15 Jun 06
Originally posted by gharguthYou must be flippin' new here. If you want the answer to question, look it up on the internet. If you want to argue a point of view, give us something more to go on. Go tell your mother that your diaper needs to be changed.
How did the bible come into existance?????
16 Jun 06
Originally posted by gharguthMen of various groups and purposes took stories that'd been passed down orally and wrote them down according to what they wanted taught from those stories and what they thought was important. That covers the first five books of the Bible, as well as pretty much the rest of it. People's words and stories and experiences were eventually written down. Because they were human, their stories and experiences have certain limitations.
How did the bible come into existance?????
16 Jun 06
1 edit
Originally posted by gharguthThe Bible is a conglomeration of authors that span over thousands of years. It is by far the oldest running religious tradition to date and has influenced all major religions to various degrees in the modern world other than perhaps Far Eastern religions such as Hinduism ect. With this knowledge in mind, there are two possibilities. The stories in the Bible were inspired by God to be written and subsequently inspired by God to be collected in one book or it was only man's doing. You be the judge.
How did the bible come into existance?????
16 Jun 06
Originally posted by gharguthTo get back to the original question... The Old Testament is a collection of writings that were cannonized by the Jewish faith. It includes oral histories, poetry, lyrics, lineages and more. The New Testament was cannonized by the Catholic church much later. It includes the Gospels as well as the writings of Paul and more. The Christian faith believes that the Holy Spirit inspired men to write. We believe today that the Bible contains the Words of God. One must also take a critical view of the text as one reads the Bible and understand the context and original audience of the writings. For example, the books of the New Testament written by Paul were never intended to be "Holy Scripture." They are primarily letters written to various churches to help instruct, or, in some cases, chastise them. If Paul thought his letters would one day be part of the Bible, he might have changed some of what he wrote. The Bible really is a way to get to know God, to understand His moving in our world from a historical perspective so we understand how He operates today. By studying scripture, we learn what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. Jesus told us that the most important thing for us to do is to love God with all our mind, all our body, all our heart and all our spirit. The second most important thing we are to do is love our neighbors as good as we love ourselves. God wants to have a relationship with us. The Bible speaks to this repeatedly.
How did the bible come into existance?????
This is the short answer to your question!
16 Jun 06
Originally posted by MythicalSkippyThis is quite an assumption. Care to elaborate?
For example, the books of the New Testament written by Paul were never intended to be "Holy Scripture." They are primarily letters written to various churches to help instruct, or, in some cases, chastise them. If Paul thought his letters would one day be part of the Bible, he might have changed some of what he wrote.
16 Jun 06
Originally posted by whodeyI'd be happy to.
This is quite an assumption. Care to elaborate?
Paul was a man chosen by God to help create His church after the ressurection of Jesus. Read Acts for the story. Paul developed a deep, close relationship with God. As I read Paul's letters, I see a man for whom God is as real as the ground under his feet, as real as the stones creating the prisons in which Paul spent time. Please do not misunderstand my original post. I am not saying that we may discard what Paul wrote as rubbish. His insights into the nature and mind of God are transformational if you allow them to be. His instructions to the early churches still ring true to us today. But Paul was writing letters, not the Bible.
When one begins an earnest study of the Bible, one quickly discovers that each book of the Bible has a different focus and point. The book of Psalms, for example, should not be interpreted exactly the same as the book of Revelations. Psalms is a book of lyrics. Revelation is John's vision of the end times. Paul's books were primarily written as letters.
If you wrote a letter to a very close friend who needed some spiritual guidance you would write it to your friend, not to an audience of millions who would read this letter for the next 2,000 years! That is my point with Paul. We need to keep in mind what he was writing and to whom. We are reading a letter intended for someone else, thousands of years after it was written. Can we glean truths from it? Yes. Was Paul writing from his heart and at the urging of the Holy Spirit? Yes. Did he write the letter to us? No. Going back to the letter to your close friend - you might write something to him that you and he understood and shared. I might take it to mean something quite different, as I am not in on the shared understanding. Does this answer your question? Do you feel I am off base in my assumption?
One final point, it has only been in the last 100 years or so that the concept of the infallability of scripture has crept into the church. Many churches use this idea as a litmus test as to whether one is a "true" Christian or not. There is nothing in scripture to support that. As a previous poster wrote - The Bible was written by men for men. That's not an inaccurate statement. It does not encompass all scripture has to offer and is a bit simplistic, but it is true. We should have the courage to question what we read in the Bible, not in an effort to tear down our faith, rather, to strengthen it. Once we've wrestled with a concept and really get to the bottom of it, really understand it, it is harder to shake our faith in it.