Greetings from Kaiyo

[Kaiyo]

Hello. My name is Kristen, but I chose the username Kaiyo because it's Japanese for "forgiveness", and I think it suits my views on God well. I came to this site because ever since 2006 I've been getting away from Christianity because I felt trapped by its views. I was baptized around 2002, but one Sunday night I went to church with my mom and there was a question-and-answer session. One of the questions asked pertained to homosexuality, and the preacher said something along the lines of "God hates homosexuals and they are not allowed into the Kingdom of Heaven.
...When I was baptized...I did it because I believed in a God of love and salvation, and to hear the words 'God' and 'hate' in the same sentence kind of turned me off. I've been exploring different religions and stuff for the last couple of years. I like studying different spiritual paths and seeing what I can get out of them, but I've always held a special love for God and Jesus. So, I recently started reading the Bible again and one thing I noticed that didn't sit well with me was the concept of Hell. I remembered reading an article explaining how there was no Hell, and everything we thought about it was wrong. So, I googled it and found this site. It wasn't the same article I had, but it did have a lasting effect on me.
I think there are a lot of people that give Christians a bad name, and sometimes it seems the whole "Lord and Savior" thing are cliche. But I can't deny...this yearning to really know God, and the truth beyond what man has tried to make Him into. That's why I came here.
So, its really nice to meet you guys...well, as thoroughly as you can meet someone through a message board.   :smile:
Also, I was wondering if you guys good recommend any good translations of the Bible to read, because I'm looking for one I can really read and get into and not have to worry about being thrown off by misguiding interpretations.

Thank you,
Kristen

[WhiteWings]

(http://tbn1.google.com/images?q=tbn:KT4pEvUKEyLnBM:http://blogs.menupages.com/southflorida/kaiyo_keys_logo.gif)

Welcome :bgdance:

So, its really nice to meet you guys...well, as thoroughly as you can meet someone through a message board.

If you can meet the HS perhaps you can also sorta meet penpals  :laughing7:

[Kaiyo]

Thank you! I like that Kaiyo picture, it's really cool.

[WhiteWings]

Save all good pictures for later use.
Same as Jesus. He also saves all  :laughing7:

[IceDash]

your preacher really blew it, he just lost one sheep out of his church.

Don't listen to anyone but God, he is the truth, the way and the life.

[jabcat]

Welcome.  I would recommend  Modern Young's Literal Translation, available at Amazon as well as other places.  Concordant Literal http://www.concordant.org/version/CLNT_Intro.htm (hard copy also at amazon) and The Christian Bible (available here for $20, includes a companion concordance with the Greek..  http://christianbiblesociety.org/index.shtml).

Jesus said "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me." John 14:6-7.

God's blessing, James.

[Kaiyo]

WhiteWings: your post made me laugh. I think because that was a nice segue from one sentence to the next. I did save the picture though, it was cool. :)

IceDash: Yeah, I have a lot of family on my mother's side and they all go to that church, but I just don't...feel the passion there. I've learned to depend on God more than man when trying to find my way.

jabcat: Thank you for the recommendations. I'll have to look into those.

[WhiteWings]

Jabcat,

I usually use the old version of YLT (and Rotherham) in e-Sword
Do you know if there is a NYLT for e-Sword?

[ScarletWren]

Hi Kaiyo

welcome to the forum.  Lots of good reading here  and elsewhere on the web. 

[ScarletWren]

As far as translations go,  I still like my KJV for some reason. I like the way it flows and it still maintains a lot of the integrity. I just know that when it seems to say anyone is gonna fry forever, that's not the spirit that it was intended to convey in the original.  I do have a rotherham's but I find it difficult to read, I mainly use it to get a different translation when the KJV just doesn't seem right.  I also like to read1 paraphrased versions sometimes, with the same guarding over the verses that portray the translators' biases.

I've seen some commentators use the Amplified version and I would like to get that version some day, as well as either the Concordant or Young's
when my finances get straightened out.

[Cardinal]

 :cloud9: Hi and welcome.........I use KJV, personally.......

[martincisneros]

Hi!! :hithere:

I'll tend to use http://www.biblegateway.com and http://www.studylight.org  If I seem like I've quoted the NIV a lot recently on the boards, it's not much of a preferred translation for me.  It's just laziness when using the biblegateway website 'cause it's sorta the "default" version and otherwise I'd have to be decisive with the menu for another translation.  Unless I'm emphasizing a particular shade of meaning that another translation gives a text, or unless it's one of those passages that I personally feel the NIV blunders, then I often don't care when making a post on the boards and will go ahead with what's handy without having to pick a translation. 

I personally like the format of http://www.biblegateway.com more than the format of http://www.studylight.org 'cause I've used biblegateway the longest and I'm the most familiar with it, although studylight.org has more translations, including Rotherham's.  If I could have all of the translations that studylight.org has in the format of the website of biblegateway.com then biblegateway would be my preferred site.  The Concordant New Testament link that Jabcat referred to in his post, from Concordant Publishing Concern, is very helpful as well.

