The Bible: The Oldest Chainletter?

This is another one of those times when i get all philosphical [and boring?] about things. Just last week, i made a mistake of being caught in the middle of a Bible meeting at college.

I was having a chat with Fidele in one of the lecture rooms when the Bible meeting began. She's a regular member and though i cuda jusdt walked off, I sat thru it. Why? Just wanted to remind myself of the reason why i "loathe" in any place where they bombard you with so many far fetched storis in a space on an hour and expect you to belive every single one of 'em

Anyway, as you probably have heard a dozen times before, that's not what this entry is about. It's about how much the bible is like a chain letter.

First of all, both of of them take you straight to how things started. A chainletter may start this way:

"This chain-letter was started in the summer of 1840 by C. Gordor Mior after visiting his Great Aunt on her death bed...."

The Bible similarly starts with the story of creation of in the case of the New Testament, by listing all generations of Abraham till it gets to Jesus.:

"[1]The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, he son of Abraham.

[2]Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat Judas and his brothers."
-- the gospel according to St. Mathew; 1:1-2

So there! Irrelevant information from the "beginnig" that really has no other purpose than to convince you of the legitimacy of the "letter". The last thing they want is for you to think its a silly high school prank or that Jesus wasnt born of the line of Abraham and David.

The next similarity is the way that they both try to tell you of what had happened in the past to people who have obeyed the directive of the letter/word of God; and those that had not.

"Joe Calzaghi received this letter the 4th of May 1936 and flushed it down the toilet. He had arthritis later in life and died as a result"

How convinient! Yeah so he had arthritis.... so didnt a million or so other people catch it and die? What makes you think discarding the letter caused it. Huh?

"Victor Gbeho got this chain letter and passed it on to 25 of his friends. When his old people's home was burnt down, he escaped with only a fractured thighbone"

That was another one for chain-letter's in case u're wondering.

Similarly, the Bible talks about all the wars that were fought and won because the people had trust in God. Or those that were lost because they worshipped other gods. Frankly a favorite one of mine is when Shadrach and his mates were thrown into the fiery furnace and werent burnt 'cos they didnt bow down to King Nebu's golden statue:

'[24]Then Nebuchadnezzar... rose up and spake... "Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?" They answered and said unto the king; "True, O, King."

[25]... Lo I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire... [unhurt]... The fourth is like the Son of God."

[26]Then [King Nebu] came near the... fiery furnace and spake... "Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, ye servants of the most high God, come hither". [And they did]'
-- Daniel 3:24-26

Oook... so both forms of "propaganda" try to amaze you. Yes you see what can happen to those that obey? And those that dont? Up until now it's been generally other people... You are amazed and afraid of what happened to others.... now let's move to YOU!

So the threats and the rewards have been generalised up until now. Now it's YOU. Your soul if you dont do as the "letter" is saying. You wanna risk all that had happened to people? B'cos they disobeyed? Guess not.

"Send this mail to 25 people, excluding the person who sent you this OR you you will have 25 years of bad luck. If you do, your love life will bloom and prosper and... blah blah blah...

Again, that will be a chain letter there.
The bible takes on a more serious note. Ok so you can live with bad-luck and a non-existent love-life for the rest of your days... tough! But what do you do when your soul is threatened? For a start you dont know where, why, what IT is. Or even IF it is. You definitely dont wanna risk IT though after a threat like this:

"[4]And it was commanded them [the locusts], they should not hurt the grass of the earth... but only men which have not the seal on God in thier foreheads

[5]And to them it was given that they should not kill them [the men], but that they should be tormented five months; and their torment was [that] of a scropion when he striketh man"
-- Revelations 9:4&5

You still wanna risk it?

