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NASB | Luke 14:26 "If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Luke 14:26 "If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life [in the sense of indifference to or relative disregard for them in comparison with his attitude toward God]--he cannot be My disciple. |
Bible Question:
Thanks, George. Yes, the issue about calling no man "father" seems to be another point of contention, doesn't it? As is women keeping silent in the church. I am a skeptic, I will admit that. But I run into alot of "Bible-believing Christians" who, quite simply don't believe the Bible. Jesus said to call no man "father" and we do anyway. Paul said that women should keep silent in the church and I've never seen that exhortation put into practice. If we interpret the word "hate" as "to love less" then it becomes a sticky situation with God loving sin less or God loving divorce less or God loving Esau less. So I struggle with the fact that the Bible cannot be taken at face-value (it doesn't mean what it says). As soon as we open that Pandora's box, that the Bible doesn't mean what it says, then how are we ever to know what it DOES mean? Then it becomes one persons opinion against another and who is to say who is right? Anyway, yes, I am seeking truth. But I have trouble trusting something which people swear is without contradiction, even when the contradiction is as plain as the noses on our faces. And it cases of this sort, it seems like "Bible-believing Christians" pick and choose what parts they want to believe and what parts they don't. Here is another issue that I would seriously like an answer to: God says to love our enemies and to do good to those who spitefully use us. But He swears that He will destroy His enemies. Now I guess God is God but this certainly seems like a "do as I say, not as I do" approach. Any thoughts? seeking4truth |
Bible Answer: Seeking4truth, Christians have a tendency to ignore questions that are contriversial. Jesus was one who loved contriversy. He always answered the tough ones. But you also hafe to remember that sometimes Jesus answered a question with a question. The question of God telling us to love our enemies and then later telling us that He would destroy His enemies is just a matter of context and timeing. When His enemies refuse to heed the call to repentance, their time runs out.Case and point, armageddon. Some of the enemies of God are unrightiouness and sin, some are spiritual and some are fisical.Choose one or the other and you could get a debate from others what it means.Ive counceled a number of people as yourself, who are looking for answers, who are unsure of what to believe. Remember that christians are people, who are fallable, we all make mistakes. The Bible states that the scripture is, spiritually decerned, which means, that the Holy Ghost is the one who leads us into the truth of the word, so we hafe to be open to Him for guidence. Once you start to open yourself to the spirit ,then you will recieve your answers, directly from God.Get deeper into prayer and fasting and then watch the doors of heavan open up to you and your answers will come. And you will see that there are no contridictions in the Bible only answers that we havent asked the right questions to yet.DL5 |