Most Americans Believe Bible Stories of Moses, Noah are True

Yahoo! ^ | Feb 15, 2004 | AFP

[pinochet]

Most Americans believe Bible stories of Moses, Noah are true

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A majority of Americans believe many well-known Bible stories, including Moses parting the Red Sea and God creating the world in six days, are true, according to the findings of an ABC News poll released Sunday.

Although most Americans believed the story of Noah and the flood word-for-word, a large majority rejected the suggestion that Jews bear the collective responsibility for the death of Jesus, the poll found.

The poll's findings were released a day before the network airs its interview with movie-star Mel Gibson, whose film, "The Passion of Christ," depicts the last 12 hours of Jesus' life on earth.

The film has been criticised by some Jewish leaders for its depictions of Jews and some scenes portraying Jews in the film have been edited out ahead of its public release.

Gibson, who belongs to an ultra-conservative Catholic group, poured 25 million dollars of his own money into making the film, which he directed.

"While religious belief is a strong factor in a literal reading of the Bible, it plays far less of a role in views of collective responsibility for Christ's death," the poll found.

Overall, sixty-four percent of those canvassed believed the story of Moses parting the Red Sea was "literally true, meaning it happened that way word-for-word."

Sixty-one percent felt the same way about creation while 60 percent believed in the story of Noah and the flood.

[caisson71]

It's like saying "polls show Kerry leads Bush". A snapsot in time does not constitute history.

[Klickitat]

A couple of really good books about looking for Mt. Sinai where God gave Moses 10 commandments, and another about searching for Noah's ark are "Mountain of God" and "Lost Mountains of Noah" by Robert Cornuke. This guy is a real adventurer, who took a lot of risks looking for relics from biblical times.

[KriegerGeist]

"What good is beleif without action or as 'Paul said faith without works is dead'."

That would actually be James who wrote that in James 2:

14. What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him?
15. Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food.
16. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?
17. In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
18. But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”
Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.
19. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that–and shudder.
20. You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless?

[expat_panama]

A book I liked a lot was 'Asimov's Guide to the Bible (Old and New Testaments)'. Asimov considered himself an atheist, but in his book he laid out quite a bit of historical, literary, doctrinal, and archeologicical substantiation of stories such as Noah and Eden.

[gitmo]

This is a false analogy, since the Gospels nowhere say that the Jews bear collective responsibility for the death of Jesus. The crowd may shout it, but a crowd is often wrong, and the Catholic Church has condemned that interpretation of collective guilt.

The Jews do bear responsibility equally with the Gentiles. The only one who doesn't bear responsibility is the One who died for the sins of all men.

[Iscool]

Americans are right on! The Romans killed Christ. Don't make it more complicated than it is.

Barrabbas was condemned to death...Roman law said there could be a substitute to die in his place...The Jews demanded the release of Barrabbas and chose Jesus to die in his place, to die for the sins of Barrabbas...Ironic, eh??? Don't be so hard on yourself...It'll all work out...

[mombonn]

Although most Americans believed the story of Noah and the flood word-for-word, a large majority rejected the suggestion that Jews bear the collective responsibility for the death of Jesus

Every person to whom God has given life is guilty of the death of Messiah - whether Jew or Gentile.

Thank you, Lord, for loving us enough to die for us all.

[4CJ]

Thank you, Lord, for loving us enough to die for us all.

Amen. OUR sins put Him on that cross - HIS love for us kept Him there.

[Revolting cat!]

Most Americans believe everything or some of what they see on their idiot boxes in the living room!

[jgrubbs]

You can believe Bible stories of Moses, Noah are true and still die and go to Hell. You can even believe in Jesus and die and go to hell. It's going to take allot more than believing something to save this country.

[Publius6961]

What exactly IS the gay "agenda"? I'm confused...

That's actually a very good summary...

[Ciexyz]

Hey, I even believe that blowing trumpets brought down the walls of Jericho!

[jgrubbs]

I believe the entire Bible to be the inspired Word of God, but that belief alone didn't save me from the pits of Hell. It wasn't untill I repented and turned from my sins, and made Jesus Christ the Lord of my life, accepting his FREE gift of salvation from my sins.

"The cross is laid on every Christian. The first Christ-suffering which every man must experience is the call to abandon the attachments of this world. … we surrender ourselves to Christ in union with His death—we give over our lives to death. … When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die. …death in Jesus Christ, the death of the old man [or nature] at his call. Jesus’ summons to the rich young man was calling him to die, because only the man who is dead to his own will can follow Christ. In fact, every command of Jesus is a call to die, with all our affections and lusts." --Dietrich Bonhoeffer

[jgrubbs]

""If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple." -- Jesus Christ

[Ciexyz]

Now would be an appropriate time to post my recommendation to see the excellent three-hour film The Gospel of John, and the soon-to-be-released The Passion. The video screen can burn images into our soul that may be hard to grasp from the printed page.

[nmh]

Of course it's true!

The Judeo Christian God is not limited in what he can do as mere fallible mortals are.

[pinochet]

Good Post.

[pinochet]

Haven't you been listening to the news in the past couple of weeks?

[is_is]

The Jews do bear responsibility equally with the Gentiles.

I am getting sick and tired of this debate............the priests, the leaders of the jews rejected him as their King and gave him up, the jews killed him not because they ALL said kill him but because they collectively rejected him as their king/Messiah . Did the Americans attack Iraq???? not each and everyone of us but we are all responsible because this is OUR GOVERMENT like it or not our Goverment is representative of the people good or bad....will there ever be a debate about, if the American's are responsible for attacking Iraq....of course not!!! (I support the war in iraq for the record)

The point IS NOT .....DID THE JEWS KILL CHRIST!!! IT IS THAT THEY REJECTED HIM!!!

The only one who doesn't bear responsibility is the One who died for the sins of all men.

This another thing i have a problem with.....First off....Christ and God are one.....God created us....he knew the whole scenerio before he ever started....yet he created us anyway knowing that we and his people the jews would reject him and that he would send his son to die for our sins.....he does bear responsibility! It was his choice to do it this way because it was the only way he could have children who TRULY loved him of their own CHOICE!!! He could have created robots but that was not what he wanted.....This was the way he CHOOSE to do it.....IT is he who bears ultimate responsibility!!! He crys everytime one of us rejects him....because we were created in his image and he would rather that not one reject him......but they do and he knew they would.....on the other hand he gave us something....the ability to love hinm and have eternal life of our own free will....

what a gift as opposed to being some mindless creation......