Comments on: Write a Better Bible! challenge

By: cag

cag — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 17:46:51 +0000

Joey #117 please provide proof of the existence of Jesus without reference to the spin doctoring by the gospels. Why should anyone believe the bible any more than Aesop’s Fables?

By: Joey

Joey — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 10:15:53 +0000

Jesus said forgive and you will be forgiven. He never said believe I am the son of God born of a virgin that I died for your sins and rose from the dead and will come back to earth. All Jesus ever said was forgive and you will be forgiven. The way to be saved is to forgive others and I will start by forgiving Cooper for being mentally limited by irrational faith in something Jesus himself never once preached. What Jesus himself preached is totally different from what the rest of the New Testament preaches. It is the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus teaches the way into the Kingdom and he never once mentions belief in his sacrificial death as the way to salvation. Jesus said if I forgive I will be forgiven. It’s that simple. Believing means nothing. In fact the bible says that even the devil believes. So even the bible makes it clear that belief in Jesus cannot save you. It is following Jesus very simple teachings that saves you. Jesus said if I forgive I’ll be forgiven which means I’ll go to heaven if I forgive others. I don’t have to believe Jesus was God or anything like that. The only one of the 4 gospels that indicates you must believe to be saved is the last gospel of John which was written much later than the first 3 gospels. Bottom line Mathew , Mark, and Luke say nothing about needing to believe in Jesus to be saved.

By: Richard

Richard — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 13:14:26 +0000

And, moreover, given that those atheists are sure that they have correctly understood the Bible and you have not — just as you believe you have understood it and they have not — how can you be sure you are in the “enlightened” camp? Everyone thinks they’re right.

By: Derek

Derek — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 12:33:10 +0000

How the heck should I know? Atheists read the Bible from beginning to end and come to the conclusion God doesn’t exist. Others read a small portion and are saved wonderfully. The Bible itself says that God enlightens the hearts and minds—some understand and some do not. I don’t claim and cannot claim to know how God works.

At last an honest answer. Was that so hard?

This being the case, then, how can you be so sure that the message of the Bible is clear and unambiguous, when so many people’s reactions to reading it front to back are so different?

By: donnaintera1

donnaintera1 — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 08:28:57 +0000

You seemed to have understood the bible well enough to come up with your own clear and short pricise versions of the word!

By: rover

rover — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 00:23:24 +0000

Cooper,

I am not sure you understand the Lordship debate, but that is not the issue. I am trying to establish that the bible may not be as clear as you think on the issue as demonstrated by major differences even in our own brand of Christianity.

It is odd you should bring up baptism to make a point of clarity.

1 Peter 3:20-21 ..when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, 21 and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you..

how clear is that?

By: john t.

john t. — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 00:12:33 +0000

Cooper

Tick Tick Tick

By: cooper

cooper — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 00:08:48 +0000

Its just a matter of time and your inquiries will break you down and whoops next thing you know youre a member of De con Central

Anonymous above is me—my name field disappeared.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 00:06:59 +0000

Don’t we have to be honest and admit that even those who teach salvation by Grace can’t agree on what that actually means?

Actually, no. The Lordship people accept that receiving Jesus Christ as Savior is scriptural—they just stress that the person must yield to him as Lord also in true repentance. There is an argument there, but let’s put it this way—if someone accepts Christ and starts asking “but do I really need to make him Lord also? Can’t I just accept him and continue living as I always have?” one would suspect that that person didn’t really receive Christ anyway. But I think the concept of salvation by grace through faith is pretty clear scripturally—salvation is of the Lord—not of our works–that is clear—–Lordship salvation? We can argue the point, but ultimately receiving christ into the heart is what is truly important—it is up to the person to submit or not.

There are many disputes in Christianity—-there are a few churches that teach you must be baptized before you are saved. There are always verses though that refute such teachings. There is a small verse in Corinthians where Paul says he baptized two people, but “can’t remember” baptizing anyone else. So one has to ask “if baptism saves someone, wouldn’t Paul remember whom he had baptized?

By: john t.

john t. — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 23:44:11 +0000

Cooper

Its just a matter of time and your inquiries will break you down and whoops next thing you know youre a member of De con Central