Bible Question:
These are some questions for us all to consider. Please support your answers with Scripture! A participant wrote: "I endeavored to have a teachable spirit and learn with humility and respect. I believed that God would honor that with wisdom and knowledge and some degree of respect from my family and community. Those things never came to me even though the Bible told me so. I had to come to some conclusions about that." When it seems that our prayers are not answered or God does not "do" what we believe He should, what conclusion should we come to? Is God unfaithful? What gives us the right to decide this? Is God's Word untrustworthy or is it our understanding of It? When we "endeavor" to do something - what is the motivation? Are we seeking to know God as He is or how we want to see Him? Participant writes, "One of the things I discovered in my research on alternative ideas about the authority of Scripture is that we tend to talk about the Bible as if it is the final authority." WHO is the final Authority? How do you understand John 1:1? Participant writes: "If the Bible is in an arm wrestling match with the True God of the Universe, who will win? Obviously it's not the Bible." Is this a valid conclusion? What is the "underlying belief about knowledge" that you are questioning? What is the Source of ALL knowledge? Participant writes: "there are many ideas about what happens to us after we die which people in the pews need to believe" Are "ideas" dependable? Why or why not? mommapbs |
Bible Answer: Dear Mommapbs, I believe it would help you if you understand a certain concept. So, please indulge me as what I am about to write will seem to answer your question indirectly. However, coming to understand this has helped me immensely. -First of all God's ways are not like our ways. He does not think like we do. So, what we think might be the right thing may actually, in God's eyes be the absolutely wrong thing. Read Isaiah 55:9. -Second, He reveals Himself and his teachings to us by a revelation within. For instance in Matthew 16:13-18 we see Jesus and Peter. Jesus asks who people think He is. Then He asks his disciples who they think He is and Peter blurts out "The Messiah, the Son of the Living God." To this Jesus replys- "flesh and blood has not revealed this to you...you are Peter and on this Rock I will build my church. Five seconds later Jesus tells His disciples how He will die and Peter says "No, God forbid." and Jesus answers "Get behind me, Satan." What does this mean? I believe it means this. The revelation Peter received...a direct revelation within himself, is what Jesus was building His church on..not on the man, Peter. But the precious revelation that God had given Peter. Why? because that is what it takes when we do not understand and God allows our faith to be shaken. When all the superficial stuff is shaken off of us, our faith will still stand on that which God has directly revealed as truth to us. That is why Jesus could give Peter such a compliment in one moment and in the next breath almost, insult him. He was speaking of the revelation. Third- Now look at John 6: 41-58 where Jesus tells his disciples (more than the 12) that they must eat His flesh and drink His blood. Everyone thought He was speaking of cannibalism. That He refused to explain this to anyone used to puzzle me. If you look further to John 6:61-65 you see that He was aware that many had left from following him and even his closest disciples were grumbling at this and called it a hard saying. However, look at the 65th verse and 6:66-69. Though Peter did not understand, because of his revelation knowledge...because he was convinced in his heart that Jesus was the Messiah, the Christ of God, even though he did not understand, even though what Jesus or God was saying to him was above his comprehension and seemed awful at the moment, he did not leave because he reasoned, "Where else shall we go, you (alone) have eternal life?" Finally, God is so above us we often totally misunderstand what He is doing. Unless we are convinced inside our hearts that He is who He says He is, we will not be able to hold on during trials and tribulations. And, the trials and tribulations are the very things God sends to test, to refine and purify our faith. Read Mark 4:16-17. The Bible is what God has given to us to be able to follow Him. Anything else is man-made and some man's idea. There are many good books out there that teach about God's word, but when things get confusing, going back directly to the Word of God has helped me the most and after knowing the Lord for over 25 years, He has never let me down in His word. ALL the answers to life are in its pages. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you and He will bring you to the Scriptures you need to carry on. One more thing. We are often called to believe God when we don't understand and very often after we do that, God does eventually give us understanding. I hope this has been of some help to you. Itiswritten. |