The essence of man, the matter he is constructed with, is constantly moving. This inalienable characteristic of our essence (matter) is foreign to God. God by nature does not move. He does not have to wait to see the future. When Moses asked Him His name, He answered that His name was Yahweh, which means: He Who Is; by this indicating certain aspects of His essence and His nature.
It is because of this peculiar (to us) attribute of His essence that He is able to include in His messages to us (throughout the ages) prophecies regarding our future. Were God to be an alien, from another planet he would be constructed with the same matter as the rest of the universe, and by default he would be unable to foresee the future.
No other religion has prophecies of the future except those dealing with His incarnation. He gave these prophecies to all the nations so that everyone would be able to judge the Truth for himself.
Many misunderstandings are caused by mistranslated texts. The word for Commandment in Greek is “entoli” which includes the meanings of order and instruction. God before His incarnation, and after, He gave us instructions, orders, how to achieve our goal – become gods!
Knowledge is transferable; teaching, computer software, etc
Power is transferable; electrical tools, etc
Immortality is transferable; the resurrection of Christ, blessed water, etc
These three, knowledge, power and immortality are the basic attributes of God. He is willing to transfer them to us but He wants us first to demonstrate that we have chosen, no matter the adversity to be unselfishly good, like Him; even unto our sacrifice if necessary. Heaven would be worse than earth if those who desire to control others and destroy etc etc were given unlimited power, knowledge and immortality.
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umm why Greek when the Bible is originally Hebrew? Wouldnt it be more accurate to use the original Hebrew script instead? Translation to other languages often gives new and misleading meanings.
Originally Posted by elromios
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im not reading all that...****.
What is the cure for Cancer, Eric? The cure for death itself. The answer is immortality. By creating a legacy, by living a life worth remembering, you become immortal.--Amanda from Saw 2! -
Dear Benryk,
The writers of the New Testament, when they relate Christ’s teachings they have Him quote from the translation of the seventy two, the Septuagint. When they themselves needed to quote the Old Testament they used the Septuagint also; they did not use the Hebrew Scriptures.
Due to the rejection of Jesus as the Messiah, (the anointed one / o Christos) by the Hebrews, the Church from very early times warned against the use of the Hebrew text. This cautionary approach was vindicated with the discovery of the Qumran records, (Dead Sea Scrolls), for they agree with the Septuagint rather than the Hebrew text.
Hebrew also does not posses the precision of the Greek language. It was not an accident that the salvific information was given to us in Greek. Another point worth mentioning is the fact that the Septuagint was not translated by a heretical group eager to promote its message. The Septuagint translation was carried out by faithful Hebrews and was universally accepted by the Hebrews (even by Christ Himself) until the time of Christ.
Personally, I will stick with the Greek.
Dear eternalemo,
I was trying to write as concisely as possible and I am sorry if some things are not so clear. Perhaps you could mention the point(s) unclear to you and I will try to clarify it. -
what!
well sorry but 4 ur information no one is telling you how to live life because you have a choice the bible gives u advice and shows you whats right from wrong but u probably dont know that.... so dont question GOD!!! BECAUSE HE WAS THE ONE WHO GAVE U LIFE IN 1ST PLACE. SO THINK ABOUT IT. AND LIKE I SAID MASTURBATION IS A SIN BUT ITS UP TO U ON HOW U TAKE IT BUT WE'LL ALL FIND OUT ONE DAY RIGHT! Originally Posted by eternalemo
ANGEL_GURL ALL THE WAY!! -
well im srry i dont believe someone can create the whole friggin world w/o someone creating him. and who da fudge cares if we burn in hell.....were DEAD!
