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The purpose of the prophet Joel saying that your old men shall have visions and the young men dreams is for the people who are around the person God is dealing with, and that person is symbolically going all the way to a spiritual death and rebirth. His entire family would all have dreams and visions for him, lest he thinks he has gone insane.
I think dreams do have meanings, but not in the religious sense. Your mind is always working and dreams are a way for it to communicate what is in your subconscious, often in mixed-up fantasies.
A better question is "Why do so many people refuse to read the clear Word he has given us in lieu of receiving cryptic messages that we have to decode?"
Why does everyone think they're so special that God hangs on their every word?
A better question is "Why do so many people refuse to read the clear Word he has given us in lieu of receiving cryptic messages that we have to decode?"
Why does everyone think they're so special that God hangs on their every word?
Because the "clear Word" you're referring to is a compilation of pamphlets written by anonymous, primitive men who were guessing about the world and a god-thing(s).
And they got most of it wrong.
That's why today fundies are a dying breed. They swallowed the bible wholesale, without removing the garbage and poison. They are stuck in place, unable to evolve spiritually.
Because the "clear Word" you're referring to is a compilation of pamphlets written by anonymous, primitive men who were guessing about the world and a god-thing(s).
And they got most of it wrong.
That's why today fundies are a dying breed. They swallowed the bible wholesale, without removing the garbage and poison. They are stuck in place, unable to evolve spiritually.
I'm sorry you're so hateful. I've now seen several posts this morning from you doing nothing but attacking. I'm very sorry that you're so messed up that you can't be happy.
I'm sorry you're so hateful. I've now seen several posts this morning from you doing nothing but attacking. I'm very sorry that you're so messed up that you can't be happy.
I forgive you.
LOL!
You should charge admission to your hilarious little pity party.
In what universe is calling someone hateful, attacking and messed up and then as a final act of condescension telling them you forgive them for that is “playing nice”? Sheesh. Trout has never said he plays nice with fundamentalists. You should try being as honest.
In what universe is calling someone hateful, attacking and messed up and then as a final act of condescension telling them you forgive them for that is “playing nice”? Sheesh. Trout has never said he plays nice with fundamentalists. You should try being as honest.
A better question is "Why do so many people refuse to read the clear Word he has given us in lieu of receiving cryptic messages that we have to decode?"
Why does everyone think they're so special that God hangs on their every word?
"Why do so many people refuse to read the clear Word he has given us in lieu of receiving cryptic messages that we have to decode?"- BaptistFundie
Wikipedia
Biblical hermeneutics
Biblical hermeneutics is the study of the principles of interpretation concerning the books of the Bible. It is part of the broader field of hermeneutics, which involves the study of principles of interpretation for all forms of communication, nonverbal and verbal.[1]
SO.. since there are various interpretive traditions of the Bible, it is obvious that the "clear Word" is not so clear after all. The Bible often very plainly says one thing, and yet we are told, by various groups, that it often really means something else.
As an example of what I am referring to consider Rev.22:
[20] Surely I am coming soon. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!(English Standard Version)
Christians have been proclaiming the imminent return of Jesus for two thousand years now. And the "clear Word" of Revelation indicates that the second coming was expected to happen "soon," or quickly. Two thousand years ago the second coming of Jesus and the final judgement of humankind were one of Christianity's most powerful evangelic tools. Christians have been declaring, and expecting, the second coming to occur "soon," at any moment, for the last two thousand years. Unfortunately for Christians, two thousand years of dead wrong futility is anything but "soon." So God's "clear Word" must necessarily be interpreted to mean something other than what it plainly says. At this point it is far too late for Jesus to return "soon." Jesus can only return "eventually." Or "in God's own good time." "Soon" no longer applies.
So, what God's "clear Word" actually says is necessarily forced to be reinterpreted to bring it into conformity with the undeniable facts of reality. At which point, God's "clear Word" means exactly what each individual decides that it individually pleases them to believe that it means. Which goes a long way towards explaining the existence of more than forty thousand different Christian denominations.
The way
The Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary estimated 34,000 denominations in 2000, rising to an estimated 43,000 in 2012. These numbers have exploded from 1,600 in the year 1900. https://theway21stcentury.wordpress....ons-worldwide/
What we are observing here is that God's "clear Word" actually means exactly what you have decided that it must actually mean according to your personal indoctrination and interpretation, praise the Lord.
Which is no different from dreaming it and declaring it to be true.
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