WHERE IS TRUTH?

Why are there so many…opinions…. arguments….debates….about what the scriptures mean?

Why are there over 30,000 registered Protestant denominations?

I am sure some know that there are several “Catholic type” religions around the world.

And then there are the non-denominational churches that number in the 100’s of thousands.

Then we have the heretical denominations, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Voodooists, the Calvinists. And the less organized denominations that are more or less “religious movements” the new age’rs, and what I call the new denomination.

Why is it so difficult to come up with a concise meaning for the Bible? This is serious business because it has inspired wars between the Catholics and the Protestants….The 30 year war fought in Europe and the conflict between the Protestants and the Catholics in Ireland that also lasted 30 years. And the deaths and casualties from these wars challenge the death tolls in the World Wars. How could the Bible be so confusing that it would fracture the Church of Christ and cause this amount of death and suffering?

There are answers to a lot of this, that will explain how all this happened and bring a lot of the scriptures into focus.

Explaining the numbers….

Actually if you look it up there are more than 50,000 registered denominations worldwide. Of course it stands to reason that there has to be duplicates….right? I have been interested in this for a long time and was happy when the topic came up while I was in collage, not by the professor, but by a student that had gathered information on this.

He estimated that 70 percent of these numbers were unintentional duplicates that were caused by regional naming. By duplicates I mean churches of very similar beliefs. Then 10 percent of the churches that split, were because of personality conflicts in the administration or the congregations. Of course there is a certain percentage of unknown causes, but the rest of them are mostly due to doctrinal differences. So then this reduces the number of denominations that actually have different beliefs significantly.

Some of the divisions involves the decision to focus on an element of salvation, a particular Christian event in the Bible, to focus on one of the members of the Trinity, styles of sharing the Gospels, or the type of administrative structure of the church. Still there are doctrinal differences between these types of churches that can include moral tolerances.

Still this does not explain how so many doctrines or beliefs can be rendered from the Bible. Over the past several months I have tried to highlight the answer to a lot of this confusion. One of my frequent saying in my book is that, “Someone should have noticed this!” Here on the forum I would go into where they were debating a topic and give them all the scriptures for both sides of the debate. And then challenge them to figure out why this is? I never got any takers

So here I have chosen one of the most divisive topics and I will give examples on how each individual wrote about both sides of the topic in the Bible, that is Christ and the Apostles

The topics;
Grace and Eternal Security and Sin and Punishment.

This is what the Apostle Paul wrote;

Paul---regarding Grace and Eternal Security

Roman 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Romans 8:38-39 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 11:29 For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.

1st Corinthians 1:8-9 Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

Roman 4:7: Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.

Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Ephesians 1:13-14 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Paul--regarding Sin and Punishment.
2Cor:5:10: For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

1st Corinthians 6:9-10 “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.”

Romans Chapter 6:14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under the law, but under grace & 6:18 Being then free from sin, you become the servants of righteousness.

Rom:1:32: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.

Rom:1:32: For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,

Romans 6:1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?

Galatians 5:21 “Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

The Apostle Peter
Peter—regarding Grace and Eternal Security

Peter in Acts 2:38-39 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”

1st Peter 1:3-5 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

1st Peter 3:17-18 For it is better, if God should will it so, that you suffer for doing what is right rather than for doing what is wrong. For Christ also suffered for sins once for all time, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;

1st Peter 4:10 As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace:

1st Peter 5:10 And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

2nd Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

Peter---regarding Sin and Punishment

2nd Peter 2:20-22 For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment handed on to them. It has happened to them according to the true proverb, “A dog returns to its own vomit,” and, “A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire.”

Apostle John
John---regarding Grace and Eternal Security

1st John 1:8-9 If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous, so that He will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

1st John 2:1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous;

1st John 4:15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him, and he in God.

John---regarding Sin and Punishment

1st John 3:6-1 No one who remains in Him sins continually; no one who sins continually has seen Him or knows Him. Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. No one who has been born of God practices sin, because His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin continually, because he has been born of God. By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother and sister.

1st John 3:24 The one who keeps His commandments remains in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He remains in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.

1st John 1:6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth;

2nd John 1:8-10 Watch yourselves, that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward. Anyone who goes too far and does not remain in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; the one who remains in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting;

Revelation 21:8 But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

John’s contrast scriptures that go from one end to the other.

1st John 1:6-7 If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.

1st John 2:4-6 The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever follows His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says that he remains in Him ought, himself also, walk just as He walked.

