RabbiSatan said:
I love the fact how tektoniks glosses over Revelations 14:3 and 14:4
From SAB:
14:3-4 Only 144,000 celibate men will be saved. (Those who were not "defiled with women.")
14:3
And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth.
14:4
These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.
SAB lists the full verse and even offers an explanation as to why the verse is extremely silly, and what does Tektonics say?
14:3-4 JW issue. We pass.
Aahh...blissful ignorance of the facts...
You really believe that is what the Bible means?
You are reading a book written in symbols literally.
The Bible uses the words "woman" and "virginity" as symbols. Not only in Revelations, but in the OT as well.
The apostle Paul refers to the Corinthian congregation and by extension to the whole church of Christ as a virgin.
2 Corinthians 11
1I hope you will put up with a little of my foolishness; but you are already doing that. 2I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him. 3But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.
Of course what Paul was obviously referring to is spiritual purity.
Unsoiled worship of the only true God.
Knowing what is meant there helps us understand what is mean here:
Revelation 19:7
Let us rejoice and shout for joy [exulting and triumphant]! Let us celebrate and ascribe to Him glory and honor, for the marriage of the Lamb [at last] has come, and His bride has prepared herself.[Ps. 118:24.]
Conversely the Bible refers to cities and even whole nations as women, Sometimes their conduct is compared to harlotry as in the case of the city of Niniveh against whom the prophet Nahum prophesied:
Nahum 3
Woe to Nineveh
1 Woe to the city of blood,
full of lies,
full of plunder,
never without victims!
2 The crack of whips,
the clatter of wheels,
galloping horses
and jolting chariots!
3 Charging cavalry,
flashing swords
and glittering spears!
Many casualties,
piles of dead,
bodies without number,
people stumbling over the corpses-
4
all because of the wanton lust of a harlot,
alluring, the mistress of sorceries,
who enslaved nations by her prostitution
and peoples by her witchcraft.
5 "I am against you," declares the LORD Almighty.
"I will lift your skirts over your face.
I will show the nations your nakedness
and the kingdoms your shame.
7 All who see you will flee from you and say,
'Nineveh is in ruins-who will mourn for her?'
Where can I find anyone to comfort you?"
8 Are you better than Thebes, [1]
situated on the Nile,
with water around her?
The river was her defense,
the waters her wall.
9 Cush [2] and Egypt were her boundless strength;
Put and Libya were among her allies.
10 Yet she was taken captive
and went into exile.
Her infants were dashed to pieces
at the head of every street.
Lots were cast for her nobles,
and all her great men were put in chains.
11 You too will become drunk;
you will go into hiding
and seek refuge from the enemy.
Notice also that Jesus is called a lamb. Was he a literal lamb?
Of course not. The symbol of a lamb is used to represent his sacrificial death for us just as lambs were sacrificed for ritual atonement sin under the law of Moses.
John 1:29
The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
1 Corinthians 5:7
Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast–as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
BTW
Paul is not talking of literal yeast.
Yeast represents sin and false teachings in the Bible.
That is why the bread eaten at Passover had to be without yeast.
Mark 8:15
"Be careful," Jesus warned them. "Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod."
In short, your total unfamiliarity with biblical symbology is leading you to conclude that what you are reading is silly. That is why it is much wiser to admit one's inability to understand and simply accept that one needs to be taught insread of engaging in mockery.
Acts 8:
30Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. "Do you understand what you are reading?" Philip asked.
31"How can I," he said, "unless someone explains it to me?" So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
