What is the Bible?

[bbyrd009]

it doesn't matter what it is to you or me

its called a testament for a reason, because that's what it is, a testimony, a witness, of a relationship between a people and their God, no matter what you want to think it is.

those are the facts, not opinions.

or maybe "lack of relationship" might be a better characterization? I mean It is a record of the implosion of a Theocracy, after all

 

[amadeus]

A band of hippies with guitars are IMO generally considered unemployed, dope smoking homeless shabbily dressed bums soooo I think the writers of scripture would be offended by your description .....just sayin.

Yes, before they were converted, they, almost without doubt, would have been offended. But there was work to be done in them... if they would allow it. When they had been converted...?

"And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me." Matt 11:6

Jesus was not offended by those who called him names and tortured him and finally killed him. That was only his flesh, but then we read this:

"And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven." Luke 12:10

Those who spoke hastily in their ignorance were forgiven even when it was against his own person that they spoke, but see here his understanding in a time and place where few men would or could be so understanding:

"Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do..." Luke 23:34

Did any of us ever do anything wrong before we met Jesus? Have any of us done anything since we met Jesus? How much mercy do we have toward those with, in some measure, similar situations?

 

[amadeus]

Personally, I hold to Divine Plenary Inspiration, and don't think this is much like the musing of the Greatful Dead.

All of these new words or expressions very often simply make me tired. Another one to look up to understand what is even being said in English, supposedly my native language. Help me dear Lord!


Don't ask me why it replaced 'divine' with 'verbal'. That is what came up when I asked for a definition of the three word phrase: Divine Plenary Inspiration

 

[Marymog]

Yes, before they were converted, they, almost without doubt, would have been offended. But there was work to be done in them... if they would allow it. When they had been converted...?

"And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me." Matt 11:6

Jesus was not offended by those who called him names and tortured him and finally killed him. That was only his flesh, but then we read this:

"And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven." Luke 12:10

Those who spoke hastily in their ignorance were forgiven even when it was against his own person that they spoke, but see here his understanding in a time and place where few men would or could be so understanding:

"Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do..." Luke 23:34

Did any of us ever do anything wrong before we met Jesus? Have any of us done anything since we met Jesus? How much mercy do we have toward those with, in some measure, similar situations?

I agree with you in that “Jesus was not offended by those who called him names“. However, the writers of Scripture were men who were not perfect like Him. Men get offended.

Otherwise I appreciate your deep thinking words.

 

[Marymog]

Brake's post hit a nerve, eh?
He was right.

Brakelite2: 1
maryxxx: 0

Hey Joseph...I’m curious.....WHY did you write maryxxx and not Marymog? You completely wrote out Brakelite2 but not marymog. What is your bias?

Curious Mary

 

[amadeus]

Hi quitethinker,

Fascinating.....soooo you AND @Joseph77 have no problem with a fellow Christian adding to Scripture?

I don’t think pointing out when a person is adding to or lying about scripture as straining gnats. As Christians that is what we SHOULD be doing.

I completely disagree with the suggestion that the great men who wrote Scripture.....a employed physician, tent maker, fishermen, tax collector etc....are like hippies. I think THEY would disagree with that analogy also AND be offended if it was suggested to their face. I believe they had more dignity than a hippie.


But that’s just me......a defender of truth and dignity. You and @Joseph77 seem to like to defend the person who does just opposite. Simply fascinating....

Keeping it real....Mary

Are 'hippies' evil then? Consider what Jesus says here to the chief priests and elders of Israel:

"Jesus saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you." Matt 21:31

Are hippies in a lower category than the publicans and harlots of 2,000 years ago?

"Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:" Acts 10:34

Of what is God a respecter...?

 

[Marymog]

oops... a teeny tiny eensy weeny small mistake or assumption there..... what do you know of mary? what makes you think someone you don't know about , or assume, that they are doing anything good at all, or doing their best in life ? Most people on earth do not, at all.

HI Joseph,

When you say “mary” you probably mean ME!!! What have I done to you that has made your heart hard towards me? Is this by your own doing or has Satan whispered in your ear?

Curious Mary

 

[Marymog]

Are 'hippies' evil then? Consider what Jesus says here to the chief priests and elders of Israel:

"Jesus saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you." Matt 21:31

Are hippies in a lower category than the publicans and harlots of 2,000 years ago?

"Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:" Acts 10:34

Of what is God a respecter...?

