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To: biblewonk

"I'm worshipping the bible because I read it and believe it and worshipping the bible is wrong?"

It depends, I suppose, on if the Bible is God. We worship God, not His creation. Worshipping the Bible would be similar to worshipping any other creation, such as Mary. God inspired the Bible. It is inerrant. He used humans to write what He wanted to write at the time. It is not God. Worship the Bible? It is the Spirit that gives life, not the letter. As I mentioned before, people can read the Bible and get nothing spiritual out of it. Atheists read it. Agnostics read it. Scripture scholars like the Jesus Seminar read it. Do they get it? Are they led in the Spirit? I won't answer that, but it is the Spirit Himself, not the words of the Bible, that converts the hearts of man. I hope I have made that clear - the Bible ITSELF cannot convert hearts. The Spirit does. The Bible itself DOES NOT warrant worship. God does. Only Him.

If God would have wanted us to "worship" the Bible, rather than His incarnate flesh (Jesus), I think His salvation plan would have been a bit different. We'd have icons of the Bible, not Jesus. We'd have giant statues of the Bible, not Jesus. The ONLY reason the Bible is given the love and reverance that it receives in the Church is because it is the Word of God (not the LOGOS!). His presence is perceived THROUGH the Scriptures. Think of the Bible as a sacrament - a visible sign of invisible grace. Just like we receive God's grace and blessings through the sacrament of Holy Communion and Reconcilliation, you receive God's grace and blessing through the Bible.

"I'm also out of line for noticing that people who have less regard for the bible read it less and I am trusting that I am righteous because I read the bible. So I should quit reading the bible..."

(i presume this is sarcasm)

No. your habits are commendable. Just the attitude towards others who are not as well-read as you on Scripture. Where does the Bible itself say that we are saved by faith in the bible? We are saved by faith in Christ. By Baptism. By eating His flesh and drinking His blood. But nothing about reading the Bible. Consider the first generation of Christians - did they have a NT Bible? Were they saved regardless? Matthew 25 doesn't mention anything about reading the Bible, but Jesus does mention love as necessary for salvation.

I humbly offer this "correction" to you in the spirit of Matthew 18. Please try to understand that because I don't read 200 pages of the bible daily doesn't make me any less of a Christian than you. Christ instituted the Law of Love, not the Law of reading the Bible.

Brother in Christ


1,152 posted on 05/18/2005 10:38:39 AM PDT by jo kus
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To: jo kus
Just the attitude towards others who are not as well-read as you on Scripture. Where does the Bible itself say that we are saved by faith in the bible?

Funny you should ask.

John 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

Gal 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

By the way, this is yet another verse that proves Jesus is God too. The word of Christ is not just the red letters but we also know the bible as the Word of God.

1,154 posted on 05/18/2005 10:55:28 AM PDT by biblewonk (Socialism isn't all bad.)
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