Greatest Sect of Christianity

[Kidlicious]

As Imran just said, Christ was God's Word. The Bible is simply a record, of secondary importance to the incarnate Word Himself. As a human creation, it is necessarily open to error.

How is this not nonsense? And how can the Bible be a creation of man? How can man know anything about God's word? Oh sorry I mean how can an "expert" know anything about God's word?

[Kidlicious]

"Theology is crap"? Is that related to "history is bunk"?

Um no. It's subjective. Or didn't you know that the experts of Jesus‘ day were yards.

[Kidlicious]

That should read that religious experts are ***** (not yards). I can't edit right now.

[giblets]

Oh, I thought you were saying that they were freaks with three feet.

[Kidlicious]

I mean the idea that God wants to speak to you through an expert is bull****. Bull**** that the Catholic church pulled for many centuries. Come on now. You've got a Bible now read it. It says that God doesn't communicate through so called experts.

[Elok]

How is this not nonsense? And how can the Bible be a creation of man? How can man know anything about God's word? Oh sorry I mean how can an "expert" know anything about God's word?

In order: John 1:1, the names of the gospels refer to the entirely fallible human beings who wrote them, by a variety of means, ditto.

[Elok]

I mean the idea that God wants to speak to you through an expert is bull****. Bull**** that the Catholic church pulled for many centuries. Come on now. You've got a Bible now read it. It says that God doesn't communicate through so called experts.

Except for the several dozen experts, at minimum, who wrote the Bible. Then died, leaving a book open to any of hundreds of interpretations.

[Elok]

Um no. It's subjective. Or didn't you know that the experts of Jesus‘ day were yards.

"Group X were bad at Job X. Therefore Job X is stupid and shouldn't be done."

[Kidlicious]

In order: John 1:1, the names of the gospels refer to the entirely fallible human beings who wrote them, by a variety of means, ditto.

I don't make sense of this.

OK, if God told them what to write, how could they get ANYTHING wrong. On the other hand, if God didn't tell them what to write how did they get ANYTHING right.

[Kidlicious]

Except for the several dozen experts, at minimum, who wrote the Bible. Then died, leaving a book open to any of hundreds of interpretations.

You mean the prophets and apostles? Not the same thing.

Regarding interpretations, if you interpret it wrong that's your own fault. Don't blame God.

[Elok]

I don't make sense of this.

OK, if God told them what to write, how could they get ANYTHING wrong. On the other hand, if God didn't tell them what to write how did they get ANYTHING right.

If you resort to false dilemmas, how can we discuss ANYTHING? It's not like the Almighty told every single author, "Okay, take a memo" and dictated the Bible word-for-word. It was all written and composed by people--the Bible itself says so, and I hope you don't contest that. They could get it right insofar as they heard the Word, understood it so far as they were able, and did their best to pass the message on.

[Elok]

You mean the prophets and apostles? Not the same thing.

Regarding interpretations, if you interpret it wrong that's your own fault. Don't blame God.

There are something like two thousand different Protestant sects, not counting solitary believers, all following their conscience and doing the best they can to interpret the Bible. A large number of them get it wrong purely out of ignorance, or biases they didn't know they had. This is how it's supposed to work?

[Kidlicious]

"Group X were bad at Job X. Therefore Job X is stupid and shouldn't be done."

No, you aren't following me nicely. First I commented that a lot of theology was bull****. Later I said that is subjective. But you seem to think there is something special about an expert. Let me tell you something. You don't know squat about God's word by going to college. The Holy Spirit tells you what the Bible means and that's the only way you will ever know.

[Kidlicious]

"Group X were bad at Job X. Therefore Job X is stupid and shouldn't be done."

No, you aren't following me nicely. First I commented that a lot of theology was bull****. Later I said that is subjective. But you seem to think there is something special about an expert. Let me tell you something. You don't know squat about God's word by going to college. The Holy Spirit tells you what the Bible means and that's the only way you will ever know.

[Elok]

See, that's the funny thing. Your conception of the Holy Spirit has apparently told the Liberation Theology crowd that He likes poor people and hates rich ones, while He told the Prosperity Gospel crowd exactly the opposite. In the absence of "experts," or Tradition, who exactly is supposed to say which interpretation is right, or closer to right, or less wrong?