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Isolation

D

DiscussingTheTopic

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Other than spending an excessive amount of time on the internet. What would be an appropriate way to deal with isolation.

I feel the way ALL Pastors who I have known their hermeneutical approach in my city approach hermeneutics is heretical or borderline heretical.

I am not free to express and practice Biblical religion at any Church I know of.

I am a very friendly and kind person, but I do not have friends who are exhibiting a strong good influence on me, who are aware of reality. And many people are exhibiting a bad influence on me.

My options are basically be isolated or be around people of questionable character and or sanity/doctrine.

Both are not the best in most circumstances, and spending massive amounts of time online due to isolation is also bad.

I feel that it is really important to me to find people who can be a good influence on me.

What should I do?
 
I am sorry DTT, I can't be much help on the religious aspects of your situation but regarding isolation, I know you are either studying or planning to study soon, will that help? Students are often more open minded and keep to debate than older people, not to offend people but....once you get to a certain age people often (and I include myself in this) get comfortable with their ideas and are less keen to tolerate anyone challenging them. Younger people, though often more passionate about things, can also be more indulgent to the idea of contradictory ideas. I love hearing students talk sometimes because they are so passionate and willing to think.

So, even if you can't go to a church, can you attend some students group? Or a discussion group in general?

And, is your isolation purely religious? Would it not help getting out of the house to do something non religious? I think a Book group might be quite benign and hardly likely to be a bad influence. Have you thought about doing some voluntary work? They need all the help they can get and no one is likely to show you the door because your beliefs are not conventional.

I am quite sociable myself, so I know what it is like being an extrovert and feeling a bit isolated, but you need not find people who think like you do 100% to be happy and stimulated. If we all did that, than we would have to spend all our time looking in the mirror and talking to the only person in the world who thinks exactly like we do!

Good luck,
B
 
Hi DTT. A few suggestions:

1. Do you have a job? Work is a great place to interact with people. If yes, increase your hours. Save up your wages and become the owner of a "large how", as someone in a previous post suggested. Property ownership develops responsibility and also leads to interaction with a whole bunch of people.

2. Start a business. Commerce is a great leveller of relationships and biases. You will have to deal with all sorts of people. And if you are successful in business, you will have dealt with the financial side of becoming a wife magnet.

Best regards,

ylop
 
Discussing the topic,

There are three things that can cause so many people to be judgemental and that is polictics, relgion and money. These three has cost people friends, families and even jobs. It would be nice if we could always express ourselves about our religious beliefs without being isolated. We all go through periods of isolation and each of us handle it differently. Friends, work, home are some of the places to start. I think being able to discuss this on Biblical Families is a help. Just remember we all go through situations like this and it will pass. Hang in there and you will find a way to replace your feeling of isolation.

God Bless,

James
 
Here's an idea, DTT:

Quit worrying about others being a bad influence on you, and get busy being a good influence on them! Overcome evil with GOOD! YeeHAW!
 
Good suggestion Cecil!

DTT, you can always start a blog! Maybe you can write some of the concerns you have and who/how you have found yourself in isolation. I started one last year, but my hubby & I got busy with his music & my business, check it out @ http://liesoftoday.blogspot.com. I have about 15 others I need to post, but just haven't made time for them yet. I found it relaxing! Another thing is start a Bible study, pray and ask God to send you people who are similar to you!

Just some thoughts!

Praying for God to send you the right people in your life NOW!
 
In Milwaukee you cannot find a Church?
Really? How many churches are there.

I have run into that problem when I lived in MN (eh) and we drove 2 hours every week to a messianic congregation.

I now live in SD (south dakota not san diego) and there population 15K has 28+/- churches. Of course once you eliminate RCC, JW, LDS and then the liberal churches the numbers drop quickly. Then take out those that are theologically incompatible Church of Christ, Christian Church, A. of G-d, those that the speak in tongues. The numbers drop even faster.

It leaves two or three I would consider. Of those two or three . . . well let's say I have not been to church in several years.

I do have work which is nice. my wife does not have work, but she has decided to go to church, which she is getting sick of going to.

But Milwaukee? There has to be some options. Population 605K+ Metro Area 1.7M+
I do not mean to pick on or attack you.
 
macike said:
In Milwaukee you cannot find a Church?
Really? How many churches are there.

I have run into that problem when I lived in MN (eh) and we drove 2 hours every week to a messianic congregation.

I now live in SD (south dakota not san diego) and there population 15K has 28+/- churches. Of course once you eliminate RCC, JW, LDS and then the liberal churches the numbers drop quickly. Then take out those that are theologically incompatible Church of Christ, Christian Church, A. of G-d, those that the speak in tongues. The numbers drop even faster.

