How can we ever attain unity of the Spirit when cheap prada 07iv eyeglasses there is so much intolerance, certainity of doctrine, and known prejudicial bias that cheap prada 07iv eyeglasses goes into so much of a Christian’s reading of the Bible? Or is it just me? Well, if it cheap prada 07iv eyeglasses is, let me confess my known prejudices and maybe, just maybe therein, you cheap prada 07iv eyeglasses might see one for yourself and we could make some headway to cheap prada 07iv eyeglasses accepting that none of us is righteous- only God is GOOD as Jesus reminded us.
Pride and arrogance buy prada peacock feather skirt goes before the fall you know.
Over the years we who read the Bible find “groupings” that seemingly have more meaning for us. It’s simply a cheap prada 07iv eyeglasses matter of us growing in spiritual matters. At one age and cheap prada 07iv eyeglasses in one stage of life certain things matter for us more than cheap prada 07iv eyeglasses others. The bottom line is that we READ VERSES WE LIKE! If we don’t quite understand a cheap prada 07iv eyeglasses verse, we shy away from it, or at least we don’t put it cheap prada 07iv eyeglasses on the outside of the refridgerator door or commit it to cheap prada 07iv eyeglasses memory.
We all READ VERSES that we agree with and seemingly understand.
Secondly, we have our OWN INTERPRETATION to whatever verses that we’re reading. We can cheap prada 07iv eyeglasses try to be as objective as possible, but it is in the cheap prada 07iv eyeglasses mere reading of a Scripture that we interpret it. There’s no cheap prada 07iv eyeglasses way of getting around the fact that we comprehend and understand verses based on our vocabulary, intellectual achievement, presuppositional bias and cheap prada 07iv eyeglasses teachings, and from the culture from which we grew up.
A verse can cheap prada 07iv eyeglasses mean one thing if read from the deep South and another if read from cheap prada 07iv eyeglasses Seattle, Singapore, or South Wales.
Thirdly, my view of God and cheap prada 07iv eyeglasses the Bible is affected by which TRANSLATION I decide to use. There’s a cheap prada 07iv eyeglasses world of difference between the King James Version and the Amplified Bible for cheap prada 07iv eyeglasses instance. The are subtle but big differences in the NIV and cheap prada 07iv eyeglasses Ferrar Fentons version. I prefer the Revised English Bible because it’s drawn from one of the oldest manuscripts (Codex Sinaticus) and where the existing manuscripts contain mistakes (yes errors), they are fote-noted (such as Mark 3:26 and Matthew 23:35). And where older manuscripts don’t carry what newer and altered ones do (John 8:1-12 as an example), it’s noted and put at the back of the book of John.
And so on.
Fourth and finally, there’s the ATTITUDE and cheap prada 07iv eyeglasses paradigm that one takes towards the Bible overall. I do not take all of the cheap prada 07iv eyeglasses stories as LITERAL. Many are metaphorical and cheap prada 07iv eyeglasses as a result richer and more meaningful than the facts render. I see the cheap prada 07iv eyeglasses Bible as a SACRED document but I do not fall into Bibliolatry.
So much for my Biblical bias.
How are cheap prada 07iv eyeglasses we then to decide what is metaphor and what is to cheap prada 07iv eyeglasses be taken literally? Truly the cheap prada 07iv eyeglasses poem of Genesis is more valuable when viewed as metaphor than cheap prada 07iv eyeglasses as literal truth, but what happens when we get to the cheap prada 07iv eyeglasses Gospels, or Joshua, or the Acts of the Apostles? In Joshua, God is cheap prada 07iv eyeglasses violent and destructive and is meant to be read quite literally, the cheap prada 07iv eyeglasses Gospels were canonized because they were considered recorded, witnessed accounts, in Acts, God kills Herod and cheap prada 07iv eyeglasses even members of the early Church who “hold” out on him. These examples do not resonate with me on God’s nature and cheap prada 07iv eyeglasses attitude toward his creation, but they are, never-the-less, right there in the cheap prada 07iv eyeglasses bible for our reading pleasure. If we take them out or cheap prada 07iv eyeglasses nullify them based on attribution or the consistancy of “our box with God in it” (as Crossan would say), then cheap prada 07iv eyeglasses we are guilty of what you described before as having our “OWN INTERPRETATION”. How are we to handle this?
Therein has cheap prada 07iv eyeglasses been the problem-paradox for Christianity. We have wanted to have “others” interpret for us. We’ve wanted formulas so we wouldn’t have to think and thereby we’ve missed going inward and cheap prada 07iv eyeglasses seeking what it is that the SPIRIT would tell us regarding a cheap prada 07iv eyeglasses matter.
If one approaches the cheap prada 07iv eyeglasses Bible as a sacred document for Christians, but not infallible, written by man, man’s perceptions of history when cheap prada 07iv eyeglasses written, and from a Bibliolatry mindset, there’s a freedom to just let things BE.
Like Marcion, it’s near impossible to cheap prada 07iv eyeglasses see how the God of the Old Testament matches up with the cheap prada 07iv eyeglasses God of the New Testament, unless you see the Bible as the cheap prada 07iv eyeglasses “progressive understanding” of man about God.
The BOX that most people have put the Creator in (even with the name God- as a HE), is empty of reality and thus power.
A key for cheap prada 07iv eyeglasses each person is to discover God personally, intimately, and allow each person their view(s). I have cheap prada 07iv eyeglasses mine and I am willing to share with anyone without pretense that cheap prada 07iv eyeglasses I am right or they are wrong. It’s called LOVE! Kingdom! And may the mysteries excite us!