What is the cure for Cancer, Eric? The cure for death itself. The answer is immortality. By creating a legacy, by living a life worth remembering, you become immortal.--Amanda from Saw 2! -
Yeh Well Thats Just Ur Ignorance So God Bless You
ANGEL_GURL ALL THE WAY!! -
yes im sooo ignorant kus i question things. was einstein friggin ignorant?
god is just a way of hope for the hopeless!
i no, i was in that position before. i believed last year...kus i was desperate and needed someone to believe, believed in me.What is the cure for Cancer, Eric? The cure for death itself. The answer is immortality. By creating a legacy, by living a life worth remembering, you become immortal.--Amanda from Saw 2! -
It's so painful to see people think that there is no GOD. I believe in ALMIGHTY GOD and i believe in JESUS CHRIST.
www.audiosparx.com/judd Let my sound effects inspire you to great productivity. For your personal or commercial Production of home videos,halloween,radio works,ringtones,fashion shows and more. -
Dear eternalemo,
true science loves questions. It is because of asking - questions - man has been able to find/receive a host of answers. But in order for this sequence, question/answer, to work there is a need for relevance. When we ask an irrelevant question we will not succeed in solving our problem.
You said, “well im srry i dont believe someone can create the whole friggin world w/o someone creating him.!”
At first glance this statement appears logical but it is not. In our experience everything is made by something else. Therefore: God also must have been made by something else…
The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle wrote a whole book called ‘Metaphysics’ and devoted entirely to this principle. He reasoned that everything moves by something else. Unlike you though, he concluded that there must be SOMETHING which caused/causes movement but THIS, SOMETHING, must not move. Remember the name God gave to Moses Yahweh. God, IS: immovable, unchangeable, etc etc.
But to come back to your statement, you “reason” that you cannot believe in the existence of God because we are unable to answer how He exists. Unfortunately this reasoning is erroneous. Our inability to answer HOW something exists cannot be used as proof that something does not exist. To be more specific: So far we have been unable to unravel the phenomenon we call life. Our inability to understand what life is and how life is, cannot not be used to prove that life does not exist. The question must be relevant if we are to find/receive correct answers.
You also said, “… and who da fudge cares if we burn in hell.....were DEAD”. Misunderstanding human death can lead to a host of decisions. Human death means the separation of the person, eternalemo, LASINGER, maria_gr, elromios, and so forth, from their bodies. Human death does not obliterate the person. The person still exists in the “sheath” we call soul. The soul has a form and in it the person retains the three programs we all use to function with while still in our bodies: cognition, emotions and will. Million of out - of - body experiences should be sufficient evidence for a reasonable person to understand that death is - extremely unpleasant - but not the end of the person. And according to Christianity every person will receive his/her body in a new indestructible form sometime in the future.
When it comes to questions regarding the material world we have the necessary tools to discover the answer to a question but when it comes to the spiritual world we lack reference points. There is nothing to measure with, nothing to compare with, and so forth. This is the reason Christianity had to be revealed to us. It is said in the Old Testament that God, Himself will save His people. This meant also that He had to partake of our nature, receive a human soul and human body, (but not becoming a new person, the Person that inhabited the human soul of the historical man we know as Jesus Christ was that of the Son of God) and it was He who revealed to us the spiritual truths and supplied us with the conditions that will enable us to achieve our transformation – to become like Him. -
Eternalemo No Coment I Hope That One Day U Can Understand... God Bless
ANGEL_GURL ALL THE WAY!! -
Its Just A Way Of Hope For The Hopeless, Period!
What is the cure for Cancer, Eric? The cure for death itself. The answer is immortality. By creating a legacy, by living a life worth remembering, you become immortal.--Amanda from Saw 2! -
Sure Everyone Has Their Own Opinion!
ANGEL_GURL ALL THE WAY!! -
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yep. and thats mine
What is the cure for Cancer, Eric? The cure for death itself. The answer is immortality. By creating a legacy, by living a life worth remembering, you become immortal.--Amanda from Saw 2! -
Dear eternalemo,
Although everyone is entitled to his/her opinion, in our search for Truth we have learned long ago not to rely on personal opinions. In your first post of this strand you said:
“what the heck is so bad about making yourself feel good? at least ur not having sex at a young age.”
