
1 Peter 2:2 Like newborn babies, desire the pure milk of words, so that from it you may grow into salvation.
2 Peter 1:21 For prophecy was never pronounced by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke it, being moved by the Holy Spirit.
IMPORTANT PRAYER:
Psalm 65:18,19 If I had kept iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have heard me. But God heard and heeded the voice of my prayer.
Jeremiah 29:13 And you will seek Me and find Me, if you seek Me with all your heart.
Jeremiah 33:3 Call to me - and I will answer you, I will show you great and inaccessible things that you do not know.
Matthew 7:7,8 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you; For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.
Matthew 18:19 Truly I also tell you that if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven.
From Mark: 11:24 Therefore I tell you: whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you receive it, and it will be done for you.
John 16:23 Whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give it to you.
James 1:6,7 But let him ask with faith, without any doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, raised and tossed by the wind: Let such a person not think of receiving anything from the Lord.
James 4:2b You don't have because you don't ask.
1 John 3:22 And whatever we ask, we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do what is pleasing in His sight.
1 John 5:14 And this is the boldness we have towards Him, that when we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
FAITH:
Job 13:15 Although He kills me, I will still trust Him.
Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.
Matthew 9:29 According to your faith, so be it unto you.
Mark 9:23 Jesus said to him: if you can believe as much as possible, all things are possible to him who believes.
Romans 4:20,21 He did not shake the promise of God through unbelief, but remained steadfast in faith, giving glory to God. And being quite confident that He is able to fulfill His promise.
Romans 10:17 So faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
2 Corinthians 5:7 For we walk by faith and not by sight.
Hebrews 10:35 So do not abandon your hope, for which there is a great reward.
Hebrews 10:38 The righteous will live by faith.
Hebrews 11:1 Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the assurance of things not seen. And without faith it is impossible to please God; for he who comes to God must believe that He exists and is a rewarder of those who seek Him.
1 John 5:4 And this is the victory that has conquered the world, our faith.
LOVE OF JESUS:
Matthew 7:12 So in everything, whatever you want people to do to you, do so to them; for this is the law and the prophets.
Matthew 22:37-39 Jesus said to him: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind”: This is the first and greatest commandment; The second is similar to it: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
John 13:35 By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.
John 15:12 This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
1 Corinthians 13:8 Love never ends.
1 Corinthians 16:14 Let everything you do be done with love.
1 Peter 4:8 Most of all, have fervent love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins;
1 John 3:16 We have come to know love in the fact that He laid down His life for us: and we must lay down our lives for our brothers.
1 John 3:18 My children! Let us begin to love not in word or tongue, but in deed and truth.
1 John 4:8 He who does not love has not known God, because God is love.
(See 1 Corinthians 13 - chapter on Love.)
FORGIVENESS:
Matthew 6:14,15 For if you forgive people their sins, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. And if you do not forgive people their sins, then your Father will not forgive you your sins.
Ephesians 4:32 But be kind to each other, compassionate, forgive each other, just as God in Christ forgave you.
1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, then He, being faithful and righteous, will forgive us (our) sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH THE LORD:
Psalm 110:10 The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord.
Proverbs 8:17 Those who love me I love, and those who seek me will find me.
Matthew 11:28-30 Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest; Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am meek and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls; For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.
Matthew 22:37 Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.
John 14:23 He who loves Me will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make our abode with him.
Romans 7:4 So you too, my brothers, died to the law through the Body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, who was raised from the dead, so that we may bear fruit to God.
2 Corinthians 6:16 For you are the temple of the living God, as God said: “I will dwell in them and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they will be My people.”
Ephesians 5:30 We are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones.
James 4:8 Draw closer to God and he will come closer to you.
COMMUNICATION:
Hebrews 10:25 Let us not forsake meeting ourselves together, as is the custom of some; but let us encourage one another, and all the more as you see that day approaching.
Psalm 133:1 How good and how pleasant it is for brothers to live together, in unity!
Ecclesiastes 4:9,10 Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labor. For if one falls, the other will raise up his comrade. But woe to one when he falls, and there is no other to lift him up.
Matthew 18:20 For where two or three are gathered in My name, there I am in the midst of them.
1 John 1:7 If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, then we have fellowship with one another.
CERTIFICATE:
Psalm 125:6 Weeping, the one who bears the seeds will return with joy, bearing his sheaves.
Proverbs 11:30 The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and the wise win souls.
Ezekiel 3:17-19“Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel, and you will listen to the word from My mouth and warn them from Me. When I say to the wicked, “You will surely die!” and you will not admonish him and speak to warn the wicked from the wicked. his ways, that he may live: then that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, and I will require his blood at thy hands. But if thou hast admonished the wicked man, and he has not turned from his iniquity and from his wicked way, then he will die in his iniquity. and you saved your soul.
Daniel 12:3 And those who are wise will shine like the lights in the firmament, and those who turn many to the truth will shine like the stars, forever and ever.
Matthew 4:19 Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.
Matthew 5:14-16 You are the light of the world. A city standing on top of a mountain cannot hide. And having lit a candle, they do not put it under a bushel, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. So let your light shine before people, so that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
Matthew 9:37,38 Then He said to His disciples: The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. So pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.
Mark 8:38 For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy Angels.
Mark 16:15 And he said to them: Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
John 15:16 You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain.
1 Corinthians 9:16 For if I preach the gospel, then I have nothing to boast about, because this is my necessary duty, and woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!
2 Timothy 2:23 Avoid stupid and ignorant competitions, knowing that they give rise to quarrels.
2 Timothy 4:2 Preach the word, be persistent in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and edification.
1 Peter 3:15 Be always ready to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give an account of the hope that is in you with meekness and reverence.
GIVING:
Proverbs 3:27,28 Do not refuse a benefit to someone in need when your hand has the power to do it. Do not say to your neighbor, “Go and come again, and tomorrow I will give,” when you have it with you.
Proverbs 11:24,25 Others pour generously, and more is added to him; and the other is thrifty beyond measure, and yet becomes poor. The charitable soul will be satisfied; and whoever gives water to others will also be given water to drink.
Proverbs 19:17 He who gives to the poor lends to the Lord; and He will reward him for his good deed.
Malachi 3:10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me in this, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out blessings upon you until there is abundance.
Luke 6:38 Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, pressed and running over, will be poured into your bosom; For with the same measure you use, it will be measured back to you.
Acts 20:35 It is more blessed to give than to receive.
2 Corinthians 9:6,7 With this (I will say): whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly; and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each one should give according to the disposition of his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion; For God loves a cheerful giver. 1 John 3:17,18 But if anyone has the world's goods, but sees his brother in need and closes his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My children! Let us begin to love not in word or tongue, but in deed and truth.
HOW TO FIND GOD'S WILL:
Judges 6:37 So, I will spread shorn wool here on the threshing floor: if there is dew only on the wool, but the whole earth is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel with my hand.
Psalm 31:8“I will admonish you, I will guide you in the way you should go; I will guide you, My eye is upon you.”
Psalm 119:130 The revelation of Your words enlightens and enlightens the simple.
Psalm 142:8 Show me the path along which I should go, for to You I lift up my soul.
Proverbs 3:6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths.
Proverbs 15:22 Without advice, businesses will fail, but with many advisors they will succeed.
Isaiah 30:21 And your ears will hear a word behind you saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” even if you turn to the right and if you turn to the left.
Luke 22:42 Father! Oh, that You would deign to carry this cup past me! however, not My will, but Yours be done.
Romans 12:1,2 Therefore, I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
OBEDIENCE TO GOD:
1 Samuel 15:22 Are burnt offerings and sacrifices as pleasing to the Lord as obedience to the voice of the Lord? Obedience is better than sacrifice, and to obey than the fat of rams.
Job 36:11 If they listen and serve Him, they will spend their days in prosperity and their years in joy.
Isaiah 1:19,20 If you want and obey, you will eat the blessings of the earth. But if you deny and persist, the sword will devour you.
Luke 6:46 Why are you calling me: “Lord! Lord!” and do not do what I say?
John 13:17 If you know this, blessed are you when you do it.
John 14:15 If you love Me, keep My commandments.
John 15:14 You are My friends if you do what I command you.
Ephesians 6:6 Not with visible (only) helpfulness, as people-pleasers, but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the soul.
Hebrews 5:8 Although He is the Son, He learned obedience through suffering.
POWER AND STRENGTH:
Psalm 67:36 The God of Israel - He gives strength and strength to his people.
Nehemiah 8:10 The joy of the Lord is your strength.
Psalm 36:39 Salvation is from the Lord for the righteous; He is their protection in times of trouble.
Isaiah 30:7b Their strength is to sit still.
Isaiah 30:15 Silence and hope are your strength.
Isaiah 40:29 He gives strength to the weary, and strength to the weary.
Isaiah 40:31 But those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not be weary, they will walk and not be weary.
Jeremiah 17:5 Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes the flesh his support, and whose heart moves away from the Lord.
Zechariah 4:6b Not by might, nor by might, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of hosts.
2 Corinthians 4:7 But we carry this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the excessive power may be attributed to God, and not to us;
2 Corinthians 12:9,10 But the Lord said to me: “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Ephesians 6:10 Finally, my brothers, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.
Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ (Jesus) who strengthens me.
PROTECTION:
Exodus 14:14 The Lord will fight for you, and you rest assured.
Psalm 33:8 The Angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him and delivers them.
Psalm 34:18 The righteous cry, and the Lord hears, and delivers them from all their sorrows.
Psalm 47:2,3 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in troubles. Therefore we will not fear, even though the earth shakes and the mountains move into the heart of the seas.
Proverbs 1:33 And he who listens to me will live safely and calmly, without fear of evil.
Proverbs 18:10 The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous flee into it and are safe.
Isaiah 43:2 Whether you pass through waters, I am with you; whether you cross rivers, they will not drown you; If you walk through the fire, you will not be burned, and the flame will not scorch you.
Isaiah 54:13 And all your sons will be taught by the Lord, and your sons will have great peace.
(See Psalm 90 - A Psalm of Protection.)
SUPPLY:
Psalm 23:1 The Lord is my Shepherd; I won't need anything.
Psalm 33:11 But those who seek the Lord do not lack any good.
Psalm 37:3 Trust in the Lord and do good, and you will live on earth and be satisfied.
Psalm 36:25 I was young and old, and I did not see the righteous abandoned and his descendants asking for bread.
Psalm 67:20 Blessed be the Lord, who saturates us with good things every day.
Psalm 83:12b The Lord gives grace and glory; He does not deprive those who walk in integrity of blessings.
Matthew 6:25,26 Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will wear. Is not the soul more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; and your Father in heaven feeds them. Aren't you much better than them?
Matthew 6:33 Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all this will be added to you.
Matthew 7:9-11 Is there a man among you who, when his son asks him for bread, would give him a stone? And when he asks for a fish, would you give him a snake? So if you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him.
Romans 8:32 He who did not spare His Son, but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also freely give us all things with Him?
Philippians 4:19 May my God supply all your needs according to His riches in glory through Christ Jesus.
TRIALS, TEMPTATIONS AND tribulations:
Job 23:10 But he knows my way; let him test me, I will come out like gold.
Proverbs 1:10 My son! If sinners persuade you, do not agree.
Proverbs 3:11,12 Do not reject the Lord’s punishment, my son, and do not be burdened by his reproof. For the Lord punishes whomever the Lord loves, and is pleased with him, as a father is with his son.
Matthew 26:41 Watch and pray, so that you do not fall into temptation: the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.
1 Corinthians 10:13 No temptation has befallen you other than that of man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond your strength, but will also give relief when you are tempted, so that you can endure it.
2 Timothy 2:3 Endure suffering like a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 12:2,3 Looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Think about Him who endured such reproach from sinners, so that you do not grow weary and weakened in your souls.
James 1:3 Testing your faith produces patience.
James 1:12 Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he is tried he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.
1 Peter 1:7 So that the tested faith of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
2 Peter 2:9 The Lord knows how to deliver the pious from temptation.
SUFFERING:
Psalm 33:20
Psalm 119:67 Before my suffering I was mistaken; and now I keep Your word.
Psalm 119:71 It is good for me that I suffered in order to learn Your statutes.
Romans 8:18 For I think that the sufferings of this present time are not worth anything in comparison with the glory that will be revealed in us.
Romans 8:28 Moreover, we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, who are called according to His purpose.
2 Corinthians 4:17 For our momentary light affliction produces eternal glory in immeasurable abundance.
2 Timothy 2:12 If we endure, then we will reign with Him; if we deny, He will deny us.
1 Peter 4:19 So, let those who suffer according to the will of God surrender their souls to Him, as a faithful Creator, doing good.
COMFORT:
Psalm 23:4 Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff - they calm me.
Psalm 29:6 For His wrath is for a moment, but His favor is for a lifetime: mourning may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.
Psalm 119:50 This is a consolation in my distress, that Your word revives me.
Psalm 144:14 The Lord supports all those who fall and raises up all those who are cast down.
Psalm 146:3 He heals the brokenhearted and heals their sorrows.
Isaiah 54:7 I left you for a short time, but with great mercy I will receive you.
Lamentations 3:32,33 But He sent grief, and He will have mercy according to His great goodness. For He does not punish and grieve the sons of men according to the will of His heart.
Matthew 5:4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
John 14:1 Let not your heart be troubled; believe in God and believe in Me.
John 14:18 I will not leave you inconsolable; I'll come to you. (KJV)
2 Corinthians 1:4 Comforting us in all our sorrow, so that we too can comfort those who are in any sorrow with the consolation with which God comforts us!
Hebrews 4:16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Hebrews 13:5b For He said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
1 Peter 5:7 Cast all your cares on Him, for He cares for you.
Revelation 21:4 And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death; there will be no more crying, no crying, no sickness; for the former things have passed away.
HEALING:
Exodus 15:26 For I am the Lord, your healer.
Psalm 33:20 The righteous has many sorrows, and the Lord will deliver him from all of them.
Psalm 102:3 He forgives all your iniquities, He heals all your illnesses.
Psalm 106:20 He sent His word, and healed them, and delivered them from their graves.
Isaiah 53:5b By His stripes we were healed.
Jeremiah 30:17 I will put a plaster over you and heal your wounds, says the Lord.
Jeremiah 32:27 Here am I, the Lord, God of all flesh; Is there anything that is impossible for me?
Malachi 4:2 And for you, who revere My name, the Sun of righteousness will rise and healing in Its rays.
Matthew 18:19 If two of you agree on earth to ask for anything, then whatever they ask will be done for them by My Father in Heaven.
Luke 17:14 And as they walked, they purified themselves.
James 5:14,15 Are any of you sick? let him call the elders of the Church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will heal the sick person, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, they will forgive him.
VICTORY OVER THE DEVIL:
Isaiah 59:19 If the enemy comes like a river, the breath of the Lord will drive him away.
2 Corinthians 2:11 So that Satan does not harm us; for we are not ignorant of his intentions.
2 Corinthians 10:3-5 For we, although we walk in the flesh, do not fight according to the flesh; The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for the pulling down of strongholds; with them we overthrow plans. And we take every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God into captivity to the obedience of Christ.
Ephesians 4:27 And don't give room to the devil.
Ephesians 6:11,12 Put on the whole armor of God, so that you can stand against the wiles of the devil; Because our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against the spirits of wickedness in high places.
Ephesians 6:16 And most of all, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the fiery arrows of the evil one;
James 4:7 Resist the devil, and he will flee from you;
1 Peter 5:8,9 Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil walks around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour; Resist him with firm faith.
1 John 2:14 The Word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.
1 John 3:8 For this reason the Son of God appeared, to destroy the works of the devil.
1 John 4:4 Greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world.
DON'T FEAR:
Psalm 26:1 The Lord is my light and my salvation: whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life: whom shall I fear?
