Why should we study the Bible?

[puddleglum]

Why should we study the Bible? Second Timothy 3:16 gives us four reasons.

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.

[center]Teaching[/center]
The first reason is the fact that it teaches us about God.

We can learn some things about him from other sources. The Bible itself mentions two ways we can know about him.

The existence and power of God can be seen through what he has created.

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.
Romans 1:19-20 ESV

Everyone is born with an innate sense of right and wrong.

When Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts.
Romans 2:14-15 ESV

Because these sources of knowledge are universal everyone has some knowledge of God and all religions contain some truth. Unfortunately this knowledge by itself isn’t enough to enable people to really know God because it is incomplete and is usually mixed with false beliefs.

In the Bible we can find out everything that God wants to reveal to us about himself. It is the only source of information that is complete and free from any error.

[center]Reproof[/center]
The Bible does more that simply give us information about God. It also tells us how he wants us to live. Jesus has given us a summary of what God requires from us.

And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?�

Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.�
Mark 12:28-31 ESV

Perhaps you love God but do you love him with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength? God created us and every good thing we have is a gift from him. He deserves first place in every part of our life. Any time we put anything else ahead of him we are violating the most important commandment he has given us.

The best way for us to show our love for God is to obey his command that we love our neighbor as ourself. Most of us have some love for our neighbor and are willing to do good for him but how many of us love him as much as we love ourself?

If we examine our lives honestly and compare them with what the Bible says we will be forced to admit that we haven’t lived up to what God requires of us.

[center]Correction[/center]
God knows that none of us can meet his standards by our own efforts but he loves us and so has made a way for our sins to be forgiven. He sent his Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to save us from our sins. Jesus lived a perfect life and completely fulfilled God’s requirements. He then allowed himself to be crucified so that he could bear the punishment we deserve.

But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way;and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Isaiah 53:5-6 ESV

Anyone who will acknowledge his sins and his inability to meet God’s standard and put his faith in Jesus will have his sins forgiven.

If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
Romans 10:9-10 ESV

[center]Training in righteousness[/center]
Finally the Bible tells us how we are supposed to live after we have been forgiven. Forgiveness brings with it a new life and a new relationship with God. This change must be reflected in the way we live. If we obey God completely our life be radically different from what it was before.

God will be the center of everything we do.

Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved.
1 Corinthians 10:31-33 ESV

We will realize that this earthly life is temporary and we must use it to prepare for the heavenly life that is ahead of us.

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
Colossians 3:1-4 ESV

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Matthew 6:19-21 ESV

There is one mistake some people make when they read what the Bible says about living the Christian life. They think that this is what we must do to be saved. The Bible plainly says that we aren’t saved by living a good life but by faith in Christ, but after we are saved we will begin living a life of service to God.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Ephesians 2:8-10 ESV

If you have tried to live a Christian life and failed you should examine your life and see whether you have become a Christian by believing in Christ. You need to first be saved by faith in Christ and then God will give you the power you need to live a life that pleases him.

[Divine Insight]

The first reason is the fact that it teaches us about God.

That is already a faith-based belief. Why not view Greek Mythology as something that teaches us about God?

We can learn some things about him from other sources. The Bible itself mentions two ways we can know about him.

The existence and power of God can be seen through what he has created.

IMHO, that doesn't say much for God.

Everyone is born with an innate sense of right and wrong.

And very few people can agree on precisely what that entails, thus verifying beyond any reasonable doubt that morals are subjective.

Because these sources of knowledge are universal everyone has some knowledge of God and all religions contain some truth. Unfortunately this knowledge by itself isn’t enough to enable people to really know God because it is incomplete and is usually mixed with false beliefs.

I personally feel certain that the Bible contains many false beliefs.

In the Bible we can find out everything that God wants to reveal to us about himself. It is the only source of information that is complete and free from any error.

