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Of course not. God just requires us to "love God and each other" daily and repent when we don't. You don't need to be a scholar for that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Vizio
Problem is, none of us can do that. At least not well enough to please God.
Not so . . . Christ did it well enough to please God (as in perfectly) . . . so we just need to achieve some imperfect harmonic resonance with His love for us all to gain the cover of His perfection. You would call it sanctification under His grace . . . no matter what it is called . . . it is the same phenomenon.
You don't have to know the Greek and Hebrew, but it does help. There are some excellent Bible study tools to use. I use LOGOS to study the Bible. I can mouse over a word and see the Greek word. A word study is available at a click of the mouse. I took Greek, and can read it a bit, but since I don't speak it daily it's not as if it's a 2nd language to me. Those were the languages that they were written in. Koine Greek, in which the New Testament was written, was actually a great, common language at the time. Many people spoke and wrote it. Put that together with the infrastructure of the Roman Empire, and it's easy to see why God chose that time to bring Jesus into the world.
Suppose God had it written in English....then what? What happens 2000 years from now when everyone is speaking some derivation of English, or German, or Swahili, or some yet-unknown language?
You make my point for me... a book is a terrible way for a creator to communicate , given the different meanings and nuances that words can convey, let alone the difficulty of understanding what was meant when it was written 2000 years ago.
If God wanted us to know exactly what his will is and stake our eternal futures on us understanding exactly what his will is, then he really tipped the scales against our success in that endeavour by expecting us to decipher ancient languages exact meanings and intentions.
If there is a Creator with any sense of justice, he would have to accept any sincere interpretation of 'His words' no matter what religion we belong to. Otherwise we may as well not bother as the chance of interpreting every last word correctly would be like winning the lottery.
You make my point for me... a book is a terrible way for a creator to communicate , given the different meanings and nuances that words can convey, let alone the difficulty of understanding what was meant when it was written 2000 years ago.
If God wanted us to know exactly what his will is and stake our eternal futures on us understanding exactly what his will is, then he really tipped the scales against our success in that endeavour by expecting us to decipher ancient languages exact meanings and intentions.
If there is a Creator with any sense of justice, he would have to accept any sincere interpretation of 'His words' no matter what religion we belong to. Otherwise we may as well not bother as the chance of interpreting every last word correctly would be like winning the lottery.
Hmm....imagine if he were to actually become a human being and walk the earth......
Not so . . . Christ did it well enough to please God (as in perfectly) . . . so we just need to achieve some imperfect harmonic resonance with His love for us all to gain the cover of His perfection. You would call it sanctification under His grace . . . no matter what it is called . . . it is the same phenomenon.
Jesus did it because he is God. Then he died on a cross as a sacrifice for us. We deserve death as punishment...and he died in our place. At least those of us that trust in his sacrifice.
Jesus did it because he is God. Then he died on a cross as a sacrifice for us. We deserve death as punishment...and he died in our place. At least those of us that trust in his sacrifice.
If He was a God . . . He could NOT have died; it would NOT have given us hope of resurrection (rebirth as Spirit); and He would NOT have been an example for us mere humans. As a human . . . He DID die; His resurrection DOES give us hope for ours; and He IS an example for us all as the first-born and only begotten Son of God . . . that we are adopted also. It is absurd to think that we deserve death and punishment because Adam ate a fruit or that our ignorance and missing of the mark (sinfulness) deserves Eternal Torment. After all, Christ even forgave His tormentors and murderers because of their ignorance ("They know not what they do.") Your beliefs do not resonate with me (or any truly agape loving Spirit) and your understanding of the nature of God contradicts what Christ revealed to us.
I was reading through some of the threads, particularly on the Christianity forum today, and, as it has in the past, the thought struck me that it seems in order to know what Gods true message is from the Bible, you have to understand ancient Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek.
You not only have to understand what the meaning of the words are, but what God meant when they were penned all those thousands of years ago. In other words you have to be a scholar and not only that, also a mind reader. Is that what God wanted for all Christians, that they should all be ancient language professors? And how many would struggle with or not have the mental capacity to become such? That makes God prejudicial for a start.
Even then, when we have attained the dizzy heights of understanding, (I am not being sarcastic here) we would discover that we have to do battle with other scholars because these words and phrases have a multiplicity of meanings which have spawned a multitude of Christian denominations and beliefs. I guess you would be drawn to the belief that closest suits your own bias or agenda, and you would defend that particular interpretation of the ancient language, something I see so often on this forum.
Why would God make it so exclusive, why would he choose such an easily misunderstood medium for contact with his creation, and why has he never qualified what exactly the passages in the Bible, that have caused so much division, suffering and death throughout history, mean?
The only thing one has to understand is following what Jesus taught: Go WITHIN to find the Kindgom of God. Doing that, will give one ALL the understanding they need. Just saying...
It's really not that difficult to understand if you actually read it. Of course, that is the main problem.
That is not the problem. People DO read but most FORCE what they want things to mean into the passages. They are not willing to let the passages speak on their own merit.
If the bible was easy enough for the layman to understand with a cursory reading, there would not be thousands of denominations all with their own specific interpretations of one or more parables or sections of the bible, many boiling down to major disagreements on fundamental doctrines. There also wouldn't be libraries full of scholarly works trying to interpret what the original authors, and God, really meant within the pages of the bible.
Yes, a simple read of the bible is possible, and a lot of general, biblical "principles" can be gleamed from it. In the same cursory read, a lot of misinterpretation and heretical conclusions can also be easily made.
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