Part 39 of Post Your Tough Questions Regarding Christianity

Well trev it makes sense that Joshua's takeover was a forceful one while Judges shows a slower takeover. Let's not forget the initial takeover was done by Joshua, he started the conquest that some scholars say was a 7 year conquest. After Joshua's death, the Israelites still had fighting to do. But to your point the takeover is a gradual one because till this day Israel still doesn't have all the land God promised them. But they will eventually but that's up for discussion at a later time.

Scripture tells us the Joshua defeated 31 kings on just the west of the Jordan alone, which is in addition to the southern armies, the five southern kings, the northern armies, the kings east of the Jordan that were all defeated too.

So what doesn't make sense is you claiming most cites Joshua conquered were already in ruins or empty and some had been for centuries while Scripture depicts a much different story. I believe what Scripture tells me any day of the year over someone who claimed to be a former Gospel preacher at his local church.

We Read in Scripture:

Kings Defeated West of the Jordan

7 The following is a list of the kings that Joshua and the Israelite armies defeated on the west side of the Jordan, from Baal-gad in the valley of Lebanon to Mount Halak, which leads up to Seir. (Joshua gave this land to the tribes of Israel as their possession, 8 including the hill country, the western foothills,[ap] the Jordan Valley, the mountain slopes, the Judean wilderness, and the Negev. The people who lived in this region were the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.) These are the kings Israel defeated:

9 The king of Jericho
The king of Ai, near Bethel
10 The king of Jerusalem
The king of Hebron
11 The king of Jarmuth
The king of Lachish
12 The king of Eglon
The king of Gezer
13 The king of Debir
The king of Geder
14 The king of Hormah
The king of Arad
15 The king of Libnah
The king of Adullam
16 The king of Makkedah
The king of Bethel
17 The king of Tappuah
The king of Hepher
18 The king of Aphek
The king of Lasharon
19 The king of Madon
The king of Hazor
20 The king of Shimron-meron
The king of Acshaph
21 The king of Taanach
The king of Megiddo
22 The king of Kedesh
The king of Jokneam in Carmel
23 The king of Dor in the town of Naphoth-dor[aq]
The king of Goyim in Gilgal[ar]
24 The king of Tirzah.

In all, thirty-one kings were defeated. Joshua 12:7-24 NLT

Ok trev thanks for your post, it was a pleasure for me to respond to it.

 

The message comes from the Bible Brother Todd ..

For as we read in Scripture Judges 11:29 Then the Spirit of the Lord came on Jephthah. He crossed Gilead and Manasseh, passed through Mizpah of Gilead, and from there he advanced against the Ammonites. 30 And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord: “If you give the Ammonites into my hands, 31 whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the Lord’s, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering.”

Do you agree with Brother Mitt - that the "It" in the sentence "I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering" does not end up being Jephthah's daughter ?

"Jephthah made a vow to the Lord" - Was the Bible lying when it said Jephthah kept this vow .. ? and that his daughter ended up as the sacrifice ..

Who is the deceiver Brother Todd -- is it the Bible or Brothers Todd/Mitt ..

 

I cannot understand your reasoning. If you want to know God, then seek him in sincere prayer. If you want to hear Jesus Gospel, then open the Bible and read it from/to your heart and conscience. I cannot do your work for you. All I can do is to tell that God is real, that he lives and is divine. In fact he already is, always has been, and always will be your God. You have gone away from him since your birth, and have forgotten him. But if you seek him in sincerity, he will awaken you to a remembrance of him by his spirit. And you will recognize and remember his spirit. That is my experience. And I am no different than any other human. Isaiah 53:6 said: "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." This describes our going away and forgetting him, and placing the whole weight for our retrieval on Jesus Christ, the Shepherd. It is all true.

 

First off trev that figure of 2,000,000 is still up for debate. It's still up for debate because there is another view that the population was only about 30,000 people. That is a huge difference.

Scripture doesn't tell us the precise population and so whether God freed 2 million or 30,000 from Egypt, Scripture is clear that God did so miraculously.

