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Old 04-20-2004, 12:27 PM   #86 (permalink)
SecretMethod70
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tecoyah, all (worthwhile) religion has some assumptions to make. Religion involves a lot of assumption based on what appears to be likely. As such, in the Christian perspective, it appears to be likely that the Bible is something whose creation was guided by the Holy Spirit in its writers. Now, that doesn't explain HOW one should read the Bible - to what degree of literalism and interpretation - but for a Christian it DOES explain how to view the Bible.

The Bible is not worshipped as a God, but rather, it contains God. Specifically, God's Word. So, yes, it is held with a high degree of reverence. People don't bow down to the Bible though. The Bible is not hung in churches alongside the cross. And the cross is only a symbol even - albeit a powerful one. So, if the cross is merely a symbol of what Christians believe, and it is hung in multiple places is many churches, then it would stand to reason that if the Bible itself were worshipped, it too would be hung at least as much as the cross if it were more than just a symbol of God. Instead, it is simply something that we believe gives insight into Who God is. Now, one could say "well, you don't KNOW that that's God's Word." No, we don't know in the describable sense that one knows 2+2=4, but likewise, we don't KNOW that Einstein's theory of relativity is fact. That's why it's called a theory still and not a law. We still do a ton of work based off of it, because much of what we observe points to this theory being at least mostly true. Likewise, Christians "know" that the Bible is God's Word because much of what we feel and observe points to this being true. The different between Christians simply lies in how we interpret this Word.

Just as an example, I recently learned of something called the Two Books - the outlook that God has revealed himself in two books - nature and the Bible: general revelation and special revelation respectively. With this view, it is impossible for the two to contradict each other, so one must learn to re-evaluate the way in which the Bible is interpreted. Then of course there are those who interpret the Bible in a much more stringent, literal sense. Both, however, recognize the importance of the Bible as at least one of the primary ways in which God is revealed to us. The fact that there is no material proof of this being the case is hardly any reason to not believe what one feels, or else we may as well simply abandon all faith since for all we know Satanism is the correct one. Faith is not based on what one knows in the material sense, but rather in the spiritual sense. And, in that sense, Christians know that the Bible is the Word of God.
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