I think what I'm really trying to ask - is there a cut-off period in the bible where God no longer interacts directly with people ? (The coming of jesus?) Or is it never specifically stated?
well, from a literary presepctive, there is less and less god in the bible as the books progress. later books and books about later times seem to have a more removed impersonal sense of god.
if there a cut-off point?
well, not in the bible, really. the bible is fundamentally about god's interactions with mankind. it'd kind of be looking in the wrong place. however.
there are books of the bible without god in them at all. pauk's letters are not descriptions of god directing man or interacting with man. ruth and i think esther only use the word "god" idiomatically (like "god bless you" when someone sneezes). and song of songs doesn't mention god AT ALL.
some of these are before christ, too.
but the bible does, in the early books, use god as a justification for various things. i can explain if there's any debate on the matter.
Does that mean that anyone who claims to have a vision or command from God (working on the assumption that the bible is true) cannot be correct within the history of interaction given by the bible?
i don't think that would logically follow, actually. if god DOES exist, be definition he would not be a set of logical rules. as a sentient being (at the very least) god would be able to talk to or not talk to whomever he wished, whenever he wished.
so it's concievable then, from the assumption, that the nutjob in central park with the gun COULD be right. and it'd be somewhat consistent with the bible.
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