Ok, what's the truth.

[miamited]

Hi ezrider

Why do you think your beliefs are superior to the knowledge gained through science?

Because my knowledge on these subjects that God's word deals with...comes from God. As I've said, I'll be more than satisfied to put my faith in science, when science can tell me how God did anything? How does science say that an iron ax head will float in water. Can they replicate it, since they know how it was done? What medical explanation are we offered from science to tell us how, at least several hundred people died in one night and they were pretty much all the first born of a family. And further, how blood kept anyone of that exact same qualification alive in houses just down the street. Families all together with no mourning for them. Just the firstborn of everyone who didn't put blood around their doorway. Hmmmmm. How does science explain that? Have they tested it and reproduced the result so that they know their assumptions and thinking is right?

God has caused to be written to us through His Spirit and the fingers of several faithful Jewish servants, an account of 'how' we got here and 'when' we got here. I rather imagine for those Jews that saw that gaping crevasse running from shore to shore across the Red Sea, they knew God could do things near instantly that are outside of our wheelhouse. And do you know how science explains that?

His word says that He created all things, in the span of 6 days. His word says that twice in the utterance of the law. After He explained it all in the writings of the actual account. God's word says that within the span of just a short few days He planted the earth in the utter, inky blackness of space. All alone as one single heavenly body in this new realm of His design that He was creating for a very, very special creature to Him...man. Over the next few days, which He numbers as He goes along, knowing, of course, since He does know the end from the beginning, that Jewish language law would require the account be understood as single days.

He didn't cause to be written for example, In the beginning God spoke the earth into existence. He then started another day to divide the water from the earth into an atmosphere...etc.

No! God was very specific in His explanation to us. So, over the next few days He finishes building this realm, and I think that's a hard thing for people to understand. We live in a created realm. The angelic beings, which God also created, live in a different realm of God's creating. This realm in which we live was created by God, according to His word in 6 days.

Then, moving on quickly to the next 'proof' that God gave us that we can know the 'how' and 'why' that we have life and live. He told us how old the fathers were who descended from Adam. That generational chronology goes all the way to the sons of Israel.

So, two proofs in God's word that the earth is young. It was created for God's purpose and put where it is and surrounded by all that surrounds it and contains all that it contains because God, in a mere matter of rotations of the earth, commanded it all to exist .....FOR US!!!!!!!!! For me and for you and your children and their children and all the parents and children who have come before, God created a place for us to live. A place where His intention was that we would love Him and live with Him and praise Him for who He is and understand, as I do, that life; the very air we breathe and water that we drink comes from His hand. We are nothing without Him. We can't even keep our own life without Him.

God created a realm of existence from nothing. He built all that was needed for this realm to exist until He decides to roll it all up again like a scroll. There will come a day, my friend, when you will see that power of God in creating a new heaven and a new earth.

Science looks at rocks and thinks that everything has some natural answer and so they poke and they prod and they figure out chemical processes and atomic multiplication and they come to the conclusion..."Hey, there's no way this all got put here recently. I mean we know that light travels so fast and what I'm seeing is the light that has traveled from a star and that star is sooooo far away. The earth must be billions of years old for me to see that star.

Friend, the God I know, can litter the entire universe in a moment and if He wants you to see the light of everything out there immediately as He puts it in place...well, that's the God I serve. Maybe when God flung the stars out, He did so from immediately around the earth and so the light of each one was always here, and we continue to see it as the star travels out from the earth some quadrilineal, multi-light year distance away that it arrived at in about 6 seconds.

That's the God I serve.

What can your God do?

God bless,
Ted

 

[miamited]

Hi folks,

You know what causes me to stand in awe of God and all that He has done for me...for us. I gaze at these new pictures coming to us from the new and phenomenal Webb Telescope. Billions and billions of stars for which God's word tells us that He knows their names. I mean, that's got to be some kind of hyperbole, right? But the God I believe in spread all of that out after He set this one, lonely little planet that He had created for us...and then He did this

May that God, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, may that God bless each one of you more richly than you deserve.
Ted

Thank you Jesus

 

[miamited]

sorry, wrong video

 

[Dorothy Mae]

Hi ezrider

Because my knowledge on these subjects that God's word deals with...comes from God. As I've said, I'll be more than satisfied to put my faith in science, when science can tell me how God did anything? How does science say that an iron ax head will float in water. Can they replicate it, since they know how it was done? What medical explanation are we offered from science to tell us how, at least several hundred people died in one night and they were pretty much all the first born of a family. And further, how blood kept anyone of that exact same qualification alive in houses just down the street. Families all together with no mourning for them. Just the firstborn of everyone who didn't put blood around their doorway. Hmmmmm. How does science explain that? Have they tested it and reproduced the result so that they know their assumptions and thinking is right?

