lekatt: H4E has no interpretation of her own of the Scriptures. Her biggest failing here is a failure to understand that many of us engaged in such topics as this one do, in fact, exercise our own minds–the minds the Good Lord gave us–to not only read what’s written, but also to look around us at His works. That we are able to do this is a foreign concept to her. In short, it’s something she refuses to understand.
Whatever you guys want to say. I posted to clarify for Polycarp the difference between my and Lekatt’s beliefs as he asked me to. No point in starting another “my interpretation, your interpretation” debate. I apologize, Mangetout, if I sounded patronizing to you. I should have just used the words, “I believe” and left it at that.
Hi Monty
I think H4E has an interpretation of the Bible, but doesn’t know that it is an interpretation. Being taught with fear all your life and told that something is true and that anyone who differs with you is speaking for satan is very hard to overcome. It took me years of reading to do it. Most fundamentalists are not going to put out that kind of effort. They are locked in fear and want everyone else to be also. That is why Jesus was executed, He taught freedom through love, and the religious authorities felt their power slipping away. It’s the same with the fundies.
Love
Leroy
lekatt:
I don’t dispute that she has an interpretation of the Bible; I disupte that she has her interpretation. For one to have one’s own interpretation of any particular piece of literature, one must read and analyze that literature for oneself. H4E not only has not done that, currently she is not able to do that.
I agree Monty
Having lived in that fear for the early years of life, I know how stressful it can be to just read opposing literature. I used to actually tremble while reading Unitarian church material.
I was sitting with a group of psychics one day when two young men from the local fundamental church came in to interview us.
One of the young men was shaking with fear just being in the presence of psychics.
A friend of mine in NC called this week to tell me a young boy (13) had jumped off a bridge and killed himself near her house. The boy was going to a Christian school and had been put on suspension for some (unknown) reason.
I hired a man right out of a mental hospital when I had my business. His mother had been a religious fanatic and told me every day of his young life he was going to hell and burn forever.
It took about 9 years for him to feel comfortable enough to talk about religion. He did eventually make us a very good employee.
The list goes on and on. Fear is relentless.
I have great compassion for those trapped in it.
God is unconditional love, He does not condemn or punish.
Love
Leroy
His4Ever, whether you like it or not, the verses you choose reflect the way you interpret the Bible. You say “The Bible says x”, but you don’t mention that immediately afterwards it also says y.
You brought up John 14:6, "Jesus said, 'I am the way; I am the truth and I am life; no one comes to the Father except by me. Here’s my take on the context of this verse. Christ has just told his disciples He is going where no one can follow, and telling them, “Set your troubled hearts at ease.” I don’t know about you, but when someone tells me something like that, I immediately start worrying. It’s a bit like someone starting off a conversation by saying, “First thing: I’m all right.” Christ is being metaphorical to mysterious, and Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Thomas, I get the impression, was a rather literal-minded soul, based on his need to touch as well as see the wounds in Christ’s hands and feet before believing in the resurrection. At my old church, some of us referred to him as the patron saint of engineers (that church has a higher than average number of engineers). He’s troubled. The Teacher he loves and respects is talking about going away, and he doesn’t know where, and he doesn’t have a map. I read John 14:6 as Christ assuring someone who’s feeling lost and bereft that he already knows the path, that the way is standing before him, and that he need not worry about going astray. I read “no one comes to the Father except by me” as saying, in effect “You’re not going astray. You know more than you realize, and it will be all right.” In short, to me, this verse is reassuring, rather than restrictive. If you know Christ, you know God. If you continue on in John, you’ll see Christ going on and assuring His disciples of just this. In John 4:21, He says, “The man who receives my commands and obeys them – he it is who loves me; and he who loves me will be loved by my Father; and I will love him and disclose myself to him.” Please note that in this verse, obeying Christ’s commandments, presumably “Love God” and “Love your neighbor” comes before Christ disclosing Himself to a person.
Anyway, this is a partially off-the-cuff attempt at exegesis, but curiously enough I was talking about just that verse with an old friend of mine on the phone last night. “Ask and it shall be given unto you,” sometimes before you get a chance to ask.
With coincidences like this in my life, is it any wonder I’m a Christian?
CJ