Replies

Holy cow! This speaks to exactly what a music ministry pastor and I were discussing at his large church in Louisville.

I was lamenting that, after moving from Seattle to rural KY, I was finding a lot of dogmatism. That is, people believed many things about Christianity as absolutely the final word, but when you tried to discuss it with them they would just clam up and say “I believe what the bible sez.” But what they actually believed was a certain interpretation, and they could not support it.

Meanwhile, this music minister said that his church had a lot of members that were professors at a local bible college. He said what he has noticed was that, for a lot of Christian messages beyond the core message, the more someone knows about what the bible teaches, the less sure they are of their opinion on the specific issues.

I’ve found that happening with me. The more I know, the more I know I don’t know, and the less sure I am about things like the afterlife, the “before the world existed” stuff, etc.

I’ve found that happening with me. The more I know, the more I know I don’t know, and the less sure I am about things like the afterlife, the “before the world existed” stuff, etc.

Too sad, because the more I read. pray, and meditate on the Word, the more I am convinced that the Word informs me on everything and I question nothing about the truth.

Maybe you should just stick to the Word, and ignore anything and everything that tries to explain to you what you read.

The best commentary on the Word is the Word itself.

Try reading the Bible like you do a novel, then read it again, and again, and again. Stop trying to figure it out, and let the Holy Spirit speak to you.

I promise you will see that it all makes sense, even those things about the Universe, and time you were unsure of. Never question the Words of the Bible, always question the information ungodly men give you, because they only care about leading you away from the truth and into hell. Never ever question God's Word, because God want's you to be with Him in heaven.

Remember, the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. (1 Corinthians 1:25)

Proverbs 3:5 is a constant companion and nag, but more and more welcome the older I get.

Perspective is important in all things, but especially so with religious interpretation, which is fraught with danger from the Garden to this day.

It’s far too easy to become way too certain about an incorrect interpretation and then run with it, even build a denomination based upon it.

Jesus created one Church, but we have created many.

At some point, we have traded His Truth for our own and at some point are worshipping a false idol of our own creation.

It’s tough to find His Truth amongst our own, but such is the journey of a seeker.

Like a buddy of mine used to say, “Never drink downstream beer.”

Seattle has some of the nations lowest church attendance.

Kentucky some of the highest

Faith is faith not empiricism

If Christianity were simply empirical the entire world would likely follow and easily

But it’s faith more than anything

All that historical explanation stuff is interesting and folks can argue all they wish but it’s almost beside the point.... that

Resolute faith and dogmatic are again two different things

I’ve learned to look at Christianity as unique because to my knowledge it’s the only religion of note whereby the creator sends his duly created son as an extension of himself to earth to live and suffer and die horribly in order to prove or show that he can live and die as you and for you to have faith in accepting that for your everlasting future after death with him and as proof that he loves those which he created and living as us demonstrates the old adage he’s not asking you to do something he has not experienced

Nobody else really does that and it logically makes the most impression on me as understandable and believable.

I’m sure Kentucky has less socially conservative churches like Lutheran or united Methodist if the fundies irritate you