Nope, I don’t think hippies are evil. I never suggested that. Here is what I said about hippies: generally considered unemployed, dope smoking homeless shabbily dressed bums

I don’t know why you felt the need to go into a preaching mode with me. I never even suggested that hippies were in a lower category then ANYONE! I have only suggested that the writers of Scripture would be offended by being called hippies which is completely OPPOSITE of what I am suggesting.

Soooooo I do not understand why you are going down a rabbit hole I am not in. If you are trying to make a point....that all persons (harlots, publicans, hippies, pastors, nurses, cops) can inherit the kingdom of God.....I agree with you and have NEVER suggested otherwise


Mary

 

[amadeus]

:):)
Well now you have just hurt my feelings that you think of my family and friends in such a way. And all we ever tried to do was make peace and not war!:)

I was never a beatnik (shades of Maynard G. Krebbs) or a hippie, but before I met Jesus I envied the apparent freedom of their lifestyle. It was some time after I did meet Him that I came to realize my impression of the beatniks and hippies was seen from a place not in the Lord but a place of carnal naivety. I made a similar mistake in my first non-Catholic church presuming that these people were beautiful and perfect. Did not Jesus come to make it possible for us to become beautiful and perfect? No man was there without Jesus!

 

[Marymog]

The writers of scripture were farmers and fisherman ( and Peter dived into the sea naked on one occasion to swim ashore to Jesus) ... That takes care of the shabbily dressed...
The writers of scripture were a tax collector, and a rebel homeless prince... That takes care of the unemployed...
Others were a murderer and an adulterer...
That takes care of the dope smoking bums...
Yet another was a captive slave in a foreign land (3or 4 of them), there was a destitute herdsman...a widowed mother...a soldier...a tent maker...
All of them ordinary people doing their best in life... Like you and me.
And I would suggest that numerous hippies formed the nucleus of the 1970s global revival which spawned musicians such as Chuck Gerard and Keith Green

How do you equate murder and adulatory to dope smoking?

Curious Mary

 

[amadeus]

Nope, I don’t think hippies are evil. I never suggested that. Here is what I said about hippies: generally considered unemployed, dope smoking homeless shabbily dressed bums

I don’t know why you felt the need to go into a preaching mode with me. I never even suggested that hippies were in a lower category then ANYONE! I have only suggested that the writers of Scripture would be offended by being called hippies which is completely OPPOSITE of what I am suggesting.

Soooooo I do not understand why you are going down a rabbit hole I am not in. If you are trying to make a point....that all persons (harlots, publicans, hippies, pastors, nurses, cops) can inherit the kingdom of God.....I agree with you and have NEVER suggested otherwise


Mary

Sorry to have stepped on your toes. I was simply reading each post from the beginning of the thread and I responded with where I was as other people including you were doing. Sometimes I do misunderstand a person's meaning or intentions. My intention was not to give offence. My sincere apology for errors.

 

[amadeus]

The bible is the Creator's handbook; the manual that tells us how to live our live in a way pleasing to God.

And lots of people use the handbook, but differences in understanding are quite common!

 

[Brakelite]

@Marymog @amadeus when I read scripture I am discerning a picture of God. It is a self portrait revealed through the minds of those He redeemed. And He came to redeem sinners. He came and spent most of His time with the unemployed, the homeless, the dope smokers, the shabbily dressed, the lepers, the sick, the lame, blind, demon possessed, the imprisoned and the hungry. And it was through them that God painted a picture of Himself. A God who sings and dances with joy over just one sinner who repents. Such is the God who loves us. A God who is willing to give up everything in order to sit beside a child and let that child hold His hand. That is the painting the Bible reveals...a painting brought to us by redeemed sinners... What kind of God do we represent... What kind of God are we revealing in our daily lives? A theologian and one who cares only for doctrine, sacrifice, and law keeping? Or a God who is head over heels in love with life and those who are willing to let Him walk by their side holding their hand.
Don't get so hung up Mary over the use of the term hippies.
Once we behold that picture, once we behold the beauty and love and
gentleness and faithfulness and grace, mercy, and innate goodness of the
God Who made us in His image, then we are recreated into that original
image. Jesus came in the image of His Father...we can become the image
of Jesus...like Father like Son...Like Son like brethren.
But imagine if you will what would happen if we get that image wrong. If
the picture we are beholding isn't God at all, but merely a distorted
pixelated poorly defined facsimile? A picture which in order to try and
make sense of it, when beheld, must be added to, improved upon, in order
to give it detail and character. And when we as finite human beings
influenced by culture, falsehood, philosophy and vanity, begin to give to
that picture attributes which do not belong to it...what image are we then being changed into? And what image are we then presenting to the world?
Consider Isaiah 42. Here is a song, sung by the Father, first to the
reader, us, concerning His Son. Then, the Father sings to His Son
directly. What kind of God sings to
His created beings? What kind of God “sings over us with joy”. And
dances for us celebrating our relationship with Him? See Zephaniah 3:17.
This God who sings...dances...rejoices over one lost sinner come to
repentance...is this the God you are beholding? Is this the God you are
being changed into? And finally, is this the God you are presenting to the
world through your testimony and example?
I'm not calling the Bible writers hippies. But the Bible as a work of art is the work more of someone with the heart of a hippie rather than that of a theologian or doctor of philosophy.