We Read in Scripture:

6 “Therefore, say to the people of Israel: ‘I am the Lord. I will free you from your oppression and will rescue you from your slavery in Egypt. I will redeem you with a powerful arm and great acts of judgment. Exodus 6:6 NLT

35 “So God sent back the same man his people had previously rejected when they demanded, ‘Who made you a ruler and judge over us?’ Through the angel who appeared to him in the burning bush, God sent Moses to be their ruler and savior. 36 And by means of many wonders and miraculous signs, he led them out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, and through the wilderness for forty years. Acts 7:35-36 NLT

No way to answer your question, first off we're not even sure what was precisely the population. But whatever it was, Scripture tells us the God provided and sustained them for forty years in the wilderness and they lacked nothing.

We Read in Scripture:

20 You sent your good Spirit to instruct them, and you did not stop giving them manna from heaven or water for their thirst. 21 For forty years you sustained them in the wilderness, and they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out, and their feet did not swell! Nehemiah 9:20-21 NLT

Ok thanks for your post trev, it was a pleasure for me to respond to it.

 

As for "all powerful", he has given us free choice. That power is ours to prove who we will serve.

 

Remember Alpha .. whom hasn't been around for years .. but you decided to respond to a 2014 post .. I think you have lost the path friend .. but its worth revisiting Alpha's words

Why do you hide from scipture that doesn't fit the man made dogma you worship .why do you run from the teacings of Jesus .. egged on by Brother Todd ..

Why do you deny the sacrifice .. the blood shed for your iniquity ... Why do you reject the Truth and spin a web of deceit .. teaching others around you to do the same .. Brother Todd

Yes Todd - those Canaanites . and descendents the Israelites - sacrificing their children to YHWH and the other Child sacrifice Gods Molech .. Chemosh of the Moabites ..

 

First off I would like to point out that above's math is wrong, the correct answer should be 473.48 miles based on his values. And his 2nd calculation with 40 abreast is also wrong. The correct answer is 47.34 miles.

But let's now do it with 30,000 people. With 4 abreast it calculates out to be 7.1 miles. Now with 40 abreast it would be .709 miles.

But again like I mentioned in my last post to you trev, there are 2 views, some say there were 2 mil, others say there were 30,000. So who really knows how many people came out of Egypt with Moses exactly?...well only God knows and He didn't give us the exact number, so obviously Scripture does not place any theological significance to this exact number of people that came out of Egypt with Moses. The fact that Scripture gives us little info to the numbers of people implies that those numbers are not crucial in and of themselves.

But 2 mil/30,000 have supporters and detractors. Obviously they both cannot be true but either one would be compatible with a view of Scripture as inerrant and inspired.

So trev you can believe this event never happened but I believe this event did happen.

Ok trev & above thank you for your posts, it was a pleasure for me to respond to them and to also correct above's math...lol

Mitt Ryan

 

"If you want to know God, then seek him in sincere prayer" - What a raging pile of delusion, avoidance and denial mate- That wasn't the question .. you were asked what scripture has to say .. not about your personal fairy tales and hypothesis.

More raging nonsense .fairy tales and hypothesis .. You were the one claiming to know the teachings of Jesus .. talking all like you knew .. then when asked what those teachings in scripture you were refering to .. you run from the playground .. saying I am the one who has forgotten.

You the one who can't remember what the teachings of Jesus are mate .. like a leaf .. blowing in the wind .. anything will do aye Friend .. got a free pass ya know .. so pass me over the hookers and blow .. You go Moe ..

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Is it free choice? Can you choose to serve a master you don't believe or know exists? Him making is all know he exists wouldn't necessarily mean we would all serve him. In fact, to see if we would serve him, we should have to know that he exists.

 

First you say God is an all powerful tyrant who is responsible for and guilty of all that is. So when I say he gave us free choice and that we are responsible for our choices, you then say there is no proof of a God to whom to be held accountable. Nevertheless we are even now making our choices.

Your idea that his presence would allow us the option to conform our conduct to his presence, and thereby secure our salvation, is a highly deceitful notion. Do you think you can tell God what you think he wants to hear, and him not see the devious nature of your heart? Obeying the law only because a LEO is nearby isn't the same thing as being law abiding.

