Why is the bible so murky and confusing?

[Nancy]

The ten commandments is straightforward. Many of Jesus' commands are too. But much of it is very convoluted, as evidenced by the debates here on interpretations.

Why did God make it this way?

Hi K9,
In my own opinion, I think that God wants us to seek Him "diligently". If we continue to seek, pray and build our faith...He sure will open up the scriptures to us...cannot say that I understand the large majority of them yet and, one could spend several lifetimes and still not understand fully, much of it...seek, knock..."and you shall find"!
So many pearls hidden in the Words of God.

Hebrews 11:6
"6 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."

 

[K9Buck]

Hi K9,
In my own opinion, I think that God wants us to seek Him "diligently". If we continue to seek, pray and build our faith...He sure will open up the scriptures to us...cannot say that I understand the large majority of them yet and, one could spend several lifetimes and still not understand fully, much of it...seek, knock..."and you shall find"!
So many pearls hidden in the Words of God.

Hebrews 11:6
"6 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."

Oh I absolutely believe. As I said, my faith isn't based on the bible. With that said, I would love to better understand it.

 

[K9Buck]

I believe there have been some solid explanations to my question. I appreciate it.

 

[bbyrd009]

but all the "thou shalt nots" still apply!

fwiw i mostly agree with you ok, even if you do speak in hegelian

 

[bbyrd009]

"10 For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:"
Isaiah 28:10

8 For all tables are full of vomit [and] filthiness, [so that there is] no place [clean].
9 Whom will he teach knowledge? and whom will he make to understand the message? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts?
10 For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, there a little.
11 Nay, but by [men of] strange lips and with another tongue will he speak to this people;
12 to whom he said, This is the rest, give ye rest to him that is weary; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.
13 Therefore shall the word of Jehovah be unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, there a little; that they may go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.

 

[Nancy]

8 For all tables are full of vomit [and] filthiness, [so that there is] no place [clean].
9 Whom will he teach knowledge? and whom will he make to understand the message? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts?
10 For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, there a little.
11 Nay, but by [men of] strange lips and with another tongue will he speak to this people;
12 to whom he said, This is the rest, give ye rest to him that is weary; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.
13 Therefore shall the word of Jehovah be unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, there a little; that they may go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.

Myeah...I see what you mean here..."in context"...deleted it.

 

[marksman]

quite interesting to hear you say that, being as how you still believe you might go up to heaven after you have died, right?

My body will go six feet under. As for my Spirit still working on that one.

 

[Brakelite]

I have no doubt that @bbyrd009 will correct me here, but here's my take on the so called murkiness in scripture.
God has allowed the scriptures to be written in as Mark said, a certain dialectic. And this has a purpose. It enables God to teach truth to some, and hide it from others. For example. The Jews, all of whom knew the scriptures quite well and allowed their children to attend synagogues and schools to be taught by the "scholars", did not recognise Jesus when He came. They killed Him instead, and used scripture to justify it. Yet there were some, and of course Jesus Himself, who could and did present those very same scriptures and come to a completely different conclusion. Yet both sides would claim to be taught and inspired by the Spirit... And both would be right!
KJV Matthew 13
13 Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
14 And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:
15 For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

And if God had taught all Israel Truth, and they accepted Christ, who's to say that history would be better for Gentiles without that blindness coming upon Israel?

And what of today? We have in this forum people claiming to be led of the Spirit, opposing one another, who's to say this is not intentional on Gods part seeing they all use the same scripture to support different concepts and doctrines?
I guess that is why we are not judged by what we believe or by doctrines we keep, but by our character... Fruit.

 

[Brakelite]

Further to the above... Why do some believe error even though they have scripture before them? Dull hearts. They are not ready for truth because truth may even destroy what faith they now have. God is patient, He doesn't require we all believe the same thing at the same time. We all have our own growth rates. And when we grow and mature, and we are able to stand in truth, then He reveals that to us... Using the very same scriptures that before we understood quite differently. Even the disciples themselves were not ready for everything God wanted to show them.

 

[Sabertooth]

Why is the bible so murky and confusing?

You have to get the Decoder Ring, too...!

