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Actually, it does.Quote:
Originally Posted by mrdevious
"For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."
I believe in him over you every day of the week and twice on church day. You have nothing on him. Peace
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheAtomicPunk
It's not that God preplanned your life, it's that he knows how it will play out. There's a difference. You have the right to choose, but he already knows what you're end decision is going to be. He's not the one causing the war right now, he's allowing it to happen. Is God telling BUSH to fight? I don't think so. Bush is doing it on his own. I don't think it's fair to blame God for the evil that men do. We should be thankful that he gave us the choice to be who we want to be. People do what they want to do. Be patient, cause correction is coming. Just because it's happening now, doesn't mean that it will always happen. So, in the overall picture, you shouldn't be blaming God while he's working on fixing the problem. After we get rid of all the criminals, Peace will reign on Earth.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pass That Shit
Dude, no offense but you're saying the word of god is infallable because the bible says the word of god is infallable. it's like saying "God exists. Now you ask, does god exist? Well yes, because I've already decided god exists". You're just using your conclusion as your premise, it's so circular I'm getting dizzy
I'm saying the word of god is infallable. Period.
But that's the whole point of this thread, asking how it can be infallable if it contradicts itself?Quote:
Originally Posted by Pass That Shit
If God allows us to choose our actions, then wouldn't that include being able to corrupt the bible for our own ends? So then how do we discern the word of God from the word of men who have twisted the bible for their own purposes?Quote:
Originally Posted by Pass That Shit
Wait a second...isn't Armaggeddon suppossed to happen rather than peace on earth eventually? I thought it was prophesized in Revelations that the world will basically just get worse and worse and when God decides the time is right or that the whole world's gone to hell (no pun intended) he'll take all the Christians and leave the rest for the apocalypse?Quote:
Originally Posted by Pass That Shit
Just what I THOUGHT, since I don't have a fucking bible in my hands to quote from, but that's what I learned being raised a Baptist. In a way I'm glad that I was, because it makes me question the existence of God less and realize how ridiculous all of what I learned is, for the most part.
I'm agnostic, so I don't have to debate for either side...HAH :hippy:
p.s.~ That whole "be patient, cause correction is coming" thing is a little cultish...might not want to say that if you're trying to convert anyone.
You have to understand how the Bible was put together. There never was a single document written to become the Bible, there were just a series of writings that were passed around from tribes and churches. Christians needed one single book because the religion would never succeed without it. Many of the writings were not considered true, thus they were not included into the Bible. Those that were considered true, are in the Bible as we read. I don't think destroying the other scrolls was anything crazy as some people would like to think, they didn't consider these scrolls true so why would they want them to continue circulating and spreading misinformation, and weakening the religion as a whole?Quote:
Originally Posted by RamblerGambler
I think anybody that takes the Bible as the word of God is a complete fool because you don't have to read a lot to realize that there are some mistakes, and some parts just simply sound made up. Most of these stories were passed down for years and years through word of mouth, so just imagine taking the story your grandfather told you about your relatives and putting that into a book. Would you worship it as hard fact, or just respect it as a valuable historical family book, but obviously not perfect?
Christians today focus way too much on the Bible, I haven't read the whole thing but I've read enough to get what it is basically saying....just live a peaceful life and be nice to others and help out those that need help. That's all you need to be a Christian, you don't need to memorize some ancient book!
Personally, I think some other stuff in the Bible should have been left out with the other Gnostic Gospels, I mean come on, you know the guy that wrote Revelations had to have accidentally eaten some bad berries...talk about a trip! But they needed a chapter to make the book come to a close, so Revelations fit in because it told us about the end. Humans cannot accept infinite, we need closure, I believe that's why Revelations is in there, but if you read it you would have to admit it is completely different from any other chapter in the new testament.
But just because the Bible isn't perfect doesn't mean there's nothing to Christianity. That's like saying because a science book has a few misspellings the entire thing is crap. A lot of atheists seem to take great glee in pointing out the imperfections of some religions that attempt to explain the unexplained, meanwhile those same people can't even explain why they give a rats ass about a religion that worships a God they apparently don't believe in.
If you are asking because you are genuinly interested in the Christian religion, then just read through it as nothing more than a valuable source of information about early Christianity, much like a history book. It is not perfect, and it probably has been manipulated over time, but that doesn't mean it is worthless, but no it is not the word of God and anybody claiming it is doesn't know what they are talking about.
If the Bible as a whole is called into question as to its origin alone, then it doesn't make sense to quote the "offending document", you are correct. But if someone claims the Bible is contradicting itself, then the only way to show it isn't is to cite the context of the "offending document" as a whole so what seems to be the contradiction can be better understood.Quote:
Originally Posted by RamblerGambler
There was a lot of persecution and killing of Christians and the disciples early on, after Christ. So they spread out and wrote letters to the churches and each other early on. These letters were considered Scripture from the very beginning, and were often copied and sent to other churches, etc but there was no single repository of all the Scriptures. After a few generations the church was enduring less and less persecution, so they decided to get representatives together from everywhere the disciples had been and make an official "repository" (the New Testament). It is very much the same way the Old Testament was put together by the leadership of the Jewish "Church" back in the day. There was a lot of discussion and collaboration.Quote:
Originally Posted by RamblerGambler
There were a number of fake gospels that people wrote as Christianity grew in the first centuries, claiming to be one of the disciples, etc. The prosess of gathering representatives from all over the church helped weed these out. Although some people may have been conned by a fake, chances were someone else from the actual region where that disciple had ended up knew the true story. (You'll sometimes hear about "Gnostic" gospels and things like that... those were some of the fake ones, since the Gnostics were a group who, early on, tried to take over and change Christianity).
....they did not agree with the agenda of those in power within the church. the politics behind the editing of the bible is old news. there was no bunch of enlightened individuals weeding through corrupt interpretations of god's word, these were men attempting to curry favor with their masters by deleting writings deemed unacceptable.Quote:
Originally Posted by jsn9333