by REBORNAGAIN 28 Replies latest jw friends
Wow.....good point. I learned that in college, that people back then called on the clergy because they themselves were uneducated, couldn't read and depended on them for the correct answers. For all we know, the Bible may have contained all the answers we seek, but got lost in translation and otherwise.
BTW. Thanks everyone for your thoughts and opinions. I'm appreciating it all. Gives me more to think about and compels me to continue to search, seek and learn.
LINDA
I would say that the Bible must come from God because I want it so, I need a spiritual direction and other holy books don't appeal to me. Since I believe there must be a God (if not nothing makes sense), the classical JW reasoning whereby He must have left a message to humans doesn't embarrass me. So, my trust in the Bible is very subjective, nothing like a compulsive necessity nor a glaring evidence. Just convenient.
Hello Linda. I dont think the bible is from God. I used to but living 55 years. Having read the bible cover to cover 5 times taking notes and doing lots of research. I conclude its just part of the greatest scam con game ever played on mankind. It's the main tool of religion. Its an instrument to support the clergy class so they can avoid manual labor. It's a tool to extract a 10% tax from everyone who falls under its GODSPEll.
The great thing is that we live in the information age you are on the innernet. You can google your questions is the bible the word of God. Then you can weigh your answers. I call it all part of a spiritual journey. Going to the kingdumb hall was like being in Kindergarden.
I say I dont think the bible is from God in the way I think you asked the question.
In another way I say everything is from god and we are all God having a material experience. I strongly suspect we reincarnate. I think we are spirits having material experiences.
Linda, you seem to be in a good frame of mind, open to other's ideas and questioning what you've thought to be "true" in the past. You might look for commentaries on the bible from different sources. Certainly there are many Christians of different stripes that view the bible differently. The fundamentalists tend to take every passage litterally, which pretty much destroyes its continuity and legitimacy (IMHO). There are other non-christian comentaries which generally are pretty negative as responses to the bible thumpers that tend to be dogmatic and "in-your-face". I read many of these in my quest for understanding for years and finally gave up as it was all just too much claims and counter claims getting nowhere. Not until I began reading commentaries by Baha'i scholars did I re-kindle an interest in the bible and how it fits in with other "holy" writings. Now I have no trouble accepting it as an "inspired" compiliation of scripture, however, I take most all of it as metaphor and story telling that focuses on the principle being expoused rather on the accuracy or scientific verifiability of the details. I hope you can maintain your openmindedness be fair in your judgement as you seek what is true for you. carmel
Chappy I believe the scripture you had in mind was Romans 2: 12 - 16: 12 For instance, all those who sinned without law will also perish without law; but all those who sinned under law will be judged by law. 13 For the hearers of law are not the ones righteous before God, but the doers of law will be declared righteous. 14 For whenever people of the nations that do not have law do by nature the things of the law, these people, although not having law, are a law to themselves. 15 They are the very ones who demonstrate the matter of the law to be written in their hearts, while their conscience is bearing witness with them and, between their own thoughts, they are being accused or even excused. 16 This will be in the day when God through Christ Jesus judges the secret things of mankind, according to the good news I declare.
"Is the Bible really from God"
No.
It was written by human fingers, with ink and paper made by human efforts.
It has been translated by human minds, into languages which minimally survive cross-translation.
It has been interpreted by human thinking, overlayed with millenia of obfuscation and denial.
In all these phases, "God" has had no demonstrable effect (pray as we have for It to so do).
We (us mere humans) created the Bible, the Koran, the Bhagivadghita, etc., in our own minds, as a necessary construct of our own existence.
This is the hard reality which we must all face.
I was pretty astounded when I realized that none of the accounts of the apostles were written while Christ was alive... but rather many years later. I was even more astounded to know that there were OTHER scrolls which were decided to be NOT part of the bible... by whom? BY THE POPE. Yes, the history of the bible is not to be glossed over by faithful ones.
Here is a video on the subject... pretty interesting, really.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2061773048178434620
A very dear friend of mine says this in her website, I think she has expressed it beautifully.
"The Hebrew Bible, the Gnostic Gospels, the Christian and Apocryphal Gospels, the Koran, the Bhagavad Gita—we use them and others from more recent sources. We never take them literally. We do not consider any of them to be "the word of God" or a final authority. We do not see them as "God's laws," but as men's laws. They are many voices with varying degrees of consciousness expressing, with whatever they could, their vision of the universe and its source. Each the voice of its culture and times. Each colored by its political and social condition—often tainted with fear and the effort to demonize enemies or to justify actions and the establishment of new beliefs. Each a cry for hope. All longing for God. Much in them is of great beauty and wisdom. We recognize and acknowledge the value of these ancient mythologies. By mythology, we mean something that while not necessarily factual, is nevertheless true. They point not to one time and event in history but to the ever-recurrent realities of the soul. As we discover more about evolution and the universe, new meanings arise. The old mysteries, as they unravel, eternally disclose new ones to be unveiled."
http://www.gnosticsanctuary.org/who_are_we.html
Cheers...
Baba.
Thanks for the link BabaYaga...I'll listen to it on the weekend when I have more time. COOL!
LINDA
NO