Jesus said,
"And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—
the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him;
but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you." John 14:16-17 NKJV

"But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name,
He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you." John 14:26 NKJV

 

[bbyrd009]

Myeah...I see what you mean here..."in context"...deleted it.

man, but what do we put in its place though huh?

 

[bbyrd009]

My body will go six feet under. As for my Spirit still working on that one.

imo its the life/soul part that we inevitably ID with that is the prob?
but you say all the rest offer only unmitigated nonsense, and id like to suggest that that may not be entirely true; the Bible doesnt really offer a lot of direct advice on how to dissolve the ego, and even seems to skirt the issue, at least when reading literally--although i guess there are many indirect refs.
point being that there are other disciplines that do, where they incidentally reason in the Naive dialectic, unlike us

 

[bbyrd009]

I have no doubt that @bbyrd009 will correct me here, but here's my take on the so called murkiness in scripture.
God has allowed the scriptures to be written in as Mark said, a certain dialectic. And this has a purpose. It enables God to teach truth to some, and hide it from others. For example. The Jews, all of whom knew the scriptures quite well and allowed their children to attend synagogues and schools to be taught by the "scholars", did not recognise Jesus when He came. They killed Him instead, and used scripture too justify it. Yet there were some, and if course Jesus Himself, who could and did present those very same scriptures and come to a completely different conclusion. Yet both sides would claim to be taught and inspired by the Spirit... And both would be right!
KJV Matthew 13
13 Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
14 And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:
15 For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

And if God had taught all Israel Truth, and they accepted Christ, who's to say that history would be better for Gentiles without that blindness coming in Israel?

And what of today? We have in this forum people claiming to be led of the Spirit, opposing one another, who's to say this is not intentional on Gods part seeing they all use the same scripture to support different concepts and doctrines?
I guess that is why we are not judged by what we believe or by doctrines we keep, but by our character... Fruit.

word

 

[Trekson]

it is put as "armor" because you are itching for a fight i guess lol
anyway take it up with whomever wrote "the battle is over" i guess?

meanwhile, if you were to describe this "armor" you might see the little trick that is being played there imo; so describe the armor in detail if you would ty

you are swimming in the law, every time you open your mouth you make a law, no offense meant. I guess you would call the cops if someone was walking on your grass lol

well i cant disagree there, but i suggest that all you will do is clean the outside of the cup with your current understanding, ok; iow you will not describe the armor in detail, lest it clash with your current understanding, and etc. Jesus is your co-pilot right now, eh? You are still firmly in control iow, still speaking as if you know something, basically deliberately putting a chip on your shoulder? My suggested therapy for that is, go talk to BoL!
narf

sin is the preoccupation of the religious imo; forgiveness, not so much

although i would certainly agree that one would cease taking advantage of others, and etc, and i would give a wide berth to anyone interpreting "i can no longer sin, it is not even possible"

Your quote: "although i would certainly agree that one would cease taking advantage of others, and etc, and i would give a wide berth to anyone interpreting "i can no longer sin, it is not even possible" I have never come close to suggesting that. I'm not refusing to describe the armor, I don't see the point. It would be simpler if just showed your imagined little "trick" you believe is there. Some sins might take 20-30 yrs. to overcome but we got to keep trying until we get the victory. Jesus tells us to take up our cross and follow him, the cross is the battle against sin. See 1 Co. 10:13.

 

[charity]

bc Scripture is written in the Naive Dialectic (think Tao), only that is obscured in order to hide wisdom from the wise; but some more obvious examples,
God is our judge
God is not our judge
provide for your family
dont work for food
Christ died for our sins
No son of man may die for another's sins
etc

'The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul:
the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.'
(Psalm 19:7)

Hi @bbyrd009,

I don't understand such terms as 'Naive Dialectic' or 'think Tao': but looking at the list of what you perceive to be contradictions, I would have liked to have looked them up, had you provided a reference, for the context of each would have shown the reason why each one was said, thereby explaining their 'apparent' contradiction. For I believe that God in no way contradicts Himself, and it only appears so because we have not sufficiently explored the reasons for their use.

Thank you
in Christ Jesus
Chris

 

[Yan]

The law has nothing to do w/it. We are to obey Christ and strive to become more like Him. While we will never become sinless, as we mature in Christ we should strive to sin less!

