ohmi

Perhaps you would like to cite one example of "ambiguity" and perhaps I can show you how scripture resolves it by itself [by your own reading of it, not mine]
I do not 'wish' the bible to be anything, simply observe that it does explain its meaning if one pursues one's problems with understanding it .

Also, since God will establish the truth in all minds eventually [Joel 2:28. John 16:13] , then divided religion will be exposed for the false private interpretations it necessarily must be [else it would not be divided] ...

Clearly the truth of the holy spirit [one truth of God] is lacking from religion of sinners, since they are divided and not saints [whereas all followers of Jesus become saints before death by his own promise and statements] ... clearly God has another use for the vast churches full of sinners from that of the saints, and Jesus describes that use ...

So that the diverse re-renderings of scripture by interests vested in power over the people are fully accounted for in the scripture, but never spoken of in sinner-churches... one can understand this perhaps , but it resolves your point nonetheless .

elevator

There are plenty of threads out there that list (and argue) such ambiguities. A simple search will yield hundreds of hits of various attempts (with varying success) to analyze and justify biblical ambiguities and contradictions. In fact this very website lists quite a selection of articles devoted to the subject, here are two examples:
http://www.infidels.org/library/mode...adictions.html
http://www.infidels.org/library/mode...istencies.html

All your statements about the validity of the bible also assumes that Christianity is the right religion and that the bible is divinely inspired. Again; I find no reason to assume the validity of the bible as opposed to other ancient literature that put claims to divine authorship. In fact I find no reason to imagine the existence of the supernatural at all. The fact that the bible not only contradicts itself, but are in direct opposition in regards to its claims to truth with other religions, is a fair indication that the bible is just a "book" not the infallible word of a Christian God.

And even if you were able to explain away all those contradictions, ambiguities and inconsistencies within the biblical text, you would still have to provide empirical evidence that would identify the bible as divinely inspired, and reject the same claim to truth from all other ancient religious literature.

elevator

Seeing that the Bible is one of the most read and analyzed pieces of literature in all of humankind, I would be convinced that if you could present your "perfect" view of the biblical text, i.e. an understanding of the bible that whisks away all ambiguities and presents a coherent, understandable piece of divine wisdom, you would present within Christianity a unifying spirit unprecedented in human history. Imagine a Christianity where all Christian believers agree upon a perfect interpretation of the biblical text. This is, of course, nothing but wishful thinking precisely because there is no such thing as a unified or perfect understanding of the bible (or any other piece of religious literature for that matter). It will always be a matter of personal interpretation and personal faith.

ohmi

Well, you are entitled to your interpretation without having read and understood the scripture, but the scripture states [Rev 13:7- ] that the world will come to a [wrong] unified compromise on agreeing on scriptural interpretation under the antichrist, so we shall see soon enough.

Until then if you judge scripture by what others say about it ,then likely you will continue as you are.

Since the scripture says itself that it is not of any private interpretation, there is clearly no basis whatever for saying it is of personal interpretation ... as for personal faith, faith in what ? But it matters not what one has faith in for now if the scripture is true, even the House of Israel whom alone Jesus and his disciples were sent to reach in this age are mostly idol-worshipers :-

Matthew 15:24 But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

Deuteronomy 28:64 And the LORD shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone.

The thing is that in scripture God does not give understanding of His truth to all people now, only later , so what point deciding beforehand?

ohmi

The bible itself prophesies that that is not is what is gonna happen, so there would be no point in even attempting such a task . The 'empirical' evidence is provided by God in far more dramatic manner than any of us could manage in due course of events as laid out in His long-ignored plan in scripture ...

That will be enough to convince countless many ofr all nations when the time comes... so we shall all see

As to the special nature of scripture, those who begin to understand it know what awesome literature it is, far beyond the skills of any human playwright. And it is the only 'sacred text' which demolishes the creeds and sects of those who say they believe in it , unique then , and certainly the most comprehensive such text...

Joan of Bark

Actually, I prefer Dante.

Face it, ohmi, an omnipotent, omniscient God would surely have enough sense not to pass on his 'perfect' word through the highly ambiguous medium of language. He would have known since day one that humans cannot interpret everything voiced or written in the same way, resulting in countless arguments and tussles -- sometimes ending in violence -- over which interpretation is correct.

A God with any foresight would give us all the information we need by imprinting it directly into our brains upon conception, thereby saving a helluva lot of time, trouble and trees.

elevator

Isn't it amazing how you can, without knowing anything about me, presume that I have neither read nor understood the bible, and that I get all my misinformation about scriptural truth from figures of (false?) authority?

Of course it is a matter of personal interpretation; do you not see the incredible diversity of faith among Christians? If the bible was consistent, coherent and non-ambigious you would not see this level of diversity of faith. And faith is personal too; that's why you see some devout Christians able to consolidate their faith with evolution, acceptance of gays and lesbians, women calls to priesthood etc. You may preach of "sinner-Christians" and threaten "we shall see soon enough" as much as you want, but the bible is neither exclusive in its wisdom nor in its morality, and certainly neither coherent nor consistent in its claims to truth. There is nothing, except personal faith, to separate the bible as any more special (or true) than any other ancient religious literature such as the Quran or the Vedas.

But you do, of course, have the perfect interpretation of the bible, but unfortunately, we all have to just "wait and see" to what extent you are correct... how convenient.

elevator

Does this mean that you:
1. go back on your assertion that the bible is understandable if you read the whole thing correctly, or
2. The vast majority of people can't understand the bible now, but some chosen ones, including yourself, are able to understand God's truth?

Please elaborate.

ohmi

Each to their own then?

Language as often used is ambiguous, but the scripture extensively and repeatedly qualifies its meaning in different modes of expression ... that is what makes it both unambiguous in meaning and unique amongst literature.

Yeah well the scripture is all about resolving the fact that whoever wins a fight is not necessarily the one who is right ... and that by being master over death, God will have the last word once all the 'hot air' of mankind finally grinds to a halt [in the final trial, the so-called 'lake' of 'fire']

Interestingly we do know good from evil instinctively, but we mostly ignore our consciences, so it all-too-easily becomes habitual to do wrong... we even have institutions that habitually wrong whole other nations for empty short-term motives of the few we allow to blindly lead us into the ditch too... :devil1:

ohmi

No, the truth of timeless God is simply not expressable by means of our time-dependabnt evolved language

1 Corinthians 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

I ain't chosen [not to my knowledge anyway , the chosen are given all truth John 16:13] , i simply read the scripture and found that it does indeed interpret itself if one persists in seeking its explanation of what it means... but understanding what it says one immediately notices why religion is divided [and thus of course wrong, since God does not have more than one truth]