The Bible is neither complete, nor free from any errors. Again we have absolute proof positive of this fact via the myriad of disagreeing Abrahamic religions and interpretations. For example, the Jews and Muslims do not even believe that Jesus was the Christ as the Christians do. How can these texts be claimed to not contain errors when people can't even agree on what they say?

Jesus has given us a summary of what God requires from us.

There is no reason to believe that Jesus was anything special. Moreover, much of what is often attributed to Jesus was actually written by Paul or others. In fact, the Bible does not contain a single solitary word that was actually written by this man called Jesus.

Perhaps you love God but do you love him with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength? God created us and every good thing we have is a gift from him. He deserves first place in every part of our life. Any time we put anything else ahead of him we are violating the most important commandment he has given us.

If God created everything then he's responsible for everything that you experience whether it be good or bad. This idea that God should be given credit only for the good things whilst someone else (supposedly you) take blame for anything that is less that good is simply nonsense.

The best way for us to show our love for God is to obey his command that we love our neighbor as ourself. Most of us have some love for our neighbor and are willing to do good for him but how many of us love him as much as we love ourself?

Jesus was the one who taught that ideal, not God. I personally believe that there is very good reasons for believing that Jesus was most likely a Jewish Mahayana Buddhist who rejected the immoral teachings that had been attributed to the God of Abraham from the Old Testament, and instead Jesus tried to teach the higher moral values of Buddhism. Loving your neighbor as yourself is more of a Buddhist philosophy than one instilled by the Old Testament.

If we examine our lives honestly and compare them with what the Bible says we will be forced to admit that we haven’t lived up to what God requires of us.

I disagree. On the contrary we pass judgment on morality of this fictitious God ourselves. In fact, that should be easy to see. Just ask yourself, "Do you disagree with the moral values of the Biblical God?"

If you do, then you are in disagreement with this God that you speak of.

If not, then clearly you don't need any God to instill in your good moral values.

So the idea that you get your moral values from this religion is itself a nonsensical idea.

When I personally read the Old Testament I disagreed with many of the immoral concepts being taught via the texts and the supposed behavior of the God of Abraham.

When I read the New Testament and saw Jesus renouncing the very same things that I saw as immoral I realized that someone finally thinks like me! (i.e. Jesus thinks like me). Not the other way around. How could I follow the moral teachings of Jesus when Jesus was the first character in the Biblical fables that I could actually identify with?

Jesus is like me! There's no need for me to try to be like Jesus. In fact, anyone who disagrees with the moral values taught by Jesus then disagrees with Jesus.

This is a serious problem with this whole religion. If you have to agree with the moral values of this God then you must already have these moral values yourself. Otherwise you'd be agreeing with at God that you deem to be immoral and that would be an oxymoron.

God knows that none of us can meet his standards by our own efforts but he loves us and so has made a way for our sins to be forgiven. He sent his Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to save us from our sins. Jesus lived a perfect life and completely fulfilled God’s requirements. He then allowed himself to be crucified so that he could bear the punishment we deserve.

I'm sorry, but for me this is just utter nonsense.

What kind of a creator would create people who he knows cannot meet his standards and then attempt to pin the blame of failing to meet his standards onto them? That would be nothing short if an extremely underhanded dirty trick.

And the idea that he had to send Jesus to be crucified to pay for the sins of man is also nonsense because it happened way to late in this story. If the crucifixion of Jesus was important to the salvation of mankind it should have been done in the beginning right in the Garden of Eden at the time of the original fall from grace.

Moreover, how does crucifying an innocent person, by the hands of men no less, solve any problems? Since when do two wrongs make a right?

This God supposedly commanded men not to kill, but then he's going to offer them salvation and a gift of eternal life if they nail his son to a pole?

I'm sorry, but this makes absolutely no sense at all. Why should God be appeased by men disobeying his commandments and crucifying his son?

Also, to make matters far worse, why would he then require that everyone after that CONDONE this act on their behalf by insisting that they accept it as payment for their sins?

