The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom

[go_deep]

For in him were created all things in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers;
all things were created through him and for him.
He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
Colossians 1: 16-17

 

[Dos Perros]

Honestly, that's the part of having faith.
I don't know how a nuclear bomb works, but do I believe it exists? Yes

Oh. I know how a nuclear bomb works.

The Bible contains the words of God, yes? And they were put there by men that God spoke to. Were those men merely transcribers, or did they interpret and understand and architect the various books?

 

[Shortschaf]

Were those men merely transcribers, or did they interpret and understand and architect the various books?

The Holy Spirit speaks through the prophets and the many authors of the Bible.

In this way I don't think one could say they were interpretting anything but their own divinely inspired thoughts. Perhaps interpreting dreams, but then that would be a divinely inspired interpretation

Those authors maybe did or did not fully understand where their book landed in the full canon of revalation. Guessing that only a select few did.

The architect of the Bible was the Holy Spirit

 

[Dos Perros]

FWIW, I have severe problems with the theory that chemicals mixed together and created initial life, and that everything evolved from some singular common ancestor. What a crock. DNA alone is so intensely complex. It'd be like putting a scrap of cardboard under an ink rain and ending up with a Monopoly board, complete with rules and pieces of fake money.

 

[intunegp]

How would you all feel if someone wrote a book today containing words of god and claimed they were as spoken to them by god himself?

I guess a more direct way of exploring this would be to ask how you feel, as Christians, about mormons and Joseph Smith?

FWIW, I have severe problems with the theory that chemicals mixed together and created initial life, and that everything evolved from some singular common ancestor. What a crock. DNA alone is so intensely complex. It'd be like putting a scrap of cardboard under an ink rain and ending up with a Monopoly board, complete with rules and pieces fake money.

So you're skeptical of something you find hard to believe because of the complexity and seemingly unlikely nature of it?

 

[go_deep]

Oh. I know how a nuclear bomb works.

The Bible contains the words of God, yes? And they were put there by men that God spoke to. Were those men merely transcribers, or did they interpret and understand and architect the various books?

Yes, the Bible contains the word of God, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ words and directions.

I'm not going to sit here and try and make something amazing up, or pretend exactly like I know. I wasn't there, I don't know if these men transcribed to the best of there abilities what they saw and heard, or they were pointedly asked to write/document these things?

Here's what I do know. They have found numerous scrolls of the same books of the Bible that carbon date hundreds, sometimes thousands of years apart, hundreds, and even sometimes thousands of miles apart. There are nearly zero discrepancy in any of them.
And when you read about the places and people of the Bible, archeologist have found proof of the majority of them existing.
Myself, I don't see it as a fluke.

I don't ask anyone to believe, but I will not do anything to move someone away from God. If your asking questions, and or questioning the validity, first off, no one will ever understand everything, so it's okay to question, or have questions. The other thing I'd through out to people is take time to research the people, places, and traditions of those cultures in those moments in time. To me once you start to see that non biblical archiologist have found proof of these people, in these places, and these specific places existed, and then you understand the culture of the time, reading the Bible becomes easier to understand.

The culture part is extremely important. Some of it sounds crazy to us at a glance of what's written in the Bible, but if we just look back a 100 years here, the meaning of certain words has changed, there's new words even, technology is unreal, how we dress, cook and store food, it's all changed, so it's definitely changed drastically in a few thousand years.

This isn't just for you, but it's way easier for me to have a phone call to talk about some of these things. I certainly don't have all the answers, but happy to listen, help where I can, and try and find an answer where I don't know.
If anyone wants to talk, pm me, I'll send you my number and we can.

Peace be with each and everyone of you!

 

[Dos Perros]

So you're skeptical of something you find hard to believe because of the complexity and seemingly unlikely nature of it?

I believe it to be physically impossible.

 

[dylanvb]

A visual representation of why I believe the Bible is Gods word. I recommend you look into these and come up with your own conclusions.
As many have said before you have to have faith. You cannot be saved without faith in Jesus Christ.

“But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”
‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭11‬:‭6‬ ‭NKJV

 

[Yoder]

The Bible specifically says morning and evening for each day as well the Hebrew word for day meaning a 24h period. If you don’t take creation literally it seems like a slippery slope to me.

