What does the Bible mean that we are not to judge others?

 Jesus’ command not to judge others could be the most widely quoted of His sayings, even though it is almost invariably quoted in complete disregard of its context. Here is Jesus’ statement: “Do not judge, or you too will be judged” (Matthew 7:1). Many people use this verse in an attempt to silence their critics, interpreting Jesus’ meaning as “You don’t have the right to tell me I’m wrong.” Taken in isolation, Jesus’ command “Do not judge” does indeed seem to preclude all negative assessments. However, there is much more to the passage than those three words.

The Bible’s command that we not judge others does not mean we cannot show discernment. Immediately after Jesus says, “Do not judge,” He says, “Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs” (Matthew 7:6). A little later in the same sermon, He says, “Watch out for false prophets. . . . By their fruit you will recognize them” (verses 15–16). How are we to discern who are the “dogs” and “pigs” and “false prophets” unless we have the ability to make a judgment call on doctrines and deeds? Jesus is giving us permission to tell right from wrong.

Also, the Bible’s command that we not judge others does not mean all actions are equally moral or that truth is relative. The Bible clearly teaches that truth is objective, eternal, and inseparable from God’s character. Anything that contradicts the truth is a lie—but, of course, to call something a “lie” is to pass judgment. To call adultery or murder a sin is likewise to pass judgment—but it’s also to agree with God. When Jesus said not to judge others, He did not mean that no one can identify sin for what it is, based on God’s definition of sin

Kailangan ba ng isang Kristyano ng internet website na nagaalok ng serbisyo para makahanap ng mapapangasawa?

Hindi tinatalakay sa Bibliya ang tungkol sa mga websites na nagaalok ng serbisyo para sa paghahanap ng mapapangasawa. Sa katunayan, ni hindi nito tinalakay ang "panliligaw" o "pakikipagtagpo," o kahit anong termino na ating ginagamit upang kilalanin ang isang potensyal na mapapangasawa. Sa panahon ng Bibliya, tinutulungan ng mga magulang ang kanilang mga anak na makakilala ng potensyal na makakasama at sa tuwina ay pinagpapares ang kanilang mga anak upang maging magasawa sa hinaharap. Sa kasalukuyan, habang may impluwensya pa rin ang pamilya sa maraming kultura, sa mas maraming kultura, pinababayaan ng mga magulang ang kanilang mga anak na maghanap ng kanilang mapapangasawa. May mga binata at dalaga ang hindi na naghahanap ng mapapangasawa sa paniniwala na dadalhin sa kanila ng Diyos ang kanilang magiging asawa, habang ang iba naman ay walang sawang naghahanap ng mapapangasawa sa takot na baka hindi sila makapagasawa. Dapat na may balanse sa dalawang ito dahil alam natin na perpekto ang pag-ibig ng Diyos (Efeso 3:18; 1 Juan 3:16-18) at walang hanggan ang Kanyang kapamahalaan sa lahat nating sitwasyon, pagnanais at pangangailangan (Awit 109:21; Roma 8:38-39). Ginagamit ng Diyos ang ating pagpapasya, ang ibang tao, at minsan maging ang makabagong teknolohiya upang bigyan tayo ng mapapangasawa. 

Bago ikunsidera ng isang binata o dalagang Kristiyano ang mga makabagong pamamaraan gaya ng internet sa paghahanap ng mapapangasawa, dapat na alalahanin na maaaring nalalagay sila sa isang alanganing sitwasyon na maaaring maging sanhi ng kapahamakan. Posible na masyado tayong mapili at naghahanap ng isang mala-pantasyang prinsipe o prinsesa, at dahil dito, nililimitahan natin ang ating isipan kaya't hindi natin napapansin ang pinakamagandang lalaki o babae na inihanda sa atin ng Diyos. Hindi ba tayo masyadong nagiging mapili o maaaring nalilimutan natin na inuutusan tayo ng Diyos na makipagrelasyon sa mga kapwa natin mananampalataya (2 Corinto 6:14)? o ikinukunsidera natin ang isang tao na namumuhay sa kasalanan na maaaring maglagay sa ating relasyon sa panganib? Dapat na hayaan ng isang Kristiyanong babae na ang Kristiyanong lalaki ang manguna sa kanilang relasyon at tiyakin nila na ang kanilang relasyon ay lumuluwalhati kay Kristo sa lahat ng bagay. At panghuli, bilang mga mananampalataya, dapat tayong matutong tumayo sa ating sariling mga paa na nagtitiwala sa Panginoon na kukumpletuhin tayo sa halip na makadama ng pakiramdam ng pangangailangan ng pagaasawa upang makaranas ng kasapatan. Kung atin ng maisaayos ang mga bagay na ito, maaari na tayong magumpisa na maghanap ng isang babae o tumanggap ng manlilligaw na maaaring mapangasawa.

