June 26, 2010, 11:02 am by dc-agape.

Mark 10:1-12

Well this is certainly an interesting section of the Gospel of Mark.  It is Jesus’ teachings on the topic of divorce.  Jesus has only one thing to say, but he does have to answer a question with a question first.  Don’t you love it when someone does that to you?  Doesn’t make you think they are stalling or acting “all superior?  Either way Jesus response makes you think he is a tad bit arrogant.

On the topic of divorce in Deuteronomy it is written in chapter 24:1-4.  It says that a man can divorce his wife for any reason at any time.  But it also says that if she remarries, he can never marry her again.  For some reason Jesus extends this to woman having the same rights.  I guess woman’s lib had progressed from Deuteronomy to Jesus’ time. 

Of course this is the famous section that is used in almost every marriage ceremony and used by bigots to attempt to stop civil rights (both of blacks and homosexuals) – read Mark 10:7-9.  This is where the concept of “traditional biblical marriage” comes from.  But of course this is not traditional OT biblical marriage were slave marriage, polygamy, and levirate marriage were acceptable to YHWH.

But Jesus finishes this lesson with the most powerful and damning commandment in the Christian faith:

Mark 10:10-12 He answered, “Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her.  And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery.”

I am repeating these verses verbatim because I know of no “Christian” faith that obeys this teaching.  To live in adultery cannot be forgiven each day…that would cancel this verse:

Romans 8:13-14 For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God.

Living in the sin of adultery will kill you!  Jesus clearly states that remarriage is off the books.  But do christians follow this teaching of Jesus? It is an emphatic NO!  by ignoring this verse, christians ignore the teachings of Jesus and put their souls at risk.  You cannot be a part “christian”…it’s all or nothing!

I do love that by the time 1^st Corinthians was written by Paul around 55AD (22 years after Jesus taught about divorce) the rules were already changing.  Paul was already softening the teaching of Jesus in these verses 1^st Cor 7:12-16.  At least he admits that it is his saying and not the Jesus’:

1^st Cor 7:12 To the rest I say this (I, not the Lord); If any brother has a wife who is not a believer and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce her.

But notice this is Paul’s opinion not Jesus’.  Jesus makes it quite clear that divorce is OK but remarriage is not.  This is traditional NT biblical marriage!  Man I wish the rabid “TrueChristians™” would get this straight!  They don’t want gays to marry, but they will allow divorce and remarriage!  What a bunch of hypocrites.  That is why it is so difficult for any Christians to debate with an Atheist…your own “brothers and sisters in faith” sabotage you.

Posted in Inerrancy - My Ass, Gospel of Mark, YHWH & slavery, Biblical Marriage, Readings | Print | 7 Comments »

June 19, 2010, 7:26 am by dc-agape.

Mark 9:33-50

Three stories occur in this section of Mark.  The first two are about the arrogance of the apostles that Jesus chose.  At one point they argue over which one of them is the greatest.  In the second case, they attempt to stop someone outside their group.  In the third section Jesus recommends bodily mutilation, if required, to get into the kingdom of God (the Church).  He also uses another verse from Isaiah, poorly.  Somehow he segues this quote into being the salt of the earth.

Again the disciples are afraid of what Jesus will tell them if they speak up (like in Mark 8:32) and for similar reasons.  Those reasons would include Mark 8:33 and Mark 9:19, Jesus was feeling very human at this point and was taking it out on his disciples.  At this point in Jesus’ ministry he was not the loving figure that “Christians” make him out to be.  The disciples knew this and were afraid to ask questions, especially if the question would expose their sin (here pride) or foolishness.  Jesus figures out that (or knew and was testing them) what it was about:

Mark 9:35 Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.”

I wish more “Christians” wanted to be the first!  Please Christians have the desire to be the best, the first…because we really need at least some of you to think about someone besides yourselves.

This is also were one of the Gospel variations of “being like little children” is discussed.  It is not in full detail, but the concept of only little children will inherit the kingdom of God is worth discussing in topical format later.

The second example of the pride of the apostles appears in the next story.  It is about the man who is throwing out demons in the name of Jesus, yet is not a disciple of Jesus.  This is the “converse” of Matthew 12:30, in this verse:

Mark 9:40 for whoever is not against us is for us.

Compared to:

Mat 12:30 He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.

Unfortunately these two verses are incompatible.  Not just because of the person in the middle is OK in one verse and bad in another verse, but because allowing separate teachers has done exactly what we see in the Church today…disunity.  Disunity in the Church is often a topic that Paul writes about and will be a topical study in the future.

In the last part we read about how Jesus condones personal mutilation to gain salvation.  He offers cutting off the hand or leg and plucking out the eyes to ensure entering not just heaven (after death) but the kingdom of God (the Church) here on earth.  Remember that:

Mark 9:1 And he said to them, “I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God come with power.”

He also uses phrases like “enter life maimed than…” twice.  So there is no doubt that he is talking about actual real physical mutilation in this verse. 

This is also the section where he quotes Isaiah (his favorite prophet), and does a rather poor job of it (unless the translation into English is corrupted).  Read the entire paragraph in Isaiah 22-24.  It is quite clear reading this verse that these are dead bodies right outside the place where all the saved live (within traveling distance).  The rebels against YHWH are dead and dead bodies don’t feel anything!  So what if there are worms and fire…there are no physical nerve receptors in a dead body.

As I said in the introduction, Jesus slips directly into salting the people with fire, everyone is included (Christian and non-christian).  One of his unanswered questions is a good one:

Mark 9:50 Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again?  Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with each other.”

