I have to second what Nomad says here in that if we discount the Bible as the inspired Word of God, exactly what do we know from God?
I see your dilemma. If you believe that the church is not apostolic or capable of passing down information about Christ; any attempt to view the Bible in a different light would be perceived as an attack on the truth.
Do we then jump to some of the mystical experiences?
I do read mystical accounts of God and I do believe that we can experience God directly. I tend to believe that mystical accounts of God are valuable as long as you do not make them into what they are not - doctrine, authoritative.
How does one know it is God?
Luke 11:10-12
[sup]
[/sup] [sup]10[/sup] For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
[sup]11[/sup] “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for[sup][a][/sup] a fish, will give him a snake instead? [sup]12[/sup] Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?
Why would God lead us into danger when we are honestly seeking truth? I refuse to believe that demons are hiding behind every bush, ready to mislead us into Hell.
What about inspired words spoken by man? Again, how do we know its from God? There are a lot of opinions out there even with a Bible and so many more if you discount the Word. What then makes Christianity any better than another religion?
The only thing that makes Christianity 'better' than only religions is Christ and His work on the Cross and His work in our hearts. All truth is God's truth - if it is true it is from God.
I don't buy into the relativist argument of the Bible because then we can begin to argue about relative truths and the idea that we can truly copy and paste what the Bible says to our own form of religion.
I agree that people who strip the Bible of divine inspiration are often guilty of mixing up the message and using it to their own devices. However,people who take the Bible literally often miss the forest for the trees - the underlying message of scripture is missed because people are too busy proof-texting the nuances. JWs are the perfect example of a group of people that are so detached from the underlying message of scripture that they rely solely on proof-texting to prove their frightening, paranoid world view based on a ultra-literal / disconnected understanding of scripture.
I'm reminded of Matthew 12:
Knowing their thoughts, he said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand. And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
I think Jesus was talking about love, not intellectual understanding of doctrine. Love is what brings people together - arguing doctrine is divisive.
While books and other cannons about the Bible come and go (or they might get changed by a committee) the Bible has continued to withstand any assault thrown at it. I apply the above to it in that it endures all as the Word of God and not just as an assemblage of some holy men. I hear talk of a God that is not compassionate in the Old Testament, but the same promised fate for idolaters exists and is arguably magnified. (Compare the threat of earthly death to the promise final damnation.) All of this clearly is underscored by the extremely amazing offer of grace from our Father, but that does not change the reality of the message.
Well, the problem I see with focusing on salvation over our earthly existence (comparing the threat of earthly death to the promise of damnation) is than it tends to devalue human life and it missing the focus of Jesus' ministry. Jesus did not pass out tracts of the four spiritual laws - He ministered to people - to their humanity. He was clear about meeting people where they were at and offering real comfort and servanthood. He was interested in preaching love - He let people know that the Kingdom of God was in their hearts - which was their sanctification that needed to be practiced and exercised by loving God and neighbor. Christ also offered a third way - He cut right through the literal doctrines of the Pharisees - calling it what is - man's traditions. The third way was filtering the law through the lens of love. When the Pharisees tried to trap Him into either/or situations, Jesus responded authoritatively with a love / compassionate response.
I don't like death and people dying, but I cannot write that out and yet a very loving and compassionate God allows it to happen. So why are we so intent on writing out the Scriptures!?
The scriptures are authoritative - but just like Jesus filtered the Pharisees traditions through the filter of love (the pharisees were not doctrinally wrong - they lack love and compassion) we need to filter the scriptures through love / compassion or we risk repeating the Pharisees mistake. Death and dieing are real concerns for God - human life matters - despite the fact that the OT writers seem to discount it - I believe they were responding in a much more compassionate way than there contemporaries - these guys were desert warriors - death meant nothing to them - just the fact that they mentioned it was an act of compassion in their world. Also, believing that Job / creation account / ester / ruth / jonah are inspired stories does not take anything away from their impact on our spirituality. Dwelling on whether something really happened is to miss the point in a specifically post-enlightenment way