How can we know what parts of the Bible apply to us today?

Much misunderstanding about the Christian life occurs because we either assign commands and exhortations we should be following as "era-specific" commands that only applied to the original audience, or we take commands and exhortations that are specific to a particular audience and make them timeless truths. How do we go about discerning the difference? The first thing to note is that the canon of Scripture was closed by the end of the 1st century A.D. This means that, while all of the Bible is truth we can apply to our lives, most, if not all, of the Bible was not originally written to us. The authors had in mind the hearers of that day. That should cause us to be very careful when interpreting the Bible for today’s Christians. It seems that much of contemporary evangelical preaching is so concerned with the practical application of Scripture that we treat the Bible as a lake from which to fish application for today’s Christians. All of this is done at the expense of proper exegesis and interpretation.

The top three rules of hermeneutics (the art and science of biblical interpretation) are 1) context; 2) context; 3) context. Before we can tell 21st-century Christians how the Bible applies to them, we must first come to the best possible understanding of what the Bible meant to its original audience. If we come up with an application that would have been foreign to the original audience, there is a very strong possibility that we did not interpret the passage correctly. Once we are confident that we understand what the text meant to its original hearers, we then need to determine the width of the chasm between us and them. In other words, what are the differences in language, time, culture, geography, setting and situation? All of these must be taken into account before application can be made. Once the width of the chasm has been measured, we can then attempt to build the bridge over the chasm by finding the commonalities between the original audience and ourselves. Finally, we can then find application for ourselves in our time and situation.

What is the structure of the Jewish calendar?

The Jewish calendar is based on the lunar month, which is a bit longer than 29 ½ days. Because of this, the months in the Jewish calendar are 29 or 30 days long. Twelve lunar months usually amounts to 354 days, 11 days short of a solar year. In order for the festivals to stay in the correct season in relation to the solar year, an extra month is added every few years.

The Jewish calendar is dated from what is supposed to have been the Creation of the earth: 3,760 years and three months before the Christian era. So, to find the current year in the Jewish calendar, one must add 3,759 to the date in the Gregorian calendar. What we call 2015 is, in the Jewish calendar, the year 5775. This system, however, will not work to the exact month, since the Jewish year (running on the civil calendar) begins in autumn rather than in midwinter. A Hebrew month begins in the middle of a month on our calendar today. Crops were planted in what we would call November and December and harvested in March and April.

The Jewish Calendar

Month 1 Nisan (Abib) 2 lyyar (Ziv) 3 Sivan 4 Tammuz 5 Av 6 Elul 7 Tishri (Ethanim) 8 Marcheshvan (Bui) 9 Kislev 10 Tebeth 11 Shebat 12 Adar

Gregorian Calendar   March-April April-May May-June June-July July-August August-September September-October October-November November-December December-January January-February February-March

Biblical Reference Exodus 13:4 1 Kings 6:1, 37 Esther 8:9 Nehemiah 6:15 1 Kings 8:2 1 Kings 6:38 Nehemiah 1:1 Esther 2:16 Zechariah 1:7 Esther 2:7

The Jewish calendar, being lunar-based, invariably began with the new moon. To make up for the shorter year (compared to solar-based calendars), an extra month was periodically inserted between the months Adar and Nisan. That month, sometimes called Veader (“second Adar”), was added seven times within a 19-year cycle (at which time the month Adar received an extra half day).

