In Reply to: Bible Questions posted by FRED on February 16, 2006 at 08:04:33:
Dear Fred, I will try to answer your questions, as they are good ones. Many people do have a lot of queswtions about hte Bible and its various translations.
The Key to interpreting the Bible is to take it literally where it is literal, and where it is firgurative, find the literal meaning.
Because of the English language changing over the centuries, some English words dont mean the same as they did before, and some are even obslolete.
People have added meaning to scriptures other than the original literal meaning God intended it to be.
If something is clearly literal, why change it to a figurative meaning?
The problem starts when people try to insert between the lines things that God did not intend to say.
When there is a question as to the meaning of a word or verse, we have the Hebrew and Greek you can check.
The reason this is good is because people misunderstood much of what the Bible says and that is why so many different interpretations.
Of course, God knew this, which is why to really understand the meaning of scripture it is best to be born again and filled and baptized with the Holy Spirit, as Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit will lead us into all truth and teach us all things. The Holy Spirit confirms the spoken and written Word, which is the revealed will of the Father.
Salvation is of the Jews merely means that it came to the Jews first becasue this is the race God originally chose for the saviour to be born in. Jesus was Jewish. IT does not mean that all Jews will be saved.
The Amelekites were pererted pagan idol worshippers, involved in all sorts of sexual perversions in their worship including beastiality. God's cleansing of the land was so that these descendants of the Nepthalim would be wiped out, as their prescence was a hinderance to
the Saviour's coming, as Satan used these races to try to mix the human race with angles and produce
beasttial men, wicked and evil creatures in an attempt to wipe out the human race.
That is why only Noah and his family were saved, They were the only last survivors of the pure human race .
After the flood(which was not universal by the way)It happenned again, and the offspring of the angels and humans were producing giants who were wicked. THis seed was spreading in the land of Caanan and that is why God had to wipe them out.
That is why God was so angry with Saul for not obeying. That whole race became thorns in their side and was a curse to them later as GOd said they would be. Isnt it better to obey God?
The difference between that and King Herod killing all the babies was that one action was to ensure the Messiah would be born of pure Hebrew LINEAGE.
The the other was Satans attemptto prevent the Saviour from becoming a man and saving the world form their sins.
The difference is like day and night.
Elisha did not kill the children, they killed themselves and brought upon them the curses of rebellion. The bears killed them. Obviously theses children were not at all Godly children or they would have shown respect to Elisha. I wonder what their parents were like and how they taught them?
Its the same today when children are not taugt in the ways of the Lord, and they get into heavy metal or witchcraft, ungodly things and refuse to be taught, they become unteachable, and the curse has an automatic effect on them, unless they repent. The same can be said of anyone who rebells against God. YOu either choose to serve God or Satan. The minute one casts the trut of God to the groud you pick up Satan's gospel and he takes charge, and is given access to that human.
Elisha did not kill them, he cursed them in the Lord, becasue they had already rejected and mocked Gods prophet, which is a very serious crime. Remember they were still under the Laws Of Moses and many of the crimes were punishable by death, even if they were children. Goddoes not unmercifully kill people. They make that choice themselves according to how they receive or reject the Word of God. Man is a free moral agent. If someone knows the rules and still breaks them,
thay cannot say the punishment is unjust. Those children knew what they were doing, as they were brought up in the knowledge of the law, so if they chose to be rebellious and evil mocking God's prophet, they chose to go over to the dark side.
Why do people always blame God for the choices man makes? It is not His will that nay should persish but that all should come to repentance.
Its foolish man that chooses to rebell and give his will over to Satan, who is more than happy to accomodate the rebellious heart.
If you play Satan's game you have to play by his rules.
First of all, God does not have these creatures there for His own ego. He has them there as a witness to all other creatures and also man so all will know who God is.
In doing this he is letting the whole universe and its 40 some odd sextillion solar systems and the inhabitants of roughly 10% of the planets including all the spirits, and creatures who were ever created that there is only one God, and He is ready and willing to accept the challenge of any other false Gods, including Satan who would dare challenge Him. Its ot for His own benefit, but for the benefit of all of His creatures to know and see the POwer and Glory of God, so they will know who they are supposed to worship in order to get
the benefits and enjoy the Everlasting Kingdom of God. Wouldnt you want to know which is the right side and which is the wrong side? God is merely using all of the Means He has at His disposal, all of the power, communications, media,unlimited energy, just by thinking it, His effortless display of what he has to offer for eternity, as the everlasting ruler of the universe.
Grace has been the same from the beginning. Adam and Eve were perfect, sinless. They madethe wrong choice and fell. Immediately God's plan of His grace went into effect with the promise of the seed, the Messiah. Form that time forth in the OT all who believed in this promise and showed the fruits of it in their life were saved,all those who did not were not saved.
Grace and mercy is expressed asmuch in the OT as in the NT. They just couldnt go to heaven until Jesus went to paradise to set them free, those who beleived.
Your last two questions seemed to be answered by the verses which follow them.
Be blessed
Thanks for the questions. They are thought provoking.Hope this helped a little. At least to show that there is an explanation for everything in the Bible is you have an open and honest heart and are willing to search and seek the answers.