The Town of Odyssey

I agree, most books these days aren't God honoring. Does that mean we give up and read them anyway? Ideas can be dangerous and as you say even non-real things can be idols.

Mr. Sunnys as Tiger mentioned I wasn't saying those were all present in CoN but to his larger point about media in general ...

I realize they're not real, I just wonder why Lewis felt the need to make them the good guys in his books then? Pagan gods are not real but Satan is and we learned how dangerous pagan gods can be from the nation of Israel. Why make light of them by turning them into good guys, even in fiction?

Bacchus and Silenus are mentioned as good characters by the faun character. Why would pagan gods be good characters?

So magic, violence, coarse language, sexual references, drug or alcohol use can be noble, right, good, lovely, and commendable in some circumstances? Because to me if they're ...

You're comparing apples and oranges, Christ did tell parables without false gods and magic. That is what we should copy. The fact that he wasn't married or have kids isn't the same and there are many other examples in the Bible of marriage and children. Can you give an example from the Bible when ...

It's wrong to use bad things in an attempt to draw in non-Christians. We should just preach the Gospel, Christ didn't tell stories about false gods and magical beings to draw people in, we shouldn't either. And yes I realize the main characters were human but the rest of the good guys are not humans ...

It had magical creatures from pagan mythology as the good guys! How is that right? The good guys used magic, even though magic is a sin! I'm not insane, simply throwing in a Christ figure doesn't Christianize all the pagan elements in the book.

Thank you for the video Termite, that has given me some things to think about.

It was good discussing this issue with you. I completely understand that you'd not responding and dropping it, I agree this is getting a bit long at this point.

I totally agree that the right attitude needs to be there, but you can't have one without the other. The right heart attitude will lead to right physical actions as well.

I don't think we as a society have problems today with excessive ritualism. I mean do you partake of any rituals that aren't ...

So you're saying you could have been saved, in the Old Testament without sacrificing animals?

I agree that physical act vs symbolism is the undercurrent of this whole debate, so let me clarify. Why did Christ have to die as a sacrifice to bear all the sin? If it was just to line up symbolically ...

Sorry it's taken me so long to reply to this.

If God informed the Israelites of that, like He did in the New Testament, then why did they continue to make sacrifices? Why did God lay out entire books of law about the importance of sacrifices if they were just symbolic acts? And if they are meant ...

What is the difference between abolish and fulfill?

So you're saying all the physical sacrifices of the Old Testament were unnecessary?

I don't believe the Puritans cut themselves off from everything that is slightly cheerful, they just realized that making yourself feel good was not the highest ...

Yet there were still physical sacrifices, even after their faith all those mentioned made physical sacrifices.

If Christ didn't come to abolish the law then why is it gone? Isn't that the same end result?

I would not say you must follow every ever and if not you are going to burn. I recognize ...

I agree that the New Testament fleshes out the Ten Commandments and gives us examples of how they pertain to us in the church versus the nation of Israel. I also agree that spiritual and mental asceticism is important and I just don't see the point of saying physical asceticism should no longer be ...

Like I said, in Acts they talked about abstaining from sexual immortality, this is an Old Testament law not mentioned in the Ten Commandments. So if all but the Ten Commandments are negated then there's nothing wrong with sexual immortality. In James it says quite clearly that faith without works is ...

@Tiger I am not saying that we are justified by the law, as Galatians 3 points out very clearly, but that if we love God we will obey His commandments and part of his commandments are the Old Testament.

@Christian A. I just can't see where you're coming from, in my mind Paul is clearly distinguishing between man made traditions and God's Law.

@Tiger I think again that the yoke Paul refers to is the man made additions to the Law. I can see your point though about the other purpose of the OT. But ...

Then what is the purpose of the Old Testament?

The reference is Acts 15 "Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God: But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled ...

@Tiger I believe we as the church are the new Israel. Paul and the Apostles were talking about being free from the man made laws of the Hebrews, not the God given laws. At the meeting in Acts the Judaizers were told to not hold the Gentiles to man made standards but the Apostles still told everyone ...

@Christian A. Paul does not tell us it's fine to eat meat leftover from a sacrifice. He says we can purchase meat at the market or eat at a Gentiles meal without fear of where the meat comes from but if we are told specifically that the meat is from an idol then we should abstain. "But if anyone ...

I don't believe there were centuries where we didn't have the Bible, first off pretty much all Christians agree on the New Testament it is the Old Testament that is disputed by some. But if we look at the Hebrew Canon at the time of Jesus we can clearly see that they had figured out the Old ...