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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | where do animals go when they expire? | Eccl 3:21 | lionheart | 191566 | ||
rabban, Good references. But it doesn't answer the question I was asking. Where does it say we get to decide what Gods Word says. I gave you two solid references that are pretty self explanatory. Allot of people do decide and I will gaurantee you they will be wrong the vast majority oy the time. The passages I reference are bedrock scriptures for all who are identified as disciples of Jesus Christ. In Him, lionheart |
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2 | where do animals go when they expire? | Eccl 3:21 | rabban | 191567 | ||
You have given two references, but you clearly explain them differently from me. So how can they be self explanatory? Thus in your interpretation you are deciding what God's word says :-)))) You really cannot avoid the fact. If you do so you are not being realistic, in which case there is no point in discussing further. 'Study to show yourself approved to God, rightly dividing the word of truth.' If you are righly dividing the word of truth you are making decisions about what the word of God means :-))) Of course we compare Scripture with Scripture. That is the main method we use in deciding what the word of God is saying. But it is in fact WE who compare Scripture with Scripture, and decide which Scriptures to compare. That is the method which, hopefully guided by the Holy Spirit we use, but we still have to decide what God's word is saying. Or do you have a divine commentary which tells you exactly what it means without your having to think or research anything, and which bleeps when you fail to understand it correctly? In Him |
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3 | where do animals go when they expire? | Eccl 3:21 | lionheart | 191569 | ||
rabban, It matters not how you or I explain what Gods Word. What was written is already there. I don't decide and neither do you. I don't have a divine commentary, excuse me and where did I say research wasn't part of all this? Understanding is another subject. None of us understands all that we read and research. That includes you and me both. So where is the problem where 2 Timothy 2:15- Rightly dividing God's Word and 2 Peter 1:20- No private interpretation is concerned. We study, we research and do our best with help of God to get it right. But we don't decide what it says, God has already done that. 1 Timothy 4:16 tells us to watch our life and doctrine closely. Read the rest of that passage. We are responsible before God for what we teach and what we tell people, What we say and do can make the difference in someone becomming a Christian or going to hell. In Him, lionheart |
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4 | where do animals go when they expire? | Eccl 3:21 | rabban | 191575 | ||
I think that the problem lies in what we mean by decide. We are each using a different definition. You are using the term 'to decide' as meaning 'to determine (although even that has two meanings), to fix in stone'. I am using it to mean 'to discern, work out what it means, and come to a decision about.' If it does not matter how we explain God's word, why do we do it? I think it matters very much how we explain God's word. Of course we do not decide what is there, or what words God (and the translators if we use a translation) caused to be written, but we certainly decide what in our view it means. You are very good at citing a text and saying 'its meaning is clear', but I notice that you do not give its meaning. You simply say, 'it's obvious'. In other words you are saying, 'I have interpreted it this way and I am completely right'. If that isn't 'deciding' what is? But if we want to help people we do have to explain the meaning of texts. Robertson in his Word Pictures (and many others) says of 1 Peter 1.20-21, 'It is the prophet’s grasp of the prophecy, not that of the readers that is here presented, as the next verse shows.' In other words it is not talking about how WE interpret Scripture at all, but on how the prophets themselves understood it in ordsr to pass it on. Is that what you understand by the verse? If we study, and research and do our best to get it right, we then have to come to a final decision on what it means. So we are deciding what it means. The truth I suspect is that we are simply discussing at cross purposes because we are using words with different meanings. I wish I could be sure that I always decided what God has decided about the meaning of Scripture, but sadly I cannot. While my central doctrine has not changed over fifty years, my understanding of it certainly has. Thus decisions I now make about the meaning of Scripture are very different from those I made fifty years ago. I used to be a premillennialist until I recognised how often I had to twist the meaning of words and passages in order to make them fit in. I became uneasy and then began to see things from a different view. That is why I am an amillennialist. So actually in my youth I was deciding what the Scriptures said in the wrong way, because I was unconsciously manipulating it to fit in with the theories of Dr Scofield. Now I think I am deciding them in the right way, because my decisions are based on taking them to mean what they say. If we are responsible before God for what we teach and what we tell people then we have to come to a decision first as to what we do tell them. You see our argument arises because we are using the idea of making a decision in a different way, It is all an argument over nothing. And I never waste my time arguing over nothing. So I will close the discussion here. We will agree to disagree, although the funny thing is that I do not think that we disagree at all (except about the meaning of 1 Peter 1.20). Best wishes. |
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