The Scriptures Are Subjective

[Reader]

Consider this- A woman hears that if she prays and seeks God, she will know if the book of mormon is true and of God. She has not read the book yet. She is told she will feel a burning in her bosom. She prays and feels the sensation.

This is similar to what you shared, but about a different belief system.

How do you determine what in the Bible is worthy to be believed and what is not; what is true and what is just a story? Your reply- I don't think of it that way. I do my best to filter everything through Holy Spirit. I read and I ask, "What does this mean? How does it apply to my life? Can I learn something from this? What's the historical and cultural context? Was this book (especially NT) addressing a particular problem / pagan practice / church issue?

It was sounding like that is how you looked at it. You seemed to have decided that things in it are not true (at least from how you replied in some posts). I believe you shared about not believing God told the Israelites to kill people, for instance. How do you arrive at determining that the Bible does not give a true account of it?

I am not questioning what happened to you or how you came to a relationship with God.

[Dichotomy Girl]

Originally Posted by Reader

Consider this- A woman hears that if she prays and seeks God, she will know if the book of mormon is true and of God. She has not read the book yet. She is told she will feel a burning in her bosom. She prays and feels the sensation.

This is similar to what you shared, but about a different belief system.



It was sounding like that is how you looked at it. You seemed to have decided that things in it are not true (at least from how you replied in some posts). I believe you shared about not believing God told the Israelites to kill people, for instance. How do you arrive at determining that the Bible does not give a true account of it?

I am not questioning what happened to you or how you came to a relationship with God.

I doubt you will like this answer, but basically, Cognitive Dissonance. If I believe that here is only one God, Jesus, and I believe that the OT accounts are all entirely true, then to me, it's like saying that Jesus used to be a racist, sexist, genocidal baby-killer. My husband, who was raised a Christian, and became an Atheist puts it like this, "Either God doesn't exist, or he's a ______" (pick an expletive)

Jesus said that there was neither slave nor free, male nor female, Jew nor gentile. The OT God, definitely played favorites. For me, it's much easier to believe that the historical accounts have been tainted by infallible humanity than to accept some of the actions in the Bible attributed to God.