God has caused to be written to us through His Spirit and the fingers of several faithful Jewish servants, an account of 'how' we got here and 'when' we got here. I rather imagine for those Jews that saw that gaping crevasse running from shore to shore across the Red Sea, they knew God could do things near instantly that are outside of our wheelhouse. And do you know how science explains that?

His word says that He created all things, in the span of 6 days. His word says that twice in the utterance of the law. After He explained it all in the writings of the actual account. God's word says that within the span of just a short few days He planted the earth in the utter, inky blackness of space. All alone as one single heavenly body in this new realm of His design that He was creating for a very, very special creature to Him...man. Over the next few days, which He numbers as He goes along, knowing, of course, since He does know the end from the beginning, that Jewish language law would require the account be understood as single days.

He didn't cause to be written for example, In the beginning God spoke the earth into existence. He then started another day to divide the water from the earth into an atmosphere...etc.

No! God was very specific in His explanation to us. So, over the next few days He finishes building this realm, and I think that's a hard thing for people to understand. We live in a created realm. The angelic beings, which God also created, live in a different realm of God's creating. This realm in which we live was created by God, according to His word in 6 days.

Then, moving on quickly to the next 'proof' that God gave us that we can know the 'how' and 'why' that we have life and live. He told us how old the fathers were who descended from Adam. That generational chronology goes all the way to the sons of Israel.

So, two proofs in God's word that the earth is young. It was created for God's purpose and put where it is and surrounded by all that surrounds it and contains all that it contains because God, in a mere matter of rotations of the earth, commanded it all to exist .....FOR US!!!!!!!!! For me and for you and your children and their children and all the parents and children who have come before, God created a place for us to live. A place where His intention was that we would love Him and live with Him and praise Him for who He is and understand, as I do, that life; the very air we breathe and water that we drink comes from His hand. We are nothing without Him. We can't even keep our own life without Him.

God created a realm of existence from nothing. He built all that was needed for this realm to exist until He decides to roll it all up again like a scroll. There will come a day, my friend, when you will see that power of God in creating a new heaven and a new earth.

Science looks at rocks and thinks that everything has some natural answer and so they poke and they prod and they figure out chemical processes and atomic multiplication and they come to the conclusion..."Hey, there's no way this all got put here recently. I mean we know that light travels so fast and what I'm seeing is the light that has traveled from a star and that star is sooooo far away. The earth must be billions of years old for me to see that star.

Friend, the God I know, can litter the entire universe in a moment and if He wants you to see the light of everything out there immediately as He puts it in place...well, that's the God I serve. Maybe when God flung the stars out, He did so from immediately around the earth and so the light of each one was always here, and we continue to see it as the star travels out from the earth some quadrilineal, multi-light year distance away that it arrived at in about 6 seconds.

That's the God I serve.

What can your God do?

God bless,
Ted

You know Ted, the age of the earth isn’t in the Bible. Creation was done in 6 separate days but there’s no reason to think 6 24 hour consecutive days. Besides which, the sun and earth weren’t put into their respective places until day 4. You can’t have 24 days until the earth is rotating and in correct orbit in respect to the sun.

I have a more complex understanding of that event that supports the Word and science. But I don’t put a time period where God does not.

 

[miamited]

Hi Dorothy Mae

You know Ted, the age of the earth isn’t in the Bible.

Listen, you're free to believe that if you desire, but that is not a true statement.

You can’t have 24 days until the earth is rotating and in correct orbit in respect to the sun.

That also is not a correct statement.

I want you to take a minute and look up the length of a day on Mars and find out how that is determined. What is it that defines the length of a day on Mars. Because the same thing that defines the length of a day on Mars, also defines the length of a day on the Earth.

The age of the earth is clearly given in the Scriptures. On the sixth day of the Creation event, God formed Adam from the dust of the ground. 130 years after the 6th day when Adam was created, he had a son and named him Seth. So, the earth is now 130 years old. When Seth was 105 years old, he had a son he named Enosh. The earth is now 235 years old. When Enosh was 90 years old, he had a son named Kenan. The earth is now 325 years old. When Kenan lived 70 years, he had a son named Mahalalel. The earth is now 395 years old.

