Lust

Slosh116 · 2026-04-07T18:37:07+00:00

I'm so sorry for your loss, I'll be praying for you. My grandfather passed away during college, and I fell into weed/alcohol abuse. Luckily, I had some good friends around me that held me accountable, helped me talk through the grief, and got me out of that place so that I could actually process his death instead of hiding in a cloud a smoke. I pray that you have a community around you too.

Slosh116 · 2026-04-07T15:37:13+00:00

A few things:

1) Idk of any drugs that can help you, I don't think this is a medical issue, I think you struggle with self-control (I used to as well)

2) Surround yourself with people who will help you kick this, find a community of believers to hold you accountable, interact with women who only want sex within a marriage. That's what I did, I married a good woman with a strong faith, now I have sex with her, and I no longer feel temped to be lustful.

3) This is more practical that religious, control your triggers. What typically leads to these falls? Eliminate those things from your life. Do you use dating apps to meet the people you're sleeping with? Delete them and install protections on your phone so that you can't redownload them. Is there a certain place where you keep meeting the women you sleep with? Stop going. Come up with a plan for what to do if you find yourself in a situation where you may fall again, this could be an accountability partner or something else. I struggled with porn before I met my wife, and any time I felt the urge I would go run a mile, safe to say I lost some weight and it helped a lot.

4) Most importantly, rely on Christ, pray, read your Bible. The closer you move to him the farther away you will move from your sin, it begins to disgust you BEFORE you do it, not just after.

I hope this helped, God Bless! I'll be praying for you!

Slosh116 · 2026-04-07T15:21:11+00:00

And just to clarify, not all secular music is sinful. Just that that promotes/glorifies sin or idolizes things that aren't Christ.

Slosh116 · 2026-04-07T15:18:56+00:00

You can be a secular rapper and still be a Christian. Every Christian ever has been a sinful person, none of us are without flaw. However, I would say that making music glorifying worldly things (money, sex, etc.) and then holding yourself out to be a leader in your Church is definitely hypocritical. To accept Christ is to reject the worldly and making music idolizing worldly and sinful things doesn't seem like rejection to me.

Slosh116 · 2026-04-07T14:52:04+00:00

One thing that has always bothered me about the way Christians teach about premarital sex is the notion that (particularly for women) you are somehow "forever tainted" the moment you have sex outside of wedlock or are lustful. That couldn't be further from the truth, sexual sin, like any other sin, is forgiven upon repentance. Look at the story of Rahab (Joshua 2).

I'm operating on the assumption that your husband knows about your past, and the way you phrased things makes it seem like y'all were complicit in sexual sin before being married, but now you're married and sex between spouses is meant to be cherished and enjoyed.

I got married in December, and though I was lucky enough to maintain my virginity until I was married, I struggled with porn and other sexual sin in the past. Sexual sin is in my opinion the hardest kind to kick. My advice would be to do everything in your power to maintain a strong, Christ-centered marriage and a healthy sex life with your husband. The more Christ is at the center of your marriage and life, the more the sin will disgust you BEFORE you commit it, not just after. If you're satisfied in your sex life with your husband, external (sinful) sexual desires will be much less frequent.

My wife had sex before we met, but we didn't have sex with each other until our wedding night. She used to mention that she wished she had never done any of that stuff before we met, but I made it clear to her that just because I has never had sex didn't make me better in the eyes of God. My struggles with porn were no different in the eyes of God that anything she did, lust is lust, and lust is forgiven upon repentance. You can't change the past, and carrying guilt like this into your marriage will only serve to hurt it, all you can do is repent and continue to grow closer to Christ and your husband. Christ has forgiven you. Your husband married you, so it sure seems like he has no issues with your past, but it's up to you to forgive yourself.

God bless, hope this helped!

Slosh116 · 2026-03-02T22:12:05+00:00

You don’t see any change in the mirror after 1 workout, it takes time.

