First pages of the bible and already confused

I love the thread title ;)

Keep in mind that a couple thousand years later, we *still* have hundreds of denominations at odds over much of the books, so yes - there's a lot to swallow. It doesn't hurt to note that not everything is made clear in a linear sense - some of what happens early on isn't elaborated upon until later.

As for people's increased lifespan, a common view is that a vapor canopy, which condensated and contributed to the flood, had been blocking significant radiation from reaching earth's surface up until the time of Noah. Something like that.

(Also, I imagine you're going to incite some of our most righteous holy brethren by trying to read the book unsupervised, but hey.)

haha, sweet thread!

The sons of God were called Nephilim, you idiot. They were not Christians, like some numb nut said. They were freaking aliens. YOU are an alien. Now go back to the planet you came from and LEAVE US ALONE.

Pastor recommends use of The Companion Bible. Here is the full text online for free. Go read the side notes to the first few pages, referencing what is recommended, as you read each verse, and you will understand.

[link to www.heavendwellers.com]

The first time I started reading the bible....I had the same problem. I doubted what I was reading...and thought that I was wrong to doubt the bible...so decided to close the book for 4 years.

I then did some researching...opened the pages again and had a whole new way of thinking. I truly believe that many parts of genesis are true. Think about it....the dinosaurs would not be able to move with the gravity that we have now. So, everything was larger then...including dragon flies. They say that the dragonflies had a wingspan longer than a schoolbus.

We have to keep in mind when we read the bible that things were VERY different back then.

Read the Book of Enoch...will put a whole new spin on the giants of Genesis. It expands it alot...but is not accepted as part of the bible. The bible was put together the way it was on purpose....so remember that when you read. There is much more to the story that was not written down.

The truth is greater than we can even imagine.

+1

And an AMEN to that.. seriously unless you want to cherry pick the parts you like and can forget all the crap that makes no sense or is downright barbaric, find something else to read. Or hell, skip right to the new testament, you might find a few nuggets of wisdom worth remembering, but nothing common sense and a conscious wouldn't have already helped you know anyway.

I can't believe all my younger years I wasted reading the bible over and over and not getting any valid answers to the gazillion questions I had.. I suppose it wasn't a total waste of time tho, I did learn what i do not believe. :-)

The Bible is a spiritual book that underlies it's literal rendering. It is a spiritual book written by a Spirit God and can only be wholly understood by those who are sealed with the mind of Christ.
Example..
When the time came for the marriage of Isaac, Abraham (The Father) sent his servant Gehazi (The Holy Spirit) to find Isaac (The Son) a bride ..Rebekah (the church).

Worthy is the Lamb to open the Book..and He has sent the Spirit of Truth to guide you in all things. God will feed his sheep in the last days. Let Him speak to you through the Scriptures.

Read a good book..like Stott's "Basic Christianity"..then pray to be sealed with the mind of Christ. Stay away from organized Christianity, Be led to people out in the real world by The Holy Spirit. May God send you a companion to fellowship with.

Finally!!!!! A post on GLP that is logical, rational, and, most of all is HELPFUL.

This situation sounds like just the case for.......

Dr. ARNOLD MURRAY -- Biblical Scholar and Authority who can make the complex very, very simple to help the OP.

You are confused because you are reading a book written in a different language that has more than one way to interpret.

start with the first word. Reyshith = the beginning = 911

The English translation of the Bible takes away the vague foreign words and replaces it with simple phrases. So "sons of god" is just one word in the original writing.

The ancient writers used the word "god" in more than one way. Sometimes it was about the God that was worshiped, and sometimes it was referring to other gods that other people worship.

For example, the way we say that I am a human, you are a human, we are human. Well god was the name of these other ones. He is a god, she is a god, they are god. It's not to say that they are infinitely powerful through all time and space and made people and whatnot. It is a plain word that lost some meaning and gained some other meaning when it got translated into English to describe the being that Christians and Jews, and other people, worship. Is it the same thing? The worshipers would say no.

Giants is another word that has lost meaning and gained some through time.

Enjoy your Genesis confusion. I gave up after chapter 3 because I needed to know Hebrew and they just don't teach that stuff at church.

Just copying and pasting, but here:

Genesis 6:1-4 refers to the sons of God and the daughters of men. There have been several suggestions as to who the sons of God were and why the children they had with daughters of men grew into a race of giants (that is what the word Nephilim seems to indicate).