 

[amadeus]

With regard to the title question of what the Bible is? Several people have taken a stab at it. Maybe they are all correct at least in a measure.

How does that written volume fit into God's plan? Study of the book alone will never give us a complete answer to that question. But… neither would I suggest not reading it at all when it is available in a language we can understand... at least superficially. The answers we seek or need are probably contained in its pages, but where are we to encounter a proper interpreter?

"He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." Matt 11:15

"I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see." Rev 3:18

Where are the "ears" and where is the "eyesalve"?

 

[amadeus]

Remembering here also what David wrote:

"Hear, O LORD, when I cry with my voice: have mercy also upon me, and answer me.
When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek.
Hide not thy face far from me; put not thy servant away in anger: thou hast been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation." Psalm 27:7-9

@Marymog @amadeus when I read scripture I am discerning a picture of God. It is a self portrait revealed through the minds of those He redeemed. And He came to redeem sinners. He came and spent most of His time with the unemployed, the homeless, the dope smokers, the shabbily dressed, the lepers, the sick, the lame, blind, demon possessed, the imprisoned and the hungry. And it was through them that God painted a picture of Himself. A God who sings and dances with joy over just one sinner who repents. Such is the God who loves us. A God who is willing to give up everything in order to sit beside a child and let that child hold His hand. That is the painting the Bible reveals...a painting brought to us by redeemed sinners... What kind of God do we represent... What kind of God are we revealing in our daily lives? A theologian and one who cares only for doctrine, sacrifice, and law keeping? Or a God who is head over heels in love with life and those who are willing to let Him walk by their side holding their hand.
Don't get so hung up Mary over the use of the term hippies.
Once we behold that picture, once we behold the beauty and love and
gentleness and faithfulness and grace, mercy, and innate goodness of the
God Who made us in His image, then we are recreated into that original
image. Jesus came in the image of His Father...we can become the image
of Jesus...like Father like Son...Like Son like brethren.
But imagine if you will what would happen if we get that image wrong. If
the picture we are beholding isn't God at all, but merely a distorted
pixelated poorly defined facsimile? A picture which in order to try and
make sense of it, when beheld, must be added to, improved upon, in order
to give it detail and character. And when we as finite human beings
influenced by culture, falsehood, philosophy and vanity, begin to give to
that picture attributes which do not belong to it...what image are we then being changed into? And what image are we then presenting to the world?
Consider Isaiah 42. Here is a song, sung by the Father, first to the
reader, us, concerning His Son. Then, the Father sings to His Son
directly. What kind of God sings to
His created beings? What kind of God “sings over us with joy”. And
dances for us celebrating our relationship with Him? See Zephaniah 3:17.
This God who sings...dances...rejoices over one lost sinner come to
repentance...is this the God you are beholding? Is this the God you are
being changed into? And finally, is this the God you are presenting to the
world through your testimony and example?
I'm not calling the Bible writers hippies. But the Bible as a work of art is the work more of sometime with the heart of a hippie rather than that of a theologian or doctor of philosophy.

And Paul:

"For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known."
I Cor 13:12

And John:

"Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." I John 3:2

 

[Pearl]

