What Kind of "Truth" Do You Think the Bible Is?
@mythociate (21432)
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
August 14, 2015 12:24pm CST
I know /logically/ you can hold 'some statements' as false and 'the other statements' as true; but I've heard it said that if ANY statement of the Bible is false, then they're ALL lies.
There are 'true' lessons in the Bible, but parts of it are obviously 'fairy-tales' (hundreds-of-millions of years of evolution in just seven days? parting of the Red Sea? etc.)---so it's a 'modified truth' (the same way that humans are 'modified apes,' or vice-versa).
This is one way of saying 'why I register my disagreement when Facebook-friends post 'praises to God'-&-such ... one friend posted a prayer 'asking God to send protection & comfort,' I replied with Jesus' instructions that tell us 'public prayers are FALSE' (on account of our prayers to God only being valid as heard by God-alone).
4 people like this
4 responses
@Rollo1 (16679)
• Boston, Massachusetts
14 Aug 15
The Bible tells us that praying to be heard by others, that is, to impress others is not efficacious. That doesn't mean you cannot pray in public, just that if you are doing so in order to impress other people with your piety, it is prideful and pride is a sin. I would love to go through any objections you have to things you find in the Bible that you think are not true, but on a one by one basis, not in a big bunch. 
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@Rollo1 (16679)
• Boston, Massachusetts
14 Aug 15
@mythociate I am not sure what they are set to do. I do get some notifications by email. I will check my settings.
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@mythociate (21432)
• Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
14 Aug 15
I'll try to remember to 'mention @Rollo1' when I bring-up disagreements; you have your notification-settings set to tell you when someone 'mentions' you, right?
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@zzzgeok (58)
• United States
15 Aug 15
I believe in the power of prayer. But I believe that it has to do more with your own mindset. Asking for the power to accomplish something affects the way you yourself see things. It can give you strength just from the psychological boost from believing someone more powerful, that you believe yourself to be, will give you the confidence to accomplish what you are doing. I also am a believer Of Universal Mind Power, in which you send out a message into the universe, and like minded people send out their energies and it comes back to you in answers that help you to do what it is you want to do. The old adage that two heads are better than one, sort of thing. Sending out from your being into the universe for others to borrow from, positive energies, that will assist those receptive to it. Negative energy can also be transmitted this way. Depending upon what your own mindset is determines what you receive in that energy.
@TLChimes (4822)
• United States
14 Aug 15
There are two points that you speak of here and I want to talk about both.
The first is that Book. Even if the Bible is false or Fiction, it still can have moral value. Most good works of fiction has a lesson or moral value. And they can have over the top stories that we know CAN'T be true but still teach us something. The original fairy tales told to children were for that very purpose..... Little Red Riding Hood taught kids to not talk to strangers in the woods and to be careful who you trust.... but it was still a work of fiction.
So, in short, a work of fiction can still work to guide you in the right direction as long as you keep in mind that it is still a work of fiction.
Second point "Pray to God for protection..." We have talked on another post about the power of words and how our energies and intent go into words, but (and yep, it is all in their head) there is also comfort taken from the idea of there being a God that listens to our prayers, that can offer us peace, comfort, and protection. And if we think that it is happening we are comforted and feel protection.
If thinking that God is on the job, looking out for a person, helps them get through a rough patch... it doesn't matter if it is fiction or not because it is doing it's job of bringing them comfort. Who am I to argue with their finding a way to be okay?
@mythociate (21432)
• Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
14 Aug 15
That's fine. But I think God wants to keep his private conversations "private"; meaning that if they're 'public,' they're no longer 'with God.'
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@TLChimes (4822)
• United States
14 Aug 15
@mythociate Is asking for prayers from family and friends the same as talking behind his back or taking it public? I don't think so because what the person who listens to the person asking is going to do is talk to God on their own, when they say their prayers. That is private.
In church, they ask you to pray for the stricken. You, as a group, say prayers. You on your own say your prayers and send your well wishes. I see no difference.
@mythociate (21432)
• Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
14 Aug 15
@TLChimes It's more 'what God hears': he doesn't hear 'laborious, descriptive titles laden upon his name' more than he hears 'hey daddy?'
He hears your heart, hears the desires of his children. It's fine for them to express those desires, but he doesn't hear them MORE if you make it sound 'pretty.'
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@MaddiOashi (183)
• United States
14 Aug 15
I'm what they call a Creationist. I believe in the Bible account of creation. You just have to understand that God's time table is not like our's. All in due time, all things will come to pass. Nothing is impossible for God/Jesus.
@mythociate (21432)
• Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
14 Aug 15
Why can't people understand uni-gender marriage that way? (that 'two different genders spiritually' aren't necessarily 'two different genders PHYSICALLY')
@zzzgeok (58)
• United States
15 Aug 15
I believe that more than anything the Bible is a history book. One that tries to teach using examples and parables learned from life, by the people who wrote the text, as they saw it. Although many stories have been changed due to bad or selective memories. I do believe that the Bible does give us rules to live by, and most of them do make sense. Not all, but most.
@mythociate (21432)
• Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
15 Aug 15
So it's a "history book" the way a person's autobiography is a history-book.
@zzzgeok (58)
• United States
15 Aug 15
@mythociate In actuality, I think the Old Testament is more of a history book than the New Testament, although both have some historical value. I think accounts of such things as Noah, The end of the world by flood, Moses leading the Jews from Egypt and such are both history, and teachings to enlighten people of that time. Also perhaps frighten them into a specific behavior,which didn't necessarily work, but written by most likely men, multiple men, who attempted to teach the masses how to act in a world we all shared. I also believe the stories go much deeper when you consider that over thousands of years the translations and additions and removal of certain texts have altered the original intent of the words within.
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