One of the hardest things to do in life is to live a biblical life.  it doesn’t sound hard and it seems like a piece of cake, but with all the temptations and chances for us to sin, it makes it an almost impossible task.  Luckily, the Bible is not a set in stone set of rules and laws that we must follow in order to get to heaven.  Yes, we need to live and clean and pure life, but if we do not follow the Bible to a T, does not mean we will not achieve an eternity in heaven.  In the video she talks about how the Bible is not a blueprint.  if it was a blueprint there would be no discussion on how to take things in the Bible.  the Bible has many different interpretations of the Bible, so the way you live your life has a lot to do with how you interpret the bible.

in the beginning of this class, I thought the Bible was a book of rules and laws that christians must follow to be able to achieve an eternal life in heaven.  my interpretation of the Bible was always an objective view and trying to read it for what it says and that was always what I believed, but now after taking this class, I have a completely different view on the Bible and how to approach scripture.  Now I read the Bible and take a step back.  I try to dissect the passages and challenge myself to think of it differently.  I want to challenge my views and sometimes challenge what the Bible says.  I’m not saying that I  don’t believe what is says, but by reading the passages and listening to discussions in class, I have now learned how to argue with the Bible, but have enough faith to trust in it and trust the God wouldn’t put something in there that he wouldn’t want in it.  overall, I think this class made me challenge myself and challenge the Bible and really make me think about the way I feel during the reading.  I think this class has made me into a better reader of the Bible.

I am not familiar with a lot of things in the Bible, but I do know that some things contradict each other and it can be very confusing at some times.  one thing that conflicted me was that that when his father told him he needed to watch his step and use caution before acting, but then his mother told him he needed to not hesitate when he was trying to get a date.  I wrestled with this for awhile before coming to a consensus about this chapter.  I came to the conclusion that every different situation is unique and that each specific situation calls for a different method of approach.  for example, if your friends are doing something that you do not feel comfortable with, that specific situation calls for the hesitation approach, especially if it is something sinful,  but other situations, like asking a girl out that you like, you just have to go for it because the worst thing that can happen is that she can say no and you’ll be embarrassed for a little while until everyone forgets about it.

I truly believe God is on everyones side at all times.  I do think God does things that test our faith and that tests our standards and tendencies as christians.  Take the 9/11 bombings for example.  it was a horrible thing and a tragedy that will forever be remembered as the most horrific terrorist attack in the United States’ history….. hopefully.  I do not think God takes specific sides, but I do think that God has a plan and if we are not in a walk with God and miss out on his plan for us, well then who is to blame?  how can you blame God for the mistakes in your life if you are not in a walk with him.  if you are walking with the lord, yes he will test you, but if you do not waiver in your faith and stay strong and trust the process, then God will reward you for your loyalty.  A lot of people had different perspectives on those attacks.  obviously, we think the terrorists are horrendous people, but the view the United States as Satan.  Who is right and how you can you prove the other wrong? it is a hard debate that surely us students are not qualified to figure out

Like many stories, no matter the subject, perspectives matter.  Whether it is a story passed down through the generations of your family or a story from ancient times that spread by word of mouth, the story will change at least a little.  With every person it passes, something little or big, will change.  one thing I have learned about stories from ancient times, even biblical times, is that things can be fabricated or changed from the original story.  More importantly, if it is a story from biblical times that seems strange, we still must believe it and have faith because that is mostly what being a christian is.  How can we ever really know what happened so many years ago.  We can never truly have 100% knowledge that any of the stuff happened, but we must have faith and trust in God that it did.  If we do not believe that, then are we really christians.  I think that to be Christian means to have full faith and trust in Jesus and his teachings, in all of them.

By reading this chapter, there are many laws that are unique that we definitely do not have today.  one law that I took notice to was the Laws of Eshnunna 31 which says, “if a free man has sex with a virgin slave girl that belongs to another man, he must pay the owner one third of a silver mina; and the slave girl remains property of her owner.”  this is really messed up for a lot of reasons.  first off, women are not property, they’re actual people, not something that is exchangeable for money.  second, how is it okay for a crime like that just to be paid for with money.  I do not understand how the “owner” can be okay with compensation.  It is just weird to me that women were so undervalued.

in this chapter of Cosby, it talks about the flood and the reasoning behind it.  it also talks about human sinfulness and that it got so bad the God decided to eliminate people from the earth.  that to me is very scary.  We all know the story of Noah’s ark.  He was a righteous man and that is why God saved him and his family and flooded the rest of the earth to eliminate the sinfulness of the people.  when I read Noah’s ark and the story of the flood it really motivates me to not sin.  I know that when the world ends like this again, I want to be one of the ones is saved so it really makes me stop and think before I let temptation try to win me over.  it is very difficult, but by reading this passage again, it just makes me fearful of God even more and makes me want to abide by his word

When I think of creation, I think of Genesis 1 and 2.  I think of the scripture where God is creating the world and the reasoning behind each thing.  God created all things, as it says in the book of Genesis.  I feel a sense of safety when I think that the world was created for a specific purpose, not just from something.  God created this world and everything in it for us.  there would not be a world and we would not have the things we have without our God.  Also in Genesis, it shows us how different our God is in the Old Testament vs the New Testament.  in the Old Testament, God is very strict and does not give out kind punishments to Adam and Eve, while in the New Testament we see a very merciful and forgiving god.

the church I wanted to research was the church of Smyrna.  Smyrna was an ancient city in West Asia that was first colonized by the Greeks.  it was then taken by way of attack and turned into an Ionian city.  later, it was recaptured back into the hands of the greeks.  it is arguably considered to be one of the greatest cities in the history of Asia.  it is said that it suffered from earthquakes.  the church was kept pure by continual suffering and was very poor and oppressed.  it was very rich in the spirituality department, but did not get exposed to the temptations and dangers riches offers. the jews of smyrna were told to be very hostile and very few accepted christianity into their hearts.  the Jews had given way to temptations of luxury and civilization and have gone away from the purity of the Jewish religion. Later on the text goes on to mention that Jews assisted in gathering wood to burn the bishop, calling them degenerate from their religion. I think what this is all saying is that fake Christians, or Jews in this case, will not be tolerated. Saying one thing and doing another, is not the way God intended, and this is what I think he is talking about with the message to Smyrna. in revelation 2, it talks about the first and the last and who was dead and came to life.  One thing that Jesus did when he was spreading his gospel, is he worked from the bottom up.  he talked to the poor and people like the shepherds and people at the bottom of the food chain.  he did this because the people at the top were out to get him because they were afraid of Jesus because He was spreading the word of God and that would mean that they would lose power.  also in revelation, He goes on to say the Devil will test you by being thrown into a prison for 10 days.  If one is faithful before death, the crown of life will be given to those who are faithful. Listen to what the Spirt is saying about the church, and you will not be conquered by the second death.

the thing that I liked most about reading this chapter was the heavily journey stage.  I think it would be very cool,  yet insanely frightening to visit heaven and observe hell where people are punished for all eternity.  I think that being able to visit heaven and see where youll be spending your afterlife is something that is indescribable.  it talks about how most apocalypse have heavily journeys where angelic revealers take the author up into heaven and show him things that noone on earth has ever seen before.  they see things that man does not even know about.  I just think that to have that chance comes with great responsibility and that is pretty cool