²⁰“Again, ^(U)when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I place an ^(V)obstacle before him, he will die; since you have not warned him, he shall die in his sin, and his righteous deeds which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood I will require at your hand.

 ²¹“However, if you have ^(W)warned the righteous man that the righteous should not sin and he does not sin, he shall surely live because he took warning; and you have delivered yourself.”

 ¹⁵Then I came to the exiles who lived beside the river Chebar at Tel-abib, and I sat there ^(N)seven days where they were living, causing consternation among them.

 ^16(O)At the end of seven days the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

 ¹⁷“Son of man, I have appointed you a ^(P)watchman to the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from My mouth, ^(Q)warn them from Me.

 ¹⁸“When I say to the wicked, ‘You will surely die,’ and you do not warn him or speak out to warn the wicked from his wicked way that he may live, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his ^(R)blood I will require at your hand.

 ¹⁹“Yet if you have ^(S)warned the wicked and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have ^(T)delivered yourself.

 ²⁰“Again, ^(U)when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I place an ^(V)obstacle before him, he will die; since you have not warned him, he shall die in his sin, and his righteous deeds which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood I will require at your hand.

 ²¹“However, if you have ^(W)warned the righteous man that the righteous should not sin and he does not sin, he shall surely live because he took warning; and you have delivered yourself.”

 ²⁰ Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules: ²¹ “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? ²² These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings. ²³ Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.

Such as, the entire book of Leviticus.

If that is so, why did the people who chose which books in the Bible leave them in?

It is easy to talk about which characters in the Bible are righteous and which aren’t so we will just have to go by what the text literally says.

Noah is righteous.

¹Then the LORD said to Noah, “Enter the ark, you and all your household, for you alone I have seen to be righteous before Me in this time (Genesis 1)

Zacharias and Elizabeth were righteous

 ⁶They were both righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord (Luke 1)

And what does it mean to be righteous, how does that benefit you?

Well, your prayers will be answered if you are righteous:

 ¹⁶Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much (John 5)

Sounds like a good deal, right? We should figure out how to be righteous, right? The Bible tells us how to be righteous, we must do what is right: 

 ⁷Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous (1 John 3)

So, let’s ask God if we can be righteous. He says… no:

“THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE” (romans 3)

And we ask, what about the first three guys??

 ¹²“There are certain Jews whom you have appointed over the administration of the province of Babylon, namely Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego. These men, O king, have disregarded you; they do not serve your gods or worship the golden image which you have set up.”

¹³Then Nebuchadnezzar in rage and anger gave orders to bring Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego; then these men were brought before the king.

 ¹⁴Nebuchadnezzar responded and said to them, “Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the golden image that I have set up? ¹⁵“Now if you are ready, at the moment you hear the sound of the horn, flute, lyre, trigon, psaltery and bagpipe and all kinds of music, to fall down and worship the image that I have made, very well But if you do not worship, you will immediately be cast into the midst of a furnace of blazing fire; and what god is there who can deliver you out of my hands?”

 ¹⁶Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego replied to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to give you an answer concerning this matter.¹⁷“If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. ¹⁸“But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”

 ¹⁹Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with wrath, and his facial expression was altered toward Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego. He answered by giving orders to heat the furnace seven times more than it was usually heated.

 ²⁰He commanded certain valiant warriors who were in his army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego in order to cast them into the furnace of blazing fire. ²¹Then these men were tied up in their trousers, their coats, their caps and their other clothes, and were cast into the midst of the furnace of blazing fire.

 ²²For this reason, because the king’s command was urgent and the furnace had been made extremely hot, the flame of the fire slew those men who carried up Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego.

 ²³But these three men, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, fell into the midst of the furnace of blazing fire still tied up.

 ²⁴Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astounded and stood up in haste; he said to his high officials, “Was it not three men we cast bound into the midst of the fire?” They replied to the king, “Certainly, O king.”

 ²⁵He said, “Look! I see four men loosed and walking about in the midst of the fire without harm, and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods!”

 ²⁶Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the door of the furnace of blazing fire; he responded and said, “Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, come out, you servants of the Most High God, and come here!” Then Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego came out of the midst of the fire.

Also, oops, looks like Jesus had a brother.

We’ve read some pretty terrible stuff but this is sort of mean!

“if anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat, either”

Here is provided no “but its okay if you’re sick.” It’s just - BAM - harsh. You don’t work, you don’t eat. It is fair. But it’s fair like Dale’s Laws are fair (look them up - particularly if you’re American) and fair like an “eye for an eye” fair, which Jesus was like “awhellna thats not what my followers do, turn the otha cheek baby.”

 ¹⁰For even ^(T)when we were with you, we used to give you this order: ^(U)if anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat, either. ¹¹For we hear that some among you are ^(V)leading an undisciplined life, doing no work at all, but acting like ^(W)busybodies. ¹²Now such persons we command and ^(X)exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to ^(Y)work in quiet fashion and eat their own bread. ¹³But as for you, ^(Z)brethren, ^(AA)do not grow weary of doing good.

Yeah, it’s about doing good, but the rule is still “no work, no eat.” Harsh, y’all.

I love that people should love each other.

That is a great bit of wisdom.

But really, most religions and philosophies extol the same thing, and the atheists (most of them) believe in being nice without the fear of god’s wrath.

And while we agree that The Bible has many nice things in it - we have posted some here, you must realize that it is a religious text believed to be THE WORD OF GOD. Completely correct and accurate by some. Not a metaphor by others. It is a book of rules. Written supposedly by an omnipotent “father.” It is “the word of god.” And well, it isn’t fair to not question it. If god is so omnipotent and all knowing why does he let contradictions in the bible. And what do they mean?

What we have a problem with is the people who only pick the happy verses, jesus loving children, etc and ignoring what is in the Bible. Anyone who practices a religion that uses any of these texts should have a good grasp on what is really in there.

For example, you could pick up a book, and pull a quote that says “share your presents with your friends.” And everyone could say “oh yes, that is nice” but no one would say “That book must be very important and insightful!” After all, that could be the end of an how-to at-home taxidermy book.

Most people know the sunshine and rainbows parts of the Bible. It isn’t fair though that there is so much there people don’t know about it.

We are posting it ALL.

Don’t be deluded,

Real Bible Stories

PS We don’t like anons because it is SO much easier to be mean to someone without a personality. <3

¹²“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.¹³“Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

This is interesting to us. There are many promises that your faith will move mountains, that you will ask and receive, and some argue that it is because god loves us. And it is god’s reward.

Yet, here, Jesus explains that the reason god will perform miracles you ask is so that his name will be glorified. Basically if you ask to move a mountain, he will, so that everyone will know he is real and his power is strong.

However, we have to admit, we have never heard of anyone moving a mountain as of yet.

Maybe it was conditional only to when Jesus was walking the earth?

 ¹Then the LORD said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by her husband, yet an adulteress, even as the LORD loves the sons of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love raisin cakes.” ²So I bought her for myself for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a half of barley.

So Hosea claims that the lord told him to buy a new wife, and that the wife should be an adulterer. Anyone know why, particularly since he doesn’t like adultery?

Thanks!

We have actually recently switched to the New American Standard for now but look back at others. We don’t have a copy in NRSV though :(

Real Bible Stories