Welcome to Gaia! ::

Explanation:
The duration of God’s anger depends on many factors. God is a God of mercy, and a God of love, yet He is also a God of justice- Who hates sin.

To those people who are His followers (such as David in Psalm 30), then His anger only lasts a short time if they are truly repentant. When the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for 40 years before reaching Canaan, it was because they had been bickering with Moses, and affronting God’s Sovereignty. Therefore, in His anger, God delivered a decree, or punishment, that they should be “homeless” for that long. He was angry for a short time, but he also delivered a sentence to match the crime.

Jeremiah 17:4 is misunderstood by the skeptic. The verse actually illustrates God’s justice more than His anger. The verse in its entirety: “And thou, even thyself, shalt discontinue from thine heritage that I gave thee; and I will cause thee to serve thine enemies in the land which thou knowest not: for ye have kindled a fire in mine anger, which shall burn for ever.”

The tribe of Judah was flagrantly disobedient, so they lost their inheritance from God, and served their enemies. This “fire” can be interpreted as a burning of their inheritance, which would be perpetual. God still has not technically given them their inheritance back(Zionists [Illuminists] founded and are in control of today’s “Israel”), and only the repentant, Christ-believing Jews will receive a future inheritance in the Heavenly Kingdom. Essentially, God became angry - the consequence being that Judah’s land was forever torched metaphorically.

God will forgive sin and no longer be angry at penitents, yet He also leaves them to the consequential punishment of their actions. The key is: God will not condemn them to Hell, but rather bring them back into fellowship with Him.

Jeremiah 3:12 in its entirety illustrates this point:

“Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the LORD; and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, saith the LORD, and I will not keep mine anger for ever.”

Here we see that God’s favor is conditional: “Return, ... and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you”. If they do this, then God “will not keep [his] anger for ever”. This last part of the verse might also be revealing that God foresees Israel’s future repentance. Repentance is always required by God for forgiveness. ( see my article The Issue of Forgiveness )

Micah 7:18 describes what would happen when Israel repented of her sins.

The two remaining verses referenced by the skeptic pertain to God’s Justice. God is Holy and Just, as well as Loving and Merciful. Sin brings punishment. That’s why God the Father sent His Son Jesus as a sacrifice: so that as many as would except the sacrifice would be legally brought back into communion with Him. God has decreed that sin from unrepentant sinners must be punished, and God’s Word is unchangeable and unbreakable. As a result, Satan and his angels, and the wicked of mankind, will receive punishment that has been foreordained.

Source

You can make anything seem like a contradiction by taking it out of context. If you briefly pass over these verses it could seem like our objector caught God contradicting Himself. However if we go more in depth we will see that these verse deal with different kinds of wisdom. Wisdom aligning itself with God, and wisdom the world thinks is wisdom but is rather useless and will in the end lead no where.

1 Corinthians 1:21
For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.

James is speaking of spiritual wisdom, and spiritual maturity. We see that when we read the verse in context;

James 1:2-5
Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.


Proverbs 3:13
Blessed are those who find wisdom, those who gain understanding,


Proverbs 9:10
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.


Real lasting knowledge is centered around the Lord. Not centered around human philosophies.

1 Corinthians 3:18-20
Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “fools” so that you may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”; and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.”

The standards of this age are clearly not God's standard of wisdom.

Colossians 2:8
See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.

More

You can make sure that you walk on the road God wants you to and make of your life what He intends it to be and still not worry about tomorrow. Matthew 6:25-32 is dealing with worry primarily. What it is not dealing with is working for our food or making plans.

• Work is done not only to benefit the worker, but others also (Exodus 23:10-11; Deuteronomy 15:7-11; Ephesians 4:28.).
• Work is a gift from God and, for His people, will be blessed (Psalm 104:1-35; 127:1-5; Ecclesiastes 3:12-13, 5:18-20; Proverbs 14:23).
• God equips His people for their work (Exodus 31:2-11).