Now, surely you get the mathematics, and can carry on from here if you'd like to know for yourself how old the earth is. Now, I'm fully willing to agree that there may be a few years missed here and there, but it isn't on the scale of thousands or millions of years. Finally, according to the Jewish calendar, which is claimed to be based on the day that God created Adam, we are presently in the year 5783. Quite frankly, while the Jews were rarely ever really faithful to God, as an entire group, there was always a faithful remnant. What I know is that everything I know about God...comes to me through the words of His Scriptures that God entrusted to the Jews. That's what Paul says. If the Jews say the creation is about 5700 years old and the Scriptures align with the creation being about that same age, as far as I'm concerned, that's proof.

But look, I understand that a lot of people don't get this idea that we live in a created realm. A realm of existence created by a God who started the building of this realm with a plan. The Scriptures clearly describe a God who started on a course of creation. That course of creation culminated in God setting man upon His new created earth spinning in His newly created universe.

Then, when you jump over to the Revelation of Jesus, you find that God's going to do it again. "Behold! I make everything new again! I know, I know! Scientific studies tell you that that isn't possible. You know what scientific studies do? They allow that everything was actually created by natural causes. They believe that the earth coalesced as a bunch of dust and debris floating around that somehow found a spot where all of this stuff would spin together and become a planet. So, now everyone says there is no God who spoke all of this into existence. Why we know for a fact that the earth just came to be what it became by blind chance that a bunch of space dust would coalesce as it did some billions of years ago.

All that story in the beginning of Genesis. That's someone's fairly wild imagination, or we just don't understand what God must have meant when He said six cays. Let's figure out how we can make that six day thing turn into the trillions of years that science tells us all this stuff has been around.

Friend, look I know. I used to believe myself in the scientific explanations. But then I was born again and I believe the Holy Spirit opened my eyes. I began to see and understand how this one planet, among the surely hundreds of planetary bodies that might be out there circling some star, was specifically hand molded and designed by the God who declares that He did do it!

As I say, I just stand in awe when I look out upon the heavens and understand that He did it all for me. That the reason there is water on the earth for mankind to drink, is because God put it there. He incorporated water into His design because He knew that the creature that He was building this home for, would need water. He incorporated plants and animals because He knew that this creature that He called man that his efforts were all ultimately about, would need food. He put the clay in the topsoil so that man could bake bricks and He forested the earth so that man could build houses. He put all the metal types in the earth so that man could forge metal goods. God has prepared a place for mankind to live and one day He's going to prepare a brand new place where we will live with Him for eternity. Sharing in the love and kindness of a being who by merely the breath of His voice can command entire universes that were not...to be.

God bless,
Ted

 

[miamited]

Hi again Dorothy Mae

Have you ever stopped to ask yourself 'why' God listed the ages of the fathers as they begat their sons? Why didn't God just give a standard genealogy like Matthew did for Jesus? Why doesn't God's word say, "So after Adam was created he had a son, in his own image, Adam named him Seth. Seth begot Enosh. Enosh begot Kenan, etc.

Why did God feel it necessary to tell us the ages of the fathers. There are only two places that God does this in any genealogical explanation of other events, families, etc. One is in Genesis 5 and the other is in Genesis 11.

For me, the evidence is pretty overwhelming and I find quite a few evidences that the earth is young. I just believe that God's word is true in absolutely everything it tells me, and I really don't even waste any time trying to reconcile what man says about God and all that He has done, and what God says that He has done. I know that God is the only one who was there and the only one to know the truth about 'how' we all got to be where we are now in the year we assign as 2023.

God bless,
Ted

 

[miamited]

Hi again Dorothy Mae

Let me ask you? Do you believe that the earth was created before any of the stars? I mean, that's really a pretty clear teaching. Even you yourself have agreed that the stars and sun and moon didn't come until the 4th day. But plants came before that. How do you explain that plants lived for hundreds, millions of years, without the light of the sun? I mean plants can go 24 hours without sunlight, but 24 centuries or longer? I don't think so.

