Bible Party of the USA

"It's easy to quote out of context."

So, your context is the only context? Anyone who can read and think can have his own context. What about the context prescribed by the people who gave you the New Testament, e.g., the Catholic Church? Something tells me yours doesn't match theirs, yet you speak of proper context.

I'll think for myself. :headbang:

On a lighter note......I was in intelligence.

On a lighter note......I was in intelligence

"It's easy to quote out of context."

So, your context is the only context? Anyone who can read and think can have his own context. What about the context prescribed by the people who gave you the New Testament, e.g., the Catholic Church? Something tells me yours doesn't match theirs, yet you speak of proper context.

I'll think for myself. :headbang:

On a lighter note......I was in intelligence.

You can't logically use a source to validate itself as a source. I know where you're going, Fundie -- to the well of literal interpretation. It's the old, "The Bible is the infallible word of God, because the Bible says so", argument. :peace:

I was INF, tactical intelligence, CI and then an MSCA planner, back in the day. Still got the haircut and hooah, both of which startle my civilian colleagues.

"PR/CSAR": Is that public relations and something search and rescue?:peace:

Thanks you both both for your service.

I don't feel I've 'fallen away'. My entire life is dedicated to Jesus, and what I perceive to be His new chosen people. I think fundamentalism is seriously misguided. I also believe that to be rational, and sound in one's thinking, one must be critical of his sources and the arguments he builds upon those sources. I contend fundamentalists tend to worship a book, less than they do God, and that their quoting of the Bible itself in response only proves my point. In their view, the Bible comes before God, or, perhaps, is God Himself. Some Catholics do the same, regarding their traditions, dogma and hierarchy. They end up confusing them for God Himself.

God is not a book. Neither is He a particular denomination. There is much more to God than that.

Why didn't God give Jesus the Bible to quote? I wonder. Yeah.....why didn't Jesus have the Bible to quote?

Thanks. How are the Pecos mountains?

QUESTION TO CHRISTIAN FUNDAMENTALISTS:

Is it appropriate to pray to the Bible? In other words, is the Bible the embodiment of God on Earth? Should the Bible be put up on a pedastal, knelt in front of, and prayed to? Just curious.

“However, Jesus did quote the Scripture, regularly.”

But not the ‘scripture’ that you do. Yours is quite a bit different, after hundreds, if not thousands, of years of scholarly redaction. Also, when and where did Jesus ever refer to the ‘Bible’, per se. And, even if He did at some point, WHICH translation did He refer to. I’m very curious.

“If you look at Him from the standpoint of the Gospel of John, Jesus was/is the Word. John 1:14, "The Word became flesh and took up residence among us. We observed His glory, the glory as the One and Only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth."

Okay. BUT, what is meant by ‘Word’? Again, is ‘Word’ the Bible, Old Testament scriptures of antiquity, what Jesus Himself said, what His Father said before Jesus’ public ministry, what the Catholic Church picked and chose to be the New Testament gospel, from around AD 150 to AD 390, when it finally agreed on a certain set of writings (which all Western people thereby inherited, like it or not), while rejecting many others? Also, when Jesus was alive, BEFORE the gospel of John was written (estimated to have been crafted around AD 100), was He even then a ‘Word’, or a man, or God, or the Bible in the flesh? If John were written around AD 100, and the New Testament compiled around AD 390, by the Catholic church (which it was), what did the authors of John specifically understand to be the ‘the Word’? After all, the Bible, in present form, still had 190 years to go before being compiled in official, Catholic form, and then 1,127 years to go before the Protestants got their hands on it, and changed it extensively themselves, to reflect Reformation thinking. Again, literal interpretations just don’t stand up against detailed, historical scrutiny.

I love the Bible, and read it every day. I simply view it differently from the way you do. I have that ability and right, thanks to God.

In my religiosity, there is a hierarchy of beliefs. Jesus comes first, then the history of Christianity, then the Bible and Catholic theology.

Pinochet73,

To me, the Trinity is first, Lord Jesus is included in the Trinity. I'm not Catholic. I am in the church catholic, the body of Christ. I respect your beliefs. Thanks be to God, we can both still hold and espouse our beliefs. I believe the time is coming quickly when we may not be able to do so if we (the church catholic) don't become involved in making public policy.

Respectfully, Volunteer