Psalm 33:5 I sought the Lord, and He heard me and delivered me from all my dangers.
Psalm 55:4 When I am afraid, I trust in You.
Psalm 55:12 I trust in God, I am not afraid; What will a man do to me?
Psalm 118:6 The Lord is for me, I will not be afraid: what will man do to me?
Psalm 29:25 Fear of people sets a snare; but he who trusts in the Lord will be safe.
Isaiah 12:2 Behold, God is my salvation: I trust in Him and am not afraid.
Isaiah 26:3 You keep the strong in spirit in perfect peace; for he trusts in You.
Isaiah 41:10 Fear not, for I am with you; do not be troubled, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, and help you, and uphold you with the right hand of My righteousness.
John 14:27 Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you: not as the world gives, I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
2 Timothy 1:7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and self-control.
1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because in fear there is torment; he who fears is not perfect in love.
GRATITUDE:
Psalm 33:2 I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise is sure to be in my mouth.
Psalm 107:8 Let them praise the Lord for His mercy and for His wonderful works for the sons of men!
1 Corinthians 10:10 Do not grumble, as some of them grumbled and were killed by the destroyer.
Philippians 2:14 Do everything without grumbling or doubting.
Philippians 4:11 For I have learned to be content with what I have.
1 Thessalonians 5:18 Give thanks for everything.
PRIDE, SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS AND HUMILITY:
Proverbs 11:2 Pride will come, and shame will come, but with the humble comes wisdom.
Proverbs 16:18 Pride goes before destruction, and arrogance before a fall.
Daniel 4:34 He is able to humble those who walk proudly.
Matthew 23:12 For whoever exalts himself will be humbled; and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
Luke 6:41,42 Why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not feel the beam in your own eye? Hypocrite! First take the beam out of your own eye, and then you will see how to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
2 Corinthians 10:17 He who boasts, boast in the Lord.
Philippians 2:3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vanity, but out of humility, consider each other better than yourselves.
1 Peter 5:5b,6 Nevertheless, as you submit to one another, clothe yourselves with humility, for God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.
POWER OF LANGUAGE:
Psalm 18:15 May the words of my mouth and the thoughts of my heart be acceptable before You, O Lord, my rock, my Savior!
Psalm 34:28 And my tongue will preach Your righteousness and Your praise every day.
Proverbs 16:24 Pleasant speech is honey from the honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.
Proverbs 17:27 A wise man is temperate in his words, and a prudent man is cold-blooded.
Proverbs 18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue.
Proverbs 29:11 A fool pours out all his anger, but a wise man restrains it.
Matthew 12:34 For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
Matthew 12:36,37 For every idle word that people speak, they will give an answer on the day of judgment: For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.
Ephesians 4:29 Let no corrupt word come out of your mouth, but only that which is good for edification in the faith, so that it may bring grace to those who hear.
2 Timothy 2:16 And avoid obscene idle talk; for they will prosper even more in wickedness.
2 Timothy 2:24 The servant of the Lord should not quarrel, but be friendly to everyone, teachable, and kind.
James 1:19 Therefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to become angry.
James 1:26 If anyone among you thinks that he is pious and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart, his piety is empty.
(See James 3 - chapter on tongue.)
UNITY:
Psalm 133:1 How good and how pleasant it is for brothers to live together!
Ecclesiastes 4:9,10,12 Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labor. For if one falls, another will raise up his companion. But woe to one when he falls, and there is no other to lift him up. And if one begins to overcome one, then two will stand against him. And the thread, twisted three times, will not soon break.
Amos 3:3 Will two people go together without agreeing with each other?
Romans 12:5 Thus we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.
Romans 14:19 Let us therefore seek what serves for peace and mutual edification.
Romans 16:17 I beseech you, brethren, beware of those who cause divisions and temptations, contrary to the teaching which you have learned, and turn away from them.
1 Corinthians 1:10 I beseech you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same spirit and in the same thoughts.
Ephesians 4:3 Trying to maintain the unity of spirit in the union of peace.
SEQUENCE:
Matthew 4:19 And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.
Matthew 6:24 No one can serve two masters: for either he will hate one and love the other; or he will be zealous for one and neglectful of the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.
Matthew 12:50 For whoever does the will of My Father in Heaven is My brother and sister and mother.
Matthew 19:29 And everyone who leaves houses, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for My name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life;
Luke 9:23,24 If anyone wants to come after Me, deny yourself and take up your cross and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his soul (life) will lose it; and whoever loses his soul (life) for My sake will save it.
Luke 9:62 No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the Kingdom of God.
John 8:31 If you remain in My word, then you are truly My disciples.
John 15:8 By this my Father will be glorified, if you bear much fruit and become my disciples.
2 Timothy 2:4 No warrior binds himself to everyday affairs in order to please the military leader.
RELATIONS OF CHRISTIANS WITH THE WORLD:
Matthew 10:16 Behold, I send you out as sheep among wolves: therefore be wise as serpents, and innocent as doves.
John 15:19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own; But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
Romans 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
2 Corinthians 6:14 Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what fellowship does righteousness have with iniquity? What does light have in common with darkness?
2 Corinthians 6:17 Therefore, come out from among them and separate yourself, says the Lord, and do not touch the unclean, and I will receive you.
James 4:4 Adulterers and adulterers! Don’t you know that friendship with the world is enmity against God! So, whoever wants to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.
1 John 2:15,16 Do not love the world, nor the things in the world: whoever loves the world does not have the Father’s love in him. For everything that is in the world: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, is not from the Father, but from the world (this).
Scholars confirm key truths of the Bible and universal, live connection with everything Lisitsyn V. Yu.
Chapter 1. The Bible about God's creation of life on Earth
About this we read in It the following: “And God said: Let the earth produce green grass, grass yielding seed (after its kind and in its likeness, and), a fruitful tree, bearing fruit according to its kind, in which is its seed on the earth. And so it became.
And the earth brought forth grass, grass yielding seed after its kind, and a tree bearing fruit, in which is its seed according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning: the third day.
And God said: Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven (to illuminate the earth and) to separate the day from the night, and for signs, and seasons, and days, and years; and let them be lamps in the firmament of the heaven to give light on the earth. And so it became. And God created two great lights: a great light to rule the day, and a smaller light to rule the night, and the stars; and God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light on the earth; and to rule the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning: the fourth day.
And God said: Let the water bring forth living things; and let the birds fly over the earth, across the firmament of heaven. (And it became so.) And God created the great fish and every living creature that moves, which the waters brought forth, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying: Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters of the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth. And there was evening and there was morning: the fifth day.
And God said, Let the earth produce living creatures according to their kinds, cattle and creeping things, and wild beasts of the earth according to their kinds. And so it became. And God created the beasts of the earth according to their kinds, and the cattle according to their kinds, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
And God said: LET US CREATE MAN in Our IMAGE (and) according to Our SIMILARITY, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, (and over the beasts), and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on earth. And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them, and God said to them: Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea (and over the beasts) and over the birds of the air (and over every livestock, and over all the earth) and over every animal that moves on the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed that is on all the earth, and every tree that has fruit yielding seed; - This will be food for you; And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to every (creeping) thing that creeps on the earth, in which there is a living soul, I have given every green herb for food. And so it became. And God saw everything that He had created, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning: the sixth day” (Genesis 1:11–31).
In this Biblical story, it is necessary to pay special attention to the expression of the Lord God “LET CREATE MAN IN OUR IMAGE (and) IN OUR LIKENESS,” in which the word “according to...Our” carries a plural meaning. Based on this, people may think that there is not one God, but several Gods. And it is difficult to disagree with this, but only on the condition that at that time there were only two Gods - the Lord God Himself and His son Jesus Christ. On this occasion, the Bible claims that the Son of God lived before the creation of the world, for Jesus Christ Himself, while still on Earth, said: “And now glorify Me, Father, with You, with the glory that I HAD with You BEFORE THE WORLD WAS” (John 17:5) or “the firstborn of every creation” (Colossians 1:15). Consequently, in the process of creating the first man on Earth, the Lord God, speaking this expression, addressed His Son, Who always learned from His Father everything that He did (see in the 3rd volume, the 1st book about Jesus Christ) .
However, in more detail about God’s creation of man - a husband and his wife, the Bible tells the following: “And the Lord God created man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a soul of the earth... And the Lord God said: It is not good for man to be alone : Let us create for him a helper suitable for him...And the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and when he fell asleep, he took one of his ribs and covered that place with flesh. And the Lord God created a wife from a rib taken from a man, and brought her to the man. And the man said, Behold, this is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she will be called a woman, for she was taken from her husband. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and be united to his wife: and THE TWO SHALL BE ONE FLESH” (Genesis 2:7 – 24).
So, the Lord God created the world and all living organisms according to their kind, including man, in six days, since He rested on the seventh day (see Bible 2:1–3). At the same time, by the will of the ever-living Lord God and by virtue of His providence, He created a large variety of earthly plants and animal organisms, which He periodically renews with new forms to replace the extinct old forms.
From book Holy Bible Old Testament author Mileant AlexanderThe emergence and development of life on Earth (Bishop Nathanael Lvov) Reflecting on the history of the universe, we notice uninterrupted development in it, apparently not requiring any outside intervention. When Laplace explained his theory of origin to Napoleon solar system,
From the book Evidence of the Creation of the World: The Origin of Planet Earth by McLean Glen From the book 100 Great Biblical Characters author Ryzhov Konstantin VladislavovichABOUT THE HOLY LAND, ABOUT GOD'S CHOSEN PEOPLE AND ABOUT THE SACRED SCRIPTURE (INstead of a FOREWORD) Palestine lies at the junction of three parts of the world - Europe, Asia and Africa. In the west it is washed Mediterranean Sea. To the traveler who will go from the coast to the east, one after another
From the book Handbook on Theology. SDA Bible Commentary Volume 12 author Seventh Day Adventist Church3. The Bible and the Christian Way of Life Mortality and the fallen state of people determine the need for strength, guidance and guardianship on the path of spiritual growth and likeness to Christ. The Bible responds to this need by providing standards of conduct within the framework of faith, where service
From the book God in the Shack: A story of evil and redemption that changed the world by Olson Roger10. Is a church necessary for life with God? Several years ago, the Christian university where I teach issued a hiring policy for faculty members: they must be active members of a church or synagogue. To some people this requirement seemed quite normal,
From the book The Explanatory Bible. Volume 1 author Lopukhin Alexander10. Is a church necessary for life with God? 1. From the novel “The Shack” we can draw the following conclusion: a person is capable of being in full communion with God even without being a member of the Christian community. According to Olson, although he does not have to be a member of an organization or official
From the book The Explanatory Bible. Volume 5 author Lopukhin Alexander17 And behold, I will bring a flood of water upon the earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the spirit of life under the heavens; everything that is on the earth will lose life “And behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth...” With these words, for the first time, a means or instrument of the divine is definitely called
From the book Why is humanity approaching the end of the world? Ways out of the tragic situation on earth author Lisitsyn V. Yu.21. And all flesh that moved on the earth lost its life, and birds, and cattle, and wild beasts, and every creeping thing that crawled on the earth, and all people; 22. Everything that had the breath of the spirit of life in its nostrils on the dry land died. 23. Every creature that was on the surface of the earth was destroyed; from a person
From the book Scientists confirm the key truths of the Bible and the universal, living connection of everything with everything author Lisitsyn V. Yu.27. And Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen, and they possessed it, and were fruitful, and multiplied greatly. 28 And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years; and the days of Jacob, the years of his life, were one hundred and forty-seven years. With the settlement of the chosen tribe in Egypt, a lasting
From the book Living Tradition of the 20th Century. About the saints and ascetics of our time author Nikiforova Alexandra Yurievna16. by which whoever blesses himself on earth will be blessed by the God of truth; and whoever swears on earth will swear by the God of truth, because the former sorrows will be forgotten and hidden from My eyes. And whoever swears on earth will swear by the God of truth...
From the author's bookChapter 5. Problem modern science as one of the reasons for the destruction of life on Earth. Everyone knows that the threat of a third world war largely depends on the MORAL EDUCATION OF SCIENTISTS, who are representatives of the fundamental sciences different countries
From the author's bookChapter 2. Chronicle of scientific facts of a threat to the life of mankind on Earth Let us, first of all, make sure whether or not there really are facts of an environmental threat to the life of mankind. To do this we need to get to know scientific facts, published in
From the author's bookChapter 1. The Bible about the creation of our Universe and the Earth It is from the Bible that humanity learns that it is God who is the Creator of the universe and even each subsequent life cycle. However, before moving on to consideration of issues related to the emergence of the Universe
From the author's bookPart 5. The Bible and scientists about the origin of life on
From the author's bookChapter 2. Scientists about the origin of life on Earth In the 20th century, scientists continued to discuss the problems of the origin of life on Earth. In this regard, they recognize the existence of the following FIVE THEORIES. Thus, N. Green, W. Stout, D. Taylor (1993) wrote: “Among the main theories...
From the author's bookThe joy of life with God Father Roman, of course, talked about Father Sergius and Father Alexy Mechev, and about other holy people. He told how Father Sergius Mechev took his parishioners to Ugresha to communicate with the living saint - Macarius (Nevsky). He instructed them like this: “We are going to
Gen 17:18 ...And Abraham said to God, Oh, if only Ishmael were alive before Your face!..
Gen 20:7 ...for he is a prophet and will pray for you, and you will alive;..
Gen 31:32 ...[And Jacob said:] With whomsoever thou shalt find thy gods, he shall not alive;..
Gen 43:7 ...saying: alive is your father still there? do you have a brother?..
Gen 43:27 ... alive is he still there?..
Gen 43:28 ...more alive...
Gen 45:3 ... alive Is my father still there?..
Gen 45:26 ...and they told him, saying: Joseph [thy son] alive...
Gen 45:28 ...and Israel said, It is enough for me; yet alive my son Joseph;...
Gen 46:30 ...for you are still alive...
Lev 18:5 ...which if a man does, he will alive...
Numbers 14:21 ...but alive I, [and My name always lives,]...
Numbers 21:8 ...the one who is stung, having looked at him, remains alive...
Numbers 21:9 ...he looked at the bronze serpent and remained alive...
Deuteronomy 4:25 ...and, for a long time alive on earth, you will become corrupt...
Deuteronomy 4:33 ...and remained alive, how did you hear?..
Deut 4:42 ... And so that, having escaped to one of these cities, he remained alive:..
Deuteronomy 5:24 ...and this one remains alive;..
Deut 16:20 ...so that you may be alive and took possession of the land...
Deuteronomy 19:4 ...And this is the kind of murderer who can run away there and stay alive:..
Judges 8:19... Alive Lord!..
Ruth 3:13 ... alive Lord! Sleep until morning...
