journey11
Garden Master
Alex, for all these years I've known that and you have always been one of my favorite people on here still. I know you have surely run into people who have treated you badly and it's not right if they have.
We are all born sinners. The baffling thing to me is when anyone tries to pretend that their sin somehow weighs out any better than someone else's. God is holy, and we are not. Our sin comes between us and him and prevents us from having a relationship with him. Anyone who comes to Jesus comes just as they are and you trust him with all the rest.
He says he is the way, the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father but by him. That is a very definitive statement. It's a take it or leave it statement, as we all have our free-will to decide. It then follows that if he is not The way, then he is a liar and he is none of the ways. He didn't go to the cross for ape-men, he died to save human beings made in the image of God because God loves us. You have a body, but you are a living soul. Yeah, I waded into this thread because I think that is important. It really bugs me that evolution is touted as fact, when it is not and makes many leaps of faith itself. I find the two irreconcilable because it undermines the whole point of the Gospel. The truth is out there (I'll quote X-files now, lol). There's truth, and then there's everything else. I wouldn't take a priest or anyone else's word for it. We need to be convinced in our own hearts and it may take some searching out. Just because something is not understood, doesn't mean it cannot be understood, it just means that we have our human limitations and maybe it will take more work on our part to sort it out.
Yes, the Bible was written by men. 40 or so, and over the course of 1500 years. For any of it to concur under those circumstances is quite a feat. The way it all weaves together is amazing. And yes, read it yourself if you will; then take that by faith. There is a long history to how it was translated. The Catholic Bible and the Protestant Bible are very different from each other. Then there are all the other versions and translations into other languages. Some words don't translate well or have multiple meanings, Context, syntax, colloquialisms and historical elements had to be considered. Yes, fallible men work on the translations, some come out better or more accurate than others. All of the supposed contradictions have been addressed multiple times since the beginning of the church age. None of them undermine issues of doctrine though. There are different denominations because of different understandings of what was written. You would consider it that God wrote the Bible, the original manuscripts, sort of like dictating a letter to a secretary and overseeing that it was correct before signing his name to it. You would say the letter was from the person who spoke it, not the secretary who typed it up.
Bob, I don't think it's fair to call anyone closed-minded because they haven't the same opinion as you or don't agree to say oh well, who cares, nothing really matters. You don't agree with the things Valley is passionate about, yet you make a point of trolling his threads, speaking rudely, denigrating his opinions because you don't agree with them and act as if he should not have the right to speak them. You can surely present your opinions without being disrespectful. That still might not change the other's mind and sometimes it's just better if you can't say anything nice, not to say anything at all. And I could certainly do better to avoid contentious topics myself. Goodness knows I haven't had much time to get on here lately, I have been so busy. I'm only writing this now because Alex spoke some good points and asked some honest questions. I felt it would be rude and unfair to ignore his last one. My faith is my own viewpoint. I just wanted to let him know that God does indeed love him, very much.
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