Love or Hate what do we do?
iyah360:
hailiniemperor,
"everything in life has its purpose, find its reason, in every season" a hammer can be used to build shelter or kill a man. the hammer is a tool, what determines the force as a positive or negative is the heart of the man who wields the tool. this allegory should show the difference between ethics and dogma . . . thinking and not thinking . . . conscious evolution and unconscious subservience. dogma would state that the hammer is either good OR evil, so defined by how best it would serve the powers that be. ethics would leave room for the REALITY of the situation, that the TOOL is neither good NOR evil, but can be employed in either way.
check the articles here.
http://www.rastaspeaks.com/Rasta/
raggamuffin:
Iyah...
respect for your contribution, but I can sense the frustration of hailiniemperor in not getting the answer he is looking for.
Unfortunately, I can not supply these answers either, but I can pass down reasoning that was explained to me as a youth.
In comparing the New and Old Testaments God seems to change in personality. The Old Testament God is an angry, vengeful God, full of wrath and fire for the wicked that would scorn his name. The New Testament God is the kinder, gentler, more understanding force that says turn the other cheek.
This is something that never made sense to me either, because there is but one Jah and one who is omnipotent would not change.
My personal belief is that the Old and New Testaments have been tainted over the years with cultural rules and tradition. I do not believe Jah would say only eat a certain type of food, or wear a certain style of clothes. I also do not believe that Jah would say that a women would be unclean for a period of time following her natural menstrual cycle. Does it make sense that Jah would empower women to harbor life but declare them unfit for human interaction for a period of time each month? This is why I read the Old Testament like a parable.
I do not believe that the earth was created in seven 24-hour days. I also do not believe there were originally only two humans. I believe Jah created everything around us and we attempted to put this process into human terms through parables like the Genesis story.
I feel it is very ignorant to discount evolution theory and the big bang as sacriligious or against God's word, simply because it doesn't fit to our literal human translation of Genesis.
If Genesis was inspired by God, and this is a big if, then how do we know that man, being fallable, would have been able to comprehend the awesome forces of Jah?
I think this goes for much of the bible. I don't know how much is real and how much is interjections by religious figures attempting to enforce their own idea of morality through divine mandate. So it is best to step back and look at the big picture and see what can be learned without dwelling on the details.
The teachings of Yeshuah are, in my opinion, probably the most historically reliable text in the bible. And you will notice that Yeshuah often chooses to teach by using parables, which would be consistent with the word of the Old Testament. He doesn't delve into specific mandates by Jah, but offers general advice that can be better for solving everyday problems.
iyah360:
I did indeed give Haileiniemperor an answer, yet that answer may not be within the confines of the question which he asked.
ANYTHING can be USED and ABUSED depending on the INTENT of the person, group, government, organization, religion, etc. using it.
My point is that words, scripture, are TOOLS and the TRUTH is found within I and I moving PROPERLY in INTERPRETING these OUTWARD FORMS. (EVERYTHING IN LIFE HAS IT'S PURPOSE, FIND ITS REASON, IN EVERY SEASON).
One goes to Law School to learn legal codes . .. when one KNOWS these legal codes, one can FORMULATE a CASE in court based on INTERPRETATION of these legal codes. Reality is an ever moving phenomena, it is not stuck, everything has a context. A hammer in good graces is tool for building shelter, a hammer in bad graces is a tool to kill a man. Many tend to think that the REALITY can be grasped by SIMPLY looking at a document and seeing the truth therein, while UNCONSCIOUSLY are ignoring the fact that their INNER FACULTY is indeed INTERPRETING what they see into a SUBJECTIVE context.
The power of any authority is the ability to ENFORCE a SPECIFIC INTERPRETATION of something onto the people. One should be able to see now HOW turn the other cheek can be used to abuse the poor into submission . .. yet in a different PERSONAL, INNER context, turn the other cheek CAN BE a USEFUL and POSITIVE action.
hailiniemperor:
I would like to thank those that have posted there knowledge and wisdom. My basis for this whole topic is summed up best in an Anthony B "Fire Bun di Wicked". I believe the wicked do, will and must burn. I also believe that we must burn them not in the physical but in the spirtual sense, with the philosophy of Word, Sound, and Power. Words live forever, weapons decay. I also feel that hating a wicked person and burning them with words, can also in a sense be loving them. It may urge them to take an inner look at who they were and ultimately set them on the path of righteousness. I have not always been a righteous person and if there were people there to burn me when I was acting wicked, then my path would have been accelerated much earlier. If u saw a bum on the street it seems like the loving thing to do to give that man some money, but that man may go use that money to further his dismay, yet instead of giving that man money but yelling at him and telling him what a disgrace he is to himself may just inspire him to get fed up with being a bum and move on to a higher livity.
iyah360:
So you see the point . . . things are not static and fixed, the context determines whether an action is positive or negative.
As Capleton says "fire is for the purification." Fire can also be negatively destructive if utilized improperly. Know thyself and then the question of WHEN to utilize TOOLS is clear.
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