If the Bible was written more clearly, would there be a need to preach? (page 3)

real one

Wow! WtWizard, I agree with every word you just said!

Narkissos

If... anything were different, everything would be (slightly) different...

The fact is that a century-old practice of dealing with a complex collection of writings, with all the interpretation, criticism and discussion this requires, has made the Jewish and Christian (especially Protestant) minds what they are -- and that includes (admittedly against many sections of said "Book") our taste for democracy, intellectual questioning and irony, and corresponding distaste for totalitarianism and authoritarianism.

We can love it or hate it but that's where we have to start from.

myelaine

If the Bible was written more clearly, would there be a need to preach?...

ummm...it is a book...and we are sent to preach:

"For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved." How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written:("How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!"Isaiah 52:7) Romans 10:14

So...Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops. Matthew 10:27

love michelle

p.s. Anti-Christ said "...Why not just communicate directly with people? God can do anything right?"...Jesus was a miracle worker and a preacher too! Matthew 11:1

real one

beautiful

changeling

Sure, but then the road leading to salvation would not be "hard and cramped". God would not have as much fun watching puny little humans tryng to find it.

changeling :)

loosie

I agree. it's so called life saving message should be easy to understand with no interpretation needed.

But that would let the interpreter have any control over how the common folk understand it. therefore he or she couldn't put their spin on things to get you to follow them. I think that this is just one more point to show that it was written my man and not a surpreme being.

AGuest

is not the Bible, dear ones. The problem is OUR hearing abilities... or, rather, the lack thereof. Myelaine quoted a very appropriate verse:

"What I WHISPER TO YOU IN THE DARKNESS..."

We have been SO conditioned to believe that God and Christ do NOT speak to us. And yet, that demons can. Well, I'd like someone to explain to me just how THAT is: demons, who have NO authority to do so can speak to us, but God and Christ who have ALL authority... cannot . Oh, c'MON!!!! That is WHY we are considered "deaf." Because we don't HEAR. We REFUSE to.

So that when God and Christ DO speak to us... we dismiss it with every excuse under the sun: "I was talking to myself" - "Something told me" - "I don't now how I know/knew, but..." "I think the demons are speaking to me." Yada... yada... yada.

Credit to everyone: ourselves... even demons... but none to God and Christ. Anything "bad" goes to demons; anything "good"... goes to us. My heart cries for us. Because we ARE deaf... and blind. We just can't seem to get PAST THE FLESH. Why? Because we keep clinging to it. We keep needing IT to "verify" everything for us... even that which is of the SPIRIT... rather than relying on the SPIRIT. The flesh, however, is the ENEMY of the spirit - it is our JAILKEEPER. It is led by its own desires... as well as its own cyncism, skeptism... and UNfaithfulness. It needs to SEE the holes before it will believe. It needs to have the Law written... on stone/paper tablets... rather than allowing it to be written on our HEARTS.

If you could just put away that LIE... that God and Christ do NOT speak... and ALLOW yourselves to HEAR... then you would be one step closer to going through the Door, getting through the Narrow Gate... and being on the Way.

One can attend meetings, and go out in service, preach from the pulpit or door to door... and read one's Bible... until Hell freezes over. But one would do MUCH better to get the SENSE of the words of my Lord:

"Sacrifice and offering you did NOT delight in; These EARS of mine YOU EXCAVATED [OPENED UP] for me." Psalm 40:6

There are so many versions and translations and transliterations and interpretations of the Bible... and scripture... because folks choose to lean on their own understanding... rather than LISTENING to the One whom God SAID we should listen to. And the reason they don't listen... is because they don't BELIEVE (i.e., they LACK FAITH)... that he speaks. Well, for those who "believe" in the Bible, I offer you this verse (since you need to see it in writing):

"See that YOU do not beg off from him that IS speaking. For if THEY did not escape, who begged off from him who was giving divine warning UPON earth, much MORE shall WE not if WE turn away... from him WHO SPEAKS FROM THE HEAVENS." Hebrews 12:25

And where IS the "heavens" from which my Lord speaks to ALL of us? Again, for those who need to SEE it... in writing:

"Do you people not know that YOU... are God's temple?"

"However, you are not in harmony with the flesh, but with the spirit... IF God's spirit TRULY DWELLS IN YOU."

"In UNION with him, you, too, are being BUILT UP together into a place for God to INHABIT... by SPIRIT."

"If anyone loves ME, he will observe MY word, and my Father will love him and WE SHALL COME TO HIM... and make our ABODE... WITH HIM."

"Look! The kingdom of God... IS WITHIN YOU."

"REMAIN IN UNION WITH ME... and I in union with you."

"He that REMAINS in union with me, and I in union with him, THIS ONE bears MUCH fruit. Because APART FROM ME... you can produce NOTHING at all."

"He that eats MY flesh and drink MY blood... REMAINS IN UNION WITH ME."

"KEEP doing this in remembrance of me."

God SPEAKS to us... THROUGH His Son... IF we do what He and that Son said we NEED to do in order this to occur. They do not speak outside in the air of the physical realm. Christ... is a SPIRIT. And so it is with OUR spirit that he communicates... by means of holy spirit. And he does so from above the ARK... of [OUR INDIVIDUAL] COVENANT WITH GOD... the "seat" of our motivation... our hearts. THAT is where the TRUE Law is written by God, through Christ... and not on tablets of stone or paper. THAT is what we must "examine" day and night, in order to discern what has been written there... and then to PUT FAITH in it.

Or... we can continue walking... by sight. Gazing upon temples made with hands, golden calfs constructed to substitute for God while we wait for our "mediator" (Christ) to "return" (come) down from the "mountain" (Zion), stone and paper tablets... and all other manner of idols and images.

As for me, I will keep my eyes on the Christ. For just as Moses raised up the copper serpent in the wilderness, God has raised up this One, and nothing or no one else, so that whosoever keeps his gaze on HIM... will NOT die. And we have ALL been "bitten," dear ones... at some time or another... by the OFFSPRING of poisonous vipers.

May any one with ears to hear hear... and get the sense of it: God's Spirit, the HOLY Spirit... Christ... IS alive. And he speaks.

I bid you all peace.

A slave of Christ,

SA

JimmyPage

If you were a loyal Dub the Bible would be an open book for you. Except for the mysterious word "generation". The definition of that has changed three times since I've been alive.

If the Bible was written more clearly, would there be a need to preach?

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