1 Samuel 14:39 ...for, - alive The Lord who saved Israel...
1 Samuel 14:45 ... Alive Lord, not a hair of his head will fall to the ground...
1 Samuel 19:6 ...and Saul swore: alive Lord, David won't die...
1 Samuel 20:3 ...but alive The Lord and your soul lives!..
1 Samuel 20:12 ...And Jonathan said to David: alive Lord God of Israel!..
1 Samuel 20:14 ...But you too, if I still alive, show me the mercy of the Lord...
1 Samuel 20:21 ...and, alive Lord, nothing you Not will...
1 Samuel 25:26 ...And now, my lord, alive The Lord and your soul lives...
1 Samuel 25:34 ...But, – alive The Lord God of Israel...
1 Samuel 26:10 ...And David said: alive Lord!..
1 Samuel 26:16 ... alive Lord! you deserve to die...
1 Samuel 28:10 ...saying: alive Lord! You won't get in trouble for this...
1 Samuel 29:6 ...And Achish called David and said to him: alive Lord!..
2 Samuel 1:10 ...for he knew that he would not alive after his fall...
2 Samuel 2:27 ...And Joab said: alive God!..
2 Samuel 4:9 ...and said to them: alive Lord, who delivered my soul from all sorrow!..
2 Samuel 12:5 ...and said to Nathan: alive Lord!..
2 Samuel 14:11 ...And he said tsar alive Lord!..
2 Samuel 15:21 ...and said: alive Lord, may my lord the king live...
2 Samuel 18:14 ...which was still alive on the oak...
2 Samuel 19:6 ...what if Absalom had stayed alive and we all died...
2 Samuel 22:47 ... Alive
1 Kings 1:29 ...and said: alive Lord, who delivered my soul from every trouble!..
1 Kings 2:24 ...now, - alive The Lord, who strengthened me...
1 Kings 17:1 ...To Ahab: alive The Lord God of Israel, before whom I stand!...
1 Kings 17:12 ...She said: alive Lord your God!..
1 Kings 17:23 ...and Elijah said, Look, your son alive...
1 Kings 18:10 ... Alive Lord your God!..
1 Kings 18:15 ...And Elijah said: alive
1 Kings 20:32 ...He said, Is he alive?..
1 Kings 22:14 ...And Micaiah said: alive Lord!..
2 Kings 2:2 ...But Elisha said: alive The Lord and your soul lives!..
2 Kings 2:4 ...And he said: alive The Lord and your soul lives!..
2 Kings 2:6 ...And he said: alive The Lord and your soul lives!..
2 Kings 3:14 ...And Elisha said: alive Lord of hosts, before whom I stand!..
2 Kings 4:30 ...And the mother of the child said: alive The Lord and your soul lives!..
2 Kings 5:16 ...And he said: alive Lord, before Whom I stand!..
2 Kings 5:20 ... Alive Lord! I'll run after him and take something from him...
2 Kings 10:19 ...And whoever does not appear will not remain alive...
2 Chronicles 18:13 ...And Micah said: alive Lord, -..
Esther 4:11 ...will remain alive...
Job 19:25 ...And I know, my Redeemer alive, and He is on the last day...
Job 27:2 ... alive God who deprived me court...
Psalm 17:47... Alive Lord and blessed is my protector!..
Psalm 145:2 ...I will praise the Lord until alive;..
Jer 4:2 ...And you will swear: alive Lord!>...
Jeremiah 5:2 ...Even though they say: alive Lord!>,..
Jeremiah 12:16 ...to swear by My name: alive Lord!>,..
Jeremiah 16:14 ...when they no longer say: alive Lord...
Jeremiah 16:15 ...but: alive Lord...
Jer 21:9 ...he will alive, and his soul will be his instead of prey;...
Jeremiah 23:7 ...when they will no longer say: alive Lord...
Jer 23:8 ...but: alive Lord...
Jer 38:2 ...and whoever goes out to the Chaldeans will alive,..
Jeremiah 38:2 ...and he will remain alive...
Jeremiah 38:16 ...saying: alive The Lord, who created this soul for us...
Jer 38:17 ...and you will alive, and your house;..
Jer 44:26 ...saying: alive Lord God!>...
Ezekiel 3:18 ...so that he alive was,..
Ezekiel 3:21 ...then he too alive will be because he was admonished...
Ezekiel 18:9 ...then he is righteous, he will certainly be alive, says the Lord God...
Ezekiel 18:13 ...whether he will alive?..
Ezekiel 18:13... No He will not alive...
Ezekiel 18:17 ...he will alive...
Ezekiel 18:19 ...he will alive...
Ezekiel 18:21... alive will be, will not die...
Ezekiel 18:22 ...in his righteousness which he will do alive will...
Ezekiel 18:23 ...Is it not that he should turn from his ways and be alive?..
Ezekiel 18:24 ...will he alive?..
Ezekiel 18:28 ...he will alive won't die...
Ezekiel 20:11 ...doing which a person alive would be through them;..
Ezekiel 20:13 ...doing which a person alive would be through them...
Ezekiel 20:21 ...they did not do what if they did, a person would be alive,..
Eze 33:11 ...but that the sinner should turn from his way and alive was...
Eze 33:13 ...When I tell the righteous that he will alive,..
Ezekiel 33:15 ...then he will alive won't die...
Ezekiel 33:16 ...he will alive...
Ezekiel 33:19 ...and began to do justice and righteousness; for this he will alive...
Hos 4:15 ...and do not swear: alive Lord!>...
Amos 8:14 ...and they say: alive your God, Dan! And alive way to Bathsheba!> –..
Amos 8:14 ...and they say: alive your God, Dan! And alive way to Bathsheba!> –..
Hab 2:4 ...but the righteous by his faith alive will...
Mark 16:11 ...but when they heard that He alive and she saw Him -...
Luke 24:23 ...who say that He alive...
Acts 25:19 ...whom Paul affirmed that He alive...
Rom 1:17 ...as it is written: Just by faith alive will...
Rom 7:1 ...that the law has power over a man as long as he alive?..
Rom 8:10 ...but the spirit alive for righteousness...
Rom 10:5 ...the man who did it alive it will be...
1 Corinthians 7:39 ...A woman is bound by the law until alive her husband;...
2 Cor 13:4 ...For though He was crucified in weakness, yet alive by the power of God;...
Gal 3:11 ...for he is righteous by faith alive will...
Gal 3:12 ...but whoever does it alive it will be...
Hebrews 7:25 ...always being alive to intercede for them...
Hebrews 9:17 ...it is of no force when the testator alive...
Hebrews 10:38 ...righteous by faith alive will;..
Rev 1:18 ...and he was dead, and behold, alive forever and ever, amen;...
Rev 2:8 ...Who was dead, and behold, alive:..
Rev 3:1 ...you have a name like alive but you're dead...
Rev 13:14 ...who has the wound of the sword and alive...
Jude 2:12 ...For alive I, and my kingdom is strong:...
Judph 13:16 ... Alive Lord, who preserved me on the path I walked!..
Sir 33:21 ...How long will you alive and the breath is in you, do not replace yourself with anyone;..
Tob 5:3 ...I will give him his wages while alive, and go for the silver...
Tob 7:4 ...They answered: alive and healthy...
Tov 8:12 ...send one of the maids to see alive is he;..
Tov 8:14 ...And she went out and announced to them that he alive.
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In this chapter I will not find out from which people this or that legend was borrowed or look for any other attempts to explain the basis of biblical legends. This approach requires either a thorough knowledge of mythology, or blind faith in what I write. That is, if the reader does not have knowledge in the field of history and ethnography, then he naturally takes my word for it. Therefore, this is not about that.
But even banal ridicule like a whale couldn’t swallow Jonah, a whale’s throat is too narrow, won’t happen here either. That is, the one who writes that a whale cannot swallow a prophet because the whale has a narrow throat either expects me to have excellent knowledge of the anatomy of whales, or expects me to take my word for it. Has anyone seen a whale's throat?
Therefore, this chapter will take a slightly different approach. All you need is the text of the Bible and the ability to read this book. Naturally, we are not talking about the original, but about translations. Well, plus, of course, a little logic and common sense. No special education is needed to understand this chapter. As well as no blind faith in my words.
I warn you right away that, as before, I do not set myself the goal of exposing the Bible as a lie, and in general somehow challenging anyone’s freedom to believe in God, in Satan, in the goddess Isis, in Cthulhu - in anyone. Believe! If you know what you believe in. Otherwise, it is not very pleasant to look at those who repeat: “God is Love!”, and themselves wave the Scriptures, in comparison with which the biography of Genghis Khan is an example of the most touching humanism.
In short, let's go.
Part one
Adam
“Adam, according to the Biblical myth, is the first man”
This or a similar phrase can be read in almost any reference about Adam. Any Jew, Christian or Muslim will be indignant, saying, “How can this be? It is written in our Scriptures that Adam was the first of men!” Let's leave Muslims alone for now, since we are talking about the Bible. Let's look at the Koran separately when we get to it. So, are all believers sure that Adam, according to the Bible, is the first man? As far as I know, yes, everyone is sure.
In this case, look through the first chapters of Genesis and try to find where exactly Adam is called the first of people? Didn't find it? Then we go to Chapter 4, verses 16-17. They tell how the fratricide Cain went east to a place called Nod, and there “He knew his wife, and she conceived and gave birth to Enoch. And he built a city. by the name of his son"
That is, it turns out that in the east of Eden there is a land that even has a name, and in this country Cain found himself a wife and built a city. Three questions:
1) Who gave the name to the city?
2) Where did the wife come from in that city?
3) For whom was the city built and who would populate it?
There is a version among Bible believers that Cain married his sister, the daughter of Adam and Eve, who was exiled with him.
First of all, where did they get this from? After all, the Bible does not say a word about any daughters of Adam and Eve. In general, before verse 17, there is no mention of Cain’s wife. And since the verses above said that “an exile and a wanderer on the earth” came to the land of Nod, it is logical to assume that it was there that Cain found his wife, whose name we do not know.
Secondly, a normal adult knows perfectly well that marriages between brothers and sisters do not lead to anything good. The human race, built on incest, would slow down at most in the fifth or sixth generation.
And lastly, why I also believe that Nod was already inhabited when Cain arrived there. He builds a city on this land - his second homeland. No Bedouin, no matter how wild, would call a single-family settlement a city. In addition, a built city needs to be populated by someone, and building a city alone is not an easy task.
Conclusion:
The land of Nod was already inhabited by people who did not descend from Adam. This means Adam is not the first man.
Does this contradict the Bible? No. Doesn't contradict. If you carefully read the first chapters of Genesis, it does not contradict.
So, the first chapter tells the well-known story of the creation of the world in 7 days. There is no point in retelling, let’s just pay attention to the following details:
1. The Creator is called “God”
2. He creates birds on the fourth day, animals on the fifth
3. He created man later. “In His own image He created him; male and female he created them"
So. Man and woman were created at the same time. Created on the sixth day. The day after the animals and the day after the birds. These people are nameless. How and from what people were created, and where exactly they were created - this chapter does not tell.
The second chapter tells a completely different story of creation. Here are the differences:
1. The Creator is no longer called simply “God”, but “Lord God”. Or simply “Lord”
2. The Lord created man. Not a word about image and likeness. Moreover, he created earlier than birds and animals. These were created later.
3. This person is a Man. His name is Adam. Created from the dust of the earth. I repeat - not a word about image and likeness!
4. The Lord created it in the Middle East. That is, the place of creation is specifically indicated.
5. The unnamed woman was created last. "From a rib." She became Eve later, after the Fall. Before this she did not have a name.
I already wrote in the chapter Myths vs Religions that there is a version that the Bible is composed of two texts. In the first, God is called Yahweh, in the second, Elohim. Or, respectively, “Lord” and “God”
Fine. Let's say this is true. But were those who combined two different texts into one really idiots? Or did they consider the readers to be idiots? After all, the difference between them is striking.
Conclusion:
The Bible speaks of TWO DIFFERENT creations. The first chapter talks about how God created the world and people. In the second, how Lord created a man named Adam, created Eden for him and populated it with animals and birds. That is, we are talking about creating two pairs of people. Moreover, Adam and Eve are not the first, but the second couple that the Lord created, after God created “his” couple “in His image and likeness.”
And the very word “created” is a little alarming, because the expression “in the image and likeness” later began to be applied to the children of Adam: “Adam begat a son in his own likeness and image” (Gen. 5:3)
Question:
Are the Lord and God the same thing or not?
Part two
How many gods are there in the Bible?
Hear Israel, the Lord your God is one Lord. (Jewish Creed)
I believe in one God. (Orthodox Creed)
Everyone is accustomed to the fact that the Bible speaks of one God. All Christians and Jews are confident that the Bible was sent by the One Lord, who created heaven and earth. Ask anyone how you know this - everyone will answer that from the Bible.
Firstly, in the very first chapter of Genesis, instead of the word “God” there was “Elohim”. Everyone knows this. The word "Elohim" is plural from "Eloah" - "God". That is, “Elohim” is no longer “God”, but “Gods”. I gave a lot of evidence of this in the chapter Myths vs Religions. But you don’t even have to go that far, I promised to refer only to the texts of the Bible itself. So, referring to the texts of the Bible, to the idea that it is not “God”, but “Gods”, they suggest the lines that “God” created man and woman “in His own image, in the image of God” (Gen. 1 :27). A man and a woman. In His image. This could mean either that God is a hermaphrodite, or that there were at least two gods.
This is not the only hint of polytheism in the Bible. If you remember, the Serpent says to Eve, at that time still a “woman”: "and you will be like Gods"(Gen. 3:4). (The snake is a separate topic, about it a little later). Further, the Lord himself says: “Behold, Adam has become like one of Us”(Gen. 3:22). A little later, when they talk about the Tower of Babel: “Let us go down and confuse their language there.”(Genesis 11:7)
Why is the plural used here? Some believers say that usually all the august persons called themselves this: “We, Ivan the Terrible!” Maybe. Then why doesn't any biblical king say that? Moreover, even God himself almost always speaks of himself in the singular: "I commanded them", "Do not hold Me back and I will destroy them", “I will ask you, and you explain to Me”. Others say that God meant the Trinity. But there are no direct indications of the trinity of God in the Bible.
Instead, there are indications of a plurality of Gods that does not fit into the scheme of the Trinity. In the psalm of Asaph the Lord is named « God of gods», “God became in the company of gods; He pronounced judgment among the gods... You are gods and sons of the Most High - all of you.", in the other place “The Lord is... a great King above all gods”, Further “Bow down before Him, all you gods... For You, O Lord, are exalted above other gods.”
In my opinion, there is plenty of evidence that the Bible does not consider its God to be the only one.
So, the Lord of the Jews (according to the Bible) is just one of the Gods - Elohim. And Yahweh is just a tribal patron God, the God of Israel, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God in Zion.
There are also many other tribal gods who had no less power to bestow benefits and punishments on their people: “Do you not possess what Chemosh your god has given you? And we possess what the Lord has given us as an inheritance.”(Judges 11:24). Here the Lord (who, if you remember, is Yahweh) is placed on a par with Chemosh. Further, this constant jealousy of the Lord towards various Dagons, Astartes or Baals also puts Him on a par with these gods. Doesn't it seem at least strange that the Almighty and Self-sufficient is jealous of idols?
After the Kingdom of Judah was fully established, the Lord who is Yahweh became superior to his recent “rivals.” Now He became the “God of gods”, “King over the gods”, and a little later, when the conceit of the Jews increased even more, He became the “Only” and “Almighty”, but at the same time, still the same God - the patron of the Jews. Now the Jews knew not only one God, but also one people - the Jews. The rest of the peoples are not people, and therefore their gods are not gods.
This is roughly how the tribal God of the Bible became the Most High, and the tribal forefather Adam became the forefather of humanity.
Part Three
The story of one temptation
Once the Devil entered the snake, and when Eve walked past, he asked her a question:
—God forbade you and Adam from eating fruits in the Garden?
God's Law. The First Book of the Orthodox Faith
I am sure that 9 out of 10, if not 99 out of 100, do not see a single mistake in this sentence: “The devil tempted Eve with an apple, after eating which she committed adultery with Adam, for which they were expelled from the Garden.”
Firstly, the whole story around this, namely crime and punishment, suggests that the punishment was not due to eating some fruit, but specifically for adultery. But let's not dwell on this. Let's look at something else here. Despite the fact that almost no one doubts the inerrancy of the above line, from the point of view of the Bible itself, this text consists of nothing but errors.
I'll start with the smallest error in this line. Firstly, the woman who was seduced by the Devil was not yet named Eve. She received this name after the Fall (Gen. 3:20)
Secondly, I could not find a word in the Bible that this fruit was an apple. I won't say that apples don't grow in the Middle East, I promised, but I actually couldn't find the Bible talking about an apple.
