Dawie / LBW

Ahh ok, apology accepted.

I understand what you are saying. But this comment is now contradictory to your first comment where you say the Bible is not perfect or final. Am I missing something here? Sorry if I am dragging this out, but I just want to be clear here.

I apologise for causing some confusion. Please forgive me.

Let me explain. LBW and I share the same house and the same computer. That’s because we have been married for 42 years. I accidentally used the wrong email address for my last post. [We don’t worry about switching users or personal passwords etc. because we trust each other and have nothing to hide from each other.]

Neither of us have lied to you.

I also think you both have missed the differing points we were independently led to raise.

I will again try to explain the main point of my posts because I believe it to be vitally important to all who are in Christ.

Contrary to what you may think, I have no a problem with the Bible now that I know what it is. I’ve been reading and studying the Bible and have guided and taught by God’s Holy Spirit for the 27 years since Jesus saved me.
Many questions have arisen [externally and internally] abou the Bible over this period; not least the ones involving different translations and different interpretations of the same Bible texts. I was often grieved to hear one prominent teacher saying, “God’s Word says —” and then to hear, or read, another saying, “God’s Word says —” only to find that they had two very different interpretations. “If God’s Word is Truth, then how can this be”,I asked myself and, more importantly, I asked Jesus.
After many years my Lord taught me and got me to the place where I could read the original Greek texts of the NT. This helped immensely and and brought great joy. However,I then found that there were not just a few, but hundreds of authentic Greek texts which differed [I understand that the Hebrew texts present similar problems]. Many texts include passages and words which are not in others. Many have minor differences in basic words,in verb forms, prepositions, etc. which can give a word, a sentence, a verse and even a passage quite different meanings. I soon learned that the underlying texts of our English [or any other language] Bibles are translations of groupings of Greek [and Hebrew] texts assembled [e.g Majority Text,Critical Text], studied and selected by thousands of eminent linguists who have been working on this invaluable enterprise for centuries. Their incredible scholarly work continues.

I won’t bore you with details, but the fact is there is no consensus on which is the true original Greek or Hebrew text [if it is still in existence] of even one book of the Bible, and considerable differences in opinion as to how many of the ancient words and sentences should be best translated into a modern language.
To solve this dilema, the Holy Spirit shows us from these sname imperfect copies and translations of the Scriptures that Jesus is God’s final and perfect Word, when He became flesh and dwelt among us. The Word was also first – there with God in the beginning. In fact the the Word was God. As I began to see the Word from the beginning in the OT Scriptures as well as the NT, the problem with the Bible being claimed as “the [Perfect] Word of God” was solved. I praise the Lord for His patience with us and for the incredible grace of God to all who are in Christ Jesus.

I hope you may now better understand where I’m coming from. The trip I summarised above was long, and sometimes hard, but eternally valuable.I would recommend it to anyone who wants to know Him who is from the beginning!

May God bless you both.

BL

Agree with you completely.

LBW could be cricket terms for Leg Before Wicket, but I Caught them out instead.

What I meant about unbelievers and the Word is that when the Gospel using the Word of God is delivered by a messenger of the Lord and the Holy Spirit is convicting the unbeliever, it will cut to the quick. I have seen it happen in evangelism over and over. It is not the power or convincing words of the messenger, but the Holy Spirit inspired words of God that are the power unto salvation. That is all I meant. Then when the person comes to Christ and has the Holy Spirit, then he/she can have an understanding of the Word and be taught by the Holy Spirit.

Also, don’t you think if a person is truly seeking to know God and picks up a tract or a Gideon Bible that the Lord can convict their heart and they could acknowledge the Him? They don’t have full knowledge, but they have the all important start.

Now where this can take a wrong turn is when the WofF people say that speaking the Word or giving some formula will bring results.

DAWIE / LBW

Oh my word, I don’t believe this. How is it possible that you can use LBW’s EMAIL ADDRESS for your LAST COMMENT and not be LBW? LBW commented last, and in your haste to comment again, this time as DAWIE you typed DAWIE as the username and forgot to change your email address. Now your little avatar pictures are identical which proves you used the same email.

You know. I dunno why people must lie. Really. It’s things like this that actually sadden me. Maybe you need to seriously RETHINK why you think the Bible is not the Final Authority on ALL THINGS and then go look for scripture in the Bible, (not the Midrash or any other book) about lying and pray about it. Then come back and say you are sorry and we can start again. You speak about not following men, yet you are following the teachings in Jacob Prasch who introduced this idea – no where else in history does anyone (who teaches orthodox Christian teaching) teach this vile teaching that the Bible is NOT the Final Authority.

BL

You see an unbeliever can read the word of God and it will mean nothing to him, he will twist it and never understand it completely, Rick Warren for example.
For the believer the Word of God comes alive because of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the Word of God for the believer.

But you understand that don’t you? 😉 It’s Dawie who for some unknown reason brought this up and tried to make it seem like you didn’t know what you were speaking about while trying to refute his notion that the Bible is not the Final Authority on all things.

Also, I have seen the Gospel as given in the Word of God change people from darkness to light when they respond to the Holy Spirit inspired word.

Are we simply spitting hairs here and really we are all on the same page?

I also wrote,
“You don’t have to study Midrash to be saved, but it is the method employed by Jesus and His Apostles when they taught and the method the Jews of that time understood.”
If you have a problem with Midrash, then your your problem is with the teaching of Jesus and His Apostles, not with me.

I would never contemplate going beyond what is written.

I’m obviously touching some nerve, so I’ll cool it for a while in the hope that you will make time to read what I wrote and do a Berean on it!

In His love.

[I am not LBW!!!]

DAWIE

I wonder where anyone said the power of the Holy Spirit was in the written scriptures themselves. This is not so, and I have not said this. But JESUS IS THE WORD and that is the end of the story.

You can come up with all sorts of funny ideas to try and tell us why the study of the Midrash is a must have for every Christian, and I will tell you that you have been fooled.

Jesus and the Prophets and the Apostles and disciples quoted from many different places, but God instructed the Bible to be written as ONE BOOK that we can read where we will find EVERYTHING we NEED TO KNOW and that’s that. If you want to ADD TO His Words then you gonna end up with problems.

LBW

Yes you are misunderstanding me. I went and fixed sentence. Never the less, I was quoting DAWIE, who oddly enough just happens to have the same IP and similar email as you. Same IP usually means one thing?

Are you in agreement with DAWIE because you might be the same person?