Phantom Bible Verses

[nolongerIFBx]

God will never give you more than you can handle. First off...this is BULLSHIT. Second it's a misinterpretation of a verse in 1 Corinthians dealing with temptation.

Just had this argument with someone in my bible study group.

Can I give you a bajillion likes for this! It is one of my pet peeves.

[2xx1xy1JD]

1. "The Good Book"

The whole notion that the Bible is a single, unified book.

It may look that way if you are holding a copy of your KJV, since it will look and feel like a book and all of the language will be English from 400 years ago, but it's not a book at all. It's an anthology. It's a bunch of different books, some long and some short, written by different authors in different positions in different languages in different places over a period of time spanning at least 1,300 years. [No heresy here - even the most conservative theologian has to agree on the different authors, languages and places, even if they think it was all inspired by the same God.]

2. "Man was created first in God's image, woman was just created later to be his helper"

This is the fault of years of bad translation, plus a line from the NT. If you look at a line-by-line translation, the word translated as "Man" (as in human) is "Adam" until AFTER the creation of Eve, when the words "isha" (woman) and "ish" (man, as in male) are used for the first time.

3. Eve ate an apple

No, the Hebrew text just mentions that she ate a fruit. The type of fruit is never mentioned.

[whoviana]

Can I give you a bajillion likes for this! It is one of my pet peeves.

Mine too, absolutely partly because it's a lie, many people get crippled under the burdens in life and so many, so many end their lives, which, also blamed on the bible, is a SIN!

I read about a very young, newlywed woman who had terminal cancer and asked one of the clinics to help her end her life in dignity and painlessly.

Out runs Joni Eareckson, a woman who has been paralized from the neck down for decades PLUS she became a cancer patient in 2010. I lost ALL my respect for that woman when she decided to play god's earthly representative and tried to talk her out of dying in dignity. The woman has ZERO chance, Eareckson is a survivor and a bible thumper.

She started lecturing her in the public how her horror and tragedy wth cancer lacked an important element

: Jebus. And how that young woman should go through stage four, the whole nine yards with the no ability to breath, the morphine, the horrible suffering in the end when she had an alternative.

People get shit more than they can handle all the time. What makes these idiots think makes the statistics in alcoholism, substance abuse, being dependent on psych meds soar?! Because many people's lives freaking sucks! And do they think that so many people ranging from children to old people just kill themselves in the most horrifying, painful and undignifying ways just to get out and end it all? No,this one really makes my palm itch.

I think that the sanctimonious message that Joni Eareckson published online is a lecture and an "If I have been taking this shit for four decades, you won't get away with getting out so easy" kind of attitude. She was trying to hind behing jebus but all she was about not allowing anyone to suffer any less than she does or did.

[BobTheWalrus]

yes exactly; the verse in question says that God won't give you more than you can bear, because He gives you a way out so that you can bear it. In other words, no you do not have to submit to being abused by and alcoholic cheating bully (or whatever is going on); God also protects the vulnerable and provides a way out so that you will not be crushed by what you're going through.

[whoviana]

Hi and welcome to FJ Bob the Walrus.

For some people there IS a way out. I mean, alive. But think about those who have absolutely no means to get out, like a mother of numerous children with no education whatsoever, and an abusive husband. What is her way out? What about the underage children who grow up in terror and get screwed up for good during the abuse, they get crippled psychologically, mentally, develop behavioral problems, cannot study because they are preoccupied with the abuse that's going on at home, what is their way out? Or what is the way out for aged parents of their abusive relatives that they depend on, especially when their mental and physical health deteriorates? What about people who keep suffering from long term and or incurable illnesses that makes their lives a living hell? What about that really large chunk of humanity who's only way to stay alive is by slaving away to huge companies, doing undignifying and underpaid jobs every single day, in overtime, like robots until they start to feel like they are less than humans? Like in meat factories, orchards, oil drills, clothing and gadget factories, toy factories, wherever cheap stuff comes from. I could go on and on and for billions (yes, billions with a b) there just isn't a way out and nothing can turn their lives around. What about them? This is just a few example of how you can live an absolutely undignifying life with no means to get out.

[Arete]

This is the fault of years of bad translation, plus a line from the NT. If you look at a line-by-line translation, the word translated as "Man" (as in human) is "Adam" until AFTER the creation of Eve, when the words "isha" (woman) and "ish" (man, as in male) are used for the first time.

