Quote:
Originally Posted by firstborn888
Congratulations! You have just pinpointed the source of all our misunderstandings. 
"just words" eh?  |
Yup. The words I am writing you are just words. Many of my words talk about spiritual things but that does not make them spiritual words. Nor does one need to see anything figurative in them to understand what I say. One just need to understand English and ask a question or two to better determine what I meant to say.
If we could not thus communicate we could not be on this forum discussing anything.
The words I use are written by me expressing my thoughts to those who care to read them.
The words in the Bible are likewise words on a page (or on the internet or on whater medium one reads them on). But those words express God's thoughts about spiritual matters. Just like my words or the words of anyone else speaking about spiritual matters expresses a person's opinion about spiritual things.
There is nothing special about understanding words. Other than some people don't want to understand certain words because of this or that reason which negates what various words so plainly state.
While you might decry my literalism as being some kind of evil thing the truth is that we must all process words literally or we could not communicate or understand any words at all. That is not to say that some things are not meant to be taken figuratively. Some things are meant to be taken figuratively and literally so. As a figure of speech or not at face value as an allegory or some other figurative construct.
But all of us communicate by stringing words together into sentences such that we are able to be understand to the degree that we construct our words so as to make sense in the language in which we write them.
God is no different in his use of words in the Bible. He uses words to communicate His thoughts to us. And just as you and I can read a newspaper and understand what it is saying to us so to...we can read the bible and understand what God is saying to us.
Unless we are unwilling to take the words in the Bible no differently than we would take any other words we read. At face value.
If we are unwilling to take the words in the Bible at face value then we will embrace any and every idea that will allow us to ignore what they say and call such ideas more enlightened. Not because we are indeed more enlightened but just because we don't want to face whatever truth there is in those words that we don't want to hear.
Quote:
John 3:19
"This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.
"For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. "But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God."
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Quote:
Romans 1:18
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,
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Understanding the words in the Bible can be hindered by the practice of unrighteousness in our lives. By the desire to avoid accountability to a holy God.
Just like Adam we may want to hide and not let the Light of His Truth judge our actions and motivations.
Quote:
2 Timothy 4:3
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.
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There is nothing hard about understanding what the Bible says. Nor does it take an advanced degree to understand it. Rather it takes a right heart that is willing to face what God says through it.
Carlos
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