I was curious if anyone feels torn about the Bible? There is obviously some very good wisdom in it, but some things I read in it feel like the word of God and some do not…
Discussion
51 comments
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Care to be specific on what is not, in your opinion, the Word of God?
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Someone once said, “If we perceive inconsistencies in the Word of God, it is inconsistencies in our thinking, not His word.”
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When I started reading The Book of Life, I didn’t understand it didn’t make sense to me and got confused and I remember a sister from church saying that God does not come from confusions. So I closed up my Bible and got on my knees then I said a little prayer for me to understand what I am about to reading the story of my life. Prayer helps alot ?
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I’ve battled that a lot. And a lot of people claim to believe it all but they kind of “overlook” some stuff. Like Jesus saying salvation requires repentance of sin for example. And Paul says some pretty weird legalistic stuff too.
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Change your feelings to agree with those things, too.
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The Bible is 100% the Word of God, but sometimes it takes time to gain wisdom and understand parts of it and why it was helpful in that time period.
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The whole point of the “Word of God” is to be separate from the mind of man.
Once you start throwing out passages you don’t like or understand, it’s no longer the “Word of God” but the “Worldview of Alexis”. -
Remember that scripture was written by men MOVED by the Spirit of God. Each text speaks truth ordained by the Spirit but not every word is God speaking as He is through the Prophets. Each writer of scripture has his own style and historical background but all is God Breathed.
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Such as…?
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Yeah, like Yahweh condoning slavery, genital mutilation, and genocide!
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I have read the Bible thru every year while using a bible study…this is my first year doing chronological study of the complete bible…it’s a wonderful way to study..I use ESV version with reformation study bible and Matthew Henry commentary…every time I reread the word of God, I learn more and feel the wisdom of the Holy Spirit…the first year I read the Bible thru years ago, I almost skipped Isaiah and psalms because I couldn’t make sense of them…now, they are my favorites and I did a year long study of just the psalms..
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Hey! I just saw this. Honestly, I would love for you to study the Bible. There are many things in the Bible that have been taken out of context so you just have to get the whole picture. Would you be interested in doing a virtual Bible study? Even if it’s just to answer some of your questions?
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The Bible is the inerrant inspired word of God regardless if parts do or don’t “feel” like it. Are your feelings 100% correct?
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1)I was curious if anyone feels. . . 2)I read in it feel like the word of God and some do not… I went though this long ago. I think I figured it out. God’s Knowledge is Unlimited and His Nature, perfect. Man is imperfect and limited in Nature. Hence, man has thus proven himself the INFERIOR. So when men looks at what God does, and does not understand it, but then evokes “I feel that X”, or “I think Y”, be that as it may, it in no invalidates the sound reasons, that we may not understand , that God does the things He does, as if He owed man any explanation to begin with. . .The Book of Job, is chalk full of what appears to be an ugly lesson, but “Thou He May Slay Me, still will I TRUST Him.” <<< I think I'll anchor my boat on that shore, and sleep very well for the nights, when others stay up and fear what they do not understand. God IS in control.
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Jereme McAlpin – You beat me to it “Feelings” did not exist prior to the Founding of the UNIVERSE. They do not determine where God put which star, nor do they govern the physical laws of nature, or the laws of Divine Justice.
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HUMAN “feelings”, hence they forfeit any right to be the ground authority by which God must do things. God is subject to nothing and no one. All things and all people are subject to HIM. Once I finally grasped THAT, my education flew up through the roof. Almost as if , “Fear of the Lord is the beginning of Knowledge.” Hash tag, TRUTH.
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Although, I don’t want to pick on the OP, because they are just expressing and honest doubt they had, so let us HELP them here, I was not meaning to mock, I just wanted to stand firm.
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To be honest you need to understand and believe in the sovereignty of God and the goodness, wisdom, and grace of God as well.
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Nope. That’s why I studied apologetics so that I can understand why I believe what I believe and be 100% confident in my faith.
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Well its not about how we feel and we should not be basing it a a feeling, just saying. The Gospel message is not about how we feel it about what he did for us and what we need to do
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Jesus says it’s the word of God. The God of the Old Testament was who Jesus called Father. Jesus rose from the dead. Wrestle with God and seek to understand him better.
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I don’t judge the bible the bible judges me.
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Ephesians 6:10-18
The Armor of God
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.
