Can the Christian God exist without the Bible?

This is a better question than the question whether He can EXIST without the Bible, and may be what PB meant. He is God, so of course He didn't have to give us the Bible -- He could have gone on existing without offering us any specific knowledge of Himself.And of course the idea of a specifically "Christian" God is misleading too. God is God. The Bible is simply His revelation of Himself to humanity.As to whether He is knowable without the Bible: Only in the most rudimentary sense because of our fallenness which has cut us off from communication with Him (and also because there is a demonic realm which has power on earth thanks to the Fall, which seeks to counterfeit the things of God and lead people away from true knowledge of Him). God's dealings with His chosen people, and their written account of those dealings and His true nature, were given specifically BECAUSE of this inability to know Him rightly. So no, He can't be known in all meanings of the word without the Bible.This message has been edited by Faith, 09-21-2005 03:38 PM

I agree with you about Christians having a problem living the Christian life even on the level of having the DESIRE to get near to the model of Jesus Christ, let alone the practice of it. We are often little different from the world around us. This is especially a problem in America, really the West in general, where there are so many temptations from worldly entertainments and comforts. Horrible as it is that Christians are persecuted around the world, as a matter of fact that persecution often makes for stronger spiritual lives, real spiritual power that we lazy westerners lack and we might well envy them their persecution in some sense.I've recently improved my spiritual life a great deal, starting with more time in prayer. Have you read any or much of A.W. Tozer or Watchman Nee? I've been rereading their books lately as I think they have the insight the church needs. Have you heard Ray Comfort preach? One thing he said I heard on the radio a few weeks ago was that he prays for more spiritual power from God. And this is a guy who often leads people to Christ, who gets up in the early morning every day to pray for long periods and has a LOT more spiritual power than most of the rest of us. To get that we have to do more than give up our addictions, we have to be willing to die to ourselves in every area of our Adamic (fallen) life.I don't think the desire for wealth is about humility though. That's a different sin, and yes we are susceptible to that one too. I also don't think recognizing that we are "fearfully and wonderfully made" shows a lack of humility at all, far from it. Humility is about breaking ourselves of our personal pride. God's works are great and acknowledging them is far from personal pride, but in fact a form of humility. We didn't make our bodies, He did. Edited to improve clarity of last paragraph, I hope. This message has been edited by Faith, 09-21-2005 04:35 PM

But you have to make that up to believe that. There is nothing in the Bible itself that suggests that's how it was written. It presents itself as the record of GOD's actions upon mankind. God initiated everything in the Bible, according to the Bible, so you have to disagree with the Bible to say people originated it. You will have to explain how there could be any confusion from using the term "God" as I don't see any. It is the English term for the one and only Creator of all things. Anybody who believes in such a Being, Christian or not -- or even anybody who has heard of the idea though doesn't believe in such a Being -- should have no problem understanding it. But if you do, please explain your confusion.

As long as all the terms are considered to refer to the one and only Creator God, then we are all talking about the same God and there is no confusion. God has many names in accordance with His various attributes. The Names of God is an interesting study.

How so? Don't all the names of God you listed refer to the ONE God? So they are all merely the names used by different cultures for the same thing. As a Christian I believe only the Biblical account of God is accurate, because it was given by God Himself, and is intended for all people too, but I don't deny that other religions and peoples have SOME sense of God. So we are not talking about different Gods, just different conceptions of the same One.This message has been edited by Faith, 09-22-2005 12:36 AM

I'm not saying they are right about the one God though, just that they have some sense of the one God and have a name for Him, so that all those different names don't refer to different Gods. There IS only one God and some peoples have preserved some vague sense of His existence and nature despite our fallenness.