Christianity has lost its saltiness, how can you regain your saltiness?  I little is good, but Christianity is so bland now, someone must put some salt on it.  But what is even more puzzling is how to be salty yet be at peace because of the salt.  The best explanation is that salt brings out the best flavors in food, so why do Christians not bring out the best in each other?  Instead, they attempt to make everyone just like themselves.

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June 12, 2010, 7:04 am by dc-agape.

Mark 9:14-32

The Word of God is inerrant and it says that the true cause of Grand Mal Epilepsy (Associated Content) is demon possession.  But it is a very special case of demon possession, only prayer will cure it!  This section of Mark starts when a man whose son has grand mal epilepsy comes to Jesus’ disciples.  An argument breaks out as Jesus returns from the mountain top.  His disciples haven’t quite got the hang of things yet and were not able to heal the man’s son.

Jesus immediately goes into a tirade:

Mark 9:19 “O unbelieving generation,” Jesus replied, “How long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you?  Bring the boy to me.”

I guess his human half was just weary.  How could a loving savior treat a man who has come to him for help so cruelly?  If the man was truly unbelieving he would not have come.  But Jesus is also grumpy with his disciples for not properly driving out the demon.  Jesus is obviously forgetting that it is YHWH who is to blame for their slow learning.  In the Gospel of Luke this is clearly pointed out (same story):

Luke 9:45 But they did not understand what this meant.  It was hidden from them, so that they did not grasp it, and they were afraid to ask him about it.

The use of the word “hidden” means that someone has kept the meaning from them.  You can argue that it was Satan…but Jesus was right there and YHWH should have seen it too.  Neither Jesus nor YHWH clarified the issue for the disciples.  Oddly, the disciples were afraid to ask Jesus.  Here you can argue the pride issue, or let me present another scenario, maybe they really were afraid of Jesus’ response.  Twice now, in the Gospel of Mark (alone) Jesus has snapped at his disciples for YHWH making them slow to learn.  Isn’t it possible that Jesus was in the habit of berating his disciples, I have pointed out in other places that Jesus was not the loving savior that “Christian” want him to be.

But I wanted to go back to the Grand Mal seizures, how do we know the boy was cured.  So he stopped having a seizure….so what!  Some children (epilepsy.com) with grand mal seizures can go for long periods without repeat. It is also humorous that Hippocrates suggested that seizures might not be demon possession in 400BC.  But of course we know that demons cause seizures now, isn’t modern medical prayer wonderful!  Modern medical prayer will cure anything, you just have to have faith.

Posted in Inerrancy - My Ass, Gospel of Mark, Readings | Print | 9 Comments »

June 5, 2010, 7:20 am by dc-agape.

Mark 9:2-13

This is the story of Jesus becoming a beacon light and the second time that YHWH tells people that he is…well we aren’t quite sure, all three Gospels have slightly different wording.  Let’s just that YHWH tells Peter, James, and John that, yes, Jesus is his son and that he is well pleased.  YHWH ends his short speech with the desire that they listen to him.  Oddly, even though John was there, his Gospel does not recount this experience.  Don’t you think he would have said something about it?  The three Gospels do not agree on the timing (Mark 9:2 vs. Luke 9:28), one mentions that the disciples were sleepy (Luke 9:32), another says that they fell to the ground (Mat 17:6), and the rest of Luke is truncated leaving out Jesus’ order to not tell anyone, or the conversation about Elijah.  I am glad that the study notes indicate that the Traditions of Man are most likely wrong, this event occurred on Mt Hermon (9,000 ft elevation) not Mt Tabor (1,800 ft elevation). 

I do love it when the study notes give everyone a greater meaning to teachings.  In this case when YHWH says:

Mark 9:7 Then a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love.  Listen to him.”

The study notes refer to a verse that explains what YHWH means when he says “listen”:

James 1:22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves.  But do what it says.

The rest of the paragraph (James 1:22-27) explains how silly it is to just listen without actually doing what the word says.  This is the greatest grip I have with today’s christian…all they do is talk and listen, there is no action.  They pick and chose which verses to follow and do not obey the Word of God.  As a result, Christianity is just like James 1:23-24, foolish. 

Both Mark’s and Luke’s version of the story claim that the disciples were terrified before the voice:

Luke 9:6 (He did not know what to say, they were so frightened).

While Matthew’s version (Matt 17:6) claims that the voice was what terrified them.  The Gospel of Matthew seems more reasonable.  If you were on top of a mountain with your teacher and two other important people would you not offer to build shelters…since you have no idea how long you’re going to be there?  And the talking cloud would be much more frightening than meeting two other people…Peter already knew that Jesus was the “Christ” (Mark 8:29).

When they start talking about Elijah the story seem to be somewhat jumbled.  Only in Luke does Jesus ask the disciples a question in response to their question.  Don’t you just love it when someone does that to you!  Worse, Jesus does not answer the question.

Luke 9:12 Jesus replied, “To be sure, Elijah does come first, to restores all things.  Why then is it written that the Son of Man must suffer much and be rejected?

Two things about this…first, John the Baptist is Elijah.  Second, the reference that Jesus is making about himself.  If John the Baptist restored all things…then Jesus’ question is a good one.  Obviously, John the Baptist is not Elijah, because Jesus was still required to restore all things.  Jesus is Elijah, not John the Baptist.  But about the references that Jesus makes to Elijah are quite questionable.  To someone like me, a gay Atheist who does not have the god bias, the story of Elijah and the suffering of Jesus are not similar.  In fact, Elijah was taken to heaven without dying (2^nd Kings 2:11).  Can anyone explain this to me?

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