Entries for September 3, 2009

can people really be trusted to interpret the bible for themselves? or should an established authority structure mandate interpretational guidelines?

i'm sometimes told that my biblical interpretations are inaccurate because they may not agree with somebody else's. i also seem to get many contradictory interpretations regarding one scripture unit or another from different people who don't agree with each other.

often when i ask many people questions about particular scripture...

vnct

how does one tell if any given text is symbolic or literal?

for example, the book of revelation also refers to the 'tree of life' in a manner similar to the genesis account:

Revelation 22:2 (New International Version)
down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.

Revelation 22:14...

vnct

i sat down in a church service tonight, to listen to a pastor friend of mine whom i've known for twenty years. i don't attend all of his services, but only a few once in a while. he often asks me to come and listen to his sermons.

tonight, the pastor made an assertion that conservatives constitute christians and that all christians are conservatives. he further referenced that liberals are those who are resolutely against christianity and the truth. and that moderates are somewhere...

vnct

i'm trying to figure out if the soul is more physically-based or more spiritually-based. i'm hearing two different viewpoints from people in general, and trying to reconcile the two if such a thing is possible. several scriptures have been quoted, but definitions and contexts may vary, and thus possibly interpretations of such verses. if the soul is physically-based, then it would seem to die with the physical, but if the soul is spiritually-based, then it would seem to be eternally spiritual. or...

vnct

is the person of the Holy Spirit omnipresent everywhere? for example, is the Holy Spirit omnipresent within the righteous and the wicked? within animals, plants and rocks? within heaven and hell? or is the Holy Spirit only half-present? location-specific? not everywhere at once? only in some places but not in others? is it the Holy Spirit who animates the physical part of a human being? is it the Holy Spirit who holds the molecules of a human being's body together?

i'm differentiating...

vnct