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This is what having a closed mind regarding faith is like:
http://www.theologicalstudies.citymax.com/article….139.htm
Imagine several prisoners who have been chained up in a cave for all of their lives. They have never been outside the cave. They face a wall in the cave and they can never look at the entrance of the cave. Sometimes animals, birds, people, or other objects pass by the entrance of the cave casting a shadow on the wall inside the cave. The prisoners see the shadows on the wall and mistakenly view the shadows as reality.
However, one man breaks free from his chains and runs out of the cave. For the first time, he sees the real world and now knows that it is far beyond the shadows he had been seeing. He sees real birds and animals, not just shadows of birds and animals.
This man is excited about what he sees and he goes back to his fellow prisoners in the cave to tell them about the real world. But to his astonishment, they don’t believe him. In fact, they are angry with him. They say the shadows are reality and that the escaped prisoner is crazy for saying otherwise.
the world outside the cave represents the world of forms while the shadows on the wall represent objects in the physical world. The escape of the prisoner represents philosophical enlightenment and the realization that forms are the true reality. Most people are like the prisoners in the cave. They think the shadows are reality.
Quote (Tiffany @ Dec. 18 2008,11:59) Hi Mandy and all You can't prove your faith by doubting the Word of God; that is were faith begins.
Rom 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
God can not work with you if you don't believe him.
I am not familiar with Buddhist religion or Muslims or Hindus for that matter, but I am aware of only one gospel that offers salvation through Jesus Christ. He said, he is the only way, so there can't be any other way's. There is no one else through who's sacrifice you can have your sins forgiven. As far as I am concerned there is no room for argument on that point.Georg
Again, you are correlating the belief in God with the belief in the bible.What of those who believe in God (because God has made himself known to them) and they have never held a bible in their lives?
Quote (Not3in1 @ Dec. 19 2008,06:13) I'm truly beginning to believe that the bible, the book, can become an idol to some……. 
Truth further revealed
Quote (Nick Hassan @ Dec. 19 2008,04:11) Hi tim,
1Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.2And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.
3And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.
4But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
5Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple,
6And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.
7Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
Hi Nick,So are you saying that doing something that Jesus said that we could do is tempting God?
Didn’t Mark tell us that Jesus Himself said that if we believed in Him that we could
take up serpents and drink any deadly thing and it would not hurt us. It seems to me that doing these things would not be tempting God as much as proving our belief in Jesus. How would it be tempting God to do something that Jesus told us we could do? Jesus also told us that we could heal the sick and cast out spirits, is that tempting God if we do those things? Is it tempting God to do any of the things that Jesus said that we could do?Tim
Hi tim,
Jesus knew it was wrong to test God and so we follow him and do not do it either.
No man who says he is a servant of God goes beyond the instructions he is given.
Branches that serve their imagination and not the vine are useless to the Gardener.Quote (Not3in1 @ Dec. 19 2008,06:13) I'm truly beginning to believe that the bible, the book, can become an idol to some…….
Hi MandyI am sure that many would say the same of the Bereans.. however the scriptures tell us that they were more “noble”.
“These were more noble” than those in Thessalonica, in that “they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily“, whether those things were so. Acts 17:11
WJ
Mandy
As WJ said, they searched the scriptures after they heard it preached to them, they proved all things. Think about it, they checked out the apostles. And what did Paul say faith comes from.
Rom 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Who else can teach you about God, but God himself; and what other book is there in which God reveals himself to us? Idol?? Jesus said it's the bread of life, and living water, and how long could you go without either?
Georg
Quote (WorshippingJesus @ Dec. 19 2008,07:14) Quote (Not3in1 @ Dec. 19 2008,06:13) I'm truly beginning to believe that the bible, the book, can become an idol to some…….
Hi MandyI am sure that many would say the same of the Bereans.. however the scriptures tell us that they were more “noble”.
“These were more noble” than those in Thessalonica, in that “they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily“, whether those things were so. Acts 17:11
WJ
I think the Bereans rocked!
I wasn't talking about those who search the Word to check out what other's teach.I was referring more to those who put more faith in the bible than they do in God.
Quote (Tiffany @ Dec. 19 2008,07:33) Mandy As WJ said, they searched the scriptures after they heard it preached to them, they proved all things. Think about it, they checked out the apostles. And what did Paul say faith comes from.
Rom 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Who else can teach you about God, but God himself; and what other book is there in which God reveals himself to us? Idol?? Jesus said it's the bread of life, and living water, and how long could you go without either?
Georg
Jesus said the bible was the “Bread of Life”? Really? Where?Mandy
Jhn 6:47 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.
Jhn 6:48 I am that bread of life.