Where did the apple come from?
Scandinavian Goddess Idunn
Greek Aphrodite
Slavyanskaya Zhiva
All these Ladies were depicted with an apple in their hand. Most likely, the myth of “Eve’s apple” is a re-imagined pagan story about the Goddesses, which can be seen in the photographs.
Who seduced the woman? Everyone will answer in unison “Devil!” Why is that? It is not written anywhere in the Bible that the Serpent who seduced the Woman is the same Satan. The only place where there is a hint of this is in the Revelations of John. There Satan is called “the ancient serpent” (12:9). But there is no hint that this is the SAME Serpent.
In general, the Serpent in the Bible is not at all a symbol of the Devil, as is commonly believed.
For example, in Genesis 49:17 Jacob says to one of his sons: "Dan will be a serpent on the road, an adder on the way". And before this, this same Dan is called a judge over his brothers. That is, after he was appointed as a judge, the father cannot call him Satan.
In this regard, Moses’ behavior generally seems strange. Moses, at the command of the Lord, “he made a copper serpent and put it on a banner”(Numbers 21:9).
And what’s even stranger is that Jesus himself compares himself with this very Serpent (!!!): “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.”(John 3:14). And Matthew 10:16 states that Jesus advised his disciples to be He also advises his disciples to be wise as serpents.
All of the above is difficult to understand, considering that the Serpent in the Bible is a symbol of Satan.
And the text of the Bible itself in the story of the Fall does not in any way hint or give any reason to believe that the Serpent is Satan. The serpent who seduced the woman "he was more cunning than all the beasts of the field"(Gen. 3:1). Here it is clearly and clearly stated that the one who seduced was just a “beast of the field.” Not in spirit, like Satan. Not a fallen angel. But an ordinary field animal. “And the Lord God said to the serpent, Because you have done this, you are cursed above all livestock and above all the beasts of the field; on your belly you will go, and you will eat dust all the days of your life; and I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; it will bruise your head, and you will bruise its heel.”(Gen. 14-15). This (by the way, sophisticated, verbose, just in the style of the Old Testament) curse most likely applies to the most common snakes. They are the ones who “walk on their bellies,” “eat the dust,” and “bite the heel.” Satan doesn't do that. Satan flies and can even carry Jesus to a “high mountain” (Luke 4)
To be honest in the face of such a mistake, human shortcomings, from this very Fall to the present day, are simply naive childish pranks.
The Lord already has big problems with justice, but more on that a little later, but here it’s more logical to assume that there is no mistake. The serpent who seduced the woman was actually the “beast of the field,” and the fallen angel had nothing to do with it. Moreover, this seducer is cursed not before the spirits and angels, but before “all the cattle and all the beasts of the field.”
And the last question: what was this “original sin”?
The story that this was precisely “adultery” is known to all Christians, but unknown to Jews. This widespread opinion has even entered everyday speech: “taste the forbidden fruit,” “the forbidden fruit of intimacy.” These expressions are the result of myth. Judging by the punishment, yes, they angered God precisely through adultery, but... the Bible says absolutely nothing about adultery in the Garden of Eden. Genesis 4:1 says that "Adam knew Eve his wife" after he was expelled from the Garden. “My wife” - and this is no longer adultery.
Part Four
Exile
What exactly was this original sin? Personally, my opinion is adultery. But in this chapter, as I already promised, I will refer only to the text of the Bible, and the Bible clearly says that the punishment followed because Adam and the woman ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:16-17; 3:4-6,17).
But this destroys the myth of free will, which representatives of any confession in any of the Abrahamic religions love to talk about. What kind of free will can we talk about if people do not know what good and evil are? That is, if people were forbidden (Gen. 2:16-17) to know good and evil, then it means they do not have free will. The ability to distinguish between good and evil and make a choice between them is free will. That is, people received free will just after they sinned.
So what is the crime? After all, those who committed it were naive and innocent, like children who somehow learned “what is good and what is bad.” At all times, their parents, educators or guardians were responsible for the actions of children. Moreover, educators or guardians can even refer to bad heredity or habitat. But the Lord has no such excuses. It was He who created the environment - the Garden of Eden. It was He who created Adam and woman. So you can forget about heredity and environment. And even the snake - be it a fallen angel or just a reptile - He created. By the way, Adam himself gave very good answers to the questions of the angry Lord: “The woman whom You gave me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.”(Gen. 3:12). “Which You gave me...” - that is, You, Lord, are responsible for all this rigmarole.
But, be that as it may, the Lord curses Adam and his woman (Gen. 3:16-19). How fair it is to punish your own creations for sin, from which you yourself did not protect them with at least the opportunity to understand what is evil and what is good.
The punishments ended there. Someone will say “No! They were also expelled from the Garden!”
Yes, they expelled me. But this was no longer a punishment. “And the Lord God said: Behold, Adam has become as one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now lest he put forth his hand, and also take of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever” (Gen. 3:22).
I'm just wondering if anyone has thought about this part yet? Think about it! In the above quotation from Genesis, the Lord actually confirms the correctness of the Serpent. It turns out that the Seducer was not lying when he said that “On the day that you eat of them, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like gods, knowing good and evil.”(Gen. 3:5). The Lord says the same thing. Word by word!!! “Became like one of Us, knowing good and evil”. Moreover, the Serpent turned out to be right in another way. The Lord threatens Adam: “On the day you eat of it, you will die!”(Gen. 2:17), to which the Serpent objects: "No, you won't die"(Gen. 3:4). After this whole incident, Adam lived 130 years (Gen. 5:3).
Now one of two things. Either the Serpent knew the future better than the Lord himself, or the Lord simply lied to Adam, deciding to scare him.
But that's not all. Here's another detail that's interesting to pay attention to. The Lord (let me remind you that “Lord” and “God” are not the same thing, which I wrote about in the first part, so pay attention to when and how I call them) does not want Adam to live forever. This means that Adam was originally created mortal and this sin did not change anything special in this matter. By the way, most theologians, both in Christianity and in Islam, believe more in their theories and dogmas than in the direct text of the Scriptures and their own logic, if they have one.
But let's not get distracted. So, for some reason the Lord fears that Adam, having learned good and evil, will live forever and become equal in status to the Gods. “And the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden... and drove out Adam, and placed on the east of the garden of Eden Cherubim and a flaming sword that turned to guard the way to the tree of life” (Gen. 3:23-24)
Here I will make a digression and slightly break my promise, recalling the Sumerian myth, which I already wrote about in another chapter.
In some Sumerian texts, Adapa (the prototype of Adam) is called the offspring of Enki. He looked after Adapa and treated him like a son. Adapa was not sent to the mines, but was placed next to the Anunnaki abode in the Garden of Eden.
Enki (the main “scientist” among the gods) passed on much of the knowledge of the Anunaki to Adapa, even taught him how to use his flying machine and trusted him to do it on his own. However, Adapa was not careful enough and caused an accident. This became known to Anu (ruler of the gods). He was terribly angry with Enki for passing on important Anunaki knowledge to man. Enki justified himself by saying that Adapa was not an ordinary person, that he had outstanding mental abilities. But this did not soften Anu; on the contrary, it made him think about punishment: to give Adapa immortality and appoint him in Enki’s place if he reveals sufficient abilities during tests before the Council. Adapa had to arrive on his own aircraft to a Council meeting in Heaven, which may have been his first test. Enki was afraid possible solution Council of the gods: make Adapa immortal and put him in his place. To prevent this from happening, he gave Adapa advice:
If they offer you clothes, wear them. If you are offered oil, apply the anointing, apply it. If you are offered bread, refuse. This is death. If you are offered water, refuse. This is the water of death.
Enki's warning was clearly false: if the council of gods decided to destroy Adapa, they would not do it secretly, they had no one to fear. Further events developed as follows: Enlil and Enki, who had arrived from Earth at the Meeting, took their places next to Anu, Anu scolded Enki for revealing top-secret information to Adapa: “Why did Enki reveal the Plan of Heaven-Earth to an insignificant person, making him outstanding (among people), and made Shem for him?
After examining Adapa, Anu and the Council of Twelve quickly realized that the man knew a lot. They did not blame him for the damage to the wing of the “South Wind”, believing that Enki was primarily to blame for this. Anu and the Council were so impressed with Adapa's abilities that they offered him a taste of the "bread of life" and the "water of life." Adapa, remembering Enki's order, refused. Anu insisted, but Adapa, fearing poisoning, continued to refuse. Anu was disheartened and annoyed by this reaction. “Why, Adapa, do you not eat the bread of life?” In the end, Anu got tired of this and said: “Adapa, you refused to eat the bread of life. Return to Earth and die."
Now, I hope, it’s clear what’s going on? The fact is that this exile was not a punishment. Adam and the woman were expelled not FOR WHAT, but FOR WHAT. Namely, so that there are no more Gods in the Garden. In general, the Lord Yahweh is somehow very jealous. He does not tolerate the proximity of other Gods very well, even if he calls them no equal to himself. (Ex 20:5, 34:14) (1 Kings 5:1-4) (1 Kings 11:33)
Now, after we have dealt with the third chapter of Genesis with its very fascinating story about the Fall, I ask you to re-read the fourth part again and say, is the Lord like the Almighty, All-Good and Self-sufficient God? This Lord, “walking in the garden in the cool of the day” (Gen. 3:8), losing sight of Adam and calling out to him (Gen. 3:9), punishing his own creations with such fury as could be characteristic of an unskilled potter who breaks failed pots, and finally, in all seriousness fearing competition from his own creations, and unable to find the best way protection than expelling them from the Garden - is this the same God?
How does this jealous, narcissistic deity differ, for example, from the same Zeus? I would even say that Zeus was much more decent, since he did not call himself omnipotent, omniscient or self-sufficient.
Part Five
Cain's Sacrifice
Cain made a sacrifice without love and the Lord did not accept his sacrifice, showing him his shortcoming.
Have you heard about those called catechists? Here - read: catechesis
So, I think that these same catechists cannot do without attributing their own opinions to the Bible. But the Bible forbids this: “You shall not add to what I command you, nor shall you take away from it” (Deuteronomy 4:2). And yet, they all unanimously feed everyone with tales about Cain’s sacrifice, which he did not bring from a pure heart, and that is why the Lord rejected this sacrifice.
Re-read Genesis, chapter 4 again: “...And Abel was a shepherd of sheep, and Cain was a farmer. After some time, Cain brought a gift to the Lord from the fruits of the ground, and Abel also brought from the firstlings of his flock and from their fat. And the Lord looked upon Abel and his gift, but did not look upon Cain and his gift...” (Gen. 4:2-5)
Show me where it says that Cain did not make the sacrifice out of a pure heart, or did he make the sacrifice with some ulterior motives? Against, “Cain was greatly saddened, and his face fell.”(Genesis 4:5)
In fact, everything is extremely simple. The Lord did not like the bloodless, lifeless, vegetable sacrifice. He liked the bloody sacrifice better with the warmth of still fresh meat and blood. I'm not exaggerating. Read for yourself: “...and he took from every clean animal and from every clean bird and offered them as burnt offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled a sweet aroma..." (Genesis 8:20-21). And here's another: "And the insides victims And he will wash her feet with water, and the priest will burn everything on the altar: “This is a burnt offering, a sacrifice, an aroma pleasing to the Lord.”(Lev 1:9). And these are not all passages where the Lord admits that he likes the smell of a bloody sacrifice.
After this, biblical heroes performed mass sacrifices: "twenty-two thousand cattle and one hundred and twenty thousand small cattle"(1 Kings 8:63). The number of sacrificial animals depended on the significance of the occasion. And note, this sacrifice is always, I repeat - ALWAYS - bloody. Therefore, the reason why the Lord showed displeasure was not because of Cain’s pure heart, but because the Lord preferred the “pleasant aroma” of a bloody sacrifice.
Law of perspective. Did you all hear? What appears to be a bush from afar becomes an oak as you get closer. But this law does not apply to the Bible. Those who look at the Bible from afar see in it a universal cultural monument, the Most High God, the cunning Devil, an instructive parable about the noble Abel and his vile brother. But as soon as you get close, it turns out that instead of a “universal monument” there is the most ordinary epic of one tribe. Instead of the Almighty God there is a tribal god. Instead of a Fallen Angel - an ordinary reptile. And instead of an instructive parable, there is the story of a bloodthirsty god.
Part Six
Fratricide
But Cain did not listen to the words of the Lord. He was overcome by envy and jealousy. (Bible for Children)
As we already know from the Bible, Cain was very upset that the Lord did not like his sacrifice. Here again - attention! There is NOT A WORD in the Bible that Cain was jealous of his brother and was angry with him. This is not in the Bible. I repeat once again: “Cain was greatly saddened, and his face fell.”(Gen. 4:5). That's all! All the talk about Cain being jealous and angry is a figment of the theologians’ imagination. I found no basis for this in the Bible.
“And the Lord said to Cain: Why are you upset? And why did your face droop? If you do good, don't you raise your face? And if you do not do good, then sin lies at the door; he draws you to himself, but you have dominion over him” (Gen. 4:6-7)
What follows is a little complicated, but I’ll try to explain it as clearly as possible. Please note - the Lord did not say a word about any good or bad intentions Cain. Here intentions In general, the Lord doesn’t care much. “WHEN YOU DO good, YOU DO NOT DO good” - that’s the whole choice. So the Lord does not reproach Cain for evil intent, but for the fact that he “DID NOT DO GOOD.”
To be clear, the meaning of this verse is: “You were upset because I did not accept your gift, but you yourself are to blame. YOU DID NOT DO GOOD. If you DID GOOD, you would have no reason to be upset. DO GOOD!”
Does anyone have a different arrangement of the above verses?
What does it mean to “do good”?
There are many options. What does it mean to “do good” in this story? I'd love to find some subtext, but the Bible doesn't allow it. The Bible speaks of only one act on the basis of which the Lord made a decision - sacrifice. And if Cain DIDN’T DO good, but Abel DID, then there is only one conclusion:
“To do good” means “to make a blood sacrifice”
“Do good” - this is exactly what the Lord said to Cain,
Now, let's forget for a second that we're talking about the Bible. Just imagine for a moment that we are not talking about the Almighty God, but about some local pagan god. Now, if such a god prefers an animal one instead of a plant sacrifice. What kind of sacrifice do you think this bloodthirsty god would prefer to an animal sacrifice?... Exactly. Human sacrifice!
“And while they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.”(Genesis 4:8)
This happened immediately after Cain's conversation with the Lord.
I think there is no need to explain that human sacrifice is familiar to the Bible. We can recall Abraham and his son (Gen. 22). They may object that the Lord did not allow him to kill his son and replaced the boy with a ram. What about Jephthah? He then sacrificed his daughter. (Court, 11)
Moreover, the two examples given above are what concerns family and friends. Strangers were not considered people at all: “And Samuel cut Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal.”(1 Samuel 15:33). And he didn’t just kill, but “cut him down before the Lord.” What is this if not a sacrifice? “And Elijah said to them, Seize the prophets of Baal, so that not one of them escapes. And they seized them, and Elijah took them to the brook Kishon and slaughtered them there” (1 Kings 18:40). 450 prophets of Baal were sacrificed.
All these inhuman and senseless killings of captives, examples of which can be found in the Book of Exodus, Numbers, in the Book of Judges, in the Book of Joshua, in the Book of Kings, were carried out either by direct order of the Lord (always the Lord, not God), or through his prophets, priests, or any other chosen ones. And the smell of sacrifice is everywhere.
So if we assume that the Lord, who asked Abraham to sacrifice his son and accepted Jephthah’s daughter as a sacrifice, asked Cain to sacrifice his brother, then this is hardly surprising.
