We all die, so what’s truly meaningful is pretty relative in this life. What is truly meaningful may have more to do with eternity?
Believing God caused someone win the Lotto several times is disgusting. Anyone who would believe it is selfish, ignorant and arrogant.
You haven’t done your homework.
And do you have an explanation for your non sequitur? Is there an insightful connection between those two that I’m not seeing?
I read that one ago. I thought you meant “lottery” in the literal sense not as a metaphor standing for something else.
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About that happening in the literal sense… 
And to @Benjamin87’s point, there is this:
The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.
Proverbs 16:33
Likely a vision or dreams to Moses.
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I don’t accept modern miracles or Godly intervention. Unfortunately for anyone that frustrates, I also cannot be persuaded otherwise.
Believing in your heart that Jesus rose from the dead takes a modern miracle, and many of us would say a Godly intervention as well, since the former entails the latter. Or just being gullible.
- Okay, so you’re a mortal rock. What brings you here and what else do you have to offer?
Huh? I’m not understanding you.
- I assume you’re flesh and blood and not a bot. Where I live, that makes you a mortal. And my impression is that you’re about as flexible as a rock. Off hand, I’d say that makes you a mortal rock. So, what are you looking for around here, if you don’t mind my asking, and what might you be offering or selling?
I’m after different/better ways to interpret the Bible. Left to my own devices, I’ve been struggling. My mind is made up on some things already. But I’ve made the mistake of getting passionate and debate-y with other forumites here though, unfortunately. I told myself not to, but I never listen to me.
- Cool! Just wondering, though. Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t you recently say that you have an “all or nothing” view of the Bible? That it’s all meaningful and true, or none of it is? I may have misunderstood you, but that’s the impression I got from stuff you’ve posted.
I’m deeply disturbed by the idea that if I cannot reconcile every story in the Bible with reality, somehow. And have it fit theologically, that I will throw my entire faith into question. That’s just the way I am. I don’t want to throw the baby (Jesus) out with the bath water (the OT). But the bath water is a part of it all. I cannot just pretend the bath water isn’t there. Even though I want to. Miracles are easy, only God can do those, or allow them to be done. If God is real it follows that He can perform miracles. Easy peazy.
But things involving creation, floods, mass exoduses… I hold out hope that there are satisfying and fitting answers to my questions.
But I need those answers. I can’t be satisfied without them.
Too often I get told to just have faith. I do. But my faith is dependent on understanding, on interpretation. Not personal encounters or feelings. I get judged for that a lot. Even here it has happened. I get told I must not be a believer, or try reading the Bible… I always got that when I went to church too. I don’t take it personally, I know my motives and what I want. Nothing else matters. But that is the way I am. I come across as antagonistic, I know. I often play devil’s advocate if it helps gain a better understanding, or better share the idea I’m trying to get across. Trust me, it’s all for me though. I’m not selling anything. I’m here to buy.
(Except with that enviro-stuff in a couple other threads. I enjoy pointing out the futility of trying to save the world)
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If I might interject here. You are trying to apply a modern interpretative method to an ancient text. The original authors/readers would have no problem accepting the stories in the OT as “true” even when they knew they didn’t fit reality. Nowhere does the Bible tell us how to interpret the text. Just that we have the Holy Spirit to aid in our understanding.
- I suppose there’s nothing wrong with a little perverse pleasure in occasionally pointing out to others the futility of trying to do something, … as long as you don’t let the desire to make a difference suck you into doing something that gets you kicked out of a bar or banned from a forum.
- “Devil’s advocates” are useful.
- I’m not a big believer in “going to church”, so you won’t get a push to do so from me.
- So how’s that workin’ for ya?
- It may seem irrelevant, but I’m reminded of my first girlfriend in my Senior year of High School. Things were great, until our family moved to another state and she quickly moved on. Ha! My problem was that I didn’t have a Plan B. Sadly, I wasn’t “right in the head” for at least 12 years. Met her again at my father’s Memorial Service about 45 years later. Pleasant person, and a Christian; and I remember thinking: "There is a God!
- Mine is dependent on my experience: being raised by and knowing people who believed in the resurrected Jesus and who loved me more than I deserved. It’s taken me a lot of years to connect the dots and see the patterns, but I’m pleased to believe: with understanding comes gratitude.
Just have to notice…although your assessment of Benjamin87’s view is reasonable, the way you stated it is…well…a tad arrogant. Especially in the midst of a blog where so many posts are just some hunch or other.
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Noted. You can’t type tone. In my head I was more bemused than superior, but I see how you are reading it. I confess to being quite jaded because of the number of people who regularly show up here having done zero actual research in an area but think they have a brilliant idea that is going to change the landscape of the whole discussion. I don’t think failing to be impressed by this is arrogance, more just someone who is tired of rampant mansplaining in general. (I’m not intending to label Benjamin a mansplainer, I’m just giving the context of what I expect from people most of the time, based on my experience.)
Quoted for truth.
Or some have suggested all those things we ourselves are what God has withdrawn from that there might be otherness and true others with whom He could relate.