why don't people consider being a christian who thinks the bible is not the exact word of God?

this guy does a good job arguing how liberal christians are really a religion unto themselves

that is ultimately true, but every conservative chrisitan decides in their own way what is right... they disagree with tens of thousand of different belief structures. 

if one posits that maybe the bible isn't the word for word word of God, then it's reasonable to consider alternative views. the guy in the link said liberal christians dont hold the bible to be true, so they cant call themselves christian... but why must the bible be true for Jesus and the religion to be true? 

personally, i believe what the bible says unless i have a reason not to. that means i'm actually pretty orthodox. some things dont seem to make sense, but why throw the baby out with the bath water?

christianity is compelling in general. the apostles died for their faith. you dont see that every day. early historians called jesus a magician due to what people said about him. it was considered a fact and it's consensus that Jesus actually existed. read the new testament... it's a very authentic sounding narrative. it's compelling the poetry they speak. other religions dont have that... islam is about getting virgins at death and chopping heads off. buddism is just a philosophy and doesn't claim truth. i dont know much about hindu but it seems very random. christian NDEs with near death experiences are common... other religions are almost non existant. things that look like miraculous healings happen a lot to chrisitans... it's unheard of for atheists or other religions.  christianity is about doing good and having good relationships... things science says makes for meaningful life. 

my point... christianity is a compelling religion. why does the bible need to be true for the religion to be true? 

Humanity has been changing so rapidly since Enlightenment.

I'm just saying...

without the bible being true, the concept of christianity is powerless. paul put it best.

1 corinthians 15:19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.

why deny ourselves if there is no ressurrection? why heal if people die anyways? why try to be good when all people go to the same place regardless?

you wanna talk about nihilism and existential suffering? a christian without ressurrection would make the most hardened nihilist despair. they would tell us to just die, as there is no point.

scripture is the foundation for being a christian, you cannot be a christian if you dont obey and follow after christ.

my advice is stop listening to ignorant people and read scripture, actually talk to the God who they claim exists. see what he has to say.

@Malcharaz

Hmmmm

As a contented atheist.

I cannot deny that since it's invention some 2000 years hence, the oftentimes ruthless power the Christian concept has held over the lives of people and the development of human society.

Truth, is neither here nor there. 

Scripture, is some accompanying text what blokes like Paul wrote.

And if one wishes to be a Christian....Just wear the appropriate label.

My advice is a cup of tea a biscuit and a nap at 3pm....Does one the world of good.....No GOD required.

Though musing the GOD concept is an occasionally entertaining mental exercise.....Purpose or not as it were.

As I see it, religious obsessives are some of the biggest stress merchants to be found.

Then, is such people christians, at all? Some may think no. Mostly BrotherD. Thomas.

It is the infallible word of God. Say different I will forgive thee and cuck myself for our divine saviour, Judas Christ. Amen.

Relative truth is both here and there, withing the context of occupied space and Meta-space mind/intellect/concepts.

Absolute truth has no location [ 2D - 3D } because, it is not an occupied space.

Universe > God > Bible etc > many religions > purpose > hope > faith > foxholes where some or all of the prior meet ...>* i *<....for consideration and reconsideration.

n8nrgim, 

Responding to your initial post, are you trying to be more Bible stupid than Miss Tradesecret and Melcharaz? Huh?

YOUR MORE THAN BEING BIBLE STUPID QUOTE: " but why must the bible be true for Jesus and the religion to be true?"

What part of this Jesus inspired passage don't you understand?: “EVERY word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.“ (Proverbs 30:5)

Every word, you dumb ass pseudo-christian, includes the words as directly given throughout the scriptures, with no decoder rings or insipid apologetics needed, therefore, what Jesus said once in LITERAL form, or in a parable, He could not mean for His followers to take in many different and contradicting ways!  GET IT BIBLE FOOL?!

Furthermore, Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4)

Since Jesus is God (2 Peter 1:1), then a few things of many that TRUE Christians have to do are in the following passages in Jesus' name, otherwise they become hypocrites, and we all know what Jesus thought of hypocrites!:

1. JESUS AS GOD SAID: Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou BEATEST him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt BEAT HIM with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell." (Proverbs.23:13-14)

2. JESUS AS GOD SAID: “When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves do.” (Exodus 21:7)

3. JESUS SAID:  “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition?  For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death."  (Matthew 15: 3-4)

I will leave your outright Bible ignorance and stupidity with this Jesus inspired passage: "He replied, Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.” (Luke 11:28)

.

