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Non-Christians: parts of the Bible that still resonate with you

onemoretime

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It's still a profound cultural influence, and there's still universal truths hidden within it, even if "the" universal "truth" it espouses doesn't quite make it there.

1 Corinthians 13 is one of those passages for me. Not sure much encapsulates what it means to be human as do those few sentences on the meaning of love.

Your thoughts?
 

Helios

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It's still a profound cultural influence, and there's still universal truths hidden within it, even if "the" universal "truth" it espouses doesn't quite make it there.

1 Corinthians 13 is one of those passages for me. Not sure much encapsulates what it means to be human as do those few sentences on the meaning of love.

Your thoughts?

I quite like Matthew 18:21-22. Brief and somehow rather profound. 1 Corinthians 13 was always a little too saccharine for my tastes.
 

Bamboo

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I'm familiar with the Sermon on the Mount.

I don't really know if it's as simple as good trees bearing good fruit and bad trees bearing bad fruit.

There's a lot of grey zone in there.
 

onemoretime

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I quite like Matthew 18:21-22. Brief and somehow rather profound. 1 Corinthians 13 was always a little too saccharine for my tastes.

It's a good one, especially when you get the contemporary cultural context.

I like 1 Corinthians 13 because if you strip it of its modern cultural context (i.e. that people always read it at their weddings though it doesn't really jive with the setting), you find a profound message of humanity.
 

Totenkindly

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I was always a fan of Revelations imagery.

I still remember my Hal Lindsey "There's a New World Comin'!" comic book based on it. :smile: Cheesy as hell.

(It's [The] Revelation [of John], btw.)
 

Xellotath

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Revelations 17 is a classic.

"The beast and the ten horns you saw will hate the prostitute. They will bring her to ruin and leave her naked; they will eat her flesh and burn her with fire."

Yes, fantastic imagery, but hardly a repository of wisdom.
 

Blackmail!

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Qohelet (קהלת), the wisest of the Ketuvim.

As Nietzche said, in comparison the New Testament has been written by a very poor novelist, with limited skill, limited imagination, and limited perspectives.

I really pity Christians.
 

Mole

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Submit

Poets create religion; prophets abuse religion; and priests do it to death.

And there has never been a civilization not based on a religion. And the West is based on Christianity.

So to understand the West, never mind Western poetry, we need to understand Christianity.

And the first thing to understand is that we learn our Christianity at our mother's knee.

We learn our Christianity when we are susceptible to the emotion and images in the arms of our mother.

Christianity imprints itself upon us as children and no amount of subsequent reasoning makes any difference.

After all it is our mother right or wrong. We only get one mother and no one ever loves us like our mother. And so with Holy Mother Church.

And it takes a religion to beat a religion. And I noticed in Oz in the 40s and 50s so many ex-catholics became marxists.

And today we see that it is Islam that is beating Christianity. We see churches being turned into mosques. We see that the Common Law based on Christianity is being slowly overtaken by Sharia Law. We see that the Christian separation of Church and State is being overtaken by the unity of the Mosque and State. We see that Christian equality under the Common Law being overtaken by inequality under Sharia Law for Jews and dhimmi, infidels and women. We see freedom of speech being replaced by hate speech towards Jews and dhimmi and infidels and women. We see Christian monogamy being overtaken by Sharia polygamy. We see women stoned to death and child brides.

We see turn the other cheek being replaced by Jihad and martyrdom.

The Old and New Testaments resonate like a bell through our literature, art and music; through our Law and Government; through science and our most private and public moments.

But the bells in our steeples are being silenced and replaced by a call to submit from the minaret - the bayonet of Islam.
 

Pixelholic

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And there has never been a civilization not based on a religion. And the West is based on Christianity.

You should read Article 11 of the Treaty of Tripoli.

So to understand the West, never mind Western poetry, we need to understand Christianity.

No you don't.

Christianity imprints itself upon us as children and no amount of subsequent reasoning makes any difference.

Any religion imprints itself. If you were born in Iran you'd have been raised Muslim.

After all it is our mother right or wrong. We only get one mother and no one ever loves us like our mother. And so with Holy Mother Church.

I'm pretty sure my alcoholic abusive mother had a lot of love for me.

And it takes a religion to beat a religion. And I noticed in Oz in the 40s and 50s so many ex-catholics became marxists.

