[quote='FallentoReason' pid='286587' dateline='1337099446']
[quote]Ok, now we're getting places. This actually fits in very well with what my last impressions of Christianity was meant to be like, and that is down to earth with zero supernatural content. [/quote]
The word does not exclude supernatural content either. What it mean is to bring people back to health. The "how" is of little consequence.
[quote]How do you see what Jesus did when he fed the 4000 and/or 5000? [/quote] Just like the bible says it happens.
[quote]Hmm no I think you've gone with the cliche Christian response here. For starters you don't know me,[/quote]Knowing you is irrelevant as I am only speaking to the ideas and concepts you chose to discuss.
[quote] and secondly my view of the Christian world was influenced by friends who consider themselves non-denominational. They just do as the Bible says. So I can safely say my mind wasn't polluted with far out ideas of what the Bible meant. [/quote]Popular Christianity is just as "polluted" as the atheist version of it. Anything outside of the scope of you Asking, Seeking and Knocking for knowledge of Christ on your own is what I have highlighted here.
[quote]The second part of your paragraph, well, I honestly never know what that means anymore. Do I shut my eyes real tight and whisper 'god is real, god is real, god is real'? [/quote]No, you approach God with all of the intellectual abilities God has seen fit to equip you with. Like with any thing new, educate yourself and define what it is, or Who God is. Read the bible with the sole purpose of identifying God. Note all of the different ways He interacts with people, the reason for it/ the purpose, the end result. Note any offers or promises, pay close attentions to the terms and conditions.
For instance Salvation and forgiveness of sin does not begin and end with John 3:16. There is a very big condition that forgiveness of your sins hinge on. Can you tell me what that is? Hint; it has nothing to do with baptism.
[quote]I don't mean this in a mocking way, but I don't actually know what a 'god encounter' would/should feel like. My 'encounters' were purely intellectual where it was just me reflecting on some Bible.[/quote]It starts there, "If you are faithful with what you have been given, you will be given more. If you are not, what you have will be taken from you and given to someone else." Read your bible. learn to identify God how He acts, when He moves and the reasons for it. Then you can see things happen in your own life. Don't rely on feelings or what pop christianity tells you a God experience is. God is very real and not subject to our hokey interpertations of Him. He has laid out a very specific path with very specific promises to the one who follows that path. If you follow that path He will keep his Word.
[quote]Ok, agreed that we don't have the capacity to get the full picture. I don't agree with the notion that he takes care of the Bible, because we know what bits have been added on. Oddly enough, this is your first tangible point about God and to me it seems like no divine being made sure it stayed intact. This again is the two parallel worlds where something Biblical is said but in reality I observe something very different. [/quote]Do you know of the dead sea scrolls? Do you know why they are important? Do you know when they were written in relation to when they were found? Do you know what they contain?
God has preserved His word, and made some changes to our understanding of it, but overwhelmingly confirmed what we have in our bibles..
[quote]Mark 16 originally ends with an empty tomb, no Jesus and a young man asserting that Jesus has resurrected. The juicy witness accounts are what got added on. [/quote]No. The oldest text we have ends at Mark 16:8 We don't know if the rest was added on or if the oldest text we have is simply incomplete.
[quote]No resurrected Jesus, no Christian God.[/quote]
Then thankfully it is not the only text we have concerning Christ.
