[Rev. Jim Osborne]

Re: A message.

The bible is a bunch of stories that we reflect upon and find our own truth. Our own way. Our own dharma.

So you freely admit to picking and choosing what you believe in. At least you're honest about that. But, the Bible warns you from trying to read your own "truths" from its pages.

2nd Peter 1:20 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.

Jesus in John 10 14I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—
15just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep.
16I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.

Now that's a bible verse I can believe in! Jesus is telling us that there are many paths to salvation. We each have to find our own way in our own time. God loves us all.

I like how you listen to the bolded part and completely ignore the sentence after it: They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.

Jesus is saying He will bring non-believers into His fold. They will become believers and then be Saved. He does not say there are many paths. Why does He say one flock and one shepherd? Why does He mention that they will listen to His voice (and not others, like Buddha?) If there were "many paths" like you claim, He would've said "many flocks and many shepherds".

This is a perfect example of why people should not pick and choose from the Bible.

[ManyPaths]

Re: A message.

So you freely admit to picking and choosing what you believe in. At least you're honest about that. But, the Bible warns you from trying to read your own "truths" from its pages.

2nd Peter 1:20 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.

I like how you listen to the bolded part and completely ignore the sentence after it: They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.

Jesus is saying He will bring non-believers into His fold. They will become believers and then be Saved. He does not say there are many paths. Why does He say one flock and one shepherd? Why does He mention that they will listen to His voice (and not others, like Buddha?) If there were "many paths" like you claim, He would've said "many flocks and many shepherds".

This is a perfect example of why people should not pick and choose from the Bible.

That's one of the verses I don't believe in. I only believe in the parts that teach us about truth, and love, and beauty, and compassion. For example,

12My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

That is just so deep and spiritual, unlike all the parts of the bible that the real god is not responsible for. I could meditate on that verse for hours.

And as for how you interpret the verse I posted earlier, well, whatever. We all have to discover our own path, our own truth. You have yours and I have mine. But it's all good becasue we'll all eventually be together in heaven, reunited with God/Allah/Brama. But we have to find our own way to heaven/pradise/nirvana. To quote Alan Watts:

"Irrevocable commitment to any religion is not only intellectual suicide; it is positive unfaith because it closes the mind to any new vision of the world. Faith is, above all, open-ness - an act of trust in the unknown."

Once when a Jehovah's Witness tried to tell me that if there was a God of Love, he would certainly provide mankind with a reliable and infallible textbook for guidance and conduct, I replied that no considerate God would destroy the human mind by making it so rigid and unadaptable as to depend on one book for all the answers. That was like, so deep, and I totally surprised myself! LOL!

Again, to quote Alan Watts:
"Just as money is not real, consumable wealth, books are not life. To idolize scriptures is like eating paper currency."

[Brother Snapper Grogan]

Re: A message.

That's one of the verses I don't believe in.

I don't "believe in" the law of gravity, but I still don't fall off the planet.

I don't "believe in" germs, but I still get sick if I eat a moldy kangaroo.

You might not "believe in" some of the Bible, but you'll still burn in the aeternal fires.

[Jo Freddie]

Re: A message.

I don't "believe in" the law of gravity, but I still don't fall off the planet.

I don't "believe in" germs, but I still get sick if I eat a moldy kangaroo.

You might not "believe in" some of the Bible, but you'll still burn in the aeternal fires.

The One True Lord teaches us to examine what is writ and pick out what we believe, now I would expect most would pick out the examples (well not so sure about the gravity thing but I have covered that before) you give as things to believe and ManyPaths is correct to reject those things that do not feel right.
Qwertyuiopasd’s Letter to the Evangelists.

2:4 As the Flying Spaghetti Monster said through the Buddha, “Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.”

[Pastor Isaac Peters]

Re: A message.

That's one of the verses I don't believe in. I only believe in the parts that teach us about truth, and love, and beauty, and compassion.

Every verse, being true, teaches us about the truth. Every verse teaches us about God's love and compassion for His elect, which is beautiful.