The first sentence reveals that you have a lack of knowledge on the subject, “ what … is so bad”, and in the second sentence you portray masturbation as the lesser of two EVILS, “…at least ur not having sex at a young age.”
In your later posts you display a lack of knowledge as of who or what God is and you even invoke the authority of Einstein in order to establish that there is no God. (By the way how can you reconcile Einstein’s comment: ‘God does not play dice with the universe’ if he did not believe in the existence of God?)
Then you said that you believed for a time in God because you were in a desperate state, “… i believed last year...kus i was desperate and needed someone to believe …”
With your posts you have shown us that your judgment in your belief - or disbelief – in God has been based on, lack of knowledge and an emotional upheaval; both hardly reliable for scientific inquiry!
Do you not think that perhaps you are not an authority on the subject and you should let others answer this question? ...
Oh yes! you are entitled to your opinion. -
What a question.... It´s very difficult to reply.
Just trying to help you, don´t worry too much about it. In fact in our society it´s very difficult (I should say almost imposible) to stay "freeze" until one got married at the age of 25/30, so do not worry about it. Don´t be obsessed and try to do some good deeds to balance your soul.
God bless you -
Thanks 2 u all. i appreciate.
www.audiosparx.com/judd Let my sound effects inspire you to great productivity. For your personal or commercial Production of home videos,halloween,radio works,ringtones,fashion shows and more. -
The issue with masturbation seems to be that of lust, not the masturbation in itself. If someone can masturbate free of lustful thoughts, I've seen no valid argument to suggest it's a sin. If you have a small child that doesn't understand what's going on (why it feels good), it is reasonable to expect they can masturbate free of lustful thoughts. Is this a sin?
Killing an animal makes us feel uneasy. Doesn't make it a sin.. I've not heard anyone declare Sarah Palin a sinner for engaging in game hunting for recreational purposes. Originally Posted by elromios
These are the main reasons I've heard as to why it's a sin, there are counter arguments for all of them.
It doesn't honor God
Nor does karaoke
Jesus didn't do it
Jesus didn't do karaoke, and it's hard to picture him doing it
Self pleasuring or indulgence is a sin
Having a refreshing spa bath is not a sin
It could lead to some form of addiction
Eating food could lead to gluttony
You wouldn't masturbate in front of Jesus, it would feel shameful
You wouldn't go to the toilet in front of Jesus, it would feel shameful
It spills/wastes the seed
Women don't spill any seed. Wet dreams spill seed. In the absence of sexual activity inevitably the seed is re-absorbed into the body and so 'wasted'. If one person in a relationship became infertile, would it become a sin for them to have sex?
It just feels 'wrong'
As discussed earlier, killing an animal feels wrong. Passing wind in public feels wrong. To some people sex feels wrong.
Forgot to add there is a passage from Leviticus 15:16-18 that I feel is quite telling, you can draw your own conclusion.
16 " 'When a man has an emission of semen, he must bathe his whole body with water, and he will be unclean till evening. 17 Any clothing or leather that has semen on it must be washed with water, and it will be unclean till evening. 18 When a man lies with a woman and there is an emission of semen, both must bathe with water, and they will be unclean till evening. -
potato991: "The issue with masturbation seems to be that of lust, not the masturbation in itself. If someone can masturbate free of lustful thoughts, I've seen no valid argument to suggest it's a sin."
The issue with masturbation is MASTURBATION. Lust is a sin of its own “merit”, there is no need to confuse the issue. Onan, as it has been posted before, was killed for “spilling” the seed, not for having lustful thoughts. In fact he had no need for lustful thoughts; he was in the process of acting them out.
The Bible and over two thousand years of Church history have dealt with this issue and pronounced it a sin. St. John the faster, Patriarch of Constantinople, who flourished in the 6th century (he died in 595 A.D.) expressing the opinion of the Church (there had not as yet appeared the divisions of the Church - Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Protestantism) in his 10th Canon dictates that, if anyone among the Clergy, commits this sin after admission to the priesthood, to be suspended for a whole year for this, and if he commits it again for a second time to be dismissed from his office.