Jhn 6:49 Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead.
Jhn 6:50 This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.
Jhn 6:51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.
How can a man eat of Jesus, by reading his word.
hn 4:10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.
Jhn 4:14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
Bread, or water, Jesus is speaking spiritual terms, food for the spirit, and were do you get this spiritual food if not in your Bible.
Georg
Quote (TimothyVI @ Dec. 19 2008,06:59) Quote (Nick Hassan @ Dec. 19 2008,04:11) Hi tim,
1Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.2And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.
3And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.
4But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
5Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple,
6And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.
7Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
Hi Nick,So are you saying that doing something that Jesus said that we could do is tempting God?
Didn’t Mark tell us that Jesus Himself said that if we believed in Him that we could
take up serpents and drink any deadly thing and it would not hurt us. It seems to me that doing these things would not be tempting God as much as proving our belief in Jesus. How would it be tempting God to do something that Jesus told us we could do? Jesus also told us that we could heal the sick and cast out spirits, is that tempting God if we do those things? Is it tempting God to do any of the things that Jesus said that we could do?Tim
Hi Tim:As Christians who may have gifts of the Spirit such as the gift of healing, we do not use these gifts to prove our faith, but use these gifts in the service of God. If we are genuine Christians, people should see the love of God manifest through our lives, therein lies the proof of our faith.
Satan wanted Jesus to prove that he was the Son of God by turning the stones into bread.
The Apostle Paul did pick up a serpent by mistake, and it did not harm him, and so, the scripture to which you refer would be indicating that if you drink something deadly or pick up a serpent by mistake it will not harm you. I for one am not going to go out drinking rat poison or picking up rattlers to prove my faith, that would be quite foolish.
Here is what incident relating the Apostle Paul:
Quote Act 28:3 And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks, and laid [them] on the fire, there came a viper out of the heat, and fastened on his hand. Act 28:4 And when the barbarians saw the [venomous] beast hang on his hand, they said among themselves, No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live.
Act 28:5 And he shook off the beast into the fire, and felt no harm.
Act 28:6 Howbeit they looked when he should have swollen, or fallen down dead suddenly: but after they had looked a great while, and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds, and said that he was a god.
Quote (dirtyknections @ Dec. 11 2008,06:01) Ok…lemme just put it out there everyone I am serious questioning the validity and authenticity of the bible. The bible is said to be GOD's word.. correct. Well the more and more I read the bible the more and more I see that the bible and the “GOD” of the bible named “YHWH” are not as in unity with the moral principles that are exspoused in the book as I thought….
Bear with me I am trying not to write an essay here. Ok..lemme give you some examples…
Think about Moses and the 10 commandments. In that account after GOD gave Moses the commandments, Moses proceeded to leave Mt. Sinai and hed back to the people. Upon returning he found that they had created a golden calf and were using it in worship to GOD.
Well, lets look at what GOD tells Moses to do next.
Exodus 32:27-28… 27 Then he said to them, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.' ” 28 The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people died.
I mean..wow…Immediately after “GOD” said “thou shalt not kill”..he proceeds to tell Moses and company to strap on the sword and 3000 of their “brothers, friends, and neighbors”.
And yes I understand the idea of “divine judgement” and how its supposedly “perfect”…
But I ask where is the consistency with “GOD”…let site another example…take a look at this scripture…
Leviticus 20:13
” 'If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.now look at this scripture…
1 Corinthians 6:8-10
8Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers.9Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders 10nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
Ok…what we know as homosexuality is being discussed here…in one instance “GOD” says, “kill them” in the next he says basically, “they are still going to die but I'll do it”.
Aw..if its a sin to “GOD”..what changed from the OT to the NT? Was it GOD? Well we can't say that can we…well then what changed?
And these are just a couple of MANY, MANY examples of inconsistency of the GOD of the bible…
Not to mention GOD in the OT was a murderous, venegeful, GOD..who allowed the RAPE, MURDER, and PILLAGE of millions of innocent civilians and children…
I'm sorry… I am having a hard time believing in this “GOD” and his “Bible”
Now again…I do believe in “GOD”..without a doubt…but I don't believe “GOD” would act like the “GOD” of the bible…
(continued in the next post)
I have not read this whole thread, so pardon me if someone already gave this answer…note: the command was to not murder, NOT to not kill… there is a big difference…. in this case, God had said that it was a capital offense, punishable by death, to worship false gods…. this may seem very harsh to our modern western pluralistic politically correct “whatever you want to believe is fine so long as you are sincere” ears…. but God is God, and He makes the rules… so there is no inconsistency with God…. He did not murder, He used others to exercise divine justice…
as far as your next example goes… I am not too sure as to what you are saying…. in any case, cultures change, God's moral laws do not, justice will be served whether in this life or in the after life….
