Audio Version
Bee
Gees - Words
I've been studying the 10 Commandments lately, and have found myself
amused at the simplicity of the Commandments for everyday life, as well as the complexity
of them when fully applied to our lives.
I've also found myself quite annoyed at times in the interpretations of
some scriptures and prophecies and "generally accepted Bible stories", what it
means to be a Christian, but when you realize that God lives by the same rules as we do -
certainly with greater powers and abilities - but He respects the rules of the world He
created because He believes it can work, and is adamant that it will.
So, when I hear people making public statements about God showing His
wrath, plagues caused by God, smiting and torment and floods and famine and drought...
even war... in the name of God, who uses the Golden Rule just as He expects us to...
sometimes I actually get annoyed. I just do.
I say certain people, purposely or not, create graven images of God. I
believe it more and more. Not necessarily in statues, or as idols, but in the minds of
people. Like, what is God like?
Such as, that God would approve of military war. Such as, God would
approve of military force to control people instead of to defend their liberty or defend
justice on their behalf against evil people who continue to perpetrate evil.
One of the ways I like to read the Bible is to accept it as it is, and
then think about what God had in mind when He instructed people to do certain things, from
God's point of view. For God's purposes, in the ways He does things.
Part of what I'm asking you to do is to be objective about God's
instructions and actual words, and consider that when those words were first spoken and
written, they may not have meant the same things we accept that they mean today.
It's a very important consideration.
Take the word WAR, for example. God's kind of warfare is spiritual
warfare, using words and reason to speak to people's heart, minds and spirits in order to
bring them home to more righteous and loving ways.
Truth. It makes all the difference in the long run.
And yet, nearly every empire in history has chosen to use killing and
oppression to control its citizens and the world.
As Jesus said, I come speaking of peace, and for that, you speak of war.
That's part of what God said was "in them", us, human beings.
That survival instinct that would have us make argument and choose
violence when, in a position of feeling threatened in any way... old instincts that God
believed could leave us by our own choosing, instincts that are constantly reconstituted
in our beings and passed through our DNA as coding for "the point of the beginning of
the next generation's cosmos" which, because of evil people, includes the very
instincts God was hoping to diminish through the evolution of the cosmos, one in which
such instincts would be unneeded, not suppressed.
So I looked up these words, to see if we could take a new look at many of
the scriptures considering these other meanings of certain words of Biblical significance.
I'll include a few thoughts about what I thought these words meant, and how it affects the
way I understand the scriptures now.
I ask you to consider thinking about what you thought the scriptures
meant, what you may want to re-read, and what new conclusions you may come to about what
God's instructions, and how certain interpretations of the Bible, may have accidentally
mislead you regarding the ways of God.
Remember, God believes in and abides by the Golden Rule. That may seem
contrary to what you thought the Bible said about Him. I don't think it will after
considering the meanings of these words.
Karla
Bonoff - Personally
God is love. If you believe that, would you really believe that God would
harm His own creations out of anger or tyrannical control? If He gave us Jesus as an
example and a teacher, wouldn't you believe that God Almighty would ascribe to those same
ways? And that His instructions over time would change a bit here and there to fit the
status of the world and the cosmos at that time?
I believe these are some very important words that you would benefit from
re-evaluating when thinking about what you've read and believe and interpret in the Bible.
Unless otherwise noted, these definitions are from the Webster's New World
Dictionary of the American Language, College Edition, 1957.
The biggest reason I think it's important is because we think of God and
wrath and frankly, more violent terms that suggests He might not be such a nice person, if
you met Him somewhere in the flesh. God's been patient with people for thousands of years.
Yet, many of the words below would have you interpret God, and His
warnings to people and nations, to be of a violent and militaristic nature. It makes
me wonder, who would benefit or interpret God's words in the most negative definitions and
interpretations possible, instead of being more generous in understanding God's ways? Who
would choose the meanings of these words to always mean the worst possible things,
creating such graven images of God?
I believe the answer to that question is actually quite simple after
reading this verse from
Proverbs 11:23 The desire of the righteous is only good: but the
expectation of the wicked is wrath.
| Grave: 1. Requiring serious thought; important; weighty. As
in grave doubts. 2. of a threatening nature; indicating great danger; ominous, as in grave
illness. 3. Solemn, sedate, not gay (silly) Graven: 1. engraved;
carved; sculptured. 2. Sharply and clearly impressed; permanently fixed.
