thread: 2006-09-08 : Salvation, damnation, justification, a la Sydney
On 2006-09-09, Valamir wrote:
The thing is, the bible is so clear about there being many paths to God that its actually the fundamentalists that have to engage in the mental gymnastics to define Christianity into their own narrow view.
Read the story of the Tower of Babel again...Genesis 11, I believe. It occurs right after Noah and the Flood.
All of the people of the world were of one language and one speech. All of them. They got together to build a tower to God...the same God. All the world worshipped the same God. That's immenently clear. And its not just some people...its "the whole Earth". They all worshipped the same God.
God confounded their speech and sent them on their way, giving them all different languages. The story is clear about giving them all different languages. But its also clear in what it doesn't say. It doesn't say they started worshipping different gods. It doesn't say he picked some to continue to worship him and gave others false dieties. No...he confounded their speech...not who they worshipped.
All of the people came to Shinar worshipping one God and speaking one language. When they left, they spoke a multitude of languages...but they still worshipped one God. No matter what language they speak...or ethnicity, or culture...or even religion...they all still worshipped the same God. The story is pretty clear to anyone not caught up in literalness.
The events depicted in the story didn't actually take place. No one actually tried to build a tower to heaven. The story is there to show how all of the people of the world, despite their differences in language and culture all ultimately worship the same God. Why do they have different languages, cultures, ethnicities, and religions...because God wants it that way. Why does God want it that way? We couldn't possibly understand his rationale...so we're given a story of Hubris we can understand.