I appreciate the difficulties you are having, but there are many many fine books you can consult on these issues to help you… general books on apologetics like “When Skeptics Ask” by Norm Geisler…. “When Critics Ask” by the same author… “When Cultists Ask” again by the same author…. Geisler has written many books on apologetic issues, check out his name at Amazon and perhaps the specific subjects you have difficulty with right now will be addressed, but he has written a lot on the issue of why we can trust the scriptures… other authors you may want to check out are RC Sproul, Ravi Zacharias, John Frame, Paul Copan, Gleason Archer, JP Moreland, William Lane Craig, online you may want to check out the excellent site “A Christian Thinktank”, specifically the article God is Wrathful, Vengeful, Jealous, and Angry every day–and you want me to have a relationship with Him?! http://www.christian-thinktank.com/madgod.html …. I don't know if it will answer your exact question, but if you poke around long enough at that site, you will probably find at least a little help…
at any rate, you say, specifically “Not to mention GOD in the OT was a murderous, venegeful, GOD..who allowed the RAPE, MURDER, and PILLAGE of millions of innocent civilians and children…”
On the one hand you are going to have a problem with the God of the Nt every bit as much as the God of the OT, because it is the same sovereign God today that allows a great deal of evil to exist in the world today, evil including RAPE, MURDER and PILLAGE…. so if you are having a problem with the one “God” you are going to have that same exact problem with the “other” God…. secondly God is not murderous, He has always had the right of life and death over every single one of His creatures, the Lord gliveth and the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord…. so wqhen God kills or directly instructs others to carry out His sentence of divine retribution, He is only doing what is perfectly within His right.
Thirdly, God is indeed a vengeful God, there is nothing wrong with this…. He has a right to exercise vengeance because He is perfectly good and holy, therefore when He exercises vengeance, He does so in a perfectly moral way, not the way a human would carry out vengeance, which would include, undoubtedly, sinful emotions. Since God is omniscient we know that He must know all the factors that led up to His carrying out His justice, therefore He made no mistake when exacting punishment, the same cannot be said for a human.
Further,. on this topic, we have to realize the anthropomorphisms that are used by the writers of scripture. When we say that God is a wrathful or vengeful God, we know that we are using words that describe human emotions to try and describe actions we see being carried out by God. But God is not a human, and so attributing these human emotions to God is only our way of communicating what we see or what God has revealed about himself in the only way we can convey it, through the human words we have at our disposal. But these words fail us. They can only take us so far. So we have to be careful when we read of these emotions being attributed to God, that we do not think that they apply to God in exactly the same way they apply to us sinful human beings.
And don't be sorry about these feelings, its good that you are being honest about them. Another book I would like to recommend to you that I read during a time of deep inner reflection and uncertainty is a book called “In Two Minds: The Dilemma of Doubt and How to Resolve It” (IVP, 1976)
blessings,
kenQuote (dirtyknections @ Dec. 11 2008,06:25) OK..lemme take it even further..lets talk about why we believe that the bible is GOD's word… I am going to put it very bluntly…you and I believe(d) that the bible is GOD's word because of the area of the world you (me) were born…
Simply put, we were born into an area of the World where the prevailing and promoted faith is “Christianity”…
Lets make it even simpler…people believe what they are taught…you were taught about Yahweh and Jesus using the lands holy book the bible…so therefore you believe in the GOD that you were taught to believe in…
But if we really think about the world…it could be just as easy for us to have been anything else..lets prove it….
I was born in America..the predominant faith is Christianity..therefore I believe …as..statistics shows would happen…that the bible is GOD's word and therefore I worship the GOD of the Bible..YHWH…
Ok..say I was born in the middle east…well statistics show that…I would problem have been Muslim and believed in Islam…I would believe that the KORAN was ALLAH's word and therefore I would worship the “GOD” of the Koran Allah…
see how easy that was…go out on the web and look up religious statistics..specifically geographical breakdowns of the worlds religions..they will probably show it graphically in a pie chart..like this site does
http://biglizards.net/Graphic….rge.png
Each different colored slice of the pie represents a different religion…and those slices also geograpically correspond to a specific region of the world…
You see where I am going with this…
You believe what you believe based on what you are taught…generally…
Religiously speaking…statistics prove that you just as easily be could be worshipping another “GOD” and be viewing the holy book of the region as his “WORD”..
SO ask again…how do you know that the “GOD” of the “Bible” is THE true GOD?
