Dear NV, I appreciate your honesty. First of ll Genesis is not a comprehensive account of every facet of Adam and Eve’s family. Everything in Genesis is put there to make specific theological points.It is obvious that in the beginning of the human race. men would have had to have married their sisters. The OT writings are highly attested in Archeology as well as in other accounts of Ancient history.
Unfortunately it is true that many Christians don’t bother with the OT anymore but that is a symptom of apostasy, and faithlessness, accommodation to modernistic sensibilities.
Jesus quoted the OT, calling it scripture and treating it as true history.
Nv my advice is not to start with the Old Testament, start with Jesus, read the gospel of John and allow the Son of God to touch your heart.
BTW God is not vengeful in the sense you and I understand it. He is the Creator and Sustainer of the universe which He made, and He made it to be a moral universe, because He is HOLY. That is why He must ultimately punish all sin, wrongdoing and evil.
I see why you recognize inherent human virtues and try to base your beliedf on them, but it must be frustrating to see along those virtues, and incurable crookedness and even perversion in human nature as well. The beauty of man is that All of us are made in the Image of God, but the horror is that we have fallen.Man is capable of so much good, but also such depth of depravity.
Though He is HOLY, and must punish sin, God is Love also and would save sinners. The problem is that God can not deny his own nature. He will never allow “love” to cancel out His holiness nor vice versa. In other words He will never sweep evil under the carpet and just unconditionally forgive man.
Sin has to be paid for and the wages is death. That is why He sent Jesus Christ His son to die on the cross for our sins. WE know that this is why He died, because on the third day God raised him from the dead.
Stay in touch my friend,I will happily converse with you any time-
Thank you for your kind words. That is why I admire true Christians. Other than the “hell and damnation holy rollers”, many of you are open to debate and don’t take offense that I question. I will continue to try to believe...