sound doctrine
I’ve found that many things I believed when I became a Christian a changed my beliefs on when I actually studied them. Not all, but some. The two most dramatic:
1. My church made a big deal about believing the pre-trib rapture was biblical. I studied it and am now mid-trib (actually post-tribulation, pre-wrath)
2. Even before I became a Christian “everebody knows” that according to Christianity the fate of the lost is eternal suffering. I studied it and now believe the fate of the lost is the second death which is, in fact, death. The warning actually starts in Genesis before Adam eats the forbidden fruit.
I figure some other beliefs will change as I study them one by one.
One that I’m figuring out now is that there are two types of people, but really three:
1. Sheep
2. Goats
But really, the first is divided into two groups:
1a. Found Sheep (FS)
1b. Lost Sheep (LS)
The great commission is for the FS to preach to all non-FS’s so the LS’s can become FS’s. It means I no longer have a heart for the “lost” because the lost are the Goats. They are an irrelevance. And the LS will become FS, whether I am the FS that preaches to them or not, but I would love to be the one who does.
To be clear, it is not for me to judge who is a LS and who is a Goat. But I can share the word and let the person make their decision. I should not have to convince them. And it is a waste of time to try to convince a Goat.
The Jews in Jesus time and the church now are both 501c3 under the Romans than and the IRS now.
ping for later
Some of their scriptures were carried forward and translated, some were not.
Some were forgotten, such as the Dead Sea Scrolls.
A few hundred years after Jesus died the heads of the Roman Empire and Church held international meetings to determine which bits were scripture and which were not. Their output was mostly translated to Latin and Greek.
About 1200 years later a new round of translations and editing took place, resulting in various versions of the Bible in other European languages. These differed in various ways, large and small, from previous versions.
The most famous English language was created under the direction of King James of England.
While he was sponsoring this new English language version of the Bible he was also very interested in witchcraft trials, and attended some in Scotland, which he was also King of. Per the standard bios "James personally supervised the torture of women accused of being witches. After 1599, his views became more sceptical.
How is your Hebrew, Aramaic and ancient Greek?
So, keep doing what I’m already doing, then? OK.
You believe the New Testament is true because you were taught to believe the New Testament is true.
The Pharisees get a bad rap in the NT, even worse than the occupying Romans overall. Regardless, they were the founders of what is today Orthodox Judaism.
I’ve always thought it interesting that when Jesus taught prayer via “Our Father...”, he taught a prayer that could as well be uttered by any Jew.
Talking animals..... Check.
Human sacrifice..... Check.
Mass murder..... Check.
Slavery..... Check.
Yes...