 

Well AA those numbers are mind boggling but truth be told we just can't know for sure. So who knows for sure?...Well...only Our Creator Almighty God knows for sure the actual exact age since He is the one who brought the universe and everything else in it into existence. He wouldn't be giving estimates and uncertainties but the exact precise age to the micro second...lol sorry just a little humor here.

We Read in Scripture:

The Account of Creation

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.[a] 2 The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. Genesis 1:1-2 NLT

Ok AA thanks for your post, it was a pleasure for me to respond to it.

 

That's what you do Gift...you run away from His teachings. You said it is not even necessary to know Jesus to get into heaven, you said just do good works.

So obviously you're saying you don't have to follow the teachings of Jesus, you just got to do good works and that's it...no need to have any faith/belief in Jesus, no need to ask Him to forgive you for your sins. Sorry Gift that is not the Christian religion.

Only if you were in the jungles of South America or any other place on earth for that matter and never ever have heard of Lord Savior Jesus Christ then possibly depending on God's judgment. So an individual in this case might or might not make it into heaven, again it depends on God's judgment on that individual.

However everyone else in the civilized world who have heard of The Lord Savior Jesus Christ and what He represents, if you reject Him by not believing in Him, not asking Him for forgiveness of your sins, not accepting the sin debt payment He made on your behalf then you will not make it into heaven. You can do all the goods works in the world but that won't save you.

We Read in Scripture:

Our Lord Savior Jesus Christ said,

16 For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16 NLT

6 Jesus told him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me." John 14:6 NLT

25 Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. 26 Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?” John 11:25-26 NLT

28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me, John 10:28 NLT

45 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give His life as a ransom for many." Mark 10:45 NLT

Ok Gift thanks for your post, it was a pleasure for me to respond to it, hopefully you've learned something here.

 

No I didn't. You don't read very carefully. I said IF God is all powerful. If he isn't, then what I wrote afterwards doesn't apply.

If God is not all powerful then he may actually need messengers and he may not be responsible for everything and he may not have it all exactly how he wishes. But if he is all powerful then he isn't so restricted and does intend all that is, how it is.

I said we are responsible for our choices. If you invent a tyrant version of a God and then you choose to call that good and worship it, you are responsible for that choice and we can judge you based on it. If you instead refuse to obey that evil version of God, or if you instead have a kind hippy dippy Jesus sort of God and follow him, then those would also be choices you are responsible for.

Abandoning your own moral judgments to blindly follow any authority figure, God or otherwise, is also a choice, and a very authoritarian one.

Care to rephrase that? I don't think that's what I wrote. I said nothing about presence. I said that being all powerful means you can make people know things.

And only once they know things, only then can they act on and be judged on that information. If they don't know these things, and you judge them anyway, then they are not being judged on how they reacted to knowing these things.

If you decide not to have them know you exist and don't have them know your orders are actually from you, you should not be surprised if they don't follow them. Did you get upset last night when the pizza you never ordered didn't show up?

You already know I don't believe your God exists, so why do you ask me if I think I can tell him things? I can't tell anything to anyone who doesn't exist.

Do you obey the laws of style, whether or not the fashion police are present? How about the edicts of the Galactic Empire, whether or not storm troopers are present? Or do you only obey laws of actual authorities that you believe actually exist? I would guess the latter.

I know the government and police department in my city is real, and I know their laws and so I can be law abiding. Not so much for imaginary states and imaginary police, and not so much for Gods, especially all powerful ones, who don't bother to make me know they exist and what their laws are. Do you worry about failing to follow Vishnu's requests?

 

You are quoting GotQuestions.Com

God ordered a census while they were still in Sinai and according to count they had 600 000 fighting age men (https://biblia.com/bible/esv/numbers/1/17-46)

 

Why are you trying to pin your actions onto me ? - you are the one running from Scripture. Judges 11: 29 "Then the Spirit of the Lord came on Jephthah. He crossed Gilead and Manasseh, passed through Mizpah of Gilead, and from there he advanced against the Ammonites. 30 And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord: “If you give the Ammonites into my hands, 31 whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the Lord’s, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering.”

