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This is how it is... Period!

Willie T said:
Basically, I don't really care what a certain translation of the Bible might SAY..... I care what the author of that passage meant to convey.
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I think that in our hearts we all just want to know the truth. :study
 
Check ya all later.... I am expected at church tonight.
 
Willie T said:
Yet, does not the venerable KJV (and some others) just simply call it "Hell"? And that same word' Hell" keeps getting used with little regard to what, specifically, is being referenced in that passage, does it not?
Of course it does. So, here we are, running around calling all of it, "Hell" when we literally read one of those translations...... not really being too accurate at all.

And, no, we can't use the "original language" ploy, and go look up a number in a book. Because the original languages (all four of them) have to be pretty deeply understood in a much more scholarly sense than 99% of us do, since context and idioms come into play all through those languages.

Frankly, most of us have little alternative beyond depending upon gleaning what we can from various commentaries and other sources, to get a sense of the true original content. The very first thing I do is read a passage in at least a half dozen different translations.... often, as many as twenty, or so..... THEN I start researching all sorts of other sources. Some make sense to me, some don't..... but often, only a direct, literal reading of one version of the Bible can leave some wondering.

But, each of us gets to believe what we want, as we see it, so not much of this discussion matters much anyway. I'll do and believe what I feel is right, and so will each of us. We may all end up having it all wrong.
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Sheol/Hades is not the same as hell.Hades is the temporary waiting place for those unbelievers.They are there right now waiting for their final judgment.Hell is the lake of fire.Satan and his angels and the unbelievers will be cast into hell at the end of the millennium.That will be their final destination for an eternity.
 
Deborah13 said:
No one should do that. imo, we should always search for the intent of God's words, not what we want it to say. Some of it is very plain, some is not.
When I read the commentaries of great men of God, often I will see them saying things like,
There's this interpretation, but Dr. So and So says this about it, but this is how I interpret it. Even they leave room for the fact that they may be incorrect.
Makes me smile, I don't feel so dumb, God bless them for that.
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It is very confusing especially for a new Christians to come to a Christian messageboard and get all kinds of interpretations and opinions on what the Word of God is.Why not just read it the way it was intended?Yes,there are some areas that you can not take literally.That is when I say HELP!!! :)
 
Kathi said:
It is very confusing especially for a new Christians to come to a Christian messageboard and get all kinds of interpretations and opinions on what the Word of God is.Why not just read it the way it was intended?Yes,there are some areas that you can not take literally.That is when I say HELP!!! :)
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I wish that when I was a baby Christian I'd had a forum just like this one.
Yes, there are times when I get confused too but for me it's not such a bad thing. It makes me dig and dig some more.
 
Deborah13 said:
I wish that when I was a baby Christian I'd had a forum just like this one.
Yes, there are times when I get confused too but for me it's not such a bad thing. It makes me dig and dig some more.
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I am glad that I did not come to a forum like this as a beginning Christian.I was really searching for the true Word of God.I needed really solid teachers which is what I got at my Church.And alot of studying and researching the word.The truth.
 
Deborah13 said:
Not so long ago I didn't. I had Matthew Henry's commentary and Unger's Bible Dictionary. If I hadn't had those I would have had to rely on the interpretations of just my pastors. Yes, the Holy Spirit teaches us through the Word but there are times when the English language just doesn't get the job done, especially old English. I'm not the brightest or the most spiritual.
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I know when God looks at you he sees a very bright and beautiful star.
 
The wrath of God has always been just that Gods Wrath unless of course ones library has several different translations designed for the purpose of furthering the new age movement of the "hath God said" generation..

tob
 
lol. I guess I should go into the reasons why I believed what I did and what changed it.

1) I came to Christ with a paganistic influence with a jw background
2) I didn't believe the bible was complete
3) hell, the trinity and the millennium were areas I had to work on
4) holy spirit baptism, and the cross as the for of punishement
 
Kathi said:
Sheol/Hades is not the same as hell.Hades is the temporary waiting place for those unbelievers.They are there right now waiting for their final judgment.Hell is the lake of fire.Satan and his angels and the unbelievers will be cast into hell at the end of the millennium.That will be their final destination for an eternity.
Click to expand...
But, if someone trustingly literally reads the Bible (KJV), then indeed, they generally have all those words presented to them as all the same thing... simply "Hell", with no distinctions between them. About the only incidents where they use the interpretations correctly is when using "Hell" would make a particular Biblical character look bad. Those poor misguided translators laid "Hell" on general mankind almost all the time.... probably because it reinforced their fire and brimstone theology.
 
Willie T said:
I probably wasn't clear.

What I was trying to ask is why do you think we feel we have to deliver our interpretation as a, dyed-in-the-wool, fact, rather than just being able to say that what we are saying is nothing more than how we understand things?
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I will try and take a stab at it. I think the Bible is likened to the tree of knowledge, for the knowledge of the law can only reveal sin and death. Only through true Faith can one receive the understanding that comes from the Spirit of The Lord. But because the Bible is a tree of knowledge, we find a scripture that tells us that the Holy Spirit will teach us, so when we study the Bible based upon our preconceived notions, we tend to hold to the assumption and belief that it is the Spirit that has revealed it to us, and so we become defensive over our beliefs. Or if our beliefs are challenged enough that we may question our faith, we find we can easily discard it to cling to that faith, and may even blame it as an attack by satan.

But how do you know when you read your Bible that the Spirit is teaching you? Within this thread, there is debate whether the bible should be interpreted literally, but I don't think that is the answer either. Because we hold to the belief that the Spirit of God will instruct us, there is tendency to over analyze the printed words and then spiritualize them; But I believe the Spirit teaches us in the simplicity of the Word. It is we who over-complicate it. Our own beliefs often blind us to the truth. Knowledge will never reveal to us the truth as we should understand it. Only Faith can reveal the understanding that comes from God.

There are all kind of debates about pre-trib, mid-trib, and post-trib rapture events, about the coming tribulation, about future events and what we should expect, and about the coming of The Lord. I mentioned in a different thread how when I was younger, the modern day end time prophesy teachers sold the Bible to me as a book that could tell me the future, but I have come to reject most everything they taught.

People can quote the scripture that says believe on The Lord and you shall be saved, but is that belief active or passive? When Jesus said to take no thought for tomorrow, did you really believe Him? I believe when we study the Bible so we can know the future, It is so we can maintain a sense of our own control; but if we try to maintain a sense of control, then do we really trust in The Lord? Should we really expect the Spirit of The Lord to reveal the future to us if we haven't yet learned to walk in Faith in the present, and truly take no thought for tomorrow.
 
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