The three primary views on the identity of the sons of God are 1) they were fallen angels, 2) they were powerful human rulers, or 3) they were godly descendants of Seth intermarrying with wicked descendants of Cain. Giving weight to the first theory is the fact that in the Old Testament the phrase “sons of God” always refers to angels (Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7). A potential problem with this is in Matthew 22:30, which indicates that angels do not marry. The Bible gives us no reason to believe that angels have a gender or are able to reproduce. The other two views do not present this problem.

The weakness of views 2) and 3) is that ordinary human males marrying ordinary human females does not account for why the offspring were “giants” or “heroes of old, men of renown.” Further, why would God decide to bring the flood on the earth (Genesis 6:5-7) when God had never forbade powerful human males or descendants of Seth to marry ordinary human females or descendants of Cain? The oncoming judgment of Genesis 6:5-7 is linked to what took place in Genesis 6:1-4. Only the obscene, perverse marriage of fallen angels with human females would seem to justify such a harsh judgment.

As previously noted, the weakness of the first view is that Matthew 22:30 declares, “At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.” However, the text does not say “angels are not able to marry.” Rather, it indicates only that angels do not marry. Second, Matthew 22:30 is referring to the “angels in heaven.” It is not referring to fallen angels, who do not care about God’s created order and actively seek ways to disrupt God’s plan. The fact that God’s holy angels do not marry or engage in sexual relations does not mean the same is true of Satan and his demons.

View 1) is the most likely position. Yes, it is an interesting “contradiction” to say that angels are sexless and then to say that the “sons of God” were fallen angels who procreated with human females. However, while angels are spiritual beings (Hebrews 1:14), they can appear in human, physical form (Mark 16:5). The men of Sodom and Gomorrah wanted to have sex with the two angels who were with Lot (Genesis 19:1-5). It is plausible that angels are capable of taking on human form, even to the point of replicating human sexuality and possibly even reproduction. Why do the fallen angels not do this more often? It seems that God imprisoned the fallen angels who committed this evil sin, so that the other fallen angels would not do the same (as described in Jude 6). Earlier Hebrew interpreters and apocryphal and pseudopigraphal writings are unanimous in holding to the view that fallen angels are the “sons of God” mentioned in Genesis 6:1-4. This by no means closes the debate. However, the view that Genesis 6:1-4 involves fallen angels mating with human females has a strong contextual, grammatical, and historical basis.

You sound a lot like me. I grew up Christian and believed for sooo many years. I remember believing the rapture was going to happen and that I was going to heaven just because I believed in Jesus. How stupid of me. When I look back, it is just confusing to me why I never questioned any of the garbage in that barbaric book? I think it takes a long time to de-program your mind. When you are taught that something is true since childhood, it is natural to just keep with tradition and the beliefs of your parents and grandparents, I guess. I am so glad I finally see through the haze and now the Christian God seems about as real as Santa Claus. The questions are what got me too. No one could answer them and all they could throw your way was "have faith." Without faith, this religion would be over and done with.

Check this link. It explains everything.


Thread: ABSURD BIBLE VERSES.... COULD A REAL GOD BE THIS STUPID?

thanks everybody - at least I got a few views that make some sense to me and I can keep reading.

If those views are true or not I don't know, but neither do I know if people got like 700 years old and if the great flood ever happened.

I have been wondering the same thing. And there has been much scholarly debate as to what the sons of God were. But don't believe the person up under you because the Book of Enoch was wrong.

Jesus clearly says in the book of Matthew that angels don't give or take in marriage. Therefore the sons of God who give and take in marriage couldn't possibly have been fallen angels like the Book of Enoch says.

Read the Bible slow and easy and all at your own speed since rushing through it is not neccessary, since you will go back read it off and on for your intire life . I liked the Book of Exodus where Moses comes into the Picture to lead the Israelites out of hundreds of years of slavery from land of Egypt . Then after leaving Egypt, they still had it tuff and wondered for 40 more years ..The people of the Bible also had thier fair share of hardships wars famines desease prosperity good times etc . they conquored and were conquored from time to time . yeppers . one thing sticks out .. The 10 comandments ..there is some good advice to live by. It takes many years to comprehend all of the Bible even some religious scholors study it thier whole life . people have lots of opions bout it.. But bout everyone says it is .awesome .. .