Yes, but bible nor the priests was never mention about the temptation from the beast of this world, isn't it ?
Many are told, that the source of the sin are from within ourselves, but because of the law itself was spiritual (Romans 7:14) then we made focus to our obsession to obey the law, the devil always uses wave to whispering our mind to covet, and our mind is similar to computer server which will do everything as told. The attack of the devil/Evil one of this world will mostly used psychological warfare and false flag propaganda by using the main stream media and the method is similar of using brute force attack or dDos (distributed denial of service) attack into our mind to make our mind tired and burdening our heart & feeling to become hurt, and the hurts are make as a cleft for the devil to trap our will as the devil's prisoners. No wonder, many korean artists are made suicide because of dDos attack of hoax into their private lives.

 

[CharismaticLady]

The ten commandments is straightforward. Many of Jesus' commands are too. But much of it is very convoluted, as evidenced by the debates here on interpretations.

Why did God make it this way?

"Study to show thyself approved."

Don't just leave it up to denominational pastors to tell you what God's word says and means.

 

[CharismaticLady]

'The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul:
the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.'
(Psalm 19:7)

Hi @bbyrd009,

I don't understand such terms as 'Naive Dialectic' or 'think Tao': but looking at the list of what you perceive to be contradictions, I would have liked to have looked them up, had you provided a reference, for the context of each would have shown the reason why each one was said, thereby explaining their 'apparent' contradiction. For I believe that God in no way contradicts Himself, and it only appears so because we have not sufficiently explored the reasons for their use.

Thank you
in Christ Jesus
Chris

I found one on google:

Naïve dialecticism contains certain concepts that distinguish it from Western thinking and beliefs, specifically they have different beliefs about change and contradiction. Dialectic thinking involves treating the world as consisting of co-existing extremes or opposites (e.g. hot/cold or light/dark).

By that definition it is what I have been teaching, that many on here take offense to. The apostles were "Eastern" thinking, but most of us are "Western" thinking. You must know the Semitic writing styles of the east to understand what an eastern writer is meaning. Such as 1 John 1:5-10 are contrasts of light/dark. Many westerners believe the dark 1 John 1:8 is describing a Christian, even though the light next verse shows cleansing of ALL sin, taking us from sinner to saint - a child of God, 1 John 3:1.

Light: 1 John 1:5, 7, 9
Dark: 1 John 1:6, 8, 10

But, I'm far from "Naive." Naming that definition must have been made by a westerner. LOL Though, to be honest, I am clueless as to what "think Tao" means. Tao, New Mexico????

 

[bbyrd009]

Your quote: "although i would certainly agree that one would cease taking advantage of others, and etc, and i would give a wide berth to anyone interpreting "i can no longer sin, it is not even possible" I have never come close to suggesting that.

that was meant to be an agreement with you

I'm not refusing to describe the armor, I don't see the point.

It would be simpler if just showed your imagined little "trick" you believe is there.

Some sins might take 20-30 yrs. to overcome but we got to keep trying until we get the victory. Jesus tells us to take up our cross and follow him, the cross is the battle against sin. See 1 Co. 10:13.

well, as long as you're fighting there is a battle i guess, ya

 

[Behold]

The ten commandments is straightforward. Many of Jesus' commands are too. But much of it is very convoluted, as evidenced by the debates here on interpretations.

Why did God make it this way?

God didnt make the bible confusing.
The devil is the author of confusion, and there is your issue. #1.

Also, "debates on interpretations", are not caused by God.
This again is caused by the devil.

God didnt create things to be confused, but he did create them to be discerned.
God, the Bible, and all spirituality is to be discerned.
When its not, you get 40,000 denominations, 300 Bible Versions, the cult of Mary, and all the rest of the "confusion".

Here is how it works.
God is A Spirit.
This Spirit, is Holy, and it does not interact with unbelief.
What God does, is He puts Himself inside the born again. Then He teaches you how to discern His word, by revealing it to you.

Its very difficult to find your way through all the man made, and all the fake spirituality.
99% dont, and so, that is 99-1 who are not only confused but causing confusion, inside the body of Christ.