I don't believe God is like a prosecuting attorney. I think there are a few major laws that are important. I don't think I'm going to hell for not believing dinosaurs are only a few thousand years old. Most of the Bible I can't even understand, how should I be held accountable for that? I'm learning and trying. That's the best I can do. God promises we will all be judged fairly at the end and I believe that.

 

[Dos Perros]

View attachment 903922
A visual representation of why I believe the Bible is Gods word.

Have you ever seen an air craft carrier? Man is capable of incredible things. I don't say this to discredit your belief, I think there are other even stronger reasons for faith, that's just not the one I would point to.

 

[UpNorth89]

The simple truth is that nobody knows how the universe was really created and most likely never will. Every scenario at this point is still just theory.

 

[molliesmaster]

Have you ever seen an air craft carrier? Man is capable of incredible things. I don't say this to discredit your belief, I think there are other even stronger reasons for faith, that's just not the one I would point to.

Do you know what the picture he posted represents?

 

[Yoder]

The idea of going to hell for not believing in Jesus kept me from Christianity for the majority of my life. I would always pose this scenario everyone has heard 100x. So a man who lives a virtuous life. Obeys the commandments better than almost anyone and has never even heard of Jesus is going to hell? But someone who repents at the end that was a terrible person like the thief on cross goes to heaven? That would be completely unjust.

That whole thing is not true. The Bible even makes exceptions. It's more like the more you know, the more you are held accountable. Even in the old testament God would spare gentiles for being ignorant of the laws.

I think this is also why most modern day miracles happen in third world countries or places where Christianity is not the religion. They don't have access to the information, so God shows them. Iran is an example of this now from what I've read. Hundreds of thousands of Muslims are converting to Christianity. (Unless it's all a lie, it's hard to know what's true anymore) We can read the Bible at any moment on our phones. We have no excuse.

 

[dylanvb]

Have you ever seen an air craft carrier? Man is capable of incredible things. I don't say this to discredit your belief, I think there are other even stronger reasons for faith, that's just not the one I would point to.

I know man can do incredible things through the gifts God has given us but this graph is a visual representation of the correlation between all the books of the Bible. The Bible has 40 different authors and was written over a span of 1500 years.

 

[Yoder]

Do you know what the picture he posted represents?

Jordan Peterson talked about it. It shows how each book of the Bible relates to all the others. What makes it incredible is how they tie together with so many different authors and how many years went by between each book. He explains it way better.

 

[dylanvb]

No one in this thread or outside of it can tell you what to do, we can only provide you with the evidence that we have seen in our own lives as proof to why we believe in Jesus Christ. This is also why most Christians come off as hard headed or “close minded” when it’s comes to these conversations because we cannot deny the “miracles” that have happened to us on a personal level.

 

[Beagle1]

Do you believe in right and wrong?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yes along with just punishment. If a daughter disobeyed her parent and ate what was forbidden in her household is it a just punishment by the father that she and her female offspring for every generation going forward be subjected to chid birth pain and subjugation by men. If you, a family member or friend engaged in adultery no matter what the circumstances would death be the just punishment. This should not even be worth a discussion in 2025 but unfortunately it is and the reason has more to do with believers than nonbelievers.

 

[Dos Perros]

Do you know what the picture he posted represents?

I do...well I'll take a crack it and you tell me if I'm wrong.

It's a visual representation of all the links/references from book to book (considering that the Bible is a conglomeration of many books).

 

[Shortschaf]

So a man who lives a virtuous life. Obeys the commandments better than almost anyone and has never even heard of Jesus is going to hell? But someone who repents at the end that was a terrible person like the thief on cross goes to heaven? That would be completely unjust.

"Baptism by fire" is the mechanism that answers your question. Good people who have never heard of Jesus could certainly receive heaven for all we know

It is reasonable to hope that hell is empty. It is not in man's capacity to ever truly know how final judgement is passed

I would not recommend people misconstrue that as a hall pass for sin either

 

[intunegp]

Anybody want to take a crack at this one?

How would you all feel if someone wrote a book today containing words of god and claimed they were as spoken to them by god himself?

I guess a more direct way of exploring this would be to ask how you feel, as Christians, about mormons and Joseph Smith?