Can I be Christian and Not Believe the Bible?

katerinah1947 said:

Hi,
GiveMeAReason is the host here, and as such he/she will be given every privelge as a host. He/she will also be given every kindness as he/she has demonstrated that towards everyone here so far. Therefore if I answer anything he/she asks me, it is never off topic.
LOVE,
...Mary., .... .

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Hi Mary, I posted this because another poster said "back to the topic" then went on to state something that was not "on topic".

Catherineanne said:

Exactly the same as here. You ask them to pray alongside you, and then you pray to God.

The saints in eternity stand before the Throne of the Lamb, and intercede for the world constantly. That is their role (and indeed ours) after leaving this world. See Revelation.

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How do you ask them?

JacksBratt said:

How do you ask them?

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Same as I would ask you; Jack, kindly pray for me.

It is up to them, as it is up to you, whether they agree, of course.

Givemeareason said:

We wonder if we are alone by seeking things beyond us. If we are alone, what reason would there have been for God to have existed before us?

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To me it is more the other way round. We experience a kind of inner certainty that there must be more; we cannot be the apotheosis of creation because we are far too imperfect. And when we look to find something greater, there it is.

Which will sound like gibberish to some, but what can you do?

Givemeareason said:

Why do we stop seeking when we think we have found God? This is my problem when I see people waiting on prophecy.

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I 'found' God many, many years ago. But I have never stopped trying to find the right path to follow; that is a natural part of life; to try to work out who we are in relation to the world and God, and to then become who we are meant to be.

Prophecy, meanwhile, is irrelevant. The Bible says that we are not meant to see the future, and when we look back in our lives we can see the wisdom of this, I think. It would be far harder to carry on if we knew everything. In other words not having prescience is a blessing to us from God.

whereisthetruth said:

Jesus was always humble in relation to his Father. That doesn't always translate to appearing as humble before men. We are called to be humble before God, but our relations with men can span a wide range of expressions, including anger. Anger is neither arrogance nor sin if it is in response to the leading of the Holy Spirit, as was always the case with Jesus.

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The Holy Spirit will not tend to lead men into anger; that is a rationalisation.

It is immensely dangerous to think that because the Lord was angry once or twice, therefore it is fine for us to be as well. Imo such thinking is highly unlikely to be true. Anger did NOT come naturally to the Lord, but it comes very naturally to the rest of us; it does not need any help from the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will bring what is NOT so natural to us; love, joy, peace, faithfulness, goodness, gentleness and self control.

At a time when we feel tempted towards great anger, we must look deep within for the quiet voice urging self control; that is the Holy Spirit.

Givemeareason said:

Jesus became angry not because of what was done to him but by what he saw being done to others. And to me that is the soul of Christianity. Which is why his second commandment was issued, was it not? While Jesus loved so very deeply that he could empathize with all humanity. He also despised the sociopaths.

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The Lord may have despised what sociopaths did, but I suspect he had great pity for them. He knew the path they were on, and that it was not a good one.

Kirsten said:

I don't disregard any of Scripture. Saying "good luck with that" is not only snarky, it is rude.

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... in your view. Others may have different views. Personally I think it is rude to attempt to change the name of Jesus to something else entirely, and I have tried to explain why. I am not sure why you have a problem with my doing that.

I suspect if I said 'Peace be with you', you would find that snarky too.

Peace be with you.

Givemeareason said:

But Jesus was not always humble and even became angry. Should we not do the same lest we be trampled on by the noisy ones?

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This is a good question.

The problem with the goodies becoming angry and noisy as well as the baddies, is that there is no way to distinguish between them. In effect we all become the same, and as the Lord said, 'The tree is known by its fruit.' If our fruit is anger and noise, then we are part of the world, not part of the solution.

It is only by rising above what comes naturally and becoming something else that we can distinguish ourselves from the angry, noisy crowd. By moving away from the crowd and being quiet. By praying. By seeking to know the will of God, and then to follow it. And most of all, by not believing everything we are told by people with a vested interest of some kind.

St Anselm said, 'God is that, greater than which we cannot conceive.' So if you can ever conceive of a better, more moral, more compassionate, more forgiving God, then that is necessarily the right direction to go; the only problem is he will be even more moral and compassionate than we can ever imagine. But that is the path to follow.

