I found this site a week or so ago, and was excited to see it existed. I read, and posted.

My original joy in finding this site was to have fellowship with other believers, and grow in my wisdom of who Christ is, and how we can be Him to others. After reading some post from others, and contemplating my own, I did not like how I felt. My spirit was uneasy, and a little disturbed.

I did not log on for awhile, in attempt to understand what was going on, and what God was stirring in me.

This thread seems to address the very thing I was ultimately contemplating. Thank you Mart.

After much searching, I realize for me, how and why I found/find myself in debates with others. And no real surprise, it is evidence of my woundedness and brokeness.Lol!

I come from a place where I was consistently put in situations of defense,combat,oppression,etc. In order to be a person, I often found myself in a kinda daily war with those who were supposed to be life givers to me.

I believe in God, and all that He is and says as TRUTH. I love Him and His truth so very much.

But where I have continued to error is to “use” this truth as my weapon of protection. His truth does protect me from the lies of this world, but I fear I have been misguided in my attempts to “declare” His truth.

I also am beginning to see that if this comes out of a place of fear, that I have much work to do with my Father in heaven.

I am going to pray that God show me how I can walk this out. I do not enjoy, or desire, living out of this mindset that I must prove something to someone ecspecially in discussing God’s beautiful gift to us-His word.

Saled- I love your words

and

Steve- I drink very deeply of alot that you share. And in this thread I loved so much of what you said about this topic of contradictions.

One thing I agree immensely with is these contradictions are a ” mystery leading to an answer that leads to another mystery”. I hate, and LOVE this truth! :)

Tho we strive all of our days to be like Him, there is only one Christ.

Yet He accepts us just as we are, broken and damaged goods.

His love for us stands against the judgement of the world.

Tho we deserve judgement He gives us forgiveness. Love wins out in contrast to everything else.

Steve

A composite of the Character of Christ.

He was poor in spirit, Though he shared His fathers nature, He lay aside the robes of heaven for the rags of humanity.

He mourned, a man of sorrows acquainted with grief, weeping over the gravr of a friend and over His nation.

He was meek, rode into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey, and remained stong enough to remain silent in defence of Himself.

He hungered and thirsted for righteousness, He refused bread offered by Satan in the wilderness and wine while on the cross. But waited for food from His father and the cup He was to drink for all mankind.

He was merciful, wherever He went he fed the hungry and healed the sick.

He was pure in heart, Satan could do nothing to defect from His fathers will.

He was a peace maker, coming to earth to reconcile world to the fathers love.

Not a contrast but another view of the Sermon on the Mount.

Steve

I would like to echo Ron Ben Yaakov’s sentiment and words.
I only noticed this blog about two months ago, I am not sure how long it has been going, but without it I would be dead by now. I would have fallen into the ocean outside my house in a drunken stupour, that was my plan as life had got too difficult to continue. Do you realise what a wonderful thing you have created here! my only wish is that we could have private chat rooms/forums, as I would dearly love to chat with Steve on a one to one, and also Ron Ben Yaakov, he is one of the brethren of Yeshua. I am a child of Abraham by faith but would love to be a brother of Messiah. We are going to be His bride, so I don’t think we will miss out.
Thank you Mart
:-)

Isn’t it strange that I start the blog with a casual mention of “jot & tittle” and it has caused such a wonderful debate. Praise God!

Shalom. I was reminded during the night that I haven’t taken the time to express my deep gratitude for your love for the Body of Messiah. Please accept my apology for not expressing my heartfelt gratitude before now. The Word teaches us to honor one another. Therefore, I want to honor you by saying: Building this blog expresses your heart. I’m sure that what I’m saying hear is felt by each of us in equal amount. Thank you for the time and effort you have spent in designing this beautiful classroom :-).

May the LORD bless you and your staff as you labor in His Kingdom in these trying times!

I believe that the fisherman were able to read but not only that they had the Word living among them.

There is nothing wrong with reading other translations because old English has been tweaked and bible scholars have used the original text to develop new translations.

To make excuses for Solomon and all his wives seems like an ol’ wives tale. Then we should excuse the fact that all his excessive riches also caused him to move away from God but that is a hole different subject.:-)

I think it is so neat that we do not just have to be blind and believe in the bible but we are given permission to test it to see if it is true. I do not believe since we were given a brain that we not use it. I have seen however that some over analyze the simple truths in those pages to fit what they would like to argue. Thus we get different religions.

