What if the story of Satan testing Job wasn't about Job? What if it was a story about God trying to reconnect with his "prodigal son"?
One thing I think that Christians should understand about the bible: it was never written for you.
Every religion has its creation myth (here "myth" meaning "story told to convey a truth"). The Jewish texts that the Christian bible claims as its foundation was not written for the modern day white man, or even the gentiles that lived two thousand years ago. The story of Genesis is the story of how the Hebrew race came to be, not how the Native Americans came to be, or Inuits, or the Chinese. This makes a little bit of sense when Cain is sent out into the world marked and there are already other people there.
When people say the bible was written for everyone, do they also believe it was written for the angels, the original Sons of God? Probably not. I wonder if the angels have their own bible? Another tangent for another day.
The stories that permeate the bible leading up to Jesus do not include other breeds of humans. Jonah was not Hindu. Noah was not Chilean.
The morals and lessons can be extrapolated to other people, yes. But taken as a personal genetic history? Only the Jews can claim that. Truth is truth. It's application differs, however.
This makes me wonder about the angels. The myth in the New Testament of the prodigal son seems applicable. What if the "son who stayed" will share the inheritance of the prodigal son? The new testament says Satan will be chained for a thousand years. So is forgiveness arbitrary and applicable only to a few? If Satan asked, would God forgive him? Or is the quality of mercy strained?
The bible wasn't written for angels, or even with their side included. We almost should give Satan some credit: everything written about him was from one side.
Not that I would actually listen to his argument.
One thing I think that Christians should understand about the bible: it was never written for you.
Every religion has its creation myth (here "myth" meaning "story told to convey a truth"). The Jewish texts that the Christian bible claims as its foundation was not written for the modern day white man, or even the gentiles that lived two thousand years ago. The story of Genesis is the story of how the Hebrew race came to be, not how the Native Americans came to be, or Inuits, or the Chinese. This makes a little bit of sense when Cain is sent out into the world marked and there are already other people there.
When people say the bible was written for everyone, do they also believe it was written for the angels, the original Sons of God? Probably not. I wonder if the angels have their own bible? Another tangent for another day.
The stories that permeate the bible leading up to Jesus do not include other breeds of humans. Jonah was not Hindu. Noah was not Chilean.
The morals and lessons can be extrapolated to other people, yes. But taken as a personal genetic history? Only the Jews can claim that. Truth is truth. It's application differs, however.
This makes me wonder about the angels. The myth in the New Testament of the prodigal son seems applicable. What if the "son who stayed" will share the inheritance of the prodigal son? The new testament says Satan will be chained for a thousand years. So is forgiveness arbitrary and applicable only to a few? If Satan asked, would God forgive him? Or is the quality of mercy strained?
The bible wasn't written for angels, or even with their side included. We almost should give Satan some credit: everything written about him was from one side.
Not that I would actually listen to his argument.
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