I'm a vegan for ethical reasons, an animal rights activist, and Im proud with nothing to hide. Ive been a vegan for over two years. At first, I just felt like cutting back on my meat intake for health reasons and not for any particular ethical or animals well-being reason. However, just by occurrence when I visited a local farm, around 3-4 years ago, I felt immediate empathy for the animals there. I felt sad that they were confined, because I immediately became aware that man and beast share the most significant of complexities in terms of quality; such as joy, sadness, love, pleasure, etc. Surely man may experience more in terms of quantity with regards to intellect, but not in terms of emotion which is more important than intellect in my regard. Animals were, and are not intended to be confined. A few months later, whilst I was randomly browsing the web, I came across a documentary called Earthlings. After watching only a quarter of the film, I made a conscious decision to refuse depending or using animals, or animal by-products in my life. I dont know or care if it was just by luck that I found this film, or if there is a god out there who subconsciously commanded me to watch this; because in the end, I feel that being a vegan is the morally right thing to do. Also, I truly believe that if there is a god, then God would want us all to evolve into vegans. The whole notion in believing theres a god is to hope that there is good out there. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6361872964130308142# God intended man to be the keepers of this Earth, and to protect, respect and love all of his creations. Clearly, man has become the opposite. Humans, as a whole, dont respect this Earth or its sentient beings (insects, fish, animals, and humans alike). I was raised a Catholic, but Ive rejected the notion of organized religions quite some time ago. I became more comfortable with my beliefs as I approached, and interpreted them in my own individual manner. I dont like being told that I should believe in something out of fear. In the Catholic religion, youre threatened into believing, and I have firsthand experience with this as I was quite religious in my youth. If you dont believe, youre going to hell; well if thats the case, Im not sold. I dont believe God wrote the bible through man. I dont believe these prophets were spoken to by God. Ive always been an agnostic, I dont objectively believe or disbelieve, because rationally, logically, and factually, I dont think we can, nor will we ever know what truly exists or doesnt exist. Furthermore, what I dislike about religion is that it is created by man (an imperfect being), and each religion claims to know the eternal truth; which is simply irrational. God, or the eternal truth, comes from within each of us. When we make a conscious decision in life, be it small or big, significant, or insignificant, we should only follow our heart, and if you believe in God or not, the result will be the same, and honesty and compassion should prevail over any other dishonest or selfish thought. Back to the subject of Meat, and animal sacrifice. Meat in the bible is never referred to as flesh. Genesis 1:29-30 29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. 30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. Even prophets from the Old Testament envisioned, and hoped for eternal peace amongst all sentient beings. Isaiah 11:6-9 6 The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling[a] together; and a little child will lead them. 7 The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. 8 The infant will play near the cobras den, and the young child will put its hand into the vipers nest. 9 They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. In the next chapter, God says he has no pleasure in the blood of animals. Isaiah 1:11-17 11 The multitude of your sacrifices what are they to me? says the LORD. I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats. 12 When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts? 13 Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations I cannot bear your worthless assemblies. 14 Your New Moon feasts and your appointed festivals I hate with all my being. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. 15 When you spread out your hands in prayer, I hide my eyes from you; even when you offer many prayers, I am not listening. Many more examples of quotes from the bible with regards to sanctity of animals. http://www.openbible.info/topics/animal_cruelty Like I said, you can approach the respect, love, and empathy for animals through religion, science, culture or humanism. Its just universal empathy. Surely, there will be some who agree, and disagree with my statement(s). Thus, I feel no need to respond to either or, since I know what the predicted replies will be.
It was the mentality of Sodom, and Gomorrah that God did not like. It made them aggressive,and violent. That's why they rushed the door of lots house. Police do that,and swat teams too. Military will totoly demolish a houses. Humans to day,and all through history are violent like that. Humans forgot who the animal represented that died in a sacrifice.The sacrifice of God in the flesh who is Jesus ended ritualistic sacrifice. Humans forget that their species is responsible for the death of whatever, even the star that warms this planet. Forget that,and an egotistical rebellious spirit will come in that will make the human want to physically dominate one human or a nation, and then you have war ,and persecution using names against humans like Pedo or bestiality or zoosexuality, and so on, and so forth to get sodomistic humans to want to bash each others door down.That is a form of animal sacrifice. Humans wandered away from the meaning of the non human animals sacrifice pointing to the ultimate sacrifice. That is why the priests did not recognize Jesus when they saw him. They did not have Jesus in them to be able to see Gods character in Jesus.That's why Jesus was in the end crucified. The non human animals have the immortal spirit of Jesus in them. That's why it is permissible to eat them. God wants to see a loving, forgiving slow to anger spirit inside of us seeking peace with all men, and not concerned what a human eats.
