reply posted on 22-9-2004 @ 08:58 PM by everlastingnoitall
You know what kind of answers you will get from the many atheists, agnostics, and pagans that participate (and I respect all of those opinions, by the
way, the point of a forum is open discussion, after all)
Let's assume a few things for the sake of argument:
1) The Bible is factual and accurate
2) There is a God, and He exists as the God of Judaism/Christianity
3) Certain behaviors in the Bible are, in fact, sinful. (We all know of which I
speak.)
First of all, the flood happened as a result of the creation (humanity) that God had created became exceedingly corrupt and without any desire to find
or know their God. In his frustration over the fall of his creation (which was a direct result of a creature with free will freely choosing to
disobey), He decided it would be better to destroy the world and start anew. However, 'Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord' (Gen. 6:8) God
chose to save Noah by performing a miracle: He taught Noah to construct a massive wooden vessel that should have collapsed under its own weight. He
was not being bigoted, for bigotry denotes favor or disfavor toward one group or another. he was uniformly destroying everything and everyone
(remember, the earth was not that populated, according to accepted Biblical tradition and therefore had not yet developed the various ethnicities, so
no real bigotry toward one race or another could have ensued.) Also, the Abrahamic covenant had not been instituted yet, so no unfair favor toward any
one nation existed.
On the issue of Sodom and Gomorrah, the cities were destroyed for being 100% sinful (not one good person in the city). In fact, if the account is read
in context, it is discovered that only a single man and his family were found within the city that were not practicing an 'abomination in the eyes of
the Lord' (reference Gen. 18: 16-33, Gen. 19:1-29). The specific sin was found being commited by every person in the two cities. Lot was only
rescued, even though he was not committing these sins, becaus ethe Abrahamic covenant had been instituted and Abraham pleaded with God to save the
city. Then God finally agreed to allow Lot to escape. Is this bigotry?
Bigotry: The state of mind of a bigot; obstinate and unreasoning attachment of one's own belief and opinions, with narrow-minded intolerance of
beliefs opposed to them.
It is immaterial to attach a human flaw to God. God, by his nature, is pure good and righteousness. Therefore if he states a certain behavior is
wrong, and then a person or group commits the act in obstinance of the affirmation of sin, then a punishment is not a bigoted event, but simply a
corrective action, such as punishment of a misbehaving child. In this case, the punishment is extreme and complete. It served as an example of the
time of the ultimate consequences of disobedience. I believe had any group agreed to sin so completely and knowingly defy a law of God, that He
would/will punish accordingly.
Is God imposing His law only? His rules and His way of Salvation only? Yes. Is this bigoted? No. Why? because the rule is universally acceptable by
all. No one group is excluded from the possibility of salvation. In other words, salvation through God's plan is not excluded from the , for
instance, Tibetan residents, or the Greeks, or the Hindu. Anyone who believes on God and accept His message can be saved. Noone is excluded from this,
therefore no bigotry exists.
Side note: If we are assuming all of the above statements to be true, we must also assume that bigotry,a nd the belief of 'many paths to God' (such
as the various sects of religion i.e. Budhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Islam, etc) are attempts by man, or more appropriately, Satan, to introduce systems
that closely imitate God's plan, but contain enough variations to be percieved by a flawed creation as 'bigoted'.
Christianity gives a simple, easily accepted path to God. One has only to believe.
If we assume the above is correct, of course
