The B-I-B-L-E
How is it possible that someone can use the Bible to justify slavery - or lynchings... or hate? Or worse, how is it that someone can read the Bible and be completely unmoved by it, thinking of it as a work of fiction or mass brainwashing?
Simple... it's just a book...
And like any other book, it can be read by a multitude of people to evoke as many different responses. Some can read selectively chosen passages that match their thinking. Some can read and fuel the rage they feel for other people-groups. Some can read and find a whimsical story that doesn't much mirror reality. Some can read it and find salvation - that's happened to a lot of people, actually.
So what makes those people different? How do they base their entire belief system on a single book?
Well, they don't... at least not exclusively.
They also have the Holy Spirit.
"And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever - the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you." - John 14:16-17
The Bible itself isn't the key and anyone who tries to base their entire relationship with God on it is missing the point. So are those who try to argue the Bible, because the words that it contains don't make sense on their own. The Bible isn't the Word of God - it's a bookabout the Word of God.
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning." - John 1:1-2
The Word of God is Jesus, and the greatest purpose of the Bible is to help the reader to better understand what it means to be in relationship with Him. If that's not what you're looking for, you probably won't find it.
If it is what you're looking for, you're gonna need the Holy Spirit.
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