They then both go on to hammer home the point of letting others know of the "scripture" or be doomed anyways. The chainletter of course is hammering home that point thru-out. "Forward this to 12 people...." appears in every other sentence

The Bible similarly says:

"Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost..."
-- Mathew 27:19

Now you can see how similar chainletter is to the Bible? Maybe you'll have to treat them in a similar way. What do you do when you recieve one of those chain-letters in your mailbox? I really dont wanna know but I, for one, dont believe them so on reflex, I go straight for the [Delete] button.

Posted by Faf [14:53 GMT] [E-Send] [Print] .

Comments:

O.D.B	Added: May 3, 2002 4:58 AM @ \| :// \|
nothing can stop from buring ma bone in back yard of someelses house so watch out

brownAangel	Added: May 3, 2002 4:58 AM @ \| :// \|
Sigh why are we so lost!!! TO see such youth go to waste in an endless and fruitless bid to oppose the omni everything- potent, present, scient, you name it!

Faf Ybbraw

Added: May 3, 2002 4:58 AM
@ | :// |

you see that idiot that's been posting some patois shit on my guestbook? Ben? Yeah him... he aske me this question when we left college yesterday: "If God knows everything... into the future an' all, then he surely knew Adam and Eve were gonna sin against him. And that i was gonna spell this wrod wrong; why the heck did he bother creating us then?" Now i didnt bother answering... i needed a clear head today.

Emerald

Added: May 3, 2002 4:59 AM
@ | :// |

Oh boy, I'm in trouble. Just posted a long comment on "losing track of time". It involved time, but also refers to religious holidays. Lol,was this a trap, faf? Did you know I was coming to visit,would read first things first, and leave my comments there? Well, I'm here now. My only answer to the above question from Ben and faf is God gave us a free will and intelligence, both of which would apply to these questions. Leaving here quickly, I always want to remain on good terms with faf :). Love this site, no " ".

Faf Ybbraw	Added: May 3, 2002 4:59 AM @ \| :// \|
what free will? It's like saying "You can choose whatever color you want, so long as it's black" See... he knows what we're gonna do anyway... we cant do anything other than what he knows, right? anything else will prove him wrong... and god cant be wrong right?

Emerald

Added: May 3, 2002 4:59 AM
@ | :// |

Lol,you are so anti - religion and I know that! If you believe in God, you believe He knows all things, but the free will is our right to choose while here on this earth. We can't choose all things, just those that would effect our own lives in terms of doing the right things. Good vs evil ...you know. He sees us doing wrong, making the wrong choices, but He won't interfere unless we ask for His guidance. I just know you're going to have a field day with this, FAF. Try to be kind to your friend...Love your site, no " ".

g-love

Added: December 9, 2003 8:21 AM
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let me clear it up for you. All you need to know is god was lonely so he created man in his image but the devil was one that got cast out . God is using the devil to figure out who will be his frineds and keep him company in a life of happiness. Your lifespan is the necessary time you need to find him. Once you do that and try to do what he wants you to do (be good) he'll let you come up with him and live in happiness. God created sex, weed, (euporia), etc. You get the idea. Heaven is all the best feelings you experience randomly on earth but wrapped up into one every day hour and second. You can't beat that for something simple as beleiveing in him, try to be good and if you fuck up ask him to forgive you and he will. Somethin so simple how could you say no. If you was running heaven you think you would wanna have to look over your shoulder to see who gone try and take over, or jack you for your riches. He could have destroyed the devil but had mercy on him cause as you know he created the angel that went bad. The devil,all lonely and by himself, cried cause he had know friends. So God being God felt empathy and derived away for the devil to get friends and accumalte more frindds for heaven. He lets the devil(d-evil) have those people cause they are his type and the one's that follow directions its all the best experiences of your life all day everyday.

Faf	Added: December 9, 2003 12:15 PM @ \| :// \|
which version of the bible is your philosophy from, g?

dalilboy	Added: February 13, 2004 8:38 PM @ \| :// \|
Remind me, I'll love to comment on this sometime.

Faf	Added: February 13, 2004 8:39 PM @ \| :// \|
you are reminded

Continuing the discussion...

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