Quote:
Originally posted by kang
However, there are those who insist on taking every word in the bible literally. They will forever believe that god created the universe in six 24 hour days.
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A brief tangent...
There are many different flavors of Christianity, a spectrum really. Some chose to emphesize one thing (Baptists the Spirit, Methodists -- Good Works, Catholics the Body and Blood, and so on) over another.
Some people believe that the "Day" described in Genesis is strictly a modern day of 24 hours. I've mentioned this elsewhere on this BBS, but the Hebrew word for "day" used in Genesis does map very well onto the English word "day", and was generally used in the same way, such as...
It took me a DAY to do that... (24 hours or alternatively a workday)
What DAY is it? (Friday)
At the end of the DAY... (sunset, or the end of daylight or a workday)
Back in my DAY... (an indetermined period of time)
As far as interpretting the Bible, there are also those (The Amish, Menninites, etc) who believe that God wants us to live in a simple, "old fashioned" way, which to them seems to arbitrarily mean in the style of a 19th Century agrarian society, as opposed to say...
- A simple Roman style society such as when Jesus lived
- A simple Bronze aged society such as during the time of Jewish Kingdom
Does this mean that they are going to rot in hell? I don't know. But if Christians practice their particular faith sincerly, I'm pretty sure that God will give them credit for it. Jesus even taught that it was the good Sameritan (a Judaic offshoot, considered by many Jews to be heritical) who was doing God's work when he helped the traveller who had been mugged. He also made the clear point that God's will was not done by the "holy" Levite or the High Priest who were both too occupied with themselves and their perceived position as inate "friends of God" to help the person in need.
So I guess the application of this famous parable is that none of us is going to be doing God's will and get to heaven just by being a member of the Hebrew/Catholic/Baptist/Methodist/Mennonite/Lutheran/etc. group, but rather by what we do and how we act to others, especially those in need.