From: Gary Collins (gwcollins@algol.co.uk)
Date: Tue Jun 17 2003 - 11:33:28 EDT
On Tue, 17 Jun 2003 13:31:18 +0100, Michael Roberts wrote:
>
> >
>> Your'r right, Jesus is the centre of our faith. Yet in a sense, belief in
>> the trustworthiness etc of the Scriptures must precede this, since it
>> is through them, primarily, that Jesus is revealed. Without the foundation
>> of the trustworthiness of the Scripture, what could we say about Christ?
>>
>> /Gary
>
>Surely not, most stumble towards Jesus in a haphazard way (unless they have
>been to some ultra place where they will go trough a fore -ordained
>process!!!!) and when they come to faith will have a partial and confused
>knowledge of Jesus and muddle over the bible. It is not
>necessary that all grasp the Incarnation atonement and resurrection before
>becoming a Christian.
>
>That sums me up. I am not sure when I recognised the authority of the Bible,
>at first I hadn't a clue, then accepted it as I was told I ought and then
>later made it my own belief of conviction.
>
>Am I a heretic?
>
>Michael
Heretic? Oh, no, I dont think so :-)
But most people surely come to Jesus through the Bible (this may be indirectly,
i.e. it may be a trust of other people who talk to them about the Bible, and who
likely will tell them that the Bible is reliable) - even though their
understanding will be very incomplete. I have heard that there are exceptions,
particularly in the Muslim world, where some are reported to have come to
Christ as a result of direct revelation, in a dream or a vision or whatever.
But as a generality I think my statement would hold. After all,
Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God, says Paul in Romans.
And it is the Spirit of God who brings the conviction of the truth. And having come
to Christ, where will they will turn to learn more of him? Will they not turn again to
the Bible? What will they learn of Christ from other sources?
What I was saying is that they surely must trust the bible as a reliable source
of information - otherwise, why would they turn to it?
I guess that this trust develops as God proves himself to us.
/Gary
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