While it is certainly a goal of mine to take truth from retarded people and junkies just as openly as Id hear out a respected prophet, I fear my prejudices and misconceptions in seeing myself as superior still often obstruct my sight. I assure you that you cast praise upon me that I have done nothing to deserve.
Wonderful.
God's Word, to me, implies eternal truth, useful in any culture or era, quite independently of what I can relate to.
Based on this definition alone, the entire Scriptures which has remained useful and truthful to Jews since the first word G-d dictated to Moses, would suggest that the entire Scriptures
is G-d's Word. I think I could go so far as to say that they fact that here I am in the 21st century studying those same words, would be proof of that.
I can relate to the drive you feel to see me as an enemy, and in my less thoughtful moments I fall into that trap. Yes, I do require myself to understand words so well I can explain it to others before I am willing to accept them as truth. This part of your praise I am willing to accept.
So maybe it would be a good idea, to go through the whole thing, jot down the verses you approve of, and then put out the Prophet Version, so that the rest of us can learn the [Objective] Truth According to Prophet.
In case you think I discount the OT wholesale, my favorite passage is in Isaiah:
The wolf will live with the lamb,
the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling together;
and a little child will lead them.
The cow will feed with the bear,
their young will lie down together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox.
The infant will play near the cobras den,
and the young child will put its hand into the vipers nest.
They will neither harm nor destroy
on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.
This sounds rather universalist to me.
Not sure where you mean to go with that.
Again, the source of the passage is irrelevant to me. NT, OT, bathroom stall, junkie, whatever. Furthermore, I'm choosing your weapons for you no regardless of whose turf you think we are on, because in your thoughtless devotion to the Torah, you choose to accept as gospel things no reasoning could possibly confirm like God's preference for those who rest on Saturday. In your insecurity, you then accuse me of thoughtlessly accepting the verses I like, a charge you are guilty of yourself. All the while, you fail to present any reasonable case that I accept anything without thought. An accusation with no evidence amounts to nothing but slander. Your insecurity makes you blind to your crime. This is how hypocrisy works.
I'm not following your logic here. I can confirm G-d's preference, because He had it written in the Book. That's why He gave us a Book in the first place.
Your version of events is completely Prophet-dependent. First you decide what personality G-d has. Then you decide what such a G-d might have said. And then whenever you hear those things that reiterate what you would imagine such a G-d said, you canonize it. That's not called G-d. That's called Prophet.
Why don't you just say your an atheist and stop leading me on?
I am referring to MANY verses when I say God's Word says to love everyone, including that passage from Isaiah I quoted. How could such a world come about where the young of former predator and prey sleep in the same bed together if we will not love our enemies? How can Judism in the form you defend it ever bring this perfect world it prophesies to fruition?
If you wouldn't be choosing your own adventure, the answer would be obvious: It's not out job to bring the world to universal peace, that's the job of G-d during the Messianic Age. Our job is to do the things we were commanded to and G-d's job is to do the things He promised.
You think it is all well and good to love your friends and to hate your enemies. How does doing this truly make you a good man? Don't your enemies often do the exact same thing from their own perspective? You are exactly the same, yet you believe that God judges you good and your enemy evil. Your rational position here seems terribly insecure.
I don't recall quoting a verse that says to hate ones enemies, but to hate the wicked. Someone who is not doing G-d's Will is wicked. Someone who isn't, isn't. G-d also hates the wicked (Psa. 11:5). So when I do that, I'm being just like G-d.
Also, I would say that here again you are taking the NT at face value without checking for voracity, as you have quoted Matthew 5. So let me ask you, were you raised Christian? It seems like it. Although the NT claims the "OT" contains such a commandment, it doesn't seem to actually exist. And yet here you are accusing me of the same.
I don't love you or hate you. I don't know you. You're not my friend or my enemy. I don't know you.
And does Pro. 8:13 make it as clear as you say? Please explain for me why it is good, and the will of God that we do not love unequivocally.
There is a time for love and a time for hate. Every situation needs to be taken on its own merits, not through the lens of how I'd like it to be. I don't see the benefit of having unconditional love towards all of creation.
I don't see why it should be this way.
I know the Bible gave great King Solomon a platform to trumpet himself as the wisest ever and elevate his writings as being worthy of the title Scripture. I bet king Solomon thought he was pretty smart when he figured out the true mother's identity by threatening to cut a disputed baby in two. I imagine him in a proud moment, bragging to all his court what a clever king he is, making sure after the applause has died down that his scribes recorded this moment of wise king Solomon's glory.
Ok.
Were I to hear this story of anyone I knew, I would think them minimally clever and completely unwise. I would be struck by the cruelty first, and second by the lack of self-awareness that makes him actually able to be proud of this and want this savagery recorded for posterity. King Solomon puts all the wisdom of King Joffrey on display.
I appreciate your hubris. But it worked.