Since most of my recent studies/meditations have been New Testament related, when I'm not online I'll tend to use the Concordant Literal and Scarlett's.  Scarlett's is a 1798 translation that's also put out by Concordant Publishing http://www.concordant.org

And I'll have a preference for NASBU for the book of Philemon in the New Testament, since over 70% of my recent Bible reading has been the book of Philemon.  If I were going to spend much time in the Old Testament, then my preferences would be Young's, Rotherham's, and the Concordant Literal.  The reason you'll find quite a few UR folks using the KJV is because of their familiarity with that paraphrase and because of Strong's, Young's, and Wigram's Englishman's Concordance that are KJV Concordances/Lexicons for it.  Makes study easier for them without having to buy a whole lot of other study reference tools that can be hard to find in their earlier years in UR.  Between those and the online references, resources, books, articles, etc., and they're set for studying many things.

Some people may even have a preference for the KJV for no better reasons than that they can have copies that are bound in leather.  Before I was a vegan, I bought a couple of leather Bibles, one that was a NKJV and one that was an NIV and I spent a little over $40 on each of those, which for back then would be like paying $60 to $70 today.  And for me personally, those wound up being the flimsiest Bibles that I've ever owned where the covers would get all cracked up and start having pieces that would chip off, etc.  For me, the pleather, hardbound, and even paperback ones have always been more enduring.  All of that extra money on those Bibles and the center column references and footnotes weren't the most enlightening on anything.  And yet my two 1831 reprints of Elhanan Winchester's "The Universal Restoration" are bound in leather, unfortunately, and yet they're in much better shape than those two Bibles are!  So maybe all of the leather binding used to be done better than it is now with all of the inferior materials used in mass production while cheating workers of decent wages that happens these days at greater levels than back then.  So, unless it's hardbound or for some other reason has a legitimate excuse with more promised extras, be leery of spending more than $30 on a Bible.  I think that Rotherham's tends to run a little high.  Some of the interlinears might as well.

Since you're liable to find the couple of threads someday where that was previously looked at around here, homosexuality is condemned by the Bible, but it's not the eternal Hell bound offense that many mainstream Christians try to make it out to be.  Inheriting the Kingdom of God passages where that's not the only thing mentioned as something that'll keep you out, has zero to do with going to heaven when you die and is more related to operating in the power of the Holy Spirit, the blessing of Jesus as your High Priest, and having your words and prayers coming to pass. 

It's related to the practical spirituality issues and being able to call fire down from heaven as Elijah was able to.  It's just things that the Bible singles out as not being particularly beneficial to one's long-term wholeness and as something that leads to and multiplies other sins and degrades society overall.  But it's not one of those "God hates" anybody kinda deals.  The Bible is God's physician's desk reference with the cure for every single evil in the individual and in society and though it's message has never changed of God's unending love for humanity, it's methods have been modified to account for God's ability in each era of man's existence to deal with the problem of evil while still seeking to protect and provide for each area of man's existence in ways that are consistent with all of the principles of His multiverse Kingdom that spans more than scientists have discovered yet. 

Many scientists even admit these days that if you change one molecule, then you've changed the whole universe.  Well, the Bible is written from cover to cover with that [specifically] in mind as well as the end goals of our heavenly Father that He's bringing all of us into.  So, if you bump into any passages where you don't understand why things either currently are that way or were back then prior to Christ having taken away the sin of the world, then just know that God had our eternal wholeness, glory, reputation, soundness, understanding, wisdom, and positioning in direct relation to every other universe in mind when He said that things were and had to be the way that they were or have to be between now and the ending of this world, the formation of the next, and the ending of that world that leads us back into the Edenic state where God is all in all.

[jabcat]

Jabcat,

I usually use the old version of YLT (and Rotherham) in e-Sword
Do you know if there is a NYLT for e-Sword?

I don't know for sure, but I don't think so.  I also have the original YLT, the MYLT is just a little updated language from the "archaic" language of the Young's and KJV.  I got mine at Amazon for maybe $15 or so...paperback...


And good post, Martin  :thumbsup:.

[aspiring son]

Welcome Kaiyo. Great to have you here with us. I hope you abound more and more in knowledge and debth of insight as we all aspire to by the grace of the Father. I have a copy of the Rotherham study bible which is a good translation. But continue to follow the spirit and trust in God and you will be fine.

God Bless

[peacemaker]

"Horses may, bite, kick and fart."
Isn't it amazing, so do people ... :teaching:
Unless, they are controlled by a bridle which restrains the natural disposition.

:blush:
WELCOME

peacemaker

[Taffy]

Hi and Welcome Kaiyo :icon_flower: