And then there is that whole thing that people were supposed to "leave room for the Holy Ghost" when dancing, etc. As if... the Holy Ghost is... rubbing up against them? Men and women? I just don't get the whole concept... sorry.
And then there is that whole thing that people were supposed to "leave room for the Holy Ghost" when dancing, etc. As if... the Holy Ghost is... rubbing up against them? Men and women? I just don't get the whole concept... sorry.
Well, actually the Kabbalah does kind of stretch the whole monotheistic stuff.
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteFirst I'd like to have this conversation in a respectful discourse so please understand I ask these questions not to offend but merely to obtain your perspective. Civil discourse seems difficult these days.
I am a Christian and I understand your objections to much of the Christian faith. I am not saying I agree with them, merely that Christian apologists have debated many of these topics for the last 2000 years.
I reviewed your discussion regarding your position of the polytheism of Christianity and this is a common complaint regarding Christianity. I am not saying that the following versus are indicative of God as Christ, I am posting them merely as I have read them and asking what your perspective on these verses are. These are both from Genesis.
Genesis 16:7-14. The Angel of the Lord appears to a woman named Hagar. The Angel speaks as God in the first-person, and in verse 13 Hagar identifies the visitor as God.
Genesis 22:11-15. The Angel of the Lord appears to Abraham and, again, refers to God in the first-person.
It would seem that these two verses are presenting a duality of God, both in a presentable for as well as the purely non-physical aspect you seem to prefer. Can you elaborate?
Thanks.
J.R., we don't claim to be theologians. And we will be the last people to take what's written in the Bible word for word. In fact, we've written our share of Old Testament criticism.
ReplyDeleteAs for Hagar and Abraham, perhaps they were just schizophrenic... :)
An honest reply, thanks. Does the Torah define what it is to be Jewish in the sense of the laws of Moses and I would assume genetic heritage?
DeleteThere are a lot of questions about what Torah says on the subject. Maternal lineage is first defined in the Mishnah.
DeleteI'm not sure about your interpretation of these parts. I'm pretty sure that's just the way it is in the Torah - sometimes when somebody sends a messenger, he would speak in first person as if he were that person. For example, Ezekiel and Jeremiah usually start with "so said god" or something like that and then go on to speak as if it were god speaking. It's pretty much the same with other prophets as well.
ReplyDeleteAlso, in Hebrew the word "God" can also mean "someone who's very important or holy", not necessarily God.
In a related note, Judaism doesn't take the Torah literally, but rather a traditional interpretation that is usually identical to the literal interpretation - but not all the time. Heck, the books themselves have been canonized by traditional scholars.