But you may have missed the most important lesson so keep praying. First, let me say I have studied the same materials you are currently studying and believe that the most likely explanation is of different authors.
However, you will miss and have completely discounted the possibility that scripture is ultimately one voice. As an analogy would be an orchestra performing. In that case the fundamentalists are correct as well as the various authors theory.
You started out saying you wanted a discussion and you consistently rejected any thoughts contrary to yours and then you wonder why the fundies are upset with you. Your studies will be far more fruitfull if you truly stop and listen to what others who study the bible are actually saying.
But you may have missed the most important lesson so keep praying. First, let me say I have studied the same materials you are currently studying and believe that the most likely explanation is of different authors.
So I'm not completely nuts? :)
However, you will miss and have completely discounted the possibility that scripture is ultimately one voice.
I haven't discounted it. I don't remember that theory coming up. I actually believe that. I think I've stated that, over & over. When I say to you that I believe the Bible was written over many years by many different authors but the text is divinely inspired, what does that say to you? I think it says that scripture is one voice. It's the voice of God. To sum up what I believe, I believe the Bible is the voice of God in the words of Man.
You started out saying you wanted a discussion and you consistently rejected any thoughts contrary to yours and then you wonder why the fundies are upset with you.
I'm sure you can show me where I rejected their thoughts. I don't think I did that, but I'm looking at it from my perspective. This thread got much longer and involved than I thought it would. I have 7 year old twins, a 3 year old and it's Advent, and my in laws are coming in tonight. Perhaps this wasn't the best time to try to have a thread like this. I will bookmark this, however, and go back through it as I find the time and try to listen to those who weren't shouting at me. Can you understand why I might have missed a response or two? Or how after reading 3 or 4 initial sarcastic replies (and if you go back, you'll see that was the first response) I might not have read closely enough to those who responded to me in that manner? And as I stated in my "final" (ha ha) post, I have learned a lot from many of those who posted. This has been a learning experience in many ways.