[Raiderhater]

[QUOTE]Part 1:
The Bible is full of inconsistencies in translation and messge. (I'm in a hurry, so I apologize for any mispelengz.)
Examples of inconsistent translation: 1. You have Adam and Eve (2 people), who begat Cain and Able (that makes 4). Cain kills Able (that makes 3) and then takes a wife. (Um, where the hell did she come from?) The original text doesn't read as "Adam and Eve" as singular, but plural "Men and Women." 2. The "Red Sea" that Moses split is wrongly translated. It should be "Sea of Reeds" which is totally different.[/QUOTE]

Mark,
The first one is one that I onced asked my Dad about, and he said that more than likely it was his sister. He said that women weren't exactly thought of as important enough to mention a whole lot, and therefore she just wasn't mentioned. As for the plural version of Adam and Eve, I haven't heard that one before, so I will do some research on it. The second, while I don't have a definite answer, my guess is that they call it the Red Sea so as to relate it to todays people. Again I'll do some research on that too.


[QUOTE]Part 2: Hypocrisy
Christianity is supposed to be forgiving and a religion for the "meek." If so, why does the Catholic church horde gold? Why do we have ministers on TV saying that they will die if they don't get millions in the next week? Why do they build churches with such ostentation that they have to pass around the plate at the end?[/QUOTE]


Catholics are much different than Protistants, and they are way out of line on some things. I don't have answers for you on why they do what they do, so sorry about that. As for the televagilist, well first and foremost you have to understand that we are talking about human nature. These people may have been Christians in the begining and perhaps they were corrupted by money. Or perhaps they never were Christians, and saw a big opportunity and being good capatilist they jumped on it. But going back to the first point, we are only humans. There is only one who has ever been perfect and able to withstand temptation, and that was Jesus. As for the offering, that is taken up wether the church owes on the building or not. That is how the other bills are paid, and were the pastor is paid from. Portions of it are also sent to missions of different sorts (forieng, domestic). As to the building its self, there are advantages to having a nice building. You can offer a lot more to the community when you have nice facilities. For example, we lived in NM before moving up here, and there we (my family) had a ministry for at-risk and gang kids. The church we were attending at the time was a big one that had a gym. That came in real handy as after the meeting we would then go out and eat and play sports, wich was good for building relationships with the kids, and also keeping them off the streets. Now I do agree that a church should not go into debt, but rather build slowly as they have the money. But unfortunately people tend to be impatient (human nature again) and want it right now.

[QUOTE]Part 3: History
Divine Right doctrine was responsible for the death of millions of native peoples. The Inquistion killed thousands. The Crusades started problems which are still around today. And the time in which the Bible was written must also be taken into account. The Roman Empire was in full swing and, when Christianity started, they went against everything Roman. Homosexuality, praying to multiple gods, etc. It was a reaction against the status quo.[/QUOTE]

Again we are dealing with human nature. People do and say things that sound right to them. They have a cause and they justify what they do by saying it is for the cause (the ends justify the means), that is not right , but it happens anyways. As for the time that the Bible was written, I don't belive that had anything to do with it. Look at when the Old Testament was written, it said the same thing about the examples you gave and most of it was not written under oppression.


All I am trying to do is to put at ease your problems with Christianity. I wouldn't dare try to convert you (that comes later, after you have no more problems with it[img]http://cwm.ragesofsanity.com/s/3dlil/wink.gif[/img]). I just want to clear up the misunderstandings. I hope this helps some. I did the best I could considering I am not a Bible "scholar".








[Edited by raiderhader on 01-19-2001 at 11:04 PM]