The Greek also keeps these distinctions. Adam is referred to as "o anthropos" (the Human) until the creation of Eve, after which Adam is referred to as "o andras", (the man). Those differences get lost in the English translations.

[BobTheWalrus]

Hi and welcome to FJ Bob the Walrus.

For some people there IS a way out. I mean, alive. But think about those who have absolutely no means to get out, like a mother of numerous children with no education whatsoever, and an abusive husband. What is her way out? What about the underage children who grow up in terror and get screwed up for good during the abuse, they get crippled psychologically, mentally, develop behavioral problems, cannot study because they are preoccupied with the abuse that's going on at home, what is their way out? Or what is the way out for aged parents of their abusive relatives that they depend on, especially when their mental and physical health deteriorates? What about people who keep suffering from long term and or incurable illnesses that makes their lives a living hell? What about that really large chunk of humanity who's only way to stay alive is by slaving away to huge companies, doing undignifying and underpaid jobs every single day, in overtime, like robots until they start to feel like they are less than humans? Like in meat factories, orchards, oil drills, clothing and gadget factories, toy factories, wherever cheap stuff comes from. I could go on and on and for billions (yes, billions with a b) there just isn't a way out and nothing can turn their lives around. What about them? This is just a few example of how you can live an absolutely undignifying life with no means to get out.

Hi Whoviana :)

I don't really know; there are a lot of horrible situations and I don't know what the answer is to all or even a lot of them. I was thinking really of people like myself - my husband has some mental health issues that have lead him to not really be able to handle certain situations. Looking back over some of the fundie blogs I used to read for advice, they would absolutely not allow for the possibility of divorce. Whereas now I would say that yes, God wants marriages to work out, but not at the expense of safety and sanity. So I reached the point where I told my husband (with backing form my church) that if things didn't change I would leave him in order to protect myself and my kids. Thankfully things have begun to change, but I still have that as an option in my mind.

In my opinion there needs to be a lot more from the church about justice and protecting the vulnerable, which is what God requires of us. Having walked with my friend through an abusive relationship (as well as my own) and seen the dynamics there, I will not shy away from speaking even to random strangers if they look bruised and broken down like she did. I'd rather have a woman tell me to get lost than miss a chance to encourage someone to get the help they need. We need people to speak up in as many different ways as possible so that someone like the mother of a large family CAN get out if she wants to; so that she knows there will be someone to stand for her. And if she believes that, then it passes down to her children. If women understand that it's not their Christian duty to put up with being treated as subhuman, then there is a better chance they will be able to stand up for themselves and their children. And those of us who know already need to be more involved in helping those who can't help themselves - like the former FLDSers helping others who want to escape that cult.

I know that's not an exhaustive answer. I just know that God has really opened my eyes over the last couple of years and shown me that my marriage's problems aren't because I didn't submit to my husband enough or whatever, and that while He still loves my husband, He also loves me and desires safety and security for me. I'm sure that sounds selfish in comparison to some of the problems you've mentioned, but it was a huge thing for me to accept, and it's made me speak and think a lot more deeply about these issues.

[roddma]

3. Eve ate an apple

No, the Hebrew text just mentions that she ate a fruit. The type of fruit is never mentioned.

This one really rattles me. I remind DH sometimes no fruit is mentioned. I don't know why people assume it was an apple

[Trynn]

I will have to look it up, but I swear there's a verse in the New Testament that says It was an apple.

Like the story of Jonah just says "big fish," but then in the gospels Jesus talked about Jonah being "in the belly of the whale."

[samurai_sarah]

I grew up in Nova Scotia ( still here) and I remember my g'mother getting after me about whistling. " Whistling girls and crowing hens are neither fit for God nor men."

{L_OFFTOPIC} :

I never knew that stigma was so widely spread! I grew up in the back of beyond in Germany, and whistling women were frowned upon. Even though one of the bigger post-war female film stars brought whistling to the silver screen.

Feminist-ally dad made it a point to teach me to whistle, as a child. I got the occasional "good girls don't whistle". Only, my parents also told me to never bother with "good girls", and just be a good person instead. You could say that dad used his only daughter to make a point about gender-equality. While I was his unwitting helper, I'm not unhappy that I didn't have to live up to some standard or other as a child.