A New Film Called "Jesus Was a Commie"

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I think it is time to stop arguing with people that cannot be convinced and now is the time to take action. The new city of Jerusalem which is located in New York should not be allowed to remain a marketplace. The tables of the moneychangers need to be overturned because they are all thieves.

Abacus wrote "
I don't see why, gouging out eyes is perfectly in line with what god told people to do in the Old Testament.

If you start reading in to the bible and projecting your own values on it (interpreting) instead of taking it literally, you are no longer following a religion, you are creating your own. You are not following the "word of god", you are following what you think he meant to say."

First, I am glad to read your thoughtful responses. I hope that my arguments are not seen as something confrontational or trying to put myself above you, but that the arguments are just used as tools for us to discover the truth. If we are not doing that, then I am failing.
The gouging of eyes could possibly be literal, but the applications would be very limited. A better example of metaphor is: Mt 23:24 "...You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel". I do not think that any of the pharisees ever swallowed a camel. Metaphors are good ways of making a point just as are Jesus' parables.
I agree with you that we cannot just make our own interpretations of the Bible to meet our own needs. While we should not try to determine "What He meant to say", we do need to determine "what is He saying". We also need to think of application. I think that the application of the statement on gouging eyes is to get rid of whatever causes you to sin. This can go back to the difficulties of rich men entering the Kingdom, for example. If their wealth causes them to love mammon or to be hard hearted to the poor, then they need to get rid of the wealth. That is an application which is not directly stated, but I believe that this is what Jesus is saying.

What's the difference between "what he meant to say" and "what he is saying" when you start reading beyond the words?

I agree that perhaps not everything can be taken literally (swallowing a camel would be an interesting feat indeed), but when you take something that could be just what it says and nothing more and claim it's a metaphor, what else are you doing what seeing what you want to see?

You aren't coming across as confrontational or "holier then thou' to me, and I apologise if I am. I'm just a bit blunt

In the cultural context, the people of Jesus' time I think understood what was meant to be taken literally, and what wasn't.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

I'm mildly amazed you can put so much faith in to a group of people who are STILL only going to see what they want to see, it's human nature.

Great visionaries are always considered crazy. John predicted the possibility of global warming and he predicted that an asteroid would hit Earth if we did nothing to stop it. We have nuclear energy and nuclear rockets that can prevent both tragedies but the environmentalists don't want us to us it.

And it is true that with nuclear weapons we are indeed on the road towards Armageddon but I disagree with the evangelicals who insist that there is no way to stop Armageddon because prophecy must be fulfilled. With evangelical logic Jonah would have to be considered a false prophet because Nineveh did not burn.