Does Christianity endorse the Old Testement?

reply to post by RuneSpider


Ill try to make this as short as possible and hopefully everyone will get the overarching picture.

ARMY Basic training, my Drill instructors were horrible, one in particular. Several years later, "That One" was stationed at the same place as myself,...Go figure... However by that time we were the same rank and he was a pussy cat, not to mention a pretty nice guy.

To see this guy that not but just a few years prior doing everything in his power to see me suffer for every wrong thing I did turn out to be such a damn nice guy shocks me to this day. We talked about his DS days and he explained what I already knew, which was that, you have to be hard on trainees in order for them to break from the old habits and engage in proper discipline.

No matter what you learn, learn to follow instructions and listen. When the time comes one can break from the hard ass behavior because it is expected that you know what to do and what not to do. It's called being cut some slack, and I wont abuse it because the old testament teaches discipline.

Originally posted by snowen20

No matter what you learn, learn to follow instructions and listen. When the time comes one can break from the hard ass behavior because it is expected that you know what to do and what not to do. It's called being cut some slack, and I wont abuse it because the old testament teaches discipline.

It occurs to me that the worlds religions are conditioning the masses in different ways to obey.

Kind of like mass psychological warfare upon the impressionable.

Aliens would probably use the same techniques.

reply to post by In nothing we trust


Quite possible. As I have said in other threads I have a pliable mind...Militarily speaking.

Originally posted by snowen20
reply to post by In nothing we trust

 

Quite possible. As I have said in other threads I have a pliable mind...Militarily speaking.

It must be kind of an obsticle to teach troops to obey a hierarchical command structure and yet be able to adapt to different situations and come up with innovative tactics to defeat an enemy.

reply to post by In nothing we trust

I'm not an expert on the Koran, but I assume they were overcome from emotion from the flow and the poetry itself.
I think we've lost an ear for that kind of art, and Christianity also had it's traditions here. Just imagine being in a cathedral as a medieval peasant, with the amplified singing, the lighting and the incense in contrast to normal life.

Some Christian non-literalists are making their voices heard, especially when it comes to the OT.
They would argue that the Bible cannot be taken literally and that nobody really does this (otherwise we'd really be stoning arrogant children or poking out our eyes when they offend us).

They'd argue that the OT deliberately presents the reader with moral questions. The meditation on those questions and their results are an act of faith. Most of the narratives were never intended as law books but to fix our minds on moral issues.

There is one great law from Exodus to Jesus - love the lord your God ...
The rest is a grappling with evil and our own outlooks.

Originally posted by In nothing we trust
Aliens would probably use the same techniques.

Undoubtedly they will. They are but mere mental projections, "thought ghouls", if you will. The sad part is, it works.

I go to a Lutheran church and we almost never use the Old Testament. Virtually every sermon and reading is based on Jesus' teachings.

reply to post by In nothing we trust


The military has its ways, they have worked for thousands of years to the detriment of the world unfortunately.

Never the less the old adage "if it isn't broken don't fix it" will probably always apply to it. In any case I would expect soldiers to grow in their understanding and knowledge as a warrior. It is up to them to study and advance.
Though the main points will always remain, (Follow the chain of command) and you'll do fine.

I do have another question I'd like to ask.

Is America actually Israel?

reply to post by In nothing we trust


No, not in the "holy land" sense. However their presence and influence is well understood, whether some want to admit it or not.

:-) By now, the thread has meandered around (not that there's anything wrong with that as long as it's okay with Y'All), but to answer your question from my pov...my understanding was that the Old Testament was a historical context. Of course, the 10 Commandments are everlasting. I was raised in the Church of Christ (not the same thing as the United Church of Christ), but haven't seen anything when visiting (or investigating) other denominations that challenged that belief. I don't know how it is viewed by "charismatics" (ie Pentecostal & dominionists) or Presbyterians.

Originally posted by The Endtime Warrior
reply to post by In nothing we trust

 

No, not in the "holy land" sense. However their presence and influence is well understood, whether some want to admit it or not.

Apparently I don't understand.

Perhaps I didn't get the memo?

Originally posted by In nothing we trust

Originally posted by The Endtime Warrior
reply to post by In nothing we trust

 

No, not in the "holy land" sense. However their presence and influence is well understood, whether some want to admit it or not.

Apparently I don't understand.

Perhaps I didn't get the memo?

I'm confused by that's statement as well.

Shortly (to stay on topic) I read Richard Dawkins' "The God Delusion" a while back.
He also uses the scandulous parts of the OT to make an atheist point against religion (although his main gripe is clearly with fundamentalist abuses of scripture).
There is one narrative in the book of Judges (19:22-30) mentioned by Dawkins that really upset me. Here the tribe of Benjamin want to rape a priest and his concubine. Rather, like the men of Sodom, they first want to rape the priest and he offers them his concubine. They rape her all night and the next morning the priest simply tells her to get up. She's obviously unable to get up, and the priest cuts into pieces, sending one to each tribe.
Wanting to start a thread on it once I read many interpretations on the web. Suffice to say that the story is not straight forward. I walked away quite amazed.
So such narratives are meant to be questioned.

reply to post by In nothing we trust


America is not Israel, but they are our "allies" Meaning the jews of this country will not let us forget that and so we would have their "backs" each and every time. Not to mention a lot of jews control the media....make sense now?

Originally posted by halfoldman

There is one narrative in the book of Judges mentioned by Dawkins that really upset me. Here the tribe of Benjamin want to rape a priest and his concubine. Rather, like the men of Sodom, they first want to rape the priest and he offers them his concubine. They rape her all night and the next morning the priest simply tells her to get up. She's obviously unable to get up, and the priest cuts into pieces, sending one to each tribe.

Sounds like an act of terrorism if you ask me.

Originally posted by The Endtime Warrior
reply to post by In nothing we trust

 

America is not Israel, but they are our "allies" Meaning the jews of this country will not let us forget that and so we would have their "backs" each and every time. Not to mention a lot of jews control the media....make sense now?

So endorsing witch burning, homosexuality, rape, incest, intimidation and slavery is acutally a form of solidarity and an act of faith then?

Perhaps I am confused, but don't the jews strictly believe the old testement?

reply to post by In nothing we trust

Not sure, how does endorsing homosexuality go with endorsing witch burning and other patriarchal crimes like rape?
Violence against gay people usually goes with religious excesses like witch-burning, and many witches are gay or gay friendly.

reply to post by In nothing we trust


Guess it depends on what you are trying to argue here. Explain what you meant by the question you posted, please.

reply to post by In nothing we trust


How do you make that connection in order to form your question?

"Solidarity"...as in maintaining an alliance has nothing to do with witch burning or anything else, How you are applying the OT scripture to current politics eludes me.

Can you clarify that please.