Don't Take This As Gospel

Introducing my new playlist: "Don't Take This As Gospel"! This is my new series on religious texts, commentaries, history, issues, and basically all things religious!

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In his introduction to his Old Testament commentary "The Rational Bible: Exodus", author and radio host Dennis Prager relates how he solved his struggle with a seemingly immoral law of God. But is his solution valid?

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Dennis Prager's "The Rational Bible: Exodus" (aff link): https://amzn.to/2YsLZQw
Dennis Prager's "The Ten Commandments: Still the Best Moral Code" (aff link): https://amzn.to/3aNY08a

ArtScroll's Tanach Series "Iyov" (aff link): https://amzn.to/3hp98Lc
ArtScroll's Kesuvim Series "Iyov" (aff link): https://amzn.to/2QpOuyp

(NOTE: The Tanach Series version of "Iyov" is the version I read from in the video, but the Kesuvim Series version is the one I would recommend to anyone who just wants a Jewish commentary on Job and who doesn't care whether it contains the information I related from the Tanach Series version.)

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Some people think God is all smiles and warmth and puppies and flowers. But the Bible states, "The FEAR of God is the beginning of wisdom," and Jesus explicitly taught his disciples, "FEAR Him!" So what does it mean to fear God?

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Dennis Prager's "The Rational Bible: Exodus" (aff link): https://amzn.to/2YsLZQw

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When Pharaoh asked his midwives, whom he'd sent to kill the Jews' male babies at birth, "Why have you failed me?" they saved themselves with a lie that also benefited the Jewish people. Does that mean God approved of their lying? Dennis Prager seems to think so, but is that really what the text says?

(NOTE: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases through affiliate links. See the channel's "About" page for more details.)

Dennis Prager's "The Rational Bible: Exodus" (aff link): https://amzn.to/2YsLZQw

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When Moses asks God, "What's your name?" God's response contains not only some syllables' worth of sound but also some major insights into the nature of existence.

(VIDEO CORRECTION: At 8:52 I got momentarily sloppy with my terminology and said Jesus identified himself "with God the Father". I should have split hairs more finely and said that Jesus identified himself "as being co-equal with God the Father".)

(NOTE: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases through affiliate links. See the channel's "About" page for more details.)

Dennis Prager's "The Rational Bible: Exodus" (aff link): https://amzn.to/2YsLZQw

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Some people claim they've discovered the meaning of life when all they really mean is they've found a way to *feel* like their lives have meaning. To discover the *real* meaning of your life requires God. Here's why.

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Dennis Prager's "The Rational Bible: Exodus" (aff link): https://amzn.to/2YsLZQw

Stephen R. Donaldson's excellent sci-fi novel "The Real Story" (aff link): https://amzn.to/2QNXPAt

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Can one really argue, "Might doesn't make right!" from a book of the Bible in which God demonstrates His might over and over and over again until His intended audience finally does the right thing?

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Dennis Prager's "The Rational Bible: Exodus" (aff link): https://amzn.to/2YsLZQw

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Ancient peoples used to believe that history repeated itself over both longer and shorter cycles of time, which made the idea of progress laughable. By straightening the circle of history into a line, the Bible gave mankind a reason to rise.

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Dennis Prager's "The Rational Bible: Exodus" (aff link): https://amzn.to/2YsLZQw

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The Egyptians of the Old Testament worshipped animals and other aspects of nature as gods -- a practice revealed to be foolish by God through the Ten Plagues of the Exodus. Why is only God worthy of worship?

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Dennis Prager's "The Rational Bible: Exodus" (aff link): https://amzn.to/2YsLZQw

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Many interpret, "God hardened Pharaoh's heart," to mean that God forced Pharaoh to make evil choices. But God hardened the hearts of Pharaoh's courtiers, too -- and they opposed Pharaoh. So what does this "hardening of the heart" really mean?

(NOTE: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases through affiliate links. See the channel's "About" page for more details.)

Dennis Prager's "The Rational Bible: Exodus" (aff link): https://amzn.to/2YsLZQw

Ebooks: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/MikePartyka
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According to Dennis Prager, polytheism doesn't lend itself to a belief in objective morality, for what offends one god's subjective morality might not offend another's. In monotheism, however, there's only one God to offend.

(NOTE: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases through affiliate links. See the channel's "About" page for more details.)