But I don't ask everyone to believe me. You have every right to disagree with me and believe that Cain is a villain who, before the eyes of the Lord, planned and carried out the murder of his brother. You have every right to believe in the Lord, before whose eyes a crime was conceived and committed, and all he did was vague and unhelpful moral teachings, and after the evil happened, sending belated curses on the murderer. You have every right to believe all of this. But I don’t think this will have anything to do with the Bible...
Part Seven
Was there any punishment?
“And the Lord said, What have you done? Because you killed your brother Abel, you are cursed!” (Bible for Children)
Reading the previous part, they may object to me, saying that if the murder of his brother was a sacrifice to the Lord, and at his own direction, then why did the Lord curse Cain?
Let's figure it out. Firstly, this same Lord acted in a similar way both before and after the incident with Cain. That is, he, earlier and later, punished people for deeds that were committed according to his will, and if not even according to his will, then at least with his connivance. I hope the story of the Fall has not yet been forgotten.
Secondly, where in the Bible does it say that the Lord cursed Cain? It's not there. In the Bible, the Lord says to Cain: “And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened its mouth to receive the blood of thy brother at thy hand.”(Gen. 4:11). The Bible does not speak of any other curse. That is, Cain was cursed not by the Lord, but by the earth.
They may again object to me, saying that this was the Lord’s way of letting Cain know that he had cursed him. But the Lord never before or after shows such modesty. Especially when it comes to curses. “I will destroy everything from the face of the earth, says the Lord: I will destroy people and livestock, I will destroy the birds of the air and the fish of the sea, and the temptations along with the wicked; I will destroy people from the face of the earth, says the Lord" (Zeph 1:2-3), “And you will know that I am the Lord, the Punisher”(Ezek 7:9).
That is, nowhere, never does the Lord speak about a curse on someone else’s behalf. He is always the one who punishes.
Let's read the fourth chapter of Genesis further. “And Cain said to the Lord: My punishment is more than can be endured; behold, You are now driving me from the face of the earth, and I will hide from Your presence, and I will be an exile and a wanderer on the earth; and whoever meets me will kill me" (Gen. 4:13-14)
By the way, this is further proof that the earth was already populated by the time of these events and not at all by the Edenites, of whom by that moment there were already three left: Adam, Eve and Cain. However, Cain is afraid of some “everyone who meets” him on earth.
What did the Lord answer to Cain? Did he begin to remind Cain that death was a fair punishment for his crime? No! On the contrary, the Lord said to Cain: “For this, whoever kills Cain will have sevenfold revenge. And the Lord gave Cain a sign, so that no one who met him would kill him” (Gen. 4:15)
I say again, everyone has the right to believe what they want, but in this place in the Bible we are not talking about punishment, but rather about reward. The Bible is clear that the Omen, which the Lord imposed on Cain will protect him and protect him from punishment.
By the way, the promise of being an exile and a wanderer on earth, which is spoken of in the twelfth verse of the fourth chapter, again did not come true. Cain went to the land of Nod, got married there and built a city. Doesn't really sound like wandering, does it?
So, what conclusions can we draw? Cain is not cursed by the Lord and not punished for killing his brother, but on the contrary, he is rewarded to some extent. And this gives reason to think that Cain acted not only not behind the Lord’s back, but even at his prompting. That is... Cain did something good after all.
Most likely, Cain’s descendant, Lamech, was aware of all the events, and also understood that for Cain in this story everything ended more than successfully. Perhaps this is why Lamech chose the same path and began to kill, after which he declared that “If Cain is avenged sevenfold, then Lamech is avenged seventy times sevenfold.”(Gen. 4:24). For some reason, the Bible is silent about the circumstances of this murder, as well as about the reaction of the Lord himself to this murder.
Part Eight
Another Flood Story
So that this part does not turn out to be too long, I will just give advice to read other, more detailed stories of the Flood in the topics: “Noah’s Ark” and “Witnesses of the Flood”
In this part, to unravel the story of the Flood, you need to jump ahead a little. At a time when Jews want to enter the “Promised Land” (by the way, we’ll talk about this “land” in the next part). "Scouts" found on this land "giants, the sons of Anakim, from the giant family"(Numbers 13:34). The growth of one of them "nine cubits, a man's cubits"(Deut. 3:11). 9 * 45cm = 405cm. Four meters! The Jews cannot be blamed for being afraid of these giants. These giants, or as they were also called, Rephaim, lived in Palestine since the time of David (2 Sam. 21:16-22).
These same giants appeared on earth just before the flood. Just before the flood “The sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were beautiful, and they took for themselves wives whomever they chose.”(Gen. 6:2).
I know of two common versions of who these Sons of God are:
Some consider them Sons God's angels. In fact, there are places in the Bible where the “Sons of God” are referred to as angels (Dan 3:24) (Job 1:6). But I don’t think that angels can have intimacy with mortal women, much less conceive children.
The second claim that the “Sons of God” are Jews, and the “daughters of men” are women from other tribes. But usually in such cases the Bible says “sons of the Lord” (Deut. 14:1).
One of the assumptions can be seen in the chapter “Sons of God”
But we can also assume the following. The Sons of God are the descendants of the first pair of people who were created by the Elohim (Gods), “in their own image and likeness” (Gen. 1:26-27). And the “daughters of men” are the descendants of Adam, who begat children “in his own likeness, in his own image” (Gen. 5:3).
Be that as it may, these giants appeared (Gen. 6:4). And, most likely, it is they who are to blame for the fact that the Lord was angry. This is noticeable from the disappointing conclusions that the Lord made: “great is the wickedness of man on the earth... every thought and intent of their hearts was only evil continually... all flesh has perverted its way on earth” (Gen. 6:5,12). The Bible does not name any other examples of the depravity of people in antediluvian (literally) times. In addition, the Lord generally does not really trust those who mix the blood of “their guys” with “not their own.” (Exod 34:16) (Deut 7:3) (Ezra 9:11)
It is not so important here whether it was fair to punish people for their sins by destroying “all flesh” (Gen. 6:17). I have been convinced many times, and you can be convinced every time you read the Bible, that the biblical Lord is little interested in the justice of his actions. But in fact: the giants live peacefully, thousands of years after the flood.
How were they able to survive? Not in the Ark, that's for sure. Neither in the Bible nor anywhere else, such a version exists. And it is unlikely that Noah and his family were giants, since what is the point of saving in the Ark those through whose fault the flood was caused in the first place? There is not only justice here, but there is no logic either.
But in the next line you can find another clue as to whether the flood was universal. Here is this line: “And the Lord said, “I will destroy from the face of the earth man whom I have created, from man to beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowl of the air I will destroy, for I have repented that I made them” (Gen. 6:7). And a little later he adds: "The end of all flesh is come before Me"(Genesis 6:13)
The Lord, who is Yahweh, who is the same - tribal, destroyed exactly what HE created. That is, Eden and the lands that were inhabited by the descendants of Adam. “Before My face” - let us remember what Cain said when he fled to the land of Nod: “And I will hide myself from Your presence” (Gen. 4:14).
Conclusion:
The flood was local and did not destroy “all flesh,” but only that which this very Lord created. The flood did not happen everywhere, but only in a specific place, in the Middle East - “before the face of the Lord.” Because in the land of Nod the descendants of Cain forged copper, and somewhere else the giants built fortresses.
Part Nine
Promised land
If you ask what the “promised land” is for you, many will say that it is heaven on earth. This is a symbol of an easy life where there is no sadness. In short, the promised land is milk rivers, jelly banks, and all that. Not life, but in the words of Karabas-Barabas “just some kind of holiday”
What does the Bible say about this land?
According to the Bible, the Lord promises Moses “bring him out of this land into a good and spacious land, where milk and honey flow”(Exodus 3:8).
And again, this Lord is either not entirely right, or not entirely honest. There was no heaven on earth in the “promised land” until the Jews came there with Moses. And after that, even more so, there was no heaven on earth there. Milk and honey did not flow there. There was blood flowing there. But more on that later.
In the very first promises of the Lord to Abraham and Jacob, he does not give such poetic details. I think you can guess why? Because, unlike Moses, these guys knew very well the features of this land. As a matter of fact, it was on this land that these promises were made. “And I will give to you and to your descendants after you the land in which you wander, all the land of Canaan.”(Genesis 17:8) “The land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you and to your descendants.”(Gen. 35:12). In these lines the Lord speaks about the land of Canaan - the land of the Canaanites. And the Lord already gives Moses the “promised land,” which means that this land, which the Lord promised to the chosen people, no longer consists only of the land of the Canaanites, but also of the land "The Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Eshites, and the Jebusites"(Deut. 7:1)
I beg you to re-read the previous paragraph and think about it. Have you noticed anything strange? That's it! The “good land” was already inhabited by different tribes. What to do with them?
Let's re-read the first verse of Deuteronomy again:
“When the Lord your God brings you into the land where you are going to take possession of it, and drives out from before you many nations, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations that are more numerous and stronger than you, and The LORD your God will deliver them to you, and you will defeat them, then you will consign them to destruction; you will not enter into an alliance with them and do not spare them” (Deut. 7:1-2)
Terrible. But... you can’t erase the words from the song.
Let's get back to the topic. What does “consign them to destruction” mean?
You don't have to go far. Let us turn to verse 34, the second chapter of the same Book of Deuteronomy: “and at that time they took all its cities, and destroyed all the cities, men and women and children, and left none alive.”
That is, “spell” means complete, merciless massacre.
Moreover, this was far from an isolated case.
“And they smote him and his sons and all his people, so that not one was left, and they took possession of his land.”(Numbers, 21:35)
“And the Lord our God delivered him into our hands, and we struck him and his sons and all his people, and at that time we took all his cities, and consigned all the cities to destruction, men and women and children, leaving no one in alive" (Deut. 2:33-34)
“And they consigned to destruction all that was in the city, both man and woman, both young and old, oxen, and sheep, and donkeys, and destroyed them all with the sword” (Joshua 6:20)
“They were so struck that they did not leave a single one of them, surviving or escaping... the husbands and wives who fell that day, all the inhabitants of Ai, were twelve thousand. Jesus did not lower his hand, which he stretched out with a spear, until he had condemned all the inhabitants of Ai" (Joshua 8:22, 25-26)
In general, by the way, the Book of Joshua is not for the faint of heart, since it repeats many times “And Joshua destroyed it with the sword, and everything that breathed that was in it; left no one with her who would survive,” “and he smote him with the sword, and everything that breathed that was in him,” “he smote him and his people so that he left no one with him who would survive,” “and all The children of Israel plundered the spoil for themselves, and killed all the people with the sword, so that they were destroyed: they did not leave a single soul.”
Anticipating philosophically shaking heads, saying “there was such a time,” I declare: there was no such time. There has never been a time when the murder of women, children and the elderly - when such genocide was considered godly, or at least commonplace.
Remember at the beginning I said that the Mongols of Genghis Khan were much more humane. These guys killed all the men of the conquered people; they did not kill women and children. They were taken captive. In most cases, even the men were taken into captivity, rather than exterminated. It even happened that they left the conquered people in their place of residence. They were just taxed. And these are the wild barbarians of Genghis Khan. And the Lord’s favorites were destroyed. Without exception. Everyone. Even animals.
“And Moses said to them: Why have you left all the women alive?...Kill all the male children, and all the women...kill!” (Numbers 31:15,17)
Let’s compare: Batu released or even took into service those who fought against him with particular courage (for example, five soldiers of Evpatiy Kolovrat), and the Jews “husbands and wives, both young and old, oxen and sheep and donkeys, they all destroyed with the sword.”(Joshua 6:20). Was no one left alive? Left! "The harlot and her father's house and all that she had"(Joshua 6:24). "Why is that?" - you ask. A “because she hid the messengers whom Jesus sent to look out for”(Joshua 6:24). They were the spies she has.
In short, as far as nobility and mercy are concerned, the chosen ones of the Lord are far from wild barbarians. Let us remember again how at the very beginning I said that the biography of Genghis Khan, compared with the Bible, is an example of humanism. Now is it clear that I was not exaggerating? Against the background of God’s favorite Moses, who ordered the killing of women and children, and against the background of the zombified fighter Joshua, Batu and Genghis Khan are bright images of noble knights.
But, somehow we digressed from the topic. Let's return to the “promised land,” that is, to the promised one. Promised by this tribal god of wild nomads to be captured and plundered. The population of this land, who earned their daily bread with their labor, was slaughtered with sophisticated cruelty and, most importantly, according to the instructions and in the name of the “merciful” Lord.
So you need to be a little more careful when you call some land the promised land. Especially if this is your homeland, and you are not “the chosen people of the Lord.” Because personally, I would not like to be a resident of the promised land. You cannot envy such a fate.
Retreat
Before writing the next, last part, I want to make a small digression. The characters listed above are far from the only favorites of God who were distinguished by cruelty. And you can write for a long time, for example, that Samson (Book of Judges) is far from being a hero-liberator or a noble judge, but just a criminal bandit, or that the “good prophet” Elisha (2 Kings 2:23- 24) for innocent childish teasing, he fed “forty-two children” to bears, or that the patent for the use of furnaces to destroy prisoners belongs not to some fascists, but to the next chosen one of the Lord - King David, who “took them out and put them under the saws , under iron threshers, under iron axes, and threw them into kilns. This is what he did to all the cities of Ammon" (2 Kings 12:31)
But I think that the above examples are a sufficient example of the fact that the Lord is by no means as merciful as he is commonly believed to be. And plus, we won’t learn anything new from a detailed examination of even larger examples, because the Lord’s favorites already considered were no better than Samson, David or Elisha. But a Christian, or any other person in the Scriptures, will just shrug his shoulders and add: “What can you do, man is weak, and Satan is always on the alert. Only the Lord is sinless!”
By the way, the topic of the Lord and Satan is a separate and also very interesting topic, if we talk about them not what the clergy say, but what the Bible itself says. But more on that later. Now let's move on to the last part of this chapter.
Part Ten
Ten Commandments
For whom are the commandments written? Have you ever asked yourself this question? Most likely no. Everyone will answer in unison that the Ten Commandments of Moses were sent to all humanity.
Then the question is: why is one of the most important commandments - “thou shalt not kill” - so often violated by these most positive heroes of the Bible - these prophets and kings? For example, Moses himself, who brought these commandments (Exodus 14:25, 20:1-17), in the Book of Numbers ordered the killing of captive women and children. And he was not particularly kind to his fellow tribesmen. As soon as Moses received the tablets with the commandments, he ordered: “Put every man his sword on his thigh, go through the camp from gate to gate and back, and kill every one his brother, every one his friend, every one his neighbor. And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and about three thousand of the people fell that day" (Exodus 32:27-28).
Just like that! "Thou shalt not kill"!
If you carefully re-read Exodus, Deuteronomy and Leviticus, your surprise will know no bounds. What kind of “thou shalt not kill” can we talk about if in the laws of the Lord, every third crime is punishable by “capital punishment”. Sorcerers and sorcerers - kill (Exodus 22:18; Deut 18:9-12). Blasphemers and those who worship gods other than the Lord are to be killed (Exodus 22:20; Lev 20:1-6, 4:10-15; Deut 13:1-18, 17:2-7). For a bad attitude towards parents - kill (Lev, 20:9). Continue in the same spirit. Kill!
Moreover, all this applies to our own people - the Jews. They did not stand on ceremony with strangers at all. Deuteronomy, for example, orders the slaughter of all people.
All things considered, it would be foolish not to listen to atheists who say that the Scriptures are full of contradictions. It's hard to disagree with this. But let's return to the commandments that the Lord gave to Moses.
The first commandment is far from “Thou shalt not kill.”
