' My own faith in God does not depend on the bible, but when someone else's does depend on the bible, who am I to disturb it and why would I want to do them such a cruel disservice?'

Yuyutsu

A Christians faith does not depend on the bible either. Its depends on the One who claims to have inspired the bible. Many who say they believe the bible have done atrocious deeds just like those today who claim not to believe the bible. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is not optional if His words are to be true. To allow someone to believe and more importantly live a lie would be certainly very cruel.

Hmm. Well Yuyutsu. I think we can both rest easier. Thank you for the apology. Though I don't think you could shake my faith very well (that's a good thing), nor my trust in the scriptures, but I appreaciate the respectful approach you've given. Runner seems to have laid out how I feel quite well actually. My faith in the bible stems from my faith in God. Trusting God I now also trust the bible. It would be easier to shake my hopes then to shake my faith in God. Thanks again for the consideration. :)

Dear Runner,

I can see and appreciate your point in the light of Not_Now.Soon's explanations. Hopefully this is what you meant.

Believing a lie and living a lie are two different things.

If in order to live the truth, one needs to believe a lie, then surely you will agree that it would be a small price to pay.

Similar to how we call superficial whims "skin deep", we could classify beliefs to be "brain deep" - just a few millimetres deeper into the skull.

For example, suppose one believes that "tomato" should be pronounced as "tumeyto" and the other believes that it should be pronounced as "tomaator": big deal, it makes neither of them more sinner than the other.

---

Dear Not_Now.Soon,

«It would be easier to shake my hopes then to shake my faith in God»

Thank you, I am relieved to hear this.

(Still, why would I even want to shake your hopes?)

<<(Still, why would I even want to shake your hopes?)>>

Dear Yuyutsu. I don't think you would want to shake my hopes. I said this because it's been my own experience. From life aspects to faith aspects, my hopes have been shaken before, and quite drastically. I hope I'm past those stages of life, but here is my explaination.

If the best you can do or accomplish is almost average level for the magority of people, then you won't survive in a world that always wants the best. You'll be tossed aside eventually from jobs to relationships because of a fault that makes you subpar. For me this was a conclusion I held a few years ago after not being successful in work and not exoecting any better anywhere else. At that same time a relationship I thought would last broke off, and I went into a dark place. Not able to pull myself out of it, I had to add to the conclusion of being a failure in work due to speed always being a must, that my broken spirit would get tiring to others and I would lose friends, be unable to hold a romantic relationship, and even family would get sick of me.

It is not a hard transaction after coming to these conclusions that I could count God as doing the same. My faith in knowing God is there is unshakeable. My faith that He would want me though, or the possibilities of my actions in my depression removing His love; those were worries that plagued me at that time. Those kinds of worries aren't the first I've come across as far as faith goes, but they were the first time I thought to apply them to myself and so strongly.

(Continued)...

In general, there are many different theologies and theories that speak of faith and being true to your faith. Being truely saved, being a true Christian, or actually having the Holy Spirit are a few of the ideas that those theories can build off of. And though I am currently out of that dark depression I held before, and I'm thankful that my conclusions have changes regarding my hopes in the world, I can say that if a person argues well enough, who knows thay might find a way to take my hope even in faith.

This isn't what I expect anyone to actually try, but they are things I've experienced once, so I can't say I won't experience them again.

My current conclusions are different then they were at that time. Today my faith in God is still there and my hopes are in Him. (Instead of the burden that I would fail Him and my hopes tied to my success as a Christian). God sent Jesus because He loved the world, even while it was in sin, not because they earned His love and deserved to be saved and rectified. Jesus called God His Father, and encouraged us who have faith in Jesus and God to be able to call God father as well. Looking at my own dad and knowing he would not want to see me fail, or create conditions to watch me suffer, I have come to the conclusions that God is the same way with more understanding and more love then I get from my very good dad that I was born to. So I should have faith and trust in God as a child has faith and trust in their parents.

from there, my understanding takes a heavy foundation from the bible. God gave it to us, so it's reliable. It's not a lie, a trick, or corrupted through time. It's God's written words for us through the generations. If a person hasn't understood His love of His teachings through their life experience; they can come to grips with those through the scripture.

Dear Not_Now.Soon,

Thank you for sharing.