Dennis Prager's "The Rational Bible: Exodus" (aff link): https://amzn.to/2YsLZQw

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Moses learned from God that through Pharaoh's defeat, God would be glorified. This teaching offers a crucial insight into why -- especially considering God's omniscience, omnipotence, and goodness -- evil is permitted to exist.

(NOTE: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases through affiliate links. See the channel's "About" page for more details.)

Dennis Prager's "The Rational Bible: Exodus" (aff link): https://amzn.to/2YsLZQw

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Most of us are familiar with simplistic images of Heaven and Hell, like sitting on clouds with harps or burning in a lake of fire, respectively. But what if Heaven and Hell are more like dinner tables where only the former has an interesting guest?

(VIDEO CORRECTIONS: At 4:25 I call Jack Kemp "Governor" -- he was a Representative in Congress; at 10:40 I ask, "How many people came out of Israel, exactly?" -- I meant, "How many Israelites came out of Egypt, exactly?")

(NOTE: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases through affiliate links. See the channel's "About" page for more details.)

Dennis Prager's "The Rational Bible: Exodus" (aff link): https://amzn.to/2YsLZQw

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Is God's love unconditional? Dennis Prager would say no, but I think that may be the result of mixing meanings of the word "love". While God may treat you unfavorably due to your sins, God only does so out of the same unconditional love by which He blesses your obedience.

(NOTE: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases through affiliate links. See the channel's "About" page for more details.)

Dennis Prager's "The Rational Bible: Exodus" (aff link): https://amzn.to/2YsLZQw

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Dennis Prager is adamant that there is no implication of Jewish superiority whatsoever in God's choosing the Jews to be His peculiar people. But this egalitarian view is not unanimous among modern Jewish commentators.

Dennis Prager's "The Rational Bible: Exodus" (aff link): https://amzn.to/2YsLZQw

ArtScroll Chumash Stone Edition (aff link): https://amzn.to/3ikEtPA

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How does clothing impact worship? Is one's "Sunday best" really best? I take a personal look back at the churches I've attended and the impressions their widely differing dress codes made on me.

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Dennis Prager's "The Rational Bible: Exodus" (aff link): https://amzn.to/2YsLZQw

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Perhaps you've met an obedient Christian woman. Perhaps you've met an obedient Christian priest. But you've never met an obedient Christian who's both a woman and a priest.

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Some atheists believe the only thing keeping believers from murdering them is belief in God. But is that true? Or do atheists and believers have more in common than atheists would like to admit?

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A popular BitChuter apparently thinks that when the Pope speaks "ex cathedra" he's just giving his personal opinion, but it actually means the exact opposite. Here's how "ex cathedra" works (plus some examples).

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In the U.S., throw a rock and you'll hit a church. Throw that rock a different direction, you'll hit a church of a different denomination. How did this fractured state originate, and what churches existed in New Testament times?

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Exodus has forty chapters, but Dennis Prager devotes a full 10% of his commentary on Exodus to Chapter 20 alone. Why? Because that chapter contains the most influential moral code in human history.

PragerU's "Ten Commandments" Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIBtb_NuIJ1y0fPzddUfOqYMav-gp1JNM

(NOTE: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases through affiliate links. See the channel's "About" page for more details.)

Dennis Prager's "The Rational Bible: Exodus" (aff link): https://amzn.to/2YsLZQw

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Some people think God is like a vending machine, and prayers are coins you put in the machine to get something. But is that really what prayer is for? What is the true value of prayer?

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For ages Bible readers have read God saying, "I am a jealous God," and in most cases, "jealous" works. But in 1985, the Jewish Publication Society actually found a better word for a particular verse.

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Dennis Prager's "The Rational Bible: Exodus" (aff link): https://amzn.to/2YsLZQw

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Sometimes you can learn something new about a passage of Scripture simply by reading it aloud. Here's what I learned when I read the Ten Commandments aloud.

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Dennis Prager's "The Rational Bible: Exodus" (aff link): https://amzn.to/2YsLZQw

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If the point of life is to be good, then any sin which deliberately blurs the line between good and evil unforgivably endangers the meaning of life itself. Both the Old Testament and the New Testament describe such a sin.

PragerU's video on the Third Commandment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nI8OtOfzUDE

DTTAG #13 (my earlier video discussing the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit): https://www.bitchute.com/video/o6e9vx4YC5LK

(NOTE: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases through affiliate links. See the channel's "About" page for more details.)

Dennis Prager's "The Rational Bible: Exodus" (aff link): https://amzn.to/2YsLZQw

Ebooks: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/MikePartyka
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