Read more: http://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-work.html#ixzz3aEvr9wrz

1 John 1:1-4
The Incarnation of the Word of Life
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete.


I propose that the author of the "contradiction" doesn't understand the Trinity and this is the reason why he thinks there are many gods working together?

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
The laws they were given in Ezekiel 20 are not to be understood as the Mosaic law. The “statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live,” cannot be the same with those described in Ezekiel 20:11 as “judgments which, if a man do, he shall even live in them.” Neither is it a sufficient explanation to say that God gave them what was intrinsically good, but it became evil to them through their sins; such a view of the law is emphatically discarded in Romans 7:13. The statutes of the Mosaic law are not intended here at all, as is plain from the particular instance of the consecration of children to Moloch in the next verse. These evil statutes and judgments were those adopted from the heathen whom they had suffered to dwell among them, and from the surrounding nations. But how can the Lord say that He gave these to them? In the same way that it is said in Isaiah 63:17, “O Lord, why hast thou made us to err from Thy ways, and hardened our heart from Thy fear?” So also St. Paul says of the heathen (Romans 1:21-28.) that God “gave them up to uncleanness,” “unto vile affections,” “to a reprobate mind;” and of certain wicked persons (2Thessalonians 2:11-12) “God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believe not the truth.”

More

The chief priest was also one of the men responsible for killing God's son. What kind of level of understanding should we ascribe to him? Is it possible that though he was the chief priest that he still had an imperfect understanding of the Law? Chief priests erring was not a strange idea. In the Old Testament we learn that the high priest was to offer up sacrifices for himself and the people. Someone who does not err needs no sacrifices.

Leviticus 16:11
"Aaron shall bring the bull for his own sin offering to make atonement for himself and his household, and he is to slaughter the bull for his own sin offering.

Hebrews 7:27
Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.

I think the problem here is that the one making the objection does not know or understand that no one really deserves anything from God. When we are given anything it is despite ourselves. When God hardens someone or forgives someone He is not being unjust. If He hardened everyone of us He would still be within His right to do so.

Romans 3:10
As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one;

Certain assumptions (from the skeptic) are not even true.
I'll highlight three that I noticed.

For instance:


1. Commands About Interest

First half of the statement:



Overgeneralized. That's not what the law is saying.

YHWH commanded not to charge interest on your fellow Israelites (believers). That's the only prohibition against interest collecting there is; it's not an all out ban on collecting interest of any kind. The very laws they cited reveals as much:

• Leviticus 25:35-37 (NIV)
  
  35 “‘If any of your fellow Israelites become poor and are unable to support
  themselves among you, help them as you would a foreigner and stranger,
  so they can continue to live among you. 36 Do not take interest or any
  profit from them, but fear your God, so that they may continue to live
  among you. 37 You must not lend them money at interest or sell them food
  at a profit.
  
  
  
• Exodus 22:25 (NIV)
  
  25 “If you lend money to one of my people among you who is needy,
  do not treat it like a business deal; charge no interest.
  
  
  
• Deuteronomy 23:19-20 (NIV)
  
  19 Do not charge a fellow Israelite interest, whether on money or food or
  anything else that may earn interest. 20 You may charge a foreigner
  interest, but not a fellow Israelite, so that the Lord your God may bless
  you in everything you put your hand to in the land you are entering to
  possess.
  
  
  
• Nehemiah 5:7 (NIV)
  
  7 I pondered them in my mind and then accused the nobles and officials.
  I told them, “You are charging your own people interest!” So I called
  together a large meeting to deal with them

So, YHWH can, and does, command his servants to charge interest without violating his law, because he allowed us to charge foreigners interest—charge people not in covenant with YHWH, not living amongst us, and are merely business relations. (Foreigners permanently dwelling in Israel are considered Israelites the same as native-born Israelites, ergo the distinction between the foreigners in Leviticus 25:35-37 and Deuteronomy 23:19-20).

