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To: LearsFool

Here is some additional perspective providing insight.:

Why did God do it this way? Why did He not drop a book out of the sky in every language so that their would be no problem recognizing its divine significance? Why did he just not give us a book written in reformed Egyptian Hieroglyphics and have someone with magic glasses write down the content?

(a) There is a great deal of parallelism throughout the Bible. One of the most important is that of Jesus Christ, who is the living Word, fully and unequivocally God and yet true humanity (John 1:1-12). This is parallel to the concept of Scripture, God’s complete and connected message to man as recorded by the human authors of Scripture who did not waive any of their humanity in the writing of Scripture. A grasp of the living Word gives us understanding of the written Word and vice versa.

(b) There is the principle of chronological revelation; that is, we exist in time and God has different programs for different ages. The church age was not pertinent to Adam and Eve, to Noah, or to Moses. Having information about the church age would have not been helpful. Jesus Christ came in time, so the Scriptures which preceded His coming had to look forward to His coming and those Scriptures written after His death and resurrection had to look backward to his first advent. Therefore, each set of
generations of peoples required revelation which was for their time in human history. It was not until the church age that we had God’s complete revelation to man.

(c) We must never forget that we are an integral part of God’s plan. We are not just a separate entity on earth with some divine will imposed upon us from heaven. God is personal and there is an moment-by-moment interaction between God and ourselves which is real and dynamic.

The proper interpretation here is: some people profess to be religious, spiritual, to love God, etc. The reality of the alleged spirituality is found in their interest in God’s Word. This is where we find out just exactly Who
God is. Without His Word, we do not have the ability to love God because we do not know Who God is.

Note, however, that even though God spoke to Pharaoh, this required a mature believer to interpret the dream.

Notice that these dreams, visions and trance-like states occurred with more frequency prior to the recording of Scripture. After Moses recorded the first Scripture, then these methods were used by God in order to write more Scripture.

Prophecy does not begin and end with the foretelling of future events. A prophet represented God to man and his message was God’s message to man. So all that a prophet had to say was called prophecy and only a portion of that was prophetic.

....

(a) Human authorship. Over forty different authors, from kings to common fishermen to tax collectors to four star generals to theologians wrote the 66 books of the Bible over a period of over 1600 years. The cohesion of Scripture is better explained by the supernatural guidance of God than it is by pure coincidence.

Some detractors will try to point out that this is religious literature put together by religious people who all have the same viewpoint. This is highly unlikely because if anyone has a different set of viewpoints, it will be religious people.

Recall the statement, When any two rabbis agree on any one thing at one time, Messiah will come.

(b) Personal honesty and objectivity of the writers of Scripture. Believer and unbeliever authors alike tend to see themselves with rose-colored glasses. They can spot the faults and shortcomings of others, but cannot see even the same deficiencies in themselves. However, the authors of Scripture, when they sinned or were wrong, they did not do the natural human thing: gloss over it, neglect to include it or rationalize and/or justify it; instead, they record their sins and failures along side their triumphs and successes.

David’s adultery with Bathsheba and the subsequent murder of her husband that he contracted; Noah’s drunkenness (probably originally recorded by Noah); Moses’s sin which caused him to be kept out of entering into the promised land with a multitude of one of the most degenerate generation of Jews ever; Solomon’s failure to woo the Schulumite woman in Song of Solomon.

The Bible is filled with the accurate recording of many men. Some Christians find this troubling; to examine some great man of Scripture and then to find out that not only does he have feet of clay, but he is knee deep in mud.


52 posted on 08/19/2015 3:31:02 AM PDT by Cvengr ( Adversity in life & death is inevitable; Stress is optional through faith in Christ.)
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To: Cvengr
Well said.

The reality of the alleged spirituality is found in their interest in God’s Word. This is where we find out just exactly Who God is. Without His Word, we do not have the ability to love God because we do not know Who God is.

And isn't that what Jesus said time and again to those who rejected Him? He pointed to their ignorance and/or disbelief of the Scriptures:

"For if ye believed Moses, ye would believe me; for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?" - John 5:46-47

"But Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God." - Matt. 22:29

"But if ye had known what this meaneth, I desire mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless." - Matt. 12:7

"Woe unto you lawyers! for ye took away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered." - Luke 11:52

"The baptism of John, whence was it? from heaven or from men?...And they answered Jesus, and said, We know not." - Matt. 21:25, 27 (Feigning ignorance was preferable to admitting their dishonesty!)

And because of the dishonesty of their hearts, the things of God were hidden from them. Jesus would not cast His pearls before swine, nor give what was holy to the dogs. These precious things He reserved for those would make proper use of them.

"...He that hath ears, let him hear.

And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?

And he answered and said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that which he hath.
Therefore speak I to them in parables; because seeing they see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And unto them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, which saith,

By hearing ye shall hear, and shall in no wise understand;
And seeing ye shall see, and shall in no wise perceive:
For this people's heart is waxed gross,
And their ears are dull of hearing,
And their eyes they have closed;
Lest haply they should perceive with their eyes,
And hear with their ears,
And understand with their heart,
And should turn again, And I should heal them.

But blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear. For verily I say unto you, that many prophets and righteous men desired to see the things which ye see, and saw them not; and to hear the things which ye hear, and heard them not."
- Matt. 13:9-17

Jesus would not force His healing upon them. It is the submissive, yielding heart - the heart of flesh, not of stone, as He says in Ezekiel - to which Jesus revealed His truths.
54 posted on 08/19/2015 7:14:15 AM PDT by LearsFool (Real men get their wives and children to heaven.)
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