bible question 4?

Question

why do christians seem to pick and choose about which parts of the bible should be followed?? surely its gotta be all or nothing?? i mean i know a christian who doesn't even know the ten commandments lol. like burning gay people most christians would say they didnt believe in. and stories like adam and eve or whatever are just symbolic. how very conveniant!

Answer 1

i very much agree with u, yesterday a asked a string of questuions to contradict the christian faith. they believe jesus died for all our sins, they take from the bible wat suits them at the time, and if they decide t go against wat god has said, they say jesus changed that command. christians surely cant believe in the 10 commandments, as jesus changed a few, resting on the sabbath, worshipping other gods, now many christians have been married many times, hav children by many differen t dads, hav sex out of wedlock. but say they are christians, this goes against everything god ever commanded, most christians will eat pork even though god states it is unclean.

Answer 2

No, it isn't all or nothing. If, for example, a few Yahoo Answer posts are found to be in error you would not then assume all of Yahoo Answers is just total crap. This assertion entered the Western discussion of the Bible only a few hundred years ago along with Enlightenment and scientific method (a.k.a. modernism).

Rather, we have to discern meaning from the Bible because 1. the Bible is infallible but not error-free (which means something altogether different) and 2. the Bible contains different genres of books that must be read differently.

Deuteronomy and Proverbs explicitly say that God rewards the righteous and punishes the wicked in this life while Ecclesiastes and Job explicitly say this is not true. You cannot hold both of those claims equally. The primary question is how do we decide which one most closely matches reality?

St. Augustine, in the 400s AD set forward the test: God is Love. Anything that suggests otherwise is factually inaccurate but is in the Bible for a reason and should read metaphorically, in search of a deeper meaning. And John Wesley suggested any good reading of the Bible should include reason, tradition, and experience.

If these ideas haven't stood the test of time I just can't see how.

Answer 3

Its like any book, certain parts are more significant than others. (Apart from perhaps a telephone directory)

E.g. Harry Potter, there are certain parts of the book which are hugely significant, whilst others aren't very important at all. You wouldn't sit there and say, well, either you accept every word as important as the next, its all or nothing!

People read and interpret the book. If someone asked you 'what is Harry Potter' all about, you wouldn't read them the whole thing. You would sum up and pick out the improtant bits which you like the most, or help sum up the overarching themes best.

Answer 4

Yes, it is a very sad truth that many choose to believe only portions of the Scriptures that fit with their own ideals. Many compromise the clear intent of the Scriptures because they find them to be socially unacceptable, hard to understand, or just simply difficult to believe.

The truth is that the Scriptures can be trusted from the beginning and in the entirety of God's Word.

Hope that helps.

Answer 5

You have to choose, otherwise you'd be stoning people for converting to another religion, burning witches, and keeping slaves.

The question is: how do you choose? The choice must be made on extra-religious grounds. In fact, I would argue that all ethics come from an essentially philosophical origin---one's values. You don't need religion to tell you what is ethical. You already know what is ethical, and you interperet the Bible accordingly.

Answer 6

I understand your problem with people. No person is perfect, not one of us Christians, not one atheist, not one person anywhere. All are hypocrites in some way. Some Christians do a lot of picking and choosing of their Bible, some do not. Are either right? Only God is right. Only God is good. The best we can be in this life is forgiven.

Answer 7

You might say that, but it is awfully difficult to remember 1600 pages of anything. Though the Bible offers great inspiration and pertinant guidelines for respectable living, it is much too hard to learn every single item of scripture and then "perfect" it into our lives.

Please understand that people are generally good. Most people are conscious of their behabior, but are still sinners. We are all sinners, yes, even you. We are just "softer" on ourselves than others who look on and are victimized.

The best that we can hope for, is for others to be understanding and forgiving of our shortcomings and sins. In return, we must forgive others and learn to live with their sins, as they are sinners, too. So, we are all the same!

No one person is above another when it comes to sinning. We will all sin, because we are human. Don't hate me for that, I am trying my best. In return, I won't hate you either.

Fair enough?

Answer 8

I follow the Bible wholeheartedly. You need to read it in context to understand what God is saying. Some of the Bible is literal, some is pictorial, some is poetic, some is prophetic. Unless you study it consistently and in context you can make it say anything you want.

Answer 9

Agreed. If you don't believe it all, then you are setting yourself up as God. In essence, you are deciding what is true and what isn't. By doing so, you are dismissing the Bible as truth, and replacing your own opinion as truth.
I should point out, that it's important to understand the context of what you read in the Bible before going off and burning gays (to use your example).

Answer 10

The warning in the last paragraph of Revelation addresses this issue. (pick & choose)

Homosexuality makes God puke. Read Romans 1:18-31