bullethead
Of the hard cast variety
What are you talking about? She's my wife!
I miss Lovitz.
What are you talking about? She's my wife!
I miss Lovitz.
Maybe I will stay at a Holiday Inn, read the Bible again and REALLY "get it".
LOL!, but... Go for it. I could bet that with an "ok, here I am 'Lord'" prayer and just 5 min/day with the scriptures... in less than a year's time you'd have 'treasure' beyond your wildest dreams, and I and others'd be gleaning much from your words
Maybe I will stay at a Holiday Inn, read the Bible again and REALLY "get it". I am just not easily influenced by mans words.
striper, I appreciate you 'rootin for me but why would 5mins a day for about a year do it when hours weekly for 20 years did not?
Maybe if you understood that it is not mans words but the inspired word of God you might get it.
Im pulling for you too. What did you not get in 20 years that caused you to walk away from God?
The more questions I asked, the more I sat down with clergy, the worse I felt. I do not have a problem with God. I have a problem with organized religion portraying God to be exactly as that particular religion needs him to be to suit their needs.
Organized religion and local churches, gotta love it.
“Maybe if you understood that it is not mans words but the inspired word of God you might get it. “
Sorry to interrupt again, but this is one of my favorites – this is the one that made Oprah a hugely wealthy woman, and is still used as the last fallback position of everyone under the sun who cannot explain, prove, or articulate – I speak here of the ‘You just don’t GET IT,’ argument.
The implied and explicit argument here is that unless I actually BECOME the person making the contention, it will forever be impossible for me to know what is in THEIR mind. Teenagers use this one as a weapon – “YOU don’t know ME!” (Anyone heard that one before?) Sorry. Didn’t work then, won’t work now.
The fundamental problem with this argument is that it relies on an assumption of ignorance on the part of the person to whom it is delivered – and in this Forum that assumption is far from the case. You ask us to stoop down, and forget that we understand far, far more than the accuser.
Because of that understanding, and that education, we ask quite simply – IF you propose that the ‘inspired words of God,’ were somehow put into the writing of only a terribly few people in a terribly remote part of the world at a time when hardly anyone at all was acquainted with this new-fangled invention of ‘writing,’ let alone ‘reading’ – And IF the God who gave this dictation to his very few human stenographers actually spoke those words, aloud, to those few recording secretaries – THEN HOW COME NONE OF THEM AGREE?
You see, there is a huge chasm of difference between what is often held to be “THE WORD OF GOD,” and the immediate fallback position that, “Well, Um, God INSPIRED the Word, but didn’t actually say it, so MERE MEN may have gotten it wrong.”
Ya think? Which is it? GOD’S WORD, or the ‘inspired’ words of men? Think about that one for as moment.
Did GOD write the stuff? Or did ‘inspired’ men (without getting into just what their particular ‘Inspirations’ might have been) write it, and spread it well before most folks even learned to read?
Did GOD write the stuff? Or did ‘inspired’ men (without getting into just what their particular ‘Inspirations’ might have been) write it, and spread it well before most folks even learned to read?
What would you replace them with?
I think there are more drawbacks than advantages with local church buildings. Why not consider church homes?What would you replace them with?
Very true for the most part. There are missionaries that proclaim the Gospel. They do not coax professions of faith. They are not in the soul winning business. That is the work of the Holy Spirit.It was/is no different then compared to what modern missionaries do now. They teach people to believe. They condition people to believe.
And it was for me as well.I cannot ever remember NOT hearing about God and Jesus when I was young and unable to read or write. I did not have to read the Bible in order to get my first taste of either of them. The Bible was there long after I had already been made a believer and it was the logical next step once I could read. Sunday school was a great start to reading the Bible and having the scripture "explained". Odd observance here... We never learned anything but the "good" verses. In fact no where in any sort of organized religion scenario did we spend any time on ALL the verses in the Bible. It was only as I grew into a young adult that I noticed all the verses and then felt guilty for going against my teachings and conditioning.
Why not consider church homes?
Is there a single instance in the New Testament where the early Christians ever built what we call a house of worship?
Individuals that can think for themselves with no obligation to fork over money to be closer to a God.
Organized religion and local churches
They didn't have to. They took advantage of the houses of worship that were already built:
"Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts." -- Acts 2:46
"The apostles performed many signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers used to meet together in Solomon’s Colonnade." -- Acts 5:12
“Maybe if you understood that it is not mans words but the inspired word of God you might get it. “
Because of that understanding, and that education, we ask quite simply – IF you propose that the ‘inspired words of God,’ were somehow put into the writing of only a terribly few people in a terribly remote part of the world at a time when hardly anyone at all was acquainted with this new-fangled invention of ‘writing,’ let alone ‘reading’ – And IF the God who gave this dictation to his very few human stenographers actually spoke those words, aloud, to those few recording secretaries – THEN HOW COME NONE OF THEM AGREE?
You see, there is a huge chasm of difference between what is often held to be “THE WORD OF GOD,” and the immediate fallback position that, “Well, Um, God INSPIRED the Word, but didn’t actually say it, so MERE MEN may have gotten it wrong.”
Ya think? Which is it? GOD’S WORD, or the ‘inspired’ words of men? Think about that one for as moment.
Did GOD write the stuff? Or did ‘inspired’ men (without getting into just what their particular ‘Inspirations’ might have been) write it, and spread it well before most folks even learned to read?