Elisha And The Little Children:what Does This Story Teach Us? - Christianity Etc (2)

Elisha And The Little Children:what Does This Story Teach Us? - Christianity Etc (2) - Nairaland

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Re: Elisha And The Little Children:what Does This Story Teach Us? by yemisolar(m): 4:12pm On Oct 02, 2012

TheMadame: @Yemi,
Thank you for your contribution,which was illuminating,however I hope you are hot advocating that we should discard the Old testament of the Holy Bible because we have the New testament. I believe both parts of the Bible are suposed to compliment each other or what say you?

i am not in anyway saying that the OT should be abandoned. If anything the OT gave us ab ackground that a messiah was coming. It also gave us the introduction and a root from which the NT sprouts from. It is therefore an important part of the scripture.

What i am saying however is that after the death of Christ, God's anger against mankind is appeased -at least until the white throne judgement- therefore God is not as rash (for want of words) in the NT as He was in the OT.

That is why a lot of people get away with things these days which they would have been struck dead in the OT.

Re: Elisha And The Little Children:what Does This Story Teach Us? by TheMadame(op): 10:04pm On Oct 02, 2012

^^
Thank you sir for your contribution,I think we are all learning from each other.
Please what is your take on marcions theory that the God of the Old testament is different from the God of the New testament? Is the God of the old testament a tribal, blood thirsty God, while the God of the New testament is a loving ,compassionate and peaceful God? Your contributions to this topic is appreciated in advance.

Re: Elisha And The Little Children:what Does This Story Teach Us? by TheMadame(op): 10:14pm On Oct 02, 2012

@Mr Evil Brain,
Sir,Thank you for pasting the Marcion theory to the thread,I appreciate,however I am new to this internet business,so could you please explain to a novice like me how to cut and paste articles from other sources to Nairaland.
Your help will be hioghly appreciated and thank you in advance.

Re: Elisha And The Little Children:what Does This Story Teach Us? by yemisolar(m): 8:32am On Oct 03, 2012

TheMadame: ^^
Thank you sir for your contribution,I think we are all learning from each other.
Please what is your take on marcions theory that the God of the Old testament is different from the God of the New testament? Is the God of the old testament a tribal, blood thirsty God, while the God of the New testament is a loving ,compassionate and peaceful God? Your contributions to this topic is appreciated in advance.

you know we can sit down and start arguing about who marcion was and and whether the cannonisation of the bible was a reaction to his works or not but i will not go down that road.

How i can explain the God of OT and that of NT is this; when you were child, your parents would most likely beat you if you did anything wrong, the farthest they will go now is to verbally scold you. Does that meant that they have changed from being your parents?

True, God deals with mankind in a different way now from how He did in the OT. There are so many explanations which i cannot start enumerating here. But one of it is that sin (and sinner nations by extension) was like cancer which had to be cut off because there was no treatment for them. That is why He can tell king saul to wipe away the amalekites for instance. It was a short term solution until the remedy came in christ who offers repentance and reconcilliation to God.

Further more, there are several areas where the NT can be seen as an upgrade of the OT. For instance, leviticus mentions animals (including pig) that are not to be eaten by the israelites, but in acts God told Peter that since He created all animals,Peter should not restrict himself. This was setting forth an improved order of things in God's dealing with mankind. It doesnt mean He has changed. There are so many other instances such as sabbath, tithing, sacrifices, worship and so on where it looks like the NT contradicts the OT but it actually complements the OT.

As for the cannonnisation of the scripture, the pentateuch (first five books of the OT) and the prophets were already in use at the time that Jesus came. (Remember He read from the book of Isiah Himself) so the cannonisation could not have been a reaction to macion's excommunication.

True, Christianity came from judaism. As a matter of fact, the OT as we know it today is called the hebrew bible. But i make bold to say it is the same God acting in accordance with His plan for humanity per time and He has allowed the OT to be put together with the NT so that we can learn from the OT and live in the NT.

