What Knowing God Means?

[goodlife]

(Jer. 6:16)

[sandyRoe]

It works for him,then :-)

[Hypognosis]

Well, if the Libyan civil war interferes with their insecticide spraying programme and the prevailing winds are from the west then their could be a locust swarm passing through, as payback for those beheaded Coptics and it will then sweep on towards Egypt…

mmmwaaaahahuhha!

[agchristie]

Hypo,

We read it here first ;-)

[atalanta]

If goodlife must quote exodus, he should read the text more carefully. The text strongly suggests that the Egyptian Pharaoh would have let the hebrews go without a lot of fuss, but “god hardened his heart”. Which meant that god was manipulating Pharaoh by making him unreasonable, just to demonstrate god’s power by killing the first-born and inaugurating the festival of the passover. All this would have been totally unnecessary if god had left the Pharaoh’s normal reasonable nature alone.
Thus the OT god created a phoney situation to show what wonderful power he had. To massacre thousands of people and animals, and later to allow an army to be drowned. I don’t know about you, but I am revolted by arbitrary displays of power like that. Like throwing your toys out of the pram, but with butchery as a result.

[idiosyncrasy]

The Pharaohs were considered Gods by the Egyptians. The Pharaoh at the time of Moses was considered to be the incarnation of Horus the successor of Osiris. He was given the titles of "Sun of the Two Worlds", "Mighty God", "Offspring of Ra", "The Eternal", amongst a few. His crown actually displayed the image of a cobra., and pharaoh's image was placed in temples alongside the other gods. As god, his word was law and he ruled not according to a law code but by decree. It would therefore appear that this man was not a reasonable man, he had a lot to lose by letting the Hebrew slaves go so therefore, whether God hardened his heart or not, there is every likelihood that no way would he let the Hebrews leave.

[naomi24]

idiosyncrasy , //…..there is every likelihood that no way would he let the Hebrews leave.//

Yet another of the many examples of the allegedly omniscient god’s lack of omniscience – off the top of my head the second that I can think of in the same story.

[beso]

One of the interesting aspects of the Passover is the need for those who would be saved to mark their door.

Apparently God was not omniscient enough to know who was supposed to be saved.

As usual, God took the opportunity to choose a grotesque option and insisted the door had to be marked with the blood of a slaughtered lamb.

[mibn2cweus]

There appears to be a direct proportional correspondence between the irrationality of ones beliefs and the depths they are willing to sink to demonstrate their devotion to them.

[naomi24]

Beso, that’s the one I was thinking of. God apparently had the power to mysteriously slaughter all the first born but couldn’t fathom in which houses the Hebrews lived.

[waterboatman]

How can you know something that doesn't exist?

[Jackdaw33]

It wasn't God but the Angel of Death, who was not as omniscient, so needed a sign on the door, much like today's postmen. And they still sometimes get it wrong.

[waterboatman]

I'll agree with that jack!

[naomi24]

Jackdaw33, indeed, but wouldn't you think God would have given him a list? ;o)

[Jackdaw33]

He probably did, but you know what it's like once something leaves head office, anything can happen.

[waterboatman]

I like it naomi! :o}

[naomi24]

:o)

[Jackdaw33]

I think God said to himself after the event, "You just can't get the staff these days."

[pixie373]

I bet they didn't even put a card through the door to say they'd been...

[Jackdaw33]

...and of course, he didn't do a good enough job of clearing up after the plague of frogs, hence France.

[Jackdaw33]

I.m sure they would have put cards through the door. "Sorry you were out when we called. Please send your first born to our despatch office, open 0900 - 1300 Monday to Friday."