About the Bible and Christian Doctrine

ABOUT THE BIBLE What about the Bible? Can you believe all that you find in the Bible? But before this question is answered, you have to ask the question as to why God can't be more obvious in what He really wants from us? The problem here is that even if He were, we probably would want to do our own thing anyway. There are several reasons for this. 1) The impression stupendous events have on us, such as miracles, are never permanent and fade away with time. 2) There are always other explanations available for anything you observe. 3) Divine things are never as clear in this world because of the spiritual warfare going on around us. And 4) God only wants a loving trusting relationship with us, and this requires a moral decision by us, not absolute proof which would require no moral decision having to be made whatsoever. Besides, nothing is ever absolute. Now getting back to the Bible. It's true that there are some unbelievable stories contained therein, but in a sense, you have to look at the Bible as a baby carriage carrying the baby, whereby the baby carrage can have many defects in it, while the baby cannot, although sometimes it's hard to distinguish between the two. Also many of these so-called defects are really not defects at all, but a way of making a point allegorically that couldn't be made more effectively in any other way. After all, the Bible is basically not an historical or scientific book, but a book to show us how we could be redeemed. Now if you consider the Lordship of Jesus as portrayed in the Gospels as authentic, you have to consider the Bible itself as being authentic, because Jesus uses so much of the Old Testament in His teachings In other words, the Gospels' authenticity lends itself to the authenticity of the rest of the Bible. Besides the Bible seems to have a unity of purpose despite the diversity of its authorship, prophetic, and archaeological accuracy in many instances, and the Bible as a whole has given many people tremendous spiritual uplifts thoughout the centuries. Therefore if you consider the Gospels as being historically authentic, you also have to trust the Bible as a whole in being historically reliable as well. But why so much violence in the Bible, especially in the Old Testament, whereby sometimes whole groups of people are killed under a loving God's direction? One has to realize that one has to measure one kind of evil against another, especially if the particular evil you want to stamp out is going to interfere with God's universal plan for redemption Besides, you still have the after-life to sort out what's right or wrong. But with one authoritative Bible, why do we have so many Christian denominations with different translations and interpretations of the Bible? There are basically 3 reasons for this. 1) Primarily because of the sinfulness of the church, in that, despite the fact that Jesus prayed for unity among His children (John 17), our pride and arrogance insisted on our divisiveness. It's amazing that Jesus can still minister through this sinful church. 2) Some churches view the authority of the Bible in different ways, such as the Roman Catholic Church which views the Bible, Church Tradition and the Pope as equal in authority, and the Fundamentalists who view the Bible simply as a Supreme Legal Document. And 3) some churches have honest differences of opinion on how to interpret different portions of Scripture, such as the role women should play in the church,, due to the fraility of our human understanding. But the central message in all these traditions is still the same in that Jesus Christ died for our sins and saved all of us who believe in Him. And although the Bible is the prime source for this central message, God can speak to us in many other ways as well. Now, what happens to those who aren't Christians? I'm not sure, but you should investigate and study the non-Christian's philosophy of life and belief, and see how it compares with that of Christianity to perhaps find out. Most belief systems do have much good in them, but do they contain as much truth in regard to this as Christianity does? I don't think so, because no other belief system provides an adequate solution in how to handle sin the way Chrisitnity does. So whatever belief system you do choose, this will guide you in how you might want to live the rest of your spiritual life. But you really have to study all the belief systems in order to discover what suits you best. ABOUT CHRISTIAN LIFE AND DOCTRINE Most belief systems feel that a Perfect God could accept imperfect or sinful human beings into His Heavenly Kingdom, because, after all, He is Perfect and He can accept anybody He desires.. And those He desires are those on balance who are better benefactors than sinners. But the question remains, "Can Perfection ever accept imperfection, or sinners, into His Heavenly Kingdom? If God does, wouldn't the sinners pollute His Kingdom. just as dirty water would pollute pure water. Many believe they wouldn't, but if they would, Christianity has a way around this. Christianity says that God came down to earth in the person of Jesus Christ, mingled with humanity for awhile teaching them about God, died on the cross absorbing our imperfections or sinfulness within Himself, and finally was resurrected as Perfection after only 3 days.. And those who believe in this Jesus Christ have placed around themselves this perfection so that when God sees us He only sees His son, Jesus Christ. In other words, it's like our being wrapped up like a Christmas present, with the wrapping being our belief in Jesus Christ, so that when God looks at us, He only sees the wrapping or Perfection (Jesus Christ), and not our own sinfulness. It's similar to God looking into a mirror at Himself. We still remain sinners, but God really doesn't see this. But as we put more and more of this wrapping around ourselves, the wrapping begins to seap more and more into our hearts, and as this happens we begin to change and become much more loving and forgiving. But you have to believe in Jesus Christ for this to happen and for you to enter into His Heavenly Kingdom. But what about those who don't believe in Jesus Christ? Do they go to Hell as the Bible suggests? According to the Bible, Hell is described as a gruesome place, and nobody in their right mind would want to go there. And being such a gruesome place, it seems that only those who have committed the most horrendous sins should ever go there. This creates quite a dilema for the Christian belief, because we Christians believe that those who don't believe in Jesus Christ go there, but we also believe that God is very fair and just, and that He wouldn't just throw these non-believers into such a horrendous place as Hell if they're basically good people. After all, they never committed such horrendous acts whereby they deserved such horrendous punishment. God must have provided another alternative for them. Perhaps a type of Purgatory for them after death. Or perhaps Jesus died for them on the cross also, even though they did not consciously know Him or were incapable of knowing him, such as infants retards, or mental incompetents but did God's bidding anyway to the best of their ability. But to make sure that they're accepted by God, we Christian should still continue to share our faith with others. Hell, as I see it, is really only for those who have commited horrendous acts, such as Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, Sadam Hussein, unrepentent criminals or assassins, and the political suicide bombers . And God's not really putting them there. They're putting themselves there by their own free will of so much hate and cruelty. And at the end of time, according to the Book of Revelation, they will be totally destroyed by God.