I take it you're a catholic? Anyways the apostles were supposed to be special and what they wrote as I quoted earlier is supposedly the word of God written through them. There are no bishops, priests or pastor, etc in the new testament. If anything these Apostles would be more analogous to missionaries than clergy. Books written by the clergy are not considered the word of God! Perhaps you and I are on different mental wave links, but I would consider your argument to be dishonest continuing to insist that the bible was written by the clergy and now acknowledging a difference between them and the apostles. Seems like semantics based on your own and perhaps the catholic definition of Christianity. I thought you did say " he came to end religion", which you later edited? Maybe I read it wrong, though? Anyway, the same thing applies if he came to fulfill and perfect religion you only have this belief based on what you read in the bible written by the apostles[ and the guys who wrote the Gospels. thanks, Igy] or clergy as you call them. Apostles wrote one of the Gospels and the epistles. It is supposedly the word of god inspired by God according to what is written in the new testament bible. Two entirely different Gods. The new testament is largely based on Greek philosophy, the Old testament God is extremely bigoted and vengeful. The Old testament God favored the Jews over all peoples and told them to make slaves of the rest of the world or slay them. That the lives of their gentile enemies were worthless and to do with them as they please, pillage, slavery, that even their animals were "unclean". Quite the change over to the new testament God and what Christ preaches.
Hey this is getting too offtopic I'm afraid. By all means move the debate to a new thread if you like, but the question in this thread should remain 'the bible and masturbation' Thankyou all
Amazing. I love what you wrote. For the most part I agree with you, but I don't see any of that as religion. What you wrote is designed to provide space for an encounter between man and an ever-present and incredibly close God. Giving humans an opportunity to come into a relationship with a God of relentless love and overflowing abundance.
I agree God did do this so that we may come into a relationship with Christ. As St. Paul says if he's done anything he's done it in the person of Jesus Christ. Most tend to look at the word religion in a negative light but the word religion comes from the Latin and while there are a few different translations, the most prevalent roots take you back to the Latin word “Re-Ligare”. “Ligare” means “to bind” or to “connect”. Adding the “re” before “ligare” causes the word to mean “Re-Bind” or “Re-Connect.” Christ established a religion that we might reconnect with the Father through Him. Anyway I'll leave it at that. Mods have spoken.
I hope nobody here will take this Bible verse literary. But even though I don't believe in Gehenna (or rather have no clue of it) I see a truth in this verse: often I haven't taken things seriously enough or I was afraid to make a real change and often that has come back to roost. For example it took me a year of nofap try and error until I first installed a porn-filter. And I imagine would I've had the mindset that my brain and my time is too worthy for PMO, I hadn't become addicted in the first place. [sorry if I messed up the if-clause]
Well they weren't written by any of the people who's name appear on the gospels. I pretty sure that the consensus among biblical scholars is that (to say it unscholarly) nobody has a freaking idea who wrote them.