Fundamentalists/biblical literalists?

Question

Why did god:
-place an angel with a flaming soward at the garden of eden to guard it rather than just get rid of it.

-destroy the earth with a flood when he could have just made all the bad folks disappear

-send his son do "die for our sins" when he could have just forgiven people himself

What's with all the theatrics?

a "soward" is just like a sword only mispelled

jeez old guy63, take a chill pill. just a question for you to think about

Answer 1

It's mythology, not reality.
Don't let it bug you.

Answer 2

1. He place the angel at the entrance of the Garden of Eden too protect the Tree of Life. He did not want Adam and Eve to have a chance to live in the current condition forever.

2. Noah and his family WERE the only righteous people on the earth at that time.

3. God demands justice.

4. You know how creative types are. :)

When you ask questions like these, it's pretty obvious you are not looking for answers, but placing a challenge. However, they are and I hope you get something from them.

Answer 3

We can not know all of the reasons why God does all of these things the way He does. Suffice it to say, that's His prerogative, He is God and we are not. His ways are not our ways.

Isa 55:9
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. (KJV)

But in an attempt to give what I think are reasonable answers to your question:

1. The Bible clearly states that it was to prevent Adam from eating of the fruit of 'Tree of Life'. But in addition I suggest it was to protect the tree. It is referred to again in Revelation, i.e. it is there at both the beginning and the end of God's creation. Whether or not the tree itself is a literal tree or a symbolic tree does not in my opinion detract from the truth.

2. I guess there are many ways in which God could have destroyed the inhabitants of the earth but this is how he chose to do it, what more can person say? It may be worth noting however that death of sin by water could also be symbolic of renewal by Baptism. God promised also that final destruction of the earth would be by Fire.

3. God is a God of justice. A price had to paid for our sins and He chose to do it in such a way that we could be certain also of His love for us.

Answer 4

I guess you should have been God since you know how to do things so much better than He did. Since you call us fundamentalist and literalists why would you ask us. We just take the Bible literally for what is says , and so my answer is I don't know, I just believe it because the bible says it.

The third one you ask the Bible does tell us, and that is because of His justice. What kind of justice is it if a judge just says "I forgive you" to a murderer and lets him walk out of court. It may be wonderful for the murderer, but how do you think the family of the murdered person would take it. Do they not have any right to justice. According to the Bible God's nature demands three things, lovingkindness, justice and righteousness. (Jeremiah 9:24)

Answer 5

He's a drama queen!
That's God.
God will be God.

But seriously, God had to send His son, Jesus, because as much as he forgave us, we still were unable to get to him...the gap between us and Him became so great...He had to allow a bridge to let us cross over.

And what's a soward?

Peace.

Answer 6

When you write your next paper back novel remember to capitalize on the paramount impact and enormity of nature.

Answer 7

Who doesn't love a good drama? Makes life interesting.

Answer 8

God gives us free will, we are free to choose God or Satan, God said, I set before you 2 masters(Jesus/Satan) choose whom you will follow, you will love the one & hate the other, He set before us 2 paths , one leads to everlasting Life the other to everlasting destruction.God does not want children who do not want Him.(1John3:6-8)2 masters!!
IF you know God's Word then you see all the sins & disobedience & God's anger(destruction)even to this day & Armageddon.Do you know the story where ABE was to sacrifice his son?He trusted God!!God provided a RAM caught in the thicket for his sacrifice!!WELL,God also supplied a Lamb for you & me, Jesus , the precious Lamb of God, pure & sinless, w. out spot or wrinkle!!God wants that we LOVE Him & SEEK HIM, that we choose to love Him & obey Him, and by doing so, He hears our hearts (knowing we desire Him)then He draws us unto His Son & His salvation (see John1:12,13)(John3:3)John14:6
God said, seek Me with all of your heart & soul & mind & you will find me .There will be no unbelievers or sinners in heaven.1Cor.6:9 & Gal.5:19-21
God will destroy the earth in the end, Once all who will come to believe & RECEIVE Christ & are born again, God will catch up(rapture His Church(all born again believers in Christ;1Thess.4:16,17 & Rev.3:10 before Great Tribulation) Then 2Peter3:3-13 the heavens & earth will be burned up & there will be a new heaven & New earth (New Jerusalem)(no more sin)only God's Righteousness(His saints)amen!!
also see Isaiah24:13-23 see Isaiah24:20 the earth will reel to & fro like a drunkard & be plucked up like a cottage, the sins will be so heavy on it, it will fall & NOT rise again.
We are spirit in His image Gen.1 & John4:24God has a soul (mind will & emotions)Lev.26:30 so do we in His image,God has a body(Jesus) 1tim.3:16 & John1:4-14(the WORD is Jesus' name(Rev.19:13)that was GOD & became flesh(so do we have a body in His image(if you are born again in Christ as God wants,you have a brand new spirit in Christ , and you belong to God, by the shed Blood of Christ & have everlasting life in Christ.
I tell you all this to get to this point :) The next life is SPIRITual,1Cor.15:38 God gives us a body(spiritual)see v.44-50 we are sown a natural body and raised a spiritual body ( we become like Christ & will see Him as He is because we will be like Him ( Spirit) in God's Holy kingdom.....Just as God intended it in the garden!!!PERFECT, SINLESS and worshiping our Lord & Savior!!NOT By Force!!!Satan forces his followers, not God. you are free to believe God & be with Him through Christ Jesus.
if you care to chat about this e-mail me [e-mail]