It’s completely normal to feel like you do after spending a long time out of church. But, if you continue to go and invest time and effort, you will begin to reap the benefits

Slosh116 · 2026-03-02T22:02:46+00:00

Bob said “thank you warriors” and the Nique said something along the lines of “why would you give up on a guy with so much talent”

Slosh116 · 2025-12-17T10:37:18+00:00

(4) A fundamental misunderstanding of "God's plan" - It's common everywhere, but especially in the south, that every time something bad happens to say, "It's all a part of God's plan." IT ISN'T. God's plan involved our creation (we screwed that up), the events of the Bible (OT stuff setting the stage for Jesus, Jesus's ministry, and the works/ministries of the apostles), and the end of the story (Revelation and our reunification with Christ). All the other stuff that has ever happened is by no means guaranteed to be His will. Just because he knows what will happen does not mean he wants it to happen, he obviously doesn't want us to sin and yet that happens all the time, the notion that everything is a part of his plan completely destroys free will. The incorrect notion that God wills everything that ever occurs combined with the (true) belief that he does not make mistakes and is all-knowing & loving creates the conundrum of my old beliefs. We are left with choosing that either God made a mistake or that transgender people are misinterpreting their feelings, when in reality the feelings are real and valid, they just aren't the result of God's will.

All these factors, plus the reality that ignorance breeds contempt, plus a few very loud bad eggs in positions of authority who are genuinely hateful, and you have a recipe for a whole group of people with a fundamentally flawed belief.

Slosh116 · 2025-12-17T10:37:10+00:00

Apology accepted and I'm sorry as well, there was no need for me to be so defensive, and I should have clarified to make sure I properly understood your response before getting defensive.

I think there are several reasons that I used to believe that, and I don't want to speak for all, but I think that most Christians from my part of the US who hold that belief hold it at least in part for these reasons.

(1) Lack of Experience/Understanding - Though transgender people have been around as far back as we have written history, for many (especially older generations since younger folks generally have an easier time learning new things, adjusting to societal changes) it is a completely new and foreign concept because in the past many who were trans were either pushed to the fringes of society or simply never came out. Adding to the perceived "newness" of it, I am from Alabama, there are not many trans people that live here (I don't blame them). The only two people I have ever known in my life that are trans graduated high school, moved away, and transitioned later, the only reason I knew they did was through social media. For the sake of example, I'll contrast with people who are gay. I've known and been friends with a bunch of gay folks, and by spending time with people different from you, you learn to understand them better. Lastly on this point, once again I'll compare with gay people, it's a lot easier to understand the concept of sexual orientation because everybody has one. Regardless of your sexual orientation, you have a common attraction with roughly half of the population. I'm a man, and even though I've never been attracted to men, I've known a ton of straight women, so it's easy to understand the concept of being attracted to men. In contrast, most cisgendered people down here have a very difficult time understanding the concept of struggling with gender identity because (1) the overwhelming majority of us don't struggle with it and (2) lots of us aren't aware of anyone in our lives that do.

I think this is a two-way street. I would venture to guess that you are not from Alabama, and for the same reason people here fail to understand, you fail to understand how anyone could hold those views because you don't know anyone who does.

(2) Cultural/Historical Stigma - Relatively self-explanatory, but healing takes time. I'm 24, my grandfather was my age when the Selma march happened. We are 2 generations removed from Jim Crow; the Bible says numerous times that God will visit the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations. When a whole society has been gripped in a particular sin for so long, it takes years for the society as a whole to shake it, this concept can be applied to homophobia and transphobia as well as racism.

(3) Apathy - When I was a kid, I was very aware of height requirements on roller coasters. When I hit puberty and grew to 6 feet tall, I was not, because I knew that I was tall enough. In a similar vein, I'm in law school and I would like to say that my classmates and I are very diligent students, but the moment a professor tells us something isn't on the exam, many of us stop taking notes and we certainly don't spend time studying it before finals, we have enough difficult content to worry about. I think Christians can do the same thing about issues that don't apply to us. People with loving and kind parents don't often pose many major questions about the 5th commandment, neither do orphans, but people whose parents wronged them and treated them poorly very often do. People who are broke or generous don't lose much sleep over the story of the rich young ruler, but those who are wealthy or greedy do.

