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Just going by the many responses folks have had towards the bible to all sorts to different topics on here that have ranged from:
-I dont need a book to tell me how to love God
-Bible written by mankind and not to be trusted
-Middle Eastern desert scribblings
-Only for people of in time in Israel
-Created to have power over certain people and so on
So how can you possibly have a close relationship with God without the book in which he tells you how he wants to be worshiped vs how you would rather worship him in return?
The good Samaritan had a close relationship with God without even knowing it. What exactly is that relationship your asking? Reading the bible (the Pharisees did that) or helping those in need. Which one do you think is more pleasing to God?
Difficulty - extremely high, being that one would be expected to believe in a Person that lived over 2,000 years ago - and believe in an event that has only happened once in human history (resurrection, ascension)... without documentation.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zero 7
The good Samaritan had a close relationship with God without even knowing it. What exactly is that relationship your asking? Reading the bible (the Pharisees did that) or helping those in need. Which one do you think is more pleasing to God?
I believe that the Bible is the word of God written by men who were carried along by the Holy Spirit so that what they wrote about God is accurate and true. While a person can be eternally saved and enter into an eternal relationship with God simply by hearing the Gospel message about Jesus and responding to it by trusting in Him before ever having read the Bible for himself, without the Bible which contains specific information about God, and about Jesus who Himself is the second person of the Trinity, how can one grow in knowledge about God? The apostles are no longer with us, but we have their teachings preserved in writing for the church.
There are those who think that everything you need to know about God is ''written in our hearts'' and that you don't need to read ''words written in ink,'' but these same people have all sorts of non-biblical beliefs about God that are nothing more than their own personal opinions about God.
If the various books and letters of the Bible were written by men who were chosen by God to communicate His word, then it is to your benefit to read, STUDY, and believe what is contained in the Biblical documents, but understanding the time, culture, and worldview in which the Bible was written, and understanding the various genres of the Bible. The quality of the eternally saved believer's temporal relationship and fellowship with God and the spiritual growth of the believer depends upon the intake and metabolization of God's word and its application in the believer's life.
Just going by the many responses folks have had towards the bible to all sorts to different topics on here that have ranged from:
-I dont need a book to tell me how to love God
-Bible written by mankind and not to be trusted
-Middle Eastern desert scribblings
-Only for people of in time in Israel
-Created to have power over certain people and so on
So how can you possibly have a close relationship with God without the book in which he tells you how he wants to be worshiped vs how you would rather worship him in return?
I don't think that we can even begin to know him without His word and the Holy Spirit also .. and even then it is limited.. but I suspect mostly He/ ( Jesus )at a very personal level ( friends) even starts to have an "engagement"/relationship with us until we learn all the basics of his word and his plans that are in that book. just to know it .. not to have formed opinions per se.
The early church was certainly able to. Where the spirit is willing, the needs will be met.
In today's world though, we're much more needy and reliant, need lots of hand-holding, and constantly demand visible and tangible tools. In other words, we're less capable than in older days. But that doesn't mean we can't reclaim that ability. It's a great exercise, by the way.
I believe that the Bible is the word of God written by men who were carried along by the Holy Spirit so that what they wrote about God is accurate and true. While a person can be eternally saved and enter into an eternal relationship with God simply by hearing the Gospel message about Jesus and responding to it by trusting in Him before ever having read the Bible for himself, without the Bible which contains specific information about God, and about Jesus who Himself is the second person of the Trinity, how can one grow in knowledge about God? The apostles are no longer with us, but we have their teachings preserved in writing for the church.
There are those who think that everything you need to know about God is ''written in our hearts'' and that you don't need to read ''words written in ink,'' but these same people have all sorts of non-biblical beliefs about God that are nothing more than their own personal opinions about God.
If the various books and letters of the Bible were written by men who were chosen by God to communicate His word, then it is to your benefit to read, STUDY, and believe what is contained in the Biblical documents, but understanding the time, culture, and worldview in which the Bible was written, and understanding the various genres of the Bible. The quality of the eternally saved believer's temporal relationship and fellowship with God and the spiritual growth of the believer depends upon the intake and metabolization of God's word and its application in the believer's life.
Sometimes, when thinking about a rational response to some of the many non-Biblical beliefs on this forum, I look for your response ... and we are invariably in the same place.
While people are created with an inborn knowledge of God's eternal power and deity (Rom 1:18-20), they are born-again as spiritual babies who need to be taught and discipled in God's ways and truths. The notion one can grow spiritually without God's Word of truth (Bible, Scripture and/or -based teaching and preaching) - is a worldly deception.
From the beginning, the enemy has always declared, "You can be God" (AKA: 'You can decide what is right and wrong for yourself ... if you only think your thoughts and ways are God's thoughts and ways"). (Of course, without Scripture/Bible, Satan, Hell, sin, etc., don't even exist, so each can become their own God and make-up their own "truths").
How are you supposed to know which humans to own and how to treat them and sell them and how to pass them down to your family?
How are you supposed to know who to kill for being an abomination/homosexuals without god’s written word?
How are you supposed to know how to treat women like dung piles without the written word of god?
How are you supposed to know who and how to have sex with without the written word of god?
How are you supposed to know not to eat shellfish without the written word of god?
And how would you know whether or not you are an abomination? Or that God hates all of us miserable sinners who are deserving of eternal, unrelenting, punishing torment?
How can you love God if you don’t know those things? How can you love other abominations and miserable hell-bound sinners?
Sometimes, when thinking about a rational response to some of the many non-Biblical beliefs on this forum, I look for your response ... and we are invariably in the same place.
While people are created with an inborn knowledge of God's eternal power and deity (Rom 1:18-20), they are born-again as spiritual babies who need to be taught and discipled in God's ways and truths. The notion one can grow spiritually without God's Word of truth (Bible, Scripture and/or -based teaching and preaching) - is a worldly deception.
From the beginning, the enemy has always declared, "You can be God" (AKA: 'You can decide what is right and wrong for yourself ... if you only think your thoughts and ways are God's thoughts and ways"). (Of course, without Scripture/Bible, Satan, Hell, sin, etc., don't even exist, so each can become their own God and make-up their own "truths").
Thanks, John. Yes, the idea that you can be/are your own god is a popular new age teaching. New age theology draws on the various religious teachings of the world but excludes the teachings of Biblical Christianity. It's Satanic deception presented to a world ignorant of, and in many cases not caring for God's divine revelation which in this period of history is given in His written word.
Study of the Biblical doctrines of course is to be done under the filling of the Holy Spirit by which means the written word, if believed, become 'metabolized' in the believer's soul and produces spiritual growth which is accelerated when application is made to the various circumstances of the believer's life.
Some people try to make it an either/or issue in which a believer either trusts the Bible or trusts the Holy Spirit as if you have to choose between the two. But the believer's spiritual growth demands study of God's word under the filling of the Holy Spirit.
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Sometimes, when thinking about a rational response to some of the many non-Biblical beliefs on this forum, I look for your response ... and we are invariably in the same place.