It leaves two or three I would consider. Of those two or three . . . well let's say I have not been to church in several years.

I do have work which is nice. my wife does not have work, but she has decided to go to church, which she is getting sick of going to.

But Milwaukee? There has to be some options. Population 605K+ Metro Area 1.7M+
I do not mean to pick on or attack you.
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There is not even one Church I know of where people think that a man is allowed to marry more than one woman and man with man homosexuality is wrong and sex between a man and woman outside of marriage is wrong.
 
There is not even one Church I know of where people think that a man is allowed to marry more than one woman and man with man homosexuality is wrong and sex between a man and woman outside of marriage is wrong.
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My friend, you will never find a church where you will agree on everything.
 
John Whitten said:
There is not even one Church I know of where people think that a man is allowed to marry more than one woman and man with man homosexuality is wrong and sex between a man and woman outside of marriage is wrong.
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My friend, you will never find a church where you will agree on everything.
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Yes, but .... it seems like I cannot agree on anything if I cannot agree on how to read and understand the English language when talking to native English speakers.

They read the Bible the way society will reward them for reading it, to read it the proper way would produce persecution and thus is unacceptable

Therefor they have a different set of rules for reading the Bible than for reading something that is not in their best interest to disbelieve.
 
You've said your problem with pastors in your area, but what about just plain friends? You could probably use some peers, people who you influence as well as influence you, more than you need superiors. There is a kind of freind that sticks closer than a brother, and I know my friends are always there for me. They are a diverse group though, and not all of them are theologically inclined (that is, they don't really care to know more than they must know) but it still means I'm never isolated.

If you don't have a lot of roots in you're area can you just up and move somewhere where you can live near a poly inclined teacher? If you could you might have an easier time finding both a teacher and peers. You could also just figure out where other BF family members live and locate close to those you get along with.
 
Tlaloc said:
If you don't have a lot of roots in you're area can you just up and move somewhere where you can live near a poly inclined teacher? If you could you might have an easier time finding both a teacher and peers. You could also just figure out where other BF family members live and locate close to those you get along with.
Click to expand...

That is a good idea.
 
DiscussingTheTopic said:
Therefor they have a different set of rules for reading the Bible than for reading something that is not in their best interest to disbelieve.
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That is the problem we who are strong literalists deal with in discussing the Bible with evolutionists. They apply different standards to God's Word than to other literature! It's sad when Christians do the same.

Tlaloc said:
If you don't have a lot of roots in you're area can you just up and move somewhere where you can live near a poly inclined teacher? If you could you might have an easier time finding both a teacher and peers. You could also just figure out where other BF family members live and locate close to those you get along with.
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Consider Gallup, NM. If there were enough of us, maybe we could start a fellowship here... :D ...and I'm a Bible teacher who believes in Biblical Marriage.

If I could find 9 like-minded men, I would probably start a church. In the meantime, I will do what I can where the Lord has placed me - working with a ministry for recovering substance abusers, and sharing the Gospel with my wife's people (the Navajo) and others as God gives me opportunity to do so.
 
That is the problem we who are strong literalists deal with in discussing the Bible with evolutionists. They apply different standards to God's Word than to other literature! It's sad when Christians do the same.
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That is a mouth full but since another topic I'll only say this. If one will interpret the Bible literally from Genesis to Revelation consistently that person will arrive at certain key doctrines that have marked the ancient faith of the early believers with the apostles. A literal reading will indeed lead one to see spontaneous supernatural creation, polygyny, mankind's fall into depravity, salvation by grace alone in Jesus Christ who is Lord through faith in his death and resurrection, and Christ's future return to establish an earthly kingdom and new heavens and new earth for the believers and eternal judgment in hell for the unbelievers. If you read the Bible naturally like you would any other document that is written in a language meant to be understood you will arrive at normal conclusions in the major areas.
 
Dr. Allen said:
If you read the Bible naturally like you would any other document that is written in a language meant to be understood you will arrive at normal conclusions in the major areas.
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The strict literal reading of Genesis 1-3 speaks of supernatural creation. So does a natural reading, if there is a difference between the meanings of "strict literal" and "natural" readings.

To my mind, strict literal interpretation means that unless the immediate context demands allegory, hyperbole, or something similar, it means what it says literally. That would also be natural reading, as opposed to making everything one might dislike allegorical, mythical, or otherwise not exactly true.

For example, when Jesus said this:
Matthew 7:3 NKJV And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?
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He did not mean that you literally have a 12 foot long 2x6 plank sticking out of your eyeball. That is obviously an exaggerated allegory, which is one of several styles Jesus used when teaching.

But when He said:
Genesis 1:3 NKJV Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light.
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That statement is literal. The Bible accurately reports what actually happened, not some allegorical version of evolutionary mumbo-jumbo.

