Jesus doesn’t seem to think he was God in the Synoptic Gospels
Jesus seems to think that works are important
Indications that Moses wasn’t a Bible author
New Testament says not to bother with backsliders
Problems with God’s omnipotence – God rests
Problems with God’s omnipotence – God fails
Here is an indication that Jesus did not consider himself to be God (at least not according to the Synoptic Gospels)..
(Mark 10:17-18 NRSV) As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone.
This verse contradicts the idea of "grace". Jesus says here you have to do good works to get to Heaven.
(Context: Jesus is speaking)
(John 5:28-29 NRSV) Do not be astonished at this; for the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice
and will come out–those who have *done good*, to the resurrection of life, and those who have *done evil*, to the resurrection of condemnation.
Some scriptures that indicate that Moses did not write any of the bible (provided he even existed).
(Num 12:3 NRSV) Now the man Moses was very humble, more so than anyone else on the face of the earth.
(This is of course not the sort of thing you would expect the humblest man on earth to write about himself)
(And here Moses writes about how he died)
(Deu 34:5 NRSV) Then Moses, the servant of the LORD, died there in the land of Moab, at the Lord’s command.
The bible clearly says that effort expended toward "back slidden" people is a waste of time.
(Heb 6:4-6 NRSV) For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, since on their own they are crucifying again the Son of God and are holding him up to contempt.
Here God "rests" and God "walks". This of course are things you wouldn’t expect an omnipotent, omnipresent being to have to do.
(Gen 2:2 NRSV) And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and *he rested* on the seventh day from all the work that he had done.
(note that although apologetics will try to say he just "ceased", that is not what this is saying, it is saying that he had to rest for a day from his work as a being that was tired)
(Exo 31:17 NRSV) It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he *rested*, and was *refreshed*."
(Gen 3:8 NRSV) They heard the sound of the LORD God *walking* in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
This verse goes against the doctrine that God is omnipotent. God was "with Judah" but they could not drive out the plain’s people because they had chariots of iron.
(Judg 1:19 NRSV) The LORD was with Judah, and he took possession of the hill country, but could not drive out the inhabitants of the plain, because they had chariots of iron.
Meh. What kind of a church did you go to again?
1. He gives all glory to the Father. That’s His stated purpose.
2. Grace alone? What was your church? Lutheran? C’mon! Read James and the rest of the gospels! It is not faith alone, but show me your faith by your works! It’s very important!
3. How is it important that Moses was the author? Personally, for the very reasons you outlined, i dont think he is.
4. . . . you infer from Hebrews 6 not to bother with backsliders? Look at the numerous qualifications…true apostasy is a actually rather a difficult state to reach! And I don’t think its something I could judge on the outside…so personally I am very bothered with backsliders!
5. WHAT? resting means He’s not omnipotent? Do you really think resting is just about recovering strength? God had more meanings to it than just that.
6. I’ve failed a subject at uni, and God was with me. Success with Him takes more than just Him, it takes the human component too. it’s teamwork, so His team can fail when we let it down. there is an extra dynamic when He is with us, that differentiates Him being with us and Him not…but it is not the only factor determining success.
Concerning the scripture at Judges…as to how God could be with Judah and not drive out those with the Iron chariots is not the issue. The issue is that it was prophecied that God would use Judah to drive them out. Now….What leaves the Mouth of God must come to pass…..why did this not come to pass? The answer is simple…..it was a scribe that wrote this…and not God. Hence look at the biblical forgery and understand the error in the believing the myth. I despise it when people try to reason their way out questionable dogma and explain that it doesn’t matter. It does matter that Moses wrote the 1st 5 books..this is a ripple effect that leaves question of the entire bible. The indoctrinated are silly.
What I find most interesting is that virtually any doctrine or philosophy, whether it be of great evil or of great good, can be supported by biblical scripture. It just depends on what verses one choses to “be important” and which ones he or she choses to “reinterpret” in light of those other verses. Slavery, witch-burning, inquisitions, crusades, hatred of people with life styles different than your own; almost any deviant social or personal behavior is endorsed and/or ordained by god in the bible. Of course, today with our “human enlightenment” christians choose to “reinterpret” or ignore those scriptures that are obviously contrary to good sense or contrary to “their” image of god and only hold to those scriptures that depict a god matching the image of god they created in their mind.
That’s true. All the while there are people “at the top” and “speaking for God” making these interpretations for the followers. They often project this good/evil, us/them, black and white view to the followers because it is a simplified illusion of the world which makes followers easier to control.
Almost all power is exercised this way. Here in the US over the last few years it’s being portrayed as them evil “freedom hating” terrorists vs. us good “freedom loving” Americans with lines being drawn in the sand all over the world.
Makes it really simple for common folk to know who is “fer us” and who is “agint us.”
The terrorist who are blowing themselves up to kill a few western devils in hopes of laying on jeweled couches and being serviced by perpetual virgins in the muslim afterlife are playing right into this sort of thing for the US and the US by sending troops over to conquer and occupy holy muslim soil while killing tens of thousands of muslims are playing into the terrorist’s propaganda that we are all devils.
It would be nice if humans could someday wake up about this and get past this sort of thinking.
Quick note: The Bible does not say God HAD TO rest, only that he did rest.
Couldn’t he have chosen to rest? He rested as an example to his people (Sabbath) not because he had to. Whether he ceased or really rested doesn’t matter, but the fact that he chose to even though it was unnecessary.
Again the Exodus verse says he rested and was “refreshed.”
This along with the verses about God walking in the garden and on the dome of the sky, coming down out of the sky, throwing rocks down from the sky to crush people, failing to help Judah drive out the plains people, etc… indicates that the ancient authors of the oldest books of the Bible, like most other cultures around them in their time, imagined their god(s) as an anthropomorphic (Man or human-like) god with some of the frailties of mortals.
The idea of a omnipotent omniscient God is a later invention.
Quick note:Matthew (19:16) was obviously embarrassed by Mark’s “Why do you call me good?” as he changes it to “Why do you ask me about what is good?” while Luke (10:25)prefers not to mention it!
All the three semitic, Abrahamic religions, i.e., Judaism, Christianity & Islam are nonsensical religions. Judaism is better than the other two because Jews do not impose their religion on others. Christianity & Islam are cut-throat religions which want to wipe out all other religions from the face of the earth. Billions of dollars are sent by the Christian Right of USA to countries like INDIA, CHINA, NEPAL & Islamic countries for conversion work. They say that 1/3 rd of the people of USA are poor. Why doesn’t the Xtian RIGHT (which includes your Prez BUSH) of USA spend these billions for the betterment of the American poor ? In countries like India, it is the evangelists & televangelists who make a fast buck out of the money sent by USA, UK & Germany . Evangelism & televangelism are extremely profitable businesses in India & other Asian countries.
Man created God in hjs image and continues to do so.Compare the avenging god of the OT with the “pale Galilean” of the NT.Religions will slosh round the world with god redefined to fit peoples needs in their tjme and circumstance.I expect soon to see a revival of the druids as a response to echological concerns.
hello.
The point that has always puzzled me is the conflict with the 10 commandements and the seven deadly sins.
It is a sin for man to be jelous and evious ( seven deadly sins) and yet man is told not to worship any false gods because God is a jelous God (Ten commandements).
Surely this is commanding man to do something that God cannot, with the risk of punsihment for failing?
Marie –
I understand your confusion on the 10 Commandments vs. the Seven Deadly Sins. I recently learned that the “7 Deadly Sins” were not taken from the bible, but written by a monk while in prison. He’d originally written about 13 deadly sins, but the catholic church chose 7 of them to propogate for political purposes. Just thought it was interesting.
Well you don’t know the entire makeup of God. When you say he walked you immediately compare him to a human physical body, but he is a Spirit. What verses say that God is everywhere?
The title of this page is Bible problems with common Christian doctrines, not Bible contradictions. There are dozens of Bible contradictions listed on other pages on my website.
I think that virtually every Christian Church group believes and teaches an omnipresent god. How else could he be listening to billions of prayers simultaneously, watching over and manipulating the lives of billions of people simultaneously, etc… as Christians imagine?
Obviously in the 2nd version of the creation myths in Genesis, Yahweh is imagined to be an anthropomorphic being walking around the garden. In Job he’s imagined to walk on the “dome” of the sky. There are indications in other parts of the Bible that at least some biblical authors imagined him that way such as him needing to “go down there” to confuse the languages of the people building the Tower of Babel or looking through a hole in the sky to see people on the earth or people looking up through a hole in the sky to see him, etc…
Obviously at least some of the people who created parts of the Bible imagined their god like many other cultures did back then as an anthropomorphic being, not an omnipresent deity.
capella: “Yahweh is imagined to be an anthropomorphic being walking around the garden. In Job he’s imagined to walk on the “dome” of the sky.”
Yes and he enjoys the smell of searing animal fat.
Abram had a sit down with God as he bargained for the life of Lot.
Most important soldiers are told to bury their feces. This commandment is given because their God likes to wander through the camp at night.
Where to begin, if their god is already omnipresent it is with in the feces.
God the Omniscient being has a hard time NOT stepping on human feces
God the omnipotent being has now been thwarted by Iron and soon to be by Feces
Xtian-speak uses a broke dictionary when defining words such omnipresent, Omnipotent or Omniscient
if you don’t believe, then why waste all of this time talking about something you so firmly deny?