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Of cause God is in the scriptures for God is in all things. He's even in the bible fundamentalist, yet hidden under their biasses, prejudices and mis conceptions.
Thankyou for the open dialog. I would like to share something I heard from a wise woman.
Have you ever heard of a litmus test?
Torah study can be considered to have many grade levels. Starting with the elementaries. Which I liken to fundamental instruction.
PRDS begins with peshat:; meaning straight, surface, or literal and direct.
Now compare this to the parable of the good soil if you please.
I was almost out of college (and my Bible courses) before I became aware that one does not read Scripture for wisdom. One must bring wisdom to reading Scripture. Besides Scripture contradicts its views about wisdom unless you believe in God's use of situational ethics--which I do.
According to Proverbs 4:7--
Ecclesiastes 1:16-18
Both writers were no doubt inspired by God to claim opposite viewpoints. But both were in different situations at the time.
Now I welcome your biblical evidence that these are not contrary. Please don't give me a creative story that is the hallmark of fundamentalists inability to reconcile Scripture--a made up reason to which you give biblical authority. Just USE THE BIBLE! Because if Scripture speaks for itself, and God does not speak outside of Scripture--all you need to do is provide chapter and verse!
My God inspired men to write about their faith--in their time--in their circumstances. But each generation must find new meaning in Scripture for the current times. And that is what men and women have been doing for hundreds of years as circumstances and situations change.
Yet if you haven't seen God in nature, or exposed in the kindness and helpfulness of another (even an ATHEIST!! God forbid), then you have no Spirit to help you find Him. You need to find that Spirit first, obtain a deep biblical education (seminary courses are best) and have the scales removed from your eyes.
I'm not upset that God spoke through men at different times and in opposite ways. He was reaching out to where they were. The writer of Proverbs was upbeat in his assessment of wisdom. Solomon (if he were the writer) was in the dumps. God came to him where he was not where God necessarily wanted him to be.
In every generation God speaks through PEOPLE. God reinterprets Scripture through PEOPLE. God blesses and sometimes chastises us through PEOPLE.
Prepare yourself so that you can FIND wisdom in Scripture--just reading it without using PEOPLE who have educated themselves in the subject cannot help you. Even the Bible gives you a story about that.
Acts 8:30-31a
Much has now been discovered about Scripture that was unknown for the past seventeen or eighteen centuries. We are learning anew. And we either need to do that study ourselves (in the original languages) or read wide spread views by others who have spent lifetimes doing that study.
"Study to show yourselves approved unto God, rightly dividing the word of truth" does not now nor ever has meant opening a Bible and thrusting one's finger on a verse of Scripture. Those Pharisees studied very, very hard--and Jesus told them they missed the entire message of the OT. It wasn't that they missed out on "sins." Jesus told them they missed out on love:
Matt. 22:37-40
Getting caught up in "sins" of others, is exactly what the Pharisess did. And they missed out on the meaning of ALL the LAW.
Just think how different following Christ would be like if we had only that quote of Jesus and no OT for people to dig through, unearth a genocidal god, and thrust him to the forefront as they have done.
There is nothing contradictory about it, which you would know if you had not exalted your reasoning carnal mind above the inworkings of the Spirit of G-d in your life and being. There are different levels of walking with Him just like there are different levels to schooling in the natural. It has nothing to do with different chronological time periods and the so called "advancement" of man, and everything to do with a personal engrafting of the Word made flesh into YOU.
The prophet said the Word was sweet in his mouth, but bitter in His belly/innermost being/soul. The reason being that with joy you receive the ENGRAFTED Word, but next is the walking out of it, and the death of the soulish parts of you. This is necessary as the bread/word must be baked by the furnace of affliction of your soul, or it is not fit (nor anointed) to feed the nations/people.
Thus as you mature in Him, much wisdom costs you MUCH, and brings your soul much sorrow, even the pain of death. This is the cross we were told to pick up and follow Him with, the laying down of your soul, your MIND, will, emotions and desires, on the 4 cornered altar, tied down with cords of LOVE, that cannot be broken. No greater love has any man than this, and this is why Abraham was G-d's friend. And if you would know Him in a close RELATIONSHIP, not a mental exercise, you will submit to the circumcision of your heart above. Pick up your cross. Peace
"Hateful" is in the eye of the beholder, I think. Rbbi, your posts come across very hateful to me, but I would guess that you do not believe your motivation for posting is any more hateful than Warden believes his motivation to be, or any of the rest of us.
What I find more interesting is the word "rebellion". You've called me rebellious as well. What, exactly, do you think Warden or I are rebelling against? Rebellion has to do with resisting someone who is trying to control or have authority over another. There are 2 options, then ... either YOU are trying to control people or have authority over them, and are upset that we are resisting you. Or you think God wants to control people or have authority over them, and that we are resisting God. I honestly think it's the former and you just don't realize it, but I'm sure you think it is the latter. Since you equate God's authority with the bible (and especially your particular take on the bible), you are upset because we do not accept every word of the bible (and what you say about it) as truth. That, to you, is rebellion.
Your posts, on the other hand, show rebellion against the God who IS LOVE pretty consistently. Choose this day whom you shall serve: the God who is love, or the bible. You can't serve both.
I'm not upset at all, nor do I want control over another. Rebellion is self will at it's core, it's the serpent in the garden seeking to get you to do things it's way, and ignore the whole counsel of G-d. The way you twisted the scripture at the end, is a perfect example of corrupting the Word to make it say what your flesh wants it to. But HIS Spirit does not speak against what He has already spoken, nor does it corrupt it. Peace
I'm not upset at all, nor do I want control over another. Rebellion is self will at it's core, it's the serpent in the garden seeking to get you to do things it's way, and ignore the whole counsel of G-d. The way you twisted the scripture at the end, is a perfect example of corrupting the Word to make it say what your flesh wants it to. But HIS Spirit does not speak against what He has already spoken, nor does it corrupt it. Peace
So, what is it when even Peshat is blatantly mispresented? Example: when the "light" of "For my yoke is easy and my burden is light" is explained as being the "light" of knowledge.
This is getting very old from you and Finn Jarber accusing everyone who disagrees with you of being hateful.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rbbi1
I think the posts bear witness, don't you? Peace
Yes, the posts bear witness to the fact that people disagree with you, and for very good reasons. Your posts bear witness the fact that you accuse anyone who disagrees with you of being hateful.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rbbi1
I'm not upset at all, nor do I want control over another. Rebellion is self will at it's core, it's the serpent in the garden seeking to get you to do things it's way, and ignore the whole counsel of G-d. The way you twisted the scripture at the end, is a perfect example of corrupting the Word to make it say what your flesh wants it to. But HIS Spirit does not speak against what He has already spoken, nor does it corrupt it. Peace
So, you assign words in the bible different meanings (I know, I know ... you believe God assigned them ) and have made up a whole new language based on your made up hidden meanings, and then you accuse others of twisting and corrupting the bible. And you managed to, yet again, ignore the point of my post and dismiss serving the God who is love as being unimportant. Which points to TroutDude's assessment being spot on:
Hi Joao. "He does not show up," as in, you believe God is absent or non-existent?
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