God bless,
Ted

 

[Dorothy Mae]

Hi again Dorothy Mae

Let me ask you? Do you believe that the earth was created before any of the stars? I mean, that's really a pretty clear teaching. Even you yourself have agreed that the stars and sun and moon didn't come until the 4th day. But plants came before that. How do you explain that plants lived for hundreds, millions of years, without the light of the sun? I mean plants can go 24 hours without sunlight, but 24 centuries or longer? I don't think so.

God bless,
Ted

I recommend John Lennox’s book, “Six days that divide the world.”
In short, I believe God spoke and power or energy (same thing) went from Him to accomplish what was spoken but this was not “poof”
instant. In Genesis 2 it even says that the plants hadn’t yet sprung up and it was day 6. So He spoke and there was a slow working of power to form living things.

Now science and Genesis match in that the Universe is older than the earth. The earth is older than the life on it. Plants are older than animal life. Animal life is older than man. Day 4, I believe, saw the placement of the celestial bodies but they were created earlier which makes sense. So the speaking was done in little time (doesn’t take much time) and occurred in 6 sets or “days” but the outworking in between took a long time, if that can be measured. This makes sense and if you read a curious expression in Gen 2:4, it speaks of the generations of creation. A generation is not 6 days.

So that is how I see it. This is true to the Word and matches the science.

 

[Dorothy Mae]

Hi again Dorothy Mae

Have you ever stopped to ask yourself 'why' God listed the ages of the fathers as they begat their sons? Why didn't God just give a standard genealogy like Matthew did for Jesus? Why doesn't God's word say, "So after Adam was created he had a son, in his own image, Adam named him Seth. Seth begot Enosh. Enosh begot Kenan, etc.

Why did God feel it necessary to tell us the ages of the fathers. There are only two places that God does this in any genealogical explanation of other events, families, etc. One is in Genesis 5 and the other is in Genesis 11.

For me, the evidence is pretty overwhelming and I find quite a few evidences that the earth is young. I just believe that God's word is true in absolutely everything it tells me, and I really don't even waste any time trying to reconcile what man says about God and all that He has done, and what God says that He has done. I know that God is the only one who was there and the only one to know the truth about 'how' we all got to be where we are now in the year we assign as 2023.

God bless,
Ted

Hi Ted,
I don’t have an opinion on the age of the earth. I don’t see that it matters. Since the time between earth being formed and Adam is undefined for me, I don’t see how one can reliably recon it. But that’s just me.

 

[WIP]

I still say we see Godly things using human eyes and then only through a glass darkly and therefore we only know in part.

 

[dwb001]

I still say we see Godly things using human eyes and then only through a glass darkly and therefore we only know in part.

And that is why we should rely on what God said.
And when God told Adam how He created the world and everything around and on it... we should believe Him.
But we like to think we are smarter than God, so we get God to fit inside our theories instead of trusting Him and His word.

 

[Dorothy Mae]

I still say we see Godly things using human eyes and then only through a glass darkly and therefore we only know in part.

And I say God hides things from some people and reveals them to
others. He tells us who in each case. It us not beyond Him to bring men to understand. Those who wrote the Bible were such that understood a great deal.

 

[Dorothy Mae]

And that is why we should rely on what God said.

And not what we think He meant ignoring other bits that He also
said.

And when God told Adam how He created the world and everything around and on it... we should believe Him.

He didn’t give particulars.

But we like to think we are smarter than God, so we get God to fit inside our theories instead of trusting Him and His word.

Straw man. Only atheists think they’re smarter than God. No believers do.

 

[Free]

Straw man. Only atheists think they’re smarter than God. No believers do.

Every Christian thinks they’re not smarter than God, but the way many in the West live is proof that they actually do think they are.

 

[Dorothy Mae]

Every Christian thinks they’re not smarter than God, but the way many in the West live is proof that they actually do think they are.

Maybe. Probably depends upon what their theology is. Those who question God do demonstrate what you are saying. This I can see.

 

[dwb001]

Every Christian thinks they’re not smarter than God, but the way many in the West live is proof that they actually do think they are.

Actually... my experience is that many Christians think they are in fact smarter than God.
How many preachers have you heard say something like..."What the writer of this passage is saying is...".
If the statement is not backed up with the writers own explanation... then the speaker is more knowledgeable then the writer.
If the writer is God... and the preacher says this is what God "meant" to say... the preacher is placing their own ideas above that of God.
QED.

 

[miamited]

Hi Ted,
I don’t have an opinion on the age of the earth. I don’t see that it matters. Since the time between earth being formed and Adam is undefined for me, I don’t see how one can reliably recon it. But that’s just me.