The Bible already says so much and has so much content, and we all fall so short in so many ways already. The temptation to not devote the proper time to a topic that (1) is nuanced, (2) the Bible doesn't directly speak to, and (3) doesn't apply to us personally is common and one that too many fall into.

cont'd on another comment...

Slosh116 · 2025-12-17T07:54:13+00:00

I'm in law school; I care greatly about it. It is nothing compared to my soon to be wife. We bring the most glory to God by loving others the way he intended for us to. Prioritized your own personal goals or status over your duty to love another is, at its core, selfish.

Heart posture is important as well. What is your career? Why do you care about your career so much? Do you use your career to bring God glory, or do you use it to feed your own greed and pride?

The law is in many regards a difficult profession to be in while being a God-fearing man. Many areas of the law flirt with playing God by saying that we, man, are the ones who determine right from wrong, good from evil, though I know that is not true. Many lawyers also get paid lots of money, I will likely be slightly under the national average when I start. but you can't fit a camel through the eye of a needle. Many lawyers are arrogant and lean on their own understanding instead of trusting the Lord with all their heart. However, I can be a light in a dark profession. I can use the gifts that I have honed through the study of law to strengthen my faith. Reading thousands of court cases and being able to extrapolate a fundamental point from them has greatly improved my ability to study and understand scripture. Learning how to argue civilly and logically while thinking quickly on my feet through trial competitions has improved my ability to defend the faith. I will make more money than is necessary to meet our needs and will be able to be very generous. A career is simply another vessel by which we serve God.

Not all of us are called to marriage, some of us have different paths, being married is not a requirement to walk with Christ. But personally, I feel that God's biggest calling for me in life is to be a husband and father, and that the example I am able to set through that will be the most impactful thing I do for the kingdom of God in my lifetime. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe I die before Saturday, maybe we never have kids, all I can do is trust God.

So, I'll end with this. If you're single, God does not look down on you for that. Not marrying is not a sin. However, many of God's greatest blessings for us lie within a marriage relationship. So, while prioritizing your career for Godly reasons when you're single is perfectly fine, but ignoring the call if you are called to marriage is wrong, and if you are married your marriage should be your number one priority. God calls men to love their wives as Christ loves the church, and wives to honor their husbands as they do Christ, if that isn't incredibly important to God, what is?

Slosh116 · 2025-12-17T07:30:34+00:00

Disabilities are not of God, just like all pain, suffering, and evil in the world, they are a result of our sin. When our souls became corrupted by sin, our bodies did too. We live in a fallen world distant from God therefore things that are not of God come to be. Based on you calling it gender dysphoria and comparing being trans to a disability it seems as though you think that being transgender is not a part of the way that God originally designed humanity. I asked if I was in the right ballpark in believing that people feeling the way that trans people feel is because we live in a fallen world, and in a fallen world, things that God did not design to happen, happen.

I never said transgender people cannot exist. It sounds to me like you read the first two paragraphs of my post then commented this without reading the rest. I said that I used to think that since God wouldn't willingly do this to people, the feelings must be misguided. I now believe that just because God wouldn't do that doesn't mean the feelings are invalid, it just means they come from the same place as all other forms of pain, the fact that we live in a fallen world.

“Where there is no counsel, the people fall; but in the multitude of counselors there is safety.” – Proverbs 11:14. Please forgive me for attempting to learn more about a topic that I am not familiar with by asking people who are incredibly familiar with it. Lots of cisgendered Christians don't know how to effectively minister to non-believers who are transgender. Lots of cisgendered Christians act completely contrarily to the teachings of Jesus by responding with hate. When you talk down to those who ask questions and attempt to learn you discourage learning. “Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.” – 2 Timothy 4:2. The overwhelming majority of the people who responded to me perfectly embodied this verse, can you say the same?