@Marymog @amadeus when I read scripture I am discerning a picture of God. It is a self portrait revealed through the minds of those He redeemed. And He came to redeem sinners. He came and spent most of His time with the unemployed, the homeless, the dope smokers, the shabbily dressed, the lepers, the sick, the lame, blind, demon possessed, the imprisoned and the hungry. And it was through them that God painted a picture of Himself. A God who sings and dances with joy over just one sinner who repents. Such is the God who loves us. A God who is willing to give up everything in order to sit beside a child and let that child hold His hand. That is the painting the Bible reveals...a painting brought to us by redeemed sinners... What kind of God do we represent... What kind of God are we revealing in our daily lives? A theologian and one who cares only for doctrine, sacrifice, and law keeping? Or a God who is head over heels in love with life and those who are willing to let Him walk by their side holding their hand.
Don't get so hung up Mary over the use of the term hippies.
Once we behold that picture, once we behold the beauty and love and
gentleness and faithfulness and grace, mercy, and innate goodness of the
God Who made us in His image, then we are recreated into that original
image. Jesus came in the image of His Father...we can become the image
of Jesus...like Father like Son...Like Son like brethren.
But imagine if you will what would happen if we get that image wrong. If
the picture we are beholding isn't God at all, but merely a distorted
pixelated poorly defined facsimile? A picture which in order to try and
make sense of it, when beheld, must be added to, improved upon, in order
to give it detail and character. And when we as finite human beings
influenced by culture, falsehood, philosophy and vanity, begin to give to
that picture attributes which do not belong to it...what image are we then being changed into? And what image are we then presenting to the world?
Consider Isaiah 42. Here is a song, sung by the Father, first to the
reader, us, concerning His Son. Then, the Father sings to His Son
directly. What kind of God sings to
His created beings? What kind of God “sings over us with joy”. And
dances for us celebrating our relationship with Him? See Zephaniah 3:17.
This God who sings...dances...rejoices over one lost sinner come to
repentance...is this the God you are beholding? Is this the God you are
being changed into? And finally, is this the God you are presenting to the
world through your testimony and example?
I'm not calling the Bible writers hippies. But the Bible as a work of art is the work more of sometime with the heart of a hippie rather than that of a theologian or doctor of philosophy.

In my mind's eye I have a picture of God sitting in a large comfy chair in a library containing all the world's wisdom on its shelves. The door is open and I just know that even though he may be busy, once I stand in the doorway he knows I am there and will welcome me with open arms and I can sit on his lap and be cuddled and tell him I love him and he will listen to my ramblings and my concerns and will hold me there as long as I desire. Then I will go away blessed and know that he will be there for me whenever I choose to stand in that open doorway.

 

[101G]

Eugenics.

Does this offend you?

not saying that you're right or wrong, but that's natural, Eugenics. the bible is spiritual. now if it was applied to the spirit, to improve the characteristics of a population regarded as desirable?, ok. but the bible is not a NATURAL book.

PICJAG.

 

[marks]

it doesn't matter what it is to you or me

its called a testament for a reason, because that's what it is, a testimony, a witness, of a relationship between a people and their God, no matter what you want to think it is.

those are the facts, not opinions.

I've been thinking about this . . . and however we think about what sort of a document it is, just the same, it does show God's relationship with His people, and others, and it does show things that will be, and it does teach us theology, and soteriology, and eschatology, and so on.

It doesn't change the contents of the Book. Does it?

Much love!

 

[DPMartin]

or maybe "lack of relationship" might be a better characterization? I mean It is a record of the implosion of a Theocracy, after all

did you ask what the bible is or not? I didn't know your opinion of it, was supposed to matter. this is a Christian web site correct? not a narcissistic one's views matter most and everyone should respect that, philosophy web site.

also Jesus didn't come into the world to some other race or group or tribe of people, did He? when the Israelites build a temple the Creator of all things acknowledges it, doesn't He? where else in the world of peoples does He do that? the whole of the bible is written by Jews, and most of all God chose them.

there are many here that think God should be thankful because they voted for God in the religious category of their lives and should receive some kind of credit for that. sorry, the Kingdom of Heaven is not a democracy. you don't get to chose to be in Heaven those in Heaven are chosen to be there.

 

[bbyrd009]

did you ask what the bible is or not? I didn't know your opinion of it, was supposed to matter. this is a Christian web site correct? not a narcissistic one's views matter most and everyone should respect that, philosophy web site.

also Jesus didn't come into the world to some other race or group or tribe of people, did He? when the Israelites build a temple the Creator of all things acknowledges it, doesn't He? where else in the world of peoples does He do that? the whole of the bible is written by Jews, and most of all God chose them.

there are many here that think God should be thankful because they voted for God in the religious category of their lives and should receive some kind of credit for that. sorry, the Kingdom of Heaven is not a democracy. you don't get to chose to be in Heaven those in Heaven are chosen to be there.

No one has ever gone up to heaven but he who came down from it, the son of man
The kingdom of heaven is within you

I sure agree my opinion of those verses does not matter!

so No offense meant, but seems to me that the narcissists are the ones who think they might become immortals after they have died?