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What doesn't make sense to me about Christianity

Bree

Active Member
You've got the Old Testament and the Abrahamic God. You start to know the Abrahamic God as someone to fear. He wipes out most humans with a flood. Then you've got laws about clean and unclean animals, etc.

Then comes the New Testament. Jesus comes, and his message is different enough that to me, it must be a new covenant. I interpret certain verses as going against the Old Testament, or at least changing things. You can now eat unclean animals as far as I can tell. And at some point in history, the Sabbath seems to become Sunday instead of Saturday.

a simple way to understand it is to know that the Old Testament, written nearly 4,000 years ago, was written for 1 family (Abraham) for a temporary time, who would have to live according to Gods perfect laws. (of course his offspring failed over and over again, but the point was that they were a nation upholding Gods moral standards and could provide a safe spiritual environment for the birth of Gods own son who was to come into the world)

When that Son finally did come into the world, he was raised in an environment where he could come to know his Father, where he would not be corrupted by the false religions of the nations. He was protected spiritually in that strict religious environment.


Once he came of age and began his work of disciple making, he understood his role was to guide all mankind ( not just the jews) all mankind would be guided into a way of worship of the 1 true God that they could all achieve. The world of mankind could never achieve to worship God under the Old covenant because not even the jews could achieve that 100%.

Rather, Christ gave the new commandment to 'love one another just as I have loved you'

All mankind could achieve that. It was not difficult. They did not have to remember days and times and seasons, they did not have to limit their diet to certain foods, they did not have to perform daily rituals or provide animal sacrifices for forgiveness of sins etc etc etc.
They need only begin to love one another. And thus christianity is a religion of love of God and love of neighbor.
 
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joelr

Well-Known Member
Also, the Bible speaks of anti-Christs and false prophets, but there's also a main one of each, as talked about in Revelation 20:9-10


Revelation is apocalyptic literature. It started in the Persian religion - Arising initially in Zoroastrianism, apocalypticism was developed more fully in Judaic, Christian, and Islamic eschatological speculation. Apocalypticism - Wikipedia

but the Persians occupied the Hebrew nation from about 3 centuries before Christianity. Many of their myths were adopted into Hebrew theology and Revelations was one. The basic idea of a final war between good and evil, lava, fire, everyone dies, followers get resurrected into permanent bodies and live forever in paradise on Earth. That was a Persian myth. Mary Boyce writes about it in her work on Zoroastrianism.

Revelations

"forever joyful in the kingdom of God upon earth.'
but Zoroaster taught that the blessed must wait for this culmination till Frashegird and the 'future body' (Pahlavi 'tan i pasen'), when the earth will give up the bones of the dead (Y 30.7). This general resurrection will be followed by the Last Judgment, which will divide all the righteous from the wicked, both those who have lived until that time and those who have been judged already. Then Airyaman, Yazata of friendship and healing, together with Atar, Fire, will melt all the metal in the mountains, and this will flow in a glowing river over the earth. All mankind must pass through this river, and, as it is said in a Pahlavi text, 'for him who is righteous it will seem like warm milk, and for him who is wicked, it will seem as if he is walking in the • flesh through molten metal' (GBd XXXIV. r 8-r 9). In this great apocalyptic vision Zoroaster perhaps fused, unconsciously, tales of volcanic eruptions and streams of burning lava with his own experience of Iranian ordeals by molten metal; and according to his stern original teaching, strict justice will prevail then, as at each individual j udgment on earth by a fiery ordeal. So at this last ordeal of all the wicked will suffer a second death, and will perish off the face of the earth. The Daevas and legions of darkness will already have been annihilated in a last great battle with the Yazatas; and the river of metal will flow down into hell, slaying Angra Mainyu and burning up the last vestige of wickedness in the universe.

Ahura Mazda and the six Amesha Spentas will then solemnize a lt, spiritual yasna, offering up the last sacrifice (after which death wW be no more), and making a preparation of the mystical 'white haoma', which will confer immortality on the resurrected bodies of all the blessed, who will partake of it. Thereafter men will beome like the Immortals themselves, of one thought, word and deed, unaging, free from sickness, without corruption, forever joyful in the kingdom of God upon earth. For it is in this familiar and beloved world, restored to its original perfection, that, according to Zoroaster, eternity will be passed in bliss, and not in a remote insubstantial Paradise. So the time of Separation is a renewal of the time of Creation, except that no return is prophesied to the original uniqueness of living things. Mountain and valley will give place once more to level plain; but whereas in the beginning there was one plant, one animal, one man, the rich variety and number that have since issued from these will remain forever. Similarly the many divinities who were brought into being by Ahura Mazda will continue to have their separate existences. There is no prophecy of their re-absorption into the Godhead. As a Pahlavi text puts it, after Frashegird 'Ohrmaid and the Amahraspands and all Yazads and men will be together. .. ; every place will resemble a garden in spring, in which

there are all kinds of trees and flowers ... and it will be entirely the creation of Ohrrnazd' (Pahl.Riv.Dd. XLVIII, 99, lOO, l07). ~1600B.C.
 
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