Something else to ponder is that at the time they had a broader definition of the word fish, meaning that what we would define as marine mammels (whales, sharkes, etc) they more than likely just lumped in with "fish". there are some marine animals that are/used to be able to swallow large amounts of food at a time (i say used to because many are extinct now (and by swallow large amounts of food i also mean that they had fairly large mouths, so it would be possible for some species of marine life to swallow a person whole, granted there arent very many now, if any due to natural or man made reasons)), so it is possible that it was a "fish" but not in the ways that we define fish nowadays.
Where was Jesus during the three days before resurrection?
Posted : 18 Apr, 2014 02:14 PM
oh i remember what it was. Jesus may have preached to those on the Hades side of the great chasm (which i think some translations call it) from the paradise/abrahams bosom side of it, because in the lazarus/rich ruler account in luke, lazarus and the rich guy can communicate. but i really dont think it was a call to repentance, it was probably more along the lines of "why didnt you believe" type of thing, i say that because they were given a chance to believe in Jehovah before Jesus came onto the scene, and faith was what got you into paradise in the old testament.
Where was Jesus during the three days before resurrection?
Posted : 18 Apr, 2014 02:06 PM
This is something that ive been thinking of a bit on and off as well, so i will try my best to explain what i have come up with the best i can.
in john 3:13 Jesus says that noone has been too or come from heaven except for himself (im paraphrasing). so we can assume from this verse that anyone that died believing in God the father before jesus` death and resurection were not in heaven (that and one cannot enter heaven unless they confess with their mouths and believe in their hearts that Jesus is who he said he was which was impossible to do before he actually came to earth to attone for our sins). in luke 16:19-31 it talks about lazarus and the rich ruler who both die. the rich guy goes to hades/hell and lazarus ends up in abrahams bosom/side (depending on translation). when jesus is on the cross talking to the thief, He tells the thief that today he (the thief) will be with Him in paradise. in ephesians 4 it talks about how Jesus descended into the lower parts of the earth.
now for some small greek mythology (which i will keep short mostly because i learned this in grade 5 and that was quite a few years ago (cough 18 years ago cough) so it may be slightly off). in greek mythology they had some sort of reward/punishment system. those being rewarded went to paradise, and those being punished went into hades (there was also the pit of tartarus (probably messed up the spelling but oh well) in where the titans where chained (sort of similar idea to the bottomless pit referred to in revelation, and i believe one other place but i cant remember right now). hades and paradise where seperated by the styx river (i believe that is what it is called again it has been awhile) that noone could cross. both of these places where in the center of the earth. now i also want to mention that in alot of various mythologies (greek, roman, egyptian, norse, babylonian etc.) there are some grains of truth in them, but im not going to get into all that right now cause this is getting long enough.
anyways back to what i was trying to get at. when Jesus died (and there is a bit of a debate on where He ended up going, if He went anywhere at all) but i suspect that He went into "paradise" or abrahams bosom to reveal Himself to those that died believing in Him before His attoning death (like abraham, moses, the prophets, john the baptist etc. etc.) some people say that He preached to those people in hades, during His "down time" between His death and resurection, im not sure if i entirely believe that, mostly because it really depends on technicalities, and that hades/hell is the absence of God in any way, shape or form so Jesus would not have been in hades.
anyways i think that i am forgetting something, but this is long enough at the moment and if i remember what it is that i am forgetting i will try to remember to post it.
i cant remember if I said this in the original post or not (if I did its along these lines), im too tired to re read it, but when I said that people use the "im born this way" as a justification for the homosexual lifestyle, it can lead down a very dangerous slope which ultimately leads to everyone using that statement to justify every type of behavior (for example pedophiles, murderers, liers, cheaters etc). if I didn't say that, then this is what I ment when I posted that as one of the "defences" for homosexuality.
I have been thinking of this for quite awhile because of how many people i know that either are gay/bisexual or support that lifestyle. i have seen/heard different arguments supporting/justifying this behaviour from both religious and non-religious people, and i find that many of these arguments are dangerous. i will mention the arguments that i can remember (p.s. i am not intending this as a hate post or anything like that, it is just stuff i have pondered).
-I cant help it i was born this way/I cant help it, God made me this way (didnt know how to fit this part in so ill put it here, i believe both that people are born that way, and that we can be "brainwashed"(for lack of a better word at the moment) into stuff, the whole nature vs. nurture thing)
i put these two together because they are the same argument, just one is generally used by athiests while the other is more of a religious argument, but then again ive heard both from athiests as well as religious people. i am pretty sure that we have all heard this argument to some degree or another. this argument is a fairly dangerous one because various people try to justify their behaviour by using this (examples include pedophiles, abusers, liars, theives, etc). one thing i have thought about is that if we start allowing the act of homosexuality because people where born that way, then why prevent stuff like beastiality or pedophilia because these people where born that way as well? i only as that because that argument can be made for all kinds of evil.
(and just as a heads up, i by no means support beastiality, necrophilia or pedophilia at all, i am just using them as examples)
-Jesus never said that homosexuality was wrong so it must be ok
there are variations of this argument, but they are all still wrong. Jesus also doesnt mention beastiality, necrophilia or pedophilia as being wrong either. so by using this argument to support the homosexual lifestyle, it can also be use to support the others. this argument is also presuming that Jesus really didnt condemn homosexuality. the writers of the gospels didnt record every little thing that Jesus ever said, if they did i am sure that each gospel by themselves would be almost as thick as the bible (i have no real idea, im just guessing on that one). so this could mean that either Jesus did say it and the gospel writers didnt bother writing it down because at the time homosexuality being wrong was a given, or Jesus really didnt say it for the same reason.
