You read a verse.
You find out later that it doesn't mean what it looked like it meant.
How can you believe your first impressions of any verse?
How Do You Know?
Re: How Do You Know?
I do not think that you can necessarily trust your first impressions about many verses. In many cases, statements are clear and unambiguous, but there are subtleties in many statements which will become clearer upon long reflection, repeated readings, and study. Fortunately, our salvation—and even God's pleasure with us—do not depend upon the correct understanding of any such ambiguous passages. We are told very plainly to put our confidence in God, to follow Christ, to pursue humility toward God, and justice, mercy and faithfulness in all our dealings with others.
The deeper things may never be fully grasped, or may not be well-understood until we have spent even years of meditation on what God has said. There are many verses that are mysterious to me, and which I earnestly hope to someday better understand, but they are not the essential things. If we are already living in the light of the plain things, the obscure things will become illuminated in God's timing. We ought to be always meditating on scripture, though. God promises more knowledge tothose who value and make good use of what they already have.
The deeper things may never be fully grasped, or may not be well-understood until we have spent even years of meditation on what God has said. There are many verses that are mysterious to me, and which I earnestly hope to someday better understand, but they are not the essential things. If we are already living in the light of the plain things, the obscure things will become illuminated in God's timing. We ought to be always meditating on scripture, though. God promises more knowledge tothose who value and make good use of what they already have.
Re: How Do You Know?
Your recommendations are well noted. We must deepen our study as we move along towards the end. We have to keep listening...
It can get tricky, as believers differ on what is *clear*. Certainly the Calvinist and Arminians both seem to claim clarity for example....
I guess you just do the honest best you can?
It can get tricky, as believers differ on what is *clear*. Certainly the Calvinist and Arminians both seem to claim clarity for example....
I guess you just do the honest best you can?
Re: How Do You Know?
But Calvinism and Arminianism are not in the category I regard as "essential things." You can be a good Christian while holding either view, or neither.
Re: How Do You Know?
Of course, that would not be a belief shared by the more conservative Calvinists that I have seen. You are simply stating your belief which they cannot adhere to. There are other examples as to what constitutes the "essential" being a matter that believers differ on, such as certain views of what faith is, sola scriptura, the list goes on.....steve wrote:But Calvinism and Arminianism are not in the category I regard as "essential things." You can be a good Christian while holding either view, or neither.
I think that I would say that a policy of "innocent until proven guilty" is suitable in regards to our beliefs. For how do you know that your beliefs as to what is essential will not change? It does no good to simply posit what that sphere includes.
One belief that one cannot be agnostic about is whether God loves you, for in order to recieve the Truth from God that He loves you, you must believe that He cares about you so as to answer the question!