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What Makes You Think…

1213

Well-Known Member
The problem I run into is there are many people who claim the correct interpretation of the Bible. We are left to judge who's interpretation is correct based on what we feel is correct.

Why have interpretations at all? I think it is usually best to remain in direct words and let Bible explain what it means, without twisting it with own interpretations.
 

Nakosis

Non-Binary Physicalist
Premium Member
Why have interpretations at all? I think it is usually best to remain in direct words and let Bible explain what it means, without twisting it with own interpretations.

So you are able to read the Bible in the original Greek and Hebrew?
Even what little I've tried requires some interpretation of the words to English.
I find minor changes in the language can alter the meaning of some passages.
 

Eric Hyom

Member
So you are able to read the Bible in the original Greek and Hebrew?
Even what little I've tried requires some interpretation of the words to English.
I find minor changes in the language can alter the meaning of some passages.

I take the first sentence in the Bible to be an absolute truth. 'In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth'. The rest of the Bible is a lifetime journey to find hope, encouragement and comfort.

As you say, the Bible has been interpreted and rewritten, there are hundreds of versions in many languages. However, al the key messages are repeated many times, and from different perceptions. Scholars have gone through the Bible; and highlighted over two thousand passages; that refer to justice for the poor, marginalised, widows, orphans and refugees. This Bible is called the 'Poverty and Justice Bible'. Even if you were to take a thousand of these passages out of the Bible, you would still be left with an understanding, that God's heart is with the poor and oppressed.

There are many passages that refer to obeying God's commandments, do not worry, faith, hope, love, salvation and more topics. Whilst it is important to try and understand the text you are reading, there is also a need to see how it fits in context with the rest of the Bible.
 

1213

Well-Known Member
...
I find minor changes in the language can alter the meaning of some passages.

That is why it is good to check the original, in case if there is something that looks not right ("contradiction or something like that).
 

Muffled

Jesus in me
The writers of the Bible knew anything about God?

I’ve heard from several people who feel they know God. They will say with certainty what God is like. The problem of course is that what they claim is not consistent with each other.
I understand people feeling they have personnel knowledge about God.

I accept these biblical authors feeling they had reliable knowledge about God, doesn’t mean they did.

Why trust any claims made by other people about God?

I believe fulfilled prophecy and miracles lend credence to what a person says about God.
 

Nakosis

Non-Binary Physicalist
Premium Member
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Vinayaka

devotee
Premium Member
Yes and yes.

My first was spontaneous in nature and took place when I was in my preteens. I used to work on weekends and during the summer with my step-father, who was a plastering contractor in Chicago. We lived about 60 or so miles northwest of the city in a little town called Woodstock, so the commute took around an hour and a half with the morning stop at the material yard.

One morning, I was staring out the window of the truck at the buildings, the traffic, the people, the El (the elevated/subway train system that runs through the city) when out of nowhere I felt a sense of familiarity and intimacy with all of it...everything...as familiar as my living room or the back of my hand...like it was a part of me. I don't recall, even at the time, how long this lasted...probably just a few seconds...but the gravity of the experience made an impression on me that I would never forget, even though for years I wrote it off as some sort of an anomaly.

It wasn't until many years passed that I was talking to someone about the experience, and they suggested that it might be what they referred to as a spontaneous mystical experience. It was at that time which began to investigate, research, talk, contemplate, and meditate on the experience. I learned more about it, and it was able to find validation in Hindu scripture that verified with me that it was not just an anomaly. It pointed to what I am in my true nature.

This more or less is similar to my first experience, except mine was alone on a swather in rural Alberta. But your description fits mine. Just last week, in a talk given by my Guru, he explained one essential difference between a dream and a vision. It is that the memory of a dream gets weaker over time, whereas the memory of a vision gets stronger over time. Does that make sense?
 

Muffled

Jesus in me
How you ever heard of the "Trump Prophecy"?
God told some guy in 2011, I think that Trump would become president.
Mark Taylor’s Donald Trump Prophecy & Army of the Lord Prophecy – Army of the Lord

That this prophecy seems to have been fulfilled, does this give credibility to the prophet?
This prophecy caused many Christian evangelists to support Trump in 2016.

I believe this may have been more of a prediction than a prophecy. After all we can predict the weather and sometime be right about that as well. My feeling is that it has to be something outlandish that one could not predict but happens as prophesied.
 
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