Who is the Spirit of the Lord Mitt -? is this not Jesus who compels Jephthah to vow to sacrifice a burnt offering to YWHW - a sacrifice that ends up being his daughter ?

Don't run and hide Mitt .. is this not Jesus ?

 

Well AA I'm sure there are some people who would say anyone with half a brain knows 13.82 billion years as the age of the universe is ridiculously too high in the extreme.

But I'm not saying I'm one of those people, as far as I'm concerned I have no opinion/theory/speculation/guesswork on the topic.

Sorry AA but we don't really know that for sure but we can certainly express our opinions/theories/speculations/guesswork but we just can't say it's factual.

Ok AA thanks for your post, it was a pleasure for me to respond to it.

 

To be fair, that doesn't say God or Jesus or the Spirit demanded the sacrifice, or would he pleased with it. It just says "the spirit came upon him" which could mean many different things, and that he declared this vow.

Pretty stark contrast to the Abraham and Isaac story, in which God himself demands it (but then later changes his demand).

 

Yes, it flat out says "Jephthah made a vow to the Lord", so it is him speaking, not God.

 

What AA...don't you believe I'm related to you? C'mon AA our first parents were Adam and Eve, and so of course we are related, aren't we all human beings who originated from the first two...Adam and Eve?

But here AA I have a nice very interesting article for you to read that comes from my favorite Christian Ministry.

Are We All Related?

Black hair, brown hair, no hair. Black skin, red skin, tan skin. Human beings come in an inexhaustible variety of sizes, shapes, colors, and personalities. But we are all part of a single race, the human race. Genesis 1 and 2 describe in detail how human beings came into existence. In the beginning, there was one man and one woman. God did not create any more humans in the way He had created them, and He gave them the command to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” (Genesis 1:2 8. All other humans came from those first parents, so in that sense, we are all related to each other.

Even many evolutionary theories concede that human beings originated from a single set of parents Dorit, R. L., Akashi, H., and Gilbert, W., 1995. “Absence of polymorphism at the ZFY locus on the human Y chromosome.” Science 268:1183—1185). The theories greatly differ in their ideas of where those parents came from and what their nature was, but it is undeniable that all human being are genetically related (see Highfield, Roger, “DNA survey finds all humans are 99.9pc the same,” The Telegraph online, 20 Dec 2002, accessed 5/29/20). The Bible says that those parents were birthed in the heart of a loving and powerful God (Genesis 1:26). They were designed by Him for fellowship and love, and they were set as gardeners in His perfect world (Genesis 2:15, 19). Before the fall, they would have been genetically perfect. Adam lived for nearly a thousand years (Genesis 5:5), and we can assume Eve lived a similarly long time. Theoretically, the two could have had several hundred children, since their bodies did not age at the rate humans now age. Those children grew up and married each other, exponentially multiplying the human race within the first several hundred years of human existence.

After several generations, human beings became so wicked that God sent a flood to wipe out every living thing on the earth—except one man and his family (Genesis 6:5–7). Noah, his wife, their three sons, and their wives were alone saved through the flood, along with enough animals to replenish the earth (Genesis 7:1–4). So not only are we all related to our first parents, Adam and Eve, but we are also all related to Noah and his wife. God started over with one family and told them to “be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth” (Genesis 9:1). As time went on, each of Noah’s sons had more sons, and their descendants eventually became various nations (Genesis 10). The dispersion of humanity after the Tower of Babel gave rise to the various language groups we see today, and it’s possible that it also contributed to the formation of the various “races.” Regardless of the ethnic and racial differences we observe today, all human beings are genetically related through Adam and Eve.

The fact that we are all related through Adam is spiritually significant. According to the Bible, we are all born with Adam’s sinful nature: we have a predisposition to choose our own paths and be our own gods (Romans 7:14–25). Children do not have to be taught how to sin. It comes naturally because they inherited the same sinful nature that their parents and grandparents inherited. Romans 5:12 says that “sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned.” If Adam were not the father of all humankind, we could not have all inherited his nature. But because we’re all Adam’s children, we are all sinners like he was. “Because one person disobeyed God, many became sinners” (Romans 5:19, NLT). Adam passed on to us the judgment his sin earned (Romans 3:23; 6:23).
Understanding that every one of us is born equally undeserving of God’s mercy keeps us from passing judgment on others (Romans 2:1). And understanding that every person is also a unique individual created in the image of God helps us treat all people with respect (Genesis 1:27).