Answer 9

With a name like darwin, maybe your question is sarcastic? Anyways, I'm not Christian btw, first of all the bible is allegorical for ones inner realities from my studies. It was called the letter that killeth by Paul because people read figurative as if it were literal and made traditions/rituals out of them which alienated them from the process of self knowledge which the scriptures could invoke if they applied the realities to their own experience. But of course Orthodox doesn't think so even though most early church Fathers said it was allegorical, although it is symbolic because of the reality of self it is speaking about it is more real than the people who read it. It's just not historical, not a history book. This is proven without a shadow of a doubt that most of it couldn't have happened regardless and many textual proofs and stuff from Pre-Nicene (pre-4th century) speaks of an entirely different system then with respect to Jesus way.

Anyways to quote a few, Church Father Origen (220 A.D): “Scripture contains an unhistorical element in-woven with the history, in order that the worthlessness of the latter may drive us to seek the spiritual meaning” (Origen quoted under Origen Adamntius; The Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics).

Origen in his De Principiis where he writes: “Where the word found that things done according to the history could be adapted to these mystical senses, he made use of them concealing from the multitude the deeper meaning; but where in the narrative of the development of super-sensual things, there did not follow the performance of those certain events which were already indicated by the mystical meaning, the scripture interwove in the history the account of some event that did not take place, sometimes what could not have happened; sometimes what could but did not.”

Origen state: “What man of sense will agree with the statement that the first, second and third days in which the evening is named and the morning, were without sun, moon and stars, and the first day without a heaven. What man is found such an idiot as to suppose that God planted trees in paradise in Eden, like a husbandman, and planted therein the tree of life, perceptible to the eyes and senses, which gave life to the eater thereof; and another tree which gave to the eater thereof a knowledge of good and evil? I believe that every man must hold these things for images, under which the hidden sense lies concealed” (Origen - Huet., Prigeniana, 167 Franck, p. 142).

Clement of Alexandria “For many reasons, then, the Scriptures hide the sense. First, that we may become inquisitive, and be ever on the watch for the discovery of the words of salvation. Then it was not suitable for all to understand, so that they might not receive harm in consequence of taking in another sense the things declared for salvation by the Holy Spirit. Wherefore the holy mysteries of the prophecies are veiled in the parables - preserved for chosen men, selected to knowledge in consequence of their faith; for the style of the Scriptures is parabolic. Wherefore also the Lord, who was not of the world, came as one who was of the world to men. For He was clothed with all virtue; and it was His aim to lead man, the foster-child of the world, up to the objects of intellect, and to the most essential truths by knowledge, from one world to another”.

Saint Augustine in De Doctrina Christiana: "What the apostle says pertains to this problem: 'For the letter killeth, but the spirit quickeneth', that is, when that which is said figuratively is taken as though it were literal, it is understood carnally. Nor can anything more appropriately be called the death of the soul than that condition in which the thing which distinguishes us from beasts, which is the understanding, is subjected to the flesh in the pursuit of the letter. He who follows the letter takes figurative expressions as though they were literal and does not refer the things signifies to anything else... He is a slave to a sign who uses or worships a significant thing without knowing what it signifies. But he who uses or venerates a useful sign divinely instituted whose signifying force he understands does not venerate what he sees and what passes away but rather that to which all such things are to be referred. Such a man is spiritual and free, even during that time of servitude in which it is not yet opportune to reveal to carnal minds those signs under whose yoke they are to be tamed."

And also, "Thus the tales related in the Torah are simply her outer garments, and woe to the man who regards that outer garb as the Torah itself, for such a man will be deprived of portion in the next world. Thus David said: 'Open Thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law' (Psalms 119:18), that is to say, the things that are underneath. See now. The most visible part of a man are the clothes that he has on, and they who lack understanding, when they look at the man, are apt not to see more in him than these clothes. In reality, however, it is the body of the man that constitutes the pride of his clothes, and his soul constitutes the pride of his body" (The Zohar; Edited by Gershom G. Scholem, Zohar- The Book of Splendor, Basic Readings from the Kabbalah [New York, Schocken Books, 1949])

Answer 10

They are ancient middle eastern tales and legends. Works of fiction written to entertain...

Answer 11

HE wants all to be able to enter but only the righteous!
He .........i cant answer that one!
HE wanted people to ASK for forgivness!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!