• Exodus 12:49 (NIV)
  
  49 The same law applies both to the native-born
  and to the foreigner residing among you.”
  

Nothing in the parable, in the gospels, suggested taking interest from fellow Israelites in debt. Why are they assuming YHWH is violating his law when he could just as easily be referring to collecting interest on foreigners who don't live amongst us? And that's what Jesus would be referring to since that's the only kind he allowed.


Second-half: the group of people YHWH prohibits collecting interest from in the law is not the same group of people being charged interest in the parable.



The ones whom the servants will collect interest from are the bankers; they're not in lack nor struggling to make ends meet.

• Matthew 25:27 (NIV)
  
  27 Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.
  

The whole intention behind the interest-collecting laws: do not cripple the needy in your own nation even more (which is what was happening in the chapter of Nehemiah that he/she quoted from, and thus the actions Nehemiah was condemning. The governors were being ruthless). The reason your fellow Israelite took a loan in the first place is because they can't make ends meet. Do not charge them interest on top of that. Your intention is to see them prosper, and get them out of debt, back on their own two feet, not sink them into a deeper hole and stay indebted to you. The only person they should be indebted to is God. That's why he even provided the year of cancelling debts and the Jubilee year. He doesn't want his own people enslaved to other people at all. That's why YHWH delivered the Israelites out of the house of bondage in Egypt. That's why God delivers us from the bondage to our sinful, fleshly nature. So that we have no master but Him, be indebted to no one but him.

Why can we charge foreigners interest then? Because if foreigners want to benefit, like us (those in covenant) then they need to join the nation of Israel (enter covenant). Only then would there be no needy person being charged interest! And in order to join Israel and live amongst us, they need to leave their Gentile ways behind, they need to leave the slavery to the world and the world's ways behind, they need to leave the lies / false forms of worship behind. You can't have God's benefits and your pagan, Gentile, worldly ways at the same time. It's either one or the other. He's not your friend with benefits / with no strings attached. No extra-marital affairs / extra-covenant affairs will be going on over here. You want the rewards of being an Israelite (of one married to YHWH) then marry YHWH. Wanting to receive marital benefits without being married to YHWH is nonsensical. Not happening. No one should expect to be treated at the same level as a wife, if they're not married to the husband. That's not favoritism (he invited everyone) but not everyone wants to marry him, and be with him exclusively. Even when Israel, who was in Covenant with YHWH, started cheating, and joined herself to another, YHWH divorced Israel. We need to be loyal to the marriage vows (the covenant). So yeah, no favoritism (if you obey like someone faithfully/loyally married to God, get treated like you're married to God; if you disobey God, get treated as someone not married to God). A wife is not treated the same as some common prostitute on the street willing to sleep with anyone who will benefit her. So you'll be charged interest (like a prostitute) unlike an Israelite (a wife).

And he outright promised, only those who obey get these certain blessings:

• Deuteronomy 28:12-13 (NIV)
  
  12 The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain
  on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend
  to many nations but will borrow from none. 13 The Lord will make you the head,
  not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the Lord your God that
  I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top,
  never at the bottom.

You're not getting those specific blessings any other way.

Side note: after writing that out, I realize Satan is trying to undo all the prophetic pictures YHWH instituted to help us understand him and what being in covnenant with him is like. (messing up family, definitions of marriage, God's interest laws, etc...) Sigh.

Granted, believers / those seeking covenant should be seeking God to discover who he is, for who he is, not merely for what they can get out of him / the benefits he brings, like some golddigger. That's why I don't like talking too much about "getting things" from God. Though it's difficult to avoid when we're talking money and collecting interest lol.

As far as the parable goes, however, what explicitly needs pointing out is this:

God wasn't lending money to people in debt (he was leaving his servants in charge of his resources). And on top of that, he did not tell his servant to go charge interest on poor Israelites in debt. God said that he would have preferred that his servant, instead of doing nothing with the money, leave his money at the bank / with the bankers to accumulate interest. Bankers are not poor and needy.

