"But whoso shall offend one of these little ones"...what does this mean to you?

Crickets....lol! I thought this would be an academic exercise since it is an attempt to bridge cryptic statements with reality, which I thought would be interesting for even an atheist let alone the religious amongst us.

one of these little ones

I spoke too soon about crickets...lol! Do you have a bible verse that seems strangely disconnected from reality that you feel you have a real life explanation/interpretation for?

Better to read it ALL:

"[1] At that hour the disciples came to Jesus, saying: Who thinkest thou is the greater in the kingdom of heaven? [2] And Jesus calling unto him a little child, set him in the midst of them, [3] And said: Amen I say to you, unless you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. [4] Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, he is the greater in the kingdom of heaven. [5] And he that shall receive one such little child in my name, receiveth me.

[6] But he that shall scandalize one of these little ones that believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone should be hanged about his neck, and that he should be drowned in the depth of the sea. [7] Woe to the world because of scandals. For it must needs be that scandals come: but nevertheless woe to that man by whom the scandal cometh." Matt. 18:1-7/DRV

It means pedos are beyond toast.

Lol...that could definately be an interpretation.

Me too!

If a child has faith in Son of God Yeshua, and you destroy that faith:
You should expect judgement immediately.

Aside from telling us not to harm the children, I think it may mean also that you should not purposely mislead children about God, until they have a chance to understand the teachings and make a decision for themselves. I also remember reading something about not being a stumbling block to anothers' faith.

Maybe. But remember, YWYH gives his people carte blanche to capture and rape little girls in Numbers 31

Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him. But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.

So...I dunno.

Very accurate.
Bless you.

Yeah, pretty bizzare stuff...I agree. I dunno either. I'm just interested in people's individual interpretations...so thanks for your reply.

I have a different interpretation. Mine would be relating to soul grades, those who are the Spirit of Peace and Love, and realize this is not about obtaining wealth or standing in the world, we come from wonderful bounty and home, and will return when we have reached Love's frequency again, so everything in this world is dross. Balance is needed certainly and updated standards of living are good, for we have current technology for all to live very well and progressed with beamships that do not run on fossil fuel, in our backyards, and to caretake nature. But putting that first over Love and helping others is not the point.

So with different grades, some far more fascist and reactionary and dominating, and then higher mind grades, more aware of freedom and equality, and lending a helping hand, more aware of being on a kind of assignment, we are not to suppress the lower grades.

I can see this in ways such as: exploitation of resources, as your elite do, and toppling people governments to erect fascist ones that better serve the corporate heads, as our elite are prone to do, or forcing the people off their traditional lands and murdering farming families and having corporations taking over AFrican or South American lands and using child slaves for coffee and chocolate.

This to me is a direct violation of this teaching.

We are instead, to uphold the higher virtues of equality and freedom and compassion, and extend that baton to the world, and teach by example and by extending a helping hand, for all others to reach higher levels and grades as well.

Instead of exploitation.

Also this applies to how we treat many individuals in society, in our class systems, how we treat the homeless.

What it really means to be a bigger kid or trying to grow up, to be a wayshower and not a bully abuser of the little ones.

This passage is truly about social justice as well.

Woes to Scribes and Pharisees
matt 23:13

…12"Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled; and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted.

13"But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from people; for you do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.

14"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you devour widows' houses, and for a pretense you make long prayers; therefore you will receive greater condemnation.…

"OFFEND" - "cause to stumble, cast a stumbling block"

Cognate: 4624 skandalízō – properly, set a snare ("stumbling-block"); (figuratively) "to hinder right conduct or thought; to cause to stumble" – literally, "to fall into a trap" (Abbott-Smith). See 4625 (skandalon).

Jesus says elsewhere that stumbling blocks must come, but woe to whom they come by.


THIS PASSAGE IN THE OT SEEMS TO HELP UNDERSTAND A "LITTLE CHILD"

"And now, O LORD my God, thou hast made thy servant king (Solomon) instead of David my father:

and I [am] a little child/youth: I know not how to go out or come in. .....9 Give therefore thy servant a hearing/listening heart to judge thy people, that I may discern/understand between good and bad/evil: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people?"


"go out" and "come in" are used throughout Scripture.


Jesus says we must become as a little child...

"I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and come out, and find pasture".

I think it means we must look to him to "go in" and "come out".

continuing:

"I think it means we must look to him to "go in" and "come out"."

So that we can do as Solomon says:

Give therefore thy servant a hearing/listening heart to judge thy people, that I may discern/understand between good and bad/evil: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people?"

WEIRD! I was just reading that passage last night!

it's a quote from the ice cream shop scene in the movie "Billy Jack."

A big part of it is what does the word " offend " or " scandalize " mean in this instance?

not what Jesus said.. this is screwed up... CONVERT was not in the teaching.

New age bibles with new age teaching for old-school damnation.

Not Born-Again and thereby Enabled By The Father to Know and DO HIS Will? Yet you still desire to make commentary and give direction as if you are Of-HIM?

This is the way of Laodicea.


Divinity degrees but no Born-Again Heart?
What have you to teach anyone???

Thus is how The Innocents are led astray...
Talking shit you Know Nothing About...

Better to have never been born...

It is referring to enticements that would encourage a new Christian or children to stumble and go astray .

The children of God are the ones who've overcome the egoism of the lower Self to allow Christ to be born in them. So whatever they do or say is, like St. Paul, 'Christ in me.' Now the Christ is a great power. You know the law of karma? If you hurt someone, it will boomerang. It often takes a long time, though.
As above, so below, the penalty is worse when the damage is worse. The purified souls have much finer auras. When you hurt an ordinary person, you 'tear' their aura a bit, like tearing workclothes, say. When you hurt one of the 'children of God', it's as if you tear a very delicate, very expensive white silk dress. Your karma is worse, do you see what I mean?

Because this person contains much more spiritual force, anything that hits them is reflected, boomerangs back to the sender, much more quickly, and with much more force. That is why Jesus warned that the consequences of hurting a good, spiritual person are so devastating.

Interesting way of looking at it. Maybe as the time loop gets closer to the end the response quickens (the beginning meets the end). Maybe then the errors of a generation visit that generation as opposed to such a delayed response (later generations). This would be quite interesting indeed because at some point it may become more and more obvious who these children are and what happens when they are messed with. I imagine it would work like operant conditioning, except for it to work the response needs to be as immediate as possible and directed at the specific offender(s). Of course, this all happens on the spiritual plane...not a single finger need be lifted.

Positive reinforcement
Negative reinforcement
Positive punishment
Negative punishment
Extinction

If you teach children how to sin, it would be better for you to be drowned than what you have coming.