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This is your fervent belief. That being said, what makes you believe that the bible is the guide that your god actually influenced? How did you come about to believe this?
Because the bible IS Gods word directly to me. And anyone who believes.
GOD is JESUS and the HOLY SPIRIT all in ONE HUMONGOUS Spirit.
Until you understand who god is, the only thing humanly able to be derived from it are abstract human concepts such as principals, inspirations or anything else which can be derived from any book.
Prior to Christ, GOD spoke directly to the people- Audio and everything. The whole shabang. Opening up the sky sometimes.
In the New Testament, his word was assigned to be spread by men. Mostly in Audio form as the written form hadn't been completed yet.
The holy spirit does his job in making the words on paper the same as audio. Words are words whether you are deaf or hearing. They convey a message and that message is GOD BREATHED. It pierces the heart and soul. It judges the hearts of men. It COMES ALIVE inside us. We don't make human distinctions that the way or manner GOD chooses to convey his message is DIFFERENT than his written word. The last sentence of his word warns of what happens to people who do such. DO NOT change the words of this book.
The basic foundation of the bible is GODS identity as 3 distinct spirits and one part of him came down to save the humans he created after they sinned. To re instate the Garden of Eden. When he called everything GOOD. Without a basic foundation, which is revealed upon salvation, the book makes no sense to people. Five words, in which each word is like a tree with many roots. Each tree's definition is based upon the definiton of those roots. All throughout the bible those roots are mirrored thru metaphors, and other examples. So FIVE WORDS to someone without the basic foundation of salvation are reduced to simple human definitions when their definitions are found not in our human Websters Dictionary, but where they truly originated, the holy scriptures.
That's pribaly why. To those who don't believe the scriptures are anything special, the special feeling that comes from Faith in them probably won't happen.
The problem is you wouldn't know GOD, or even about the spirit, without the book you see. So this is an impossibility. You wouldnt even know WHO God is without the book.
Once it was completed, God no longer directly spoke with man. His plan became using humanity to spread the gospel. People who think the spirit is going to guide them to do anything outside of Gods written word are not wanting to learn who God and his purpose for humanity.
The spirit is great. It guides everyone in scripture. It is what prevents us from sinning more than what we do, having the laws written on our hearts by the holy spirit.
Anyone who rejects Gods word to us is rejecting GOD himself. HE IS his written word to mankind+ the spirit which activates those written words making them real. We may not like what God expects of us in the written word so can pray to anything and say any reply is of GOD. This is what my brother in law who had schizophrenia did. Trust me, what HE thought GOD was telling him was NOT of GOD. I know because I read the bible, his word to me. GODs written word+ the holy spirit is how GOD communicates with us
Quote:
Originally Posted by normstad
This is your fervent belief. That being said, what makes you believe that the bible is the guide that your god actually influenced? How did you come about to believe this?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeaniee
I am simply answering their questions. My answers are based on scripture which is probably why it isn't permeating with them.
So if I can interpret, you are saying, your belief is based on scripture. But that wasn't my question.
My question was, how did you come to believe that scripture is a good way to get to the truth. Is it a faith thing? (not wanting to put words in your mouth, but I think that is what it ends up being)
My question was, how did you come to believe that scripture is a good way to get to the truth. Is it a faith thing? (not wanting to put words in your mouth, but I think that is what it ends up being)
Offhand don't know all of the posters here and their backgrounds, including you. Do you mean the truth of what happens when we die?
Personally, I prayed for something that would just never happen. Well it would happen at some time in the next 50 years but I prayed for it to happen at that moment. And I envisioned how it would occur. This was after getting the gospel presentation from a neighbor. Who then admitted, if God wanted to, he could do what I asked.
Not only did he do it, but I knew he did when I woke up the next morning. I knew he was REAL. I opened the door and on the front page was what happened. Exactly how I envisioned it, where I envisioned it to take place, and it happened in the morning. Right next to a sign which a picture I had in my head so I knew the location. My neighbor showed up a hour or so later...that morning with her newspaper.
What struck me as odd...and still does today... is she seemed shocked. Handing me the paper
I responded akin to "But you told me GOD could do this just two days ago, remember?"
It wouldn't be for years that I understood how that probably grew her faith. Though it didn't mine becuase though I heard no audio, I believed in God already. And believed he told me he did that, prior to picking up the newspaper. So my only issue is....did I believe on faith or did I believe because of an ultimatum I begged him to fulfil for me to prove he was God? Of course the bible became very alive to me at that moment just as it promised. I adhered to the law, especially the 10 commandments as I understood it, as best I could, and repenting at times when I failed. Realizing what laws were for what people unfolded, and when Jesus arrived, he fulfilled the law.
I wish I could say this was the only instance....but when you go the majority of your life seeing nothing supernatural about anything, not raised in church, and suddenly have faith, then it is only ENDORSED by an event you begged God for, we'll you become pretty grounded. And the gospel suddenly made sense to me. All of it. Even when I didn;t understand it. Before, we'll not so much. I'd try to read it, picked up a bible from a yard sale....it did nothing for me. Nice stories, a few caught my attention but there was no meaning to them. They were words out of a dictionary.
Soon after I believed, I attended a church. Fully understood the father, son and holy ghost as ONE SPIRIT. The bible as the Triune Gods words to me. How the holy ghost/spirit operates within the perimeters set by the Gospel since it was written by the holy spirit. And written by Jesus Christ and the Father. IT was their words as one. I studied GODS communication methods, how they changed after scripture was established yet how his nature never changes. God changes, sure, he morphed into mere sinless man to save our lives. But his nature never changes. Whether I wanted this to be true, it just was... the truth.
Words in a dictionary with definitions which adhere to this world only, this place in time, a millasecond compared to eternity, a world and time which will pass away -VERSES- words in a book which the book defines them right then and there, they COME ALIVE and are GOD BREATHED, a book written in code as my atheist husband says, a book with with very different defintions for the same words, with a foundation established PRIOR to this used to understand these definitions, a book with is a very different kind of writings, a book with 40 different authors yet all come together in perfect harmony without contradiction
Only the supernatural can explain something supernatural such as how did I get here, how did Dinosaurs, get here? why does the wind blow and I know it exists... but it is unseen? Kinda how I know God exists though he is unseen. The Bible is a history book, a book of geneology, a book of nutrition and health, farming practices, hygiene practices, a book of customs and rituals, a book predicting future events, and most importantly, a book of everlasting life. It is simply the one and only, truth.
Not sure she is. A testimony to how and what she believes sport of defines her parameters for what it means to be a Christian. The question, then is whether anyone with different parameters, experience and concepts should use the name "Christian." There are some things she has stated that I clearly, even vehemently disagree with, but there is no doubt in my mind that she is a Christian.
Offhand don't know all of the posters here and their backgrounds, including you. Do you mean the truth of what happens when we die?
Personally, I prayed for something that would just never happen. Well it would happen at some time in the next 50 years but I prayed for it to happen at that moment. And I envisioned how it would occur. This was after getting the gospel presentation from a neighbor. Who then admitted, if God wanted to, he could do what I asked.
Not only did he do it, but I knew he did when I woke up the next morning. I knew he was REAL. I opened the door and on the front page was what happened. Exactly how I envisioned it, where I envisioned it to take place, and it happened in the morning. Right next to a sign which a picture I had in my head so I knew the location. My neighbor showed up a hour or so later...that morning with her newspaper.
What struck me as odd...and still does today... is she seemed shocked. Handing me the paper
I responded akin to "But you told me GOD could do this just two days ago, remember?"
Is it possible that it could have been coincidence that you did your ask, and it happened? As example, it's forecast storm and you had a family picnic planned. You do your ask to your God, and no storm occurs. Is that divine intervention, coincidence, or the wind patterns blew the storm away from your area? How could you test that?
I am simply answering their questions. My answers are based on scripture which is probably why it isn't permeating with them.
Here's a dose of Buddhist scripture for you. Hopefully it will convert you since you think that is the purpose of this thread:
"33. Just as a fletcher straightens an arrow shaft, even so the discerning man straightens his mind — so fickle and unsteady, so difficult to guard. 34. As a fish when pulled out of water and cast on land throbs and quivers, even so is this mind agitated. Hence should one abandon the realm of Mara. 35. Wonderful, indeed, it is to subdue the mind, so difficult to subdue, ever swift, and seizing whatever it desires. A tamed mind brings happiness. 36. Let the discerning man guard the mind, so difficult to detect and extremely subtle, seizing whatever it desires. A guarded mind brings happiness. 37. Dwelling in the cave (of the heart), the mind, without form, wanders far and alone. Those who subdue this mind are liberated from the bonds of Mara. 38. Wisdom never becomes perfect in one whose mind is not steadfast, who knows not the Good Teaching and whose faith wavers. 39. There is no fear for an awakened one, whose mind is not sodden (by lust) nor afflicted (by hate), and who has gone beyond both merit and demerit. [6] 40. Realizing that this body is as fragile as a clay pot, and fortifying this mind like a well-fortified city, fight out Mara with the sword of wisdom. Then, guarding the conquest, remain unattached. 41. Ere long, alas! this body will lie upon the earth, unheeded and lifeless, like a useless log. 42. Whatever harm an enemy may do to an enemy, or a hater to a hater, an ill-directed mind inflicts on oneself a greater harm. 43. Neither mother, father, nor any other relative can do one greater good than one's own well-directed mind."
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