Secondly, even if the verses had been about debt, like I mentioned, YHWH commands not to charge interest on his own people, but we can with foreigners (of those not in covenant with the Holy God of Israel). What, pray tell, in Mt.25:27; Lk.19:23-27, suggests that he told his servants to charge interest on his own people? Nothing. Had he done so, then you could call God a sinner / a violater of his own law. But that's not the reality. YHWH does not contradict his law. He acts according to it.

So, not only are these verses in the gospels not dealing with poor people in debt (but collecting interest from bankers), but even if they had been dealing with people in debt, as long as the person they charged interest from was a foreigner—someone not in permanent covenant with God, ergo not living among them—it's not a transgression of the law (a sin) for God to say "charge interest on them".

                                          ---


2. Commandments About Defrauding




Actually, there is such a commandment, explicitly using the word "defraud", even in the KJV:

• Leviticus 19:13 (KJV)
  
  13 Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbour, neither rob him: the wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning.
  
  
• Leviticus 19:13 (NIV)
  
  13 “‘Do not defraud or rob your neighbor.
  
  “‘Do not hold back the wages of a hired worker overnight.

Jesus expected people to keep more than just the Ten Commandments.
The assumption here is that Jesus only refers to the Ten Words written on the stone tablets as commandments, as what we are to keep. He taught us to keep way more than that.

Including:

• Leviticus 19:18 (NIV)
  
  18 “‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your
  people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.

Not found on the stone tablets, but in the rest of God's laws.


                                          ---

3. Paul Twisting



@ the bold: they're falling into the same twisting of Paul that most Christians fall into: ignoring the verse right next to it (verse 5). And defining "food" in ways Jesus and Paul did not define "food". First, quoting the ignored verse:

• 1 Timothy 4:3-5 (NIV)
  
  3 They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods,
  which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe
  and who know the truth. 4 For everything God created is good, and nothing
  is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, 5 because it is
  consecrated by the word of God and prayer.
  

...Consecrated by the word of God AND. Not "or", but "and".

The Word of God has to consecrate it. "Food" is not synonymous with "animal" in the Word of God. Nowhere in Leviticus or Deuteronomy, in any of what God or Moses actually spoke, does he say "unclean foods" vs "clean foods". It says, "unclean animals" and "clean animals". All food (what YHWH consecrated / set-apart for human consumption) is clean. But certain people will try (and have always been trying) to forbid the eating of clean animals (like vegans who try to forbid the eating of cows even though it's a clean animal).

The Pharisees too. The Pharisees started declaring food (what YHWH set-apart for human consumption) as unclean if a person did not do the ceremonial hand washing ritual prior to eating. Eat with unblessed / unwashed hands, you defile the food (what YHWH set-apart for human consumption) and thus yourself for eating it. These are Pharisees; they're not going to crazily start putting pork on the table and say, ah! unclean!. This is about the ritual and how, in their minds, if you didn't partake of their man-made ritual, the food (what YHWH set-apart for human consumption) was no longer clean to eat because you defiled it with your hands.

And by yoking their tradition to God's Law as if it were on par with God's Law, that led to this dangerous error: taken in light of what the Law says in Numbers 19:22 and what the prophets like Haggai 2:12-13 say, then it would logically lead them to conclude: ah, defiled hands will defile this clean meat, and if you eat this clean meat after touching it with unblessed hands, you defile yourself for eating it:

• Numbers 19:22 (NIV)
  
  22 Anything that an unclean person touches becomes unclean, and anyone who touches it becomes unclean till evening.”
  
  
  
• Haggai 2:12-13 (NIV)
  
  12 If someone carries consecrated meat in the fold of their garment, and that fold touches some bread or stew, some wine, olive oil or other food, does it become consecrated?’”
  
