Archive for May, 2010

Is there a verse in the bible that says tattoos and piercings are wrong?

I want a tattoo around my left wrist of my favorite bible verse: Isaiah 12:2. My dad says, in the bible there is a verse (maybe in the old test) that specifically says tattoos and piercings are wrong.

Leviticus 19:28

"You shall not make any cuts in your body for the dead nor make any tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the Lord." While that is in the Old Testament and many Christians believe they don’t have to follow the Old Testament, like my pastor often says the Ten Commandments are also Old Testament but Christians still embrace them. Also, there is nowhere in the New Testament where Jesus actually says to forget about the Old Testament as none of it applies to us.

I need a good bible verse that explains mine and my boyfriends relationship, any ideas?

Me and my boyfriend have been together for almost a year and a half, we are seniors this year which makes us both 17 (exactly one day apart). We are very close, we have basically spent every single day together since the day we became official, and been inseparable since. We love god! We are both writing a little something on each others senior page for the yearbook, and I need a good bible verse to end my long "Speech". Anyone have any ideas?

I give praise to God, whose servant I have been, with a heart free from sin, from the time of my fathers, because in my prayers at all times the thought of you is with me, night and day Desiring to see you, keeping in my memory your weeping, so that I may be full of joy 2 Timothy 1:2,4

Jehovah’s Witnesses: Are you allowed to meet & engage in scriptural research & post blogs about your findings?

I am speaking of a small group of Witnesses forming home-study groups to do research on Bible related subjects such as how to defend their faith against commonly asked questions. Another example would be to pursue an independent study of Greek and Hebrew so as to better support the accuracy of the NWT. (I think Bar-enos does this.) Still others have created websites where they exchange their views and post their responses to debates. Tears of Oberon and Vot (for example) participate in this activity.

Does the faithful and discreet slave endorse any of these actions? Are you permitted to do any of this stuff? I’m curious about that.
Edit:

Ethan & Poя¢єℓαιη: It appears you both are violating a ruling issued by your governing body just 16 months ago. There is a Question box in a JW magazine titled “Our Kingdom Ministry” (September 2007 edition). Here’s the scanned image:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v245/sricheso/JWblogs.jpg

In this box, my question was specifically addressed. Perhaps I was quoting from the “old light,” because most JWs will say (and have said) that there is absolutely nothing at all wrong with meeting together for small home study groups and posting blogs that defend your faith. So can you show me the “new light?” I’d be interesting in reading the announced change in policy.
Edit 2:

Apparently, VOT forgot that she is a co-author of an internet blog, as she describes in this post:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AvoAVywJWZxjD8sODbmcuW4jzKIX;_ylv=3?qid=20091220183848AAlSPMU

And as far as creating websites, that’s not too hard to do:

http://asboobet.blogspot.com/

VOT: It seems that you are playing semantic games with this whole topic. It would be like me claiming that you own a “dog” and you protesting that this is a lie because you actually own a poodle. Let me clear this confusion.

By any definition, a “blog” is a type of website. Did you not know this? And to “endorse” something means to approve it. You and Tears of Oberon are running a blog where you achieve your responses to questions posed on the Yahoo Answers religion section. I actually like your blog and I’m glad you do it. However, it is clear to me that you are doing something that is NOT approved by your governing body. If you follow their advice (in the KM article), you would conclude that blogs are bad because you JWs receive “ample spiritual instruction and encouragement at the congregational meetings.”
Edit: 3

Pedro: Like I said, I love what Vot and Tears do with their debate-blog. They cut-and-paste some hard questions they encounter on Y/A and they respond in much more detail to those questions using their own independent brains and logical reasoning. I much rather prefer reading their blog than the Watchtower site. What I disagree with is how they interpret the commands of the Tower. Your leadership has clearly told all true worshippers of Jehovah that they should not be running web-blogs where they post scriptural research and exchange Bible ideas. Other websites (like sports or hobbies) are OK. But the Watchtower says you guys should NOT get involved with websites that deal with Bible doctrines and debates. As you can see, VOT says that I am misunderstanding the KM article and that a “blog” is actually not a website, contrary to what Wikipedia and most dictionaries say. By the way, have you read their blog? What did you think? Did you like it?

I am sorry but I fail to see any problem here. I don’t care if JWs obey or not the instructions of the WTBTS.

What is important is that they are checking on the NWT and how it relates to the Hebrew texts.

What more could you want, this is the best news I have heard for years.