C. S. Lewis explained it this way: “There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. . . . It is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit. . . . This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously—no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption. And our charity must be a real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner—no mere tolerance, or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment” (The Weight of Glory: And Other Addresses, HarperOne, 1980, p. 46, emphasis in the original).

https://www.gotquestions.org/are-we-all-related.html

Ok AA thanks for your post, it was a pleasure for me to respond to it my brother.

 

What the frick and frack are you talking about .. It is the "Spirit of the Lord" that compels Jephthah to make the vow -- and there is no two ways about it..

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Is as straight forward as it gets mate -- but regardless - YHWH made no efforts to stop the sacrifice .. happily accepting it.

 

Exactly! I wholeheartedly agree with you Jolly. Below was my reply to Gift back on Dec. 14 of 2021 which after you read it is basically the same as your take but Gift back then didn't accept it because He wants the answer to be how he interprets the story...which would be a misinterpretation.

Ok thanks Jolly for your post, it was a pleasure for me to respond to it.

 

"Now after reading the entire passage I did not come across any verse that specifically said that "God had/commanded Jephthah sacrifice his only daughter in exchange for victory in battle."

Such deceit - it was not claimed that God commanded Jephthah to sacrifice his daughter in exchange for victory - so why are you pretending that it was ? .. aka "Strawman Fallacy" Such falsehood and deliberate deception ..

You see how the deciever works Todd

Do you see how the deceiver works - misrepresenting the position of the other .

"Jephthah made a vow" - Indeed he did ..Judges 11: 29-31 "The spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah and Jephthah made a vow to the Lord."

but it was Jesus who compelled Jephthah to make the vow to sacrifice a burnt offering to YHWH .. .. for as we read in Scripture .. "The Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah and Jepthah made a vow to the lord"


Was Jesus .. whispering in Jephthah's ear according to you Mitt .. according to your ideology .. forcing Jepthah to make a vow - to sacrifice what come out of house as burnt offering .. knowing, that what come gonna be daughter.. That Jephthah gonna sacrifice his daughter to YHWH.

A tangled web the deceiver weaves ...get you down the path .. next thing you know .. gonna be justifying child sacrifice .. in the name of the Most High ..

 

I get it. All that is is all there is. You make your own rules, and the worlds collective is God.

 

Well obviously that isn't true, I mean God started the human race with two...Adam and Eve and look at us today, little over 7 billion humans world-wide. I'd say we humans from the start have been very fertile/fruitful. Why Adam and Eve themselves must have had hundreds of children during their lifetime. Adam lived 930 years...whoa!

Our Creator Almighty God blessed our first parents, He said to them be fruitful and multiply...and they/we sure didn't disappoint...huh!

We Read in Scripture:

27 So God created human beings[a] in his own image.
In the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.

28 Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.” Genesis 1:27-28 NLT

I have more nice very interesting reading for you AA, just click on the link below.

https://answersingenesis.org/genetics/did-we-all-come-from-adam-and-eve/

Ok AA thanks for your post, it was a pleasure for me to respond to it.

 

At that time the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah, and he went throughout the land of Gilead and Manasseh, including Mizpah in Gilead, and from there he led an army against the Ammonites and Jephthah made a vow to the Lord. He said, “If you give me victory over the Ammonites, I will give to the Lord whatever comes out of my house to meet me when I return in triumph. I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering.”

1. The Spirit prompted him to go throughout the land of Gilead and Manasseh, including Mizpah in Gilead
2. There he led an army against the Ammonites
3. Before the battle he made a "deal" with God that it God gives him victory, he will make the sacrifice

Obviously he acted on his own foolishly thinking such sacrifice would somehow please God.

What did God think about such acts?

"There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering"

"You shall not give any of your children to offer them to Molech, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord."

"And he burned his son as an offering and used fortune-telling and omens and dealt with mediums and with necromancers. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger."