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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.
There is no my version of Jesus. Typical liberal deflection.
Imagine that, this is in your bible.
And we the spirit of the world did not receive, but the Spirit that [is] of God, that we may know the things conferred by God "ON US", which things also we speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Holy Spirit, with spiritual things spiritual things comparing. God did not confer the bible on us, he conferred himself on us.
And this too,
or who did know the mind of the Lord that he shall instruct Him? and we — we have the mind of Christ
By having the mind of Christ we can specifically know all things. Nowhere does your bible say we have the mind of Christ or the Spirit to understand the bible or to trust the bible over what the mind of Christ or the Spirit is instructing us with. We know God and the things that pertain to life and godliness by what God as already given us
I was under the impression you were saying we shouldn't read the Bible. You seem to have a very low view of it.
I see what you're asking now--do I study the Word of God in context, understanding the culture? Sure. Of course. That's called hermeneutics.
No, I don't have a low view of it. It's a collection of writings, nothing more, nothing less. Like most people, I appreciate some parts of it more than others. The first chapter of Genesis is magnificent poetry, as are many of the Psalms. Numbers? Not so much. Paul's letters? There is some wisdom in some of them, but they also the reflect the Pharisaical stick he always had up his ass, and many of the things he specified were meant for the recipients of the letters, not people living 2000 years hence. YOU, however, may find things in his words that are gems to you that mean nothing to me. That's how it works with any writing.
I have a low view of the opinion that those writings are miraculously transformed into the actual Word of God, because that's where the door to damage opens.
No, I don't have a low view of it. It's a collection of writings, nothing more, nothing less. Like most people, I appreciate some parts of it more than others. The first chapter of Genesis is magnificent poetry, as are many of the Psalms. Numbers? Not so much. Paul's letters? There is some wisdom in some of them, but they also the reflect the Pharisaical stick he always had up his ass, and many of the things he specified were meant for the recipients of the letters, not people living 2000 years hence. YOU, however, may find things in his words that are gems to you that mean nothing to me. That's how it works with any writing.
I have a low view of the opinion that those writings are miraculously transformed into the actual Word of God, because that's where the door to damage opens.
Numbers is like my favorite book, there is more magic in the book of Numbers than most books. It is truly a magical, spiritual book.
No, I don't have a low view of it. It's a collection of writings, nothing more, nothing less. Like most people, I appreciate some parts of it more than others. The first chapter of Genesis is magnificent poetry, as are many of the Psalms. Numbers? Not so much. Paul's letters? There is some wisdom in some of them, but they also the reflect the Pharisaical stick he always had up his ass, and many of the things he specified were meant for the recipients of the letters, not people living 2000 years hence. YOU, however, may find things in his words that are gems to you that mean nothing to me. That's how it works with any writing.
I have a low view of the opinion that those writings are miraculously transformed into the actual Word of God, because that's where the door to damage opens.
So in other words, you do have a low view of it. Meaning you don't believe it to be the inspired Word of God. A "high view", theologically speaking doesn't mean you just have a favorable opinion of it, it means you view it to be no different than Harry Potter, or The Hunger Games novels. You believe it to be just a collection of stories.
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.
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.
I hope you find that out someday, too.
Deflection and not the subject at hand. You would know nothing about Jesus without the Scriptures.
Deflection and not the subject at hand. You would know nothing about Jesus without the Scriptures.
People can know about love, acceptance and forgiveness without knowing a thing about Jesus. Do you think he cares what people believe as long as they behave as he did?
If you think magic words are more important than walking the walk, you are in spiritual pre-school.
People can know about love, acceptance and forgiveness without knowing a thing about Jesus. Do you think he cares what people believe as long as they behave as he did?
If you think magic words are more important than walking the walk, you are in spiritual pre-school.
Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Acting like Christ got him mocked, falsely accused and executed.
Denying the truth about His teachings, or keeping silent about them in order to appease the haters only means you are either ashamed of it, or too afraid to offend people by declaring you are Christian. The truth about the cross is offensive to some, and Jesus said it would be so.
Jesus never said anything about the cross. You are being disingenuous.
My dislike of the cross has nothing to do with Jesus or his teachings. Wearing a cross does not mean you are Christian, or follower of Jesus.
Jesus never said anything about the cross. You are being disingenuous.
My dislike of the cross has nothing to do with Jesus or his teachings. Wearing a cross does not mean you are Christian, or follower of Jesus.
Sure, He did.
Luke 9
21 But He warned them and instructed them not to tell this to anyone, 22 saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed and be raised up on the third day.”
People can know about love, acceptance and forgiveness without knowing a thing about Jesus. Do you think he cares what people believe as long as they behave as he did?
If you think magic words are more important than walking the walk, you are in spiritual pre-school.
If you claim the same thing Christians claim, then no Christian can say anything to you anyway, that is, if their claim is that God put the laws in every man's heart, you are a law unto yourself. The proof is that the Christian has no law, there is no law that they can hand you to say,'' Keep these laws, do this, or don't do that.''
There is no law for them, why should there be a law for you?
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