How is it that so many different Ideas can come from one teaching in the Bible?

Question

This is becoming frustrating to me. Everyone claims to know the "true" way. I can't figure it out, and it appears no ones claim can be completely discredited. Whats going on here?

Does anyone REALLY know the true way? If so, please share and tell me why.

Answer 1

When one tries to make something out of nothing, you get nothing. The bible isn't written as a life guide, it is a collection of stories and claims, some with historical backing, some without. To try and use it as a lifestyle guide is going to be confusing and frustrating because that is not what it is.

It would be like using book "Charlotte's Web" as a guide on how to live on a farm. It may be inspirational at times, and even have a few facts about farm life, but it is certainly not a guide to farming.

Answer 2

There may be more than one true way. There are easy ways up a mountain, and direct ways up a mountain, and twisted indirect ways up a mountain, but if you continue upward, eventually you get there.

God is a genius. Expect that God knows you are seeking and that information will be made available. After all, his son did say "Seek ye first the kingdom of God" and all will be added unto you. You are asking some wonderful questions.

If someone actually 'knows' the one true way, I suggest running in the opposite direction. I don't always trust the motives of the recruiters.

Books on meditation help, dream analysis, and even a course in miracles can give guidance. And when a verse in the Bible touches you, it matters. Pay attention.

Answer 3

To know that the bible is inspired of God, 2 Timothy 3:16 is a start, To ask questions and allow the scriptures to be the finial say, is the next move to make. Never allow just one or two scriptural thoughts to satisfy you. When you know that you have the right understanding all other scriptures will harmonize with the right thought. Know the things to ask will help you in understanding. For example: What happens to us at death? read Ecclesiastes 9:5,10, Ecclesiastes 3":19,20.
Other questions could be: What is the Kingdom of God?
Do we have an immortal soul? What is Hell? The bible answers these questions and many more. If you need help in finding scriptures, just ask. [e-mail]

Answer 4

Somewhere along the line the Bible became a sales tract that sects and denominations could fit to their needs in the proselytizing of converts. Paul had a good bit to do with it.

Answer 5

Oh, I can identify with your struggles! Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. If something in the Bible confuses you, read all the passages that apply to that topic. Then come to a conclusion on what God is saying. If it's a tiny matter of dispute, (i.e. did adam have a bellybutton?) then don't worry about it! Focus on following Jesus and loving your neighbor. This is God's way.

Answer 6

The message of the cross is simple. Now there are so many other aspects in the Bible that people try to over-read. YOU have a personal responsibility to read the Bible and decide for yourself. To trust in man and take their words as fact is WRONG and FOOLISH.

Take some personal responsibity. Don't depend on someone else to earn salvation for you or to "show you the light" or tell you exactly how it is. Don't be a pharisee and dont listen to pharisees. Live for Jesus, repent daily, practice humility, and live for others, not yourself. That is just some helpful advice on how to live. Practice it!!! It will bring you happiness!

Answer 7

The bible isn't one teaching. It's a collection of stuff written over a long period of time by a lot of different people.

Answer 8

"When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called Religion." ~ Robert M. Pirsig

"A thorough reading and understanding of the Bible is the surest path to atheism” ~ Donald Morgan

"There is not a single contemporary historical mention of Jesus, not by Romans or by Jews, not by believers or by unbelievers, not during his entire lifetime. This does not disprove his existence, but it certainly casts great doubt on the historicity of a man who was supposedly widely known to have made a great impact on the world. Someone should have noticed." ~ Dan Barker

"The Gospel story, with its figure of Jesus of Nazareth, cannot be found before the Gospels. In Christian writings earlier than Mark, including almost all of the New Testament epistles, as well as in many writings from the second century, the object of Christian faith is never spoken of as a human man who had recently lived, taught, performed miracles, suffered and died at the hands of human authorities, or rose from a tomb outside Jerusalem. There is no sign in the epistles of Mary or Joseph, Judas or John the Baptist, no birth story, teaching or appointment of apostles by Jesus, no mention of holy places or sites of Jesus’ career, not even the hill of Calvary or the empty tomb. This silence is so pervasive and so perplexing that attempted explanations for it have proven inadequate." ~ Earl Doherty, The Jesus Puzzle

