The WHOLE Bible

This passage was originally titled as it shows Does God Condone Bigamy? but there is so much more to the answer to this question than just that.  I feel it's important information to share, so I left it intact for your perusal.  The important thing to take from this passage is that you can NOT snippet the bible and use it for your own purposes and agenda, you have to take the Bible as a WHOLE, all of it, in context of it's entirety.  

This is from Journey Through the Torah Class Series: Genesis by Tom Bradford.  

"Does God Condone Bigamy?

God most certainly did NOT validate Jacob’s choice to take TWO wives……any more than he did Isaacs, nor Abrahams. Too often we like to say, ‘Well, its in the Bible, so God must be OK with it”. Not so. VERY often, the Holy Scriptures simply tell the historical truth, tell us what was said or what happened, and then do NOT specifically comment on it. Rather these statements simply stand on their own. God had made quite clear early in Genesis that marriage was the forming of one flesh from two; not 3,4,5,6, or as Solomon so much later, a thousand.

This is why it is so important to read and study the WHOLE bible; so that we can separate God’s commands, principles, and characteristics from simple statements of historical fact. The Bible is full of statements by men and women; and many of those statements are outright lies, or self-aggrandizing, or greatly exaggerated, or wishful thinking, or rationalizations of personal behavior, or simply expressions of widely held superstitions. In the case of Jacob, he deceived his brother Esau, and his father; it wasn’t right, but he did it, and the Bible simply reports it. Jacob didn’t pick the wife (Leah), on his own, that apparently God selected for him……he picked the one (Rachel) that most pleased his fleshly and impulsive male desires. It wasn’t right, but he did it, and the Bible simply reports it. Then, he wound up marrying two wives; it wasn’t right, but he did it, the Scriptures tells us about it, and so on.  We must never assume that since the Bible does not comment on every statement or action as to whether it was right or wrong, good or evil, that those not commented on must be, to at least some degree, acceptable to God. For, if we have the Torah in our hearts, and have read it and studied it, we will KNOW what was right and wrong in God’s eyes; and THAT is what we are expected to do. The fact that we are given the full, unflinching view of who these Biblical characters were, flaws and all, doesn’t change God’s absolute, unchanging, uncompromising truth. Like us, every Bible character, except Yeshua, was imperfect and did things they ought not have done."

Scientific Facts in the Bible ~ Ray Comfort

My daughter is attending Basic Training at Ft. Jackson, South Carolina.  The family decides to pick up from Arkansas and take a mini vacation and go watch her graduate.  We spent 5 days there spending time with her, a good time was had by all.  We needed a few things  late one night, and made a run to WalMart, yes they are everywhere.

I gathered the few items I needed, as did the rest of my family.  And upon arriving at the checkout, this book caught my eye.  I hadn't brought enough to read late at night, so I snagged it up.

This booklet is 101 pages in length.  Honestly wish that I had picked something else to read.  Yes there is a lot of fact in this book.  However, the format is very juvenile in nature.  Let me explain. 

It starts out addressing itself towards Atheists. Then follows a sort of debate style, on a grammar school level.  

People say....      Here's a verse.  

People say....      Here's a verse. 

People say....     Here's a verse.  

 Most of this involved no explanation, no in depth discussion, just here it is. 

Then there is a section:  He believed, so you should too.  He believed, do you think he was wrong.  This guy is known for most of what we know scientifically and he believed.  Why?  This sort of argument wouldn't convince me, and I'm a believer.  

Last, but not least, and honestly wish I had quit reading before I got to this point.  

On page 99 it says, "However, the correct answer is C.  Over 100,000 people were shot, strangled, stabbed, or poisoned and no one was brought to justice.  If your loved one were one of the victims, you would no doubt be outraged by such injustice.  It would then make sense to you that there would be final justice for those murderers on the Day of Judgment."

WRONG!!!

Final justice for those murderers, IF they don't repent of their sins and be forgiven before they arrive before God on the Day of Judgment.  

God can forgive them, then so should we, and not harbor a need for any final justice.  

I hate that I am pointing this out, but when your trying to convince an Atheist, you can not show inaccuracies for them to focus on.  You can't tell untruths, because they will use this to cast doubts on the rest of what you have to say.  I do NOT have all the answers, but I won't lead you to believe I do either.  

Not Trail Mix

I won't normally share things of this nature, but I feel the need to today.  The Bible is our instruction manual.  Read it!!  All of it.  It's all important.  Old and New Testament.  Without the Old there can be NO New.