Re: Elisha And The Little Children:what Does This Story Teach Us? by EvilBrain1(m): 12:03pm On Oct 03, 2012

TheMadame: @Mr Evil Brain,
Sir,Thank you for pasting the Marcion theory to the thread,I appreciate,however I am new to this internet business,so could you please explain to a novice like me how to cut and paste articles from other sources to Nairaland.
Your help will be hioghly appreciated and thank you in advance.

1. Highlight the text you want to copy with your mouse.
2. Press Control + C
3. Move the cursor to where you want to paste the text.
4. Press Control + V

You can also do it by right-clicking and selecting first cut, then paste from the menu. Don't worry, computers aren't difficult to use. Keep experimenting and you'll eventually figure it out.

Re: Elisha And The Little Children:what Does This Story Teach Us? by TheMadame(op): 1:12pm On Oct 03, 2012

@ Mr Evil Brain,
Thank you, you are too kind. What do you think about Mr Yemi Solas post above yours?

Re: Elisha And The Little Children:what Does This Story Teach Us? by EvilBrain1(m): 5:27pm On Oct 03, 2012

TheMadame: @ Mr Evil Brain,
Thank you, you are too kind. What do you think about Mr Yemi Solas post above yours?

He's dead wrong. People tend to have selective memory when trying to explain difficult issues like god's sudden change of character in the new testament.

Thw bible clearly states several times that God is immutable and unchanging. It also states that he is all knowing and omnipotent so there is no reason why he should have to modify his behavior for any reason. He knew he was going to send Jesus while he was ordering the cold-blooded slaughter of Amalekite civilians. He was already "the merciful god" when he was killing the Egyptian children. Omnipotence means he could easily have found a more humane way of achieving whatever aims he had in mind. The fact that he chose not to is very telling. Immutability also means that god is just as prone to anger, cruelty and psychopathy now as he was in the old testament. He hasn't changed because he doesn't change.

Christians nowadays like to cherry-pick the parts of the bible that allow them to paint a rosy picture of god. They are willfully blind to all the inconsistencies, contradictions and absurdities inherent in their beliefs. That is why modern the modern version of Christianity makes little or no sense.

The story of Marcion of Sinope shows that early Christians at least tried to apply common sense to explain some of the inconsistencies in the bible. Back then, many believers weren't willing to turn off their brains and just accept whatever they were spoonfed from on high. Nowadays, when you ask too many questions people start warning you that "it's not good to be too smart" and you should "just believe". They now deliberately promote stúpidity as a virtue.

Its very annoying and very sad.

Re: Elisha And The Little Children:what Does This Story Teach Us? by TheMadame(op): 6:25pm On Oct 03, 2012

Hmmm, this is very interesting.

Re: Elisha And The Little Children:what Does This Story Teach Us? by yemisolar(m): 12:48pm On Oct 04, 2012

TheMadame: Hmmm, this is very interesting.

very interesting indeed.
there are two aspects to the word of God; there is the letter and there is the spirit. we can conflict the letter but we cant the Spirit.

i would not engage i any argument online or offline as to who is right and who is wrong as i have discovered that arguments do not change people. it is the Holy Spirit that does. it doesnt make any sense trying to take His position.

stay with the word of God yourself and allow the Spirit to teach you on the right path. stay blessed.

Re: Elisha And The Little Children:what Does This Story Teach Us? by Dantedasz(m): 12:45pm On Oct 30, 2013

@OP,
You have come again with controversial Bible passages,are you the devils advocate?

Interesting thread sha.
Maicons theory of a dual/split personality God in the New and Old testament makes a lot of sense.

