Simple question?

Quote: rxwine

No, didn't see that, just happened to catch this one in the news.

It seems the regular Catholics are mad at the pope for making another saint out of an Orthodox catholic.

I wonder if they are thinking the Pope is a "loose Canon". : )

Another simple question.

If there is something to be learned from the Garden of Eden story, then one thing we know is God can banish humans from an area. He punishes Adam and Eve not allowing their free will to exercise itself and reenter the Garden.

I say this because we already know that Satan was already fallen and up to no good. Satan could have been banished from entering the GOE but was not.

The whole free will excuse just doesn't hold to let him in. He had already f***ed up but God knowingly lets him slither in.

Explain please?

Quote: rxwine

The whole free will excuse just doesn't hold to let him in. He had already f***ed up but God knowingly lets him slither in.

Explain please?

It's a myth that's meant to teach, not
to be taken literally. There was no witch
in an edible house trying to trick kids
inside so she could eat them. The story
was a teaching method for children.

Quote: Evenbob

It's a myth that's meant to teach, not
to be taken literally.

I'm not asking if it's true and don't care about that anyway as far as the point I'm making.

Goood Morning Fellow Degenerate Gamblers,

I'd thought I'd post the initial post here for contemplation since this thread entitled Simple Question has gone on to 155 pages.

What exactly do Christians mean by "salvation"?

Am I supposed to be saved from some kind of imminent peril?

And what do they mean by "accepting Jesus as your personal savior? Is this like a personal shopper?
Will a man dead for 2,000+ years offer some kind of personalized assistance in this mysterious "salvation" business?

I don't expect I'll comprehend any of this.
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

I don't expect FrG will either but like UFOs and Time Travel adherents, that is not an impediment to believing in them.
I've just awakened so I have not been able to check whether God has moved any Morning Lines in Vegas overnight.

Quote: rxwine

Another simple question.

If there is something to be learned from the Garden of Eden story, then one thing we know is God can banish humans from an area. He punishes Adam and Eve not allowing their free will to exercise itself and reenter the Garden.

I say this because we already know that Satan was already fallen and up to no good. Satan could have been banished from entering the GOE but was not.

The whole free will excuse just doesn't hold to let him in. He had already f***ed up but God knowingly lets him slither in.

Explain please?

Satan doesn't do anything that God does not allow him to do. Read Job for the clearest example of this.

Quote: pew

Satan doesn't do anything that God does not allow him to do. Read Job for the clearest example of this.

It's not really what I'm getting at.

However, a couple other thoughts occurred to me this morning. If people believe in Heaven why do any of them at all discount the Garden of Eden story? If you can believe in one fantastic place, why not the other? Perhaps it disagrees with some factual information on Earth, but I've not noticed that stopping many people from their claims.

In fact the GOE has many of the same features mentioned in Heaven.
see here:
http://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/will-heaven-be-similar-to-the-garden-of-eden/

Anyway, I find it peculiar that Satan is allowed access to roam around the GOE. This is after God has begin to deal with him as reject. Yet the humans are banished from it the first time they screw up.

Quote: Fleastiff

Goood

What exactly do Christians mean by "salvation"?

Am I supposed to be saved from some kind of imminent peril?

And what do they mean by "accepting Jesus as your personal savior? Is this like a personal shopper?
Will a man dead for 2,000+ years offer some kind of personalized assistance in this mysterious "salvation" business?

I don't expect I'll comprehend any of this.
.

There is nothing to comprehend, it's all
made up nonsense. Don't try and wrap
your mind around it, save yourself the
frustration.

Quote: rxwine

Perhaps it disagrees with some factual information on Earth, but I've not noticed that stopping many people from their claims.

The one book by Asimov I got my hands on and never read was "Asimov's Guide to the Bible." I did start it, though, and in the very first chapter he talks about the location of the Garden of Eden. He makes it very clear that the Bible makes it very clear this was somewhere on Earth. I forget where, though (as I said, I stopped reading this book(*)) I assume it was somewhere in Mesopotamia, as that's where Jewish mythology seems to have been started (lots of borrowings from Babylonian sources in particular).

So it's possible if one could locate the garden in the place or region indicated in the Bible, one would also find not actual Garden of Eden there.

You can imagine a pious, devout Jew look at a stretch of floodplain, then at his Bible, then say "It looked much better in the brochure!" :)


(*) I quit reading it because I wasn't familiar with the subject matter.

And all around the lone and level sands stretched far away...

Any GARDEN after generations of salting, desertification, wind erosion, would by now be barren dirt.