“I am the Lord your God... let you have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself any graven image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth below, or that is in the water under the earth” (Exodus 20:2-4). It’s not very clear when some “smart” clergy put some highly moral meaning into this commandment. It is clearly written here that making any images is prohibited. Any! By the way, to the credit of Jews - among realist artists it is very difficult to find a Jew, but among avant-garde abstractionists they are - after all, this does not violate the second commandment.
“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave unpunished anyone who takes His name in vain... Remember the Sabbath day... the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord... Honor your father and your mother...” (Exodus 20:7, 8, 10,12). And only then - the sixth - "Dont kill"(Exodus 20:13). The remaining commandments: “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” “Thou shalt not steal,” “Thou shalt not bear false witness,” “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house...” we will not consider here.
I don't think you've guessed why, so I'll explain briefly. All articles of this legislation, the violation of which is punishable by death, indicate a violation of these five commandments. These five commandments are listed BEFORE “Thou shalt not kill,” which means they are more important. Therefore, “thou shalt not kill” applies only to those who observe them. That is, honor your parents - but only those who keep the first four commandments.
Conclusion:
According to the Law of the Lord on the Ten Commandments, and therefore according to the Holy Scriptures - the Bible - only those who worship the Lord - and only him alone - have the right to live! At one time and many millennia after, this meant the extermination of all the peoples of the earth, except for one - the Chosen One, who believes in this very Lord, and considers others to be incorrect worshipers of this very Lord. Then Christianity appeared, with its almost two-thousand-year bloody history. Then Muslims appeared, with their bloody stories. Each of them believed that they were the chosen people and “thou shalt not kill” was not about them...
I would like to conclude here, but all that remains is to find the true face of this very Lord. So to speak, look this bastard in the eye. Therefore, even though the tenth part was the last, I will also have to torment you with an epilogue with pictures.
Final part
The final part is taken entirely from the seventh chapter of Richard Dawkins’s book “The God Delusion,” which I recommend to every sane person.
The Holy Scriptures indicate to believers moral rules of conduct in two ways. First, by direct precepts, such as the Ten Commandments, a source of fierce disagreement and intellectual battle in the American heartland; secondly, using living examples, when God or other biblical characters serve, in modern terms, as role models. If you religiously adhere to these rules, then the result is a moral system that any modern person - both believer and atheist - cannot help but recognize, to put it mildly, as quite disgusting.
To be fair, most of the contents of the Bible are not intentionally cruel, but rather simply incoherent, as is essentially what one would expect from a haphazardly bound collection of disparate documents composed, edited, translated, distorted and “corrected” by hundreds of unknowns. us and unknown to each other authors, editors and copyists for nine centuries. This circumstance helps to understand some strange features of the Bible. But the trouble is that it is precisely this bizarre collection that religious apologists propose that we use as an infallible source of morality and rules of conduct.
As Bishop John Shelby Spong rightly noted in his book “Sins of Scripture,” those who want to build their lives literally “according to the Bible” either did not read it or did not understand it.
Old Testament
Let's start with the popular Genesis story of Noah, borrowed from the Babylonian myth of Uta-Napishtim and present in the older mythologies of several cultures. It is difficult to deny the charm of the legend about the animals entering Noah’s Ark (“every creature in pairs”), but its moral side cannot but cause a shudder. Disillusioned with people, God drowned everyone without exception (except for one family), sparing neither children nor animals (who were apparently innocent of anything).
Theologians will, of course, irritably object that in our day we do not take everything written in the Book of Genesis literally. So that's exactly what I'm talking about! We choose for ourselves which fragments of Holy Scripture must be believed without reasoning, and which can be dismissed as symbols or allegories. The choice is made on the basis of personal convictions, just as atheists, on the basis of personal conviction, without an absolute criterion of truth, decide to follow one or another moral rule. If the first of these methods can be called choosing morality using the “sixth sense,” the same can be said about the second.
In any case, despite the good reasoning of learned theologians, it is frighteningly a large number of Believers continue to take the Holy Scriptures, including the story of the Flood, literally. According to a Gallup poll, this includes approximately 50% of American voters. And also, apparently, many Asian religious leaders who blamed the 2004 tsunami not on the movement of tectonic plates, but on human transgressions - from dancing and drinking in bars alcoholic drinks to breaking some insignificant rules on vacation. It is difficult to blame people who were brought up on the tale of the Flood and know nothing but the biblical text. The tendency to view natural disasters as a reaction to human behavior, vengeance for human sins, and not some indifferent movement of tectonic plates, was developed in them thanks to the education they received. By the way, doesn’t it seem extremely arrogant to you to believe that earthquakes caused by the powerful hand of God are certainly connected with human deeds? At one time, American priests issued a number of terrible sermons published on the Internet and explaining the disasters of Hurricane Katrina by human “sins”. Why should a divine being, in whose mind ideas of eternity and creation float, delve into shameful human affairs? We humans lift our noses so high that we are ready to elevate our miserable sins to universal greatness!
During a television interview with the famous American anti-abortion Reverend Michael Bray, I wondered why evangelical Christians so vehemently attack people's personal sexual inclinations - say, homosexuality - when they have no impact on the lives of others. His answer sounded something like self-justification. God send some kind of misfortune to the city where sinners live, innocent residents may turn out to be “collateral damage.” It was flooded in 2005 as a result of Hurricane Katrina. a beautiful city New Orleans. One of America's most famous televangelists and former presidential candidate, the Rev. Pat Robertson, is rumored to have attributed the hurricane to the fact that a lesbian comedian was living in New Orleans. (This story first appeared on the vast expanses of the Internet and it is difficult to verify its authenticity one hundred percent. However, it is widely believed, no doubt, because it is a typical statement by churchmen like Robertson about natural disasters like Katrina. On the site snopes.com, where falsehoods are made remarks about Katrina, and Robertson's remarks about an earlier Gay Pride march in Orlando, Florida: “I would like to caution the people of Orlando by pointing out that, having lived as they did in the path of major hurricanes, I would not be so reckless in waving a red rag before the face of God.”). It would seem that the Almighty God has more precise tools at hand to eradicate sinners - targeted heart attacks, say, and not simply wiping out an entire city because of the residence of one witty representative of sexual minorities.
In November 2005, the residents of Dover, Pennsylvania, voted to remove from the local board of education all the fundamentalists who had brought disrepute, not to say ridicule, to the entire city with their efforts to push through a mandatory intelligent design law. Upon hearing of the fundamentalists' defeat as a result of the democratic voting process, Pat Robertson issued a harsh rebuke:
“I want to warn the good people of Dover: if something happens in the vicinity of the city disaster, do not pray to God for salvation. You just drove him out of your city and don't be surprised if he refuses to help you when trouble comes - if it comes, which I, of course, do not say. But if she comes, don't forget that you just voted to banish a god from your city. Don’t ask for intercession, because it may not be around.”(Pat Robertson, BBC: http://news.bbc.co.Uk/2/hi/americas/4427144-stm)
During the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham's nephew Lot and his relatives were chosen for mercy, similarly to Noah's family, thanks to his exceptional virtue. To warn Lot about the need to leave the city, two angels were sent to Sodom in male guise. Lot cordially welcomed the angels into his home, but then the entire population of Sodom appeared in a crowd and demanded that Lot give them the angels for gang rape (sodomites, what to expect from them?): «… where are the people who came to you for the night? bring them out to us; we will know them" (Gen.19:5).
The mysteriously softened euphemism “we know” used in the Bible in this context sounds very funny. Rejecting the demands of the crowd, Lot demonstrates such gallantry that you begin to understand why God chose him as the only good man in Sodom. But his impeccable reputation fades when you read about his counteroffer: “...here I have two daughters who have not known a husband; I’d rather bring them out to you, do with them what you please, just don’t do anything to these people, since they came under the roof of my house.” (Gen. 19:7–8)
No matter how you interpret this strange story, the conclusion about respect for women in that feverishly religious culture is clear. Fortunately, Lot did not have to sacrifice the virginity of his daughters that time, because the angels successfully dealt with the attackers, striking them with blindness. They then ordered Lot to gather his family and livestock and quickly leave the city, which was about to be destroyed. His entire family managed to escape, with the exception of the unfortunate wife, whom the Lord turned into a pillar of salt for disobedience - a rather innocent, at first glance, desire to turn around and look at the fireworks.
Lot's daughters make another brief appearance in the narrative. After their mother turns into a pillar of salt, they live with their father in the mountains, in a cave. Deprived of the company of other men, they decide to give their father wine and sleep with him. Too drunk to notice the appearance and then disappearance of his eldest daughter from his bed, Lot nevertheless managed to conceive a child. The next night, the daughters decided that it was the youngest's turn. And again Lot drank himself into unconsciousness, and the youngest daughter also became pregnant (Gen. 19:31-36). If this dysfunctional family was the most highly moral in Sodom, you will inevitably begin to justify God and his brimstone justice.
The story of Lot and his daughters is eerily echoed in Chapter 19 of the Book of Judges, which describes the journey of an unknown Levite (priest) and his concubine to Gibeah. They spent the night in the house of a hospitable old man. During dinner there was a knock at the gate; the residents of the city began to demand that the old man give them the guest - “we will get to know him.” The old man almost literally repeated Lot's answer to them: “... no, my brothers, do not do evil, when this man entered my house, do not do this madness. Here I have a daughter, a maiden, and he has a concubine, I will bring them out, humble them and do with them what you please; But don’t do this crazy thing to this man.” (Judges 19:23–24). Another demonstration of blatant misogyny. Particularly chilling is “humble them.” Please have fun humiliating and raping my daughter and this priest's concubine, but show due respect to my guest - he is a man, after all. This is where the similarities between the two stories end - the Levite’s concubine was much less fortunate than Lot’s daughters.
The Levite brought her out to the crowd, who gang-raped her until the morning: “They recognized her and cursed at her all night until the morning. And they released her at dawn. And the woman came before dawn, and fell at the door of the house of the man who had her master, (and lay) until daylight.” (Judg. 19:25–26). In the morning, the Levite found the concubine stretched out on the threshold of the house and, in our modern opinion, callously and sharply commanded “get up, let’s go”; but she didn't move. She was dead. Then he “he took a knife, and took his concubine, and cut her according to her limbs into twelve pieces, and sent her into all the coasts of Israel.” . Yes, yes, this is not an optical illusion. Look at the Book of Judges (19:29). Let us once again be lenient and attribute the above to the incredible weirdness of the biblical texts. This story is so similar to the story of Lot that one wonders whether the random pieces of the manuscript were once mixed up in some now forgotten scriptorium: another illustration of the unreliability and dubiousness of the origin of the sacred texts.
Lot's uncle - Abraham - is the founder of all three "great" monotheistic religions. Thanks to his patriarchal status, he is worthy of serving as a role model only slightly less than God himself. But which modern moralist would agree to follow his example? Even at the dawn of his long life, Abraham, accompanied by his wife Sarah, went to Egypt to survive famine. Realizing that the Egyptians might be seduced by his beautiful wife and this would put her husband’s life in danger, he decides to marry her off to his sister. As such, she is taken into the harem of Pharaoh, who accordingly showers Abraham with honors. God, however, did not like this clever trick, and he sent illness to Pharaoh and his house (I wonder why not to Abraham?) Upset, as you might guess, Pharaoh asked why Abraham hid from him that Sarah was his wife , then returned her to Abraham and escorted them both out of Egypt (Gen. 12:18–19). Amazingly, the couple later tried to play the same joke on Abimelech, king of Gerar. Abraham persuaded him to marry Sarah, passing her off as his sister (Gen. 20:2–5). Later, in similar terms to the pharaoh, he expressed his indignation; and it’s hard not to sympathize with both of them. And isn’t this yet another repetition of the text additional evidence of its unreliability?
But the above unseemly episodes from the life of Abraham pale in comparison with the famous story of the sacrifice of his son Isaac (in Muslim holy books the same story is given in relation to another son of Abraham, Ishmael). God ordered Abraham to offer his long-awaited son as a burnt offering. Abraham built an altar and, having piled a pile of brushwood, laid the bound Isaac on it. He had already raised a sacrificial knife over his son when an angel, theatrically appearing at the last moment, informed him of a change of plan: God, it turns out, was just joking, “testing” Abraham and the strength of his faith. The modern champion of morality can only wonder whether a child will ever be able to recover from such psychological trauma. By today's standards, this story is an example of the cumulative abuse of a minor, the bullying of a superior over a subordinate, and the first known case in history of the use of the excuse that later sounded from the mouths of the accused at the Nuremberg trials: “I was only obeying orders.” Nevertheless, this legend is one of the main myths of all three monotheistic religions.
Again, modern theologians will say that the story of Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac cannot be taken literally. Again, they can be answered in two ways. Firstly, great amount people to this day consider the entire text of Holy Scripture to be undeniable truth; many of them have real political power over other people, especially in the US and Muslim countries. Secondly, if this story is not the literal truth, how are you supposed to view it? How about an allegory? An allegory of what? Hardly anything worthy. Or is this a moral lesson? And what moral should we take from this terrible story? Our task is to prove - do not forget - that in fact our concept of morality does not stem from Holy Scripture. And if it does, then we select the “good” pieces from Scripture and discard the unsightly ones. But in this case, we already have an independent criterion that allows us to judge which pieces are moral. The source of this criterion, no matter where it comes from, cannot be Scripture itself. In addition, this criterion seems to be present in all people, regardless of their religion.
Even in this disgusting legend, supporters of religion try to find reasons for praising God. Isn't it true that God acted well by sparing Isaac in last minute? If the reader is tempted by this far-fetched argument, which I think is highly unlikely, then here is another story of human sacrifice, which ended more pitifully. In the Book of Judges, the military commander Jephthah enters into a deal with God: if God grants Jephthah victory over the Ammonites, then Jephthah will certainly offer up a burnt offering “that which, upon my return, will come out of the gates of my house to meet me” . Jephthah really smote the Ammonites (“struck them with a very great defeat” , in full accordance with the spirit of the Book of Judges) and returned home victorious. The first to greet him, unsurprisingly, was out of the house. "with tympanums and faces" his daughter is his only child. Of course, Jephthah tore his clothes, but there was nothing to do. God certainly expected the promised burning, and under the influence of circumstances the daughter touchingly agreed to be sacrificed. She only asked permission to go up into the mountains for two months to mourn her virginity. At the end of this period, the girl obediently returned to her father, who roasted her at the stake. This time God did not find it necessary to intervene.
The manifestation of even a modicum of attention by his chosen peoples to rival deities causes fits of violent rage in the god, reminiscent of the worst manifestations of sexual jealousy and, again, hardly suitable from the standpoint of modern morality as a model of ideal behavior. People, including those who have never cheated on their spouse, are well aware of the temptations of such betrayal: they constitute traditional stories literary works - from Shakespeare to area comedies. But to modern man It is much more difficult to understand the seemingly irresistible temptation to “sleep” with foreign gods. To my naive consciousness, fulfilling the commandment “thou shalt have no other gods before Me” seems quite easy - it couldn’t be simpler, especially compared to, say, “thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife.” Or a donkey. Or an ox. And yet, throughout the Old Testament, with the predictability of the plot of an obscene farce, if God turns away for a second, the children of Israel flee to Baal or some other seducing idol. Or, as once, to the golden calf...
