Just my two cents...

[Varmit]

Didn't he have things to say about love and compassion? Those sound like really good things. I can get on board with that. Some of you are so intent on trying to change people's hearts that you've completely ignored your own. Your hearts are as hard as Pharaohs. I want no part of your version of Christianity.

If you were to see a child doing something dangerous would you just watch them do it or stop them before they hurt or killed themselves?  How can a person claim they have love and compassion for others, yet standby and do nothing when they see others doing harmful things?  If a person you loved was addicted to drugs would you not try and turn them from that addiction?  Of course you would.  Why? Because you DO love them, if not then it wouldn't matter to you what they did.

You throw the Bible at people as if the Bible were God. I think we need to be careful not to confuse the two. The Bible points to God but is not God. I think someone can have a relationship with the Divine without the Bible.

Impossible.  How can you have a relationship with your Father if you never heard what He said?  How can you live how He wants you to if you don't know the rules? 

[Patriot]

Isn't that just telling us to think for ourselves and not just go along with what others think?

'Thinking for ourselves' is sometimes the problem, not the solution.  When one thinks for themselves, it is easy to be deceived into wrong thinking.  Just ask Adam or Eve!  The basis of our thinking and contemplation is critical.  When our thinking is based on and conformed to the Word of God, the protections of truth are involved.  Absent serious study of His Word, it's unlikely that our thinking will be so conformed!  If one's basis for truth is God's Word, we can move from 'thinking' about right and wrong to 'knowing' right and wrong.

Rom 12:2     And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what [is] that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

Rom 8:7     Because the carnal mind [is] enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

Phl 2:5     Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

1Pe 4:1     Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin;

[srkruzich]

Yes, sometimes believers 'overstate their case' to be sure.  Yet I can't help but see some of the same invective in your post that you accuse others of using.

As for your take on the Bible (read: Word of God), I'll submit the following for your consideration:

Jhn 1:1     In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

There is a problem there Patriot. Your using john 1:1 as proof (or i take it as you are doing so), that the bible is God.  It is not God.  It is the word of God.   But John 1:1 is not talking about the word of God, it is talking about Christ. Now Christ is the Word in that his existance is that which Gods word prophacied and brought to be.   The Word, or Logos, is the devine plan, aka Jesus Christ and his coming to us to die for our sins.

Now rhēma  is the greek word for the phrase the word of God, which is the bible.  It means what God has said. 

now i don't agree that the Bible is God, I do believe its his inerrant word.  But the Word IS God and the Word is living. 

[Roma Jean Turner]

And on and on it goes.  I appreciate the verse:  "Be still and know that I am God."

[Patriot]

There is a problem there Patriot. Your using john 1:1 as proof (or i take it as you are doing so), that the bible is God.  It is not God.  It is the word of God.   But John 1:1 is not talking about the word of God, it is talking about Christ. Now Christ is the Word in that his existance is that which Gods word prophacied and brought to be.   The Word, or Logos, is the devine plan, aka Jesus Christ and his coming to us to die for our sins.

Now rhēma  is the greek word for the phrase the word of God, which is the bible.  It means what God has said. 

now i don't agree that the Bible is God, I do believe its his inerrant word.  But the Word IS God and the Word is living. 

Your points are correct.  I was not saying that the Bible is God, but rather is of God and therefore not to be rejected/minimized as a source of correction and training.  Sorry for the misunderstanding.  The point is that the living Word is expressed to us through that very inerrant word in the Bible.  Scripture, and the doctrines contained therein, being the expressions of God's will and the foremost conduit through which we are to learn, live, know God and train/correct when error is seen.  Let me try another scripture that better expresses my thought:

2Ti 3:16  All scripture [is] given by inspiration of God, and [is] profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
2Ti 3:17  That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

[Varmit]

Roma, you're right...and it will go on forever as it should.  If Christians had continued to stand then this country wouldn't have the problems it does today.  Christians catch alot of grief from folks that accuse them of "throwing around the Bible", but I've found that quite a few times even the non-believers will start to use scriptures to back up their claims in a "oh yeah, well what about this..." sort of way.  And maybe, just maybe some of those lost will finally read enough of the Word that they begin to dig deeper and deeper, until finally one day they see the Light.

"So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."  Romans 10:17

[Patriot]

Roma, you're right...and it will go on forever as it should.  

Amen.  If we don't probe and discuss, how will learn to discern?

[Catwoman]

And yet once again...This should be on the Religion board...Not the Political board.

[srkruzich]

And yet once again...This should be on the Religion board...Not the Political board.

And why does it matter to you?

[Wilma]

One thing comes to my mind about reading the Bible.  Reading the Bible, no matter how many times does not make one a Christian.  It helps, if one wants to become a Christian, but if one is reading merely to substantiate their point in an argument?  Christianity has to be in the heart.  It has to be a way of living.  Now I am being judgmental.  Please continue being a Christian in your own manner as I will continue in mine.

Have a good day in God.  Which, incidentally is the meaning of good day or good morning or may be just good which is God.