Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael The Disciple
I believe in the Bible because at 20 years old when I started reading it and took its words PERSONALLY a power or influence came into my life that was not there before. It was so wonderful it kept me ravished to the point of reading it for hours a day.
I remember when I first read about the "higher criticism". It was so horrible of a feeling! Trying to destroy faith in the greatest thing I ever experienced!
The words of Christs literally come alive to those who believe.
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I believe that the main purpose of the scriptures are to lead us to relationship with Jesus, and the infilling of His spirit. But I believe that they can do that without being inerrant.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Aquila
I believe the originals to be inerrant out of simple faith. I believe that if there is a God, He designed us. And if we can communicate clearly, so can He. Therefore, if He is interested in our souls, He'd communicate with us clearly. Out of all the religions I've studied, Christianity appears to be the most flexible and universal in it's message. So, to me, it makes the most sense that God would speak through the texts held sacred by Christianity. Now, many disagree, and that's fine. But that's my opinion.
As for original manuscripts, no we don't have access to them. However, we do have access to many manuscripts that were copied from them while they were in existence. There is no promise that these are entirely inerrant. However, I believe the primary thrust or purpose of the message as preserved by the Spirit of God. Also, various church fathers quoted enough Scripture that we can be relatively sure that the translations we have are nearly word for word from the originals, accept in a number of known difficult to translate passages.
That's my take on it.
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I too believe that God wants to communicate with us, but I think He uses many different sources, that are ultimately "translated" through his spirit dwelling inside of us. i.e. He can speak through songs, books, a friend, a Pastor, Nature, a Movie, etc. However, we would never make the assumption that any of those sources are inerrant.
And I think that is my ultimate stumbling block. Many sources may claim to speak for God, and I treat them all with a healthy source of Skepticism.
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“There's such a lot of different Annes in me. I sometimes think that is why I'm such a troublesome person. If I was just the one Anne it would be ever so much more comfortable, but then it wouldn't be half so interesting.”
― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables
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