Originally posted by apathist
I'm in a better mood now, and would say you are "misguided".
Jesus had guided me very well through many years.
He is so trustworthy and dependable beyond all that I could ask or think.
Misguided by Jesus Christ ?
I don't think so.
Religion is based on myth and legend. But there is something about religious instruction (from whatever culture - from whatever religion) that draws in segments of that society.
But the way you know a counterfeit is by getting very familiar with what is real.
Sometime you may notice that the New Testament itself cautions about the need to discern between myths and the Gospel.
For example:
"Let no one defraud you by judging you unworthy of your prize, in self-chosen lowliness and worship of the angels,
dwelling on things which he has seen, vainly puffed up by the mind set on the flesh.
And not holding the Head [Christ] ..." (Col. 2:18,19a) [/b]
I don't think you have given nearly enough attention to internal instructions in the Bible about guarding the experience of God from superstition, myth, legend, puffed up visions, idols.
I think this naivete comes from not really reading the Bible.
Peter says they did not follow cleverly devised myths when speaking of the transfiguration of Christ to which they were witnesses:
" For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we became eyewitnesses of that One's majesty." ( 2 Pet. 1:16)
You're rather late in handwaving your warnings about cultural myths.
I got to be warned already in careful reading of the Bible.
We could talk about how your bible is incomplete - so fussing about what it says or means is like trying to make a meal when ingredients are missing.
Then we would be kind of jumping around to another "problem".
I notice how many skeptics cannot sit still to get through ONE matter without handwaving up ANOTHER problem over here or over there.
Maybe in getting into the adequacy of the revelation given to man, you would want to nervously raise another problem over there that we could talk about.
We could talk about translation difficulties, which are profound - and those who think otherwise are clearly fanatic.
You could line up umpteen rationales to not get saved. Yea, you could do that.
I tried it for some time.
Which translation difficulty indicates you have no sins to be washed away in the redeeming blood of Christ ?
Is it the 20,000 horses of Solomon verses the 2,000 horses of Solomon ?
That copyist error prevents you from believing in Christ's death and resurrection for your salvation ?
What translation problem stands in the way of you needing the Savior Christ ?
We could talk about the wisdom of taking faith guidance from ancient people who didn't know what the lights in the night sky were.
How does that effect your need to be forgiven for your sins ?
Was there a problem with the shadow on the moon when you lied, stole, maybe fornicated, maybe dishonored your parents, maybe did something else as a stain on your character before your conscience and before God.
Was the distance from the earth to the moon a problem that effected the seriousness of your injury to someone else ?
You cannot hide your need for redemption behind modern knowledge.
You cannot sweep every moral failure recorded under the rug that we know something better about the way the mechanics of the creation work now.
Don't place too much faith in this.
If you stand before God a thief and another born 1,000 years ago stands before God as a thief, your greater knowledge of micro waves and black holes will not put you in a more righteous place.
You need to be clothed in Jesus Christ as your justification before God the Creator's holiness, and righteousness and glory.
The old testament was for the chosen. So this god is in this place, just as all the other gods are in the other places.
You should read
Exodus and on more carefully.
You may notice that God calls to all the ends of the earth to be saved.
What He did with Israel was something like have a representative to be under His law.
Did you read about His judgments of surrounding nations in the book of
Amos ?
I don't think you read it. I think you should read more of the Bible for yourself.
You are being misguided probably by Internet critics of the Christian gospel feeding you with their poor reasons to be your own.
You better look into the word of God for yourself.
New testament tried to change that. Jesus, bless his soul, was the best your god could do! A kinda weak demi-god in the tiny chosen part of the world and whose magic wasn't very impressive and could only help a few random passers-by, before he died as if he were a mere human.
These are the words of the blind having been led by the blind.
Both are fallen into a pit of abject ignorance.
Yeah, you are misguided.
No. You're being misguided - the blind leading the blind.