To cause the dismissal of a bishop or a priest from office the Church must have considered it a rather serious sin.
Masturbation in the Greek Orthodox Church as well in the Roman Catholic was (and is) considered a sin and it is placed alongside with the major sins. These major sins can, in the event of untimely death, due to a probable lack of repentance and confession, cause eternal separation of their perpetrator from God. Most Protestant groups also view masturbation as a serious sin.
Apostle Paul’s statement that certain sinners will not inherit the kingdom of Heaven in 1 Corinthians 6:9 in Greek includes the word “malakoi”, self abusers. Even in modern Greek “malakas” is the male who abuses himself thus causing “malakinsi”, “softening” of the brain. The ancient, as well as, the modern Greeks considered the act of self abuse, masturbation, as one of the causes of diminished mental acuity.
Modern medicine has been trying to convince everyone that this is not the case but Apostle Paul was not implying that masturbation causes this illness but he used the term as it was known and applied at his time.
potato991: "If you have a small child that doesn't understand what's going on (why it feels good), it is reasonable to expect they can masturbate free of lustful thoughts. Is this a sin?"
The example of the small child is irrelevant as it implies lack of understanding and lack of semen.
Quote:Originally Posted by elromios
When we do something and we “feel” uneasy about it we should perhaps reexamine this something.
potato991: "Killing an animal makes us feel uneasy. Doesn't make it a sin.. I've not heard anyone declare Sarah Palin a sinner for engaging in game hunting for recreational purposes."
My above statement is taken out of context for I was referring to our internal criterion, our conscience. An uneasy feeling can be caused by our conscience but also by fear or conditioning. I was ONLY referring to the objection of one’s conscience, not to uneasy feelings one may have because of unconscious fears or conditioning. By the way if one has “uneasy feelings” regardless their source he/she would do well to examine them. At any rate the killing of animals is not a sin, as it is permitted by God, (Gen. 9: 3, 4) and His word should be our concern not what Sarah Palin does. But even having the permission of God, our method and the intent of the killing of animals can become a sin if it is perpetrated for malicious or sadistic reasons, as these reveal a rather ill person.
Before I close this post I would like to restate the question of this thread:
"Is masturbation [a] sin?”
Its wording implies only a religious answer, for it does not inquire if masturbation is wrong, but if it is a sin and consequently it prevents us of applying notions belonging to natural law or any other ethical system. -
Onan was punished for disobeying God's command (not impregnating his brothers wife) - not for spilling the seed. As I pointed out, women do not spill seed, so the same rules don't apply. I doubt God only condemns men for masturbating. Originally Posted by elromios
It doesn't really matter what the Church's official position is - it only matters what is in scripture. In scripture, there is nothing that indicates masturbation is a sin. The Church has made mistakes before, it is fallable like man. For example, were the crusades warranted? Would the manner in which they were carried out have pleased God? Originally Posted by elromios
You will have to provide evidence masturbation is self abuse before any of that can be considered. On what basis is it self abuse? Any 'illness' (in a literal sense) caused by masturbation would be similarly caused by the act of sex. In any case I'm not sure softening of the brain is a sin, as there are many things that truly do soften the brain, to varying extents, but are not considered sin. Originally Posted by elromios
Perhaps, it was to illustrate the point it is quite possible to decouple lust from masturbation. Originally Posted by elromios
You have no chance of making a distinction between nagging of conscience and unconscious fears, by mere definition. You would do well to look at things objectively, rather than on the basis of what 'feels' right, given this is such a subjective measure. I raised the point to illustrate feelings of guilt after an act, don't automatically make it a sin. Originally Posted by elromios
Since when does God punish people for doing things that are not wrong? Originally Posted by elromios
Masturbation has been around for all time, it is not one of those concepts that wasn't around at the time (like genetic engineering etc). I find it impossible to believe it would not have warranted explicit mention, if it truly were a sin. Even an indirect (but unambiguous) mention would be sufficient.
