Is this claim in the bible pathetic?

Question

It says that the Jewish people will outnumber the stars in the sky. This sounds like a perfect analogy an ignorant human would have made thousands of years ago. Today we know that there are billions upon billions of stars. We only have six billion people on this earth. When is this "plan" going to take effect?

Oh, by the way, this is NOTHING against Jewish people. It is just an attempt to show the bible is not to be taken literally.

Sparki:

You are clearly ignorant. It says the descendants of Abraham will be "countless" like the number of stars. You are taking "countless" to mean that you can not count how many of them exist. You can't count any other race in the world either, so it would be rediculous to even say it.

Flaming stresses shows my point. They could only see so many stars in the sky, and to them it seemed like a lot. So they decided to use the analogy of stars in the sky to the number of Jews. Little did they know how many stars REALLY exist!

Answer 1

God, who made the statement, also says He calls all the stars by their names.
Maybe He is smarter than you.
Yes, I know, it's hard to imagine how that could be!

Answer 2

You have to understand the context of the verses you are reading. Many verses taken out of context cannot be taken literally. It's like executing one line out of a cheesecake recipe and expecting a cheesecake to come from it.

The point of this whole passage was that Abraham thought he would never have children, and God was saying to him, not only will you have children, but you will have a lot of them. Abraham had no way of knowing that there were billions upon billions of stars, only that he couldn't possibly count them all (uh, they didn't have telescopes back then), but regardless I'm sure he understood what God was saying - in fact, this would have been a strong visual picture for Abraham as he looked into the night sky.

God meets people where they are and gives them information that they need in the way that they need it. He has just chosen not to reveal himself to you, but it doesn't mean he's not real or that the Bible is in error. If you don't believe it, then why spend valuable time trying to denounce it? Shouldn't you be doing something else with your time? Like why bother?

Answer 3

Yes the bible writers did not understand anything whatsoever about the universe, planet orbits, lightning,tornado's,or anything else that is common knowledge today...
And when people say that all they could see were x numbers of stars then they are kind of forgetting that the bible is the word of god written by god to communicate with us. And if this is the best they could do this means that god does not understand the universe,climate,clouds, plate tectonics,lightning,tornado's, planet orbit,rotation,simple math, geography,science, or anything about the natural world..... So if this god of the christian did write this book he/she does not know very much.. therefore this being is not very intelligent, and could not have made all things from nothing... So I guess in the end man made god just like he made house's and clothes and any other thing he thought he had a necessity for.

Answer 4

Looks like you are onto something. Is it stupid when a scientist remarks about a beautiful sunset or sunrise?

If you read Genesis 15:5 it's manifestly clear that he is drawing an analogy about Abraham's descendants from stars in the sky.

That first paragraph you wrote about the biblical writer being ignorant is actually an ignorant statement by you to overlook the obvious simile. Then you allude to the bible as not to be taken literally, which is exactly how you critiqued it. Terrible...

Answer 5

Ok, obviously everything in the Bible is not meant to be taken 100% literally, or followers of Christ would be walking around with limbs chopped off and eyes plucked out. But that does not mean it is not inspired by God. Perhaps God inspired specific ideas and the authors put that into writing, using their view of the world and language. This passage is clearly a simile but has a greater meaning' God's divine providence. Many things are meant to be taken literally but it is up to the reader to read the entire Bible so they can better undstand that.

Answer 6

I'm not Jewish or Christian, but I think you're being closed-minded with such a thought. Perhaps it is true, if you consider the possibility that it wasn't specifically stating that they'd all be on the Earth at one time? Perhaps over the ages, cumulatively, it would add up to hundreds of billions of stars. Also, it said "stars in the sky" not "stars in the universe," so thus it may have only been referring to the number of visible stars.

I'm not saying the claim is true, but I wouldn't be so judgmental as to say it's absolutely certain to be untrue.

Answer 7

The promise was that the seed of Abraham is what would be more numerous than the stars of heaven.
*Ishmael (the Arab nations) is the biological seed of Abraham.
*Isaac & Jacob & Esau...(other middle Easterners) are also of Abraham's seed.
* The New Testament records the "spiritual seed of Abraham" to be Believers in Jesus Christ.

Let's see, thats Jews, Muslims, Christians, and others.
Pathetic? Nope.

TRUE!

Answer 8

the place do you get the theory that maximum Christians have not study the Bible? Are they authentic believers? i know a gaggle of so-referred to as Christians who have not study the Bible, yet i'm praying for his or her salvation. If we as Christians study the Bible on a daily basis as we ought to continually we are able to hide the entire Bible, yet i've got self assurance we ought to continually spend greater time interior the NT than interior the OT. i'm in simple terms skimming by way of I & II Chronicles proper now. i know the foremost verses in each e book (or a number of them a minimum of). II Chron. 7:14 is a key verse. God bless you. There must be greater good Bible examine attainable in church homes. you could continually become in touch in a bible learn on line in case you won't be in a position to discover yet another. i've got studied Genesis in intensity besides as John, Matthew, the minor prophets, and residing letters (the books Paul wrote), and study something of the Bible a number of circumstances, & know key Scriptures, memorized quite lots too.

Answer 9

Ummmm....in case you didn't notice, the Jewish people haven't been exterminated yet. They are still getting married and having babies. The number of Jewish people is STILL rising. So it's not over yet.

Plus, you need to read the passage more clearly. It says the number of Abraham's offspring will be LIKE the stars in that nobody could possibly count all of them.

Sit down and try to count how many Jewish people are alive today as well as how many have EVER been alive as well as how many ever WILL be alive and see how possible it is. Then maybe you'll realize that the claim isn't pathetic at all.

Answer 10

The verse you are referring to is:

"And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed;" Genesis 26:4

English lesson time: the use of the word "as" in the verse above is an indication of a simile. A simile is a comparison of two unlike things and is not a literal expression.

Answer 11

Flaming tresses has a great point.
That claim was from many, many, many years ago.
You ask about TODAY. Back then, did anyone know there were billions and billions of stars? No, they didn't.