So you have no basis to believe that Paul was racked by guilt. I guess you take it on faith.

Start a new post on the Guilt of Paul and I will answer it there. On this post lets keep with the same line of argument.

Was the Bible written for the common man or for Scholars?

In fact, actually, given the diverse purposes and literary styles present in the Bible, scholars are very helpful in determining just who each book in the Bible was written for. Luke, for example, was apparently written for a rather well to do Gentile. Perhaps of some importance in the government. Mark, on the other hand, was probably written for Christian converts in Rome. And then there are some rather personal writings, such as Philemon, that Paul probably did not realize would be read by many people at all.

So your silence on the question means that it was written for the common man and therefore my interpretation as a common man or other common men would have been understood by God, therefore we must all be indiviually right to the inclusion that God would not fault us for getting it wrong to the point he would send anyone to hell. After all he wrote it for us not a scholar.

What silence? I explicitly answered your question in the preceding post.

And you have yet to demonstrate that your claim about Paul is supported by common sense.

So now you're saying that there were a few books that were of private matter that we should not be reading as it sounds like an invasion of privacy between God and an individual. Again... for their own individual interpretation. Therefore still agreeing with me that the Bible which should be read by the masses was intended for the masses and not the scholars.

[This message has been edited by critical thinking made ez (edited April 17, 2001).]

No, I am saying that scholarly studies of the Bible can help us understand what its authors intended to write.

So now you are admitting that the writers didn't write what they intended to write but wrote false doctrine instead. It now has to be filtered and patched up by scholars. Why didn't God just get it rigth in the first place?

Maybe your name should be "creative thinking made easy." No, I said that scholars could help us understand the intent of the authors. Considering that they wrote in very different times, cultures, and langauges, scholarly understanding of those times, cultures, and languages are valuable tools in understanding the Bible.

I don't think understanding the facts of the culture, etc... was the toilet indoors or out, makes much difference to 99% of the Doctrine if indeed, it was written to the common man instead of the scholar. God would have also known that would occur and written it appropriately.