With all due respect, to me, this is beyond absurd.

You ask, "Why should we study the Bible?"

I say that we shouldn't study it at all. It's absurd and teaches horrible things IMHO. Not the least of which is that it instills in people an idea of a supposedly supreme being who actually condones violence and the crucifixion of an innocent person before someone else can even be forgiven of their so-called "sins".

The whole religion is quite negative, IMHO.

1. It demands that all men are unworthy sinners.
2. It demands that men supposedly can't figure out moral values on their own.
3. It demands that men condone the crucifixion of an innocent man to pay for their own salvation.

To me, that last one is the most highly immoral act of all. This religion basically demands that we become the most immoral person possible just to save our own butt from damnation.

There is no other way to get to this God. The only way a person can get to the Christian God is to condone having Jesus crucified to pay for their sins.

How utterly disgusting is that?

If there were any truth to these horrible fables I would still have to decline.

I would have to tell this God that his price for salvation is too high, he'll just have to cast me into his eternal hell-fire of damnation because he was not wise enough to provide me with a truly loving way to obtain his love.

This God would be the one who refuses to love me because I have moral values that far exceed his. And I would rot for eternity in his blazing inferno of damnation simply because I have higher moral values than my creator.

What sense does that even make?

It makes absolutely no sense at all.

And this is precisely why it cannot possibly be true.

And this is why we should NOT study the Bible or support it in any serious way.

We need to move on to higher moral ground and put the Bible on the shelf mark "Mythologies" right next to the Greek mythologies of Zeus and company.

There is no way I could ever "love" a God who is as disgustingly immoral as the God portrayed in the Bible.

[The Tongue]

Do you honestly believe that the God hating muck that is spewed out of your mind via your computer, effects anyone, in anyway, other than to incite feelings of sickening sorrow for someone, who could hate something with such disgusting venom, and that hatred is aimed at something that they do not believe even exists?

[Divine Insight]

Do you honestly believe that the God hating muck that is spewed out of your mind via your computer, effects anyone, in anyway, other than to incite feelings of sickening sorrow for someone, who could hate something with such disgusting venom, and that hatred is aimed at something that they do not believe even exists?

There is no God hating muck in anything I say. For you to think so only shows that you don't understand what I'm saying. I'm saying that the Old Testament is necessarily false mythology. There is no "God" in the Old Testament to "hate".

I just came from another thread where I described why Christian so love Jesus. They love Jesus precisely because he renounced the brutal hatred of the Old Testament. It's extremely ironic to me that Christianity then goes and nails Jesus to the Old Testament as the Son of the God of Abraham, when it's crystal clear that Jesus did not agree with those brutal immoral directives.

If you love Jesus, you can't love the God of Abraham, and vice versa. They were extreme opposites.

The God of Abraham had commanded people to judge each other and to stone sinners and heathens to death. He also commanded them to seek revenge as in an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth (or at the very least gave them wide-open permission to do so).

Jesus renounced the judging of others and taught people not to judge others. Jesus also taught people not to cast the first stone, so he clearly rejected the stoning of other people to death as well. He also taught to forgive those who trespass against you and to turn the other cheek rather than to seek revenge.

The differences between Jesus and the God of Abraham are as blatant as the differences between night and day. You can't love both Jesus and the God of Abraham. You must decide which one you agree with, (or more importantly which of those two mythological characters agrees with your moral values) and go with that. You can't worship both Jesus and the God of Abraham simultaneously. They are as different as day and night.

So there's no hatred toward any God in anything I say. But what you will find in my words is disgust with a religion that has someone like Jesus nailed to something like the Old Testament proclaiming that he is the Son of the God of Abraham. That necessarily has to be false. Jesus did not agree with the brutal immoral directives associated with the God of Abraham anymore than he agree with the Greek God of Zeus.

Jesus could not have possibly been the sacrificial lamb of the God of Abraham.