Re: Elisha And The Little Children:what Does This Story Teach Us? by Dantedasz(m): 5:22pm On Sep 17, 2018

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iNoM14t-ZM

Re: Elisha And The Little Children:what Does This Story Teach Us? by Dantedasz(m): 6:55pm On Sep 17, 2018

olapitan3496:
^^ Sir, Thank you for your insight,however what I discern from it is that mockery of any man of God equals a violent death of any kind. This to me can not be right. Our God is a kind,compassionate and loving God. This passage in the Bible is completely contrary to these attributes of my God.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcion_of_Sinope

Re: Elisha And The Little Children:what Does This Story Teach Us? by Dantedasz(m): 6:57pm On Sep 17, 2018

EvilBrain1:
There was an early Christian bishop called Marcion of Sinope who was born around 85 A.D. about 50 years after the crucifixion supposedly took place. Back then, the basic Christian dogma and most of the beliefs we take for granted nowadays hadn't been defined yet. Most Christians back then didn't believe in the divinity of Christ, the new testament hadn't been compiled yet, and many of the books had probably not even been written.

Anyway, Marcion studied the old testament and noticed that the behavior of Yahweh, the god of Israel didn't really match the heavenly father that Jesus spoke of. Jesus's heavenly father seemed to be a kind, merciful god who wanted to save mankind and wasn't too concerned with enforcing strict laws. On the other hand, the god of the old testament was a despotic, cruel, mass-murdering dictator who didn't hesitate to punish or kill people for breaking the tiniest rules even if they did it with good intentions. The old testament god was also partial to the Jews and extremely mean to everyone else. Marcion also wondered how evil came into the world? If god was all good, why did he create the devil and allow him to mess up the world? How could a good tree produce bad fruit?

He eventually decided that the old testament god wasn't the same one as the heavenly father that Jesus prayed to. His theory was that even though Yahweh created the world he was at least partly evil and cruel. The heavenly father who is a more powerful god eventually took pity on mankind and decided to rescue us (including those being tortured in hell). He decided to send Jesus to save mankind, but Yahweh's supporters tried to stop this by killing him. Unfortunately, their plan backfired because Jesus's death was the price needed to ransom man from Yahweh's clutches. Note that Marcion didn't reject the old testament, he just said we should read it with the understanding that the god in it wasn't the same one Christians were now worshippping

Marcion's theory is interesting in that it solves the "problem of evil" quite neatly. Unfortunately, the early church leaders didn't take kindly to it and they soon kicked the guy out of the church and declared him a heretic. His later on formed his own parallel church which eventually grew large enough to become orthodox Christianity's major rival for more than 2 centuries. Marcionism only died out then the orthodox Christianity became Rome's state religion and they started harassing and killing those they called "heretics".

If emperor Constantine had chosen another religion, Christianity could have been completely different today.

[url]en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcion_of_Sinope[/url]

Re: Elisha And The Little Children:what Does This Story Teach Us? by confusedlady(f): 11:10pm On Sep 04, 2023

TheMadame:
Good day to all the knowledgeable people of the religious section.I do not know if this topic has been discussed before since I am new here.However I am a student of the Bible because it fascinates me a great deal.In fact I have read the book cover to cover a couple of times,however there is one passage that has always fascinated me and I have always wondered what this passage teaches us as students of the Bible or Christians?
The passage in question is[b] 2nd Kings Chapter 2 verses 23-25. [/b]

I have always wondered about this passage and what it is trying to teach us as Christians and as human beings.

Please read along with me and let us rub minds together on this passage and any other passages in the Bible that you find fascinating;

2nd Kings chapter 2 verses 23-25.

23 And he went up from thence unto Bethel: and as he was going up by the way,there came forth little children out of the city and mocked him and said unto him,Go up thou bald head;go up thou bald head.
24 And he turned back and looked on them and cursed them in the name of the Lord;And there came forth two she bears out of the woods and tore forty and two children of them.
25 And he went from thence to Mount Carmel,and from thence he returned to Samaria.

The Holy Bible,King James version.

I am still baffled as to what this passage means to teach us.
Please can I be enlightened? Thank you in advance.

Anti christ

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