First, religion weaves a net of myths to make you believe in the existence of an invisible, magical sky-fairy (god) who can do anything... and who 'loves' you. But... if you do not do EXACTLY what this invisible, magical sky-fairy demands of you, he will subject you to unspeakable torture for ALL OF ETERNITY... but he 'loves' you, even so. However... if you say the magic words... you will be rewarded with 'salvation'. Salvation from WHAT? Well, 'salvation' from the same invisible, magical sky-fairy who 'loves' you... but is going to torture you for all eternity, if you don't do exactly what he says. Except he has never told YOU what he wants... but there are people who SAY that he told THEM what he wants... and they're just relaying the message to you. TRUST THEM... because they have a totally uncorroborated, self-referrential book of fairy tales that claims it is the truth. In other words, the very same people whose livilhood depends upon your belief SAY it is the truth.

Think about this... you have been led to believe that a cosmic Jewish zombie, who is his own father, can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him that you accept him as your master so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced, by a talking snake with legs, to eat from a magical tree... (etc.)... and you think that there is something horribly wrong with people who ARE NOT so gullible and droolingly stupid as to believe such outrageously ridiculous codswallop.

You have been seduced by the ILLUSION of salvation and the DELUSION that one will have eternal life at the side of a vile and evil ('though thankfully imaginary) diety who would set up his own son to be cruelly tortured and suffer a gruesome and agonizing death... in a spectacle of blood sacrifice... to APPEASE HIMSELF. And somewhere along the line, your thinking has become so bizarrely twisted that you have come to regard this as a 'good' thing.

But, hey... what the heck... he 'loves' you. Just keep in mind that it is absolutely ESSENTIAL to the prosperity and financial well-being of your TRUSTED religious sources that you... and ALL believers... be kept in a permanent state of bamboozlement, ignorance and self-delusion.

.

Answer 9

I've read the answers through to the last one stating that you'd have to read the Bible yourself, and agree with many of them. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me." (John 14:6). One person said to repent; another to have faith, another through Jesus. They are all part of the whole. I would just be another in the long line of people telling you "the way". Many people are telling you what they believe, and may not even know what the Bible says, because they are going by what is in their hearts. The Bible says that all SCRIPTURE is God-breathed. If you wanted to find out about somebody who wasn't around any longer, you'd read books by them, and try to find their words. (God is still around but He is a Spirit, so you can't see Him). God tells us how to be saved in the Bible. Luke tells the whole story of Jesus, John is written that you might believe and that, by believing, you might have life. Mark tells the part of Jesus who was a Suffering Servant, Matthew tells of the Jewish Jesus. Together, they give you an idea of who Jesus is, and what He said about Himself. The other New Testament books comment on what Jesus said. Romans was written to people who had never heard about Jesus. Paul explains in the book of Romans how we are all guilty of sin and have no excuse for our sin. We, who agree to that, are told that Jesus paid the penalty for our sin by dying on the cross. Since Jesus did not sin, He did not HAVE to pay the penalty, yet chose to. God could not "keep Him dead" because He was not actually guilty of any crime -- so God raised Him from the dead. Now, if we believe that we are considered to be "in Christ" and He "in us". It's like if you were "in" the YMCA, or some other organization -- you are part of it. In this case, you are part of HIM -- and HE of you. He lives with you and His Holy Spirit lives inside you, fulfilling God's law of love through you -- if you believe, repent (literally turn away from your sin and toward God -- to "repent" is to change directions), and ask forgiveness -- and trust Jesus for life here, life in heaven, and His transforming work. It is a decision YOU must make.

But, try to read the Bible, and you will see whether or not any of us are telling you it's truth. Ask God for guidance and discernment, and He will direct you to all truth.

Answer 10

Many different motives of pride in the heart. Only true humility from repenting pride will allow God to show you the way.

"Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth." Paul's letter to Timothy