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Introduction / need help
Dear,
please let me send you warm greetings from Germany!
I came to this forum to seek your advice on a delicate matter. However, first of all, I want to introduce myself: My name is Friedmann K., I am married to my dear wife Miriam, and we have two little children, Michael and Rebekka. I work as a teacher (Religion and German) at a public primary school.
As for my favourite Bible verses, I had a hard time to decide between two passages... so I decided to post both of them:
For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified: but he that judgeth me is the Lord. (1 Cor 4:4)
I consider this to be one of the - if not the - core insight that has to be the prerequisite for not living a life in sin: True Belief does not mean to hold true that which I do not know for sure, it means to hold true that which I know more surely than anything else.
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. (Phil 2:5-8)
This second passage links well to the first: Kenosis, being "empty" to receive the will of the Lord, just as Jesus Christ did, builds the fundament for a truly Christian attitude, an attitude of sacrifice and the constant readiness to bear one's cross.
So much for myself... please feel free to ask me further questions about me. I'll gladly answer them if I can. Now for the sad part of my post, and for the matter in which I seek your advice:
A few years ago, I decided to delve deeper into Bible studies, and to get my PhD in evangelical theology. Three months ago, I concluded my thesis and handed it in... only to get notified that it didn't meet the academic standards due to its insights being not in line with the mainstream teachings of our national church.
Now, you have to know that my thesis is an exegetic work. My driving goal was to prove that the Bible is indeed the Word of God (which most of the mainline churches in my country unfortunately deny) and thus infallible. In order to prove this, I collected every instance of the Old Testament mentioning direct speech in connection to the Lord ("Thus spoke the Lord..." etc.) and pointed out that the whole Bible would be entirely meaningless if one were to rebuke each of those passages.
At least in my humble opinion, this makes it very clear that you either accept that the Bible contains the direct Word of God - because it claims so for itself -, and given that God is infallible, so is the Bible; or you have to refuse not only the Bible's infallability, but the Bible as a whole - because without these claims and the corresponding passages, it is completely empty. However, my professor does not seem to share this opinion (not that he would have made any concrete argument against it), and I see myself unable to convince him.
When I researched on other approaches, I stumbled upon your website. I can relate to your core principles very well, and I take it that you and I hold the same views on many topics. To be perfectly honest, I do not share each and every view of your community (for example, I feel able to teach the Word to my students in German, even though Germany is probably not one of the chosen countries (see WW2 etc.)). Therefore, I hope that you can help me with my current problem, that we can have a good exchange on those topics on which we are in agreement, and fruitful discussions on those that we have different views on.
Best wishes,
Friedmann
please let me send you warm greetings from Germany!
I came to this forum to seek your advice on a delicate matter. However, first of all, I want to introduce myself: My name is Friedmann K., I am married to my dear wife Miriam, and we have two little children, Michael and Rebekka. I work as a teacher (Religion and German) at a public primary school.
As for my favourite Bible verses, I had a hard time to decide between two passages... so I decided to post both of them:
For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified: but he that judgeth me is the Lord. (1 Cor 4:4)
I consider this to be one of the - if not the - core insight that has to be the prerequisite for not living a life in sin: True Belief does not mean to hold true that which I do not know for sure, it means to hold true that which I know more surely than anything else.
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. (Phil 2:5-8)
This second passage links well to the first: Kenosis, being "empty" to receive the will of the Lord, just as Jesus Christ did, builds the fundament for a truly Christian attitude, an attitude of sacrifice and the constant readiness to bear one's cross.
So much for myself... please feel free to ask me further questions about me. I'll gladly answer them if I can. Now for the sad part of my post, and for the matter in which I seek your advice:
A few years ago, I decided to delve deeper into Bible studies, and to get my PhD in evangelical theology. Three months ago, I concluded my thesis and handed it in... only to get notified that it didn't meet the academic standards due to its insights being not in line with the mainstream teachings of our national church.
Now, you have to know that my thesis is an exegetic work. My driving goal was to prove that the Bible is indeed the Word of God (which most of the mainline churches in my country unfortunately deny) and thus infallible. In order to prove this, I collected every instance of the Old Testament mentioning direct speech in connection to the Lord ("Thus spoke the Lord..." etc.) and pointed out that the whole Bible would be entirely meaningless if one were to rebuke each of those passages.
At least in my humble opinion, this makes it very clear that you either accept that the Bible contains the direct Word of God - because it claims so for itself -, and given that God is infallible, so is the Bible; or you have to refuse not only the Bible's infallability, but the Bible as a whole - because without these claims and the corresponding passages, it is completely empty. However, my professor does not seem to share this opinion (not that he would have made any concrete argument against it), and I see myself unable to convince him.
When I researched on other approaches, I stumbled upon your website. I can relate to your core principles very well, and I take it that you and I hold the same views on many topics. To be perfectly honest, I do not share each and every view of your community (for example, I feel able to teach the Word to my students in German, even though Germany is probably not one of the chosen countries (see WW2 etc.)). Therefore, I hope that you can help me with my current problem, that we can have a good exchange on those topics on which we are in agreement, and fruitful discussions on those that we have different views on.
Best wishes,
Friedmann
Sounds unsavory.
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