Results 1 - 4 of 4
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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | sharing our faith to unbelievers so hard | 1 Cor 1:18 | Gunnie | 199582 | ||
As C.S Lewis puts it 'nothing annoys me more than seeing a group of people swapping ignorance' Since I first heard of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit I read the bible to see the truth. Alas I found nothing in 27 years of reading the bible again and again that persuaded me to believe. True christians say you must have faith and here is where I agree with Jesusman. Faith is a Christian concept that lay people cannot understand, It is 'Churchese' as discussed in Jesusmans posts and to describe faith to someone without it, verges on the supernatural. I have attended many churches in my life and heard many pastors, preachers and vicars describe God’s love and the joys of being part of the ‘family’, It was something I wanted to have, but I could not invest my life in a book without evidence. Any time I have tried to discuss God and belief with church members they use ‘churchese’. A man can’t live on bread alone. I decided to carry out my own research into historians of the time such as Josephus. It was here I found mention of Jesus and what he was doing, as seen from an outsider’s viewpoint. After numerous history books, written at that time, were digested, I came to accept that Jesus existed –as a person. Here I went back to the Bible. My next obstacle was the validity of the Bible, particularly the New Testament. Was it a historical account? Or a novel?. Again Historical records mention the treatment of some of the followers of Jesus and also other events detailed about rulers mentioned within the Bible. I will not go into my studies of the other ‘Gospels’ not included in the Bible, needless to say after a few years reading I accepted the validity of the Gospels to a certain extent. The resurrection was my next difficulty and Psychology of the human mind as well as history provided my acceptance in the truth of resurrection. At no time in History has anyone under torture, which results in death, stuck to any lie. If the disciples were lying about seeing the risen Jesus then the truth would have come out. My wife bought me a book by Lee Strobel for Christmas past and he has investigated this far better than my feeble efforts. At the age of 40 I accepted God into my life, not through faith alone but through common sense language, History, Archaeology and Science. Through these I developed faith. Jesusman was not lowering the importance in the Bible in any of his posts, he was saying that You have faith, Its easy for you to accept Gods word as truth or as 2 timothy ‘God breathed’, not everyone you will speak to will have your benefit. They are like the disciples failing to understand the parables of Jesus. He had to explain in a language they understood. Why is it difficult for people answering the post of Jesusman to accept that sometimes the word has to be translated for the common man. In a day when reading is not something the young do, the slang used by the young is not understood by the old, is it not acceptable to put the word of God into their language – like Jesus did. The Message is a Bible written in everyday language. Will we see the hypocrites who persecuted Jesusman burning this version in open air revivals due to it not being in King James english. Jesusman has gone the way of Jesus persecuted by the ‘true believers’ for preaching an alternate view. He was not saying we should change the meaning of the Word just the words themselves. Our language is so colourful with the number of words which can be used to describe the same thing without altering the meaning. Long live the Message. |
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2 | sharing our faith to unbelievers so hard | 1 Cor 1:18 | DocTrinsograce | 199584 | ||
Dear Gunnie, You wrote, "Through these I developed faith." If you mean faith as the Scripture uses it, then it came directly from the Lord. Paul wrote, "So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ." (Romans 10:17 ESV) Any discipline whatsoever requires a vocabulary. God graciously provides the vocabulary along with the definitions. In Him, Doc |
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3 | sharing our faith to unbelievers so hard | 1 Cor 1:18 | Gunnie | 199585 | ||
Thanks Doc You answered in the same way that I was critical of. By quoting biblical text. I accept, now that I have 'faith', everything you write. However the point was that the words themselves have no meaning to someone who is not in the faith. The vocabulary used is fine, but try defining the words in a way 'outside of the bible', and much more in keeping with the youth who wil be the christian of tomorrow. My daughter, aged 22, has friends who come round to visit. They dont say Hello. How are you Mr Hope? the say 'Yo! s'up?' They talk of work and other people and say 'they were dissing me'' I told them to chill' which I had to ask for a meaning for and was met with vacant looks. My daughter says her friends boss was being 'disrespectful' and they told him to 'calm down'. Quote the bible to them and you will not get anywhere. You have to talk to them in a way they will understand. This is why I have the greatest respect for Youth Ministry. Tim Hughes wrote 'Here I am to Worship' a song which has the line 'I'll never know how much it cost to see my sin upon that cross' colleagues who have been unfortunate enough to be in my car whilst I have Hillsong on make no sense from this, but you and I do. Jeremiah 5:21'....who have ears but do not hear'(NIV) how can you hear the word of the Lord if you cannot understand it. |
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4 | sharing our faith to unbelievers so hard | 1 Cor 1:18 | jlhetrick | 199597 | ||
Dear Gunnie- You couldn't be more mistaken. I believe the most important thing that we adults must do before we ever attempt to be the teachers of our youth is to first understand Scripture ourselves. Doc quoted to you exactly what you seem to be not understanding based on your posts. That is, Romans 10:17. Faith doesn't come from hearing the current teen slang. I mean come on man. s'up wit dat line a thanken anyways. For reals man. I have a 22 year old too, as well as a 17 and 23 year old so "I'm feelin you on that". You write that "the words themselves (refering to Scripture) have no meaning to someone who is not in the faith" failing to acknowledge (after Doc gave it to you) that the ONLY possible way of receiving that faith is through the hearing of those words; that is, the word of God. Not the slang of any particular generations youth. First and foremost we NEVER attempt to "define the words in a way outside the bible". What would than mean anyway? Are you suggesting that the current time and cultural perspectives dictate the meaning of the words of Scripture? Of course not, and I hope that's not your meaning. You write, "quote the bible to them and you will not get anywhere". Your just totally and complete wrong sir/ma'am. I might add that Hillsong may produce music that is biblically acurate and doctrinally sound in many cases, but their lyrics are certainly not inspired so that argument has no relevence strictly speaking. You ask "how can you hear the word of the Lord if you cannot understnd it". 2Chronicels 1:10 would be an excellent place to start your study to answer that question. I would not argue that your intentions are less than honorable but this may be an example of Romans 10:2 I sincerely hope that you will consider these things honestly before continuing to teach others, perhaps especially the young ones. Sincerely and God bless, Jeff |
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