Hi KC,
Entering into a debate about the contexts of Leviticus, Deuteronomy, etc. through 2013 eyes is pointless ...for both you and the rest of us. Let it alone, dragonfly. Those books are lost in the mists of time just as they should be.
You are your own worst enemy - to have this attitude to OT scripture. Ephesians 5:9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14.
We need permission from God (i.e. from a book written by men about 'their' version of God) to be attracted to and to perhaps fall in love with someone? Now I've heard everything . . .
You seem to be writing your own Bible as you go, dragonfly.
Umm.... and you're not.... ripping out words, phrases, pages, whole books ... just because they're
OLD?
Two people that are attracted to one another and who may even choose to spend the rest of their lives together would not be remotely interested in what your opinions are, dragonfly. Sorry.
No need to apologise. You are completely transparent about your lack of interest in God's opinions - even where He has expressed them - let alone where you might have to do some actual seeking before you find them - so I have no reason whatever to expect you to 'hear' anything which God might have to say through one of HIs followers.
It might be clear to you but not to me and perhaps not to many people. You seem to be taking the Bible to a whole new set of extremes, dragonfly. We're to love God with all of our heart, mind and soul and to love our neighbor as ourself. You're making this far too complex. Where does this other stuff fit into the simple message of
John 3:16, for instance?
If you apply your logical, intellectual powers to the question, I'm sure - if you use all the research material available to you in the Bible alone - you will be able to figure out the answer to that, if you want to know. Otherwise, that comment looks like you're trying to change the subject because you've never considered the validity of my point.
Ooooh, I can't let you get away with that. Only in the event of the death of a spouse is one free to remarry according to the Bible ...indeed, from Jesus Himself!
Chapter and verse, please?
Anyway, while divorce is permissible for infidelity ...remarriage is not as long as one party remains alive.
Chapter and verse please? (Don't forget the innocent party....)
And, it stands to reason why not. As long as one of the parties remains alive their remarried partner is guilty of the sin of adultery against the original spouse when she/he remarries
Well, you certainly sound like a legalist, now! Have you ever read Acts 13:38, 39, 40, 41? What d'ya think?
Even today many former married men or women are most unhappy in the knowledge that their former wife or husband is now intimate with someone else. That's understandable. And, many of these modern situations of divorce did not occur because either party was unfaithful anyway but merely because one party became bored with the other.
I'm not sure if you're talking about Christians, in that comment, but if so, all that this proves, is that men and women who claim to know God, don't really understand the spiritual issues or their solutions, even though God has provided both information and solutions, and His Spirit to enable us to search them out and receive them as appropriate.
Incidentally, why did you refer to my bringing up divorce and remarriage and acceptance by the Church as 'a moan'? I personally don't care who divorces and remarries. That is entirely their own business. The reason I brought it up was to highlight and emphasize the double standards/hypocrisy of the Christian Church where it gladly accepts one set of blatant 'sinners' without question while it literally froths at the mouth whenever homosexuality is mentioned. Um ...how come when I raise a pertinent point it's considered to be a 'moan' but when homosexuals are continually being torn apart and demonized by such as yourself it's not a 'moan'?
I think I correctly interpreted the tone of your comment about marriage and divorce. And to be candid, your stance bears no reflection of what Christ died on the cross to obtain for men and women.
All the solutions to wrong relationships are in a right relationship with God through Jesus Christ, and the outworking of obedience to His commands, or, the apostles' doctrine. This goes for those struggling with homosexual urges as much as those struggling with adulterous urges, or any other sinful propensity. The answers are all in the death of Christ, and in His resurrection, of which we may partake by the Holy Spirit to enable us to walk in newness of life.
Any Christian who is not walking in newness of life, ought to re-examine whether they really are 'in the faith'.
As for double standards, your quotation of the first commandment sounds a bit hollow in the light of Luke 4:4, where Jesus was quoting Deuteronomy 8:3. The real test of a Christian's inner mettle is whether Satan pays any attention whatever, when they attempt to wield the sword of the Spirit in the spiritual battleground.
The amount of unbelief which you have poured into your posts on the topic of this thread would suggest that you don't take God's word any more seriously than you have to, to soothe your religious sensibilities. You don't appear to accept the requirement to build your life upon it as Jesus commanded, or to recommend it to others for their ultimate salvation. Having studied it (you claim) your exposition shows
no spiritual insight or skill of handling. Hebrews 5:13
While you count your opinion on everything as more important than God's you sound no different from the character in the tree, in Genesis 3:1, or the kind of persons Paul was describing in 2 Corinthians 11:13 - 15.
As I said earlier....