Any serious person checking on how well the Hebrew texts and the NWT line up will see the great divide between the truth and the NWT.

Instead of asking why, we should be saying, all JWs, join in with these soon to be enlightened JWs and study for yourself the truth.

Don’t rely on any other publication or person to tell you the truth, seek and you will find!

Praise the Lord that this is happening, Praise God..

Let ever Christian here and anywhere support fully any JW that wants to do interdependent study away from the controlling WTBTS rules.

Come on JWs join in this search for truth.

What is a Catholic bible verse that relates to beauty, nature, or something else I could take a picture of?

For a photo project I want to write a bible verse on the photo mat. I want something powerful that directly or indirectly goes along with the photograph. Any ideas?

1 Genesis 7:

19 And the waters prevailed beyond measure upon the earth: and all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered.
Photo: Beach

Psalms 54

7 And I said: Who will give me wings like a dove, and I will fly and be at rest?
Photo: Dove

Isaiah 40

They that hope in the LORD will renew their strength, they will soar as with eagles’ wings; They will run and not grow weary, walk and not grow faint.
Photo: Elderly with child

What is a good bible verse about helping people in need?

I am going on a christian mission this summer and in order to raise the money i need to go, i am sending out letters asking for donations. I need a good bible verse to put at the end of the letter, something about helping people.

luke 12:33
"Sell your possessions and give to charity; make yourselves money belts which do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near nor moth destroys."

God bless

Why do so many atheists come to the Religion and Spirituality section in Yahoo Answers?

Questions I ask in the Religion and Spirituality section directed to atheists often get 25 or more responses. Then I got to wondering why atheists are interested in answering questions that are on the topic of religion and spirituality.

I am here because I enjoy discussing and debating religion and spirituality, I enjoy learning about religion and spirituality, and I enjoy replying to the questions people ask of atheists.

Book Review: Psalms for All Seasons by John F. Craghan

Engaging and educational book that illuminates the Psalms

I am getting to know the Psalms. I have been reading the Psalms for about ten years, which isn’t long as it goes. Afterall, the Psalms have been around a long time and I am just getting to them. As an effort to know and understand them, and to learn to have them as a part of my life, I have so far turned to three books. This is the third of the books I have read on the Psalms, and maybe it is just me, but the most helpful. In fact, now I will go back to the others. This book has a capacity to inspire with pleasure a growing sense of ease with the Psalms. For afterall, they are relevant to living.

Where I bought this book is important to the review. I did not buy it on Amazon.com, probably because I didn’t know about it. So Amazon.com remains a good source for the work. I discovered the book at a monastery bookstore, where it was with some other titles about Psalms. In a way, it came advised as a book to read and encouraged as a title to own.

The book takes about 55 Psalms and discusses each one of them. There is the Psalm, then the commentary. Some chapters end with a quotation from the Bible, which are also discussed in a commentary manner. In each section, for the Psalms are divided into types, there is an introduction. For Wisdom Psalms the author John F. Craghan introduces the type: “Wisdom psalms emphasize the doctrine of retribution; that is, they attempt to offer a theological explanation of success and failure, reward and punishment.” I find that clear writing, and for a believer a believable statement that helps matters. This is a book that helps the believer to realize God is in our lives in surprising ways. He can speak to our humanity.

For the price, $6.95 the cover of mine says, you can’t go wrong. This is a book for reading in chunks. I found reading a half hour and taking a ten minute break, then going back to the book the better way to absorb what the writer has to say. I mean, here is Psalm 1, which the writer says “…is really the introduction to the entire Book of Psalms.” It begins, “Happy those who do not follow/the counsel of the wicked…” There are words to live by, and you can see that the book makes one enthusiastic for the beauty and even religious meaning of these ancient Hebrew hymns.

I want to give you another example of a Psalm chosen by the book. Psalm 32 begins, “Happy the sinner whose fault is removed/whose sin is forgiven.” This is one of the penitential Psalms. I like how the writer thinks that the Psalms lead to the good life. I think this is an implied meaning of the book. Of that Psalm 32, the commentary says, “The psalmist states that for the good life nothing quite matches the experience of forgiveness.”

