"It is what the scriptures say" is one of the most open-ended statements going. Depending on who's interpretation?
This is the reality of Protestantism. Don't try to figure it out just come up with an opinion. Then the next opinion, then the next opinion....then 500 years later you have 30,000 opinions. No offense LOL But if intelligence was involved....after a while someone should have noticed that it was not working! LOL 500 years! Give me a break!
What do you think Christ and the Apostles would say about that process.....30,000 renditions of the Christianity?
If you and I lived back then and walked with Christ and the Apostles, a lot of what is in the Bible would be easier for us to understand. And what people believed and understood back then did not come from the Bible. The first bound Bibles were the 50 Bibles of Constantine, that was the mid 300's. People back then (in the biblical era) learned and were taught mostly by word of mouth. Sure they had a few pamphlets. They were told what to believe and they were told what to do and they did it. Shoot we have people on this forum that pick the process of salvation apart, suggesting that baptism and communion are not necessary. It makes you wonder if they can even read.
So now 2000 years later, we are not part of that culture, do not speak that language, and most do not understand the difficulty the Apostles had with conveying Christianity in a Pagan language. Most do not understand the religious literary style of the time period.
If we were to be transported to that time period, that world would seem very alien to us.
There is a very systematic approach to biblical study, and it is not Bible only. To study the Bible only is nearly a commitment to not understand the scriptures. Sound strange? You need to have a working knowledge of the languages....good books! It takes time. You need to be knowledgeable of the cultures. I point out that nowhere in the Bible is there a requirement for a wedding or vows to be married. That shocked the tar out of them! But it is common knowledge in Biblical studies. People have some very strong beliefs and there is no telling where they get them. So you have to understand all that and the history of it all. A systematic approach. If that happened, we would not have 30,000 denominations.
The concept that scriptures are open to interpretation is a plan to fail! Sure there are scripture that are vague and their meaning not easy to understand. But you do not turn those scripture into a fertile bed for speculation and wild interpretations. Systematic, you set them a side for further research and as you go along you dig into it. The designation that God gave Eve has baffled people for centuries. The phrase, You shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk, has baffled people. There is an answer for that.
What you do not do, is make foundational beliefs from vague scriptures and not even from most stand alone scriptures....you must hate your mother and father to be a disciple of Christ....For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it. Few! From the perspective of the biblical era! Wow!
Systematic....do not give up until you find the truth!
