Introducing Myself (extremely long, sorry)
First off I'd like to mention that the site has a very nice layout. It's very clean and welcoming.
Ok, hi, I'm Aaron, I'm from North Alabama. I was pretty much raised in a Christian home and attended a Church Of Christ with my mom (my father passed when I was 6) until I was 16. At that time I strayed away severely. I was very rebellious in my teenage years against the church. I'm a very energetic person who doesn't take hearsay as a means to an end. It seemed like that's all the church was. People believing and their only answer to why was, "because". I've always been overly analytical, and for some reason I've always needed more than, "because" to base my entire life on. I saw too many problems with religion (not necessarily belief in God) that I won't get into at the moment because of their irrelevance to my introduction. I never really went back to the church or thought about it until recently. I've had byfar the worst month of my life. My mom keeps telling me I need God back in my life, that it was all just a test. I've never been the kind of person to sit around and wait on a sign, even after constant prayer for one. I'm 20 years old now, and if God is testing, I want to meet him atleast half way and try to figure out a means to an end. That being said I decided it was time to pick up my bible after 4 years and see what I might be missing. I need to talk to someone who can answer some questions for me. I can never just read and percieve as I'm told to percieve. I've started in Genesis, and before chapter 2 I've already generated some fairly good questions (to me anyway). Like I said, I'm a very analytical person, so I can't go any further until I understand what I don't understand right now. I can't just push through with there being a gap. I'm stuck here, and I need someone to talk to. My questions have gotten me banned from a forum already. I'm asking that you take the questions not as a threat, but instead try to take them as a teacher would, as Jesus would. I'm not asking why God did this or why God did that, or why Jesus said this or that. Most of my questions I'm hung up on are simple language barriers between Hebrew and English, and things I've found in the New Testament that just don't add up right. I'm no more than a human being on the same path that you're all on just trying to make sense of it. I'll ask one of the simpler ones here, and then if I need to I'll ask the other one's on another topic in a different part of the forum, because I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask. This one may sound pointless to some of you, but it means alot to me, because if the difference between Hebrew and English can be so great on something so small, what can that mean for other parts of the Bible? When I was baptized, I was given a Bible by the church. It's an NIV, Zondervan, Grand Rapids Mi. Nothing fancy, just a bonded leather NIV Bible. It has footnotes in it for some of the words here. Apparently some of the words in the scripture don't mean what the Hebrew actually said. I'm not sure why they didn't just print it like that, but they didn't. Instead, they used footnotes. My first question will be an example of what I'm talking about. In Genesis 1:2 the scripture says, "Now the earth was formless and empty...". The footnote marker is beside the word was. At the bottom it says, "or possibly became". That might not sound like much to you, but either the earth was formless and void, or it became formless and void, it can't really do both. My question is actually a two-part question. Did the earth become formless and void or was it already formless and void, and if this is the first day of creation, where did the earth come from to become, or be formless and void? That's a simple question, and it doesn't change the course of history or threaten any beliefs, I just want to understand where the earth came from, because it doesn't say God created it, instead it implies it was already there, and God began by creating light. The rest of my questions are a little bit more complex, but all are equally important to me. Your time, and respect for my thoughts will be greatly appreciated.
Aaron
First off I'd like to mention that the site has a very nice layout. It's very clean and welcoming.
Ok, hi, I'm Aaron, I'm from North Alabama. I was pretty much raised in a Christian home and attended a Church Of Christ with my mom (my father passed when I was 6) until I was 16. At that time I strayed away severely. I was very rebellious in my teenage years against the church. I'm a very energetic person who doesn't take hearsay as a means to an end. It seemed like that's all the church was. People believing and their only answer to why was, "because". I've always been overly analytical, and for some reason I've always needed more than, "because" to base my entire life on. I saw too many problems with religion (not necessarily belief in God) that I won't get into at the moment because of their irrelevance to my introduction. I never really went back to the church or thought about it until recently. I've had byfar the worst month of my life. My mom keeps telling me I need God back in my life, that it was all just a test. I've never been the kind of person to sit around and wait on a sign, even after constant prayer for one. I'm 20 years old now, and if God is testing, I want to meet him atleast half way and try to figure out a means to an end. That being said I decided it was time to pick up my bible after 4 years and see what I might be missing. I need to talk to someone who can answer some questions for me. I can never just read and percieve as I'm told to percieve. I've started in Genesis, and before chapter 2 I've already generated some fairly good questions (to me anyway). Like I said, I'm a very analytical person, so I can't go any further until I understand what I don't understand right now. I can't just push through with there being a gap. I'm stuck here, and I need someone to talk to. My questions have gotten me banned from a forum already. I'm asking that you take the questions not as a threat, but instead try to take them as a teacher would, as Jesus would. I'm not asking why God did this or why God did that, or why Jesus said this or that. Most of my questions I'm hung up on are simple language barriers between Hebrew and English, and things I've found in the New Testament that just don't add up right. I'm no more than a human being on the same path that you're all on just trying to make sense of it. I'll ask one of the simpler ones here, and then if I need to I'll ask the other one's on another topic in a different part of the forum, because I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask. This one may sound pointless to some of you, but it means alot to me, because if the difference between Hebrew and English can be so great on something so small, what can that mean for other parts of the Bible? When I was baptized, I was given a Bible by the church. It's an NIV, Zondervan, Grand Rapids Mi. Nothing fancy, just a bonded leather NIV Bible. It has footnotes in it for some of the words here. Apparently some of the words in the scripture don't mean what the Hebrew actually said. I'm not sure why they didn't just print it like that, but they didn't. Instead, they used footnotes. My first question will be an example of what I'm talking about. In Genesis 1:2 the scripture says, "Now the earth was formless and empty...". The footnote marker is beside the word was. At the bottom it says, "or possibly became". That might not sound like much to you, but either the earth was formless and void, or it became formless and void, it can't really do both. My question is actually a two-part question. Did the earth become formless and void or was it already formless and void, and if this is the first day of creation, where did the earth come from to become, or be formless and void? That's a simple question, and it doesn't change the course of history or threaten any beliefs, I just want to understand where the earth came from, because it doesn't say God created it, instead it implies it was already there, and God began by creating light. The rest of my questions are a little bit more complex, but all are equally important to me. Your time, and respect for my thoughts will be greatly appreciated.
Aaron
