Do you mean what people in general are taught or just certain people.
...
Assurance of salvation is the bedrock of my relationship with God so I find it hard to understand how it must feel not having that foundation to ones faith. Kind of like standing on quick sand at times perhaps to not be able to grasp or recieve that truth solidly and completely. ... As a person with OCD do you struggle in this area? You seem pretty confident. gg
I'm Orthodox. We're the Church that wrote the Bible.
The First Ecumenical Council, neatly compiled all the texts you now see in your Bible and the writers of the Bible are a part of our Church.
We have not, nor have we ever, nor have the Catholics, nor had anyone until around the 1500's, taught that the Bible is the
actual Word of God (that's Christ/God Himself). We do not believe, nor have we ever, that it is necessary to read the Bible to come to know God (Einstein came to believe in God through mathematics and physics...etc, though he didn't come to have a full understanding).
Consider this. If the Bible is the
actual Word of God (above or equal to Christ/God Himself), why does it not say so anywhere in the Bible itself (it does say it's inspired)? Surely, it's own authors, as they were writing, would've been
aware of this wouldn't they? Wouldn't they have written that down? Or at least, passed it on? I mean, many of them held quite some sway in the Church.
The First Ecumenical Council of the Holy Orthodox Church compiled all the Biblical texts which you now see. Surely, they would've known if it was the
actual Word of God (again the
actual Word of God is Christ/God Himself). Why didn't they ratify it? They ratified belief in The Trinity; belief in the Trinitarian God. So why didn't they list belief in the Bible as the
actual Word of God as dogma also (it is the Word God second hand, but not first hand)?
Nobody,
ever, taught that the Bible was the Word of God first hand
until...around the 1500's. That's when the belief first appears.
If St. Paul, Mathew, Mark, Luke & John, early Church Fathers, Ecumenical Councils...etc. believed that the Bible was the
actual Word of God first hand, that their writings were equal to Christ (though they were in agreement with Christ), they sure kept quiet about it.
Who is the Word of God? God. John 1:1
My point? My point is that the Bible is highly metaphorical and difficult to understand. So I don't usually bother to read it.
As for what I said about people's modern-day interpretations of the Bible, it makes me roll on the ground moaning. People have used the Bible to justify all kinds of crazy beliefs.
I've read a story from a woman who endured all kinds of abuses and shouting and yelling from her husband (he even banned the celebration of Christmas). Why? Because the Bible says he's the head. She stayed with her abusive husband, because the Bible told her to (so she says). Then one day, her eldest daughter tried to commit suicide and she had an awakening.
She left her husband, and became an atheist. She says that in her abusive lifestyle that she lived the fullness of the Christian Faith and so on... now she's a devout atheist.
That's where the Bible took her (or her interpretation of it, she was a fundamentalist btw).
The Bible's been used to support slavery, subjugation of women...etc. The list just goes on and on and on.
Then I see this forum and people are griping and moaning about what they read in the Bible. It just makes me roll on the floor in frustration to see these people pick out these verses in the Bible and talk about how God no longer loves them and how He punishes the wicked...etc...etc.
Christ came in the flesh and died for us because He loves us so much. But
ohhhhh what's this? Oh a dirty word, uttered against The Holy Spirit? Oh, I'm afraid forgiveness doesn't extend to you my friend!!!!!
They believe God's Eternal Love is so conditional, that you have to be
soooooooo good to earn a ticket to Heaven. And of course they have all these Bible verses picked out.
As an Orthodox Christian, I know that hate is antithetical to God's Nature. And I know that hate, and those who employ it, know neither The Holy Spirit, nor the Divine image they are imprinted with.
No, you won't find that in the Bible, nor will you find any mention of The Trinity. But not everything is in the Bible.
Anyhow, I can't stand it anymore, the way people make God out to be this super selective bureaucrat, or war-monger, which He's not. So I created a thread which lists an anonymous Christian Counseling resource, which I'm hoping that people here will start taking advantage of. It helped me immensely, I used to struggle with similar fears of God. But now I think I can safely say I've seen those fears on their way out the door.
EDIT:
Just to clarify my beliefs on the Bible. The Bible comes from Tradition. It is not
the Word of God (that's Christ or God Himself), but it is the Word of God written down by human authors. So it's the Word of God, second hand. Furthermore, only the Bible in it's original languages is inspired, it's many, many,
many translations into foreign languages are not.
For more information, visit here.
LINK
