Why was the Bible......

I agree. If we are to be conformed to the image of Christ it is we who need to change, not Him.

I believe that the light with which the Spirit illuminates scripture with is the light of the cross. That His primary influence is to cause us to see scripture in light of the cross, and all that Jesus accomplished through it. If we go into scripture with any other premise I believe we have gone off on our own...with all of our pre-conceived notions and prejudices brought into it.

Our understanding of the Word can certainly change over time, become more complete, and even change direction if we learn additional things.

Case in point: a new believer might read the OT Law and think herself bound to keep them. Then she reads Galatians and finds that such is not the case. Or a single person reads Ephesians 5 and gets something different out of it than a married person does, because the implications are more personal to the married person.

While our earlier understanding may in fact be "wrong", that is not always the case. I also think that asking the Holy Spirit to enlighten our understanding will help to diminish the amount of wrong understanding (as opposed to incomplete understanding) which a person adopts.

I think that if we have error about the bible in our mind as truth we are not listening to the Holy Spirit but to doctrines made by men. Listening prayer always leads to our actions.

The action I was led to was study. I searched for where the ideas came from that disagreed with scripture. When did someone make the doctrine that our guide was not how the Lord told us to live but our guide was to to listen only to that works do not save us. They could not accept that scripture tells us to listen to both. Or the doctrine of following Jesus, not God, disregarding that Jesus said He and God had the same policies. For example. I knew God was truth, men weren't. So I felt I had to find out when and how it was that men made their interpretations into doctrines.

By digging into the most reliable history I could find I found that in 132 the Romans almost wiped out the Jewish race they killed so many. Before that the church was headed by men who knew scripture, then the gentiles took over. They were all men who lived and thought in a world without God, ones who now knew Christ but not scripture. They mixed in ideas from their heathen world with the word of God. Constantine made it law. Religion and government was still united. The church called "The Way" was wiped out, it disappeared by 500. It was the church established by the men who personally knew Christ, established by the ways of scripture.

There is only one truth and that truth is in scripture. The Pharisees did as we are today--they interpreted scripture and said their doctrines were the truth. Their doctrines made much of one truth and ignored the truths given that opposed their interpretations. They followed rabbis that were not created by God instead of the high priest.

Jesus is the fulfillment of the high priest, to follow Him is the same as following the Father. No scripture disagrees with ANY other scripture. The Lord did not divide His word, dividing it into old and new. Again, it was men who did that.

That depends entirely on your definition of "hill."

There are many "hills of doctrine" in the bible.
1. Some are clearer than others.
2. Some are more foundational than others.
3. Some are more necessary to daily life than others

Even if we agree "it is wise to choose which hills we die on,"
our agreement to the premise DOES NOT ALSO MEAN:
1. We agree on how we value each hill.
2. We agree on how we asses each hill.
3. Controversial or mysterious hills don't really exist.
4. Controversial or mysterious hills should be ignored.
5. Mysterious or confusing hills cannot be understood with more study.
6. Controversies have no actual, definitive answer... somewhere.
7. Confusing things, by virtue that we can't understand them, must necessarily be allegory.

Many Christians believe in this premise that we should "be wise about which hills we die on"...
but this premise has no necessary power to end doctrinal controversies.

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Willie,

it sounds like you are asking Jesus 'why' He gave you, 'your own-beautiful-suit-case'!?!?

does He answer to anyone???!!! Never!, but He does share a lot of 'tells'...

The bible speaks of the simplicity that is found in Christ....it takes the following

a. Spiritual birth<--except a man be born again he cannot see, understand or perceive the kingdom of God (and his word)
b. Spiritual growth<--Meat belongs to them who are of full age...spiritual babes cannot grasp a spiritual T-bone much less eat it
c. Spiritual honesty with what is written
d. Being willing to accept the simplest answer to be found

Humanity on a whole lacks common sense and the ability to reason biblically...GOD made is so simple that a child can understand it better than an adult that has been "tainted and blinded" by the world and the worlds way.....(SOMETIMES)

hay,

insults just always seem to go with the 'territory'...love you both!!!

People read into the Bible what they want it to mean. They aren't being scholarly, they are too lazy for that.

The unbeliever is of course frightened by the Bible and likes to deny or twist everything to make themselves more comfortable with it and explain away the troubling bits.

But different believers are are at different stages of growth in their spiritual life. The young believer picks up one meaning, the older believer another. As you grow, every time you study an old familiar passage you see something new and beneficial from your current spiritual perspective. This goes on for the rest of your life, and you never come to the end of it. In eternity I suspect every cob web will be swept away and everything will get clearer and clearer, deeper and deeper.

So what's the "usual forum fate"?

People showing up with a different view?

(my serious response, which I agree is also ambiguous)

ECCLESIASTES 3:11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that

he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.

God knows... In the end thats what counts... And God causes those who shall be saved to know His voice when they hear it..

I think we should be dogmatic and inflexible on the truth.

Truth is absolute, not relative.