Want to know God, or something of the Almighty. Certainly for the Christian the Psalms are a path to living. Of Psalm 39 titled “The Vanity of Life” the commentary by the writer goes: “”This psalm is ultimately a study on the theology of security, a meditation on the irony of human existence in relation to the Existing One.” I am interested in such things, so of course I would find this a helpful look at reading a psalm. By the way, he categorizes this psalm as one of lament. The psalms help with human lament, and they are a deep source of getting to know oneself, and ones relation in the world. There is also the knowledge that others have had, for hundreds and hundreds of years, a kinship of similar experience and emotion. There is something deep in this itself.

There is another book like this one, or more accurately, that this book is like. The author of “Psalms for All Seasons” gives thanks to the author of it, and says that he patterned his book by it. The book is “Praying the Psalms” by Brueggemann. I have read this book, and it is wonderful. So the two books together give a reader a good chance at learning about and living with the psalms.

This title by associate professor John F. Craghan is a mere 170 pages, not including his pages on suggested reading. In itself, a worthy thing to get to have. Like Brueggemann, Craghan says: “Brueggemann has suggested that certain types of psalms fit these different stages (of our lives).” So this book, too, in so well done a way, contributes to an understanding and liking of the psalms. There is something holy about being brought closer to sacred writing. There is something deeply spiritual in this book about the psalms that brings them to better reach for meaning in our lives. I recommend this book to anyone interested in expanding both, and who just enjoys the psalms and wants to know more about appreciating them.

–Peter Menkin, Obl Cam OSB

Peter Menkin
http://www.articlesbase.com/religion-articles/book-review-psalms-for-all-seasons-by-john-f-craghan-574872.html

A Brief Guide To 21 English Bible Translations

There are so many translations available today that it can be quite confusing? Which are the best ones? Are some inaccurate? Is “older” always better?” Or maybe “newer” is preferred!

I’ve tried to summarize twenty-one of the most popular ones below. (There are many others out there.) I’ve also included some editorial comments from time to time that may point out strengths and weaknesses. I hope this is a help to you. God bless you as you study His Word!

1. Amplified Bible (AMP)

The Amplified Bible was the first Bible project of The Lockman Foundation. It attempts to take both word meaning and context into account in order to accurately translate the original text from one language into another. The Amplified Bible does this through the use of explanatory alternate readings and amplifications to assist the reader in understanding what Scripture really says. Multiple English word equivalents to each key Hebrew and Greek word clarify and amplify meanings that may otherwise have been concealed by the traditional translation method.

2. American Standard Version (ASV)

Published in 1901, the American Standard Version was produced as a revision to the King James Version.

3. Contemporary English Version (CEV)

Uncompromising simplicity marked the American Bible Society’s translation of the Contemporary English Version Bible that was first published in 1995. The text is easily read by grade schoolers, second language readers, and those who prefer the more contemporized form. The CEV is not a paraphrase. It is an accurate and faithful translation of the original manuscripts.

4. Darby Translation (DARBY)

First published in 1890 by John Nelson Darby, an Anglo-Irish Bible teacher associated with the early years of the Plymouth Brethren. Darby also published translations of the Bible in French and German.

5. English Standard Version (ESV)

The English Standard Version stands in the classic mainstream of English Bible translations over the past half-millennium. In that stream, faithfulness to the text and vigorous pursuit of accuracy were combined with simplicity, beauty, and dignity of expression. Our goal has been to carry forward this legacy for a new century.

To this end each word and phrase in the ESV has been carefully weighed against the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, to ensure the fullest accuracy and clarity and to avoid under-translating or overlooking any nuance of the original text. The words and phrases themselves grow out of the Tyndale-King James legacy, and most recently out of the RSV, with the 1971 RSV text providing the starting point for our work.

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Even though many conservative scholars have found inaccuracies in the orginal RSV, those problems were corrected in the ESV translation. It is one of the best modern translations available today.]

6. Good News Translation (GNT)

The Good News Translation, formerly called the Good News Bible or Today’s English Version was first published as a full Bible in 1976 by the American Bible Society as a “common language” Bible. It is a clear and simple modern translation that is faithful to the original Hebrew, Koine Greek and Aramaic texts. The GNT is a highly-trusted version.

7. Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)

The Bible is God’s inspired word, inerrant in the original manuscripts. It is the only means of knowing God’s plan of salvation and His will for our lives. It is the only hope and answer for a rebellious, searching world. Bible translation, both a science and an art, is a bridge that brings God’s word from the ancient world to the world today.

8. King James Version (KJV)

In 1604, King James I of England authorized that a new translation of the Bible into English be started. It was finished in 1611, just 85 years after the first translation of the New Testament into English appeared (Tyndale, 1526). The Authorized Version, or King James Version, quickly became the standard for English-speaking Protestants.