And to hold him up as such is itself a very hateful thing to do, IMHO.

Yet this is basically what Christianity does. It holds Jesus up as the sacrificial lamb of an immoral God that even Jesus himself did not agree with in terms of morality.

Most Christians love Jesus, not the God of Abraham. Take Jesus out of the religion and what do you have left? Either Judaism or Islam. Religions that most Christians wouldn't be the slightest bit interested in. They are in love with Jesus. They are NOT in love with the God of Abraham. And they love Jesus precisely because he did reject the immorality associated with the God of Abraham.

[The Tongue]

[Divine Insight wrote]........Most Christians love Jesus, not the God of Abraham. Take Jesus out of the religion and what do you have left? Either Judaism or Islam. Religions that most Christians wouldn't be the slightest bit interested in. They are in love with Jesus. They are NOT in love with the God of Abraham. And they love Jesus precisely because he did reject the immorality associated with the God of Abraham.

If "ANYONE" does not love Jesus they are not a christian, and if "ANYONE" does not love the Father of Jesus, who is "Who I Am" they do not follow the commands of Jesus, who said, "They who do the will of My Father, are my brother, my sister and my mother."

Moses asked God for his name in order that he might be able to tell the Israelites in Egypt, who had sent him. And God said; Exodus 3: 14; "I Am Who I Am/YHVH." You must tell them: 'The one who is called "I AM/JHVH" has sent me to you.' Tell the Israelites that I, the Lord, the God of their ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, have sent you to them.

Deuteronomy 18: 18; YHVH, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, (Who I Am,) says to Moses; "I will send them a prophet like you from among their own people; I will tell him what to say, and he will tell the people everything I command. He will speak in my name etc.

Peter confirms that Jesus was that man, when in reference to Jesus he says in Acts 3: 22; “For Moses said; "The Lord your God will send you a prophet, Just as he sent me, and he will be one of your own people, etc."

Did the people of his day believe that he was the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The God of our ancestors? No, they did not, for on the day of his triumphant entry into Jerusalem, the people escorting him cried out, "Blessed is he, who comes in the name of the Lord." Verifying that they believed Jesus to be the one that had prophesied that he would choose from among the Israelites, and send to the people to speak in his name.

John 5: 24; "Whoever hears my words, said Jesus, (Which were the Words of YHVH/Who I Am, that he commanded the man that he had chosen from among the people, to speak in his name) and believes in “HIM� who sent me, has eternal life.

In John 8: Jesus says, "I do nothing on my own authority, but I say only what "THE"="OUR" Father tells me to say."

John 20: 17; But go and say to my brothers, "I ascend to my Father and your Father to my God and your God."

Jhn 17:3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee “THE ONLY TRUE GOD�, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

Jesus, was resurrected on the day after the first weekly Sabbath following Passover, which is the feast of first fruits
.
Jesus was the physical enclosure of all the spirits of good people who had fallen asleep in righteousness after the paying the blood price for their inherited sin and any mistakes that had made, and who were separated from the unrighteous dead and gathered to the living evolving spirit within the bosom of Abraham.

Jesus, over whom death had absolutely no power as all that he was had died once and had been Judged and the righteous do not die twice.

John 14: 30; "I cannot talk to you much longer, for (Death) the ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over me, but the world must know I love "THE" Father, that is why I do everything as he commands me."

Jesus our brother, was the first fruits to be harvested from the body of mankind, the first of many brothers and sisters who are to be transformed into the image of God’s Only begotten Son who is the sin offering that has been prepared for us. The first to be raised from the dead past of “The Son of Man,� the first to receive his share of the hidden Manna, the glorious body of brilliant and blinding light, in which, He, on the road to Damascus, answered Saul's question, "Who are you Lord?" with these words, "I am Jesus of Nazareth whom you persecute,"

And Jesus our brother, was given divine glory and now sits in the throne of our Father, and we the chosen ones who have born the image of the first Adam, shall also bear the IMAGE of Jesus, "The Second Adam," (in the eternal process of change/evolution, for mankind does not close the chapter in the book of evolution) a new creation of bodies of Glorious and blinding Light that is the new Temple of our Lord that is to replace God’s old tabernacle (Mankind) as the ruler on this earth of all creation.

