Kay I'm back! I'm at my parents house using their Internet so yay. I think I was talking about polygamy. I don't think God planned for man to have more than one wife. Here is an example of what I mean:
God gives us only two other circumstances where a man can marry another woman:
1) If his wife dies [see Romans 7:2-3]
2) If his wife commits adultery [see Matthew 19:8-9]
I found this website very useful:
Polygamy - What the Bible Says I know there are numerous other websites encouraging it as a Christian belief/attitude but that is just wrong. I've read through the Bible and feel I have a good understanding of most of it (Revelation is still a little over my head though). I know this may sound silly but I know in my heart that it is wrong. God gave us the ability to know good & evil and no matter how people twist the Bible around to encourage Polygamy... it is just plain wrong!
The way I see it, polygamy is nothing short of disastrous if you want to create a society that respects the idea of equality between the sexes. How can you possibly have equality if a man can have many wives, but a woman may have to share her only husband with other women?
And as long as polygamy is accepted in Muslim societies, I don’t think equality between the sexes is possible there.
I couldn't agree more!
Obviously Muhammed is the founder of Islam, but in my opinion, it is Paul rather than Jesus who is the founder of Christianity. Paul tirelessly travelled around the Middle East of his time, arguing and canvassing for Christianity. Muhammed also travelled a lot, whereas Jesus never left his home province of Palestine. Both Paul and Muhammed also wrote down their revelations and thought about their religion, expounding in writing on what is the will of God. Jesus, by contrast, never wrote anything down.
I have to disagree with you here Ann because Christianity in itself is the following of Christ. There was not Christianity until Jesus The Christ came to this earth and had followers. Before then, everyone practiced Judaism. There's something to keep in mind when analyzing the Bible, The scripture is God Breathed, meaning the writings are by Humans inspired by God. Paul wrote most of the New Testament but nothing he wrote came from himself. He wrote what God wanted him to write. The fact that God used Paul, formerly Saul, a murderer of Christians, to fulfill his purpose is amazing. It shows me that no one is beyond saving. There is no one that is too far past God's grace. You really should read the book of Acts because that is where it talks about Paul's conversion and how he was before he was saved. And even if Jesus never left his home area of Palestine, his teachings were still around even when Paul started teaching (which was much after Jesus' death & resurrection). Paul was directed by God to preach to all the Gentiles (non-Jews) and Peter was directed to preach to all the Jews. Jesus told them to go and make disciples of many nations Matthew 28:19. In writing those Books, they have done just that.
Jesus, on the other hand, never once said that women should obey any laws that applied to them only! He never said that men and women should obey different laws. Never once did he say or do anything that is incompatible with the idea that men and women should be treated equally by the law.
Also, Jesus repeatedly defended precisely the kind of women that his society despised the most: the “fallen” women, the “sinful” women, the whores, the adulteresses. Interestingly, Christianity has continued to despise and punish precisely the kind of women that Jesus himself defended: the “fallen” women, the whores, the adulteresses. When it comes to its view of women, Christian congregations have often been exceedingly bad at listening to what Jesus said on this subject.
The whole idea of Christianity can be summarized with one word: Grace. The fact is that Jesus Christ died for all of us while we were still sinners (me paraphrasing this passage)
“Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:7–8)
Something I heard at my church once, which has always stuck with me is that Justice is getting what we deserve, Mercy is not getting what we deserve, and Grace is getting what we DON'T deserve. That is what fills me with joy and love for Christ is that I'm getting eternal life when I have done absolutley nothing to deserve it. Before I was a Christian, I was into hard drugs, partied all the time, slept around, you name it. When I became a Christian, my entire outlook on life changed. I wish I was more like Jesus in his attitude toward the "fallen woman" (or man). I find myself judgemental too often. I love that Jesus is the perfect example in the Bible of how we should all be. Sadly, it is true that Christians have looked down on the "sinners" Jesus spoke about in the quote you referenced. We are not called to love the sin but we are called to love the sinners. I'd have to say as a whole, Christians fale miserably at that.
By saying this, Paul ensured that Christianity from the start was a matter of private lifestyle and private conscience; it was a private matter, purely and simply. It had nothing to do with the state and the law. From the start, there was this very clear separation between church and state in the Christian religion.
I love that passage that you quoted from Romans.
7Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.
Paul is saying that everyone will struggle in different areas and that everyone should work on their own shortcomings.
I personally love that America was founded on Christian principals. I love that we say "One Nation, Under God" in our pledge of allegiance. There have been far too many moral issues for my taste brought up in the USA over separation of Church & state. I don't want the government to control everything. Something that makes this country different from many countries is our Freedom. I don't want to shove Christianity down people's throats. However, I can't be okay with taking God out of everything this Nation does. I'm kind of torn on this whole issue of separation of church and state because I want people to follow Christian principals because they love Jesus not because they have to because they're Americans; but at the same time I hate to see our Nation disregarding all of these Christian values because some people complain about it. Did you know that it's taboo now to say Merry Christmas to someone in America. It's always Happy Holidays so as not to offend anyone. Christmas trees are called Holiday trees. No more community christmas lights with nativity scenes, it could possibly offend someone else. So I'm a little bitter about the church being separated from state so much but ... again I'm torn on the whole forcing it people issue.
I know I really didn't talk about Islam very much but that's because I don't know very much about it. You've done far more reasearch than I have. You should definitly check out at that video I told you about in my previous post. It was awesome! I actually know one of the people in that video (through one other person). Some of our long time family friends are missionaries in Africa. They preach to the Filani (sp?). Most Muslim's in Filani tribes never hear about Christ because they're nomadic. But some Filani become Christians through their dreams and when I saw that video it had a Filani on there who had become a Christian. So I asked my missionary friends about that video and they were amazed. They were like, "Oh my gosh, that's one of our good Christian friends among the Filani." It really is a small world.
