Thoughts to think about #8
I think that Christians should be looking into God's word to find out more about HIM. We can't try to imagine what God would be and what He is without error. I recently looked into the Bible and found a few verses that tell about God:
He is Creator Genesis 1:1 "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."
All powerful Matthew 19:26 "Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."
The same God Matthew 22:32 "'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,' [God] is not the God of the dead but of the living."
Righteous Judge 2 Thessalonians 1:5 "All this is evidence that God's judgment is right..."
Truthful Titus 1:2 "...God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time."
Our owner 1 Corinthians 7:23 "You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men."
When we try to imagine God and mold an idea of what we think He is without Scripture we are breaking the 3rd commandment, "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything..."
posted by Keith M. @ 6:32 AM
6 comments
6 Comments:
I agree with you David, that I should look more into context, thanks for the hints. But I don't feel I should read that book you told Jonathan about. No offense but I don't think that you need man to interpret God. That's what the Holy Spirit is for! Get what I mean?
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You're right, Keith. We do have a tendency to form our own "god" instead of seeking for God to reveal himself. We should approach him as children, ready to learn from him. There's a big difference between choosing for ourselves who God is and asking him who he is. The Bible can help clear things up when we're not sure.
As for context (You didn't mention it in your post, but you and David Ketter have mentioned it in the comments), I read something funny the other day, that went something like this:
There was a man who wanted to read his Bible, but he didn't know where to start, so he just let it fall open, and he put his finger down on a random sentence. It said, "Then he [Judas] went away and hanged himself." Matthew 27:5
The man decided that this was a bad place to start a Bible study, so he flipped it open again and put his finger down on another random sentence, which said, "Go and do likewise." Luke 10:37
Obviously, context is important!
I think there are two kinds of context:
1)The text around a passage.
2)The historical background, the purpose of the text, the intended recipients of the text, etc.
lol Austin! I heard a story of a guy who was a new convert and he really wanted to find a biblical reference that said smoking wasn't wrong. He finally found a verse that said, "and Rebekah lighted up her camel...".
David, I agree with you to a point. It is true that those who translated directly from the Greek should and probably do know more than I do about what the Bible actually says. However, I don't really think that God would make us need another book to understand His word. Of course it would help, but to understand the Bible without another book is possible. I believe that God will show me scripture in the way he wants me to see it. Why did we even translate the Bible into English if we have to read the Greek to understand it?
I agree David, but I think that it is possible to study the Bible without having to use any helps. But I guess I agree with you then.
Keith,
You didn't write this to me, but I have a comment if that's all right.
"However, I don't really think that God would make us need another book to understand His word."
You forget that the Bible itself is a collection of books.
Matthew quoted the prophets a number of times, and his gospel had a lot in it about fulfillment of prophecy.
But suppose someone said, "I refuse to read Isaiah for help in understanding Matthew. I don't believe that God would want me to look in Isaiah to understand the context of Matthew."
Why wouldn't He?
What if Rick Warren said, "I'm not going to write any books to help people live out the Christian faith, because Paul already told them everything!"
That would be silly. Rick Warren isn't one of my favorite writers or anything - I just mentioned him because he's popular and has proven useful to Christians, plus I figured you would know him.
Suppose C.S. Lewis said, "I won't write any books because people can get everything they need from the Bible, and they won't need any help in understanding."
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