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You'd think a smart guy like a God could speak clearly so that people desperately trying to follow his teachings could all figure out what exactly it was he meant.

biblical truths are spiritually discerned not intellectually discerned. Since you are not a believer you cannot understand. Read 1st Cor. 2:14: But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know [them], because they are spiritually discerned.

That's fine, exmarine, but it is actually nonresponsive to the point. By whatever means this alleged "truth" comes to be known, Christian advocates seem to be widely divergent about what that "truth" is.

Undercutting an intellectual understanding of the Bible buys you more trouble than you might at first realize. It sort of makes reading the Bible pointless -- since the fruits of spiritual understanding are not to be found in any intellectual grasp thereof.

Actually, you are wrong. All "christians" agree on the essentials - deity of Christ, means of salvation, virgin birth of Christ, bodily resurrection. These are historic essentials that go back to to Jesus Himself. Anyone who denies these cannot call themselves an orthodox or biblical Christian. These essentials DEFINE Christianity and they are from the bible. As the man said, "unity in the essentials, liberty in the non-essentials and in all things, charity." Of course, since you are a mere skeptic (I remember you from other threads), I do not expect you to accept anything I say as your purpose is purely polemical. go bother someone else.