Dark Matter Rain

No worries. :slight_smile: You can download an app on your phone, or I’m sure a free version to any tablet. I use Biblegateway.com or Biblehub.com. Versions: I use NKJV or also recommend ESV.

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I use Bible Gateway and find it a useful resource in being able to cross-check a whole slew of translations. I keep promising myself to learn enough koiné Greek to read NT in the original language. So far, I can only manage the Lord’s prayer. As I’ve remarked before, the OT and NT seem completely unconnected and the OT is not of interest, other than as a quasi-historical artefact.

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I just did a quick search for cross-references. This site has a few great examples to start with, but notice the visualizations on the bottom. Bible Cross References The New Testament writers have steeped their writings in Old Testament themes and references, but it takes a while to become familiar with how that works I think unless you’ve grown up in the church (assuming you didn’t.)

I grew up in the middle of England, regularly went to church and attended schools run by the Church of England. The main thing I remember about it was the antipathy to Catholics, probably exacerbated by the folk history of the religious schism begun by Henry VIII.

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Hmm…I hope this is not offensive, but I think they did a very bad job of teaching you if you never saw a connection between the Old and New Testament.

It’s interesting how cultural backgrounds influence churches so much but we don’t see it until we see churches in another cultural background.

You are correct in suspecting some of the “religious instruction” teachers I was exposed to were pretty dire. There’s another thread here covering the same points.

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Since you aren’t willing to use your imagination, and no one else is, I started clicking.

Isn’t this just fun… :rofl: Now I just have to go looking for more evidence of young things in the solar system since you didn’t play nice. :wink:

Just for fun, yesterday evening, I started reading Genesis, from 1 to 25 (in NIV translation). Didn’t take long. It’s not a narrative, is it? So disjointed and odd. The Nephilim? What’s that about?

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I’m not sure what you think you’re responding to here. Yes, parts of the solar system are younger than others, though the moons in question are only young as the particular sizes and orbits they now occupy. Some of our moon’s craters are also young, a few tiny ones within the last few years. So?

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That’s great! It’s definitely a fascinating book. I see it as a collection of historical stories that can be a bit disjointed. The narrative emphasizes the spiritual aspects of the history, as well as the people and their stories, so that’s the part of the history you get. Genesis emphasizes creation, fall and then God’s covenant with Abraham. Are you familiar with theophanies or did you notice those?

Here’s my take on the Nephilim. Nephilim and Genetics But there’s many other threads here about them if you want to do a search. It’s a subject that’s never really been settled throughout Jewish and church history.

That doesn’t surprise me. It is such an odd remark in the middle of, well whatever else there is. Makes no sense to anyone now. It must have meant something to whoever was responsible for the text. But none of that can be known now.

Disjointed is exactly what struck me.

In an oral culture with no books, when those narratives are put together in a collection, it’s going to be appear that way - we have a lot of emphasis in our culture in telling history in order. Genesis goes between getting in the weeds, and the overarching stories, so it’s not always chronological.

Did you notice this? What Are ‘Theophanies’ in the Bible and What Can Christians Learn from Them? - Bible Study This is a theme that runs through the narrative of Genesis.

@thoughtful

It is relatively easy to elevate knowledge (gleaned from all the interwoven sciences) above the more primitive sections of the Bible:

  1. Talking donkey? Right.
  2. Multiple references to the firmament as a physical barrier that prevents the celestial waters from caving in on the Earth (and not the firmament as an empty space that would be unable to hold back the celestial waters).
  3. The solar-themed Samson with magical hair.
  4. The confusion between the Philistines of Exodus (post 1130 BCE) and the historically impossible Philistines Abraham met with, 800 years prior to the arrival of the historical Philistines on the southern coast of the Levant.
  5. The impossible nature of flood-centric fossil evidence, where giant marine reptiles of the dinosaur age uniformly drown before large mammals that could never co-exist with dinosaurs (sloths, bears, cows, gazelles, horses, zebras, giraffes, etc.).

So what is the importance of the Bible to you?

@thoughtful

The Bible is a book that needs to be decoded for Creationists so that they can see how de novo creation of Adam and Eve CAN be compatible with millions of years of fossil evidence.

That’s the entire importance of the Bible to you personally?

@thoughtful,

To let zealous Christians walk around in full-science denial is a very dangerous place for society to find itself.

There has to be a satisfactory way to adjust interpretations of the Bible to fit in with reality.

Again, your response has nothing to do with how you find the Bible to be useful. Or is it useless to you?

@thoughtful,

The Bible is a crucial book to work with if we are going to reach men and women of faith.

There are also parts of the Bible that I find personally comforting. I do not expect that these answers will satisfy you.