Reply #140: couple of points to ponder

[CreekDog]

Few points to say to your last message:

1) Falwell et al are not hewing most closely to biblical doctrine and differ with the historic church on salvation, communion, baptism and the manner of conversion. Many of their teachings are just a century old.

2) Some people just use the same verses, but the lectionary exposes parishoners to huge amounts of the bible over a 1 year or 3 year period (OT, Epistles and Gospels). The church calendar also provides a framework where people can understand the life and events of Jesus just as now we learn about the Passion just before Easter. This is not simply a few select verses.

3) Reliability: I don't think the reliability of the bible is determined by the human authors but instead by that God who says we may trust it. Scripture is written by men inspired by God --the second part, not the first is where it gets its validity.

But the point of the bible is that we have a God who is perfect and demands perfection from us, however in Christ we are perfect by proxy for he takes our place. And when we pray, ask for forgiveness and so forth, God hears us and grants many things to us on behalf of Christ.

So nobody can say they are better than another. This is a biblical teaching.

I haven't seen a human teaching has persistently stated how equally bad people are before God and that they should be grateful that it need not be held against them because none of us could stand that.

Does Paine really undermine this? Or is it simply that the books attributed to Moses were actually written by others?

Anyway, food for thought. But like I said, I'm willing to check Paine out.