ABSOLUTES II

I sometimes wonder if the arrogance of Christians who push away God seeking individuals..,  just because they have become repulsed to the idea of the Christian ideology simply because the Christians set absolutes. One of the absolutes is the universe being created in the literal seven days. I,  myself does not believe that our, (mans’) literal seven days reflects God’s seven days. Theologians states that direct interpretation in scripture states the literal seven days, and that it means man’s literal seven days. Even though in 2 Peter 3:8, “But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is a thousand days, and a thousand years as one day.”  Or… Psalm 90:4 “For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.” However, the same theologians say that this verse is not relative to the creation time frame. When God showed the creation to Moses, was the day interpretation from Moses. Was it Moses’s seven days of God showing him the creation?

If God is eternal why would he just spend a minute speck in time to create our universe? If God stated numerous times as He described His creation, “And God saw it was good”, why would God be so delighted by a speck in His eternity? To me this scripture shows the joy of God’s creation. Why would He rush to create the universe? I think He took His time to do it, like thousands of our years to one of His. I can almost see God creating things like the Grand Canyon, or Yellowstone, creating the rains and the water, and the rivers to slowly carve out a masterpiece.., and then as He looks upon this creation, stating, “And God saw it was good!”

You have creationists state that dinosaurs were on earth over the past 4-6000 years, when absolute science knows that this is an impossibility. Our landscapes which any one with a sense of intelligence can see that it took more than a few thousand years of man’s coexistence. Based on simple learned and recorded history and science, it is obvious that our world is thousands and thousands of years old. I feel that God used time and nature in His creation. He saw it was good because the beauty of how He used His artistic will to create the incredible earth we live upon. Why would God spend a mere fragment of His existence when He has eternity to enjoy creating our earth. Could God do it in our seven days? Of course He could if He desired to. However I strongly feel that God saw it was good because of the process and the time He utilized in doing so..

When I mention my creation beliefs to other Christians, I am often accused of blasphemy. I am told that I am calling God a liar, or that if I don’t believe in the literal mans’ seven days then all the rest of my faith is false. Even though if the dinosaurs actually existed in the Old Testament times, you would have certainly have seen some form of scripture besides just the one verse in Job 40 where it describes the “behemoth”. And besides, Christ never said that I had to believe the literal seven day theory to be saved. And, I do not see how it affects my faith in any way…

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THIRTY PIECES OF SILVER

Often as I read the Bible I can see how the dots here and there come together in the end. Just like the prelude to Jesus’s crucifixion. If we just briefly read Matthew  26: 14-16,  ” Then one of the twelve, whose name was Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “What will you give me if I deliver him over to you?” And they paid him thirty pieces of silver. And from that moment he sought an opportunity to betray him”, we might fail to understand the whole concept of Jesus’s worth. But, if we link it to Exodus 21:32 “If the ox gores a slave, male or female, the owner shall give to their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned”, we then see that it is the worth of a common slave. The priests who were always searching for ways to demean Jesus, offered an extreme insult by classifying that Jesus’s worth was the same as a lowly slave. However, when we think of Christ we should see the servant he strived to be, and called us to be as well. Of course the next morning, Judas saw what was transpiring because of his actions, Matthew 27:3-10 ” Then when Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders, saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” They said, “What is that to us? See to it yourself.” And throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple, he departed, and he went and hanged himself.  But the chief priests, taking the pieces of silver, said, “It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, since it is blood money.”  So they took counsel and bought with them the potter’s field as a burial place for strangers.  Therefore that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day.  Then was fulfilled what had been spoken by the prophet Jeremiah, saying, “And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him on whom a price had been set by some of the sons of Israel,  and they gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord directed me”.

Of course the foretelling of this specific money exchange comes from Zechariah 11:4-14 “ This is what the Lord my God says: “Shepherd the flock marked for slaughter.  Their buyers slaughter them and go unpunished. Those who sell them say, ‘Praise the Lord, I am rich!’ Their own shepherds do not spare them.  For I will no longer have pity on the people of the land,” declares the Lord. “I will give everyone into the hands of their neighbors and their king. They will devastate the land, and I will not rescue anyone from their hands.” So I shepherded the flock marked for slaughter, particularly the oppressed of the flock. Then I took two staffs and called one Favor and the other Union, and I shepherded the flock.  In one month I got rid of the three shepherds. The flock detested me, and I grew weary of them  and said, “I will not be your shepherd. Let the dying die, and the perishing perish. Let those who are left eat one another’s flesh.” Then I took my staff called Favor and broke it, revoking the covenant I had made with all the nations.  It was revoked on that day, and so the oppressed of the flock who were watching me knew it was the word of the Lord. I told them, “If you think it best, give me my pay; but if not, keep it.” So they paid me thirty pieces of silver. And the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—the handsome price at which they valued me! So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them to the potter at the house of the Lord. Then I broke my second staff called Union, breaking the family bond between Judah and Israel.”

Scripture is an intertwining of man’s relationship with God, from the creation to the redemption. Understanding the purpose of these words allows us to see the meaning of our lives, and that it isn’t some random contingency of God’s plans..