First, "MAN" (man (�נוש� : 'enosh') in English, mortal human beings) was created a little lower than the angels, then he is crowned with glory and all creation is placed beneath his feet. All creation is placed beneath the feet of MAN (man (�נוש� : 'enosh) in English, mortal human beings) WHO IS CROWNED WITH GLORY, we have not yet seen this happen. But we have seen Jesus, the first born from the dead, who has won the victory and was given divine glory by our heavenly Father and saviour, and now sits in His heavenly throne of Godhead: and who, in Revelation 3: 21; invites those, who win the victory also, to sit with him in our Father’s throne of Godhead within the creation. And all creation Visible and invisible, which, according to Paul, includes even the angels, will bow at their feet.

You who have revealed your hatred toward the Father of all true christians, are no christian.

You who reject our heavenly Father cannot inherit the throne of Godhead, and nor can any, who like yourself refuse to do the will of your indwelling Father who evolves to become the Son, call themselves a christian, who only have to look to the IMAGE of The Son of Man,"WHO I AM" who was lifted up for the same reason that Moses lifted up the IMAGE of the serpent in the wilderness, in order that those who are dying because of the venom of the serpent that courses through their vein, only have to look to his "IMAGE" who has been lifted up.

He is the FIRST and the LAST
The BEGINNING and the END
The ALPHA and the OMEGA
The FATHER and the SON.

The heir to the throne of Godhead gains all the wisdom, knowledge and insight needed by the throne bearer, from the lessons that are learned from the pain and suffering that is endured by the body in which he develops, which pain and suffering is caused by the sins and mistakes made by that body in which the "SON OF MAN" according to our concept of linear time, is currently developing.

He is "Who He Is" in our far and distant future, because of what we, who are obedient to our indwelling evolving ancestral spirit, are today.

The cowards, traitors, perverts, murderers, the immoral, those who practice magic and those who worship before idols, are not obedient to the evolving ancestral spirit as he is today. Nor are those pompous, pious and pretentious people, who claim to be christians, but who do not do the will of the Alpha in his ascension to become the Omega.

And now my friend, come soar with me
To the outer limits of reality
This universe, though wide it seems
Is but the shadow of our dreams
We are nought but knowledge in these tents
Refined through pain and punishment
We're the hive of man and neath His rod
We are one, we're the Son of God
The past, the present, the future is He
He was, He is, and He will be
And heaven is but a point in time
To where the spirit in man must climb
Eventually when He's there at last
And stands and gazes on His past
And takes the throne prepared in heaven
Then all His past will be forgiven.
I am who I am, the die is cast
For I was created by my past
And we who we are this very day
Determines His future in every way
If my past were changed, then who would I be?
One thing is certain, I wouldn't be me.........The Tongue.

[Divine Insight]

You who have revealed your hatred toward the Father of all true christians, are no christian.

I don't claim to be a Christian. I personally don't believe that Jesus was "The Christ", and as far as I'm concerned that's paramount to being a Christian.

Neither do I hate any God.

Your hatred toward me personally is quite profound, and quite typical of religious zealots who often hate anyone who refuses to cower down to their beliefs. In fact, it's precisely that kind of bigoted religious hatred that turns many people against these religions.

You are free to believe as you like, and if you enjoy using Jesus to spread hatred toward anyone who refuses to cower down to your own personal religious beliefs more power to you.

I personally don't believe that Jesus himself was about hating people, nor do I believe that he would approve of anyone using his name for that purpose.

Most people who actually do love Jesus love him precisely because he advocated love, not hate.