Bruce.Leiter
Member
- Oct 12, 2024
- 456
- 140
- Thread starter
- #61
You're right that we need to use our intellects; I agree. However, are the Bible's teachings and history primary in your reasoning, or is your logic primary in deciding what it means.Nowhere in the bible says faith and intellect are incompatible. Jesus taught through a lot of relatable parables to the crowd, is the kingdom of heaven literally a wheat field or a drag net? Actually, if you don't reason it through, if you only process the Scripture without studying and experiencing it, you'll end up like the shallow soil, you'll be smothered by the trials and tribulations. And if you do go as the bible goes, it is written in the bible that Babylon the Great is a mystery, God is not a mystery, he manifested through Jesus, who revealed his true self and the fate of humanity to apostle John.
For example, in deciding the meanings of words in the Bible, do you use word studies of the passages and their contexts in which they appear determine their meanings, or do you think your reasoning can figure that out on your own?
Do you let some teachers' ideas control your understanding of the Bible's meaning, or do you approach it without prior ideas? Are you always testing your understanding with the Bible's history and teachings and letting God change your thoughts and life?
Are you saying in your last sentence that God is one Person shown in Jesus, not three Persons in one God, as shown in the Gospel of John?