Results 1 - 4 of 4
|
|
|||||
Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | Examine yourselves! | 2 Cor 13:5 | userdoe214 | 8301 | ||
Dear Hank, It's not easy to answer without sounding like a religious feely-guy with no content. So "lend me you ear" and I promise not to yell in it and return it deaf. I can't agree because of my personal experience, which I do not believe is unique. I came to faith in Jesus without a knowledge of the Bible. I'm not going to say I never heard the Bible or that what I had heard was not seed that gave life to me. But I honestly do not believe the Scriptures led me to Christ. I had an encounter which utterly changed me. No need to go on, you know what I mean. Now I came to correct faith (yes I had and have a lot to learn) when I met Jesus. Then when I read the Bible I was jumping around and saying Right! The Bible gave me objective confirmation of my experience, and I'm confident if the Bible were in error I would have rejected it then and there. I am NOT saying to trust deepest feelings (I do not) I'm saying our relationship with God is more real than our objective confirmations (just like my relationship with my wife is more real that our marriage lisence--which by the way is without error). The Jesus in the Bible is the Jesus in my life. Jesus is not a concept that can get cloudy and needs redefinition, He is the definition of all things. I just can't see it any other way, and I really don't believe I have some special revelation. In fact if I did believe it, I would be in error. You've probably seen many people go off in the wrong direction and disregard the direction of Scipture (if not you must be living on a desert island), but I still contend that error starts by turning from God. We've all met people who are intellectually orthodox, but could pass for an empty church. That's not Christianity. It's error every bit as poison as the most famous cults. Jesus is the Christian faith, and the Bible exists because He lives, and it actually scares me to get close to any thought which could lead to The Faith exists because of the Bible. Here's your ear back Hank. mrk |
||||||
2 | Examine yourselves! | 2 Cor 13:5 | Hank | 8305 | ||
Well, thanks for the ear back, Mark. You returned it fuller than when I lent it! And if I hear you right, I cannot really disagree with you, and as for that, don't really want to :-) I think I hear you saying in effect that one does not need to be a Rhodes Bible Scholar (if any such thing exists) to answer the call of the Spirit and accept the Lord Jesus Christ as one's Savior. If that's about the nuts and bolts of it, we have essentially no difference of viewpoint whatever. I was saved when I was 14 years old, hardly knowing the difference between and apostle and an epistle, and not being able to give you a very scholarly definition of either. But salvation and sanctification (growing in the faith) are not one and the same, although the former is certainly prerequisite to the latter. The "sincere milk of the word," as the old King James puts it so beautifully, is the indispensible yardstick by which we must measure our progress as we attempt to walk with Christ. --Hank | ||||||
3 | Examine yourselves! | 2 Cor 13:5 | kalos | 8310 | ||
To Hank and to whom it may concern: I do not entirely disagree with you or our brother Mark. To what you all have written, may I add: It is the Bible that contains the record of the gospel of Christ. The Bible is the ultimate source of all that we know of God, Christ, and our salvation. While one or more individuals may not have owned a copy of or known the Bible the day they were saved, consider this: Somewhere along the line someone who witnessed to you of the saving gospel of Christ has read, understood and used scripture. That is to say, today, 2000 years after the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, were it not for the existence of the Bible, few if any people would have ANY knowledge of the saving gospel. Take away the Scriptures entirely, and, even if preachers are sent and people hear them, what would the preachers have to preach? What message would there be for people to believe? It is the gospel as recorded in the written Word of God that is the power of God unto salvation (Rom 1:16). Why, for example, was the Gospel of John written in the first place? "But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name." John 20:31 Saved apart from the Bible? Christ is the Living Word and the Scriptures are the Written Word of God. Try separating the Living from the Written Word. I don't believe it can be done. |
||||||
4 | Examine yourselves! | 2 Cor 13:5 | Hank | 8313 | ||
Oh yes, oh yes, JVH, you are 100 per cent right in your observations, and in the wake of making my post to Mark I did an "Oops, I may have come across as seeming to say that the Bible is the sine qua non for the Christian walk but not vital to the first step, which is salvation. ..... That is most assuredly not where I stand. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. I was so intently concentrated on trying to get one thing right and ended up, I fear, dropping the ball on the other. A million kind thanks, JVH, for calling this swiftly to my attention. I am in your debt. --Hank | ||||||