Quote:
Originally Posted by MontanaGuy
yeshuasavedme wrote:
The two books of the Bible which seem to be the most contentious are the first one and the last one, Genesis and Revelation. The primary points of disagreement among Christians regarding Genesis is whether or not it is meant to be taken literally or whether it is speaking metaphorically. Evangelicals take the literal interpretation while Catholics tend to be a little more pragmatic and have accepted evolution as a tool used by God to create life. It also varies from one individual to the next when you get into various passages which seem rather vague and as a result it means different things to different people.
The understanding and interpretation of Revelation is practically a business of it's own in the racks of bookstores. Various authors proclaim their own interpretations and often try to tie it in with events that are happening today in society. The end times, which is of course the dramatic ending of the Bible, has been the source for countless groups of Christians over the centuries who believed that they happened to be living in the end times. There have been a great many predictions about the exact date the Jesus would return but since he never showed up this is always being postponed for a new future date.
These are just a few of the conflicts between Christians regarding what the Bible actually is saying.
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From what I see above, your issue is not over what the Bible says, itself, but over what people who claim to be christians say it says -right?
Okay; you are not a Bible Believing Born again in Christ person, and even you can see that Genesis says what it says, with no need for "interpreting" it to fit with anyone's contradictory beliefs -right?
Do you think it does not say these things, in Genesis 1:
1 the earth and heaven were created in six evenings and mornings.
2 the earth was created as a body of water and there was no light, no heaven at all, and God said; "Let there be light", and there was light, and the evening and morning were one day =day one =first day.
3 the heavens were created on day 2, beginning with the evening and ending with the morning, and stretched out between the waters of day 1, which were divided above and below.
4 the sun, moon, and stars were set in that stretched out heaven on day 4.
So that is what Genesis 1 says, without interpretation, right?
As to vague passages, the Word is written in parables and as Oracles given to the nation of Israel, who themselves did not understand what the oracles were about but they were to be faithful in rehearsing them.
Even the prophets did not understand exactly how everything they said, as related to the future, would be fulfilled, as the Bible says, because until Christ came in flesh, He was a hidden mystery, and He makes the mysteries revealed to those who come to know Him.
God set teachers in the Church, second, below only apostles, and in Israel He set scribes and lawyers who were to expound on and give the sense of the meaning of the Word to the people.
In the book of Hebrews those who do not understand the teaching/doctrine of the Living Oracles committed only to the namesake people of the New Man name [Israel is that name; Isaiah 49] are expressly forbidden to teach in the Church of Christ; so those who do not understand the revelation of Christ in those Oracles are not teachers set in Jesus' Chrurch. That is just plain Bible doctrine and may help you to see why there is confusion in what is called "the church".
Also, there is the NT warning not to be many teachers, as teachers will be more strictly judged than those who are not teachers. God is pretty jealous about His Word.
And the Bible has no signs to date the next event on God's timetable, which event is always "imminent", since Jesus ascended. He warned His disciples to not be concerned about when the "end" would be, but to occupy til He comes, and to preach the Gospel.
When that next even comes, then, and only then, will the signs begin which will date the next seven years; til then, there are no signs given to the Church, and we have been in the end times since Jesus Christ came in flesh of second man creation.
In God's prophetic timetable, this present creation has been allotted a week of millennial years; so 7,000 years is allotted to this present creation before the heavens and earth are regenerated, and as there is a beginning, a mid, and the last of a week, and the final day of a week, so are we in the last days, but not the final day, since Jesus came in at the end of the 4th millennial day.
It may be a few hundred years before the next event, then again, it may be in about 5 minutes -or next breath. Even if one says they are a Believer, but they do not understand Scripture on the events which will come, it behooves all professing Christians to be ready to go when the call comes, either to meet Christ in the air, or to depart the body, because the alloted days for that life lived in their flesh is ended.
No one knows when they will either die, or when the next event will happen; either is always imminent.
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all I can say