An even more authoritative role model, from the point of view of supporters of the three monotheistic religions, is Moses. Abraham is the first patriarch, but who, if not Moses, is worthy of the title of founder of the doctrine of Judaism and the religions derived from it. During the episode of the golden calf, Moses was busy climbing Mount Sinai, talking with God, and receiving stone tablets from him. The residents who remained below (who, on pain of death, were forbidden to even set foot on the mountain) did not waste time while he was away:
“When the people saw that Moses did not come down from the mountain for a long time, they gathered to Aaron and said to him: Arise and make us a god who would go before us, for with this man, with Moses, who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened” (Exodus 32:1)
Having collected gold from everyone, Aaron melted it into a golden calf, and then built an altar for the newly created deity so that everyone could make sacrifices to him. They didn’t know God well if they allowed themselves to do such things behind his back. Although he was busy on the mountain, God, being omniscient, did not hesitate to send Moses to his aid. Moses rushed headlong down the mountain, taking with him the stone tablets with the Ten Commandments written by God on them. Arriving at the place and seeing the golden calf, he became so furious that he dropped and broke the tablets (God later gave him a spare set, so nothing bad happened). Seizing the golden calf, Moses burned it, ground it into powder, mixed it with water, and forced those around him to drink the mixture. Then he gathered members of the tribe of Levi (priests) and ordered them, taking swords, to kill as many of their fellow tribesmen as possible. They destroyed about three thousand people, and it would seem that now God’s jealousy should have subsided. No matter how it is: in the last verse of this terrible chapter, God sends farewell to the remains of people “smiting” “for the calf that Aaron made.”
The Book of Numbers tells how God sent Moses to attack the Midianites. His army killed almost all the men, burned all the Midian cities, but spared the women and children. Such mercy of the soldiers outraged Moses, and he ordered to kill also all male children and all women who were not virgins. “And all the female children who have not known a man’s bed, keep them alive for yourselves.” (Ex. 31:18). No, Moses is unlikely to be suitable as a modern moral ideal.
As for the attempts of modern religious writers to add some symbolic or allegorical meaning to the massacre of the Midianites, it is not so easy to direct the symbolism in the right direction. According to the information given in the Bible, the unfortunate Midianites were victims of genocide in their own country. And yet in Christian tradition their name lives on only in the words of a popular hymn (which, 50 years later, I can still sing from memory in two different tunes, both in a moody minor key):
Do you see them, Christian?
On sacred ground
The army of the Midianites of the accursed power?
Christian, rise up
Defeat the enemy;
Show them the power of the Holy Cross.
Poor, slandered, wiped out Midianites; Only they managed to survive in human memory as symbolic villains in a Victorian psalm.
It seems that the rival god Baal enjoyed particular, enduring popularity among the apostates. Chapter 25 of the Book of Numbers tells how Moabite women invited the Israelites to sacrifice to Baal. God reacted with his usual fury. He ordered Moses: “...take all the leaders of the people and hang them before the Lord before the sun, and the fury of the wrath of the Lord will be turned away from Israel.” . It is difficult not to be struck once again by the exceptional cruelty of reprisals for frivolous flirting with foreign gods.
From the point of view of modern morality and justice, this sin does not seem so serious compared to, say, handing over your own daughter to a gang of rapists. There is another discrepancy between modern (I would like to say civilized) and biblical morality. It is, of course, not difficult to explain from the point of view of meme theory, given the properties necessary for the survival of a deity in the memetic pool.
The manic-tragicomic jealousy of the Almighty towards competing gods periodically flares up throughout the entire Old Testament. It sounds in the first of the Ten Commandments, inscribed on the stone tablets broken by Moses (Exodus 20, Deut. 5), and in the new tablets handed down by God to replace the broken ones (Exodus 34), quite heavily revised, this commandment is expressed even more clearly. Having promised to expel the unfortunate Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites from their homeland, the Almighty moves on to what worries him most - the rival gods:
Destroy their altars, break down their pillars, cut down their (sacred) groves. For you must not worship any god other than the Lord; because His name is Zealot; He is a jealous God. Do not enter into an alliance with the inhabitants of that land, lest when they commit fornication after their gods and offer sacrifices to their gods, they invite you too. would not have tasted their sacrifices; and do not take wives from their daughters for your sons, lest their daughters, having committed fornication after their gods, lead your sons also to commit fornication after their gods. You shall not make for yourselves cast gods (Exodus 34:13–17)
Of course, I understand - times have changed, and today none of the religious leaders (with the exception of the likes of the Taliban or American evangelical Christians) reason like Moses. So that's what we're talking about. I am trying to prove that, wherever modern morality comes from, its source is not the Bible. Defenders of the faith cannot get away with it by arguing that religion provides them with a kind of exclusive access - an infallible indicator of what is good and what is bad, closed to atheists; fails even when using a favorite trick - declaring some chapters of the Bible to be “symbolic” rather than literal. What moral criterion do you use when deciding which chapters are symbolic and which are not?
The ethnic cleansing that began in the time of Moses bears its bloody fruit in the Book of Joshua, which is stunning in its descriptions of bloody massacres and the relish of hatred of foreigners with which the narrative is told. As the sweet old song goes, “Jesus marched on Jericho, and the walls were broken down... Good old Jesus in the battle of Jericho.” Good old Joshua did not wipe the sweat from his face until “They consigned to destruction everything that was in the city, both husbands and wives, both young and old, oxen and sheep and donkeys; they destroyed everything with the sword.” (Joshua 6:21)
And again theologians will tell us: there was nothing like that. Okay, maybe it wasn't - after all, this story claims that the walls collapsed with just one scream and the sound of trumpets from the attackers - but that's not what it's about. The point is that, regardless of the historical veracity of the Bible, it is presented to us as an ideal guide for forming our own morality. And the biblical description of Jesus’ destruction of Jericho, as well as the invasion of the Promised Land as a whole, from a moral point of view is no different from Hitler’s attack on Poland or Saddam Hussein’s extermination of the Kurds and swamp Arabs. The Bible can be viewed as a fascinating work of poetic fiction, but I would not give it to young children as a role model. By the way, the story of Jesus in Jericho was used in an interesting experiment in the field of children's morality, but more on that later.
Don't be under the impression that an actively involved god has any regrets or remorse over the massacres and genocide that accompany the takeover of the Promised Land. On the contrary, his orders, as in Deuteronomy, are ruthlessly precise. He makes a clear distinction between those who live in the captured territory and the inhabitants of the surrounding areas. The latter are asked to surrender without a fight. If they refuse, all the men must be killed and the women taken away to increase their own population. But what awaits, in comparison with this relatively humane treatment, the tribes who have the misfortune of living in the territory of the promised Lebensraum (Living Space): “And in the cities of these nations, which the Lord your God is giving you to possess, you shall not leave a single soul alive, but shall consign them to destruction: the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, as the Lord God commanded you. is yours" (Deut. 20:15)
Those who proclaim the Bible as a source of unshakable moral principles - do they even have the slightest idea of what is written in it? According to the Book of Leviticus 20, the following sins are punishable by death: reproach of parents, adultery, adultery with a stepmother or daughter-in-law, sodomy, cohabitation with mother and daughter, bestiality (and, which is completely unfair, the unfortunate animal is also ordered to be killed). You, of course, must also be executed for working on the Sabbath; this is repeated tirelessly in the Old Testament. The Book of Numbers 15 tells how the children of Israel found a man gathering brushwood on the Sabbath day. Having arrested him, they asked God what to do with him. The Almighty was not inclined to be altruistic that day: “And the Lord said to Moses: This man must die; let the whole congregation stone him outside the camp. And the whole congregation brought him out of the camp, and they stoned him, and he died, as the Lord commanded Moses.” . Does this defenseless firewood gatherer still have a wife and children crying for him? Did he scream in fear when the first stones flew, did he squeal in pain when the cobblestone crushed his head? What shocks me most about such stories is not that this ever actually happened - perhaps not. But what is truly astonishing is the willingness of people in our time to choose such a disgusting model as Yahweh to follow - and, moreover, to impose this evil monster (whether real or fictional) on us all.
Of particular concern is the concentration political power America in the hands of the tablet bearers preaching the Ten Commandments; The constitution of this great republic was, after all, founded by representatives of the Enlightenment on purely secular principles. If we take the Ten Commandments seriously, then the first among the sins will be the worship of false gods and the creation of idols. And then, instead of condemning the barbaric vandalism of the Taliban, who blew up the fifty-meter tall Buddha statues in the mountains of Afghanistan in Bamiyan, we will begin to praise them for their piety. What is now branded as the destruction of culture will turn out to be a sincere manifestation of religious zeal. We find convincing confirmation of this in the truly strange story, quoted in an August 6, 2005 editorial in The Independent. Under the headline "Destruction of Mecca" the newspaper published the following on its front page:
Historical Mecca, the cradle of Islam, is perishing under the unprecedented pressure of religious fanatics. The rich, multifaceted history of the holy city has been destroyed almost to the ground... Nowadays, with the connivance of the religious authorities of Saudi Arabia, who are encouraged by a literal interpretation of Islam to destroy their own heritage, bulldozers are approaching historical place birth of the Prophet Muhammad... The cause of the destruction is the fanatical fears of the Wahhabis that historical and religious monuments could lead to the emergence of idolatry or polytheism, to the worship of several potentially equal deities. Idolatry is legally punishable in Saudi Arabia by beheading.
I don’t think there are atheists in the world who are ready to move bulldozers to Mecca, to Chartres Cathedral, Cathedral York, Notre Dame Cathedral, Shwedagon Pagoda, Kyoto temples or, say, the Bamiyan Buddhas. According to Nobel Prize-winning American physicist Steven Weinberg, “Religion offends human dignity. Whether it exists or not, good people will do good, and bad people will do evil. But to force a good person to commit evil, you can’t do without religion.”. He is echoed by Blaise Pascal (the author of the previously discussed bet): “Evil deeds are never done so easily and willingly as in the name of religious beliefs.”
My main goal in this section was not to argue that our morality should not be based on the Bible (although I do think so). I have sought to demonstrate that our morality (including that of the majority religious people) is not based on the Bible. If this were so, then we would strictly observe the Sabbath day and consider it fair that apostates from this custom should be put to death. We would stone any bride accused by her dissatisfied husband and unable to prove her innocence. We would execute disrespectful children.
We would... But wait. Perhaps I'm being unfair. Good Christians objected to me throughout this section: everyone knows that the Old Testament is a rather dark book. But New Testament Jesus corrects mistakes and puts everything in its place. Is not it?
Isn't the New Testament better?
Let us not deny that, from a moral point of view, Jesus is much nicer than the terrible Old Testament monster. It cannot be denied that Jesus, if he existed (and if not, then the author of the sayings attributed to him), was certainly one of the greatest ethical innovators of all time. Sermon on the Mount centuries ahead of history. The call to “turn the other cheek” predates Gandhi and Martin Luther King by two thousand years. That is why I wrote the article “Atheists are for Jesus” (and subsequently was pleased to receive a T-shirt with this slogan as a gift)
But the moral superiority of Jesus further supports my argument. Jesus was not satisfied with blindly following the Scriptural ethics in which he was raised. He decisively broke with her, for example, breaking the formidable prohibitions regarding work on the day of rest. The wise saying “The Sabbath is for man, not man for the Sabbath” has become a proverb. Since the main argument of this chapter is that we have not and should not receive our moral principles from Scripture, the behavior of Jesus in in this case completely confirms our thesis.
The attitude of Jesus towards his loved ones, we admit, does not quite answer modern ideals. He was sometimes rudely harsh with his own mother and urged his students to follow him, leaving their families: “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, and wife and children, and brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.” (Luke 4:22). American comedian Julia Sweeney expressed in her speech "Stepping away from God" (Julia Sweeney is also absolutely right in mentioning Buddhism. Just as Christianity is usually considered a more "moderate" religion compared to Islam, Buddhism is often called the best religion of all. But the idea of rebirth depending on sins in past life quite unpleasant. “During a trip to Thailand, I met a woman caring for a child with terrible congenital disabilities. I said: “How good of you to help this poor baby.” - “Don’t call him unhappy,- she answered.“Surely in a past life he did something terrible to be reborn as such a freak.”) confusion about this: “Don’t sects do the same thing? Are they forcing you to give up your family in order to fool you?”
Despite its slightly lukewarm view of family values, Jesus' teachings are ethically admirable, especially when compared to the moral nightmare that is the Old Testament; but the New Testament also contains ideas that do not deserve the support of worthy people. This is especially true of the central Christian doctrine of “redemption.” original sin" This doctrine, which is the basis of New Testament theology, is almost as morally disgusting as Abraham's intention to roast Isaac; between them, as Geza Vermes showed in the book “The Different Faces of Jesus,” there are certain similarities.
The idea of original sin first appeared in the Old Testament myth of Adam and Eve. The crime they committed - they ate the forbidden fruit - in itself seems insignificant, worthy only of censure. But the symbolic nature of the fruit (the knowledge of good and evil, which in practice turned into an awareness of nakedness) turned their hooligan behavior into the most terrible of sins. (I know that the word “scrumping” will be unfamiliar to American readers. But I enjoy finding and reading unfamiliar American words to expand my vocabulary. For this reason, I deliberately used a few words from dialects of other regions. This term is very an apt word. It does not always mean theft, but rather the theft of apples and only apples. It must be admitted that the Book of Genesis does not indicate that the fruit was an apple, but it is traditionally believed that it was an apple.) And themselves. criminals, and all their descendants were forever expelled from the Garden of Eden, deprived eternal life and they were sentenced to suffer until the end of time: he - working in the field, and she - giving birth to children.
Well, usual vindictiveness, we didn’t expect anything else from the Old Testament. However, New Testament theology adds to this another injustice and with it a new example of sadomasochism, almost as cruel as the Old Testament. Think about it, isn’t it surprising that religion chose an instrument of torture and execution as a sacred symbol, often worn on the chest. Lenny Bruce sarcastically remarked that, “If Jesus had been executed 20 years ago, children in Catholic schools would have been wearing little electric chairs around their necks instead of crosses.”. But the theology and theory of punishment hidden behind this symbol is even worse.
It is argued that the sin of Adam and Eve is transmitted through the male line: according to Augustine, along with the seed. What can be said about an ethical philosophy that condemns every child - even before birth - to inherit the sin of a distant ancestor? By the way, the expression “original sin” was invented by Augustine, who rightly considered himself the greatest expert on sins. Before him, this was called “ancestral sin.” In my opinion, Augustine's statements and arguments embody the unhealthy preoccupation of early Christian theologians with the idea of sin. Having the opportunity to sing in their manuscripts and sermons the sky twinkling with stars, mountains, green forests, sea depths and dawns ringing with bird noise, they remember them only in passing. Usually, most time for the Christian mind there is only one concern: sin, sin, sin, sin, sin, sin, sin. And a whole life is wasted on such squalor!
Sam Harris damningly snapped in his “Letter to a Christian Nation”: “Your main concern seems to be that the Creator of the Universe will be offended by certain human actions performed while naked. Affection like yours tirelessly replenishes the cup of human suffering every day.”
Now about sadomasochism. God incarnated into a man - Jesus, in order to subject him to torture and execution in atonement for the sin inherited from the time of Adam. Since Paul expounded this hard teaching, prayers have been offered to Jesus as the redeemer of all our sins. Not only the past Adam’s sin: all, including future ones, regardless of whether people commit them in the future or not!
Looking at things differently, many, including Robert Graves, author of the epic novel King Jesus, have pointed out that poor Judas Iscariot is being blamed for the whole story quite unfairly, given that his “betrayal” was a necessary part of the cosmic plan. The same can be said about those accused of killing Jesus. If, in order to save us all, Jesus wanted to be betrayed and then take his life, it is not very fair for those who consider themselves saved to blame Judas and the Jews for all subsequent centuries. I have already mentioned the existence of a long list of non-canonical Gospels. The manuscript of the Gospel of Judas, considered lost, was recently translated and, as a result, attracted public attention. Although the details of this discovery are not fully debated, it is believed that the manuscript was discovered in Egypt in the 1960s or 1970s. Written in Coptic, the 62 papyrus sheets have been carbon-dated to the year 300, but their contents may be based on an earlier Greek manuscript. Whoever the author is, he defends the point of view of Judas Iscariot, pointing out that Judas betrayed Jesus solely at the request of the latter. It was necessary to do this so that Jesus would be crucified and thus atone for the sins of mankind. As disgusting as the doctrine itself is, the injustice of centuries of vilification of Judas makes it even worse.