  The priests answered, “No.”
  
  13 Then Haggai said, “If a person defiled by contact with a dead body touches one of these things, does it become defiled?”
  
  “Yes,” the priests replied, “it becomes defiled.”

But these verses don't actually aid the Pharisee's cause because there's no such thing, according to God's Law, as defiled hands for not doing a blessing / hand-washing ritual beforehand. They made that up. Ergo, nullifying God's commands by their traditions and for the sake of their traditions. Thus, Jesus having to come and say, no, what my Father declared as food is clean. Stop nullifying what he said in his Law. (That, and how defiling thoughts in the heart is where defilement starts. That's what truly defiles. So, disagreeing with God, before man ever actually commits the things YHWH prohibited, is what defiles man e.g. disagreeing with his clean and unclean distinctions defiles a person before they ever eat a piece of pork; the Pharisees were defiled for disagreeing with God).

Like Paul said, God has given these foods for those who know the truth. And what is the truth?

• John 17:17 (NIV)
  
  17 Sanctify them by[a] the truth; your word is truth.
  
  Footnotes:
  
  a. John 17:17 Or them to live in accordance with
  
  
  
• Psalm 119:43 (NIV)
  
  43 Never take your word of truth from my mouth,
  for I have put my hope in your laws.
  

The Law, what God spoke and commanded, is the truth.

This is the same concept as someone taking clean animals, blessing them in the name of an idol, and someone thinking it's no longer clean to eat. It's still clean to eat. Just pray over it, because your prayer, and the Word of God, consecrates that clean animal as clean to eat. Again, not either or, but both. IF the Word of God, his Law, does not consecrate it, set it apart as food, then it is not clean to eat. It is not food, according to God. But if the Word of God consecrates it as clean, then what's stopping you? Just pray over it and don't eat it in front of anyone who has a weak conscience and still thinks it's been dedicated to insert deity's name here.

inb4: distinction between animals, clean and unclean, is not fulfilled by Gentiles coming into covenant with God under the new covenant, because Gentiles like Noah, Abraham, Ruth, and Rahab have been covenanting with God ever since the Old Testament, under different covenants. And Noah still made distinctions between clean and unclean animals.

• Genesis 7:1-2 (NIV)
  
  7 The Lord then said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and your whole family,
  because I have found you righteous in this generation. 2 Take with you
  seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and one
  pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate,
  
  

God consecrated Noah. God set him apart from all the rest. There was no Israel in his time. There was no Moses. No Mosaic covenant. And Noah, as his little Gentile self lol, is obeying these clean and unclean distinctions, way before the Mosaic covenant, before there was a set-apart nation (there is no spiritual fulfillment of these laws that once fulfilled renders the literal application null and void; these laws are still in effect). These are the same ones God would later reveal to the Israelites who were coming out of the world. To be set apart. Like Gentile Noah. Noah is in agreement with God and God's Law, not just in his mind, but walking in agreement with God too. So he wasn't defiled.

Rats, human, pork, dung, and all the like, are still not clean to eat. They're not food. Neither is blood.

It's unstable to say, "the prohibitions against eating blood is still a dietrary law we're to keep, but don't keep the others". What's keeping humans from eating humans? YHWH's dietary laws ingrained in their conscience if they still have one. And in places where they don't obey YHWH and repress that knowledge, that's exactly what they do: they eat human.



Not just individuals:

• Cannibals: Creepiest modern-day human flesh eaters: http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/cannibals-creepiest-modernday-human-flesh-eaters/story-fnixwvgh-1227005018460

But whole cultures:

• 5 Recent Cases Of Cannibal Cultures: http://www.therichest.com/rich-list/most-shocking/5-recent-cases-of-cannibal-cultures/

In a nutshell: there's way more evidence that those laws are still in effect and would still result in blessing for people if they were to obey it. We're still on this cursed earth. Nothing has changed outwardly. Thus, why creation is still groaning.