If there is one thing that life has taught me, its that words are meaningless when actions and results don't match them.

It's not essential for Christian doctrine to believe the Bible is 100% true. 

While many of us do, it is not a deal breaker.   

Our faith is not in the bible but in Christ. 

It doesn't make us a heretic not to believe it is 100% accurate.  Of course, some people might call others a heretic for not believing, but that is personal subjectiveness, not an official doctrine. 

One of the problems with not believing it is 100% true is that it means that our authority to discuss things and validate things is a little more difficult. 

Nevertheless, most churches and denominations are able to discuss many things without resorting to the Bible.  

I have never seen anyone thrown out of the church if they didn't believe the Bible to be 100% accurate. In fact, in every congregation I have attended, there is always a small minority at least where people don't do so.  It's not the end of the world. Some people won't ever do so. Of course, a little training might assist them to be better informed as to why it is trustworthy and reliable.  It's actually quite surprising how many people have never bothered to actually do a little bit of training. Most people presume they know how to read and to determine whether the bible is reliable or not.  and this goes with those who think it is reliable and with those who don't. 

Taking people who already believe the bible is reliable through a course on how to read a book is mostly VERY enlightening for them.  They come to realise that they thought it was reliable not because they could determine it - but because they had just been told it was.  For them - taking ownership of why they believe it - is always very rewarding for them and actually increases their trust in it.  Others were surprised by their ignorance. they had just assumed it wasn't reliable or that it was contradictory.  Learning how to read properly is a skill. Most people can read, but they read poorly.

Yet believing the bible to be 100% true is not an essential doctrine of the church. It doesn't make one a Christian or not a Christian.   

you ever recieved the holy spirit which is made evident by speaking in tongues? acts 10:44-48

Ya can't just willy nilly believe some parts of the bible and  not others. 

Well

You can.

Buttttttttttt,  You definitely will not be going to heaven.

No ifs or buts. 

Here at atheists R US 

We are allowed to believe certain parts fo the bible.  

We can even believe in more then half of the ( 10 big ones ) 

I can picture people not caring about  homosexuals butttttt they have to appear to not " agree " with it.

And they'll use that word , " agree ".  And they will put the word ( NOT ) before it. 

But of course they dont care....

Well Five in a hundred might.

But You know what i mean.

 

Christianity went with a third of the jews bible for 500 plus years didn't it. 

Or have i got it wrong. ?

Suss

The timelines of .

Invent the  god.      This brings things to the people. 

Invent a book.    This brings things to the people. 

Invent a clubhouse.   This brings things to the people.

( The people being the ones whom invented it. )

Its kida like.

Three schemes made out of one. 

Every " creator " of every religion ( one man )  was giving ummmmm msg, writtings from god.

Nothing suss

Imagine if your religion,  which is the only true religion .

Ran EXACTLY like a thing called a religion,  wich was a made up bit of nonsense.  

Andddddd 

IT WAS EXACTLY THE SAME. 

I can't see a way of lying to yourself to be able to belive that. 

Christianity on the other hand looks like the person that was " choosen "  by this god thing was set up in some kind of way ( lied to ) 

Thus at some point he can be killed. 

Killed in a spectacular fashion with lots of grey areas. 

It made for a more believable experience.  Then the Abraham way. 

The inventor of christianity must of not been able to be a spokesman of sorts and or chooes not to be. 

sooooooo ,  they get some gullible guy (wich there was a plethora of )  and feed him bullshit stories,  then nnn he starts believing in it  because he is getting a little praise. 

Next thing you know he is being killed but loving it because he believes he is some kind of " chossen " one. 

Poor jesus,  if there is a heaven he deserves to be there.

In short 

Its a great thought out scheme added to the top of a already running scheme  to ummm better the person that made it up. 

 

Thus bringing us to today,,,, SUNDAY.

Its that good of a scheme , that it has millions of people to this very day meeting up down the road. 

Well the christian church is a scheme on top of a scheme thtattttt was already on top of a scheme. 

I think i got that right. 

So ummmm yeah.

' kicks dirt "  

oh Anddddddd

Have a great day at church guys.

Bring cash $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Imagine a book that contained every bit of "obvious" good from every so called holy book that ever ummmm, did.

Maybe you could call it. 

For The love of the Gods.  

Orrrr. 

Gods good bits. 

Hang on .

A two book series. .

All the Gods good bits .   And, now get this.    All the gods bad bits. 

One book has 43 pages the other has 571 pages.

Go on then have a guess? 

