Little Passage, Big Message: Don't Look Back at Your Sinful Past(??????????????)

[mythociate]

I'm not sure if the Bible has any other Scripture to support this 'entire philosophy drawn from one little verse,' but it seems like it's 'plopped-down' that way: in the midst of all the 'will-He/won't-He' of God's decision on Sodom-&-Gomorrah's fate, we have this one little instant judgement made because of an instant of indecision.

Besides the little rule we learn from it (in the subject-line above), we also see the big difference between 'our decisions' & 'God's decisions' ... all that Lot's wife needed was probably a 'moment to mourn the loss' (to remember 'the good times' & cut the dead cities out of her life), but God didn't want that.

I bet if Jesus were running from those cities & HE looked back, He STILL would've been 'resurrect the third-day' (although that Gospel would've had an extra chapter or two to explain His mourning) 

Thoughts?

[inertia4]

Well, I am not into religion at all. I learned not to follow it by going to catholic school. As for not looking back at your sinful past, well, you would have to have a sinful past to begin with. And those that do will suffer mostly later in life. It will be well deserved.

[mythociate]

Well, I am not into religion at all. I learned not to follow it by going to catholic school.

That's why I'm sorta 'putting the Bible under a microscope' here, to show that--divinely-inspired as it may be--it only applies to US if we LET it.

As for not looking back at your sinful past, well, you would have to have a sinful past to begin with. And those that do will suffer mostly later in life. It will be well deserved.

But we all DO have a sinful past! (not necessarily 'anything we ourselves have done,' but it's the reason why we have a 'sinful nature' ... and no, that 'reason' IS NOT just 'because some lady ate some good-looking fruit in the Garden'; but more the nature that 'drove' her to do that ... curiosity, hunger, self-centeredness, or something)

We all NEED to have that nature sometimes--it's why we're still alive!--but we ALSO need to know how to cut it off when we don't need it anymore.

[jenniferhoder]

Well, I don't discuss religion much but I do agree that we all have a sinful past. And I think you SHOULD look back at it and LEARN from it, and realize that you are a much better person NOW! 

[demaina]

I can see your point with that message, but it seems sorta unrealistic.  Unless you are constantly doing something, your brain will think about it every once in a while.  Now, it's our choice to dwell on these things, but there really isn't anything that prevents us from thinking about it.  I mean, I've had plenty of conversations with people where they mention something that happened to them, and immediately my brain makes the connections to how that sorta relates to something that happened to me.  How am I supposed to prevent this sort of connection when this is what it's supposed to do in the first place?

But, again, if your point is not to dwell on your past, then I agree with you.  It seems like people get lost in the things they did in the past, both good and bad, and just don't know how to get out of it.  My cousin keeps telling me the same story over and over again about how his parents basically convinced him to give them all his money for the good majority of his life.  He's now trying to pay off his bills from the past so he can start again, but every so often, he repeats the same story to me about them kicking him out and him having to sleep out in the garage.  It's horrible, but when he thinks about these stories, he doesn't really do anything for the rest of the day.  So, from seeing this in action, I can agree that we really shouldn't dwell on the things we did or that happened in the past.

[mythociate]

Well, I don't discuss religion much but I do agree that we all have a sinful past. And I think you SHOULD look back at it and LEARN from it, and realize that you are a much better person NOW! 

While I disagree 'in theory,' I agree 'in practice.' "In theory," all we'll have to worry about in the future is ... 'whatever we are moved to do' ('what God commands,' 'whatever's righteous') at that moment; "in practice" there will always be 'opportunities' for us to backslide into sinfulness, so we've got to be careful of those!

I can see your point with that message, but it seems sorta unrealistic.  Unless you are constantly doing something, your brain will think about it every once in a while.  Now, it's our choice to dwell on these things, but there really isn't anything that prevents us from thinking about it.  I mean, I've had plenty of conversations with people where they mention something that happened to them, and immediately my brain makes the connections to how that sorta relates to something that happened to me.  How am I supposed to prevent this sort of connection when this is what it's supposed to do in the first place?

But, again, if your point is not to dwell on your past, then I agree with you.  It seems like people get lost in the things they did in the past, both good and bad, and just don't know how to get out of it.  My cousin keeps telling me the same story over and over again about how his parents basically convinced him to give them all his money for the good majority of his life.  He's now trying to pay off his bills from the past so he can start again, but every so often, he repeats the same story to me about them kicking him out and him having to sleep out in the garage.  It's horrible, but when he thinks about these stories, he doesn't really do anything for the rest of the day.  So, from seeing this in action, I can agree that we really shouldn't dwell on the things we did or that happened in the past.

If you keep your mind on Heavenly reality, the 'other lower realities' (thinking of Nichiren Buddhism, which holds Hell & Heaven as two of the Ten Realities that are with each of us no matter where we are) have to REALLY MAKE SOME NOISE before they'll disturb you.

[lucky382001]

What I got from that is that God didn't want them to glorify the sinfulness. If they missed it then they still were being influenced by it.

[vp44]

God gave us free will.

[workin4alivin]

hey the mythociate ... religion is a hard one, but makes for good debate!  personally, I'm SPIRITUAL but not religious.  The Bible has been rewritten so many times and by so many different groups, who knows that the real text was when originally written.  "Organized" religion has used it to manipulate people from the beginning of time.

however, I do know there is "something" bigger than me at work in the universe, and I do believe in God or universe or something out there.  I think that's why I'm spiritual rather than religious.  Someone posted, they were not religious due to Catholic upbringing, I was raised Southern Baptist and that's a pretty scary religion! Chuckle.  They all have their + & - but how can the Bible be dissected because we don't know what the original said?

[mythociate]

The Bible has been rewritten so many times and by so many different groups, who knows that the real text was when originally written.  "Organized" religion has used it to manipulate people from the beginning of time.

however, I do know there is "something" bigger than me at work in the universe, and I do believe in God or universe or something out there.  I think that's why I'm spiritual rather than religious.  Someone posted, they were not religious due to Catholic upbringing, I was raised Southern Baptist and that's a pretty scary religion! Chuckle.  They all have their + & - but how can the Bible be dissected because we don't know what the original said?

That's another way of saying why I start lotsa Bible-topics here. Whether the Bible holds to the same message as the original text, about 90% of Christians will swear up-&-down on 'a thousand Bibles' that the Word of God went straight from His lips to Mr. Tyndale's printing-press. (A famous governor of Texas swore that God's language was English because that's the language all his Bibles were ever written-in!)

Early Christians--I think--were known as "people of the book" (or maybe that's how Jews were known ... you can look it up somewhere). And most of the New Testament is made up of 'letters to churches from the disciples-of-Jesus.'

The principle here is just a little part of the big story (the destruction of Sodom & Gomorrah), but I think it's an important principle that goes along with 'being saved from sin' (i.e. we run away from our sinful nature, & 'looking back' leads to 'falling back in').