This seems only to apply to those that are already in agreement. That's peculiar, no?
construe The Word in the worst light possible.
So here I am trying to read the Bible. I don't speak Hebrew so for the OT I use the Hebrew Study Bible, Strongs, Blue-Letter Bible, and Biblegateway. For the NT I use the latter 3. I am sincere. I love God and want to follow his word. Independently, Kosta and I have come to many of the same conclusions about what the Bible says, although we are not in complete agreement.
Are we damned? Unloved? Doesn't it sound a bit cultish (in the insane way, not the nice way) to say that 1. We found our beliefs on the Bible only; 2. (for some) We have additional traditions that we accept; when the Bible contradicts beliefs and traditions which ones hold? When the tradition smacks of politics and philosophical legerdemain why not criticize it?
Did God imbue us with rational minds just to waste them? It is a non-sense argument to say, start from the Bible, but if you don't reach the same conclusions/beliefs I hold you cannot be a Christian or the "Spirit" is not working in your life. How offensive. How inconsistent.
I just saw another thread about rabid atheists removing roadside crosses. This is insane! How can something you don't believe exists offend you? But is this not the theme learned from the Old Testament, where a "jealous" God orders desecration of anything devoted to an "idol," including the graves of idolatrous people, dashing their infants to pieces, and raping idolatrous women?
Religious intolerance is not only present among atheist crusaders. The same mentality exists among the "people of faith" who like to refer to themselves as "servants of God." Rabid intolerance by such people of other faiths—simply because they are not cast in their image—is a constant theme of the last 2,000 years until the end of the 20th century.
Even people of the supposedly same faith exhibit the same rabid intolerance for heterodoxy. All in the name of the love of Christ, western Europe engaged in a 100-year war following Reformation, and then—while they were still burning each other at stakes—they ganged up on a third party of Anabaptists and proceeded to exterminate them in the biblical fashion with impunity simply because Anabaptists believed in the "sin" of re-baptizing their baptized infants when they reached adulthood!
The Northern Ireland conflict that lasted from 1969 until 1997, and cost 3,526 lives, was the last vestige of the Catholic-Protestant bloodletting in Europe since the Reformation.
Although it was officially a political and ethnic conflict, the civil war in the former Yugoslavia (1991-1995) that took some 150,000 lives on all sides, was basically a religious war among people who share the same language but are divided along confessional identities. The war was fought between two Christian groups (Serbs and Croats) and between Christians and Muslilsm.
The last religious conflict in Europe ended in 1999 with the NATO occupation of the Serbian province of Kosovo between Christian Serbs and predominantly Muslim Albanians. The war in the Middle East and Afghanistan is essentially a religious war. The manufacturer of US military rifles used in these conflicts recently admitted to inscribing biblical verses on gunsights!
People either use hatred or love of God to promote their own extreme agenda which is basically to exterminate those who do not share their beliefs. At least the atheists are just being plain inhuman, which seems to be our nature, but the "servants of God" often rely on the extermination commandments of their God as written in their scriptures, seeing their efforts as a morally just removal of "idolatrous" scum.
At least Christianity has a modifying, attenuating element in its sciprutre, the New Testament, but the Muslims and the Jews don't. Their scriptures do not even pretend that our ultimate goal is to (try to) love our enemies (as human beings) even if we have to defeat them (although the Old Testament quoted in Mat 5:43 does not exist)
If you are prepared to be offended, you will be.
“It is a non-sense argument to say, start from the Bible, but if you don't reach the same conclusions/beliefs I hold you cannot be a Christian or the "Spirit" is not working in your life.”
You seem to ascribe to me a belief in my own infallibility . . . in blatant defiance of my remarks relating to free will. You also seem to be looking to pick a fight. I could be wrong . . . I’m not infallible.
“Are we damned? Unloved?”
Not by me. I’ll leave that judgment to the Lord, per instructions (and keep in mind that being damned and being unloved are two different propositions).
“We have additional traditions that we accept; when the Bible contradicts beliefs and traditions which ones hold?”
You have free will. Do as you will. But, as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD. To the best of my ability, as God gives me the light to know His Word.
“This seems only to apply to those that are already in agreement.”
Actually, it applies to those who are determined not to be in agreement. You’re reading what you expect to see in everything I say. All the reference aids in the world will do you no good if you are determined not to be in agreement. You might as well simply read and quote from Tom Paine’s Age of Reason and live your life as you see fit without recourse to anything but your own resources.
There. I’ve given you loads of opportunity to not understand what I am saying.
Have a blast.
That beyond the basics for Salvation . . . e.g.
That Christ came in the flesh . . .
Confess with mouth and believe in heart that Jesus' Blood was shed for our Salvation; Is Lord etc. . . .
and a reasonably short list of other Scriptures outlining basic parameters of the Christian life . . .
that
God gives some degree of Grace for growing in Him led of Holy Spirit and working out our own Salvation IN HIM with fear and trembling.
I believe known persistent unforgiveness of others; harsh, mean-spirited carnal fleshly judgment of others; idolatry; blasphemy; willful persistent conscious sins . . . are exceedingly hazardous to one's relationship with God as well as in obeying love Him First and others as ourselves.
I believe God often tends to have a very personally tailored response to minor issues in our lives--according to His training program for maturing us and for maturing us in our faith. . . . that generally, minor things are minor things. At various points, this or that minor issue can be suddenly made a major issue of obedience to His Word, leading, will for us specifically at that moment in that context. . . . and, to whom much is given, much is required.
I believe that God considers His Word more important and crucial even than the fabric of tangible reality. . . . that He maintains His Word, the efficacy of His Word, the operation of His Word, the detailed fulfillment of His Word to the nth degree . . . MUCH MORE than He cares about the stability of atomic structures and stars and planets in their orbits.
I believe that arrogance, rebellion, idolatry, witchcraft, stubbornness, blasphemy, unforgiveness and harsh-carnal-fleshly-mean-spirited-critical-judgment are seen in extremely negative terms by The Lord . . . that their reaping is particularly corrosive, destructive, deadly and more fully and rapidly so than a lot of other sins and hazards to souls.
I believe that Loving God foremost and putting Him first in all things 24/7 is utmost crucial in the life of a Christian . . . and that close following is loving others as ourselves.
I believe that we cannot fix ourselves yet are tasked with choosing (and following through in actions) as best we can to cooperate with His being the author and finisher of our faith and of us.
I believe GOD IS GOD and we are not, most mercifully. I believe that GOD IS ALTOGETHER GOOD; GOOD ALL THE TIME; ALL THE TIME, HE IS GOOD.
I believe that believers serious about walking with God as His children hear His Voice as Christ declared. Christ died for relationship and that means dialogue. No dialogue? Then something's wrong with the relationship or there's wax build-up in spiritual ears.
I believe God prefers candor and honesty. He does NOT TOLERATE affrontive challenges to His Nature, Godhood, Majesty, Authority, Goodness . . . As Bill Cosby put it . . . "Noah, how long can you tread water?"
. . . Not an exhaustive . . . statement of belief and faith . . . just some main points early on a Fri morn.