Reading that wonderful book usually causes our hearts to soften rather than hardening especially when the very Spirit of God lives in us because Jesus was not hard to the people only those who thought of themselves higher than they ought. I imagine like everything else people have different spiritual gifts and not all have mercy because it takes all kinds to be able to understand all the different people we are to minister to and to be able to direct the church. I did not say run because it is God who runs it.

Really understanding takes an open mind and heart where we put God in the top place and not ourselves. People for ages have tried to prove it has contradictions or anything else for that matter because they do not really want the truth or to experience the presence of God in their lives. I for one having read it in many translations over many years still have so much to learn and am deeply humbled by the wealth of knowledge that is contained in those pages. I know just how much I do not know. To tell you the honest truth it seems the more knowledge one obtains sometimes it causes one to be prideful so maybe it is better to have the mind of a child because they are more open to trust the Master’s plan and His Guiding Light. In that Solomon is a good example.

But then, if scriptural truths are being presented as psychology, philosophy or theology, then it not only lacks the convicting power of the Holy Spirit… all the trouble we take to make it convincingly presentable is also going to be an utter waste!

As I have always maintained and what others here have said above, we can only understand the Bible if the Holy Spirit opens our spiritual eyes, our minds and hearts to give us understanding.

It is not that God’s spirit hovers over my head like a little halo to reveal deep secrets of God. It is just that His Spirit makes me malleable and soft… i.e. teachable. He enables me to hear and obey the instructions which train me to live according to His godly way!

Having said that, it is important to note that the Bible can be understood by everyone… illiterate fishermen to learned physicians and even a child but not everyone will understand the Bible! Jesus said: “To you it has been given to know (and understand) the mysteries and secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that, looking, they may not see; and hearing, they may not comprehend” (Luke 8:10)!

Bob/rdrcomp, thrilled to hear back from you after a long time. You were greatly missed!

Mart, great post and some good discussions going on over here! Agree with almost everything that is being said and wanted to add some of my thoughts on this… The Bible, to me is a very personal-personal letter from a Father to His child. It reveals the very person of God! The more I read His letter, the more I got to know Him. Although my eyes do not see God, yet His words make me feel that He is so close to me…speaking right from within me.

And honestly I have never found any contrasts up until I started to converse here on this blog site. Even truth in tension was an absolutely new concept for me. There was never once in my entire life so far when I ever doubted His words that spoke of His love for me. As I matured from my days of infancy, everything about His divine person made perfect sense to me. My spirit completely agreed with everything He said and did…His eternal plan for me in Jesus Christ… why He created people and destroyed people, why He loves one and hates the other.

Not once do I ever remember my thoughts have clashed with His thoughts. From His letter I’ve even discovered the intimate details about what makes Him glad and what makes Him sad. To my understanding, both His love and His wrath are perfectly just and right. His Law and His grace are absolutely flawless. I don’t know how to explain this…it has to be experienced in order to be understood.

Books that use scripture to explain scripture can be good resources to help explain the Bible but in my experience the Bible is self-explanatory! One can have lexicons and dictionaries and degrees from Bible schools and yet not understand scriptures… just like the scribes and the Pharisees. And Mart, I’m not sure what you meant by young believers. If you are referring to physical age, then we do know of a Jewish boy who at age 12 confounded the spiritual leaders of Israel with His knowledge of God’s Word.

Speaking of “Differences”… they are like different pieces of a grand puzzle. As you rightly pointed out, they all complement i.e. perfectly fit-together to consistently present only one theme- Jesus Christ! as foreverblessed said. Those “differences” do not reflect personal opinions and neither do they refute another writer’s works…like Calvinism and Arminianism do. Personally, I am always thankful to have grown in the middle of nowhere without the influence of those human interpretations that may have adversely affected my relationship with the Word!

And so, when I never read the Bible with an analytical approach I do not focus on contrasts or context… actually it beats my mind to think how one can analyze a personal letter from a dearly loved one! For ex. Isa 55:8 quoted above is out of context because it applies to OT folks that lived before Jesus came. However, it can be argued that it still applies to us living today because God never changes and His truths are eternal.

As long as I do not pick and choose parts of scriptures out of context to justify myself as good, I do not dissect to peer at the letter to see whether the truth is being applied out of context. Personally, it is so amazing to see how the Holy Spirit uses random portions of scripture to convict, rebuke and expose evil rebellion that exists within me.