(as a side note here, as i did the quick search for the verses for the next one, i did find one in mark where Jesus does condemn homosexuality but it was only in 1 translation, it was mark 7:22 in the CPDV for anyone curious)
-the new testament doesnt say that homosexuality is wrong
this is straight up wrong because the new testament does mention it in a few places (1 timothy 1:10, 1 corinthians 6:9, jude 1:7, 2 corinthians 12:21, galatians 5:19, revelation 22:15, mark 7:22 (now granted some of these depend on translation) there are a few other references as well if i remember correctly, but didnt come up in the quick search i did)
anways, like i said i dont intend this as a hate post towards homosexuals, i am just posting this as a quick counter to some of the arguments for homosexuality behaviour that people make.
Thats the problem with what we as humans call love. We can say we love our spouse (or whoever) then turn around and say we love, pizza/cars/sports etc. If we dont turn to God then we never really know what love really is beyond a fleeting feeling.
i had a similar experiance with a girl that i work with. when the whole her being interested in dating me came up i told her that i wasnt too overly interested and that i would rather be friends (well not in that way, but thats still what i got across). im pretty sure that she was kinda mad at me, but she got over it (although im sure she still has a huge crush on me). if someone who is your friend wants to take it to the next step and you are not interested, they need to respect that. i myself have been in that situation where i liked someone but they just wanted to be friends, it sucked for me (and yes i was kinda crushed a bit, but i got over it), but i needed to respect them and their decision.
i want to start this off by saying that there are 2 main reasons i am posting this
1: my parents are divorced (and so are alot of other people i know including christians)
2: i volunteer at a youth center for street teens
now i know that these 2 reasons for posting this might not make sense right now (especially the 2nd one) but i hope it will later on.
i notice that the teens that i work with dont really seem to know what love really is, and sadly according to statistics, alot of christians dont seem to know either (divorce rates and such). i was talking to a teen one day about relationships and i asked this question: "do you even know what love is?". the teen at first was somewhat offended (but apperantly later reaslized why i asked it). one thing that i hear on a regular basis whenever people break up (each time it was along the same lines, just different ways of saying it) is that they say "i used to/thought i loved the other person". jeremiah 17:9 says the heart is decietful and wicked. here are some definitions of decietful
(of a person) Deceiving or misleading others, typically on a habitual basis. Intended to deceive or mislead.
deceptive - false - fraudulent - delusive - lying
how many times has our hearts decieved use into believing something? even as christians we are not 100% immune to it (we have God to help us). something we tend to forget quite easily is what love is and what love does. the bible says that love is patient, love is kind, does not envy, does not boast, is not proud, does not dishonour others, is not self seeking, is not easily angered, keeps no records of wrongs, does not delight in evil but rejoices in the truth, always protects, trusts, hopes and perseveres. love never fails (1 corinth 13:4-8). in matthew 22:37, Jesus says "love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind". now i know that Jesus is talking about loving the Father, but as i said before, alot of people say they thought they loved the other person when in all honesty it was their heart that was driving them even when all common sense was telling them not too, they didnt (or couldnt) love the other person with all their soul or mind (again because their hearts where in control). back when i was in high school still, this girl asked me out, instead of listening to my common sense which told me not too cause i knew she was a really bad girl (a friend of mine had dated her for a bit) i said yes anyways (cause apperantly i was pretty stupid in high school), turns out that she only did that to try to make her ex boyfriend (my friend) jelous enough to go back out with her (and possibly mess up our friendship). anyways i guess all that i am trying to get across in this is that we as christians need to start being careful with ourselves when it comes to relationships. we need to seek the Lord in everything we do. i hope this made sense, i have never been very good at putting my thoughts down on paper (well internet post in this case) so i do apologize if it seems kind of all over the place.
i agree with this, akthough i just wanted to point out, i think that the reason that some people meld obedience with legalism i because of 2 or 3 possible reasons
1. they dont want to be told that what they are doing is wrong (i.e be "saved" but still live their life like nothing has happened/changed)
or
2. in some cases the line between obediance and legalism has been blurred so bad that they dont know the difference
or
3 both of the above
i mean yes, Jesus and paul both state that the law does not save and all that, but Jesus also stated that He did not come to get rid of the law but to fullfill and that nothing from it shall be taken away or added too it.
p.s i just thought of this, but dont know where to add it so ill put it here, in Jesus time it was legalism that He contended with, the bible talks about His second coming being during a time of lawlessness, just an interesting thought
p.s.s oh and alot of this is also because the "world" has so ingrained itself into the church, alot of christians nowadays dont even truely view the bible as the true word of God, more as something to pick and choose from.
i know some of these have been posted already, but im just going to list the christian metal bands that i have, and a couple borderline between rock and metal.
Advent
Agraceful
Asilaydying
Ascendicate
August Burns Red
Becoming the Arhetype
Brian "Head" Welch
Crucified
Day of Fire
xDeathstarx
Demon Hunter
Destroy The Runner
Devil Wears Prada
Disciple
East West
Extol
The Famine
For All Eternity
For Today
Guardian
Gwen Stacy
Haste the Day
Impending Doom
Inhale/Exhale
In The Midst of Lions
Letter to the Exiles
Living Sacrifice
Love and Death (this is Brian Welch, just with a new band name)
