The Bible Is Secondary

[votivesoul]

Lay the bible down.

No.

Development a relationship with God.

I have and continue to do so.

The bible will become less and less important...

Not so.

Could it be that the most egregious acts within Christianity occurred because of the bible?

Nope. The most egregious acts within Christianity are due to the lusts of the flesh, for in them we war, kill, desire, and cannot obtain because we take without asking, or if we do ask permission, we cannot obtain, because the reason we ask is usually corrupted, sick, and twisted, but I wouldn't have known that had James not written so in his general epistle:

James 4:1-5,

1. From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?
2. Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.
3. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
4. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
5. Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?

The Bible, according to you, is just paper and ink. It does nothing of itself.

[votivesoul]

Psalm 119:18,

18. Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.

Written by King David, who was ordered 4 centuries prior by Moses the man of God, through the leading and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, to command all future kings of Israel to READ the Law all the days of his life so as to not become vain and puffed up in pride and arrogance:

Deuteronomy 17:14-20,

14. When thou art come unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, and shalt possess it, and shalt dwell therein, and shalt say, I will set a king over me, like as all the nations that are about me;
15. Thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee, whom the Lord thy God shall choose: one from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee: thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which is not thy brother.
16. But he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses: forasmuch as the Lord hath said unto you, Ye shall henceforth return no more that way.
17. Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.
18. And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests the Levites:
19. And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life: that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them:
20. That his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left: to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he, and his children, in the midst of Israel.

And look what happened? David must have slacked in his obligations to His God to copy and read the Word because he took to himself multiple wives and look what it got him:

A barren wife who despised him
A son who raped his daughter
A different son who usurped him and nearly destroyed his kingdom

Not to mention Solomon's folly for chasing after more than one wife as king.

All for not reading God's Word all the days of their life, and obeying it through practical application. But they were being "led". I wonder, though, just what was leading them, if you catch my drift...

[votivesoul]

Furthermore, the injunction against adding to or taking away from God's Word has no practical meaning whatsoever unless it has been written down, codified, and redacted.

Here's my parting shot:

Revelation 1:3,

3. Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.

Kind of hard doing this, unless I READ and keep those things which are WRITTEN on a regular basis, seeing as Jesus Christ is coming back and all.

[seekerman]

Originally Posted by votivesoul

The Bible, according to you, is just paper and ink. It does nothing of itself.

Right. Paper and ink. The bible has no power, no authority and one cannot have a relationship with a book.

[seekerman]

Originally Posted by votivesoul

Furthermore, the injunction against adding to or taking away from God's Word has no practical meaning whatsoever unless it has been written down, codified, and redacted.

Here's my parting shot:

Revelation 1:3,



Kind of hard doing this, unless I READ and keep those things which are WRITTEN on a regular basis, seeing as Jesus Christ is coming back and all.

Interesting you reference Revelation 1:3.....

Rev 1:3 Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near.

What prophecy? Who were those words written to and for what purpose? They were not written to us, so who were they written to?

[votivesoul]

Originally Posted by votivesoul

Here's my parting shot:

Parting shot, remember? This has become unfruitful. Take it easy, guys.

[renee819]

Seekerman, If your heart is in the right place, the Bible feeds your spirit. If your heart is not in the right place, it brings condemnation. We need that also.

There have been times in the past, when I got real busy, and neglected the Bible. (I don't like to just read, I like to study) And when I picked up the Bible, my thoughts , were, “Oh Lord, I didn't know that my soul was so hungry.''

Without the Bible, we are left to our own imagination. For instance your admonition to lay the Bible down, that did not come from God.

What scriptures did the early Church have? They had the Old Testament. They knew that they were in a New Covenant, but in the Old Testament, is History, moral laws, that are timeless, typed and shadows of the New Covenant and mainly the prophecies concerning Jesus. And Joel, prophesying of Pentecost.

When Jesus opened up the Apostles eyes, “concerning the scriptures” the only scriptures they had was the Old Testament. So He showed them those scriptures that “testified of His coming and the purpose of His coming.”

After Paul explained this to the Berans, this is also what they studied. They didn't study the Law of Moses, that was gone, Jesus fulfilled it. However, many times in the Old Testament, God told Israel, “that He would make a New Covenant, and that New Covenant would be written in their heart.”
And those that had faith and received the Holy Ghost, “as the scriptures has said. “ and received the Holy Ghost as they did at Pentecost, knew, this was true.

The Early Church, studying the Old, could find what was written concerning Jesus and the New Covenant. I imagine they studied Joel, thoroughly.

And how was the Christians led? The Apostles, that Jesus taught, and gave commandments of how to set up the Church, visited the different churches, teaching them what Jesus had taught them. Also they were led by the “gifts of the Spirit,” Today we have a few gifts, but not many want the “gifts' I believe one reason is everyone is too busy. And then, also why stand out in the crowd to be mocked and judged. Just melt in the audience and slip out, and our soul is not fed.

[renee819]

Originally Posted by seekerman

Interesting you reference Revelation 1:3.....

Rev 1:3 Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near.

What prophecy? Who were those words written to and for what purpose? They were not written to us, so who were they written to?

That is one thing that people forget to study, what is the context, who are the scriptures addressing, and what 'time.'

Most of Rev is written for the last days. Therefore, it is written for us. There are things in Rev. that are timeless. But for the most part, if you take Daniel, Matt. 24 and put it with Rev, you can see that we are living in the End-Time.

[ILG]

Originally Posted by Praxeas

They had the OT. They had letters from the Apostles. They had the oral teachings of the Apostles as well as those commissioned and taught by the Apostles the words of Jesus.

Just because they did not have a complete NT from Matthew to Revelation does not mean they relied completely on direct revelation from the Spirit

That may be true but I think the over-emphasis on the Bible in some churches to the exclusion of personal revelation is disturbing. It is supposed to be okay to get personal revelation......as long as it meshes with the status quo....otherwise, you are a heretic.

[ILG]

Originally Posted by seekerman

Fact is, we don't have a single solitary original snippet of what anyone wrote. We are demanded to have faith that the scribes which copied the original texts were 100% accurate in their copying. The thing is, subsuquent to the original texts there were copying mistakes on top of copying mistakes. There were passages added that were not in the earliest (don't know about the original) manuscripts, such as 1 John 5:7.

If we have a personal intimate relationship with God, we don't have to worry about what was added...or taken away.

Exactly, and to say that what was written by men and passed down by men and interpreted by men today is the exact thing God wants from us is more than disturbing.