Not true. Without the story being true, there is n
You sentence cut off there. Not sure how you were planning to finish it? What I had said was, "They didn't need to be real individuals for the truth of what they represent to be real." So I assume you are trying to say without the story being true, the meaning of the story cannot be real? Yet, there are countless stories out there which are pure fiction, yet they speak of truths we can learn from and live by. Why in your mind must, for instance, Romeo and Juliet be real people in order for the truth of the love the portray be something real in our lives we can relate to through the characters?
Right, everything is interpreted; however, some things are taken as historical fact, other as stories, parables, or fiction. The material in the Bible is not difficult so that it is easy to understand what is intended.
If you don't find the material in the Bible to be challenging, then I suspect you haven't begun to understand much of what is in there.
And can you point me to where it tells the reader you should interpret stories like Adam and Eve as "historical facts"? That's a very modern concept. Do you have any verses that tells us these things should be understood as matters of science and history? Or is that just your interpretation of the what you think they must have meant us to understand them as? If so, that's a very big assumption.
While that is true, it is also a fact that people who do not have a background on material they read, in many cases come to the totally wrong conclusions. That is why we have teachers, and if not, we have people who have studied the material and may direct us to a correct conclusion.
I personally do not believe the Bible is about drawing "right or wrong conclusions". In fact drawing "
conclusions" sort of defeats the entire purpose of it, which to me is about
inspiration. It would be like someone trying to "conclude" what a poem means! That totally misses the point! It's about inspiring imagination, possibilities, insights, hopes, etc. "Conclusion" is the opposite of all of that.
For sure.
Really!
Luke 11:52 “Woe to YOU who are versed in the Law, because YOU took away the key of knowledge; YOU yourselves did not go in, and those going in YOU hindered!”
This has nothing whatsoever to do with having "correct" doctrines. It is basically saying you can be theologically knowledgeable, and know nothing about the truth of them which is what comes from the heart. Don't replace heart knowledge (spiritual truth) with head knowledge (religious beliefs).
John 17:3 3 This means everlasting life, their taking in knowledge of you, the only true God, and of the one whom you sent forth, Jesus Christ.
The knowledge of God is NOT a theological doctrinal head knowledge. It is Knowledge of the Spirit to the heart and the soul, and all too often all that head knowledge stuff gets in the way. Someone who has never read one verse of scripture, can have an Ocean of Knowledge about God, whereas someone with 15 degrees in theology may have no Knowledge of God whatsoever.
Matthew 15:3-9 3 In reply he said to them: “Why is it YOU also overstep the commandment of God because of YOUR tradition? 4 For example, God said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Let him that reviles father or mother end up in death.’ 5 But YOU say, ‘Whoever says to his father or mother: “Whatever I have by which you might get benefit from me is a gift dedicated to God,” 6 he must not honor his father at all.’ And so YOU have made the word of God invalid because of YOUR tradition. 7 YOU hypocrites, Isaiah aptly prophesied about YOU, when he said, 8 ‘This people honors me with their lips, yet their heart is far removed from me. 9 It is in vain that they keep worshiping me, because they teach commands of men as doctrines.’”
Exactly. This confirms what I have said, and disproves your claim we a judgement by correct beliefs. It's the Pharisees who did that, straining at gnats (beliefs and practices), while swallowing the camel of hypocrisy because they had no actual heart knowledge of God, being obsessed with being "right" or "doctrinal correctness". Are you new to Christianity that you don't know this?
Thus the works we get judged for is also what we claim regarding the Word of God, the Holy Writ.
No. It. Is. Not. You have misapplied the meaning of those verses. Your interpretation of them is flawed, and you end up missing the message that they were saying.
If a person makes a mistake, the punishment is small, but if a person misleads people willfully as to what God is telling us, it is most likely a sin against the holy spirit, blasphemy.
Most sincere people will teach what they sincerely believe to be helpful and true. According to you, that means nothing if they don't have the doctrine right? God will judge them as "wrong" and send them to hell? I feel very badly for you if you hold such an image of God in your mind.
The Knowledge of God I hold tells me something very different. But I don't judge you as willfully misleading people. It's just a matter of you sincerely sharing what you believe to be true, for where you are at with what knowledge you have at this stage in your life. God doesn't judge you on "being right" in my eyes. You might wish to try to relax your beliefs enough to allow you to see others as God sees them.
So, this statement of yours is not what the scriptures teach. It is not empty faith, but faith with accurate knowledge.
You do not understand faith and beliefs then. An "empty faith" would be one where it's all head ideas, beliefs, doctrines, theologies, and no heart knowledge. Faith, is heart knowledge. Faith in fact can accept that the beliefs our minds hold to be true, can in fact be limited, partial, or outright in error. To me, if you have beliefs without that sort of Faith, then you have an "empty faith" or no actual faith at all.
A "True Believer", those who think the have it
right!, typically have next to no actual faith at all. If they did, why then are they so afraid to consider other ideas? Would they ever actually modify, change, or drop a belief? I have many times. My Faith is what allows that to happen, which is what allows me to continue to grow. That's Faith. Not this, "right belief" BS.
As may be seen from this, accurate knowledge about the Gospel of Christ is somewhat demanded here. The Helter-Skelter ignorant faith may actually not lead to salvation.
Demanded? This make God sound like a vending machine which you must operate with the exact combination of coinage in order to get Him to spit out your personal Salvation Bar.
This is not God. It our imagination of God as some abstract Machine. God is Love, not a tollbooth on the highway to heaven.