And do you would have ended believing in “Jesus” and the Bible if you had lived in a place where Another GOD and holy book were Revered?
let me also be blunt, you should not presume or assume you know why I personally believe what I believe. I was born into a non-religious family, my mother came from a Roman Catholic family, but was non-practicing, partied a lot and was a drug abuser and left our family and my dad many times for other men… my father did not come from a religious family at all…. true, I was born in the midwest…. the “bible belt”…. and Christianity was the dominant religion, but I also went to college as a non-believer, was exposed to world religions who had their own sacred writings, and to “Christian” cults like the JWs and the Mormons who all had their own “scriptures” as well… I did not accept or reject any claims to divine writings and inspiration without looking into it as best as I could, albeit I painfully aware that I am a sinful, limited, person who can only do so much research….. what made me accept the Scriptures as being the only truly inspired word of God came about, probably, as a result of reading Josh McDowell's “Evidence that Demands a Verdict”…. he documents what separates the Christian Scriptures from many other world religions and their sacred writings…. as I matured as a Christian I continued to read on this subject…. ie in many other systematic theologies and books dealing with this subject in particular… but I think that I could lay it out in this way…:it all comes down to Jesus…. now I believe that the gospels have been shown to have been historically accurate, I believe they accurately recount the words and works of Jesus Christ of Nazareth…. I believe that Jesus is who He said He was, God of very God… (never mind the ongoing debate here re this subject, all agree, I think, that Jesus was without sin and that is the most germane point in relation to this particular line of thought) in other words, He cannot make a mistake…. I believe that the resurrection is a historically accurate account as well…. and that if He did rise from the dead, this authenticates everything He said and did as being of God… all His information was accurate…. now He claims the OT scriptures are in fact the word of God…. either they are or they aren't.. if they aren't, I have to dismiss Jesus as being a reliable spiritual guide…. Jesus also promised His disciple that they would receive help from the Holy Spirit to accurately recount His words and deeds and this is how we got the NT…..
blessings,
kenlet me add that all these historical evidences are good for the strengthening of the faith of the already faithful…. when it comes to the bible being the word of God, I believe that ultimately it comes down to the Holy Spirit's illumination and conviction that the words are the words of God…. for more on this, read Calvin's Institutes, Book I, chapters 7 and 8, its available free online…. also check out a great article by the scholar J Gresham Machen who taught at Princeton until the Liberals began to take over, he left and helped to found Westminster…. a first rate scholar…. http://www.the-highway.com/bible_Machen.html….. also see http://www.svchapel.org/resources/Lessons/read_lessons.asp?id=3
and http://www.monergism.com/directory/link_category/Bibliology/
a debate between an Islamic scholar and Dr James White on the bible is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BT_yGgPYuZAlet me also add these words by James Montgomery Boice, from his Systematic Theology entitled “Foundations of the Christian Faith”… this is what I tried to say earlier, but Boice is saying it much better than I could… and if you want the whole chapter, let me know and I would be glad to email it to you…
“The Witness of Jesus Christ
The most important reason for believing the Bible to be the Word of God written and hence the sole authority for Christians in all matters of faith and conduct is the teaching of Jesus Christ. Today it is common for some to contrast the Bible's authority unfavorably with Christ's. But such a contrast is unjustifiable. Jesus so identified himself with Scripture and so interpreted his ministry in the light of Scripture that it is impossible to weaken the authority of one without at the same time weakening the authority of the other.
Christ's high regard for the Old Testament is first seen by the fact that he appealed to it as an infallible authority. When tempted by the devil in the wilderness, Jesus replied three times by quotations from Deuteronomy (Mt. 4:1-11). He replied to the question of the Sadducees about the heavenly status of marriage and the reality of the resurrection (Lk. 20:27-40), first by a rebuke that they did not know either the Scriptures or the power of God and second, by a direct quotation from Exodus 3:6, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” On many occasions Jesus appealed to Scripture in support of his actions, as in defense of his cleansing of the temple (Mk. 11:15-17) or in reference to his submission to the cross (Mt. 26:53-54). He taught that the “scripture cannot be broken” (Jn. 10:35). He declared, “Till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished” (Mt. 5:18).
Matthew 5:18 deserves some additional consideration. It is evident, even as we read the phrase after a space of some two thousand years, that the words “not an iota, not a dot” were a common expression referring to the most minute parts of the Mosaic law. The iota was the smallest letter of the Hebrew alphabet, the letter that we would transliterate by an i or y. In written Hebrew it resembled a comma, though it was written near the top of the letters rather than near the bottom. The dot (or tittle, kjv) was what we would call a serif, the tiny projection on letters that distinguishes a roman typeface from a more modern one. In many Bibles Psalm 119 is divided into twenty-two sections, each beginning with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet. If one's Bible is well printed, the English reader can see what a dot is by comparing the Hebrew letter before verse 9 with the Hebrew letter before verse 81. The first letter is a beth. The second is a kaph. The only difference between them is the serif. The same feature distinguishes daleth from resh and vau from zayin. According to Jesus, then, not even an “i” or a “serif” of the law would be lost until the whole law was fulfilled.
