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Have you read the whole Bible?

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KindaSkolarly

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Re: Have you read the whole Bible?

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I've read the complete Bible and some of the Apocrypha. I picked up a red-letter Bible a while back (actual words of Jesus are in red). I plan to read the red part someday, see what kind of impression it makes without all the Pauline interpretation.
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Re: Have you read the whole Bible?

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I read nearly all of it. I read the entire thing except for one book. I can't remember which one. I'm rereading the Bible these days and will finish the whole thing. I read the Catholic Bible the first time around. Now I'm reading the King James version.

It took me a year or so to read it. I read just a little of it every night.

The effect the Bible had on me was that it was a major contributor to me becoming an atheist.
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Re: Have you read the whole Bible?

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KindaSkolarly wrote:I've read the complete Bible and some of the Apocrypha. I picked up a red-letter Bible a while back (actual words of Jesus are in red). I plan to read the red part someday, see what kind of impression it makes without all the Pauline interpretation.

Those red-letters are found only in the Gospels. They are all the Bible I care to read. There's a website that will read the Bible to you free, in your choice of editions and many languages. Sometimes I let it put me to sleep at night.

https://www.wordproject.org/bibles/index.htm
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Re: Have you read the whole Bible?

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Murmur wrote:I read nearly all of it. I read the entire thing except for one book. I can't remember which one. I'm rereading the Bible these days and will finish the whole thing. I read the Catholic Bible the first time around. Now I'm reading the King James version.

It took me a year or so to read it. I read just a little of it every night.

The effect the Bible had on me was that it was a major contributor to me becoming an atheist.
https://false-doctrine-assassin.blog/20 ... preachers/

Good.

Now you have a reason to hate and go to a war of words where you can do damage to your enemy. Welcome.

Regards
DL
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Re: Have you read the whole Bible?

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The Bible is just a collection of books and those somewhat randomly chosen to be included and others rejected. It is not God’s word. A lot of it is allegorical. Some is poetry, some history, some Jewish law. It is claimed that Jesus is God’s word so
it is more in the sense of communication....so not words....spiritual communication. So you can read the bible a hundred times and quote it backwards
and upside down but if you don’t perceive the spirit
and behave accordingly, then all is to no avail.

It is what we do and how we live that matters, not what we believe. Not how we label ourselves. We are not our labels.
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He was born with the gift of laughter and a sense that the world is mad....

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Re: Have you read the whole Bible?

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I tried reading the bible when I was 7 years old but I only finished up to the last part of Genesis. I actually like it back then and for me, it was just another story that had nothing to do with religion. Of course, I know better now. The bible is guide to lead your faith but not exactly the end all, be all.
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Re: Have you read the whole Bible?

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Penelope wrote: if you don’t perceive the spirit
and behave accordingly, then all is to no avail.
It is what we do and how we live that matters, not what we believe. Not how we label ourselves. We are not our labels.
Thanks for this, Penelope. Of course you probably realize that it turns Luther's idea of Grace upside down - the Protestant tradition said it wasn't our acts but our beliefs that mattered. I have been looking at this tangle of ideas for many years and I think the answer is pretty simple, if uncomfortable for the institutional church.

The reason beliefs matter is not that they give us special access to grace, but that they can act as a channel for more grace to flow through us to others. The point of the beliefs is to, as you put it, perceive the spirit and behave accordingly.

Grace refers to God's unwavering love, which always defines God's relationship to us, and which never depends on our earning it. The feeling that we have to earn something, that we are on stage to make the right performance, is one of the subtlest and most resistant barriers to the spirit.

What the institutional church has gotten wrong is to try to make people believe that our labels are the one performance that matters. In reality they are unlikely to make us any more effective as channels for grace.
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Re: Have you read the whole Bible?

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Jesus didn’t give us any rules. He said to love god and treat others as we would be treated. Nothing else. He promised to leave us the Holy Spirit to help us along. He said he was the fulfilment of the laws of the poor Jews , who had so many laws and rules that it was all but impossible to keep them all.

Anybody can understand the rules that Jesus left whether you believe he actually existed or not. If you pray for the help of the spirit, it seems to be given. That’s what grace is.

Thank you Harry Marks for your response. I can’t see the ‘thank post’ button on my phone app.
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Re: Have you read the whole Bible?

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Penelope wrote:The Bible is just a collection of books and those somewhat randomly chosen to be included and others rejected. It is not God’s word. A lot of it is allegorical. Some is poetry, some history, some Jewish law. It is claimed that Jesus is God’s word so
it is more in the sense of communication....so not words....spiritual communication. So you can read the bible a hundred times and quote it backwards
and upside down but if you don’t perceive the spirit
and behave accordingly, then all is to no avail.

It is what we do and how we live that matters, not what we believe. Not how we label ourselves. We are not our labels.
This is true, but labels do matter.

You are correct on what the bible is, but you might wonder how Christian spirituality has created a homophobic and misogynous religion that favors a genocidal son murdering prick of a God.

That is why my label is Gnostic Christian and labelling me a Christian is an insult to me.

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DL
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Re: Have you read the whole Bible?

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treder wrote:I tried reading the bible when I was 7 years old but I only finished up to the last part of Genesis. I actually like it back then and for me, it was just another story that had nothing to do with religion. Of course, I know better now. The bible is guide to lead your faith but not exactly the end all, be all.
Led your faith to idol worship a genocidal son murdering God.

Tell us please, why do you favor such a God whose morals seem so satanic?

Regards
DL
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