The Purpose of the Bible

[Hidden In Him]

That is where you and I might have a disagreement. I believe the Word of God is those places in the Bible where God and Jesus are directly quoted. I believe we need to obey everything they say.

I seem to recall you saying something like that. But the word says all scripture is God-breathed. Do you not believe much of the Bible is rightly to be called scripture? I can show you through many quotations from Jesus that it is.

 

[Raccoon1010]

But we need to keep things simple enough to understand. The Lord gave us a few commandments to follow. If we follow them, I think we find heaven.

OK keeping it simple... to answer your OP, to follow the teachings in the bible is to know God. We better understand him by serving God and obeying the commandments. Then we get blessed with the fruits of the holy spirit, by which we come to understand God as much as humans are capable of. Galatians 5:22-25

 

[Bob Estey]

I seem to recall you saying something like that. But the word says all scripture is God-breathed. Do you not believe much of the Bible is rightly to be called scripture? I can show you through many quotations from Jesus that it is.

When you say that that scripture is all God-breathed, I believe you quoting Paul, which, I believe, is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

 

[Bob Estey]

OK keeping it simple... to answer your OP, to follow the teachings in the bible is to know God. We better understand him by serving God and obeying the commandments. Then we get blessed with the fruits of the holy spirit, by which we come to understand God as much as humans are capable of. Galatians 5:22-25

The Bible is a helpful tool, but we still need to get to know God.

 

[Raccoon1010]

The Bible is a helpful tool, but we still need to get to know God.

Yes that's true. May I ask how you get to know God?

 

[Hidden In Him]

When you say that that scripture is all God-breathed, I believe you quoting Paul, which, I believe, is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Alright, then next question: Do you believe the Holy Spirit is God?

 

[Bob Estey]

Yes that's true. May I ask how you get to know God?

Constant prayer (1 Thessalonians 5:17).

 

[Bob Estey]

Alright, then next question: Do you believe the Holy Spirit is God?

Yes.

 

[Raccoon1010]

Constant prayer (1 Thessalonians 5:17).

I was never able to get to know God that way very much. Only when he speaks to me do I get to know a little about him. By the fruits of the spirit I know that he loves us and is patient in long suffering when we sin. I learned a lot more thru obedience to his will and serving him thru charity.

 

[amadeus]

Correct, God is not a book. But now, how can you say your loyalty is to God if you do not listen to what He says?

Remember mjrhealth! He was on this subject continuously on this forum. He's been gone about a year now...

 

[Bob Estey]

I was never able to get to know God that way very much. Only when he speaks to me do I get to know a little about him. By the fruits of the spirit I know that he loves us and is patient in long suffering when we sin. I learned a lot more thru obedience to his will and serving him thru charity.

Obedience is important, but I would recommend constant prayer.

 

[DancesWithGnostics]

Holy Spirit is God

Act 5:3

But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land?

Act 5:4

Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.

 

[Hidden In Him]

Yes.

Alrighty then. And you believe that the Holy Spirit could speak through others, including the apostles?

 

[Hidden In Him]

Remember mjrhealth! He was on this subject continuously on this forum. He's been gone about a year now...

Yes, I remember. :)

Maybe it's the spirit of Mrhealth raised from the dead, kinda like with Elijah and John the Baptist.

 

[quietthinker]

Is the purpose of the Bible to help us to know God better, or is that we should do everything the Bible tells us to do? If you say, "Both," which would you consider to be more important?

Maybe it's to tear out the parts we don't like?.... What! did I say that?....Ok, don't tear those parts out.....just ignore them as if they aren't there!....annnnnnd, don't ask uncomfortable questions when I do!

 

[Bob Estey]

Alrighty then. And you believe that the Holy Spirit could speak through others, including the apostles?

God speaks through all of us, I am sure, including the apostles. He might be trying to get you to teach me something right now, or for me to teach you something.

 

[Bob Estey]

Maybe it's to tear out the parts we don't like?.... What! did I say that?....Ok, don't tear those parts out.....just ignore them as if they aren't there!....annnnnnd, don't ask uncomfortable questions when I do!

I would recommend you never ignore the passages that quote God or Jesus.

 

[amadeus]

Yes, I remember. :)

Maybe it's the spirit of Mrhealth raised from the dead, kinda like with Elijah and John the Baptist.

I don't believe mjrhealth is deceased. He is simply not on the forum anymore. I still communicate with him periodically... him [as well as with Pia] (both Australians). With regard to this issue, I essentially agreed with him.

Jesus is the Word of God. The Bible is like the lifeless body hanging on the cross with no power while dead. Jesus resurrected from the dead.

When the words of scripture are consumed by a man and quickened by the Holy Spirit then within the man, they are resurrected to Life becoming then the Word of God. On that point, not many agreed with mjrhealth, nor me, nor now @Bob Estey ...

If a person both eats his flesh and drinks his blood, it may not matter. The problem for many I see is like Satan talking to Jesus too often they quote the unquickened words of scripture insisting they are the Word of God. With the Spirit, where is the Life?

"Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;
Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." II Cor 3:5-6

 

[Hidden In Him]

God speaks through all of us, I am sure, including the apostles. He might be trying to get you to teach me something right now, or for me to teach you something.

Ok, this is good. But now, the reason I was asking is because if you acknowledge that God spoke through the apostles, then you at least have to honor the concept that some of what the apostles wrote in scripture is the word of God. And then it becomes a matter of deciphering what things they said were the word of God and what things they said were merely the word of men. This creates as situation where you are essentially rewriting scripture, which is IMO a mistake that leads to and has led in the past to heretical teaching. The Gnostics were terrible about this. "This verse is inspired, this verse is not," and then twist the daylights out even the ones they said were to fit into an occult interpretation and reinvention of what "Christianity" actually was.

I can't condone a Christianity that opens the door to that. For me, either the True and Living God was able to establish through the early church what was truly the word of God or He wasn't. As Paul told the Thessalonians, "We also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men but the word of God, as it is in truth."

 

[Hidden In Him]

I don't believe mjrhealth is deceased. He is simply not on the forum anymore.

Yes, I was kinda joking around : )

Jesus is the Word of God. The Bible is like the lifeless body hanging on the cross with no power while dead. Jesus resurrected from the dead.

When the words of scripture are consumed by a man and quickened by the Holy Spirit then within the man, they are resurrected to Life becoming then the Word of God.

Ok, now this would be a bit of a different argument; a differentiation between Rhema and Logos. But I think the word of God is still the word of God even when it is not believed by others. As the scripture says, "Let God be true and every man a liar." For instance, I think the prophecies regarding the end-times are true and will come to pass, even if most of the unbelieving world currently does not.

The problem for many I see is like Satan talking to Jesus. Too often they quote the unquickened words of scripture insisting they are the Word of God.

For me it goes back to let every man be a liar, which Satan is notoriously for, and the Father of. :) When Satan quoted scripture he misinterpreted it, so Jesus did not rebuke him for the Scriptures themselves which he quoted but for how he interpreted them. The solution is in discerning the word of God from the falsehoods men and the Devil insert into it.