Prior Book | Prior Chapter | Prior Verse | Next Verse | Next Chapter | Next Book | Viewing NASB and Amplified 2015 | |
NASB | 2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | 2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is God-breathed [given by divine inspiration] and is profitable for instruction, for conviction [of sin], for correction [of error and restoration to obedience], for training in righteousness [learning to live in conformity to God's will, both publicly and privately--behaving honorably with personal integrity and moral courage]; |
Bible Question: The name of this web site is StudyBibleForum.com and its sponsors, the Lockman Foundation, have laid down clear guidelines for users. The first item listed for compliance to its guidelines , to which every poster agrees with every post he makes, reads as follows: "This post is biblically based and whenever possible, I have included Bible references to support it." ...... But have you noticed how frequently this guideline is agreed to but not followed at all? How many times have you seen posts that have absolutely no biblical references, but instead are riddled with a generous number of expressions such as "I think," "I believe," -- without giving the slightest biblical reference that supports the "I thinks" and "I believes." Personally, I don't read very much of the output from users who express opinions without scriptural back-up. Why should I, why should you, waste your time reading raw opinions by users when you haven't the vaguest notion of what their credentials are? You don't really know whether you're reading an informed opinion or the opinion of an air head. Seldom on this Forum is a user called into account for entering post after post of sheer opinion unsupported by any scriptural references, yet this practice is a clear violation of Forum rules and constitutes abuse. When another Forum user is unfairly attacked, all rise to his defense. But when the Bible is ignored and replaced by opinion, few rise to the Bible's defense. What kind of selective double standard are we following on this Forum? Do you consider it a problem? Does it concern you? What do you propose to do about it? The obvious place to begin is by cleaning up our own act first -- to be heavy on Scriptural references and light on purely personal opinion and speculation. And each of us can crack down hard on the abusers, on those who day after day use this Forum as a soap-box for their opinions and ignore its purpose, which is Bible study. We should warn recalcitrant offenders on-line first and, should they choose to ignore us, we should file a abuse reports with the Lockman Foundation. Have you noticed that the most outrageous and unbiblical opinions seem to get the most attention on this Forum? So often when a user posts a thoroughly biblical response, it attracts little attention, if any at all. Do we have have a case of itching ears (2 Timothy 4:3) instead of a thirst for God's word (2 Timothy 2:15)? --Hank |
Bible Answer: My answer…………………………………………………. Hi Hank, It’s good to see you’re still around. You bring up a very good point in your question. I agree that all of the participants of the forum should try to stay biblically based in general. However, may I bring up a few examples of where this becomes difficult and perhaps unnecessary? Sometimes questions are asked which are not actually dealt with specifically in scripture. For instance, recently there was a question asked about what the “Beatitudes” were. First of all, the word “beatitudes” never appears at all in the Bible. I answered this question by referring to the dictionary. There are some questions that simply can’t be answered by scripture alone. Another recent example was when a prolific poster on this forum recently alluded to a forthcoming change in marital status. There were several responses of a purely personal nature that followed. I think that this is appropriate considering that this forum is not simply a sterile environment where computers spit out answers at people. Instead, it is a community, made up of real people who have real feelings, and sometimes want to share those with one another. Finally, there are some threads that seem to go on quoting scriptures endlessly. Often there are two persons or groups of persons who are on opposing sides of an issue. This recently happened with two forumites debating whether Christians should ever get tattoos. After this continued for a while, I made a post trying to encourage them that there was actually very little difference in their opinions, and that perhaps they should move on to other questions. This post seemed to help to resolve that entire thread although I did not quote any scripture at all. All three of these events have occurred in just the last month, and they are not isolated incidents. I think that they demonstrate that although we should generally stick with scripture, that there can be times when other types of posts are also appropriate and helpful. |