@expiated just want to say I enjoy reading your theological thoughts about the Gospel Of Luke. I wanted your opinion about apocryphal books? My whole problem is scholars can't even agree on the authorship of most books in the Bible. The Gospel of Luke might've not been written by Luke, but whoever wrote Luke also wrote Acts. So if this is the case, then I'm interested in noncanonical books such as the Book of Enoch, the Gospel of Thomas, Gospel of Philip, Pistis Sophia, The Apocalypse of John, Act of Thomas, etc etc etc... 1940 changed the Christian world when they dug up all those codices buried in Nag Hammadi. the Book of Enoch interests me a lot, and Enoch also is one of the most interesting biblical patriarchs. I just wanted your opinion on apocryphal works?
If I can be permitted to be a bit uncouth, my opinion ain't worth snot. Personally, if I were in search of opinions that I believed to be worth listening to, I would watch these two videos...
I don't understand why people shun noncanonical text yet worship the canon? The canon was authorized by human hands... specifically Athanasius of Alexandria which he promoted a strict canon in his Easter letter. My point is, nobody knows who truly wrote many of the canon books in the Bible... yet they are still held with high regard compared to texts found at Nag Hammadi. The Book of Enoch is also considered canon sctripture to the Etheopian Orthodox Church.
Turns out it's only the "word of God" when a priest a preacher or a prophet says so. You have to also remember Bible Jesus acted like a total dick in quite a few parts of the Apocrypha, no surprise why religious folk would want to dodge around that. A lot of it apparently was too bat shit crazy even for the Bible. Take Enoch for instance. I mean, human flesh eating Angels called Watchers at 400 foot tall ..wtf!
Dude are you 12? lol Obviously you never studied theodicy. Youre asking the wrong questions looking for right answers.. Get back in the books my man!
.. type of thing an 11 year old would say. To have studied theodicy is to have studied how to excuse the inexcusable. It's not an edifying exercise. To believe in a God that created everything including evil, is to believe in a monster. To then try and excuse it, is itself monstrous, an abdication from basic moral standards and failure in human reasoning.
That’s the stupidest thing you’ve ever posted. How can one ever have a real relationship with someone if they don’t have free will? God gives people a choice, we create evil by our actions.
As for Authorship, most all of the Bible is settled. As for the OT, canon was generally decided by a vast majority of Jewish scholars before the formation of the church and the fall of Jerusalem 70AD. The 39 OT books today are deemed inspired. Division seems to be along content and the time and language of the book in question i.e. written in Hebrew and dated before or at the time of the return to Jerusalem from Babylonian/Persian exile. Ezra timeframe. The Apocrypha is seen as historical in writing but not on the same level as the other books. The Catholic church and a few Coptic Christian churches still include the Apocrypha in canon. The NT church viewed the Jewish agreed 39 OT books as settled. As for the NT, going through the different councils Laodicea, Hippo, Carthage et al. criteria was relationship of author to Apostles. Was the book in question already accepted by the Christian church at large (a big one). Was the content consistent with already agreed upon scripture, promoting high moral and spiritual lifestyle with evidence of Holy Spirit inspiration. You have to understand these books were debated long ago by people much closer to their writing. Christian’s today believe the Holy Spirit guided man into what God had already decided, despite man’s sin and flaws, recognition of His inspired Word. Today’s Holy Bible.
Those who get murdered don't seem to generally have any free will in the matter, do they? People born with crippling disabling diseases don't have any free will not to be born like that. Where's their free will? So you're saying because there's no free will in being born that way, no one could ever have a real relationship with them...really? God created good and evil but we create evil?.. either God is supposed to have created everything or not. A God that creates free will for a perpetrator but not their victim is the very definition of something evil. Albeit Bible God is imaginary but even so, an insight into God's sins and flaws, For you to so readily give up all reasoning to defend something like that, in my opinion falls far short of even the first basics in human moral standards. As with all other biblical books, not historical by any standards required that confirm their contents as historical. Hysterical yes but certainly not historical.
Evil, i.e. “Sin” is disobedience to God. God created Man with the ability to chose. Man, the first Adam disobeyed God and brought sin/evil into this world/realm. (As a footnote, sin already existed prior to the formation of everything we know via disobedience by Satan and his fellow fallen angels). Thru Adam sin entered into the world and as a byproduct we are born into sin. But don’t let that be an obstacle as everyone of us chooses disobedience/sin/evil in some degree every day. So our pedigree isn’t an excuse. Yes, there are bad things that happen, actions have consequences. This world at the moment is not what God desires but it is the result of man. Bad news, because of “sin” man is separated spiritually from God i.e. “No Sin” and cannot coexist. The good news, it isn’t going stay this way! The Last Adam, Jesus Christ has paid the debt of “sin” and created a path back to God for all those who accept it. God will one day put an end and judge sin with the disobedient angels. Unfortunately mankind as well. God’s patiently endures our sin waiting for all those who he knows to come to Him before He draws the end to this age and restores His creation. His concern is our eternal existence, we get consumed pandering to this short earthly life.