Could God have designed the Bible to only have one interpretation?

This part of the discussion is about whether the Truth is inarguable or not. Not whether there is a good reason for it or whether the arguing is legitimate. You seem to have lost track of that. All I said was if some one wants to argue about it then it is not inarguable.

Usually it is; yes, I agree but okay.

You do like to insult don't you?

Good for you. I don't know why but when people lie to me, I tend to not trust what they say.

Just because someone loves you does not mean that you don't do things that are bad and their telling you that, does not mean they don't love you.

Well then you are an adult then aren't you?

Huh?

Reminding you that we are talking about the nature of the Bible and not the nature of God, is somehow "exclusionary" and that I don't want people to strengthen their faith in God? That's quite a reach.

Like the example I used in the beginning of this thread, when putting together a jigsaw puzzle, you don't need to complete the puzzle to get the idea of what it is a picture of and the missing pieces are not exceptions but just pieces you have not fitted yet.

People are not immortal as you seem to think, they need God and Jesus' ransom sacrifice to continue living and for time not to stop for them.

Really? I guess that's going to be a shock to those who feel time is a dimension.

The statement only betrays that I know what the Bible says and you don't seem to. (Romans 12:2; 2 Corinthians 4:4; Ephesians 2:2)

 

Jesus has two ministries,,the earthly, and the heavenly. The heavenly ministry of Christ is continuing.

Hebrews speaks of the heavenly ministry.

Paul was called, and chosen, by the heavenly Jesus, after His resurrection, on the road to Damascus, described in Acts chapter 9.

"And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: [it is] hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord [said] unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do. "

Minimizing Paul's ministry is a fav of some, who cannot understand the things he writes.

Others minimize John's Revelation.

And then the same ones pretend to espouse the Bible. THEIR Bible, the incomplete one.

Without Paul's ministry, we would not have many books of the New Testament. We would not know that Christ is the embodiment of God, nor would we know that the church is the body of Christ.

 

I think it applies in the sense that if your interpretation of the bible requires that you adopt premises that cause you to behave hypocritically, that is, in one instance one way and in another instance another, then it is rightful to question. If what a man says and what he does are consistent, then you can trust he is being truthful or rather he recognizes what he holds as true. Honesty is consistency.

It wasn't an insult, it was a question. I use colorful language for dramatic participation. You cannot be insulted if you do not take offense. No offense is intended. If you would accept that my purpose is to help remove the barriers we have erected against the perception of love you need never feel insulted again.

This is a difficult concept for some to understand but you cannot lie. What you think of as a lie, altering the truth, does not happen. God is not mocked.
Make believe is not lying. We speak from the abundance of our heart, always. What a person says always reflects the processes occurring inside him.

That is what someone says who does not know the difference. Some one who says you need to be punished for behavior because the behavior is bad, is just finding an excuse for violence.
Well then you are an adult then aren't you?

Are you a father, do you have children?

The content of a thing is still it's content regardless of it's form. I do not mean to offend, but your habit is to exclude some point of reference in order to make your point.

It is not a good example because you are saying you have the whole picture even though the picture is incomplete. That is a contradiction in terms. Works fine for jigsaw puzzles that have their completed pictures displayed on the outside of the box it came in, but works not at all to depreciate the point I make about the whole defining the part and the parts, even when added together do not define the whole. God defines you, but you cannot define god. You cannot define god but you can experience god because god defines the parts. God gives life to the parts, but the parts do not give life to god. Creation is a law without opposite.

When you approach your eminent demise your thought will be, if you have not settled your accounts in this world, i want to do more, or to make amends, or to do it better, you will want another chance. It will be your most compelling request. Ask and you shall receive. And you will do it again and again, unless you settle your accounts, until the end of this system prevents you from going further. You will not recognize yourself as you do not recognize yourself now, but you will face exactly the same dilemma, unpaid accounts. There was no ransom, sacrifice, we were given the keys to the kingdom of heaven, the crucifixion is a teaching device, a symbol. It is not flesh and blood with which we contend, but principalities and powers.

 

I think the body of christ is the church, the church is nothing without christ. The church shares the body of christ.

 

I just think thats whats wrong with the religion. Frame it differently. Instead of the Bible as a teaching tool of negative perspective's of end times, death, Apocalypse, how about framing or reinterpreting the Bible as a book for living with one another and the Earth. For example, the story of the Tower of Babel which teaches man is uncooperative and warring so God separated man into different nations. Instead teach that God brought different nations together to cooperate on building together!
Stop teaching the Bible as a tool for exclusiveness and intolerance!

