FROM FRANK
John, I can understand the allure of having other people, even a bunch of centuries-dead ones, do my thinking for me. After all, doing one's own thinking involves effort and it would be pleasant sometimes to just slough it off. Let those long-dead guys do it. That way, you only need to be as smart as a parrot. Lots of folks seem content with that. I'm not one of them.
And I do indeed think the bible contains much wisdom. Along with a fair share of hatefulness and stupidity.
As for Christ, I'll let a not-all-that-long-dead guy speak for me. Gandi said: "I love your Christ. It’s just that so many of you Christians are so unlike your Christ.”
RESPONSE
You find other people thinking for you alluring? I don't. Not much profit in it that I can see. God tells me to love Him with all my mind, soul, and strength. There is no other way I know to love God with my mind than to allow Him to transform it into the mind of Christ. In doing this, nobody, not even God, thinks for me. He merely reveals to me how to think and what to think about. It is up to me, with His help, to discipline my mind. In the Bible, God reveals to me what is truly profitable to pursue with my mind. And the more I pursue those things, the greater my peace.
The best analogy I know is physical training. God is like the trainer. He shows me the exercises to do and how to do them, and helps and encourages me, but He does not FORCE me to do them nor does He do them for me. It's up to me to discipline myself. To the extent I succeed in that, I please Him and love Him with my mind and become more like Christ.
I don't know how you ignore fulfilled prophecy, Frank. I know of no other source that can predict the future with 100% accuracy 100% of the time. That's what the Bible does, even today. The most recent notable fulfillment was Israel becoming a nation again, but there's plenty of others in process of fulfillment right before our eyes. There is none who can predict the future like that except God. Prophecy is one of the primary reasons I came to believe the Bible was the Word of God and not just a book written by a bunch of centuries-dead guys.
And I do indeed think the bible contains much wisdom. Along with a fair share of hatefulness and stupidity.
I agree. However, the wisdom is God's; the hatefulness and stupidity is man's. God included all of it in His book to instruct us in what is good and what is evil.
As for Christ, I'll let a not-all-that-long-dead guy speak for me. Gandi said: "I love your Christ. It’s just that so many of you Christians are so unlike your Christ.”
I agree. That's why I worship and follow Christ, not other Christians.