Hi Dorothy Mae

I know. I know that a lot of those in the fellowship feel that way. But I think that's wrong, too.

You see, I've been involved a little with young folks. Many of them have been raised going to worship services as children with their families. Many of them have even professed a faith in Jesus and been baptized with water!

Many of them are turning away from God. It's actually a thing that many chirstian publications have written articles on.
I believe that this happens because that's where we teach naturalism. Everything has some naturally explained answer as to how and why it exists.

The Scriptures tell us that the heavens declare the glory of God.

Have you ever wondered just how much the heavens declare the glory of God? When you understand God's word as I do. That we live in a fairly newly created realm of existence that a God who loves and provides for us, made for us for just the only reason that we can have life...then you look up into those heavens and your eyes take in all that is there and you mind says, God's word tells me that He did all that in a day!! That's when the Heavens DECLARE THE GLORY OF GOD!!!!! We don't notice it so much during the day because the atmosphere color blots it all out. But on a clear night, I look up in the sky and I am just in joyful awe of what I know that God did in a mere day. That He created this entire existence and not for billions, trillions of years to sit around and let dinosaurs and ape looking people to walk around scratching their armpits and draggin' their womin' folk around by the haar. He created this entire realm of existence, from the farthest most distant star in the universe to the pinpoint atom that sits at the center of the earth, so that you and I could have life and have it abundantly and joyfully with Him

So, for me, the very beginning of my awe, and I think wisdom from the Spirit, comes with understanding that God's word is true. He knew what a day was and He knew that we knew what a day was, too. I mean honestly, how can you believe that God loves you and that He's been true in all that He's told you, if you think He can't write down what He means to say. God has always known man's definition for a day. God's the one who invented them. Both the evening and the morning. And do you really think that 2500 years later when He wrote the tablets on the mountain top, that He was still using this word play that we just couldn't ever understand as a part of His law? Really??????

Listen, I got no problem with it. God created the heavens and the earth in six days. In six days just as we have days today. Yes they were consecutive days because God numbered them. There was day one, followed by day two, followed by day three, etc. Yes, I have to listen to all those who tell me I'm wrong. But you'll see. When we get to the judgment and suddenly are surrounded by a new heave and a new earth...you'll see how long it takes God to make a 'realm' of existence.

But a sista's gotta sin!! Right?

I hope everyone gets a laugh out of that and doesn't come back with attack.

God bless,
Ted

 

[miamited]

Hi Dorothy Mae

So, I honestly and sincerely believe that you are wrong in this idea that the Scriptures don't tell us how old the whole of creation is, not just the earth. And I believe you're wrong in how important understanding that is. Can you even imagine how many young people would retain their faith in God if our natural sciences classes taught the idea that we live in a created universe that was miraculously created by God. I mean yea, let's throw out the 'when' question for now. That we don't really know how the planets were made or the star light got here, but we know that God created it all.

Do you believe that's the truth?

But they don't and so our young people lose faith in the account as told by God and begin to adopt the account as told by man. When you believe that your closest living relative is some kind of ape derivative, why in the world would you think that some God stepped into all this at some weird point in time when some distant ancestor of mine turned into a man? And how do you reconcile that with what I was taught in kiddie bible study. Oh no!! All my friends are laughing at me!!!!

So you ask your college professor, "Well, what was that Noah's ark thing?" And he tells you that those are just religious accounts and that all cultures have them and its just the way people thought that gods were in control over their lives...but we know better now.

All because we don't teach what the Scriptures say about the 'how' and 'why' we are here. And sadly, as we move further and further into the last days...neither do our fellowships.

But I've been a believer for more than a week and so I also know that it is not a widely accepted idea among the fellowship. In my own fellowship the pastor and Wed. night leader both believe in a billion, trillions year old creation. However, my small group Sun. morning leader and the pastor of my past fellowship do believe in the recently created universe model.

And some that I have spoken with on this say, "Well, you're not supposed to have to add up days. God doesn't tell you to do that!" Listen please, God's word is full of claims that we need to work out. The prophecy of Daniel 9 is one. What does the 1,260 days mean to you?

 

[Dorothy Mae]

Hi Dorothy Mae

I know. I know that a lot of those in the fellowship feel that way. But I think that's wrong, too.

You see, I've been involved a little with young folks. Many of them have been raised going to worship services as children with their families. Many of them have even professed a faith in Jesus and been baptized with water!

