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To: Mrs. Don-o
The Bible wasn't written as an instructional tool for converting people.

A good percentage of the New Testament was written communicating exactly the opposite. The above statement is true if the conversion implied is a work of man, or if the Bible is considered as a textbook for rationalism rather than a divinely developed mechanism in communicating the WORD of God.

I'd recommend a good word study on "The Word", MEMRA (Aramaic for WORD), and the role of of faith, hearing, and the WORD in Romans 10:17.

Rom 10:17 (17) So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

We might want to begin in Job Chapter 42.

Calvinists are correct in their belief that all faith comes from God, but where some people are confused by this is when they then reason independently of God to assume God is then responsible if they lack faith.

Galatians 3:2

(2) This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?

Continuing in Gal 3:5-9

(5) He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?

(6) Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.

(7) Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.

(8) And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.

(9) So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.

Scripture (which many people associate with the anthology of some 66 books called the Bible) provides a record of the WORD of God. When the word is communicated and heard by a human, it is processed in their mind and also for the believer may be communicated to their human spirit by God the Holy Spirit. While remaining in fellowship with Him, God the Holy Spirit also makes that understanding in the mind, available for recall and retention in the heart, which then becomes an outward type of knowledge available for daily application.

The WORD, therefore, as communicated through Scripture in the Bible, may be used by God the Holy Spirit in the soul of the believer to further convert the scarred soul into the cleansed heart He loves to provide us by His grace.

God does all the work, but we are commanded to remain in fellowship with Him, through faith alone in Christ alone. Volition is also involved in that process of sanctification, which is a work of God in us.

In this respect, the Bible was written as an instructional tool to convert us.

111 posted on 01/20/2008 10:34:58 AM PST by Cvengr (Fear sees the problem emotion never solves. Faith sees & accepts the solution, problem solved.)
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To: Cvengr
What you say is true: certainly written Scripture is "a" tool. But the Holy Spirit has many tools, and among the chief ones are preaching (based on the role of "hearing") and example (based on the way our lives should reflect that of Christ, who lives in us, "the Word made flesh.")

And as I say, the Church grew and flourished for years built on the preaching and example of the Apostles and their successors, before there was any written New Testament, and for centuries before there was a complete, collected, and canonized New Testament.

Hence all conversion comes from the Holy Spirit, through the Church, which read and venerates the Scirptures as one of Her precious and God-given resources --- but not her only one.

117 posted on 01/20/2008 10:53:21 AM PST by Mrs. Don-o (Blessed be God in His angels and in His saints.)
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