To answer shortly, it's not the Bible and God's truth that caused those bad things, it is people's sin. You ask how it can be interpreted so many ways? Because people will always be able to interpret things to fit their ideals if they try hard enough.

please guys. you are deviating from the real question. who cut of god's foreskin.

@LND that's a heretical statement. We always retain the image of God but we lose the likeness through sin.

...selfishness is a result of our sin...
...our sin has marred that image...
...it is people's sin...

That hereditary sin theory is stupid, try something else.

Lol ganymedes back with his unsupported trash talking of other's ideas...

@Thessalos that's literally what I said - I didn't say lose His image, I said the image is marred - look it up. 😉

So if someone shoots you and you get an amputated limb, that's a sin? If you were disfigured at birth, that's a sin?

In the Bible, disability is viewed as a disease. The most common diseases mentioned in the Bible are blindness, deafness, dumbness, leprosy, and paralysis. Natural causes of disability are not mentioned, it is attributed to God.

The general view of the Old Testament writers is that God brings disability as punishment for transgressions for sin or as an expression of God's wrath for people's disobedience. It is seen as a curse and as a result of unbelief and ignorance (Jewish Encyclopaedia, 1920; The Talmud of Jerusalem, 1956; and Encyclopaedia Judaica, 1972).

The Bible also portrays disability as a curse and as a result of disobedience, unbelief, and ignorance. In Leviticus 26:14-16, as one of the punishments for Israel's disobedience is expressed in the following way: "I will bring upon you sudden terror, wasting diseases and fever that will destroy your sight and drain away from your life."

The New Testament also supports the link between sin and disability. This link is well illustrated in John 9:1-3. The disciples anticipated a connection between disability and sin with the question: "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" This question implies that disability was the punishment meant for some unspecified sin. When Jesus healed the physically impaired man who lay by the pool of Bethesda, He said to him: "See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse will happen to you" (Jn. 5:14).
Similarly, when Jesus healed the paralytic man lowered through the roof (Mk. 2:1-12), Jesus said to him: "Son, your sins are forgiven"

Source: Disability Studies Quaterly [https://dsq-sds.org/article/view/988/1164]

"Why do religious people cut off newborn's foreskin? Surely if God made us with foreskin in mind, he would want us to keep it, we are after all made in his image.
And if we are made in his image, and circumcision is a necessity, who then cut off God's foreskin?"

Assuming this is a serious question. This is a practice because religious people ages ago thought this would keep boys from masturbating. And then it became tradition. And god forbid we eschew tradition.

Also, if we were "made" in God's image, then he would have a foreskin. Humans are the silly folks altering themselves away from his image.

@DarkKing - injury and disease (because disabilities ARE diseases, only differing from what most people consider disease in that they are caused by our own bodies stuffing up (mutations in DNA) rather than pathogens) are not sins themselves, nor are they a direct cause of sin (by direct I mean you sinned therefore you will get a disease). Diseases are a result of God's curse of the Earth, which was a punishment for our sin. Because of our sin, the world is no longer "good" and therefore we have diseases. Does that make sense?

@ganymedes -

Natural causes of disability are not mentioned, it is attributed to God.

natural causes of those diseases aren't mention, because they weren't known when the Bible was being written! It's not like the Bible authors deliberately ignored the natural causes in order to push their religious propaganda, as your statement seems to me to imply.

God brings disability as punishment for transgressions for sin or as an expression of God's wrath for people's disobedience.

This was (is?) indeed the Jewish belief, hence the disciples' question. While we have to be clear that Jewish beliefs definitely don't necessarily equate to Jewish beliefs, this statement is not altogether wrong, though not precisely true in the Christian faith.
As I mentioned before, disease is a result of God's curse on the world, which was a punishment for human sin. So, there is a link between sin and disability, though it's not quite the I-killed-someone-therefore-I'm-going-to-get-leprosy type link.

That's why it's kind of interesting that Jesus not only healed people of their physical sickness, he also forgives sins - the ultimate cause of our suffering. Only God could forgive sins, which is why saying "your sins are forgiven" is as good as saying "I am God".

"See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse will happen to you" (Jn. 5:14)

I found this quite interesting, I'd never really noticed the second part of this verse before. However, when it says "Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you." (NKJV), my guess (guess, mind you, I'm not a Bible scholar) is that this second part is not referring to a physical sickness; something a lot worse than physical sickness, imo, would be spiritual death (eternity in hell). I think that is perhaps what Jesus was referring to, but again, that is just me, and not necessarily an accepted theological truth of Christianity.

Sorry you misunderstand what image means sir. Christ did actually have a foreskin in the incarnation but still all of you demonstrate a complete lack of understanding of true Christian theology

Edited 6/1/2020 07:58:46

Jesus was circumcised. There's your answer.

buffalo is correct, the orthodox church celebrate one of the 12 great feasts of the Lord as the circumcision of the Lord. But still in the new covenant this is not necessary

To add on. There is the divine ouisia and the human ouisia. God's ouisia is unknowable but his energies are knowable. The human ouisia is not the same as the divine ouisia and thus that doesn't necessitate that God has a foreskin (and it also depends on Who in the Trinity you are referring to, as only Christ became incarnate). The Godhead equally belongs to all three Persons of the Trinity who are a monad in essence and a triad in hypostases.

(Thess, you might need to speak English - I am a Christian, and even I only have a vague idea of what you're getting at. Others probably have absolutely no idea. If you're going to use fancy terms, define them please!)

English is a terrible language to speak in theologically but

ouisia = latin substantia = essence properly in english but potentially substance as well
hypostasis can be seen as person

so ouisia is considered with the what and hypostasis with the who

Except it's Ousia

Edited 6/2/2020 18:16:27

Michael Cera probably.

penis pocket

"To answer shortly, it's not the Bible and God's truth that caused those bad things, it is people's sin. You ask how it can be interpreted so many ways? Because people will always be able to interpret things to fit their ideals if they try hard enough."

My question is: why did God allow sin into the world and where did it come from. If God is sovereign, then he allowed his perfect creation to be marred by something unspeakably wicked and deadly. That is a strange thing and something the Bible and theology fail to address other than to say "it's a mystery."

Sorry, Dave but this doesn't look like you know what you are talking about. You are arguing against a statement which you have came up yourself. IDK what this is called in rhetorics. However it's quite a cheap way to win every argument if you can control what your opponent is saying.