9. 21st Century King James Version (KJ21)

The 21st Century King James Version of the Holy Bible (KJ21®) is an updating of the 1611 King James Version (KJV). It is not a new translation, but a careful updating to eliminate obsolete words by reference to the most complete and definitive modern American dictionary, the Webster’s New International Dictionary, Second Edition, unabridged. Spelling, punctuation, and capitalization have also been updated.

What has been historically known as Biblical English has been retained in this updating. It is readily distinguished from the colloquial language of commerce and the media used in contemporary Bible translations.

All language relating to gender and theology in the King James Version remains unchanged from the original.

10. The Message (MSG)

Why was The Message written? The best answer to that question comes from Eugene Peterson himself: “While I was teaching a class on Galatians, I began to realize that the adults in my class weren’t feeling the vitality and directness that I sensed as I read and studied the New Testament in its original Greek. Writing straight from the original text, I began to attempt to bring into English the rhythms and idioms of the original language. I knew that the early readers of the New Testament were captured and engaged by these writings and I wanted my congregation to be impacted in the same way. I hoped to bring the New Testament to life for two different types of people: those who hadn’t read the Bible because it seemed too distant and irrelevant and those who had read the Bible so much that it had become ‘old hat.’”

11. New American Standard Bible (NASB)

While preserving the literal accuracy of the 1901 ASV, the New American Stand Bible has sought to render grammar and terminology in contemporary English. Special attention has been given to the rendering of verb tenses to give the English reader a rendering as close as possible to the sense of the original Greek and Hebrew texts. This translation has earned the reputation of being the most accurate English Bible translation.

12. The NET Bible (NET)

The NET Bible is a completely new translation of the Bible with 60,932 translators’ notes! It was completed by more than 25 scholars – experts in the original biblical languages – who worked directly from the best currently available Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts.

13. New Century Version (NCV)

This translation of God’s Word was made from the original Hebrew and Greek languages. The translation team was composed of the World Bible Translation Center and fifty additional, highly qualified and experienced Bible scholars and translators. Some had translation experience on the New International Version, the New American Standard, and the New King James Versions. The third edition of the United Bible Societies’ Greek text, the latest edition of Biblia Hebraica and the Septuagint were among texts used.

14. New International Version (NIV)

The New International Version is a translation made by more than one hundred scholars working from the best available Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts. It was conceived in 1965 when, after several years of study by committees from the Christian Reformed Church and the National Association of Evangelicals, a trans-denominational and international group of scholars met at Palos Heights, Illinois, and agreed on the need for a new translation in contemporary English.

15. New International Reader’s Version (NIrV)

The New International Reader’s Version is a new Bible version based on the New International Version (NIV). The NIV is easy to understand and very clear. More people read the NIV than any other English Bible. We made the NIrV even easier to read and understand. We used the words of the NIV when we could. Sometimes we used shorter words. We explained words that might be hard to understand. We made the sentences shorter.

We did some other things to make the NIrV a helpful Bible version for you. For example, sometimes a Bible verse quotes from another place in the Bible. When that happens, we put the other Bible book’s name, chapter and verse right there. We separated each chapter into shorter sections. We gave a title to almost every chapter. Sometimes we even gave a title to the shorter sections. That will help you understand what each chapter or section is all about.

16. New Jerusalem Bible (NJB)

The New Jerusalem Bible is a 1985 revision of the older Jerusalem Bible (JB). The JB was translated from the original languages, but it developed out of a popular French translation done in Jerusalem, which is why it was called the Jerusalem Bible. The NJB, like the JB before it, is known for its literary qualities. While the JB tended to more meaning-based (or functional equivalent), the NJB has moved toward more of a word-based (or formal equivalent) translation.

17. New King James Version (NKJV)

Commissioned in 1975 by Thomas Nelson Publishers, 130 respected Bible scholars, church leaders, and lay Christians worked for seven years to create a completely new, modern translation of Scripture, yet one that would retain the purity and stylistic beauty of the original King James Version. With unyielding faithfulness to the original Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic texts, the translatiors applies the most recent research in archaelology, linguistics, and textual studies.

