ATHEIST SCEPTICAL BIBLE READING MALACHI > <META NAME="Keywords" CONTENT="Humanism, atheism, television, media studies, vampires, cthulhu, comics, graphic novels, battle, Moston, goths, night clubs, food, drink, religion, sects, guru, brainwashing, meditation, fun, philosophy, literature, time, Judge Dredd, Dr. Who, flash fiction, fantasy, comedy, beer, pubs, travel, art, history, Civil War Re-enactment, humour, short stories, links, quicksand, science fiction, SF, trivia, abstracts, haiku, poetry slams, poetry, blogging, myspace, belief, doubt, cynicism, free will, Eastercon, costuming, photographs, scepticism, existentialism, biography, autobiography, books, films, cinema, scripts, Manchester, links to other sites, Arthur Chappell"> <META NAME="Description" CONTENT="Atheism, Religious cults, erotica, humour, Civil War Re-enactment, history, Manchester England, humour, philosophy, book and film reviews."> <meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=windows-1252"> <meta name=ProgId content=Word.Document> <meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 9"> <meta name=Originator content="Microsoft Word 9"> <link rel=File-List href="./bible-malachi_files/filelist.xml"> <title>The last book in the Old Testament ends things on a gloomy note

The last book in the Old Testament ends things on a gloomy note

A sceptical Bible reading of the book of Malachi

The closing book of the Old Testament and an astonishingly bleak one, especially for the Jews who don’t have the comfort of the following New Testament, which would not start to appear for four hundred years after Malachi’s closing lines.

Chapter One

God assures the Minor Prophet, Malachi that he still loves his Chosen People, the Israeli Hebrew nations, though they seem to doubt him.

The Israelis have heard of God’s destruction of Edom and fear a similar tragedy befalling them. God points out that Edomites were evil, and descended from the tribe of Esau, who God did not regard as special.

Israel, despite numerous transgressions of the laws of Moses and broken Covenant promises, are still adored by God, though he still feels the need to throw dung in their faces in anger at their sins.

Chapter Two

Judah continues to try God’s patience by marrying a heathen bride and cavorting with false gods.

Chapter Three

Without specifying a designated date for the event, God promises to send two messengers to Israel; the first will be a herald of the impending arrival of the second messenger. (Christians see them as John The Baptist and Jesus Christ respectively).

The second messenger will purify human souls just as a goldsmith will purify gold by removing all of its impurities. Meanwhile God will smite out all the truly wicked. Again, a promise of bread today but bread and jam tomorrow.

Chapter Four

Malachi closes the Old Testament with a repeat of the promise of the saviour’s promised arrival to put all right on Earth, but God adds a final threat to us all in Verse 6 – unless we pray and teach our children to pray too, God will curse the ground beneath our feet.

And so it ends, with the Jews left waiting for their messiah, while Christians would later declare that they had found him.

Virtually none of the prophecies give clues to the rise of Rome. The enemies of the Jews remain the Egyptians, Syrians and Canaanites. Much of what Christians set great store by has no precedent or warning in all these often doom laden prophesies. The overall tone of the Old Testament is of a God who tires easily of his people and threatens the way too often to be considered a worthy parent.

The full text of Malachi http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Malachi+1&version=KJ21

Arthur Chappell

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The last book in the Old Testament ends things on a gloomy note

A sceptical Bible reading of the book of Malachi

The closing book of the Old Testament and an astonishingly bleak one, especially for the Jews who don’t have the comfort of the following New Testament, which would not start to appear for four hundred years after Malachi’s closing lines.

Chapter One

God assures the Minor Prophet, Malachi that he still loves his Chosen People, the Israeli Hebrew nations, though they seem to doubt him.

The Israelis have heard of God’s destruction of Edom and fear a similar tragedy befalling them. God points out that Edomites were evil, and descended from the tribe of Esau, who God did not regard as special.

Israel, despite numerous transgressions of the laws of Moses and broken Covenant promises, are still adored by God, though he still feels the need to throw dung in their faces in anger at their sins.

Chapter Two

Judah continues to try God’s patience by marrying a heathen bride and cavorting with false gods.

Chapter Three

Without specifying a designated date for the event, God promises to send two messengers to Israel; the first will be a herald of the impending arrival of the second messenger. (Christians see them as John The Baptist and Jesus Christ respectively).

The second messenger will purify human souls just as a goldsmith will purify gold by removing all of its impurities. Meanwhile God will smite out all the truly wicked. Again, a promise of bread today but bread and jam tomorrow.

Chapter Four

Malachi closes the Old Testament with a repeat of the promise of the saviour’s promised arrival to put all right on Earth, but God adds a final threat to us all in Verse 6 – unless we pray and teach our children to pray too, God will curse the ground beneath our feet.

And so it ends, with the Jews left waiting for their messiah, while Christians would later declare that they had found him.

The full text of Malachi http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Malachi+1&version=KJ21

Arthur Chappell

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