How do you decide what is True in the Bible?

Buz and I have told YOU what it says.EDIT: You missed what I said anyway, I didn't say you told us what to believe but that you are insisting on what it says and you are wrong. What I said was: "You are free to pick and choose from the Bible all you like for your own beliefs, but you can't dictate to us what it says based on your own preferences."This message has been edited by Faith, 05-14-2005 08:01 PM

Try to stick to the topic. If you want, feel free to explain why you believe the things you do. I've explained why I believe the things I believe.

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

Actually this would be on topic if you explained how you simply dismiss all the Biblical quotes Buz and I produced to show you are wrong about the requirement of belief. The topic is how you decide what is true in the Bible. You've decided only Matthew 25 is true for Jesus' teachings, and apparently you believe that everything I quoted and Buz quoted isn't what Jesus actually said? Or did you answer this by saying your reason is that it makes God into a two-bit whore? If so, I withdraw the question.The thread is addressed to those who pick and choose from the Bible what to believe. I don't pick and choose, I believe it all, so how I've arrived at my beliefs is irrelevant.This message has been edited by Faith, 05-14-2005 07:33 PM

I'll try to answer you as best I can on why I know you folk are misreading the Bible.I've pointed these out many, many, many times before but I'll go through them once again.There are a mutitude of reasons:

• first and perhaps most important is that a requirement of belief would require a GOD that is some bling-bling pimp daddy.
• it requires a GOD that is insecure and wimpy, a snot nosed little cry babby.
• the quotes you folk seem to like are simply taken out of context. If for example, you actually read the Bible you'll find that John 3:16 which is often quoted is being misused. John 3:16 is not talking about salvation at all. The condemnation is related to doing works.
• most of John is pretty much heretical when compared to Jesus teachings. It's like the additions to Mark that simply change the whole meaning of the Gospel.
• I just believe that there really is a GOD and that the record he left us is pretty clear. Such a being would at most get a chuckle out of the idea that someone disbelieved in Her.
• I cannot accept the fact that GOD would expect me to check my mind at the door in order to be saved.
• I cannot imagine that GOD would want to surround himself with a whole bunch of totally stupid and ignorant folk for all time.
  

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

Thank you for calling me ignorant and stupid.And thank you for spelling out your beliefs -- again. We can conclude that the basis on which you "decide what is true in the Bible" is your own personal fallible prejudices and opinions. You will believe only what you think makes sense, and hang what the Bible actually says.Thank you, we now have your views and can go on to find out what others who pick and choose may have to say about how they arrive at their choice.
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Just an aside, to answer one of your points again: Works are important and we will be judged on works, but YOU are going to be judged on your disbelief.

I said in my last post: "Just an aside, to answer one of your points again: Works are important and we will be judged on works, but YOU are going to be judged on your disbelief."Correction: The illustrations of what faith is, given mostly in the Letter to the Hebrews, chapters 11 and 12, show that the kind of works that matter are the works that proceed from faith. That is, it was Abraham's faith in God that led him to obey the command to sacrifice Isaac; it was Moses' faith in God that gave him the strength to obey the command to challenge Pharaoh and lead the people out of Egypt; It was the early Christians' faith in the gospel of Christ that gave them strength under persecution, even to loving their persecutors. And so on and so forth. These are the true good works that save, actions that are based on trust in God. Works that do not proceed from true faith in the true God are worthless.This message has been edited by Faith, 05-14-2005 08:24 PM

Okay. No problem. LOL.

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

How do YOU decide what is true in the Bible? This is to those who don't believe all of it but believe some of it -- which parts of the Bible are true in your view, and how do you decide? Come on, there are almost 200 posts left on this thread.

This's exactly the kind of nonsense I'm referring to, Jar. This post is equivalent to Faith or me in a serious science thread contending that we have the answer to tired light based on one single point we made and instead of debating all the other data mainline science offers we continually repeat one relatively insignificant point for an argument of our position. There's no way you or any other admin would tolerate such senseless debate on our parts. Yet you come up with this one verse outa context and present this silly baseless argument that the book of John is bogus heresy and John 3:16 has nothing to do with salvation. Man, not even the most inept theologian would agree with you. The verse plainly says you believe in Christ, you don't perish but have everlasting life. Whata heck do you think salvation is, man?? Where are the other admins who should be moderating you???? Do Faith and I need to do our own moderating here?? Then you wonder why we get irritated and roused. We get highly teed off because fairness and justice in this town is and has been totally one sided. I say GET REAL WITH THE CLEAR TEACHING OF THE BIBLE OR GET TAHECK OFF THE THREAD!! I've been studiously in this book for 60 years and you're the most absurd interpreter of it I've ever encountered. This message has been edited by buzsaw, 05-14-2005 11:04 PM

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The immeasurable present is forever consuming the eternal future and extending the infinite past. buzsaw

Does any of this have anything to do with the thread?

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

If you are nothing but the sum of your physical parts then he shouldn't care. But if the real you is the sum of your thoughts feelings and beliefs and you believe in no truth, that part of you is dead to Him.

Hangdawg,I think this concept of the "real you" is very important. Would I be remiss if I take it that you define the "self" or "real you" as "the sum of your thoughts feelings and beliefs". If that is the case I think we need to look at how that summation is done. It involves time does it not? Beliefs change, thoughts change, feelings change. How do you sum these states up to arrive at a "self"?lfen

I don't know how Hangdawg might answer you, but I took what he said to refer to our CAPACITY for belief, thought, feeling, not particular beliefs, thoughts, etc. In other words, he's talking about our nature, describing the important or primary part of our makeup as spiritual, and the part that is most open to God -- or something like that. WHAT we believe is therefore very important. Right belief restores a right orientation to God.

I don't know. It's a hypothesis that would need to be explored. I'm not a Christian but living in the US my whole life I'm aware of the range of churches and beliefs and some disagree with beliefs of others. Different people find different denominations appealing. I just threw that out to Robin as an explanation. His statement seemed a bit hypothetical but IF it were true then it MIGHT be true because ...I do think the Catholic church coerced Europeans into a standardized religion and when it lost the power to enforce that coercion, and wars were fought to establish freedom of religon, then different sects came into being. I think this represents the variety in people. Whether differing doctrines are important to that variety I don't know but it seems plausible to me.lfen

Buzz, I do agree with you in that what Jar believes is not in line with the majority of orthodox Christianity. By orthodox, I mean mainstream apologetics.That being said, however, the original topic stated that Thus, Jar is basically saying that faith is subjective to the individual and is not an exact science as is..well, science.Jars homespun folksy viewpoint is politically correct and is likely to offend the fewest number of people. The Bible warns of such things, according to some fundamentalist interpretations.This thread IS subjective and is relative to the individual, based on Brians Opening Post.Perhaps another thread should be started dealing with the definition of orthodox (right teaching) belief. For starters:
1) Orthodoxy is based on the Bible. (Not Eastern Orthodoxy, mind you)2) The Bible is not interpreted by educated empiricists. It is interpreted by theologians who are believers, not skeptics.