YA #37
Socrates askes:
Christians, Since God does not change...?
but men do, shouldn't Christianity be a more flexible religion, so that when men's understanding of God changes, the rules and traditions change as well? From what I understand, Christians still follow the writings of Paul. I have seen Paul's ideals contradict Christ on several occasions. If it comes to a Christian's attention that these contradictions are valid, shouldn't someone do something about it? Or does it not matter to God that we follow something that contradict his son's teachings? Please just assume all of the above are true for the moment, even if your beliefs disagree. I know many of you will say, Paul's writings were God inspired. I say that Paul is still human, open to corruption like the rest of us, inspired or not. His writings are not a perfect writing, and should not be assumed as such.
My response:
God's perfection is eternal (or else He would not be God, would He?). It is not for God to adapt to our whims, but for us to adapt to His Word.
There are no contradictions in the Bible. You have never seen one. All you have seen is some obscure single verse extracted from the context of the message around it and displayed next to another single verse concerning a totally different subject in such a way that they appear to contradict. This is a favorite tactic of atheists.
There is a concept called the Preservation of Scripture which you should consider. In essence it states that God, in His infinite power and knowledge insures that His Word will not be corrupted. The corollary to that is that although there may be minor corruptions here and there (the work of Satan and corruptible man), God will take measures (or has already taken measures) to make sure such corruptions do not survive or proliferate.
I find it both amusing and sad that after thousands of years of trying to disprove the Holy Bible by exposure of contradictions, no one has succeeded. And yet people keep trying.
I say Paul was human and was certainly open to corruption. But the Word was written under the Spirit of God, and in spite of Paul's humanity, God would not allow him to make errors. That would imply a defect in God, Himself.
Bottom line. Since God is perfect, He does not allow His Word to be corrupted.
Christians, Since God does not change...?
but men do, shouldn't Christianity be a more flexible religion, so that when men's understanding of God changes, the rules and traditions change as well? From what I understand, Christians still follow the writings of Paul. I have seen Paul's ideals contradict Christ on several occasions. If it comes to a Christian's attention that these contradictions are valid, shouldn't someone do something about it? Or does it not matter to God that we follow something that contradict his son's teachings? Please just assume all of the above are true for the moment, even if your beliefs disagree. I know many of you will say, Paul's writings were God inspired. I say that Paul is still human, open to corruption like the rest of us, inspired or not. His writings are not a perfect writing, and should not be assumed as such.
My response:
God's perfection is eternal (or else He would not be God, would He?). It is not for God to adapt to our whims, but for us to adapt to His Word.
There are no contradictions in the Bible. You have never seen one. All you have seen is some obscure single verse extracted from the context of the message around it and displayed next to another single verse concerning a totally different subject in such a way that they appear to contradict. This is a favorite tactic of atheists.
There is a concept called the Preservation of Scripture which you should consider. In essence it states that God, in His infinite power and knowledge insures that His Word will not be corrupted. The corollary to that is that although there may be minor corruptions here and there (the work of Satan and corruptible man), God will take measures (or has already taken measures) to make sure such corruptions do not survive or proliferate.
I find it both amusing and sad that after thousands of years of trying to disprove the Holy Bible by exposure of contradictions, no one has succeeded. And yet people keep trying.
I say Paul was human and was certainly open to corruption. But the Word was written under the Spirit of God, and in spite of Paul's humanity, God would not allow him to make errors. That would imply a defect in God, Himself.
Bottom line. Since God is perfect, He does not allow His Word to be corrupted.