I have already called the central dogma of Christianity - atonement - cruel, sadomasochistic and disgusting. In addition, looking at the facts objectively, with a fresh gaze, not dulled by habit and endless repetitions, one cannot help but recognize him as simply insane. If God wanted to forgive our sins, why not just forgive them, without self-torture and self-mortification as payment for the service - and in addition, sentencing many, many future generations of Jews to pogroms and persecution for Christ murder": maybe this hereditary sin is also passed on with the seed ?
Jewish scholar Geza Vermes explains that, as heir to the ancient Jewish theological tradition, Paul was well acquainted with the dogma that without the shedding of blood there is no atonement. This is exactly what he says in his book of Hebrews (9:22). It is not easy for progressive ethical philosophers in our time to defend any theory of atonement by punishment, much less the theory of the “scapegoat” - the killing of an innocent person to atone for the sins of others. And in any case, the question inevitably arises: who was God trying to impress? Apparently, he himself was the judge, the jury, and the victim of the verdict.
Moreover, Adam, the person accused of committing original sin, never existed at all: an unpleasant fact, ignorance of which can still be excused for Paul, but not for an omniscient God (or Jesus, if you believe that he is a god). Thus, the very basis of this disgusting theory crumbles to dust. Oh yes, we forgot that the Old Testament story of Adam and Eve is, of course, not literal, but symbolic. Symbolic? So, to impress himself, Jesus carried out his own torture and execution as atonement for a symbolic sin committed by a non-existent person? And tell me, is this not madness of the most cruel and disgusting nature?
Before leaving the Bible, I want to draw your attention to one particularly difficult aspect of its ethical teaching. Not all Christians know that the lion's share of caring for others, to which the Old and New Testaments supposedly call, was originally intended to be manifested only within a narrow, closed group. “Love your neighbor” did not mean then what we mean now, but only: “Love your fellow Jew.” This statement is confirmed in the works of the American physiologist and evolutionary anthropologist John Hartung, who carried out a remarkable study of group morality from the point of view of evolution and biblical history, without forgetting its other side - hostility towards outsiders.
Thanks to Richard Dawkins.
Epilogue
I warn you in advance that I am in no hurry to draw a final conclusion in this epilogue. This is most likely just the result of some observations.
So, what does this “merciful” Lord look like, in whose name and on whose instructions all these numerous murders were committed?
Here is a figure called the "Royal Arch"
And these are the instructions:
You need to place your right feet in the indentations so that your heels touch your toes. It turns out to be a triangle. The left hands are also fastened together, forming middle triangle. The right hands form the upper triangle. In common parlance this figure is called “three by three”. Next, the ritual participants, balancing, say: “JAH-BUH-LUN, JA-HO-VAH, GOD.” In England, instead of "JAH-BUH-LUN" they pronounce "JA-BU-LON". "DIA-BO-LO" (???)
The first image was drawn by a French Jew - Eliphas Levi. The inscription on the globe on which Baphomet sits reads: “the devil of Eliphas Levi.” Second image. this is the idol that the Templars worshiped. It was this image that was the main reason for the defeat of their order.
Now let's compare the face of Yahweh from the drawing found in the Sinai Desert with the face of Baphomet:
Six matches. Flame above the head, torch, horns, ears, nose and beard. As they say, the similarity is not only “in deeds,” but even in appearance.
That's not all. Continuing my search for what the Lord looks like, I came across a certain secret organization that calls itself: The World Mirror of Scripture and Painting Foundation. These guys put mirrors on all kinds of works of art, thus getting food for thought.
One of their ideas is connected with the work of Leonardo from Vinci - “Madonna and Child with St. Anne and St. John the Baptist.” The guys from the foundation believe that Leonardo depicted the Lord on it - the Old Testament Yahweh, and it is enough to put a mirror to a certain place in the picture, and you can see what the Lord looks like. Here is this picture and the line on which the mirror should be placed:
And here is the result:
Perhaps these guys found such a unique way of revealing the truth completely by accident. Or perhaps they were prompted to do this by the fact that Leonardo made many of his drawings and inscriptions using mirror reflection. But I thought about something else: the Aryans are distinguished from the Semites by right symmetry, for example, the direction of writing. Perhaps it's just a coincidence. But let's not get distracted.
You can see the experience of these guys in other works of art
So, after the guys from the foundation received this image, they called it “The Guardian Face of the Lord” and sent a letter to the Vatican, receiving the answer that this issue would, of course, be discussed, but regarding the seriousness of the issue, they should wait, so there is no particular evidence. True, what kind of evidence they need is not entirely clear. Unless Leonardo himself comes to them and confesses: “Sorry, I decided to make a joke.”
Be that as it may, the appearance of this not very pleasant monster corresponds to the nature of the very Lord who is to blame for the misfortunes of the peoples who have been suffering from his antics for a millennium.
Is this really the Lord? The Holy Scriptures of the Abrahamic religions, together with the tragic history of the peoples who sacrificed him, confirm the veracity of just such an image.
But here’s what’s interesting: if we have survived such an inhuman onslaught of these very people chosen by the Lord and continue to live and even prosper, what will happen to us if we throw off this oppression?
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To God - the Creator of heaven and earth. The second commandment of the Decalogue unequivocally and clearly prohibits believers from idolatry - the divine veneration of idols, idols and images. This is how it is set out in the Holy Scriptures and, accordingly, was engraved on stone tablets: "Don't do it to yourself idol and no image what is in the sky above, and what is on the earth below, and what is in the water under the earth; do not worship them or serve them, for I am the Lord your God, God zealot, punishing the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me, and showing mercy to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commandments.”
(Ex. 20:4-6>). Jesus repeated this thought: “Worship the Lord your God and For him alone serve"
(Matt. 4:10, Luke 4:8), quoting the Old Testament (see Deut. 6:13, Deut. 10:20, 1 Chron. 7:3).
Some representatives of Orthodoxy can hear the explanation: “We do not have idolatry. We worship the One God, and not the idols of other gods. And we turn to shrines to “get closer” to the Creator.” However, the second commandment prohibits not just idolatry, as the worship of idols symbolizing other gods, but reverence for everything living and nonliving, what is not By God himself. Look, the Creator has already prohibited the worship of other gods with the first commandment of the Decalogue: "May you not have other gods before me" (Ex. 20:3). This means that the second commandment, without repeating the first, proclaims not only about other gods. Look, she’s talking specifically about something else: idols and images . So, the second commandment is not just about idols, which are foreign gods. With the second commandment God declares that attention directed to Him must All belong, not to anyone or anything. Here and in other places of Scripture, speaking about His relationship with man, the Creator calls Himself zealot(see Ex. 20:5, Ex. 34:14, Deut. 4:24, Deut. 5:9) - a husband, where His wife is His chosen people: “The Creator is your husband”(Isa. 54:5, see also Jer. 3:1, Hos. 1:2, Eph. 5:25, Rev. 12:1,6, Rev. 19:7). From the texts of the Bible it is clearly clear what (who) God is jealous of - zealot. What kind of husband would like it if his wife gave some of her love to someone or something? Each spouse will be angry, even if adultery does not reach the level of intimacy, but is limited only to kisses, attentions or caresses. I think few people will argue with the fact that when turning to God through an icon, relic or saint, a believer transfers part of his love to this “mediator.” In a relationship between two spouses the third, fourth, fifth enters... extra. All “holy mediators” are not faceless “conductors” for people to the heavenly Spouse, but acquire features inherent in the living personalities: each of the relics is perceived as part of the earthly body of the intercessor now living in heaven; famous icons have proper names, people choose between two icons at home and five in the temple - one is always nicer than the others, and it is more pleasant to pray to, and if one icon does not help, the believer goes to another; if the saint does not protect, the petitioner turns to the next, etc. But God is One. Believers, kissing icons and relics, objects in which there is no God, know that God is alive, but continue adultery. This is what causes jealousy Creator.
As we have seen in previous chapters, only God answers prayers. Prayer in secret (see Matt. 6:6) illustrates the intimacy of the relationship between the Creator and each person. Only the Creator is the other side of the relationship. Therefore, God’s categorical attitude towards any type of idolatry is understandable. Lord husband- zealot Through the Bible, he repeatedly warns menacingly about the coming punishment for infidelity:
“For all the adulterous acts of the apostate daughter of Israel, I let go and gave it to her adjustable letter... Judea... by open fornication... desecrated the land, and committed adultery with stone and wood"(Jer. 3:8,9, see also Jer. 3 (whole chapter), Ezek. 16 (whole chapter), Ezek. 23 (whole chapter), Hos. 2 (whole chapter).
God, through the Holy Scriptures, explains the meaninglessness and danger of idolatry - the veneration by people of any product of human hands:
“What is the use of an idol, made by the artist this litago false teachers although the sculptor, when making dumb idols, relies on his work? Woe to the one who says to the tree, “Arise!” and to the dumb stone: “Wake up!” Will he teach you anything? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, but there is no breath in it. And the Lord is in His holy temple: let all the earth be silent before Him!”(Hab. 2:18-20).
As we have already noticed, the Creator in the Bible, speaking about idolatry, forbids . So, the second commandment is not just about idols, which are foreign gods. With the second commandment God declares that attention directed to Him must idols and images, even those associated with Him. The Lord knows that anything that takes us away from Him Alive, even that Dedicated to him. After all, any object that at first serves only as a symbol of God, over time begins to acquire in the eyes of people creative power, inherent only to the Creator. Therefore, it was in the 2nd commandment that the Lord said that He zealot.
Look, immediately after receiving the commandments and concluding a covenant with God, the people of Israel, without waiting for Moses to ascend the mountain to receive the tablets of the covenant, fell into idolatry - they made a sculpture for themselves God of Israel:
“And all the people took the gold earrings out of their ears and brought them to Aaron. He took them from their hands, and made a molten calf out of them, and dressed it with a chisel. And they said: Behold your God, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt!» (Ex. 32:3,4).
Here people did not violate the 1st commandment of the Decalogue, because they did not find another god. The Israelites did not say, “Now our god is a calf.” They only depicted God, who brought out their from the land of Egypt, how they imagined Him - in the form of a strong calf. However, it was for the Creator don't like it since the people violated the 2nd commandment about idolatry:
“The people have become corrupt... they have quickly turned away from the way that I commanded to them: they made themselves a molten calf and bowed to him"(Ex. 32:7,8).
There is also an example in Scripture when the people of Israel began to serve the brass serpent, through which God saved them in the wilderness (see Numbers 21:7-9). The venom of snakes symbolized killing sin. And looking at the serpent, raised by Moses on a banner at the direction of God, healed people, being an act of faith (without kissing or touching) in the heavenly Savior. However, later the Israelites made an idol out of the copper serpent, which is also a type of idolatry. Despite the fact that this object was a type of Christ (see John 3:14), such veneration it wasn't like To the Creator:
"And he did(King Hezekiah - Author's note) pleasing in the sight of the Lord in everything as David his father did; he abolished the heights, smashed the statues, cut down the oak grove and destroyed the copper serpent, which Moses made, because until those days the children of Israel they burned incense to him and called him Nekhushtan» (2 Kings 18:3,4).
Look, people here are convicted of what they started serving the snake was burned incense in front of him and they even gave him his own name Nekhushtan. Unfortunately, today many do not carefully read the Word of God. But in the second commandment about idolatry, not only worship is prohibited, but also service idols and images "Do not worship them and do not serve them» (Ex. 20:5). Therefore, the statement of some representatives of historical churches: “We do not worship, but only honor” is not an argument. After all, in any case, if Orthodox Christians do not worship, then certainly serve icons, relics and saints, which has signs of idolatry and is also a direct violation of the second commandment of the Decalogue. Service is action for someone or something. It is obvious that the icons and relics are given ministry: dedicated to them religious processions, prayers, chants, holidays, candles, incense, services in the temple, etc.
Bible story about Gideon also clearly demonstrates the prohibition of worshiping objects dedicated to God. So that the glory of victory would not be attributed to people, Gideon, at the command of the Lord, disbanded his army and defeated the Midianite army with only three hundred men. The rescued Israelis each gave him an earring from the spoils. In memory of the great victory bestowed by God, Gideon made an ephod from the collected decorations, which then turned into an object of worship for the people, which was don't like it To the Creator:
“Out of this Gideon made an ephod and placed it in his city at Ophrah, and all Israel stood prodigal go there for him, and he was network Gideon and all his house"(Judges 8:27).
And in chapters 17 and 18 of the book of Judges of the Bible, a certain Micah, living on Mount Ephraim, is ridiculed, who placed in his house an idol, a cast idol, an ephod and a teraphim dedicated to the God of Israel. He hired a Levite to serve in the home tabernacle. Subsequently, the Israelites from the tribe of Dan stole the items from his home tabernacle and bought the priest. The idols, of course, did not resist theft. But Micah, the owner of the “personal temple,” chased the robbers. The Word of God denounces Micah: he is pitiful, in despair, his whole world is destroyed, he whines to his offenders: "You have taken my gods, which I made and the priest, and left." Although the Living God, as he was, remained with him. Then the sons of Dan built a city nearby, destroying the people who lived in that place. There they served the idols stolen from Micah, although God's real tabernacle was at that time in Shiloh (see Judgment 18:31, Joshua 19:51, 1 Samuel 1:3,24).
According to the text of Scripture, the Jews did not worship either the ark or the temple utensils. To the tabernacle, then to the temple of Solomon, and then to the second temple, built after the Babylonian captivity, none of them ordinary people had no right to enter. In accordance with the law of Moses, only priests from the clan of Aaron performed services in the sanctuary (sacrifices, laying out the showbread, burning incense on the altar of incense before the veil, maintaining the fire in the seven-branched candlestick) - each family at a certain time of the year (see Numbers 4:16 2 Chron. 13:10,11). And only the High Priest entered the Holy of Holies and only once a year on the Day of Atonement - Yom Kippur (see Lev. 16:2,34). The Israelis from the tribe of Levi helped carry out auxiliary functions to the Aaronids in serving at the temple:
That is, neither the ark nor the temple utensils were ever seen by ordinary believers and even by Levites who were not members of Aaron’s family. When moving the sanctuary, all the objects in it were first wrapped by representatives of the clan of Aaron so that no one could see them, including the Levites from the clan of Kohath, who carried the tabernacle and its internal contents:
“When it becomes necessary for me to go up on the journey, Aaron and his sons will come in and take away the curtain that covers it, and cover the ark of the testimony with it; and they will put a covering of skins on it of blue color, and over it they will throw a blanket all of blue wool, and they will put in its poles; And they will cover the table of showbread with a robe of blue wool, and they will place on it dishes, plates, cups and mugs for drink offerings... and they will put a scarlet robe on them... and they will cover the lampstand and its lamps... When... Aaron and his sons will cover the whole sanctuary and all the things sanctuary, then the sons of Kohath will come up to carry ... do not destroy the tribes of the tribes of Kohath from among the Levites ... themselves they should not suit see the shrine when they cover it, so as not to die» (Num. 4:5-20).
The above biblical texts prove that in Old Testament times there was, and could not have been, worship and service of believers to the holy things of the sanctuary (see 2 Chron. 2:4), because no one except the Aaronid priests had ever even seen them. This is explained simply: God forbade believers to see the utensils of the temple in order to exclude the possibility of idolatry - to deify the things of the sanctuary and worship them, because it was not these objects themselves that were important, but their functions in the service of “cleansing” people from sins, which we already thought about in the chapter "Rituals".
Let us conclude: the Bible not only does not encourage veneration dedicated to God objects and serving them, but, on the contrary, prohibits such actions by believers.