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I am a believer who DOES have problems reconciling some of the extremely difficult things God has done and allowed to be done. There are some extremely dark events that take place in the bible, some of them under God’s own command and I DO have a very difficult time with this. On the flip side, as I work on reconciling this, I also realize that God’s righteousness and purity are COMPETELY foreign to me and I’ll never be able to comprehend that kind of purity because I’m not divine by any stretch of the imagination. I think it’s absolutely ok for believers to not only have a difficult time reconciling dark passages, but to acknowledge this as well. We (believers) do not have all the answers and that’s ok to acknowledge that too. As a matter of fact, I (for one) actually ENCOURAGE that kind of humility in acknowledging that there are dark passages, there ARE things that God has done that we do NOT understand or even agree with, etc. By doing so, we’re not only honest, but that should earn the respect of those we’re talking to who realize that we’re not the kind that always has to have an answer or try to answer with a bunch of crap. There are decisions that God’s made that ARE dark and I’m completely convinced that while those decisions were swift and decisive for God to carry out, they were equally heart-wrenching for him as well. Many times, a lot of believers AND atheists do not consider this. Many believers don’t consider how heart-wrenching this was in any attempt to respond to an atheist AND atheists don’t think about this because sometimes this is overlooked (among other reasons). Also, there are extremely dark passages that took place BY “believers” who sincerely thought they were following God’s will and took an extreme that God never intended OR they even used God’s name to carry out their actions, claiming it was God’s will and maliciously abused the faith in the process. JMHO.
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The negatives you are probably uncomfortable with are still stories good for correction, reproof and lessons to reflect on for your walk with God.
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You have to understand that everything is His. He can do anything with everything because He owns everything. Its just like your phone. You use your phone, when you got angry you throw it. Thats ok because its you who throw it. Try to throw my phone and ill smash it in your head. ? Sorry.
Maybe you question trials. Well, He’stesting your faithfulness. Have you read the book of Job? He was tested. By Satan of course, but allowed by God (see? The Devil knows who owns things) to measure how faithful and strong Job is to God. Its a measure of trust because He knows your heart. He even would not allow anything that you cannot handle. Good thing or bad, He would not let you have what you cannot control.
For me, the bible and what God has been doing makes more sense than anything in the world. -
It’s either all true or it’s all suspect. You either believe it all and are Christian or you don’t and your not. It’s that simple.
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I treat it more as a diary or history book. The church is higher than it
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Alexis, what parts do you feel that are not the word of God?
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2 Tim 3:16
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Doubt one Word you doubt all of it.
Believe one Word you believe all of it.
God would Ye be Hot ? or cold ? lest Ye be lukewarm and He spew you out. ?God sees light and or darkness and measures such.
God is All knowing, all powerful and unlimited, you are either part of that or not, who can compare?
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2 Timothy 3:16
[16]All Scripture is inspired by God (God breathed) and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. -
I never feel torn anymore. But there is sometimes it is confusing. It helps alot to read about the cultural difference between ancient Israel and our day.
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The problem is not the Scriptures, but us when we feel that way either that we do not understand it, or we wilfully denied the truth that reveals the wickedness in us.
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A good follow up question would be “Can you share and example, so that we can better understand why you feel this way?”
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Also remember, sin fogged our spiritual sight.
“Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”
James 4:8 NASB -
Bible is not a emotional Book you reading it with emotions
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I know someone who does and i totally understand and do not invalidate their feelings. Some people cannot accept things just by faith and need to really be convinced to believe. I have been praying for him God knows our hearts and he understand why we can be torn. ???
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i think the problem lies in how we should read the bible. sadly, many many christians worldwide, including me isn’t very sure how to read the bible. For example, i know the gospels are to be read synoptically. Revelations is to be read semiotically, but i’m not exactly sure how and i’m not exactly taught how to. if left to our own, we will will come up with all sorts of weird take aways from the bible. The contradictions in the bible are there for a reason, and i think it’s essential to understand why it is placed there and what message it is trying to convey. Reading the bible is hard, but i think it’s good we dedicate our whole live to learn how to read it in the way it should be read, and teach this skills to others once we have learned it
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God does not hide man’s depravity. Let us look at ourselves and see how we line up with Scripture, we have signed and come very short of measuring up. Jesus alone is the way and nothing else..
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Everybody has this issue what I’ve found to be the best remedy is to as the Holy Spirit for guidance then dig into the meaning, culture, author, and audience when it comes to certain passages for better clarity. Intent and knowing what was happening and why the passages were even written clears up a lot of things. Other things we just have to trust God on.
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I find that to be expected really. Look at our universe which He made. Its full of deep mysteries, paradoxes and seemingly conflicting facts. But the more we examine, study, and put pieces together the more those issues disappear.
How much more profound, mysterious and deep is He who created it all and His word?
I don’t want a God so small that I can wrap my little mind around.
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The parts we feel aren’t God are usually the ones that stretch us or that we have a different opinion about. It’s all for our learning and to change us…
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2 Tim.3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God,and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction,for instructions in righteousness, 17.
that the man of God maybe complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. -
It’s definitely not the inherent word of God – even He says so himself in the Bible!
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God is not known by feeling, emotions shivers in your flesh, he is known by revelation, and if you take him at his word and touch him by faith, then ask what you will
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The heart is deceitful above all things.
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Learn some good exegesis and hermaneutics and research passages by understanding who the book was written to, the culture the verses before and after a passage, other passages in scripture that speak of the same thing. Be around people who are doing those things. Read good commentaries and bible dictionaries etc. But dont become dependent on others views- learn to get your own from good tools of interpretation. Many still use the old “I just open the Bible up and wherever it opens to I put my finger there and determine what it means” Good tools of interpretation makes all the difference in the world.
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Are you torn, or convicted about your choices?
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