Kirsten said:

Summoning the spirits of people who have died in the flesh is strictly forbidden.

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Indeed so.

And your point is ... ?

Meanwhile, here is Revelation 7:9

http://biblehub.com/revelation/7-9.htm

That multitude is interceding for the world. They are not 'spirits of people who have died in the flesh'. They are living Christians; far more alive than either you or I. And their prayers join with ours; Christians never pray alone.

Putting it another way, I do not call 'spirits' down to stand beside me as I pray; it is the other way round. I stand before the Throne of the Lamb with the multitude, and we pray together. As indeed do we all.

Givemeareason said:

Then either there is a lot more beyond our recognition of God or God became lonely from not having anyone to love before we came along??

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The Christian God is God in three persons; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. These three are constantly pouring out sacrificial love to one another, and are complete in themselves. God does not lack anything, or need anything, and he did not become lonely; there is nothing that we can give him that he lacks; he is complete and perfect. But he still likes it when we try to show him our appreciation for his creation, and for our lives and blessings.

We might say he had so much love that he wanted to share it with creation; that is a possible way of putting it. And that he wanted a free creation, not just a collection of puppets.

Catherineanne said:

Is this really the way to address a young Christian who is new to the faith?

I really despair of people sometimes.

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It would appear, there is a certain brand of Christians who forget these two points of scripture:

-he who is without sin.....................
-take the log out of your own eye............................

Givemeareason said:

I am onto you. Why is it that businesses that display Christian logos and such are not to be trusted? I never frequent a business of that sort. And Christian's that do are very gullible in my opinion. Maybe they are treated ok... I don't know. But anyone displaying the cross for personal gain needs to be harshly reprimanded.

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I have no issue with a business owner deciding to display they are a Christian in their business. It is their business and if they want to make it public they are a Christian, so be it.

Now, as long as this Christian treats all customers equally, I have no problem with it.

Givemeareason said:

You are saying we seek because we fear? I think you are saying we seek because we fear we have no purpose. So if that is true why do we often stop seeking. Is it because we are afraid to discover that our fear will become real?

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Fear is a great motivator and for some depending on one's psyche, can be the driving force in how they go about seeking faith.

bhsmte said:

It would appear, there is a certain brand of Christians who forget these two points of scripture:

-he who is without sin.....................
-take the log out of your own eye............................

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I am pretty sure we all do both; I certainly do. But it would be nice to try to do it a shade less when speaking to someone young in faith.

Catherineanne said:

Same as I would ask you; Jack, kindly pray for me.

It is up to them, as it is up to you, whether they agree, of course.

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At this point I must politely say that I disagree, totally, with this concept. There is no Biblical basis or backing for such an action.

As another poster, here, stated, this is forbidden. We are warned about trying to communicate with the dead.

Colter said:

* LOL! I've always loved that excuse making "
dictated to Moses by God, with the exception of the last eight verses of Deuteronomy, which describe the death and burial of Moses.

* One had to wait till the end of the Bible to find the unattributed letter to Timothy by an unknown author who gives an opinion......Timothy wasn't even scripture yet until the church decided it was.

* The end of the Book of Revelation was for that book, it was common to say that back before copyright law.

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I'm sorry that you feel that scripture is a reason to "LOL"

Since it is apparent that you do not accept the Bible as the "God Inspired Truth" or "The Word of God", or as anything other than the written words of religious men......I have no more to say. We are at opposite sides of the spectrum on this.

Givemeareason said:

I wonder if all gods are but manifestation of the One God. And perhaps each god were the manifestion that was needed at that time. And in following the old testament we are following something that is no longer needed.

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A question for you: You will not seek the one true God, but seem to have an interest in other gods. Why is that?

Givemeareason said:

Do Christians sometimes wonder if we collectively are God?

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No. This is another of the typical atheist or agnostic thoughts and beliefs.

Givemeareason said:

Do Christians sometimes wonder if we collectively are God?

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It's totally the opposite of the Biblical account of the origin and nature of God and of Man. What's more, I can't recall a single self-described Christian who's advanced this theory or know of a single Christian denomination that holds to it.