Brian Oakley wrote:


"Honus" wrote in message
news:H4TSd.54284$uc.1254@trnddc04...

"Al Patrick" wrote in message
...
Copied from page 241 of the New Testament of a 1963 edition of Dake's
Annotated Reference Bible. As far as I know ALL his Bible's are King
James Only.

[ALL TYPOS ARE MINE ALONE! I think I'll copyright them!] :-) [Where
he underlined for emphasis I'll use upper case.]

===========

A Tribute to the Bible

The Bible is not an amulet, a charm, a fetish, or a book that will work
wonders by its very presence.

IT IS a book that will work wonders in every life, here and hereafter,
if acted upon and obeyed in faith and sincerity. IT IS God's inspired
revelation of the origin and destiny of all things, written in the most
simple human language possible so that the most unlearned can
understand
and obey its teachings. IT IS self-interpreting and covers every
subject of human knowledge and need now and forever.

That means absolutely nothing, and the same claims could be made by any
other holy book. And written in the most simple human language possible?
What hyperbole! It was written in an inferior language, plain and simple.
Having a word for "sphere" or "globe", etc. for example would have made
the
whole is the Earth round or flat debate moot. I won't even go near the
"almah" means young lady vs. virgin debate. And as for understanding and
obeying its teachings, yeah...right. that's why they're more subsets of
Christianity than you can name.

I have to disagree. The Koran cant work wonders as it teaches its
followers to kill all infidels. As for language, simple means simple,
doesn't mean it translates exactly the way you want it to in whatever
language you choose. As for the "almah" "debate", the writers of the
Septuagint clearly understood the meaning of the Hebrew and translated it
with the Greek word for "virgin". That argument is pretty much closed. As
for "subsets" of Christianity, more properly called denominations, that
has nothing to do with disobeying the Bible at all. It has to do with
interpretation. Different verses can be understood in different ways.
Sometimes our lack of ability to clearly translate an ancient language
into our own lends itself
to such differences of interpretation. The prayer of Jabez comes to mind.
For you to dismiss the Bible as a mere book just indicates that you don't
realize how it has changed peoples lives. If everyone lived by the
teachings of Jesus, there would be no hate, no selfishness, no lust, no
murder, no theft. You cant say that about any other "holy" book.
B

The bible similarly can be interpreted to sanction genocide. That is it
preferable to let people rape your daughters than bugger strangers. That
women should not be in positions of leadership. The Koran (have you read
it?) teaches that people "of the book", which includes Christians and Jews
should be respected and allowed to kill. There are contradictory messages
within any book of religious or holy text. Whenever religion becomes allied
with power, look out. c.f., "axis of evil", "evil empire" and "great
satan" type comments from persons in leadership positions.