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Ok. "Israel" usually includes the whole nation comprised of all 12 tribes. "The House of Israel" only includes those in the northern kingdom after the country split in two. That's 9/12 tribes, plus some of the Levites. This group is also sometimes called "Ephraim" after it's most important...

Undeath? "Every story is a zombie story if you look hard enough." -Anonymous

What's the difference between "Israel" and "Judah?" Can you explain the difference between "Jews" and "Israelites?" I suspect if you can properly define those things, the Bible will start making more sense to you. I know it did for me.

It's in the names, isn't it? War Famine Pestilence Death Both. All. Always. These are tools of God's judgment. He's used them since before recorded history to judge among nations of men, and there's no indication that He's going to stop doing so.

Possibly. It depends on his behavior rather than his nature. Is he in a stable, monogamous relationship? Part of a community that does positive things in the world? The Gay Community usually isn't that. I don't know if you've had any contact with it, but that "community" is usually centered...

Yes I think it's partly dietary. We're eating more soy and soybean oil, and that promotes higher estrogen. I also read an interesting article that found higher prevalence of intestinal parasites in homosexual people. Anecdotal evidence was provided of a few cases where anti-parasite medicine...

No, it's a mental illness. Like other mental illnesses, it will result in bad behavior if left unchecked, or if it is encouraged. If a person is psychotic, we don't tell them to embrace that as their identity. We look for the cause and treat it. The next question probably ought to be "what...

Huh? Whatchu talkin about?

I am closer to siding with Einstein. Effects follow causes. Just because humanity doesn't have the intellectual bandwidth to process all the simultaneous causes that result in certain outcomes doesn't mean they aren't there

If you apply them both to a single group, they aren't compatible. But my idea from the beginning of this was that God is tribal. He deals with different group in different ways. "Jacob have I loved, but Esau I hated." (Malachi 1, Romans 9)

"God does not throw dice" -Einstein "God is quite a gambler. The universe is like a giant casino with dice being rolled, or wheels being spun, on every occasion.” -Hawking Perhaps God is magnanimous or not, according to what He knows about the person/people. @marks had given an example on a...

That's a very Catholic idea of theology. I think of it more in terms of understanding Scripture, which is a very Protestant idea of theology. Maybe we should default to a Jewish idea of theology - taking different sides of an argument in an attempt to arrive at truth. Starting from...

You have completely missed the New Testament teaching on adoption, then? And the Old Testament one too, I guess. That seems like a rather large hole in your theology :fearful:

Doug, you need to read more about what the Gnostics believed. Most of them were unconcerned about Christianity or the Bible. Alexandria may have been a hub of gnosticism, but it was ALSO a hub of Christianity AND Judaism. In the 2nd century, it had the 2nd largest Jewish population in the...

It seems that "god fearing gentiles" were made to become part of Israel. If so, then salvation just for "my people" can include anyone

Respectfully, "His people" isn't necessarily Israel. "My sheep know My voice."

Is both an option? Most people don't act uniformly. If we are in God's image, perhaps God acts on a case-by-case basis as well.

Trees represent kings, and sometimes royal houses. It's not even unique to the Bible. It happens in cultures throughout the world, where trees and kings both are meant to represent a bridge between heaven and earth. Some verses, even though you prefer to justify yourself, rather than learn...

Trees are used throughout the Bible and other ANE literature as symbols for kings. Paul is following a well-known trope here. You are making up your own interpretation of the text, but why? Just to be contrary?

By old do you mean Moses, or do you mean Abraham? Paul frames the New Covenant as an extension of Abraham's covenant. Jeremiah, for contrast, calls for an end of Moses covenant and the establishment of a new one.