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Originally Posted by SonoranBob  interpose a layer of "experts" who decide for you what it means, it gets even worse and becomes ripe for manipulation as well.
If God were communicating by personal revelation we could expect at least the initiated / enlightened to substantially agree on everything [B][B]and to treat each other with love and respect on those points on which they differ.
It's just that God's spokespersons can't agree on what's important . |
No one and nothing can stand between you and God. The drivel tells me so.
God didn't call a meeting of spokespersons and pass out cards. Who are these people? Religion is bad and we shouldn't give our power over to anyone else. Ok. But to go from there to the Bible must not be true?
You need to be impressed to believe the Bible is true. But when someone succeeds in Christ, they are deluded by nonsense.
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Originally Posted by SonoranBob
If God wants to communicate crucial information with grave import to our soul's destiny, then the only way it would happen is if he communicates directly with us..
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A personal revelation is everything and that's why I said the Bible could not be understood without the Spirit of God in my last post. The Bible says that Jesus is God come in the flesh, God's son. You can grit your teeth all day long and study until your eyes fall out to try and believe. But when you read those words and your spirit says that they are true, it's then that the Bible starts to make sense and it becomes a Holy book to you. Otherwise it's just a book, about a man that thought he was God and convinced a lot of other people to believe it with some parlor tricks. Do you see, Bob?
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Originally Posted by SonoranBob The Bible purports to show the way to eternal life, as does the church. This is serious business and a serious claim. |
But what if you're saying it doesn't and it really does? Your evidence is kinda sketchy.
Have you recieved a personal revelation from God concerning all these claims you are making? Because a personal revelation is a holy thing and I could respect that even if I don't agree.
Because the Bible does claim to show the way, your making counterclaims that the Bible is of minimal importance in seeking God, drivel, full of fluff and fiction, possibly or truly misinterpreted, garbled nonsense, pointless dogma, corrupted and probably polluted and basing that claim on anything else but a personal revelation from God is also serious business.
I just hope your anger isn't over riding your good judgment or you're trying to play chicken with God.
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Originally Posted by SonoranBob 1. God speaks.
2. Some human vessel writes it down. Let's assume that they hear it right and that absolutely none of their preconceptions pollutes the well at this point. We'll grant you a miracle on that count.
3. I read what is written.
4. I interpret its meaning.
5. I apply it to my life.
If you reflect on all the misunderstandings and distortions that can occur in steps 3 thru 5 you find that this is far from a perfect mechanism |
Here are the steps to Heaven in the Bible
Personal revelation IS the perfect mechanism for God to communicate with us.
1. Holy Spirit (aka inward truth, collective conscious) prepares hearts.
2. We hear about Jesus in Bible or someone tells us.
3. God's spirit tells us what we hear about Jesus is true
4. We believe it.
5. God comes in to dwell within us
6. God leads and we follow the rest of our life.Study.
7. Heaven
As far as not being able to get a Bible, you know that the accounts of Jesus written about in the gospels weren't written down until after it happened. People believed in Jesus, people were healed, miracles happened before there was a book about Jesus. So even if we question the accuracy and availabilty of the book , Jesus and the Apostles were going around and doing whatever Jesus wants to do.
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Originally Posted by SonoranBob How about it? If the letter kills, why bother with the letter? |
The Bible says the 10 commandments and the law of Moses are that perfect set of instructions we are looking for but that we could not follow it perfectly. Hence the term, the letter kills.