Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Biblical fait divers

=) Weird tittle.
Anyway, I decided to share some of my bible culture with my readers. I'll just try to give an overeall understanding of it now, and maybe specify on future posts.

The bible is a collection of 66 books divided in 2 parts, Old Testament and New testament. Testament means Pact. The old testament is about the pact God had made with people, in other words, what they had to do to be ok in His book. The first 5 books of the bible (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy ) are called the Torah, which is the book jewish people use. ( More info here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torah ) The bible is said to be God's word, inspired by him through dozens of different writers, starting with moses and ending in the apostles, in the new testament, so, thousands of years apart from each other.

The NT is the new pact God made with humanity. Unlike the old testament it's not confined to Jewish people, With the new testament God wants to reach everyone. For that effect he sends Jesus to be the scape goat for humanity's sins, enabeling us to return to God. Religions means Religare, re connect. So we're able to reconnect with God now, through Jesus. Salvation is now free, "by grace" : (Ephesians 2:8-9) - "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast." The NT is composed by 4 gospels which are descriptions of Jesus' life and what the taught while he was alive, as seen by 4 different apostles, Paul, Matthew, Luke and John. They are basically the same with a few variations of perspective.
Then the rest of the new testament is composed of letters written by the apostles to the churches they were forming in Greece, Italy... Corinthians I and II for example were letters addressed to the church of Corinth. In these letters they tell the news and answer questions theye've been asked, discuss certain issues concerning problems and doubts, etc.

The last book is Revelation, or Apocalipse which is prophecies written by one apostle (I think John) about visions he had concerning the end of times. In other words, it's about the second coming of Jesus, the signs preceding it, how it will happen, what will happen after, the great tribulation will follow the second coming of Jesus. All the saved souls will rise with Jesus and be having a big party in heaven for 7 years during wich people still on earth will suffer the great tribulation during which the antichrist will reign and all the demons will be set free on earth. It explains how it will be and everything that will happen with creepy details about diseases and etc. At this time people can still be saved if they let themselves be killed by the antichrist by not subjecting to him or adoring him. At the time people will have to have the number of the beast in them, and that will allow them to sell and buy things, food, etc. The first 3 and a half years of the antichrist reigning will be peaceful, he will be the sole commander of the planet... the other 3 and a half years it will be nasty. Then the earth will be renewed, and there will be 1000 years of peace. The animals will be vegetarians, it says the tigers will eat grass. During this time the Chosen Ones - the people that were saved by the time jesus came and met him in the clouds , along with the dead ones that rose from the graves at that time, and had been having a big dinner party in heaven, by now will live in a place called New jerusalem, a place floating in the sky above the new earth and will be judges along with God. Then there will be the final judgement, either beefore or after the 1000 years, I don't remember. And there will be a battle between Jesus and Satan, which Jesus will win, known as the Battle of Armaggedon.

In the old testament there are the most books, some are stories of people's lifes like Job, some are a mix of that and prophecies such as the book of Daniel, Isaac, Ruth, etc... Some are songs and prayers, poems, proverbs made by David and King Salomon, etc. The book of Numbers is the dullest, because it's all about geneology.... Joshua was the son of blablab and blablabla, who was born of bla and bla, who was married to bla and bared children of blablabla and they were called blablablabla ...
Exodus is about the Jews being rescued from being slaves in Egipt and starting their 40 year exodus on their way to the promissed land - Canaan, which is now Israel. They killed many people on their way there. They had a sacred arc with them, as long as they had it with them God promissed they would win every battle. And they did. There are great stories in the old testament.

Well, time for bed. Hope this was interesting.

7 comments:

CHARLAX said...

http://poetrypoem.com/cgi-bin/index.pl?poemnumber=872470&sitename=charlax&password=&poemoffset=0&displaypoem=t&item=poetry

I am Daniel
www.poetrypoem.com/charlax
I am Daniel

The king named Darius was not happy but he listened to the astrologer just one too many times and finally agreed this Daniel is just not doing the kingdoms business. Take him and lower him away into the lion's den he gave much thought to this it seemed so wrong to him his conscience finally cried and the good KING Darius almost died oh what is wrong with me and then HE ventured near the cave and cried "Daniel has your GOD saved you from the lions."

I sit in utter darkenness no food or rest no help it seems the lions do not utter a sound it's so quiet in this cave no sounds no roars no hate inside these beasts. My lord the GOD has made them shut up all their want. I sit upon this rock and kneel beside this rock I pray and wait upon my GOD to save.
The silence is so strong the smell of cat is strong around me I felt them strain and halt in strang perplexity of need they seem so different now.
Darius was at the entrance to the cave waiting just to hear a word from Daniel mouth. My heart so troubled earlier and earnestly seeking deliverance is now at rest and I can be blessed in every circumstance because I kept the faith of GOD a test but not from him to us this test is testing no one least of all this Daniel. The lions do not roar. Daniel Spoke.
"Darius be of good cheer I am Daniel my GOD is a deliverer." Darius Spoke.
"Bring the astrologers here to this cave and get Daniel out of there." This was the Kings decree he was quite gleeful and happy about it and then command was given in a hard hard voice he cried
"Throw the worthless men in where Daniel lay." This order carried out may seem so harsh but without Judgment come to them what would they learn.
Now they are waiting somewhere else for GOD to come.
And life for DANIEL still goes on.

Violet said...

that was interesting

Devil Mood said...

Don't know why I like these things but I truly do. I never read the Bible with purpose. I mean, saying: I'm going to read the Bible. I read a kids' version of the OT when I was younger and I really enjoyed it. But I believe the NT must be more interesting perhaps. JC was an interesting guy ;)

Violet said...

the old and new t. are certainly different...The good thing about the new t. are the parables, they're timeless. great metaphors for lots of situations...
I like the "10 talents" parable. I might post it sometime.

CHARLAX said...

the thing about the DANIEL story is eye believe DANIELS GOD was JESUS the same LORD over all

On I Am Daniel
On I Am Daniel
AN Poet explanation.

If King Darius was speaking thus it meant that he was thinking of poor Daniel in that cave and it could very well have come from him speaking to hisself to his inner conscience and so the reader can decide to read this verse as if KING Darius speaks it first…

Darius Speaking?

My heart so troubled earlier and earnestly seeking deliverance is now at rest and I can be blessed in every circumstance because I kept the faith of GOD a test but not from him to us this test is testing no one least of all this Daniel. The lions do not roar.

Or Daniel Thinking?

And if the speaker now is DANIEL then self evidence assured
He was wondering out loud and marveling at his creator action that his creator would deliver him.

Anonymous said...

Violet...you are so cool. I actually laughed out loud when I read this. It's very articulate AND interesting (I laughed when you wrote blahblahblah). Thanks for this.
(I was raised by people who WERE very religious and now are not...after 40 years of being so).

I think if one took the Bible as metaphor it could be a lot more informative for me than having to read it literally.

Violet said...

chrispito :D I'm glad you laughed, thank u.
It0s nice to know about the people that raised u.
yes, i am inclined to beleive the bible can be alot more meaningful once one can find a different way to look at it. and other parts u just have to atribute to the cultural context... i don't think it's God inspired as they say, not most of it.