GDR writes:
I see Jesus as being the man through whom God revisited His creation, and the man who fulfilled and clarified the Hebrew scriptures. It is my contention that the Hebrew scriptures, or essentially our Old Testament, can only be understood through the lens of the New Testament. With that in mind I believe that much of the Old Testament was strictly men attributing to God that which they dreamed up or which suited their purposes.
For example this is from Deuteronomy 21 vs 18-21:
quote:
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18 If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and will not listen to them when they discipline him, 19 his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his town. 20 They shall say to the elders, "This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a profligate and a drunkard." 21 Then all the men of his town shall stone him to death. You must purge the evil from among you. All Israel will hear of it and be afraid.
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GDR, obviously your somewhat of a Biblical novelist who does not understand the difference between the old dispensation of Judaism, the Levitical Law and Jehovah's intent to establish a nation which was to be his messianic nation where his coming messianic king would establish a kingdom of Jehovah on the earth and the new Christian church dispensation of salvation and grace being non-violent in all respects.
The OT law and the OT commands for the Jews to violently wipe out heathenistic cultures in a tiny little spot on the planet and to protect that relative spot pertained to one relatively little group and that alone. It applied to the Jews and the land of Israel
alone and to no other nation.
Thus, over the millennia, the Jews have fought and died for that land which Jehovah gave them. They have never attempted to expand their territory outside of that promised land which was promised by Jehovah to the descendents of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Now, Jesus's first advent was to die for the sins of the people and call out for all who would follow him, enduring the suffering, rather than fight and war. Unlike Joshua, who had an entirely mission from Jehovah, Jesus advocated a total non-violent attitude among his disciples and followers.
Jesus's 2nd advent, soon to come will be different. He, then, will come and destroy the armies of the world which will be assembled at Jerusalem to invade and destroy the Jews, so as for the Palestinians et al to come in and occupy. That is what Armageddon is prophesied to be about.
BUZSAW B 4 U 2 C Y BUZ SAW.
The Immeasurable Present Eternally Extends the Infinite Past And Infinitely Consumes The Eternal Future.