Well again, as I state in the video - Which stream of theology's books are you reading? I dont know your personal beleifs, but theoretically, its just as possible that you have been reading books which have made you incorrectly interpret the bible, as opposed to correctly interpret the bible.
Well again, as I state in the video - Which stream of theology's books are you reading? I dont know your personal beleifs, but theoretically, its just as possible that you have been reading books which have made you incorrectly interpret the bible, as opposed to correctly interpret the bible.
... and that is my point - who are you to dictate that books are either 'correct' or 'incorrect'?
But, perhaps I'm 'off track' again.
__________________ Not all those who wander are lost
Well again, as I state in the video - Which stream of theology's books are you reading? I dont know your personal beleifs, but theoretically, its just as possible that you have been reading books which have made you incorrectly interpret the bible, as opposed to correctly interpret the bible.
Red herring. Correctly has nothing to do with it. I am speaking about the DEPTH of engagement, which is the only way to speak of engagement with religious literature, for the simple reason that the Bible is not a science textbook.
We can argue until we're blue in the face about which interpretation is "correct," but if we stick to the original discussion about Christian books causing Christians to read the Bible less, my personal experience is a vote to the contrary. And you need to accept it like a man.
__________________
...Do not let me hear
Of the wisdom of old men, but rather of their folly,
Their fear of fear and frenzy, their fear of possession, Of belonging to another, or to others, or to God. The only wisdom we can hope to acquire Is the wisdom of humility: humility is endless.
Well I dont know if you will class this as evidence, but firstly I am speaking from personal experience.
My personal experience and observation of people around me speaks of exactly the opposite, so you'll need to do a lot better than personal anecdote to make your point.
Take this hypothetical. Lets take a group of faithful christians from say 150 years ago, in a time before they had a christian bookstores in most towns (like we do in many places in the west today). And contrast this to a group of faithful christians today in modern day west, who have access to the libraries of christian books. Assuming each group spend roughly an EQUIVALENT amount of [reading based] "quiet time" with God each day/ week etc.
[my clarification in square brackets]
Trouble is, that assumption is not self-evidently true. One needs to show it to be true before one can build off it.
I could ramble on, but I think ive made my point.
Um, no you haven't. You've made some whopping great assumptions.
__________________ "Goodness is stronger than evil,
love is stronger than hate,
light is stronger than darkness,
life is stronger than death,
victory is ours through him who loved us."
(+Desmond Tutu)
I've seen the phenomena of what you speak of concerning people choosing to read Christian books over The Bible. These people (from all of my experiences) have little understanding of theology and are not grounded. With that being said, there is nothing wrong with reading Christian supplements to The Bible, in my opinion. It should never take the place or substitute the final authority of The Word of God.
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"The Devil cunningly induces us- instead of arousing us against himself-to notice our neighbors' sins, to make us spiteful and angry with others, and to awaken our contempt twoard them, thus keeping us in enmity with them, and with the Lord God himself."
+ + +
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It really isn't until relatively recently that people have even had Bibles in their homes. We should certainly not neglect the wonderful blessing of having our own Bibles but also shouldn't act as if we think we are the only one through which the Holy Scripture guides. If we lock ourselves in a closet with the Bible we can come up with all kinds of crazy ideas and the guy next store in his closet will come up with crazy ideas that contradict your crazy ideas. Bible in the closet interpretation results in even more interpretations than are found in major denominational lines. There are some denominations that have given up on the Bible completely but historically most of the denominations regarded the Bible as their primary source of doctrine. The differences were a result of what they considered to be the primary teaching of Scripture and how Scripture should be read.The use of commentaries and other good Christian literature can deepen our understanding of Scripture and show us how others have understood different passages. If we come up with some new way of understanding of a passage that nobody has come up with before then we are probably wrong since God has promised to guide the church through the Holy Spirit. The ecumenical creeds like the Nicene Creed also provides a window into what the Apostolic Gospel looked like in the early church and provides a good paradigm for interpreting Scripture. In the early church most only had access to Scripture from the readings in church and the liturgy. They received guidance on how to understand the Scriptures from their pastor who had received the Apostolic message from someone else and so on until someone received the message from one of the Apostles. I've met people who have huge chunks of the Scripture memorized and competed in Bible but have absolutely no idea what they mean. Most of the books at the Christian bookstore are garbage and not worth the paper that they are printed on but that does not mean that there are not good Christian books.
__________________ Poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese. - G.K. Chesterton
I think the OP's main point is that Bible is the only book that can claim the status of the Word of God. As such, it should take precedence in our meditative choices. I agree completely that this should be the case.
I don't think that we need to never read a Christian Book, but we do need to be careful which ones we read. There are many which are misguided and filled with false teaching. One needs to be very strong in God's Word in order to discern whether an author is twisting Scripture. In order for that to be the case, more time spent in God's Word than Christian books is a very practical necessity.
I disagree with the previous poster who stated that "If we lock ourselves in a closet with the Bible we can come up with all kinds of crazy ideas and the guy next store in his closet will come up with crazy ideas that contradict your crazy ideas." If we have the Holy Spirit, the bible tells us that He will guide us into all truth. No of course, if we're not truly Christians because we lack the Spirit in the first place, then yes, we'll come up with strange ideas. But if we are abiding in Christ, we can confidently search the Scriptures for truth ourselves.
__________________ That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Philippians 3:10-11
I think the OP's main point is that Bible is the only book that can claim the status of the Word of God. As such, it should take precedence in our meditative choices. I agree completely that this should be the case.
I don't think that we need to never read a Christian Book, but we do need to be careful which ones we read. There are many which are misguided and filled with false teaching. One needs to be very strong in God's Word in order to discern whether an author is twisting Scripture. In order for that to be the case, more time spent in God's Word than Christian books is a very practical necessity.
I disagree with the previous poster who stated that "If we lock ourselves in a closet with the Bible we can come up with all kinds of crazy ideas and the guy next store in his closet will come up with crazy ideas that contradict your crazy ideas." If we have the Holy Spirit, the bible tells us that He will guide us into all truth. No of course, if we're not truly Christians because we lack the Spirit in the first place, then yes, we'll come up with strange ideas. But if we are abiding in Christ, we can confidently search the Scriptures for truth ourselves.
This!
__________________
Peacechild4: "I am breaking through to the blessed life, Satan you might as well get on up out of my way."
“He will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers.” // Malachi 4
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