What can give the law so permanent a character? Obviously nothing human, for all things human pass away. The only basis for the law's imperishable quality is that it is actually divine. The reason it will not pass away is that it is the Word of the true, living and eternal God. That is the substance of Christ's teaching.
Second, Jesus saw his life as a fulfillment of Scripture. He consciously submitted himself to it. He began his ministry with a quotation from Isaiah 61:1-2. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord” (Lk. 4:18-19). When he had finished reading he put the scroll down and said, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (v. 21). Jesus was claiming to be the Messiah, the one about whom Isaiah had written. He was identifying his forthcoming ministry with the lines set out for it in Scripture.
Later in his ministry we find disciples of John the Baptist coming to Jesus with John's question, “Are you he who is to come, or shall we look for another?” (Mt. 11:3). Jesus answered by a second reference to this section of Isaiah's prophecy. He said, in effect, “Don't take my word for who I am. Look at what Isaiah foretold about the Messiah. Then see if I'm fulfilling it.” Jesus challenged people to evaluate his ministry in the light of God's Word.
The Gospel of John shows Jesus talking to the Jewish rulers about authority, and the climax of what he says has to do entirely with Scripture. He says that nobody would ever believe in him who had not first believed in the writings of Moses, for Moses wrote about him. “You search the scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness to me…. Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father; it is Moses who accuses you, on whom you set your hope. If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?” (Jn. 5:39, 45-47).
At the end of Jesus' life, as he is hanging on the cross, he is again thinking of Scripture. He says, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (a quotation from Ps. 22:1). He says that he thirsts. They give him a sponge filled with vinegar that Psalm 69:21 might be fulfilled. Three days later, after the resurrection, he is on the way to Emmaus with two of his disciples, chiding them because they have not used Scripture to understand the necessity of his suffering. He says, “O foolish men, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” Then, “beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself” (Lk. 24:25-27).
On the basis of these and many other passages it is beyond doubt that Jesus highly esteemed the Old Testament and constantly submitted to it as to an authoritative revelation. He taught that the Scriptures bore a witness to him, just as he bore a witness to them. Because they are the words of God, Jesus assumed their complete reliability, in whole and to the smallest part.
Jesus also endorsed the New Testament though in a different form from his endorsement of the Old Testament (because, of course, the New Testament had not yet been written). He foresaw the writing of the New Testament. So he chose the apostles to be the recipients of the new revelation.
There were two qualifications of an apostle, as Acts 1:21-26 and other passages indicate. First,
the apostle was to be one who had known Jesus during the days of his earthly ministry and had been a witness of his resurrection in particular (vv. 21-22). Paul's apostleship was undoubtedly challenged at this point because he became a Christian after the return of Christ to heaven and thus had not known him in the flesh. But Paul cited his vision of the resurrected Christ on the road to Damascus as having met this requirement. “Am I not an apostle?… Have I not seen Jesus our Lord?” (1 Cor. 9:1).
The second requirement was that Jesus had chosen the apostle for his unique role and task. As part of this he promised a unique giving of the Holy Spirit so that they would remember, understand and be able to record the truths concerning his ministry. “But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (Jn. 14:26). Similarly, “I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you” (Jn.16:12-14).
Did the apostles fulfill their commission? Yes, they did. The New Testament is the result. What is more, the early church recognized their role. For when it came time to declare officially what books were to be included in the canon of the New Testament the decisive factor was perceived to be whether or not they were written by the apostles or bore apostolic endorsement. The church did not create the canon which, if it had, would place itself over Scripture. Rather the church submitted to Scripture as a higher authority.
—Foundations of the Christian Faithblessings.
kenQuote (Tiffany @ Dec. 19 2008,13:40) Mandy Jhn 6:47 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.
Jhn 6:48 I am that bread of life.
Jhn 6:49 Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead.
Jhn 6:50 This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.
Jhn 6:51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.
How can a man eat of Jesus, by reading his word.
hn 4:10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.
Jhn 4:14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
Bread, or water, Jesus is speaking spiritual terms, food for the spirit, and were do you get this spiritual food if not in your Bible.
Georg
Jesus said that he, himself was the bread of life!
Jesus never said the bible was the bread of life.
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