[Battle Hymn of the Republic]

God hates "religion". He wants a relationship, it's all about a personal relationship with Christ. But we must ask God for that relationship, in Christ's name.

Some people are gifted to teach the Bible the way it was meant to be taught - literally, and word by word. Others as you say it, are hucksters...

Best,

[Al Simmons]

My own experience, BHOTR, is that the amount of an individuals' public bloviating about one's 'personal relationship to God' and 'WWJD' is in direct proportion to the level of hypocrisy in their own private lives....call me jaded, but hey, we all have to grow up some time...

[austinTparty]

I hate to tell you this, Battle, but teaching "word by word" and "literally" would be a huge mistake... let's just say that any translation is a compromise which necessarily changes the meaning of the original. You can't be literal with translated works, you have to take them in context. Additionally, if you don't understand historical context, you won't understand that certain words or customs had vastly different meanings than we would ascribe to them today. Hermeneutics...