"Lord, have mercy on my son," he said. "He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water.I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him.""O unbelieving and perverse generation," Jesus replied, "how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me." He said to them, Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, Move from here to there, and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you. Let me ask you this because I too have witnessed miracles that I could not deny if I tried. Would you believe in self-healing if you hadn't read about Jesus and his power ? (as in without the NT) The disciples were healing people, casting out demons,etc... Yes, God is indeed capable... He inspires me as well ..... Maybe even inspired Darwin, no ? Newton ? Point being "no on is good but God" David and Bathsheba, Paul and his persecutions.. Again, this goes to show that I can say that they 'were' evil without applying the same term to God. I am only answering your question. Yes but that isn't Spiritual weakness on my part, it is compassion for animals. This is plain evil ...
That does not mean He was frustrated……one can say those that and not be. But He knew they were capable of believing if they really wanted to. You know, a lot of times people doubt what they can accomplish because they pay too much attention to negative people, and the negative environment they are around. Remember how the woman who touched the hem of Jesus cloth was healed? It was not Jesus that healed her.....it was her own faith that did it. Jesus said to her that her faith has made her well. I don't know. But I have seen videos in the internet about the power of our words and the effect it has on water. It helped to confirm some of what I read in the Bible. And the thing is, most things has water in it......so imagine what that is saying. If you entertain negative thoughts it will affect not only your mind but your entire body, because we are made up of mostly water. Proverbs 17:22 (GW) 22 A joyful heart is good medicine, but depression drains one's strength. I am constantly thinking about the glory that I will receive when Jesus returns and what it will be like (having a body that cannot die, does not need food or water, is not confined to any place on the Earth and so on), so I don't have negative thoughts dominating my mind......these are the things that should occupy our minds, rather than the garbage that we see on TV, the movies or in the news paper. They were able to do it the first time but later they did. Darwin? I can see why you have doubts about certain parts of the Bible. You might be listing to too many conflicting voices. God is not the author of confusion.....the theory of evolution contradicts the Bible. The Bible says God created man and all the living things on the Earth, the sea and birds. Evolution teaches that it all evolved over billions of trillions of years and matter and life came into existence by itself from nothing. Like I said, God calls His people righteous not evil. Matthew 23:34-35 (ASV) 34 Therefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: some of them shall ye kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city: 35 that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of Abel the righteous unto the blood of Zachariah son of Barachiah, whom ye slew between the sanctuary and the altar. When God declares you to be righteous you are righteous even if you sin from time to time. There is a big difference between a righteous person in God's eye and a wicked person. The righteous strives to please God in what he or she does, but the wicked cares not about what God thinks, nor does he strive to please God. Killing animals for food is not evil. It’s not one of those things that God said was wrong. Killing an animal is not the same as killing a human being. If you don't understand what a human being is in comparison to an animal then you won't understand why it’s wrong to kill a human being, but is not when you kill an animal. Of course it is wrong to kill an animal just for the sake of killing them, like for sport.....killing an animal for sport is not a need.
Doesn't mean he wasn't frustrated,that's for sure. I agree here with what you wrote. I will add that while yes it was her faith that healed her, I also found it interesting that Jesus felt the Spirit (some of it anyway) leave him to heal her. Something like that that I remember but anyway, found it to be quite enlightening. I believe and correct me if I am wrong,that the disciples were doing this stuff before and after the Pentecost but my memory fails me.. Yes, you see correctly .. The irony is that I actually gained my belief in God before I was even done reading the whole Genesis account..(and only that much,I think) It fulfilled answers that I never had before which may seem ridiculous to the non believer but the fact is that "God did it" had a strong impact on me. It was a simple, none confusing answer.. I didn't care about the science at the time. This is kind of irrelevant to the point I was making. Yes, only God can Judge accurately. I never said killing animals for food was evil.. I am speaking about the disgusting business such as the one as described in the link I provided which indeed describes a cruel and evil business. Did you read the link ?
It was not spirit that left Jesus....He said it was power. But the fact still is that Jesus told the woman that it was her faith that made her well. Luke 8:48 (KJV) 48 And he said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace. She would not have been healed if she did not believe. It was also Peter's faith that allowed him to walk on water for a little while. Peter became doubtful after and began to sink. There was only one time before Pentecost that it was mentioned that they were able to cast out demons. Remember, they were not converted men during Jesus' ministry, so they did not understand what they were capable of doing. Then, I would advise you to continue to not only read the Bible but more importantly, study its scriptures. Leave those other nonsensical books by the wayside, they will only cause confusing if you pay attention to what they say. What's important is what God says.....that is the way we should see it.....the way God does. And so, since only God judges accurately, anything that is contrary to what God says is wrong/inaccurate. Romans 8:33-34 (Darby) 33 Who shall bring an accusation against God's elect? [It is] God who justifies: 34 who is he that condemns? [It is] Christ who has died, but rather has been [also] raised up; who is also at the right hand of God; who also intercedes for us. Yes, unfortunately that is the way it is.....its part of evil that the world is full of. Its no different than the things that is recorded in the Old Testament. That is why God's people are the light of the world.....they show the world the right path to go....how to live. A light shines in the dark but it does not force people to go the right path, it just shows a light, so the person can see where to go.
