Shadow Wolf
Certified People sTabber & Business Owner
I no longer place trust in it.
-
Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.
Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:- Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
- Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
- Access to private conversations with other members.
We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!
Can we trust the bible?
- Thread starter Moey
- Start date
sojourner
Annoyingly Progressive Since 2006
The comment was that God needs a book so that man can rule us through religion.
The fact that some people have ruled others through religious scare tactics is hardly the reason why the Bible was written. It certainly has happened, but that misuse is also certainly not the impetus for writing it and propagating the message, and to opine otherwise is provocative balderdash. The Bible was written to preserve the religious tradition of God's people.
sojourner
Annoyingly Progressive Since 2006
Again, it's not God that requires the book, but humanity. God can (and does) reveal God's self through one sentence of scripture.
While we're on the subject, would you please define for me just what "the entire thing" is??? The 66 books of the Protestant Bible? Does it include the Apocryphal writings, the exta-canonical writings of the NT, the Didache? The letters of the Church Fathers? The Papal bulls? What? What, exactly, is "The Entire Thing???"
Your second question: I don't trust the Bible to be correct about Jesus...I trust it to be revelatory about Jesus.
Your questions may be valid, but they appear to be cheap potshots. Might I suggest that, until you clearly understand what the Bible is, and what it means for the faithful, you refrain from assumptions.
To do what?
Protect my house from theives? No
Convey the nature of God? Yes.
Prometheus
Semper Perconctor
So do you believe the Bible is infallible?
Maybe that is what this thread is really about. You seem to be faithful so please, enlighten us.
sojourner
Annoyingly Progressive Since 2006
I have told you. Have you heard all these things and still you do not understand?
I can't make the Bible be something for you other than what it is. Neither can you make the Bible something it is not. It is what it is. Either you accept it, or you do not.
Is it really as simple as that?
I don't know why some people are getting so upset. Some of us are mearly asking questions and NOT taking potshots at anyone else. If we do not question how can we better understand anything?
sojourner
Annoyingly Progressive Since 2006
It really is that simple.
Some are not merely asking questions. They're making false assumptions and then rendering accusations, based upon those false assumptions, claiming that others are "misguided." Serious, valid questioning I embrace wholeheartedly, and will do my best to answer. Cheap potshots will garner only cheap sarcasm in return.
Let me just add that I'm just as hard on believers who insist upon the "God said it, I believe it, that settles it" approach. The Bible is a difficult thing for us to really get our minds around and be faithful to what it reveals. No matter what, we cannot make it be what we want it to be. It just simply is what it is: A collection of ancient, edited and (usually) translated documents written and understood from a culture (usually) far removed from our own. It is not infallible. It is not always factual. It is not a text book. It is not the truths contained therein that have made it stand the test of time, but the revelation it produces.
Can we trust the Bible factually? Not always. Can we trust it to be what it is? Always.
In converying the nature of God.
Prometheus
Semper Perconctor
You know those Bibles you find in hotels?
That.
My point is that any old Bible you find lying around will do. They are all God's word. Unless, you know for a fact that one version is more "revealing" than another. It doesn't really matter, though, since most people read the KJV.
If you admit that the Bible has mistakes in it, you can't even be sure His name really is Jesus. I do recall that He was supposed to be called "Immanuel" at one point, but I guess the authors got a little mixed up.
Not to mention that the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John look like God decided He wanted to make the story of Jesus as inconsistent as possible. (Were there two angels at Christ's tomb, or just one?) In fact, every gospel, including Thomas and Judas, tells it differently. Which one is the right one? Jesus never even called Himself the messiah. At most He said He was "The Son of Man", whatever that means.
The moment you admit the Bible has factual inaccuracies, which you have, you admit you can be sure of nothing said in the Bible whatsoever. This includes everything you know about this Jesus character.
Need I remind you I'm a former Christian? I know what faith is. I had it. Now I'm glad to be rid of it.
Prometheus
Semper Perconctor
I wonder, then, why there are so many denominations. It's obviously not clear enough.
Darkness
Psychoanalyst/Marxist
Moey said:
YHWH, the God of the Old Testament, is very vengeful and petty. YHWH will kill you for trying to stop His precious Ark from falling. He will kill you for believe in another God. He demands utterly blind obedience (Abraham willing to sacrifice Isaac), regardless of morality.
I am unsure of how I feel about the God of the New Testament. I am unsure if the New Testament teaches Eternal Damnation or Universal Reconciliation. Assuming it teaches Eternal Damnation, this Father God is only superficially better than YHWH. He preaches love and forgiveness, yet He will damn you to a torturous hell for all eternity. He is basically an abusive parent.
For the most part, the varied denominations are split over the nature of worshipping the God described in the Bible.
Yes.
Trinitarian, Holy, Righteous, Just, Loving and much much more.
I would say, yes.
I read the KJV, but I have no idea, I haven't really read much of others.
Yes.
Vengeance is mine, I will repay, thus saith the Lord. Romans 12:19
Prometheus
Semper Perconctor
Moey, I think what Mister Emu is trying to tell us is that God can do whatever He wants. He doesn't follow His own rules.