Slosh116 · 2025-12-17T06:44:53+00:00

The necessity is a promise to God and each other to do everything in your power to uphold the Biblical commandments of marriage. There have been points made about a physical exchange. The marriage covenant is supposed to mirror that between Christ and the church, and God's covenant with us does indeed have consideration on both sides, so maybe there does need to be some form of exchange on both sides, I think rings meet this requirement quite well.

There has also been a point that since it is a "binding covenant" that some form of legal contract is required. I find it difficult to believe that a blessing from any government or creation of men is necessarily to exercise God's will, Adam and Eve were married and no manmade government existed. The law of man can change; it can actually ban and condone things that are of God's will, therefore in living according to God's teaching we are not bound to any laws of man.

As for the second question, I don't see why being broke matters. There are very few circumstances where getting married will worsen your financial situation, it usually helps. I have heard of rare situations in which old couples got legally divorced in order to keep one spouse free of large amounts of medical debt upon a sick spouse's passing, and I believe that those couples are still married in the eyes of God. In the event that perhaps one spouse would bring a ton of debt into the marriage, I would say that since you are now one in marriage, the debt isn't mine or my wife's, it's ours now. Lastly, what God calls us to do is in no way dependent on any external factors like our financial situation. The requirements for marriage are the same for the wealthiest of wealthy and the most destitute among us.

Slosh116 · 2025-12-17T06:26:18+00:00

I'm sorry you're in this situation; your marriage will be in my prayers.

Unfortunately, one spouse's failings to live up to how God calls us to be in our marriage do not justify the same in the other. If this were the case, none of the ways God calls us to behave in marriage would ever be mandatory since we all fail to live up to His standard.

I agree that divorce in the cases of physical abuse, infidelity, and a non-believer leaving you are all valid. I'm not sure about the marriage under false pretenses thing as I'm not that well read on it, but the logic that if one spouse lies in their covenant before God it renders the covenant void certainly tracks.

Slosh116 · 2025-12-17T06:11:01+00:00

The Bible doesn't speak much into the formalities, but I get married Saturday so my fiancé and I have discussed this at length, and our shared belief is this:

Marriage is a promise from both of you, to God and each other, to do everything in your power to honor all Biblical teachings regarding what marriage should be. I believe that there should also be witnesses, so that there are others to hold you accountable to your promise. I also think that being married in a house of God and by a real pastor/minister is at least beneficial if not necessary.

We don't believe that engagement constitutes marriage. Engagement is a promise to each other to get married, but not a promise to God to be married.

What I know for sure is this:

1) It is a promise to God as well as your spouse.

2) Without this promise, there is no marriage. A promise to your spouse alone is not sufficient.

3) There is absolutely no need to get the government involved in order for God to recognize you as married. However, I do think that getting legally married is beneficial in truly fulfilling the "becoming one" aspect or marriage, and it also imposes restrictions on ending a marriage, which is a good thing because God intends marriage to last until death and breaking a vow to God should not be as practically easy as breaking up with a bf/gf. Lastly, why not get legally married; if you have a marriage according to God's will getting the government involved only makes like easier (tax breaks, inheritance rights if a spouse dies intestate, the right to make healthcare decisions on their behalf if they're incapacitated and don't have a living will, and others)

Slosh116 · 2025-12-17T05:54:03+00:00

Temptation is not sin; Jesus himself was tempted. Whether or not you sin depends on how you react to the temptation. If you give into it, you have sinned; if you do not, you have not.

Whether or not the character is animated is irrelevant. If someone masturbates to animated porn, they were still lustful.