Graven image: an idol
Graven Image - My definition. This is a mental impression or image in
your mind of God. Graven images are created when, for example, presenting or causing an
image of God as being vengeful, militaristic or hateful. God is love. How could any of
those things be considered love? |
|
| Smite: 1a. To hit or strike hard. b. to bring into a
specified condition by or as by a blow; as, the Lord will smite Him dead. 2. to
defeat, punish, destroy or kill. 3. to strike or attack with powerful or disastrous
effect. 4. to affect strongly and suddenly (with some feeling): as, smitten
with dread. 5. to disquiet mentally; distress; as, smitten with
conscience. 6. to strike or impress favorably; inspire with love; enamor;
as, she has smitten him with her charms |
| Smitten: 1. Struck with great force. 2. disastrously
or deeply affected; afflicted. 3. Deeply in love |
|
| Pestilent: 1. Likely to cause death; deadly; 2. [Rare]
a) contagious; pestilential. b) likely to produce a contagious disease. 3. dangerous
to morals or to the welfare of society; pernicious. 4. annoying; troublesome. |
| Pestilence: 1. any virulent or fatal contagious
disease. 2. an epidemic of such a disease; especially, the bubonic plague, hence. 3. anything,
as a doctrine, regarded as harmful or dangerous. [Ed Note: The question is
harmful to who? Or what? People in power committing crimes find me quite an annoyance :}] |
|
| Wrath: 1. Intense anger; rage; fury. 2. any action
carried out in great anger, especially for punishment or vengeance. |
|
| Vengeance: the return of an injury for an injury, in
punishment or retribution; the avenging of an injury or offense; revenge Since Jesus
rejects the idea of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, what would happen if God's
wrath in the day of vengeance was, say, the arrest of a bunch of criminals you think are
your heroes? You know, justice. |
|
| Plague: 1. anything that afflicts or troubles;
calamity; scourge. 2. divine punishment. 3. any contagious epidemic disease
that is deadly; specifically, the bubonic plague. 4. a nuisance; annoyance |
| Plaguing: 1. to afflict with a plague. 2.
to vex; harass; trouble; torment. Synonym: annoy So, if God gives us a plague,
it could mean afflicting us with the trouble and torment of being smitten with a case of
guilty conscience to get us to wake up |
|
| Meteor: 3. in meteorology, any atmospheric
phenomenon, as hail, a rainbow, etc. This could easily include the effects of
HAARP caused weather manipulation and faux Global Warming, now referred to as man made
climate change. |
|
| Wormwood: 2. any bitter, unpleasant or mortifying
experience; bitterness Also thought of as a meteor that would signal end times |
|
| Abomination 1. an abominating; hatred and disgust (for
a thing or person); loathing. 2. anything hateful or disgusting |
|
| Evolution the theory, now generally accepted, that all
species of plants and animals developed from earlier forms by hereditary transmission of
slight variations in successive generations. Evolve - 1. to unfold;
open out; work out; develop gradually. 3. To produce or change by evolution a) to
develop gradually; reach a highly developed state by a process of growth and change.
b). To unfold; become disclosed. |
|
| Desolation 1. a making desolate; laying waste. 2. a
desolate condition; ruin; waste. 3. lonely grief; misery 4. loneliness
5. a desolate place |
|
| Marriage The state of being married; relation
between husband and wife; married life; wedlock; matrimony. 2. the act of marrying;
wedding. 3. the rite or form used in marrying. 4. any close or intimate union. Jesus
says, any man that lies down with a woman is married to her.
Matrimony 1. The act of marrying; rite or
sacrament of marriage. 2. the state of being husband and wife, 3. Married life
|
|
| Divorce 1. the legal and formal dissolution of a
marriage. 2. complete separation; disunion. 3. to dissolve legally a marriage
between; separate from the other by divorce. See also: Adultery |
|
| Adultery Sexual intercourse between a married man and a
woman not his wife, or between a married woman and a man not her husband. [Editor's
interpretations & definitions]
The rejection or abandonment of a woman by a man, causing anyone entering into another
relationship with that woman to cause her to be an adulteress. [Biblical interpretation of
Jesus]
Preceded by the law of Moses that a man and woman may separate/divorce so long as they
state the reasons for the divorce, particularly if the woman does not ascribe to the same
Christian beliefs. Once divorced, they may not marry each other again. |
|
| Swear 1. to make a solemn declaration or
affirmation with an appeal to God or to someone or something held sacred for confirmation;
as, he swore by the Bible. 2. to make a solemn pledge or promise; vow 3.
to use profane or blasphemous language; curse. 4. in law, to give evidence or
state under oath |
|
| Love 1. a strong affection for or
attachment or devotion to a person or persons. 2. a strong liking for or
interest in something ; as, her love of acting. 8. in theology, a) God's benevolent
concern for mankind b) man's devout attachment to God c) the feeling of
benevolence and brotherhood that people should have for each other. Loving
1. to feel love for 2. to show love for by embracing, kissing,
etc 3. to delight in; take pleasure in |
|
| Liberal |
| Liberal 1 originally, suited for a freeman; not
restricted. 2. giving freely, generous; 3. large or plentiful; abundant;
4. not restricted to the literal meaning; free and unconfined 5. tolerant of
views differing from one's own; broad minded. 6. of democratic or republican forms of
government, as distinguished from monarchies, aristocracies, etc. 7. favoring
reform or progress, as in religion, education, etc; specifically, favoring political
reforms tending toward democracy and personal freedom for the individual Biblical
meaning: of liberty, pertaining to the security and seeking of liberty and freedom,
democracy of equality, abundance, generosity and sharing of vital necessities as provided
by God and denied by manipulators and profiteers. Liberalism is not socialism, Marxism,
capitalism or communism. |
|
| Destroy |
| Biblical meaning: undo, devise a means to diminish power, wealth or
publicly expose from leadership, as in, Christ will be the vessel of the undoing of the
anti-Christ in the day of vengeance of God. |
| Destroy 1. to tear down; demolish. 2. to break
up; spoil completely; ruin 3. to put an end to; do away with. 4. to kill 5. to
neutralize the effect of. 6. to make useless |
|
| Worship |
| Serve. As in, know the ways of God, and serve God and His ways in
everything you do, always observing the Golden Rule. Not worship as in ritual or dogmatic
observance of religious culture. |
