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Well, no, quite a few of your same-thinking comrades here do believe that God more or less whispered the words into the minds of the writers and that the words are therefore to be taken literally. What exactly then do YOU mean by "inspired", if not that? And do you not concede that other writers outside the the biblical writings can also be inspired?
Because, and you can take this with as much of a grain of salt as you like, but I am serious--I have written things that I believe were inspired by something larger than me. All people who practice the craft of writing can tell you of the experience of setting down words and not knowing exactly from whence they came. I am, of course, not expecting my words to be considering holy writ, but sometimes there has been a message I wanted to get out, and sometimes, it has been well-received. I would not say such words were God's Words, although I would say they were inspired.
Your problem is that you don't know God. Because if you did, you would know He was behind the inspiration.
What you are basically doing is telling people that already know God, how they should know God and how they should regard his Word - even though you don't know Him.
Your problem is that you don't know God. Because if you did, you would know He was behind the inspiration.
What you are basically doing is telling people that already know God, how they should know God and how they should regard his Word - even though you don't know Him.
I am just being straight and honest.
Is that not what you are saying, that no one who claims to know god cannot if they disagree with you?
You said those people had the writings of Thomas, about Jesus. While that’s not in the Bible, it’s still writings about Jesus.
We can know about our Creator God by the world around us. However, we cannot know specifically about Jesus, His mission, His words, miracles, and healings, without Scripture.
If that were so, that what Jesus came to teach was so lame and forgettable that it would not have survived without the clumsy, contradictory writings we have in the Bible, then it wouldn't have been worth much. Yes, we have stories. Other stories were probably lost, and if these weren't written down, we might not have those stories. But I believe the truths that those stories point to would have survived.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jimmiej
There is no my version of Jesus. Typical liberal deflection.
Yes, there is, your attempted insult notwithstanding. I AM liberal. I don't think that's a negative thing. Jesus was a liberal, too, obviously. "Love your neighbor" is a freeing thing.
I grew up with your version of Jesus, the mean-faced, glowering giant in the stained glass window who is waiting with pointed finger to catch you doing wrong and condemn you to death and hell. It's a Jesus of fear, and that is YOUR Jesus. You live in fear, you live BY fear, it oozes through your posts as you try to spread the fear to others. I know you honestly believe that you are doing good by spreading that fear, and that is sad.
Only much later in life, when I reluctantly decided to give another shot to trying to figure out what the hell the appeal was as a sidebar to joining a church community to meet people in a new area, did I learn that the Jesus Of Fear And Death was never what it was supposed to be about in the first place.
We don't have anything to read that's actually what God says. That's the basic error in your thinking, your belief that God wrote a book (or dictated one).
Do read what other men's perceptions of God were. Understand the context in which they were written, and take from those words what you can with a discerning mind, but eventually close the book, and commune with God from your soul and seek the truth. It is deeper and farther-reaching than anything you can find in the words of men.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pleroo
I'm appreciating your responses in this thread very much, MQ.
Your problem is that you don't know God. Because if you did, you would know He was behind the inspiration.
What you are basically doing is telling people that already know God, how they should know God and how they should regard his Word - even though you don't know Him.
I am just being straight and honest.
LOL. How about if I ask God directly about that? We talk all the time, and God didn't mention that some dude named DRob4JC on a message board was given the authority to decide who is in and who is out.
Look, I don't care if you stroke the pages of your Bible with great affection whenever you want. I don't care if you and all your same-thinking friends get together and have a Bible-quote fest complete with gold star charts and prizes for the winners. Hell, I used to win those prizes in Sunday School myself.
What I do care about is people using those written words to cause harm to others and then claiming it's A-OK to do the harm because "it's God's Word". That is the problem, and I won't shut up about it, because there are people who need me to stand up and say that when you and your kind begin to form the mobs based on your "Word".
Now I am just being straight and honest.
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