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NASB | Genesis 1:17 God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Genesis 1:17 God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to provide light upon the earth, |
Bible Question: Now we have God creating the sun, moon, and stars in his workshop -- a cut and paste operation of sorts -- and putting them wherever He saw an empty space that needed something in it -- like decorating a Christmas tree. Wonder if He had elves in His workshop to help Him build stars? Folks, I'm not trying to be cute and most assuredly not to be sacreligious. I'm merely attempting to illustrate how far off base this forum has wandered and how dangerously close we are to becoming a world wide joke, a Biblical circus of the Internet. Lionstrong posed the question of whether we were at liberty to ask any question or post any note. The sure answer is emphatically not! I am not at liberty to ask anyone on this forum for a recipe for fudge brownies and you are not at liberty to give me an answer. Have you, Lionstrong, and have you and I, the other users, forgotten what this forum is all about? In the last several weeks this forum has been bogged down by endless debates over emotionally-charged denominationally-biased issues, such as the Arminianism verse Calvinism debacle and before that the Oneness fiasco. Read the purposes and aims of this forum set out by the Lockman Foundation. Read their criteria for what constitutes a good posting as listed on the voting bars. Questions should be Biblically oriented and answers Biblically supported. Lockman has given us ample freedom within clearly-defined guidelines. But with freedom come our own personal responsibilties. Folks, I know that many of you, like I, love the idea of having a study Bible forum and see in it a real potential to honor God and His word. And I know that many of you, like I, are displeased and even disgusted with some of the postings that have been made and continue to be made that bring only discord and benefit nothing except perhaps the foolish vanity of the authors of this kind of trash. The forum is in trouble, of that I have no doubt. Unless we mend our ways and get back to the fundamentals of what this forum is all about, I would not be at all surprised that eventually it will cease to be. I've said my say. It's up to you. If you have anything positive to add or suggest that will help this forum, please come forward and make yourselves heard. If you are unwilling to submit to Lockman's guidelines and come only to disrupt, do the rest of us a favor and log out. --Hank |
Bible Answer: Hank, didn’t we just talk about this? I think there is an even more insidious problem than the endless displays of ego, intellect and argumentative skills. There is the problem is misinformation. Take almost any subject discussed that has more than three responses and you will probably find one saying the answer is ‘yes’ and one saying the answer is “no’ and a third saying it is in the “maybe”. The problem is which answer should a new believer hold onto? In the debate over Calvinism and Arminianism, there is so much information, misinformation, name calling, verbal abuse, opinion, point and counter point it bewilders the mind. It would be virtually impossible for a new believer to read through all of that and come up with an informed answer. Or the debate over whether Nebuchadnezzar was saved or not. Endless speculation through point and counter point, information, misinformation, opinion and pure argumentative input on this subject. How could a new believer ever expect to come up with an answer? Yet we say we are creating a study bible with wide margins, Hank I submit to you we are creating a study bible that contains the confusion of the world through the opinions of man. Now read the questions that have only one or two responses. Many have answers that have totally misleading information in them. But since they weren’t a provocative enough subjects no one read the responses to see if it was Biblical or not. Again more bad information. I have seen some that are pure trash yet they go unchallenged, while everyone focuses on the juicier topics. I believe for this forum to be what it is meant to be, people will have to step up to some issues. First there must be a way to limit or avoid endless point and counter point discussions. Secondly every question and every answer given must have a Biblical answer and any that does not must somehow be eliminated or corrected. Any question that has multiple commonly accepted theological answers needs to be summarized to say so, (example the Calvinism and Arminianism debate). There needs to be a way to neutralize any question that baits an argument, thus enabling their submitter to constructively contribute to this forum. Lastly a way has to be found to prevent all responses that are purely from the pit of hell from effecting or at least appearing to be Biblically correct answers. I believe the if these issues were addressed and solutions put in place to correct them then this forum would stand a chance to become a limitless wide margin study bible that I think everyone desires. I'm in agreement with you unless change happens quickly this forum is in danger of becoming another “use to be”! |