#201250 - 02/04/12 08:47 PM
Quoting and Misquoting
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ævory
Member
Registered: 04/04/05
Posts: 9657
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Here ya go.
http://www.soulforce.org/article/homosexuality-bible-gay-christian
Read it. It is excellent. Really excellent. And...
http://ucsf.academia.edu/MatsChristianse...e_gay_community
Read this. It is very small print but I can make it out. And it's hard to read, emotionally, but I'm glad I ran across it.
I came upon it by googling something else. I was googling to find information about where the notion comes from (other than bible reference, if there is any) that says:
Everyone is four men:
one the world knows
one our friends know
one we know ourselves
one God knows
___________________________________________________________________________________
Again, I was trying to google "everyone is four men" ..so I hit the first link that google supplied me and read about the info on the 4 homosexual men, 62 - 74 years old...of various religions.
Getting back to Paul in the Bible...he addresses the struggles we all have (of one sort or another) in I Cor. 4 .
Do not depend on man's judgment. The world judges our character upon a single act. The voices of criticism may be loud, but if you go high up on the hilltop with God, you will see the bustle of the crowd but you won't hear it.
Beware of your friend's judgment because he may be too favorable in his opinion of you. We like to believe all the good things said about us and resent unfavorable criticism.
Paul says, I judge not mine own self (I Cor. 4:3).
WHEN I tried to explain in another thread that I supposed back when the Bible was written they all may have been struggling with people dying right and left of illness related to sexual preference of man with man or woman with woman...I don't know. They may have thought the only way they could help each other was to make this subject (sin?) something to be "afraid" of, so it was considered a sin...I don't know. God forbid anyone back then made a mistake (or were they right...are we kidding/fooling ourselves today with all the cocktail-cures for AIDS, etc?). I don't know.
It isn't something close to me...I've not dealt with it other than the people I have known in my life who were gay. I have no judgment there.
Even when we believe the Scriptures are "without error," it is a risk to think our understanding is without error.
Edited by ævory (02/04/12 09:02 PM)
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#201252 - 02/05/12 11:45 AM
Re: Quoting and Misquoting
[Re: ævory]
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Paulwa_dup1
Member
Registered: 02/12/05
Posts: 4951
Loc: Washington
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Right on Ronda, "understanding" is where all error lies, isn't it? The Holy Spirit guides us from error..that is if we listen to Him.
Paul
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#201255 - 02/05/12 01:32 PM
Re: Quoting and Misquoting
[Re: ævory]
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flicka
Member
Registered: 04/06/00
Posts: 24616
Loc: SLO County, CA - 66.122.77.142
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WHEN I tried to explain in another thread that I supposed back when the Bible was written they all may have been struggling with people dying right and left of illness related to sexual preference of man with man or woman with woman...I don't know. They may have thought the only way they could help each other was to make this subject (sin?) something to be "afraid" of, so it was considered a sin...I don't know. God forbid anyone back then made a mistake (or were they right...are we kidding/fooling ourselves today with all the cocktail-cures for AIDS, etc?). I don't know.
I have to agree with you on reasons why these things were considered "sin". Things like eating pork were considered 'unclean' because undercooked pork can give a person worms and such. I dont think homosexual acts were considered 'unclean'as much as they were the opposition of God's command to be "fruitful and multipy". That was pretty much the only command givin Adam & Eve.
_________________________
"A lot of things were acceptable--until we stopped accepting it." -- Al Sharpton '12
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#201259 - 02/05/12 04:42 PM
Re: Quoting and Misquoting
[Re: flicka]
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ævory
Member
Registered: 04/04/05
Posts: 9657
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Good point if not better, Flicka, on the be fruitful and multiply. Also, those were times of great migration activity. If they were conserving fish, or some animal because population of them was low, then they were just doing what they do in these times. Only back then they were just at the entrance of making laws. Maybe they feared the extinction of them.
Most things we learn thru experience, fear enters into, somewhere along the way. I can understand why those who don't believe in heaven or hell say that Christians try to put the fear in others.
I'm glad I didn't live back then. Think how much harder it would have been to know or do anything. Didn't some people get angry with Paul or another because they felt he was talking down to them? That they were being told things in almost childlike simple words? But he did it cus he said they were like babes in the woods. My mistake for saying Obama annoyed me because I thought he spoke in such simple terms. Ya know, my sister said to that? She said, "Ronda, people LIKE simple." Guess that had more to do with my own ego. Maybe some who look at Christians as creating fear think they can handle themselves and that they are the master of their own lives. Good! I don't feel good unless I let God be the master.
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#201266 - 02/06/12 11:12 AM
Re: Quoting and Misquoting
[Re: ævory]
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ghoti
Member
Registered: 04/06/02
Posts: 8469
Loc: Ishpeming, MI 75.128.229.255
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I suspect the ban on homosexuality in Leviticus was more a matter of survival than anything else. At the time of Moses the people of the Bible were living mostly in very small tribes and the total world population was fairly low.
If several members of a tribe were gay it would mean fewer children, and that was a necessity to help with tending the herds and caring for the elderly. If your tribal group didn't produce lots of children it might not survive.
These days we've got nearly 7 billlion people in the world so maybe being a little less fruitful and not multiplying quite so fast would be a better plan.
_________________________
Feisty survivors populate this site. Avoid controversies unless you have a very thick skin.
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