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Bible Questions and Spiritual Discussion
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Nita
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03/05/2012 11:18 |
Hi Isabel,
I can relate to your doubts. I find them flying into my head like the blackflies of Spring in Maine! "What if that only applied to the Jews, Apostles, men, first-century Christians, etc.?" "What if I'm misunderstanding that, or it was mis-translated?"
Only two things help me: (1) GOD's repeated promises that He knows the heart, and that He will be there for those who seek Him.
(2) I remind myself that there are millions of things that we have little or no understanding of, and yet we have perfect faith in them. Scientific laws, some can explain them, others cannot, nobody escapes them. Try to find out why magnets and atoms stick together. You'll be told of invisible forces. DUH! Our lack of understanding does not make magnets or atoms any less useful to us, or free us from their power.
If you ask a 20 year-old woman, with no mechanical education, and a 50 year-old senior mechanical engineer for BMW what makes a car go, you are likely to get very different answers. And they may both be equally correct, despite varying levels of complexity and comprehension! And yet, the car will work equally well for either of them. As long as they believe it will, act on that belief, and get in and drive it. This is how I am choosing to deal with the Bible, and all its as yet inexplicable (to me) details and nuances. I expect to get better as I use it and study it, but I keep reminding myself that it is no more or less reliable, based on my understanding of it. The same is certainly true of our Creator, OMNI-everything, GOD! I hope that makes sense, and is helpful.
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Ray
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03/05/2012 11:32 |
love is the protest
Get love out on the dance floor.
Reflects off the mirror ball
Sending fragments of light to the poor.
Get love out in the nameless streets.
Child, you'll finally eat.
Love, love is the protest.
When you rise, do you see?
Love is the protest.
How you fight, let it be.
Love is the protest.
Let love make saints out of hypocrites.
Let grace fall from broken lips,
Turn dirty rags into white flags.
Let peace crawl out of the mystery,
Show how blinding the light can be.
Don't be afraid of what you see.
Love is the protest.
I want peace, but it's not what I'm used to.
I want love, but it hurts when it gets through.
I'm surrounded by people who don't think like I do.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21MglukRuoE
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Lanny Carlson
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03/05/2012 15:03 |
Thanks Ray. Great song.
And the Muppets were a fun addition!
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Ray
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03/05/2012 15:53 |
Ken Hemphill writes in 'The Prayer of Jesus,' "In the Koran, the sacred writings of Islam, there are 99 words for God but not one of them refers to God as Father or love. Islam rejects the idea that humanity can have a relationship with God. For Muslims, God is unknowable and impersonal. While they believe in an afterlife, people (predominately men) will be allowed to go to paradise, not heaven. Heaven is only for God and His angels. The life and teachings of Jesus describe God as a loving Father who desires an intimate relationship with us."
It's stunning that the religions world reject the key link to life in the Spirit. The enemy, the father of lies, strikes right at that core foundation with his ways. I'm not hijacking the thread. It's just so important that we focus on what is primary and ask Him, when we sit in His lap about the other stuff.
Isabel, 18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength 20 he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way. Eph 1
Love is the protest against real enemy enemy.
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Lanny Carlson
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03/05/2012 19:46 |
Ted,
I wasn't going to say anything further about your post,
but it has been on my mind all day,
and I feel the need to respond further.
Your post struck me as manipulative, narrow-minded, arrogant, and judgmental,
and I didn't know whether to be angry, upset, or hurt;
I suspect I felt a combination of all of them.
But we are called to forgive one another,
so I want to say that I forgive you,
whether you feel the need for forgiveness or not,
and hope we can be as charitable and mutually supportive
as this Forum is intended to be,
and as Christ calls us to be.
God bless you.
Lanny
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Tom B
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03/06/2012 06:41 |
Isabelle,
I pray that you are blessed by Brian's reading, our hearing, and our welcoming of God's scripture today. Have a blessed day.
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Lanny Carlson
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03/06/2012 07:02 |
Ditto!
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Ted C
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03/06/2012 11:46 |
Lanny, it wasn't any easier for me to write. But it is sincere as the day is long. One day you're going to stand before God. The angels before the throne are singing, "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord". They aren't singing anything else. Yes He is a Father, and yes He carries us through weakness and will not destroy a bruised reed, thank God. But you've studied and taught this your entire life thinking that for the most part it started with myth, and that while God is there He is for the most part unknowable and unfathomable.
What if it's true? What if the Bible is 100% true in it's message about God, regardless of how He did stuff, what if the Blood of Jesus, the personal indwelling of the Holy Spirit, every word of the New Testament that discusses theology (not just giving examples of individual's behaviors or history) is true? What if you can know Jesus personally, it's all about Him, He did die for your sins on the cross and His blood really does literally wash you from sins and redeem your soul to God?
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Marcie in MO
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03/06/2012 13:52 |
Isabel, I sent you a privare message. Check in the "My Area" tab
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Craig from Illinois
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03/06/2012 16:34 |
Ted,
Perhaps you think Lanny has it more wrong than most. But what is the margin of error allowed regarding "the Bible is 100% true in it's message (relative to your understanding of 100% true) before one becomes un-redeemable?
Basically, what theology should we have down pat and correct when we stand before God? 100%, 50%, 1% or somewhere in the middle?
To bring this back to our original topic.... If I have doubts about 1% of the Bible and say that I think it's possibly more myth than truth - does that put me in peril when I stand before God. I think that is what Isabel really wants to know. Is God angry when we doubt the Bible?
Grogan... It's up to you to prove that the oral tradition is absent in the origin of our scriptures. The proof-texts that you provided seem to bolster the argument that the Bible was inspired orally prior to being written.
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