Pegg
Jehovah our God is One
Well, in Genesis 32:30, Jacob said, "I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved." Can I explain the contradiction? No, I can't. But since I have to go with the one verse that says "no man has seen God at any time" or the many instances in which we are told of people who did see God, I'll go with the many verses that seem to contradict the one, rather than with the one that seems to contradict the many.
there is an alternative to this method
The way the early bible students handled this dilema was that they found an explanation/interpretation which did not contradict either statement. The addage, "The truth is always somewhere in the middle" is a very good principle to apply.
You should know as well as I do, Pegg, that pretty much any point of view a person cares to take on pretty much any given doctrine can be supported by appealing to certain verses and ignoring others.
thats exactly right....but its not an honest way to study the scriptures, nor will a person learn anything from doing it like that.
Honestly, what can God teach a person if they are not willing to look at the 'whole' of his word? People read the bible selectively because they already have something in mind which they believe holds true, therefore everything else becomes irrelevant. And that is really just tossing the Word of God aside in favor of ones own beliefs.
Yes, and I can say that they say something different to what you interpret them to say. And so, it appears we're at an impasse. Unless, of course, you want to continue along this completely circular argument which neither of us will ever win.
Some verses in the bible are clear cut statements of fact...they dont need interpreting.
When Moses wrote "God created the earth'... it was statement of truth and fact. There is no way to reinterpret that verse to mean something else. I believe it is the same with the statements i posted....ie 'Jesus was raised in spirit' and 'No man has seen God at any time"
I dont believe there are any other ways of interpreting these because they are 'statements', whereas an analogy or illustration would need to be interpreted, a statement does not.