Summations Only

Hello, foreveryoung. Allow me to add my two cents worth to this discussion, if I may. I came to EvC Forum in 2003 or so, I think. When I came, I was quite the fundamentalist/charismatic Christian who honestly believed (and still do, to some extent) that I had met God through Jesus Christ and through the inspired word of God. To me, canons were what sunk the Bismarck....I had neither care nor concern that many differed and thought that many of the intellectually minded skeptics and naysayers here were simply too proud to accept the God that I knew and loved.Jar challenged me. He asked me things like "How Do You Know Its God?" At first I rebelled...how dare some unenlightened person challenge my sincere belief? Later, I softened up. After all, if God exists, God exists regardless of what I believe, know, or think I know. Thus, challenging my beliefs does not challenge God in any way. All that it challenges is my understanding of God. God can take care of Herself. I came to understand the difference between beliefs and facts.At first, I resisted labeling my beliefs as scientifically nonfactual, but as I became more secure I simply let that concern go. Some of us believe that not only does God exist but that He is personal...through Jesus Christ, knowable to a degree through communion with the Holy Spirit, and defensible. Others may say that there is no way to defend the belief. That too used to bother me, but now it does not.Lately I have stopped trying to defend my beliefs through science. I no longer believe that most scientists are atheists and are blinded to the truth due to their refusal to accept final answers. I will even admit that I want my beliefs to be true, and I want a personal, interactive God that loves and even favors me (and all humanity) because He "so loved the world."I no longer attempt to prove my faith. I maintain that it is based on more than emotionalism, however. And finally, I respect your belief that the whole Bible is absolutely "true"...though I may believe it to be symbolic and true in a thought for thought sense rather than a word for word sense.

Lots of people have been taught that the Bible is without error. This is part and parcel of the belief statements of many a church and/or denomination.Dare we Christians allow ourselves to question this? Was not the law written on human hearts and not in a books of words and pages? If the Holy Spirit is living and active, is not the lesson that we as Christians to learn more about how we relate to others, as well as morality and wisdom from many different potential sources and contained in many living daily parables, literature from the past, and lessons learned through daily experience? As to how we would discern, well...isnt the Holy Spirit our guide on such matters?

Personally, I believe that though the Bible is a collection of books, it is in essence about a man who was the Living Word. Granted there are arguments concerning OT Prophecies, and I readily concede that they may be unprovable. Critics would accuse me of pick and choose Christianity, (or cafeteria christianity) but I think that if there is an arbitrator and/or judge, I will be judged on my response to the writings and my honest willingness to be the best person that I can be as a result.Foreveryoung, if you believe that the book is literally word for word true, fine....just don't cuss at people for doubting you. It is a bad advertisement for the Spirit within you. (granted I too am occasionally guilty for showing my base human side)I am open to saying "I Don't Know" on many issues and beliefs, and confess this before God and Humanity.I believe that God created/imagined us before we were evolved enough (or aware enough) to imagine/create Him, but I also believe that the books, though obviously written by humans, were written by and large with a noble spirit. The overall theme is the tussle between humanity and divinity anyway...do we value our own longings, wants and desires more than we value a higher ethical/moral plain?