Results 1 - 4 of 4
|
|
|||||
Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | The gospel is not about a "nice" God | Ps 5:5 | Hank | 105597 | ||
Kalos: When on occasion in scanning the TV and radio media I chance upon a religious broadcast, more often than not I am exposed to a description of God that fits more the depiction of the jolly old elf who fills everyone's stockings with Christmas goodies than with what the Bible reveals about the nature and attributes of Almighty God. The reality of a wrathful God who would cast sinful human beings into hell is not an item in much of modern theology. God is pictured as having no other reason for being except to provide His creatures with abundant physcial health and vast material wealth. It is a self-serving idolatrous philosophy that is foreign to the message of the gospel of Christ. --Hank | ||||||
2 | The gospel is not about a "nice" God | Ps 5:5 | kalos | 105600 | ||
Hank: Your observations are right on. Thanks for sharing them with us. I get so tired of all these "Christian urban legends" as someone has called them, mythical beliefs about what the Bible says. An example of these is that God loves the sinner but hates the sin. The Bible never says that God loves the sinner but hates the sin. And why are people so easily misled? Because they are not even familiar with the content of the Bible. And that's because they haven't been READING the Bible. It's sad but true: Often the people with the loudest opinions are those who are most ignorant of the Bible's content and how to interpet it properly. On this forum it would be refreshing to see people start with what the Bible SAYS, then go on to learn what it MEANS by what it SAYS. And save the sermonizing until last. Moreover, when someone's question doesn't call for a sermon, don't give one. Stick to the question and answer it with the Bible. When someone asks a question about the face value meaning of a verse, don't start spiritualizing what it says. First, answer the question. Again, this forum exists to ask and answer questions about the Bible -- period. It's not a platform for the ego. It isn't a soapbox or a pulpit. Peace, kalos |
||||||
3 | The gospel is not about a "nice" God | Ps 5:5 | Hank | 105607 | ||
Kalos: Until I stumbled upon this Forum nearly three years ago, I'd never been exposed to the idea that one really need not study the Bible, because God personally and individually reveals (in dreams, visions, seances, trances, hunches, and in various other esoteric ways) what He wants His people to know. Which, if true, would lead one to wonder why He troubled Himself to inspire Scripture in the first place. This claim to personal revelation might have some degree of credibility except for one thing. Among those persons who have appeared on the Forum and claimed to have been the recipients of personal divine revelation, no two have been in agreement. This fact certainly gives one pause and causes him to ponder whether God reveals Himself one-on-one. If He does, not only did He waste His time in revealing Himself to man through the common medium of the Scriptures, but He gives conflicting revelation as well. Who could imagine God wasting His time or being divided against Himself? Both propositions are preposterous. ...... In view of the pandemic ignorance of Scripture in our time, even among professing Christians, one cannot help but wonder why Scripture is held in such low regard, as it must be, for what other explanation can be offered for such widespread ignorance? The Bible, to be sure, is not mute on the necessity of searching the Scriptures. What geometrician Euclid said centuries ago still applies to learning today: "There is no royal road to learning." And what applies to learning in general applies to learning the Bible in particular. There is no evidence given in Scripture that God exempts His people from studying and learning His eternal word, or that He causes His word to be superfluous and redundant by revealing Himself privately to individual Christians. ....... It really doesn't take much savvy to determine which members of this Forum read and study the Bible and which do not. "By their fruits, ye shall know them." --Hank | ||||||
4 | The gospel is not about a "nice" God | Ps 5:5 | kalos | 105609 | ||
"God gave me a verse today." Really? [Hank: Well said! What follows goes right along with what you write in your previous post. The rest of the article is well worth reading, also. --kalos] 'Scripture Twisting: Read me First! 'by Daniel B. Wallace, Ph.D. 'This is the first in a series of occasional short essays on "Scripture Twisting." The purpose of these very brief essays is to challenge certain popular interpretations of the Bible that really have little or no basis. 'Abusing Scripture, Abusing God (...) 'One of the curious phenomena of recent times is how Christians have been using the Bible. Rather than recognize that it is a book made up of 66 books, each written to a specific people for a specific reason, we tend to wrench verses right out of their contexts because the words agree with what we already believe. 'Sometimes believers say silly things like, "God gave me a verse today." What's wrong with that? Two things: First, this approach to Scripture does not honor the divine authorship of Scripture. God gave the verse at least 1900 years ago. You may have discovered it today, but it's been there all along. To say that God gave a verse today is really an existential statement, as though the Bible didn't become alive until we read it a certain way. But revelation has ceased. It's all there in the Book. This manner of speaking almost sounds as if revelation continues. But the work of the Spirit today is decidedly not on the cognitive level: he is not bringing us new revelation. His work in relation to the Bible is primarily in the realm of conviction: he helps to drive home the message of the Bible, once it is properly understood. 'Second, this approach (i.e., the "God gave me a verse today" approach) to Scripture does not honor the human authorship of the Bible. When Paul wrote to the Galatians, he wrote a coherent, holistic message. He never intended for someone a couple millennia later to rip verses out of their context and wield them any way they so chose! Certainly we have a right to quote verses of Scripture; but we do not have a right to ignore the context, or to make them say what the language cannot say. Otherwise, someone could come along and say "Judas hanged himself"; "Go and do likewise"! Hence, one reason for the abuse of Scripture is due to a lack of respect for the Bible as a divine and human work. In this approach it becomes a magical incantation book--almost a book of unconnected fortune cookie sayings!' (http://www.bible.org/docs/soapbox/twist1.htm) |
||||||