18. New Living Translation (NLT)

The goal of any Bible translation is to convey the meaning of the ancient Hebrew and Greek texts as accurately as possible to the modern reader. The New Living Translation is based on the most recent scholarship in the theory of translation. The challenge for the translators was to create a text that would make the same impact in the life of modern readers that the original text had for the original readers. In the New Living Translation, this is accomplished by translating entire thoughts (rather than just words) into natural, everyday English. The end result is a translation that is easy to read and understand and that accurately communicates the meaning of the original text.

19. New Revised Standard Version (NSRV)

The NRSV translation has been rightly labeled “An Ecumenical Edition,” that has been widely used by both Protestant and Catholic worshippers since 1990.

20. Revised Standard Version (RSV)

Published in 1952, the Revised Standard Version of the Bible is an authorized revision of the American Standard Version. It seeks to preserve all that is best in the English Bible as it has been known and used through the years. It is intended for use in public and private worship, not merely for reading and instruction. [EDITOR'S NOTE: Many conservative scholars have found inaccuracies in the translation work in the RSV.]

21. Today’s New International Version (TNIV)

The Today’s New International Version is a thoroughly accurate, fully trustworthy Bible text built on the rich heritage of the New International Version (NIV). In fact, this contemporary language version incorporates the continuing work of the Committee on Bible Translation (CBT), the translators of the NIV, since the NIV’s last update in 1984.

In translating the NIV, the CBT held to certain goals: that it be an Accurate, Beautiful, Clear, and Dignified translation suitable for public and private reading, teaching, preaching, memorizing, and liturgical use. The translators were united in their commitment to the authority and infallibility of the Bible as God’s Word in written form. They agreed that faithful communication of the meaning of the original writers demands frequent modifications in sentence structure (resulting in a “thought-for-thought” translation) and constant regard for the contextual meanings of words.

Glenn Christianson

What is intercessory prayer? How can I intercede for others through my prayer life?

What is intercessory prayer?
How can I intercede for others through my prayer life?

Quite simply, intercessory prayer is the act of praying on behalf of others. The role of mediator in prayer was prevalent in the Old Testament, in the cases of Abraham, Moses, David, Samuel, Hezekiah, Elijah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. Christ is pictured in the New Testament as the ultimate intercessor, and because of this, all Christian prayer becomes intercession since it is offered to God through and by Christ. Jesus closed the gap between us and God when He died on the cross. Because of Jesus’ mediation, we can now intercede in prayer on behalf of other Christians or for the lost, asking God to grant their requests according to His will. “For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5). “Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us” (Romans 8:34).

The following is only a partial list of those for whom we are to offer intercessory prayers: all in authority (1 Timothy 2:2); ministers (Philippians 1:19); the church (Psalm 122:6); friends (Job 42:8); fellow countrymen (Romans 10:1); the sick (James 5:14); enemies (Jeremiah 29:7); those who persecute us (Matthew 5:44); those who forsake us (2 Timothy 4:16); and all men (1 Timothy 2:1).

God calls all Christians to be intercessors. It is God’s desire that every believer be active in intercessory prayer. What a wonderful and exalted privilege we have in being able to come boldly before the throne of Almighty God with our prayers and requests!
Source:

http://www.gotquestions.org/intercessory-prayer.html

What God wants to do on the earth, He will do through prayer intercessors. When God wants to change those course of actions or events that will take a path of their own, He searches out an intercessor, on whose heart He can place His desires. Therefore that intercessor will interceed, and pray, and change those events or courses of action.

Make a list of the people you pray for. Be specific. What needs do you want to help carry for another. When someone asks you to pray for them, add them to your list. Then make it a point to contact these people and tell them you are praying for them daily. This is important because the next time you are tempted to omit your time of prayer you will remember that you told someone you were praying for them and in your desire to be faithful you will make time to pray.

Also note what is going on in the news, like right now the world’s response to the earthquake in Haiti. Add any disaster, or weather related situations, for example, to your prayers. Pray for those affected, or in harms way who may not be able to pray for themselves. People you may not even know!

Why did the Dumbocrats CELEBRATE the national day of PRAYER by ENCOURAGING its members to PAY HOMAGE to Obama?

Is this the Democratic Party’s preferred Day of Prayer homage?

Barack Obama may not have attended a ceremony for the National Day of Prayer on Thursday. But the Democratic National Committee’s official blog "Kicking Ass" did celebrate reverence and worship on that day: it reposted a photo of Obama reverently looking up at a portrait of John F. Kennedy.

Surprise, surprise: the networks ignored the National Day of Prayer, too.

I heard that if you sneeze around Obama he says " I Bless You "