As for the beggining of the thread i will tell you something.
The autor dont understand nothing about the Bible as the Catholic Church didnt
More than a book of good deeds the Bible tells us an overall story concerning Gods plan of salvation.
If you look at it in a humanistic way you will not understand it.
In the eyes of common humans what God did was unfair.
Nothing more wrong.
If God didnt have done it then that will be unfair.
Take your belts to the explanation of that plan.
Forget everything you have learned about the Bible
Take the bible and follow my logic
When Adam and Eve sinned against God the Sin entered on all the Cosmos
It propagates through the next generaions.
Adam and Eve were expelled from the GARDEN and God put angels and a FLAMING SWORD guarding the way to the TREE OF LIFE.
This will be the starting point.
I believe this last description was symbolic and i will explain what i believe it means.
Adam and Eve didnt deserve to be on the garden of Eden but God was looking for someone who deserves it.
Then he found Abraham a man with many defects but with a great FAITH(The words with capital letters are keywords)
His faith pleasures God and he was chosen to be the father of the ones who will "Enter the Garden and take the Tree of Life".
Note this is a journey through time and space(here they are dependent).
They gain the right to "be in that Garden" and God had to give them the power to "overtake the sword "
That is because God used Cananites to guard the Promised Land but it didnt mean that they friends.On the contrary,Cananites and God are enemies because they worship another gods.
When they enter the "Garden" they have to walk yet to the "Tree of Life".This correspond to walk in the dimension of time.Yet they have to fight the sword because it goes to everywhere(space and time dimensions).
Finally they reach the place and on the time in which Jesus comes,dies on the cross,ressurrects and goes to Haven .
However,only his disciples take the fruit of the Tree of Life and eat of it because the others are only eating from the other trees of the garden i.e they are so proud they think that Gods only plan was to give them the promised land.
Then on Pentecost God "sends a river through the world that carries the leafs of the Tree of Life that grows on each side of the river.This leaf will restore all the nations"
This river is the Holy Spirit
After the Pentecost the disciples went through the world preaching the Godspell of Jesus Christ which is much more important than our lives.
Of course God has the power to ressurect all the cananites and preach them the Godspell.
God concentrates first on the salvation of the soul FROM THE HELL.
HELL is spiritual separation from God and is worst than death.
HELL is something sufficiently terrifying to justify Gods actions.
You could live in spiritual HELL even when you are alive and rich and/or made very good deeds.
And you could have ETERNAL LIFE even when you are alive and poor
You could live one of them even when you are alive(death is not necessary).
Then the things of the Lord are for TODAY and for THIS LIFE,not something we only expect in the future.
Hadnt you understand yet that EVERYTHING on this world converges to Jesus?
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Man are not saved through good deeds but through faith in Jesus
[This message has been edited by Newborn, 07-14-2003]
[This message has been edited by Newborn, 07-14-2003]