Are all important doctines obvious?
 

Everyone knows that there are passages in the Bible that are pretty hard to understand, or at least to know for sure what the author intended. They often have multiple possible interpretations, and different people prefer different ones, presumably based on which ones make the most sense to them. Are we all in agreement, so far?

Some scriptures cover doctrines that are more important than others. (Still agreed?) E.g., it may not be important to know exactly how/why/when God heals a sick person, but I would think it is crucial to know how one is to avoid an eternity of torment. (At least, if there will be eternities of torment for some people!)

This brings up two questions, actually:

1. Is the Bible perfectly clear, on all of the important doctrines?

2. What are the important doctrines?

OK. Discuss. :winkgrin

Re: Are all important doctines obvious?
 

Discuss!

If you not discuss, me get angry!

http://www.food2.com/images/blogposts/Hulk.jpg

:D

Re: Are all important doctines obvious?
 

OK, maybe "obvious" isn't the right term. How about "clear"? It may take some effort, but are all the important doctrines clear, when you study them enough? And/or maybe have the Holy Spirit explain them to you? Or a preacher? :hmmm

Re: Are all important doctines obvious?
 

Good questions, Timmy! :thumbsup

:lol

Re: Are all important doctines obvious?
 

Doctrines are teachings. That may help.

The studying is mostly to take us from 21st Century to the 1st Century, understanding what the teachings meant to the 1st Century audience first.

The basic teachings of Jesus are quite clear. Some additional teachings that floated around the church in the 1st Century are not always crystal clear, though we've made progress as a Body to discover them.

Re: Are all important doctines obvious?
 

Didn't ya get the memo... we was trying to ignore Timmy to see how long he would post back and forth to himself ...

:)

Re: Are all important doctines obvious?
 

:ursofunny

Re: Are all important doctines obvious?
 

Can you give me an example of a quite clear basic teaching of Jesus?

Re: Are all important doctines obvious?
 

He is the only way. "I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father except by me."

Re: Are all important doctines obvious?
 

Matthew 5:30 "And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell."

Sounds pretty clear to me!!!

Re: Are all important doctines obvious?
 

Me too! :lol

Re: Are all important doctines obvious?
 

OK. Might get a little muddy in some of the details, but yes, the main idea seems clear.

Re: Are all important doctines obvious?
 

No, the Bible is NOT perfectly clear. This is why I've become a sceptic, or one to question dogma that claims "We have the ANSWER". In fact, because the Bible is so diverse in opinion, our only honest approach to find Truth is to DIG, and never stop!

We all have ideas, we all are different, and IMO, we can learn great things from one another. The key is to stay open, or accept discovery.

I have many Christian friends who are staunch in their Faith, which keeps them at bay with their concepts or traditional dredging. This leads to dead, dull, dry Religion, and the constant rhetorical spin of, "That's the way our Fathers did it". Many of our fathers never saw a rocket penetrate our atmosphere, entering a dimension never seen before.

In turn, I must accept further discovery that may alter my current views. If I don't, I become guilty of dredging my own idea of a flat World.

Fear keeps our Faith in a bottle, and the Genie only comes out when we rub it with the answers of yesterday or the Religion we give our allegience too. Putting Fear aside, Faith becomes liberated by the answers of today, and no bottle can contain her!

I choose to learn, Timmy! God is far too Big, and His Creation begs for us to launch into the DEEP, and I'm enjoying the plunge!

Re: Are all important doctines obvious?
 

:thumbsup

Re: Are all important doctines obvious?
 

How about salvation? Is that clear enough?

Re: Are all important doctines obvious?
 

:bumpsign

Re: Are all important doctines obvious?
 

OK, that one's too hard. How about hair-cutting? :heeheehee

Re: Are all important doctines obvious?
 

Come to think of it, is there any teaching (important or not) in the Bible that's completely clear? And I mean clear enough so that everyone that reads it will agree on it?

Re: Are all important doctines obvious?
 

Jesus claimed to be the Messiah?

Re: Are all important doctines obvious?
 

Did He? Let's take a vote! :lol

Re: Are all important doctines obvious?
 

Mar 16:16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.

Re: Are all important doctines obvious?
 

What if he believeth but isn't baptized? He didn't say what would happen to that guy.

Re: Are all important doctines obvious?
 

If he did not get baptized, he did not believe as the scriptures indicate belief, anyway. The bible talks about faith without works.

Re: Are all important doctines obvious?
 

Where does it say that?

James does, yeah. But what you quoted from Jesus doesn't say anything like that. It says what it says. And it doesn't answer my question.

Re: Are all important doctines obvious?
 

Grammatical common sense.

If I told you that there were two roads to take to get to a destination, and the second road followed the first, then only taking the first road and not the second would not take you to the destination. Jesus said two things are required for salvation. Faith and baptism. He did not say he that believeth and is saved can be baptized.

Man, if you spent half your time giving the Word a chance, rather than looking for flaws, you would be a spiritual giant! ;)

Re: Are all important doctines obvious?
 

I spent well over half of my life (so far) giving the Word a chance.

Re: Are all important doctines obvious?
 

But you stopped.

Re: Are all important doctines obvious?
 

Uh huh.

Re: Are all important doctines obvious?
 

Hey, this has been fun, but I got a bunch of stuff to do! Catch ya later. :friend

Re: Are all important doctines obvious?
 

And it seems the latter half, when you are more mature in mind, has been spent on finding flaws. Had you instead took the latter half and used as much energy to give it a chance, with your present maturity of mind, you would be a giant of faith! I suspect you give more effort to finding fault in this latter half rather than how much you used to give it a chance with the other half. IMHO.

Re: Are all important doctines obvious?
 

Right on!

Re: Are all important doctines obvious?
 

Maybe I am a giant of faith. :lol