NO , STOP RIGHT THERE....

It will have to be a 3 book series 

After extracting book 1 and 2 , you are left with a big pile of difficult to understand nonsense 

Sooooo

All the gods good bits 

All the gods bad bits. 

Andddddd

The gods must be crazy bits .  

Or ( ______________________ ) 

A 571 page book. 

A 43 page book

andddd 

A  37,963 page book. 

Wich is wich?        Dont scroll up and cheat. 

You can always tear out the pages and wipe your arse on them.

It's what they did back in the War.

Then compost the combined efforts....Sh*t + Bullsh*t.

 And dig for victory.

Potatoes, beans and brussels sprouts et al, as it were.

I will now do some readings from

ALL THE GODS GOOD BITS. 

As soon as you think you know the God responsible for it. 

Put it up. 

X  =  zenu

J  = jesus 

Al  =  allah 

Ab. =  "Abraham"

And so on.  

Yeah but i want to display this MASSIVE MASSIVE LOOKING BOOK for pure shock value.  

That will sit perfectly on a shelf next to , All the gods good bits.

I'll have to point it out.

Powwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

And people wil be, '  oh there is another book there '

And thats the Shock and mother fucking awe that im looking for right there.

What would be cool is .

The  All the gods goods bits book turned upside-down and back to front will then read , All the gods bad bits. 

The middle of the book will be a fold out crucifix when reading the good 

It will be an inverted cross when reading the bad.

Pat pen

Let me guess. 

You are having trouble thinking this book of all the good bits would be 43 pages long .

Your probably right there. 

Im thinking  $ 19.99 for that book alone. 

 

Thats why i said from alllllllllll the gods. 

I should be able to find a few good gods ( that no one knows to much about ) 

What i am worried about being asked.

And whom is this book " according " to ?  

To wich id have to just start beating  around the bush. 

The first page of ( The gods must be crazy book )  

Will be the well known story about a bald bloke and 40 bears.

Then i could move on to Noah. 

And well 

This book will literally write its self 

Actually the first pages should start off with .

IN THE BEGINNING 

Here ia an idea. 

If i ask a bunch of christians to give me alll the good bits from your holy books  , I'd be inundated .

Sooo

That will be given to the Muslims.

And vice versa. 

They can then all argue out why it is considered good and why it shouldn't be considered good.  

Them fools will write it for me. 

If a Muslim and a Christian booth agree on someting being " good "  thennnnn  ( it fucking has to be good. )

The end result will be like a book for little kids on being nice.  

Like dont steal.  

Love ya mom. 

Dont do your mates girlfriend. 

Don't go to other peoples houses unless invited.   

Dont do stuff to other people that you dont like

Soooo this is probably not going to work hey? 

O well .

It was just a thought. 

Moving on , back to the drawing board. 

What are some other ways one might be able  to benifit from religions people?

Necklaces. 

Get ya cross necklaces here.  

of course they are pure GOLD... 

I wouldn't be selling fake ones for  $119.75 would i.

Ya fuckin idiot.  

PM me.

NowBack to the OP.

Why don't people consider being a Christian who thinks the bible is not the exact word of god?

Ummm duh.

Probably because they are not wearing a CRUCIFIX NECKLACE.

If you are not wearing a crucifix necklace you are not really a Christian right. 

NOTHING SAYS I'M A CHRISTIAN MORE THEN A CROSS NECKLACE.  

Order yours now with the code (  I'm a fucking chump   ) and receive 15% off.

 

Pm me. 

Can you be a Muslim and eat bacon,ham and other piggy stuff ? 

The answer to this will go a long way to answering the OP

Oh you ask , why dont people.  

So the answer is . 

Fucking i dont know.  Why are you asking me what other people think.

Then i say to you.

Why don't  they ? 

Otherwise 

You are ask8ng for people to throw random suggestions at you.  

If its random suggestions you want , you've come to he right place my friend.. 

Random sugg # 1.     Because your a fat dickhead and no one has ever really liked you. 

Random sugg #2.   Because these people dont understand.

Random  sugg # 3 .  Because of certain passages or two in the book. 

Then a question arises.  

So do you not belive the parts of the bible that " allude " to having to believe the whole thing ? 

If so then i find that a little bit strange. 

I reckon All These parts you don't belive in will point to something. 

Hang on. 

I think i get what is happening here

And this next question will probably answer it.

Do you belive the man can't  lay with a man bit ? 

Wait for it. 

Hold

It took a bit be we got there. 

In short.

You are not at all happy that god hates gays