 

May it be so.

 

If you had bothered to read and try to understand what was being discussed and what I was saying, you would have seen that I was not in anyway denigrating Paul and only pointing out that the making of disciples did not begin and end with Jesus' eleven apostles but was still was being carried on by those, such as Paul and Barnabas, who were not there when Jesus gave the command at Matthew 28:16-20 to go therefore and make disciples of people of all the nations.

 

Well then, I owe you a beer,,

 

You can think anything you want but that is just not what was being talked about.

We've had this discussion before. If I were to call you a stupid ignorant lying snake in the grass, it would still be an insult whether you take offense or not.

And making insulting remarks is not a good way to remove barriers between people.

You can not lie? If you don't believe lies are even possible, I guess that is why you so readily accept the lie.

Only if everyone is in on the "joke". If not, then the one that does not know, is being lied to.

Yep.

Really?

And Ted Bundy should have just been given a pat on the back and told his behavior wasn't "bad" and set free so he could kill another 30 women. You really need to think these things through a little better, some behavior is just bad.

No, I do not. I have never been that fortunate.

Like what? Give an example and then show what you mean.

You need to start actually reading what is said before you comment. I did not say that you have the whole picture even though the picture is incomplete, I said; "you don't need to complete the puzzle to get the idea of what it is a picture of" and that is in no way contradictory.

I said nothing about even having the box or a picture of what the puzzle is to be; what I said was, as the puzzle is being completed, it doesn't have to be completed to get an idea of what the picture is. As in, look, I can see the outline of a red barn.

Once again we are not talking about God, we are talking about the word of God, the Bible and understanding it.

For me it was, is this all there is but go on.

That is Hindu thinking, not Biblical thinking.

Or paid ones, depending on whether you accept the ransom sacrifice of Jesus or not.

No ransom sacrifice? (Matthew 23:13)

 

Exclusiveness and intolerance? If there is only one way out of a burning building and I tell you so, are you really going to tell me that I'm showing exclusiveness and intolerance to the other exits of the building and go to another exit and die just to prove me wrong?

The Bible is many things, among which are many lessons about "living with one another and the Earth" but it is also a survival manual and if you fail to understand that part, as well as the "living with one another and the Earth" part you will not be around to enjoy the fruitage of the "living with one another and the Earth" part for very long.

 

Make it a good German wheat beer and all is forgiven.

 

OWB:

Good taste in beer has gone to your head.

How to survive God.

: D

 

Perhaps.

Why what has he done to you lately?

 

OWB:

Try ever! : D

 

You might try to make sense but then you might just show that you are only good at non-sense.

 

Does life and the world have to be framed as a burning building? Maybe Bible believers want the end times to come and subconsciously and preemptively are planning and instigating it. Look at the Israel problems and Bible believers predicting WW3. You are scripting history to fit your Apocalyptic nightmare.

 

Romans 15:1We, though, who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those not strong, and not to be pleasing ourselves. 2Let each of us please [his] neighbor in what is good for [his] upbuilding. 3For even the Christ did not please himself; but just as it is written: "The reproaches of those who were reproaching you have fallen upon me." 4For all the things that were written aforetime were written for our instruction, that through our endurance and through the comfort from the Scriptures we might have hope. 5Now may the God who supplies endurance and comfort grant YOU to have among yourselves the same mental attitude that Christ Jesus had, 6that with one accord YOU may with one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

World War 1 and 2 happened despite what many believed or wished. Actually, most believed before WW1 that the world was going to enter into a peace never experienced before in history.

Also, think of it this way: Many Jews wanted to have Jerusalem through Zionism but does that mean they subconscious and preemptively planned to instigate the holocaust in order to fulfill that wish?

 

If he couldn't, then he's not God.

 

Yes.

Perhaps you would like to think so but they are not. This crumbing world needs no help from true Christians to fall apart, it is falling apart just fine all on its own, just take a look around.

No, true Christians can just look at what mankind is doing and realize that it is not sustainable and that what is happening is what God foretold long ago, mankind doesn't even know how to direct his own step. Christians know that it is not hopeless, because just on the other side of what mankind has done in his "wisdom" there awaits a world based on love and understanding. Something that true Christians are practicing now in this system of things.