Promises and Secrets
A website for those not afraid to examine their beliefs, compare them to the real world, and make sure they fit.
Bible: Recipe for Life?
VIEWPOINT
The Bible is God's message to His creation. His message includes many recipes for a successful life, the most obvious being the 10 Commandments and the book of Proverbs. More subtle recipes or guidelines appear in the descriptions of events that happen to people when they practice deceipt or sabotage. What is the point? Obedience to the rules of God is good for us, but it, by itself, does not guarantee our salvation or getting brownie points from God. Our obedience or disobedience has no effect on Him.
FACT
The Bible sets rules for successful living and moral standards that supposedly came from God. The rules are absolute and obedience signifies one's faith and submission to the plan God supposedly has for mankind.
VIEWPOINT
What do you think?
BLUE VIEWPOINT
It's like baking a cake
Say you want to bake a cake. You would go to the cupboards and get some crackers, some oats, some chocolate syrup, and some pepper. Then you would go to the refrigerator and get some nice, cold orange juice, a couple of slices of lunch meat, and some bread. Right? Then you would mix them together in a bowl and put it in the oven for 6 hours. Voila! Dessert!
OK, maybe not. In order to make a cake, you would likely open the recipe box, or book, and follow the instructions for making a cake. You would get the ingredients listed in the recipe, follow the instructions, and then you would have dessert.
That's what the Bible is. A recipe for living this life in a way that will give you a chance at eternal life. The main ingredient for this recipe is Jesus Christ and the sacrifice He made for us. The result of following the instructions, exactly as given, are life with Jesus and His Father. There is not a way to earn your way in, but if you don't follow the instructions, or add your own changes, you will not end up with the expected results.
Rules are for our own good.
If you disagree, try removing the speed limits and traffic rules on our city streets for a week. Far fetched? You get the same effect when you forcefully remove the fundamental rules of society from our schools and government. Those fundamental rules came from God through His book. They are for our own good.
For those who say that most people would not change the way they act if the laws were changed, what would happen if it was no longer a crime to steal products from stores or people's homes? Some, of course, would never steal. However, the reason for this is because they know it is not in the best interests of the social fabric to do so. For the most part, however, once the thievery started, the norm in society must quickly become for everyone to perform similar action to stay alive. The most efficient thief, or the most vicious, would control the flow of goods. One result of this action that many do not realize is that the strongest would just establish new laws that others would have to obey or pay whatever penalty the new "government" decided was appropriate
"Awww...C'mon, we are better than that."
Is it that easy to really believe that things would go bad that quickly? Absolutely.
A friend and co-worker, a confirmed atheist, once stated that everyone knows that it is wrong to kill. He said that we don't need a God telling us what is right or wrong. He feels that this sensitivity to killing developed through the mechanism of evolution when man began to gather into communities. He makes a good point - if you discount one of the mechanisms of evolution that is used to explain the survival of some species and the extinction of others. If it used to be "only the strong survive", when did one of them stand up and convince the others that, from this point forward, "killing is wrong"? Considering how evolutionists view the world, when did this altruism arrive on the scene?
What does this survival mentality bring us? In business, it's a "dog-eat-dog world", crush the competition. In sports, "You're nobody if you're number 2". Look out for number 1. Don't show weakness or you're finished.
Nah. God got it right
We were set up correctly from the beginning. When God gave us choice, we decided to look out for for number one. It started with Adam and Eve, then Cain and Abel, and continued through Isaac and Ishmael, and went further through Jacob and Esau. The middle east conflicts are a direct result of the battle of generations of Biblical characters. These conflicts started when people decided not to do what God told them was the best for their lives. When they didn't listen, trouble started. We are paying for that now by not getting back to the Bible - and we still are not listening to God. Oh, some say that they are, but if you look closely, you will see that they are making up their own, different, recipe. By doing that, as a society we are spoiling the intended result of the real Recipe.
Disagree? Find an error? Contact us at glenjjr@gmail.com and give us your view.
YELLOW VIEWPOINT
The Bible - Opposing View
Tell us your side.