Yeshua Christ
Yeshua---regarding Grace and Eternal Security

John 3:16-18 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever

John 14:1-4 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going

John 5:24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

John 11:25-26 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

John 11:40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?”

Yeshua---regarding Sin and Punishment

Matthew 18:9 And if your eye is causing you to sin, tear it out and throw it away from you. It is better for you to enter life with one eye, than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fiery hell.

Matthew 7:21-23 Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; leave Me, you who practice lawlessness.’

The Sheep and the Goats
Matthew 25:41-46 Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’ “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

The Parable of the Weeds Explained
Matthew 13:36-46 Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.” He answered, “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the people of the kingdom. The weeds are the people of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. “As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears, let them hear.

The Parable of the Net
Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away. This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Mark 9:42-48
And whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea. And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.

John 3:36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

Now if you find yourself “liking” some of these scriptures but not the others, if you find the need to explain away some of these scriptures…you are in good company. Good Christians have been doing this for centuries, particularly since the Protestant Reformation, which pretty much was like taking a hammer to a large piece of Christian glass.

So still the question is why? Why is it so hard to understand the truth of the scriptures? A style! We all know how styles can be influential today. What you are seeing here is the religious literary style of the era. They were all formatting their epistles and letters using this style. This was the template of religious writings in the era. This is what people expected from religious writing of the era and people understood the meaning of these writings. You do not see early Christian writers acting confused about the Christian texts. They understood, but as time went on that understanding faded.

The religious literary writing was such that someone like Christ or Paul would speak or write about what could be called the extremes…or address the topic from one end of the spectrum to the other, as in the positives and the negatives. But then the accurate understanding being somewhere in the middle.

The Father loved us so much that He sent His Son to teach us what was right. To sacrifice Himself to establish a new relationship between God and Man. A relationship that could only exist if sin was truly forgiven and Grace could present us before God the Father as perfect. Because God the Father has no tolerance for sin, never has, never will. It is through His Son that we are put in a position to have a relationship with Him to the extent that as the Trinity, we are one with God…family members.

John 17:22 “And the glory which to them; that they may be one just as We are one.”

John 17:23 “I in them, and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, that the world may know that You did send Me, and do love them, even as you do love Me.”

1st Corinthians 12:11-13 “But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills. For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ.

So where is the Truth in the middle? Well there is some room for thought here, but the worst thing you can do when trying to understand the scriptures is subscribe to the notion that if it does not make sense, it is of God. If that were true there would have been no reason for the Bible. God is not the deity of non-sense. He is fully capable of communicating with us at our level. As I have posted before….

But the simplest, concept is that salvation is solid as a rock for your average Christian. Your average Christian will sin and ask forgiveness and Grace will cover that. And those sins are between them and Christ. Christ was sacrificed for a plan that would be highly successful.

But your average Christian is not going to be LGBTQ.
Your average Christian is not going to make a life out of drugs.
Your average Christian is not going to be an abortion doctor or staff.
Your average Christian is not going to be a serial killer.
Your average Christian is not gong to be a child molester.
Your average Christian is not going to get involved with the occult.

For Christians, sinful lifestyles hold the most potential for a path to hell. And there are those that take the side that if you can live a sinful lifestyle.... that you were not saved to begin with. Of if you can do the most evil of sins that you were not saved to begin with.
I am on the fence on this, I think it is possible for some of the cases.

So there you have it. Check it out. Look at other topics like judging and can you sin or you cannot sin. The two perspectives of women. For women Christ is going to set the precedence by example and then the Apostle are going to comment from the positive to the negative.

Understanding the religious literary style will provide a better understanding of the scriptures. So do not get hung up on the extremes, look for the truth in the middle that makes sense.

The hyper Grace crowd makes no sense because heaven would be no place for good people or God because it would be full of the worst evil that Satan could muster.

The hell and brimstone crowd makes no sense because Christ did not sacrifice Himself on the cross to send most to hell. It would literally defeat His purpose.

Now, admittedly not all Fundamentalists will be able to accept this explanation … sola scriptura, right! So for them just deserves…their religion will continue to be like tying the tails of two cats together and throwing them over a clothesline…haplessly inclined to be in no agreement. Yes, history repeats itself.

The humorous side of this is poor John Calvin. This literary style frustrated him so much that he finally through his hand up in air and gave up! Thinking only God knew what the scriptures meant, he could not figure them out and figured no one else could either. So since God knew no one could figure them out and it would not be their fault, God chose to determine who would be saved and who would be damned before the creation of all things and then locked it down with predestination. So for him, all of the world, all of reality was a preplanned puppet show…every human, every animal, every snowflake. At that point neither scriptures nor Judgment Day held a lot of meaning.