Also, when the serpent told Eve:
Genesis 3:4b NKJV "You will not surely die."
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That is an accurate report of what the Serpent said, not agreement that what the serpent said is actually true.

If we differ at all (and I'm not sure we do), it is apparently only in the correct use of the two terms. So please correct me if I am using one or both terms ("literal interpretation" and "natural reading") incorrectly.
 
Dr. George,

I see natural, plain, literal, historical grammatical literary all as the same in the field of hermeneutics. Figures of speech and types of literary devices such as metaphors, etc., are within the normal or plain methodology. The golden rule, as Dr. Bernard Ramm used to say, is the key: if the plain sense makes sense then seek no other sense. I think we're on the same page as that.

And back to DTT so as not to derail his thread...... since God lives in a community within himself, The Father, Son, and Spirit, it is natural, normal, and to be expected for those created in his image to desire fellowship. We were not created to be alone.

Someone in this thread noted that friends do not have to be those who line with you in theology in all areas. If you are not able to make friends then I would suggest you find someone to mentor you in that area. Many times Christians can embrace certain ideas that cause us to lose our ability to relate to those who differ with us. These ideas harm us and lead us to loneliness and frustration.
 
since God lives in a community within himself
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thanks for the best internal massage that i have had in a long time

priceless
 
I do not necessarily believe the whole Bible is literal but I believe in some cases it is incredibly obvious if it is literal or metaphoric. If you treat it the same as other documents. Your local newspaper maybe full of both metaphorical and literal statement but it is usually easy to tell if they mean something metaphorically or literally. Also often a metaphor is a metaphor for something that is literal. For instance it is raining cats and dogs is a metaphor for it is raining a lot, and it is raining a lot is fairly literal.

It is incredibly obvious that the 6 days in Genesis 1 are met to occur in that chronological order if you just read it the obvious way. Time dilation cannot change the chronological order, nor can saying a day is but a thousand years.

n*<1, 2, 3, ,4 ,5 ,6 >=(n,2n,3n,4n,5n,6n>

if n>0 than n<2n<3n<4n<5n<6n just as 1<2<3<4<5<6

therefor if you even were to stretch out the days to make them billions of years it would be completely incompatible with the big bang, because the stars were created after the earth on day 4.

But from at least one reference frame (most likely the earth) each of the days had to be approximately 24 hour+-24 hours

On the other hand there is another approach in which you separate the Universe into time zones which might contradict scripture but does not appear to contradict scripture as I understand it. This approach could change the order of events without contradicting scripture as I understand it, unlike time dilation which cannot change the order of events. The order of events would appear in the order listed in Genesis 1 from the earth but not from elsewhere without violating the way events are perceived. This approach could answer how star light traveled to the earth however this approach is incompatible with the big bang also. It is important to note that light was created before the stars in this perceived version as well, however there would be a distinction between created light and light emitted by created stars. This approach is unnecessary to explain Genesis 1 as it is a miracle and therefor MUST break science laws in this case, for creation of a universe violates conservation of mass and energy. Anyone who says Genesis 1 must follow science models has a reprobate and or ignorant mind when it comes to both science and Genesis 1.

Anyone who says light was not created before the stars is violating the text and has a deliberately reprobate mind when it comes specifically to interpreting Genesis 1. (Light was created in Genesis 1:3-4 on day 1 but the stars were created on day 4.)

There is absolutely no way to believe both the big bang and a finite mass within the universe from a purely scientific perspective completely ignoring scripture because it violates numerous science laws, yet Carl Sagan pretends to believe both because he has a reprobate mind and is willing to violate science laws in order to meet his priori assumptions.

If the universe started with a finite amount of matter and energy black body radiation would have caused light to leave it's borders and never return to the mass containing portion because mass always travels slower than the speed of light from all reference frames, the universe must be eternal if scripture is rejected because of conservation of mass and energy therefor only a reprobate or ignorant mind would believe in both a finite universe and the big bang as Carl Sagan does. And an infinite universe probably would not bang because it is infinite so where would it go, none the less it could mathematically expand so I will not rule that out completely.

Furthermore experimental science is severely limited in it's ability to determine history.

In short anyone who believes in the big bang has a deliberately reprobate mind and or is ignorant of the rules of experimental science.

The word day depending on context can mean either a long period of time or 24 hours+-24hours. Whenever the days are placed or paired with a number such as in Genesis chapter 1 common sense tells you that the meaning for the word day in that context is 24 hours+-24hours.

On the other hand the word day in Genesis Chapter 2 is not placed or paired with a number

4These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,
Genesis 2:4 King James

4 This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the LORD God made the earth and the heavens.
Genesis 2:4 NIV 2010
 
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