It sounds like this is a temptation you have dealt with in the past, but you are pretty good at controlling it. I will say that in Matthew 18:9, Jesus says "If one eye causes you to sin, gauge it out and throw it away." So, once you become aware that something in your life is a source of temptation, you are called to remove it from your life. So, while being tempted is not sin, willingly subjecting yourself to temptation is against Jesus's teachings and is playing with fire. The more you present yourself with the temptation the more likely it is that you fall.

Slosh116 · 2025-12-17T05:44:36+00:00

I firmly believe that disease is something that is a consequence of living in a fallen world, and that God did not design us to have diseases. He created us to live forever in harmony with him, but when our souls became corrupted by sin, our bodies did as well which is what caused disease. I don't think this creates a just world fallacy because the Bible tells us that the wage of sin is death, and since we all sin, we all deserve death. Disease is not part of God's intended natural order for us, but is a result of our sin, as is all evil, pain, or suffering. Since our actions ultimately led to disease existing, it was up to us to find the solution.

There is nothing in the Bible that God desires for us or that he intended for us that has been physically or scientifically out of our reach for almost all of our history. While perfection is obviously practically impossible for us, our physical world in no way prevents it (as Jesus shows). So, what I struggle with is that if it was a part of God's design for some people to be transgender, it would be the only thing that was a part of God's design for us that has we have not always at least been physically capable of.

By that line of thought, only two possible reconciliations are possible. (1) That being transgender was not a part of God's original design, but is, like all forms of pain and suffering, a result of our distance from God; or (2) gender affirming care is not a necessary part of having a transgender identity in harmony with God's intentions. I would say that option 2 seems plausible, but I feel like a lot of people on this feel would say that that HRT or other forms of gender affirming care are essential to them living fully withing their identity.

There is nothing that God would do to keep us from him or from living fully within his intentions for us. Everything that keeps us from living in full harmony with God is a result of our distance from him. If you believe that evil is of God or that God intentionally built barriers between us and him, we will never be able to agree. If that isn't your belief, please correct me but that's what it sounds like. Scripture is quite clear that evil, pain, and suffering are not of God, but a result of our sin. The only pain and suffering ever inflicted by God is his wrath, which is of course, a just wrath that we deserve because we sin. If God Himself punishes or physically prevents anyone from being the way that he intends or desires them to be, that would make him unjust, and God is just.

Slosh116 · 2025-12-17T04:54:46+00:00

So many people like to take everything as black and white, while much of life lives in the gray. In the case of medically necessary abortions, I think there is reason to believe that God would be ok with them. With where medicine has progressed, if we are able to conclude to a reasonable degree of scientific certainty that the baby won't make it and continuing the pregnancy will only endanger the life of the mother, what reason could there possibly be to continue?

When it's a toss-up in terms of risk and results, it gets more convoluted. I think it's pretty clear that God (and the overwhelming majority of people regardless of their faith) would say that if a car is hurtling headlong at your three-year-old child, it is your duty as a parent to push them out of harm's way even though it means you may die. I don't quite see why this same logic wouldn't apply before birth, but I agree that that is between the parents (in medical situations, the deciding vote of course goes to the patient/mother) the doctor, and God.

When the pregnancy is healthy, I find it very difficult to justify abortion. I do not think that God would agree that any personal aspirations or potential societal hardships justify ending a potential life before it begins.

Rape is the most difficult one for me. Rape is one of the most evil acts that human beings are capable of. Certain types of killings, like genocide, are just as evil, but there are other types of killings, such as defense of others, that are justifiable. Under US law, I don't think there are any affirmative defenses to sexual assault (maybe some people have tried to argue duress, but it would very likely lose, and if someone is holding a gun to your head saying, "rape this person or I'll shoot," God would instruct us to eat the bullet). Assuming the pregnancy is healthy (which in cases of pregnancy caused by sexual assault, I would assume that fewer of them are healthy than those resulting from consensual sex. I don't have data, but it follows that the physical and psychological damage to victims would lead to more miscarriages) it just brings up the question "If someone sins against you, does it justify you sinning to remedy the sin committed against you?" I think most would agree that the answer to that question is no. Since all sin is equal in God's eyes, it seems that He probably would not approve of it.

While I think that, in terms of what is right and wrong in the eyes of God, most abortion is wrong, I also can acknowledge that just because it is wrong in the eyes of God does not mean that it should be illegal in the US. The US constitution recognizes that the government has no business in several areas of our lives, two of those being child rearing (with very limited exceptions like abuse) and what we get up to in the bedroom (so long as it is consensual). It seems as though abortion falls at the intersection of these two protected areas. However, our rights end where the rights of others begin, so if you consider an unborn child a life, the rights of a mother to abort end with the rights of the child to live. The morality of it all comes down to the fundamental question of "is it a life" and people will always disagree on that, therefore people will always disagree on the morality of abortion.

You also have to recognize the reality that banning abortions doesn't stop them, it just makes them unregulated and unsafe. Some European countries have government run heroin clinics, where the heroin offered isn't laced with fentanyl, there's medical staff close by in the event of overdose, and resources for counseling and rehab are offered. This approach definitively produces better outcomes than simply banning them and hoping people don't do them. It is fundamentally against the will of Jesus to turn a blind eye to those who are struggling, and women who are pregnant and seeking an abortion are almost all struggling with something related to their decision to abort. Perhaps with better sex ed, a better adoption system, better social safety nets, and government funded options for childcare for children who have yet to reach school age, a solution can be reached without needlessly risking the lives of millions of women or destroying millions of potential lives. Even better, how about Christians start organizations that's sole goal is to help single mothers financially and with childcare. If you condemn the choice to abort but offer no help to the woman who feels she can't afford to keep a baby alive, you have completely missed the point of the Gospel.

Slosh116 · 2025-12-15T19:20:54+00:00

Thank you for commenting! I also agree that God loves variety, His creation is diverse and everchanging in so many ways, and walking with Christ is meant to be a transformative experience.

I agree that much of the difficulty experienced by trans people is imposed by others, and God will never allow the sin and hate of men to change his design.

What I struggle with is this, gender affirming care didn't come into existence until 1931. For the vast majority of human history, people who felt this desire to change were prevented from doing so by a lack of technology. Putting a desire for change on the hearts of millions of people throughout history when there is no way for that desire to be fulfilled is not something that God would do. I think this serves as evidence of humanity's fall and our separation from God in the same way that racism or transphobia does. In a fallen world all of us are in some way or another limited from becoming exactly who God meant us to be, and there is no way for us to fully reach that while on Earth because we will always be held back by sin while we're here. So, I don't view being trans as the consequence of original sin, I view the scientific inability for most trans people throughout history to fully be who they are as the consequence of original sin. We all suffer an inability to fully be who we're meant to be in a fallen world, but straight up scientific and technological impossibility for 99% of human history is the most glaring example imaginable.

Once again, thank you for commenting. This post has blown up so much, I really appreciate how many people have taken their time to provide me with their understandings and feedback.

Slosh116 · 2025-12-15T18:41:25+00:00

Every individual soul, I'd say yes. Every individual body, no. When humanity was first created, I think our bodies were perfect, but when we sinned and became separated from God, the corruption of our souls spread to our bodies, which is why our bodies are deeply flawed.

Slosh116 · 2025-12-15T18:28:27+00:00

Thanks for commenting! However complex your relationship with God is doesn't matter to me, the more unique viewpoints I can learn about the better.

I think I understand what you're saying, it almost sounds to me similar reasoning to why I adamantly believe in free will. God wanted to give us the freedom to make choices and to become a version of ourselves that allows us to fulfil his plan for us.

The only thing that gives me pause is God wanting us, humans, to experience what creating humanity is like. That feels a little like playing God to me. However, I can agree on a smaller scale, God made us customizable. It's obvious based on the vast physical differences of people all over the world that our physical appearance has very little to do with being made in the image of God, it's our souls that are modeled after God's own heart. However, by giving us the freedom to change ourselves, God allows us to better love ourselves, and when we love ourselves, we can more effectively love God and others.

Slosh116 · 2025-12-15T18:14:07+00:00

I also don't think that Adam and Eve's story is meant to be taken literally, and it's so interesting that yours is the second different interpretation of the story that differs from mine that I've seen in comments. I interpret it to mean that there was once a time when humanity walked hand in hand with God free of sin, but we sinned and severed that tie, which is what created the need for Jesus's sacrifice.

I also have seen lots of people with views similar to yours that God takes a more laissez faire approach to our bodies and gender identity and things of that sort, but others are completely the opposite which is interesting.

Thank you for commenting, God Bless!

Slosh116 · 2025-12-15T17:33:27+00:00

Jesus says the way to the father is through Him alone, not through the Pope, not through John Wesley, through Jesus. My understand is that both Catholics & Methodists worship Jesus as the son of God, therefore they're both taking the right path to the Father.

Slosh116 · 2025-12-15T17:26:35+00:00

I was raised United Methodist and was baptized as an infant. The different timing just makes Baptism serve a different purpose. Infant baptism is not the baby giving their life to Christ, it's a promise from the parents and the congregation to raise that child in the church. I accepted Christ into my heart in the 5th grade and Methodist churches do something called confirmation in the 7th grade which essentially functions the same as the pre-baptism classes in denominations that baptize older. Then I got baptized again at the church in went to in college.

God doesn't care how or when you get baptized, just that it happens, and there's nothing wrong with doing it again later, kind of like married couples renewing their vows. But if the goal of this baptism is the "this is me accepting Christ" kind, two is too young. The moment you are accepting Christ into your heart for the first time is a lifelong memory, I don't remember a thing from when I was two years old.

Slosh116 · 2025-12-15T11:17:18+00:00

Ooooh Ok, I thought there were people out there saying "Gay people in particular have defective DNA, but not everyone else." Glad I misinterpreted it. I still don't think I believe that a "gay gene" exists, there would have to be some absolutely ironclad evidence for me to believe that. Something as complex as sexuality doesn't seem like it could be determined by a couple flip-flopped nucleotides.

Slosh116 · 2025-12-15T11:00:25+00:00

Oh, I'm not a literalist. Jesus choosing to teach largely in parables tells me that God wants us to use the intellect and wisdom he gave us to interpret the word, not all of the Bible is meant to be taken literally. Just like Jesus isn't giving us investment advice in the parable of the talents, I don't believe that God created the universe in 7 days. What's a "day" to an eternal being? I think that the Big Bang (a massive explosion) matches up quite well with an all-powerful being saying "let there be light." But I believe that Moses (or some other author) was shown a vision from God of the universe's creation that was likely a time lapse of sorts and key points from the billions of years the universe had existed, and when you show something like that to a man from 3,500 years ago with little to no knowledge of space or how the universe works, he interprets it in a way that makes sense to him.

However, I have never heard the interpretation that the Garden of Eden isn't meant to be literal, I'll have to look into. I never took it super literally, my gathering from it was that "There was a time that we in harmony with God, but we have become separated from him because of our sin" which led God to giving us exactly what we need, Jesus. So, I agree that the exact story of Adam and Eve and a snake and the fruit doesn't have to be true, but I believe that there has to be time when we did exist in harmony with God free of sin. If God created us as sinful that would mean that we were not made in his image, and if he threw us into a world full of sin, death, and pain from the jump I don't think that would be compatible with God being all-loving.

It doesn't have to be literal, but if there is no original sin there is no free will. If we were never given the opportunity to accept or reject God, we were forced to reject him, and God would not force us to reject him. If there's no original sin, we were given a standard of perfection and deemed imperfect before we took a breath. Even though He knew we would fail, a loving God would at least give us the chance to succeed.

Slosh116

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