I believe animal and human sacrifice began as an attempt to appease god. Before man knew anything about weather or science, he believed that everything happened according to will. When man throws a spear, or starts a fire, or kills, it is because he wills it so. So when there is a natural disaster, primitive man reasoned that there is some power that was causing it to happen because these things just don't happen for no reason. In the event of a natural disaster, someone or something was almost always hurt or killed, so primitive man reasoned that whatever power was creating these events made them happen because it wanted to kill something, just like primitive man wanted to when he was hungry. Humans do not like unpredictable disasters, so they try to control these things by making a blood sacrifice in advance. The blood sacrifice was actually primitive man's attempt at science, but faith keeps the practice around.
Spirit/power all relative. Question from me to you is that you say and yet you were not healed instantly as those that also did have faith ( "It did not happen overnight, but I continued to target that part of my body that I wanted to get healed almost every day," ) Why is that ? I already believe in God and have studied scripture, we are partakes in the Holy Spirit and the Spirit will never fail me. I need to know why you think evolution is "nonsensical" though.. Is it only because it is challenging to the Genesis ? You don't think the medical (science) world is nonsensical do you ? Still not relevant to what I judged in the past tense. I think Paul was a great man, before that, Not such a good guy.
Its important not to interpret the scriptures...it interprets itself.....if Jesus meant spirit He would have used the word that would be translated into the English word spirit. I was not praying for God to heal me......I was using my own ability to heal myself. And if I had asked God in prayer to heal me and He did it gradually, I would not have a problem with that either. I am not against sound science but I am against nonsensical science that claim that God does not exist, and creation, including man evolved into what we are today. There is a scripture that says about people like that, it says, "Ever learning but not able to come to the knowledge of truth." Or as it says in another place, "professing to be wise they have become fools." But medical science is another matter. I would like to know though what do you mean by medical science? Are you referring to the developing of prescription drugs or are you talking about something else in medical science? Much of man's illness is the result of a violation of principles that govern health that God created. God create fruits, vegetable, grains and legumes. And our bodies were designed for physical activity. But over time, man became less and less physically active and consume less of the food God made for us to consume. And as a result, we have all kinds of illness that we see today. In the eyes of God all people are evil apart from Jesus' shed blood.....He made no distinction.....all are worthy of death in God's eyes. So what you may think otherwise is irrelevant. But thanks to God what we may be in the past to God it does not exist, and we are righteous in His sight.
Well I was going from KJV that says "virtue" but the point was that he actually felt it leave him and that was enlightening to some interesting experiences I have had before,gives me not doubt that Jesus had special power. Of course, you would be happy but my question is why you think those of the faith in that time experienced instant and outstanding miracles with their faith as opposed to well, lets just say us ? You have all that it takes, no doubt, belief,etc... just as those of the time.. (or not ?) Do you think that Jesus healed the high priest servants ear via the servants faith ? I will leave this alone and that is just fine by me. Though you must know that there are some very humble scientists that don't profess to be wise, right ? Yes, specifically antibiotics for start.
I too have the same problems. I love animals, eating them too, but not thinking about killing them. I am pro firearms but anti killing+ So I am cutting back drastically and planning on quitting red meat, including pork. Rev A
No doubt that Jesus not only had special power as you call it, but Jesus also said we have as well....if one believes. The most important thing about what happen is what Jesus said to the woman - that it was her faith that healed her. Well, I don't believe only those people back then had instant miracles - people today have had instant miracles. I know of a member in the Church that I attend that prayed for his friend pregnant wife, who went into labor and was at the hospital and was bleeding and the doctors could find where the bleeding was. He mentioned specifically things in his prayer that would happen, down to that when he was done praying his friend would receive a call from the doctor and he would say the bleeding has stopped, which happened exactly as he prayed. But not everyone in the Bible who prayed for healing was healed. Remember, Paul was not healed of whatever it is that he asked God to heal him of. But I can't explain why some would have instant healing while some it was gradual over time. No, it does not say that servant was healed because he believed.....it was Jesus that healed him. I was not referring to these scientist when I said what I said. Real scientist acknowledge God and the Bible ..they dont try to use theories to say or imply that God does not exist, by saying that man and animals evolved from some simple life form in a swamp or something like that.
The ones professing themselves to be wise becoming fools oppress persecuting, incarcerating, waring against humans with a proud look, and evil eye with a highminded attitude thinking they are better than another body that dies, and that is imposable. A human that does that condemns himself. That is what makes what the human does as being foolish. Proverbs 19 :1Better is the poor that walketh in his integrity, than he that is perverse in his lips, and is a fool. When man fell willingly wanting what they thought was more changed instantaneously. As it is recorded in scripture when God comes back the change will be just as dramatic. Revelation 6;King James version(*) l14And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. 15And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; 16And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: 17For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand? From Gods face is a light that no evil man can stand before, and live.The stars themselves will dissolve, and the mountains will be made low too. That is in Scripture, The things of Man, and the things of God are side by side. That is as simple as I can put it. The humans that are ever learning are the scientists with their sorcery. Pharmaceuticals root meaning is sorcery. The fruit in the garden of Eden had to be different that what we know now. There was no compost pile in the garden of Eden.
