Guess what... hate to break the news to you... but if you think without paper and ink I can't know God you've just denied the Spirit and the direct access Jesus made possible when he destroyed the sin that separated me from God on the cross ... so take your dead religion that's nothing but a white washed tomb and get lost...oh never mind... you already are...
Robbie, with all love, most of us here do not worship the Bible. The reason we stress it's important is this: as you say above, we do indeed have the Holy Spirit within us. This is a precious thing and if we listen to Him He will help us along that narrow path. But we also know that there is more than one 'spirit' in the world. Satan can appear as an 'angel of light', he has that ability to deceive us. The Bible says we must 'test the spirits' so that we may be
sure that we have the truth within us. We do this by reading scripture, making sure that the little voice within us says what it does. God gave us His word and His Spirit, and we should use both because they are both gifts to us. It's all well and good to say you know Jesus because His word is within you. But does that Spirit within you tell you exactly what Jesus has said in the past, what He has done? Don't you treasure the accounts of Jesus as He loved and touched the sick and made them clean? Don't you ache and rejoice at the same time when we see His love in action on the cross? Don't you get amazed at His righteous anger at the Pharisees and temple sellers? Every passage in scripture gives us something to wonder and marvel about, and more knowledge about the God we love and follow! It makes having the Holy Spirit within us that more incredible, that much more joyful!
The whole Bible is a story leading to Jesus, showing us how sinful we are and how much we need Him. This is precious knowledge. We should know it's important for us to know just because God gave it to us. I know you read it and eve quote it, so you can't dismiss it's worth. I do get that too many Christians may worship it, but mostly we just treasure it and what it tells us! It's God's revelation to us. We may feel something different within us, a desire to do good, but without the Bible we would have no clue who is within, or who died for us, or who is steering history for our salvation!!
Of course, you have to realize that your reasoning protects against all contradictions in the Bible, right? Anytime a contradiction is pointed out, you start your mental-gymnastic routine - 'it's the reader, not the Bible'! Thinking be damned! I was about to ask how you expect to learn anything with that type of circular reasoning - then I remembered - you want security, not knowledge. This type of reasoning is what perpetuated the Dark Ages. When science conforms itself to the Bible instead of experimental hypothesis, we are subject to anti-intellectual theories that are frozen in time.
Why are you so afraid of contradictions? Isn't it time to drop that crazy standard? It is ridiculous to set the Bible up to fail like you do - 'if the Bible has contradictions, it is unreliable' - absurd!
BTW, Is Lot Abraham's brother or nephew?
Actually, I'd have to agree that the Bible has no contractions. That doesn't mean it isn't seriously confusing in some places though! But honestly, it doesn't take mental gymnastics...at least consider this: we're human right? We are sinful right? And you Aspen, of all people in your profession, should be aware that sometimes human thinking is not as sound or as clear as it could or should be!! My point is this; a book inspired by God is probably logical and sound and it's way more likely that any fault in interpreting and understand would come from us! We know God is logical, because it's He that holds steady the laws of physics so that our 'science' can have any meaning at all! It's God that makes the sun rise, the rains fall and hold chaos at bay. He IS order!
As far as the condraction thing goes, let me give you an example or two: In the NT we see Paul saying that works are useless and that faith is all. Then James say that faith without works is dead. Most say this is a contradiction, but it truly isn't! Faith is what gives us our salvation. That much is totally clear, and no matter what 'works' we do, if we don't have faith, we have nothing. But James is telling us that true faith will always come with works, that a changed and renewed heart will want to do 'works'. Or we could put it this way: we are saved TO good works, not from them.
Another thing, this time going to the OT...you'd think this would be a contradiction...remember when the Jews were stuck in Egypt and God sent Moses to free them. The bible says that Pharaoh hardened his heart. But later it says that God hardened his heart. Have you ever had anyone in your life so bitter and angry that when you loved them, told them you'd pray for them, they got really angry? How many times did God send Moses to Pharaoh and say to him "you must repent, you must see that you are not god, that the true God is telling you to let His people go....please, things are going to get really bad...repent!" God hardened this man's heart by warning him, loving him, giving him time...but it just mad Pharaoh madder, harder.
So you see, every 'contradiction' can be explained...the problem is that so many start off with the thought that we need to stretch reason too much to do that. It's not true, especially when we understand that our understanding is not really up to the perfection of Gods! If something does not seem to make sense to us, we need to trust God to help us along with our understanding...by praying, studying other scripture and, as Robbie says, relying on the Spirit within us to guide us past our confusion! Seek...and we will find!
