“Son of” in Greek and Hebrew has a wider semantic range than both “offspring” and “son” in English. There has been a lot written on this for the area of Bible translation, since the key term “son of God” causes offense in some cultures when it is rendered with the kinship term. In many languages the kinship term for son necessarily connotes biological offspring in a way the Hebrew and Greek most definitely does not.
All that to say, “son of David” does not equal “biological offspring of David” in Greek or Hebrew just like “sons of Thunder” or “sons of Hell” or “son of Israel” or “son of God” does not imply magical sex and procreation with non-physical entities.
The whole point of the forum existing is so people can ask questions and discuss stuff. It’s fine. No one is forcing anyone else to interact with what they find boring or tedious.
To be honest, I personally think you make too many threads. The problem from my view is two-fold. 1) You aren’t actually dialoging with any of these issues with any sort of depth. It’s all surface analysis. You raised probably 100 issues and many them would take a lot of individual research in their own right to really go through and understand. Once you encounter an atheist counterpoint what you see here may seem inadequate. So it’s a lot of fluff or noise to me. But more importantly, 2) my own personal discernment is that you don’t need head on answers to all your questions. You will just find 50 more tomorrow. I’d say those are treating symptoms rather than the disease. In no way, shape or form, will the internet ever run out of reasons for you not to be a Christian.
We were told a long while ago that new topics were supposed to be science focused. Obviously as Christians I expect we can understand that a new member asking for help will trump that but some of us do limit what topics we post and start to try to honor that since the rule was never rescinded. Is it safe to assume that is off the table and this is now a general Christian discussion forum?
I do apologize. For many posts I don’t really have much background to actually try and provide my own perspective. I haven’t had much time in recent times to do this in depth research because I was a bit bogged down by school (and now flying school). When I originally had my third major faith crisis in the summer last year, I had all the time in the world to surf through various Christian resources for every sort of question I had (unfortunately, the resources I used weren’t exactly helpful because I was still in the mindset of “evolution bad, strict interpretation good.” But, when school came around, I couldn’t devote that much time anymore due to Calculus, English Comp, and all my other course work. I actually had (unfortunately) stopped thinking about Christianity for the first part of last year because I felt like I hadn’t the time to worry about my questions. That is kinda why I’ve used this forum as such; as much as I would love to go super in depth on many of these subjects, I simply don’t have the knowledge to provide much more insight than already present.
For many topics, I’m sometimes more interested in seeing other perspectives out in the world than my own. I’ve had a lot of rough experiences with trying to have discussions with people and having my own views severely questioned to the point of being painful (even the widely accepted view that SpaceX was making massive bounds in rocket technology was called foolish), to the point where I often find myself unqualified to take a stance on really anything. So (taking an example) when I asked the community if we should focus our resources on Earth or diverge some to space, I kinda was in the camp of space exploration being a useful endeavor for the human race. But, I know that my view could easily be countered by people who point out that there exists much suffering in this planet and the money we spend going to space can be used to help the poor and needy. So, not wanting to feel the same dismissals as I had faced before, didn’t really want to take a hard stance in the discussion. Rather, I much enjoyed seeing the different perspectives on the issue and being exposed to facts I would have a difficultly find in my own (such as the fact that NASA’s patents would expand its budget by a factor of ten had they collected loyalties).
If you did have some resources you would recommend, I would love to see them. I struggle to find resources online that would enrich my knowledge of the Christian faith that aren’t just traditionalist excuses to disregard science. Regardless, I do apologize if my forum etiquette hasn’t been the best. I’ll try to post less and with more constructive feedback in the future.
The point is not to post less but to get at the root of the problem. Post as much as you need to as you struggle through issues. If it takes a million threads then make a million. Just dialogue with the material before moving onto the next objection so you own it. The first to present a case seems right until another comes along and questions them.
And haven’t you asked for resources before? I’m pretty sure some were given.
Well as a Gentile, it’s Jesus or no one for me. The Jews certainly did not envision a Messiah that would give Two hoots about non-Jews. He was meant to be a warlord that would rescue the Jews. No mention of Gentiles. Their idea of Messiah would mean nothing to me. Might as well not be one in that case.
And, Vinnie, I do appreciate you calling me out. I apologize if I haven’t exactly been the best user in the platform. I appreciate the honest criticism.
You could be forgiven for thinking that, given what the current secular nation of Israel is like, and with how Zionists now distort and ignore most of scriptures. But only biblically illiterate [people discipled away from obedience to Christ] (which is the majority of evangelicals in the U.S. now it would seem) fall for that stuff. You can only come out where they do by ignoring the prophets (most of the old testament) that repeatedly speak of how Israel is to be a blessing to all the nations, and are held accountable for how they relate to everyone else. Jesus then majored on that theme too - and Paul. But the point is, Jesus didn’t draw it from a vacuum. Those are the scriptures he chose to draw on from the O.T. while refusing to be enlisted in “Game of Thrones” styles of messiahship that so many of his peers, (and even his own disciples) tried to move him towards - much like Zionists are all caught up in today. Jesus didn’t waffle about that stuff; that was “get behind me, Satan” territory for him, as Peter found out. As a Christian, I think it’s kinda important to draw on scriptures in the same way Jesus did. So I affirm your conviction that “it’s Christ or bust”. A very Christian sentiment that! But lets not pretend that most Christians (at least here in the U.S. today) rise to the level of even just being ‘biblical’, much less being Christ-like, or Christ-discipled - an infinitely higher goal yet!
…and furthermore… we do not know that Joseph is not the biological father of Jesus. The lineage given through Joseph in the text can be taken to mean he is. We frankly just know Mary was a virgin and Jesus conception is miraculous. And I think it is orthodoxy that Jesus has human genetics which implies a human male genetic inheritance.
…and …frankly this makes more sense to me than other alternatives if we accept the virgin birth claim. And since this is possible, I see little reason to reject this claim (the virgin birth claim) out of hand.
Living now on This Planet Earth and all the so called Human behavior recorded, I don’t see there being a Messaih here(History repeats). Us Adult Humans are Free and We think We are in control and do whatever We want. The only Messiah I will be with is When this Yahweh created body expires and my Spirit is Transferred to Be with The Messiah and Who else is also Transferred there.
We would like to see the forum be more of a resource for younger people instead of simply a water cooler for bored retired people. So if the youths, who watch YouTube videos all day instead of reading books, want to discuss YouTube videos by content creators who are in the general science/faith wheelhouse, we are happy they found the website and people who can point them to resources that enlighten them on the questions they are asking.
No one is forcing anyone to engage, so feel free to scroll on past any discussion you personally find tedious.
And no, it’s not a general Christian discussion forum, but we are going to continue to strive to be a place that helps people navigate their faith crises and doubts by providing empathetic feedback. You don’t have to personally provide that kind of feedback on every thread, but essentially communicating that people are doing their doubts wrong because you find their questions tedious isn’t very helpful.
Biologos continues to evolve, and if you read the most recent articles posted, they tend to focus more on Christian life for people interested in science. Science is still there, but tends to be more about such topics as creation care and what it means to integrate life in a complex world.
As a forum, we have been given more freedom to follow discussions where they go, so long as they remain civil and respectful. If really off the wall, we may step in as needed.