Marxism is NOT a religion.

And today we see that it is Islam that is beating Christianity. We see churches being turned into mosques. We see that the Common Law based on Christianity is being slowly overtaken by Sharia Law. We see that the Christian separation of Church and State is being overtaken by the unity of the Mosque and State. We see that Christian equality under the Common Law being overtaken by inequality under Sharia Law for Jews and dhimmi, infidels and women. We see Christian monogamy being overtaken by Sharia polygamy. We see women stoned to death and child brides.

Where is your evidence for this? Christianity is still the dominant religion in the west and will be for quite some time. Only immigration in Europe is changing that. Also Separation of Church and State isn't Christian (AGAIN look up Treaty of Tripoli Article 11.) Seriously, you sound like a fundamentalist calling for a religious war.
 

foolish heart

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It's still a profound cultural influence, and there's still universal truths hidden within it, even if "the" universal "truth" it espouses doesn't quite make it there.

1 Corinthians 13 is one of those passages for me. Not sure much encapsulates what it means to be human as do those few sentences on the meaning of love.

Your thoughts?

My thoughts are that is a fitting verse to pick as your favorite considering the message of love in the Bible seems to have gone over your head.

1If I speak in the tongues[a] of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
 

wildcat

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It's still a profound cultural influence, and there's still universal truths hidden within it, even if "the" universal "truth" it espouses doesn't quite make it there.

1 Corinthians 13 is one of those passages for me. Not sure much encapsulates what it means to be human as do those few sentences on the meaning of love.

Your thoughts?
A good question.
Christianity dissipates in conjunction with Islam.
Letter takes the place of the substance.

The priests are back.
 

Totenkindly

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Reminder: The Thread Title is "Non-Christians: parts of the Bible that still resonate with you." Please stick to concept or we'll have to scrub.
 

Andy

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Umm... yeah you do. You miss a good bit of Western cultural context without a rudimentary understanding of Christian symbolism and mythology.

And Pagan too, that still has a strong hold on us. Partly through christianity, which picked up a lot of pagan beliefs, of course.

I used to live near a modern built church that had enscribed upon it "The church of christain love" and right below that, a picture of a heart with an arrow through it. It made me laugh every time I went past it, because te picture is straight from cupid, a pagan myth.

Honestly, none of the bible means much to me. I guess the bit that means the most to me is "do unto other as you would have done to yourself", but that's only because I'm waiting to see a masocist give it a fundamental interpretation.
 

Salomé

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I have always had a soft spot for James.

James 2:17-18: "In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, ‘You have faith; I have deeds.’ Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.”

No bullshit.

I also like some of the prophets: Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel.... Some pretty imaginative stuff in there.
 

Charmed Justice

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Favorite verses:

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

Proverbs 3:13-18
Happy is a man who finds wisdom
and who acquires understanding,
for she is more profitable than silver,
and her revenue is better than gold.

She is more precious than jewels;
nothing you desire compares with her.
Long life [a] is in her right hand;
in her left, riches and honor.

Her ways are pleasant,
and all her paths, peaceful.

She is a tree of life to those who embrace her,
and those who hold on to her are happy.

I'm not anti-Christian or anti-religion. I still love this song:
YouTube - The Commodores - Jesus is Love
 

KDude

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I have always had a soft spot for James.

James 2:17-18: "In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, ‘You have faith; I have deeds.’ Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.”

^I like James too. There's an earthiness and simplicity and kind of focus on social justice that comes out in those writings (along with some Gospels too). There's a lot of speculation on the writer being James, the half brother of Jesus, and the first leader of the church. It's too bad people like him didn't write more..could at least balance some things out. Paul was prolific, John secondly, and while nice to read at times, they both emphasized faith, blood redemption, the mystical, theology, and cult of personality centered on the divine aspects of Christ.. there's a de-emphasis of good works and the social and human element of Jesus - and because of their prolific writing, Christianity mostly takes that form.
 

miss fortune

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I was going to go with that exact same quote!!! :holy:

that's the thing that pisses me off to no ends about modern religion... how can people preach things like that without doing anything good for humanity? If there is a heaven I would trust it a lot better if it was the people who did good for other people got in instead of those who vocally beleived in a religion :thelook:

I also like James 2:25 and 26

25 In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? 26As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

the idea of redemption for someone THROUGH doing good works despite other circumstances is somewhat :)
 
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