Randy Kluth said:

I'll be happy to take you up on any and all offers of this kind. However, to ask a dozen questions at once, and expect an answer that will be read by anybody is a bit much!

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There are not dozens of unanswered questions here? I provide all the answers. read through it.

Randy Kluth said:

So you raised the issue as to why there are so many different views of things in the Church. And the answer is not as simple as just quoting Scriptures on the topic. If it was this easy, they would've been resolved a very long time ago.

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That would be correct.

Randy Kluth said:

So I just spoke to the reason for all of the divisions, and left off dealing with any of the many issues you may want to deal with. If you want to deal with Eternal Security, then I can deal with that. But just quoting the Scriptures that seem to you to deal with it is naive. The issues are much more involved than that, and involve how each group looks at how these passages are to be interpreted.

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You missed the point. I am not dealing with any topic. The discussion is about the religious literary style that was used in the New
Testament. The style that Christ, Paul, John, and Peter used to address the topics. They each presented the "extremes" of each topic and that the truth is in the middle. In other words on this topic,

Hyper-Grace.........................................................Salvation..................................................................Hell and damnation
The process of Salvation being defined as in Philippians 2:12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

Taodeching said:

It's not but man are rebellious and want to do things their own way. It happened in the garden, happened in Israel, and happens in the Church age. Mankind is a rebellious lot and will not obey.

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I am all for blaming the boyz, but it does not really matter who picks up the Bible they can have trouble understanding. So the point is, that there is something missing. Something that we do not see people having just shortly after the biblical era. You do not see early Christian writers...ie up to 250 AD, having issues with the scriptures or debating the things you see on this forum. They understood because they understood the religious writing style of the time period.

Yan said:

Indeed @Grailhunter because protestant in US itself some of them were part of the incoming Knights Templar of Europe, that's why USA was based on Freemasonry.
It seems the whole world was dominated from Roman, there is no original Christian in this world as we were all the children of the world. Muslim itself was part of Helenistic religion of Rome that worship Baal & Ishtar, Jews today was not an original jews. We were prey each other today when somebody got Holy Spirit and called as annointed, as the New World Order taught to make an enmity to whoever called as an annointed to be as anti-christ (Matthew 5:10-12). It might be Jesus was crucified because they were put a false allegation to Jesus as an ally of Satan (Matthew 11:18; Mark 3:20-26; John 7:19-23; John 8:48-50; John 10:19-21). So, we should ask ourselves are we all the children of Evil One ?
Jesus come to destroy all evil of the world, where the world is the place where evil fight evil and we all lived in a divided world (Matthew 12:24-26).

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The topic is about what happened in the biblical era. The style of writing used in the New Testament.

marksman said:

Before the Bible was available for everyone to read, the interpreter was the local priest, apart from the fact that most people could not read. That meant there was only one interpretation, that of the priest. And as the priest held all the straws, his word was never challenged.

Then along came the protestant reformation and the idea that you could do your own thinking. Thankyou very much and that is what we did. That is when we found out that what the priest said wasn't quite what the scriptures said. He only said what the church told him to say.

The church was still the servant of the government and was controlled and ruled by it with the appointing of seats of authority in the church. Promotion was based on who you know not what you knew. Even today the Archbishop of Canterbury is chosen by the Prime Minister of England.

And then came the evangelical reformation. What were commonly known as the nonconformists. They put the cat amongst the pidgeons because they had this idea that if you don't like my understanding of scripture I wil start my own church. In my country Australia there are pentecostals and then there are pentercostals.

What is the difference? Not much, just a correction here and a correction there. Overall they are the same and they give someone the opportunity to start up something after their own interpretation of things. You can have five different pentecostal churches in one town and their only difference is one particular aspect of one belief, but outside of that they are....pentecostal. The sad thing is that they believe that they are one up on the other four because of this one particular emphasis.

So what am I saying here? Just this. Once the ball is rolling it is hard to stop it. Rebellion creeps in and all sorts of beliefs and styles develop.

Did you know they had denomonations in the New Testament Church? Yes that is right. Paul said some of you follow this one and some of you follow that one and some of you follow the other one. Paul was adamant. No way. That is not the way to go about things. If Paul was here to day and said the same thing do you know how most people would respond? Up yours. We are going to do what we are going to do.

