Are you interested in Bible Congruence? (page 7)

SweetBabyCheezits

I see that the Bible has a clear message throughout. The OT shows God's wrath towards the wicked, but also His desire for people to come to Him. The NT shows God's love for people, and yet His wrath towards those that supress truth. Revelation contains much of the same sort of wrath that God showed towards the godless in the OT. The angels pour out vials of God's anger on those that will not serve Him.

BD, c'mon, dude. You didn't really address my earlier questions about the conficts in principle. Here's what you said:

Every seeming contradiction can be answered in a reasonable way (at least the ones that I have researched).

You know that isn't news to any of us. JWs taught the same thing. But let's just take one of those contradictions: why did God need to "show his wrath" by slaughtering infants and children in the OT? How wicked were they? If the men who wrote the bible said that he violently raped a baby to show the pagans who he was, would also be righteous since he's God? Any conduct attributed to God is perfect and just, right? Where do you draw the line in rationalizing away horrific acts with "his ways are higher than our ways"? Don't you think Muslims have some similar expression about Allah to rationalize his atrocities?

There's a reason that some of us on here give Christians such a hard time: Because we see similarities between JWs and those who believe the Bible should be taken literally as a book to live THROUGH.

Think about the fact that you'd like to expose fallacious thinking of a JW (other than your wife). You realize that at one time you saw things the way they do but now you want to help them recognize the lunacy of it. And you can tell when they avoid facing the issues that present a cognitive dissonance. They can rationalize away failed prophecy, changing doctrine, and the unloving act of shunning just as easily as you rationalize away a loving god who authorizes rape.

PSacramento

The bible doesn't need to "agree" with itself to have value.

Indeed, some of the value of the bible is that, at times, we see a progression of understanding of certain thinsg, like the state of death and the after life and what is after the "afterlife".

The bible is NOT a book that was designed to be without error in the sense that we give it, the message of God is there and while the message itself has also "progressed" in the understanding of the writers, cummulating in Christ, the message at times was "manipulated" by Man, hence we have the warnings and the punishments on Man for what they did.

The bible can have "contridictions" in it sense the writers, though insipred, were still only men and wrote as best they could for their intended audience.

Sometimes what seems like a contridiction is simply a misunderstanding ( the flood was NOT global yet "all the land" was covered) and other times it can be a manipulation of the scribes, an example being what seems to be Paul saying that women have no place leading a church and yet, in othe rpalces exalting women for doing just that.

That is why it is crucial to read the bible with clear understanding of what we are reading, who worte it and who it was written for AND, as Christians, to read it with Christ in our heart because by doing that, knowing that God is Love and Christ is love, we can easily spot what IS and what is NOT.

sabastious

Interesting take, AGuest.

-Sab

Inkie

SweetBabyCheezits:

With all due respect. I am curious.

I have one question to ask you. Have you yourself actually and in truth read for yourself the accounts written in Bible about how wicked the Egyptians and the inhabitants of Canaan were?

That's my question. Thank you.

--Inkie