www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Scripture and Patristic Writings ISRAEL IN REBELLION.

As some of you may recall, I am readign the whole Bible in Three Years, in Chronological Order of events.

Well, at the end of the Year I come to the Babylonian Excile, and of course in these latter days of the Year I am in the Books of the Kings. ( I will do Chronicles Next Year. It is the same Story form a different Perspective, and a good way to begin Year Two.)

The thing I have taken from this Though is that it seems that there is a Natural Tendancy in Humanity to move away from God.

Ths is nto to say Atheism is normative, for So many of the Kings of Israel went after other gods, they dod not become Atheists. But it seems ot me that those gods told them the same thign Secular Humanism now tells us. Promiscuity is OK, Marriage is DIssolvable Easily, you can even kill Chidlren (Abortion today, Child Sacrifice then.)

One has to wonder, in Reading the History fo Israel, why this is so? They began this even when Moses lead them out of EGypt, and it only grew worse.

I do often wonder regarding this.

Why do we so often go away from that which si most good for us to that which is easier but leads to ruin?

Because 1) it's easy to lose sight of what is best for us; it's easy to get distracted away from it as we pursue our selfish agendas and 2)that which is easier but leads to ruin usually involves short-term self-gratification.

People tend to be selfish/self-centered and this blinds us to seeing the whole picture. We can get to the point where we can't see the forest for the trees. Happens all the time and the consequences can be spectacularly catastrophic.

Are you reading the Bible as history? Because, if you are, you need to remember that the authors of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles all wrote with a point of view and an agenda. Never forget that the winners write the histories, but also remember that it is possible to check specific events recounted in the Bible against extrabiblical sources. Which is not to say that the historical books of the Bible are fiction, or that the authors lied, but that they present just one of several witnesses to the events in question. It is the interpretation they laid upon those events which remains of cosmic significance, not whether everything happened just as they wrote it.

The tendency is not toward atheism, but toward syncretism and polytheism.

Is it merely coincidental that the concept of monogamy developed around the same time as the Shem'a?

By the way, archaeological evidence shows the Phoenicians of Tyre ended human sacrifice some time prior to the 7th century BC, perhaps due to continuing contacts with the Israelite Kingdoms.