Many of them are turning away from God. It's actually a thing that many chirstian publications have written articles on.
I believe that this happens because that's where we teach naturalism. Everything has some naturally explained answer as to how and why it exists.

I have been very concerned about the volume of young people raised in the church, active in the youth group who became atheists. In our church I know of only two families with grown young adults who are not atheists, the pastor's and ours. The other parents, including elders, have all their grown children confirmed atheists. I have read into this a bit and one study showed that the youth meetings are comprised of pizza, games and a little devotional. Then I looked at what our church does and it is pizza and games and a little devotional.

I think it is because they don't give the young any reason to believe. No evidence. Just experiences and when they go off to college, they have other experiences.

The Scriptures tell us that the heavens declare the glory of God.

Have you ever wondered just how much the heavens declare the glory of God? When you understand God's word as I do. That we live in a fairly newly created realm of existence that a God who loves and provides for us, made for us for just the only reason that we can have life...then you look up into those heavens and your eyes take in all that is there and you mind says, God's word tells me that He did all that in a day!! That's when the Heavens DECLARE THE GLORY OF GOD!!!!! We don't notice it so much during the day because the atmosphere color blots it all out. But on a clear night, I look up in the sky and I am just in joyful awe of what I know that God did in a mere day. That He created this entire existence and not for billions, trillions of years to sit around and let dinosaurs and ape looking people to walk around scratching their armpits and draggin' their womin' folk around by the haar. He created this entire realm of existence, from the farthest most distant star in the universe to the pinpoint atom that sits at the center of the earth, so that you and I could have life and have it abundantly and joyfully with Him

I totally understand. They declare the glory of God to me as well.

So, for me, the very beginning of my awe, and I think wisdom from the Spirit, comes with understanding that God's word is true. He knew what a day was and He knew that we knew what a day was, too. I mean honestly, how can you believe that God loves you and that He's been true in all that He's told you, if you think He can't write down what He means to say.

I know he loves me because He told me he does, many times over. and I know He is there because of the overwhelming evidence, both science and otherwise. I know the Bible is true because what it says matches real life. But I know that God is a lot more complex the same as the builder of a rocket is more complex than the rocket. So I see the creation as more complex that simple "poof."

God has always known man's definition for a day. God's the one who invented them. Both the evening and the morning. And do you really think that 2500 years later when He wrote the tablets on the mountain top, that He was still using this word play that we just couldn't ever understand as a part of His law? Really??????

I know that the Bible is deeper than what a child understands. The words "day" means many things. But the account of Genesis addressed the false ideas about creation otherwise out there. God created man as man and woman as equal. Genesis explains why man can choose good but does often choose evil. Explains death and why scratching for a living is so hard. It is simply more than where did all the animals come from in my understanding.

Listen, I got no problem with it. God created the heavens and the earth in six days. In six days just as we have days today. Yes they were consecutive days because God numbered them. There was day one, followed by day two, followed by day three, etc. Yes, I have to listen to all those who tell me I'm wrong. But you'll see. When we get to the judgment and suddenly are surrounded by a new heave and a new earth...you'll see how long it takes God to make a 'realm' of existence.

No problem. That will not be my major concern but meeting you will be a pleasure I look forward to happening.

I hope everyone gets a laugh out of that and doesn't come back with attack.

God bless,
Ted

Can't say but attacks are quite common here. One gets used to it.

 

[Free]

Actually... my experience is that many Christians think they are in fact smarter than God.

I can't say I've heard anyone say it but their behaviour betrays them, and people generally act in accordance with what they believe to be true.

How many preachers have you heard say something like..."What the writer of this passage is saying is...".
If the statement is not backed up with the writers own explanation... then the speaker is more knowledgeable then the writer.
If the writer is God... and the preacher says this is what God "meant" to say... the preacher is placing their own ideas above that of God.
QED.

Sure, some if it is because a pastor or teacher will think they know better, but some of that, if not much of it, is due to the difficulties in understanding some parts of the Bible. Some things are clear, some things are not. It also begs the question since those who translate from the available manuscripts must necessarily make judgement calls about what the meaning of a given word is and which "English" word or phrase best brings out that meaning. Much of understanding and interpreting is opinion, and I do believe that the majority are doing it sincerely, but there is educated opinion (such as someone who knows the original languages) and uneducated opinion.