The names of the months in the Jewish calendar originated in the period following the return from Babylonia to Israel. Before the Babylonian exile, at least four months had other names: Abib (Exodus 13:4), Ziv (1 Kings 6:1, 37), Ethanim ( 1 Kings 8:2), and Bul (1 Kings 6:38). After the Captivity, these months were renamed Nisan, lyyar, Tishri, and Heshvan (originally Marcheshvan), respectively. The pre-exilic names carried agricultural connotations. For example, Abib (“ear of grain”) signified the month in which grain became ripe; Ziv (“radiance”) was the month for desert flowers to bloom. An agricultural orientation is apparent in what is evidently the oldest Hebrew calendar, found at Gezer (southeast of Tel Aviv) in 1908 and dating from the 10th century BC. The calendar divides the year according to agricultural activities such as sowing, reaping, pruning, and storage.

Primarily, however, the months of the Jewish calendar had religious significance for the Jews and enabled them to commemorate the important events of their history. Each month’s beginning was considered holy. To ancient Israel, the moon became a symbol of the nation itself; the sun eventually became symbolic of the Messiah (Malachi 4:2). Since the moon produces no light of its own, the symbolism is especially appropriate: Israel was supposed to reflect the Messiah’s light to the world.

The Jewish calendar remained unchanged during the period between the Old Testament and New Testaments(approximately 400 years), despite an attempt by Hellenistic rulers to introduce a modified lunar-month system, presumably of Macedonian origin. According to that calendar, five days were added to the final month of the year, with each of the 12 months containing 30 days. Even then, it only approximated the solar year.

Usually, the ancient Hebrews did not record dates by citing the month and day of an event. Rather, dates were computed by reference to some significant event such as the accession year of the reigning king (2 Kings 15:17) or a patriarch’s birth (Genesis 7:11). In New Testament times, the Jews continued the Old Testament method of dating events by synchronizing them with events either in their religious calendar or within the secular sphere of the Roman world. Writers of the New Testament followed the same practice (Luke 1:5; John 12:1; Acts 18:12). It was only as the calendar reforms of Julius Caesar became embedded in the culture that people changed from that long-standing method to a more standardized system.

https://www.gotquestions.org

The Ten Commandments

The Ten Commandments (also known as the Decalogue) are ten laws in the Bible that God gave to the nation of Israel shortly after the exodus from Egypt. The Ten Commandments are essentially a summary of the 613 commandments contained in the Old Testament Law. The first four commandments deal with our relationship with God. The last six commandments deal with our relationships with one another. The Ten Commandments are recorded in the Bible in Exodus 20:1-17 and Deuteronomy 5:6-21 and are as follows:

1) “You shall have no other gods before me.” This command is against worshiping any god other than the one true God. All other gods are false gods.

2) “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.” This command is against making an idol, a visible representation of God. There is no image we can create that can accurately portray God. To make an idol to represent God is to worship a false god.

3) “You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses His name.” This is a command against taking the name of the Lord in vain. We are not to treat God’s name lightly. We are to show reverence to God by only mentioning Him in respectful and honoring ways.

4) “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”

5) “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.” This is a command to always treat one’s parents with honor and respect.

6) “You shall not murder.” This is a command against the premeditated murder of another human being.

7) “You shall not commit adultery.” This is a command against have sexual relations with anyone other than one’s spouse.

8) “You shall not steal.” This is a command against taking anything that is not one’s own, without the permission of the person to whom it belongs.

9) “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.” This is a command prohibiting testifying against another person falsely. It is essentially a command against lying.

10) “You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” This is a command against desiring anything that is not one’s own. Coveting can lead to breaking one of the commandments listed above: murder, adultery, and theft. If it is wrong to do something, it is wrong to desire to do that same something.

Many people mistakenly look at the Ten Commandments as a set of rules that, if followed, will guarantee entrance into heaven after death. In contrast, the purpose of the Ten Commandments is to force people to realize that they cannot perfectly obey the Law (Romans 7:7-11), and are therefore in need of God’s mercy and grace. Despite the claims of the rich young ruler in Matthew 19:16, no one can perfectly obey the Ten Commandments (Ecclesiastes 7:20). The Ten Commandments demonstrate that we have all sinned (Romans 3:23) and are therefore in need of God’s mercy and grace, available only through faith in Jesus Christ.

Source: Holy Bible