I tried to unite the local churches in my town in evangelism. Each church provide someone to sit on an evangelsim task force and when we deicided on a particular course of action each church would offer the resources that they could. No pressure. Their response. Go away. We are the ministers so it our job to decide what happens.

Spoke to the ministers in the next town with the same idea. They discussed it and thought it was good idea but rejected it because they were too busy running their churches. I don't remember saying they had to sit on the evangelism task force. Perhaps they were afraid it might show them up for being useless.

Fact. Jesus said he woud build HIS church and the gates of hell would not prevail against it. He NEVER said he would build OUR church. The ball has rolled so far that most churches today are not HIS church.

If we want to run OUR church, God is not going to stop us, but don't expect him to visit us anytime soon.

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Like I said, there is more than one reason why there are so many denominations but what I am pointing out is a religious literary style that was used in the biblical time period....and that style was also how they spoke the Gospel. Christ, Paul, Peter, and John all used this literary style were they would take a topic and talk or write about the extremes of the topic. In that day, people understood that the meaning was in the middle. But that understanding was lost within a few centuries.

Today people read the Bible and see the extremes written and chose one of them to form beliefs. Usually they embrace one extreme and ignore or explain away the other. This is why when they debate on various topics on this forum, each can present so many scriptures for the other side of the extreme.

You can take a topic and go into the Bible and see that each person, whether it be Christ, Paul, Peter, or John and see that they spoke of each end of the extreme. I picked the topic of Ultra Grace as opposed to punishment of hell for sinners and then posted the supporting scriptures from each person that practiced this religious literary style.

Both of these scriptures are from the Apostle Paul...

Roman 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Galatians 5:21 “Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

This is the issue. Without adding a whole lot of words to these verses, they are in contradiction to each other. This presents a problem for the Fundamentalist's that hold to sola scriptura because neither of these scriptures are entirely accurate. Not to mention the fact that most have issues with believing that scriptures contradict each other. The problem is that these types of scriptures fill the New Testament because everyone in the New Testament is using this religious literary style.

It is obvious as you watch the debates on this forum where some presents very clear scriptures and the other side presents very clear scriptures...and then they try to explain away each other's scriptures by adding words to the scriptures. This is not the way to understand the Bible or form a religious belief. For one thing you spend your life tap dancing. You cannot harmonize scriptures by adding words to make them conform to your beliefs. Sometimes the context of the scriptures will help clarify, where "hard statements" are followed by verses that "soften" it, so to speak.

The back to the basics Bible concept....Fundamentalism....was a reaction to the Catholic Church's false doctrines, corruptions, and atrocities. In this regard, Fundamentalism was highly successful and needed to happen. But it put the early reformers back in an era, more than 1500 years before them attempting to reevaluate scriptures written in a Pagan language. A different culture and time period. They saw sola scriptura as getting back to the truth of the Bible, but they did not know about this religious literary style...so each scripture was understood on it on stand alone merit. They did not know that the truth was somewhere in the middle of these extremes and they had to constantly pretend that there was no contradictions. They handle that in different ways...they explain way the opposing scriptures by adding words or just simply ignore the contradictory scriptures, and the fact that it seems contradictory. When in fact they are only contradictory in words not in meaning, because everyone in Bible was writing to the point that the truth is in the middle. It cannot be proposed that the sola scriptura approach has produced a uniform understanding of the scriptures.... because ergo, thousands of denominations and millions of personal beliefs.

There is no possibility that this is all a coincidence because everyone is doing it and it happens dozens of times with several topics. And again this is further proven because the early Christian writers that knew the Apostles or were close disciples of such were not having any problems understanding the scriptures because they understood the style.

People are going to have problems with the idea of unwritten truths. True in a lot of cases but it is not like the biblical authors do not at times address the middle. For example;

1st John 1:6-7 If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.

1st John 2:4-6 The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever follows His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says that he remains in Him ought, himself also, walk just as He walked.

1st John 3:6-10 No one who remains in Him sins continually; no one who sins continually has seen Him or knows Him. Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. No one who has been born of God practices sin, because His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin continually, because he has been born of God. By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother and sister.

1st John 2:1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:

You can look at the scriptures that I presented at the beginning of the thread and see this style in motion. You can look at other topics and see that they practices this literary style. When you are debating, consider the verses that the other person's presents. Are they not of the Bible? What do you have to do to explain them away.

The reason I present this is to let people know that there is a truth, that you can believe in. And secondly we can reduce the agreements if we better understand the scriptures.