If what you are saying were true, I wouldn't be a Christian, either.
You seem to have 2 areas which bother you the most...God as a personhood, and what humans have done to turn Christianity into a formal religion. Both concerns are valid.
You mentioned Abraham sacrificing, or agreeing to sacrifice his son Isaac. Keep in mind that, on the way up that mountain, Abraham tells Isaac that God will provide a sacrifice. Also keep in kind that Isaac wasn't a lityle kid at the time. He was at least 30, while his dad was a dottering 80-plus years old. Isaac voluntarilly laid down on that stone slab.
Meanwhile, God never intended for Abraham to actually sacrifice Isaac. It was a sign for the future generations, and what Hecwould do to save them. God stops Abraham, and puts a ram in the bushes as a substitute. Its horns are tangled in a crown of thorns.
Sound familiar?
This leads us directly to Jesus, who was with God from the beginning of creation. He was and is both with God and is God. He and the Father are one. He came voluntarily, like Isaac, and became the final sacrifice. A Father's love for His children. God came as one of us and died for us, so that we might live. We are His family.
That is beautiful.
I would love to address your objections to societal adaptation of the ideals, and I will, but I have to run to a meeting for a bit.
Your future self and children will thank you.
Do not go into an unevenly-yoked marriage. Jesus used this imagery for a very good reason, because you are very much a team pulling together in a union throughout your entire lives.
If one in the yoked team wants to go one way, and the other in the opposite direction, both get dragged sideways and you accomplish nothing, except mutual injuries.
It sounds naive to look at the universe, and everything in it, and declare it all arose from nothing.
When you see a painting, even though there is no artist in sight, you know there was a painter, because paintings don't just materialize from thin air.
Likewise, an orderly universe.
You can go to Jerusalem and see for yourself. Look in through the East Gate. All of the texts, including those written by occupying Romans, who were the victors, state that Herod's temple was a massive, gold-covered structure, which was facing the East Gate.
There is nothing but rubble there now, cascading down the hill.
Not one stone left upon another...
History news flash...
Rome did level Jerusalem. 40 years exactly after Jesus' crucifixion, which Jesus said would happen, because He had pronounced judgement against it.
That's why the second temple does not exist.
As when Israel was taken into captivity by Egypt and Babylon (twice), God preserved a remnant.
Don't you think that it is extraordinary that a nation, flattened for two millennia, has been resurrected at exactly the same time a global government is emerging?...just as predicted by Christ way back when the temple was still standing?
I follow Jesus.
I don't follow religion.
And Jesus clearly said, throughout the entire Bible, to refrain from making graven images or bowing before any manmade icon.
A cross is an icon. And Jesus isn't on it.
Moreover, he carried the crossbrace, and that was nailed entirely naked to a tree, at eye level. The Romans did this so that passerbys could see the suffering and shame of those they condemned.
This is uninformed.
Yes, the cube is a symbol of Saturn/satan worship. Saturn does have the 6-pointed star associated with the planet. However;
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Biblical Judaism did NOT use the six-pointed star as its national symbol...it used the menorah. The "New Israel", formed in the 20th century, adopted the pagan symbol.
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Non-catholic Christians want nothing to do with paganism or any of its symbolism. The only thing worthy of worship is God.
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Even the earliest catholic church writers lament on permitting/adapting so many pagan rituals/symbols in their efforts to convert the masses. They realized their mistake quite early on, but did nothing to rectify it.
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Islam is a death cult. The black cube was certainly not built by Abraham. It is a pagan symbol of sin and death, and Islam worships it.
Jesus said many times, I am the narrow gate, the only door out of sin and death.
Islam seeks to embrace and indwell that symbolic cube of eternal death.
Jewish archeologists have recently discovered that the mosque is not, in fact, located where the temple used to be located, and this discovery had everything to do with the fact that every ancient writing says that you could clearly see the whole of the temple from the East Gate.
Where the mosque now sits, it is impossible to see from the East Gate. That patch of land is currently bare.
The Temple Mount, thanks to Trump, is no longer under Palistinian control. Saudi Arabia now runs it. S.A. is Israel's ally. And they are already planning on a "multi-faith worship complex", in cahoots with the new Sanhedron, on the Temple Mount. They are actually in talks, as one option, about allowing both a jewish temple and a church being structural add-ons to the mosque.
It could happen very quickly.
They have already cast all of the 3rd temple altar tools in precipus metals. All of the foundation stones have been pre-cut, and are awaiting assembly. The Sanhedron now exists again, after 2 millennia. The altar stones are cut and were dry-run assembled, and they had a few practice runs with the sacrifices. And they now perpetually have 2 red calves without blemish on standby.
Hi...
The King James Version is considered the gold standard, because the translations are fonsidered most accurate, but it can be a bit Old-English to read.
What I can offer you is a book-by-book overview, so you can get the absolute most out of what you are reading. This pastor's name is David Pawson, and he's awesome:
https://m.youtube.com/user/DavidPawsonMinistry
Just scroll down, click on the OT playlist, and start with Genesis.
Prayers for your journey!!!