Nathan_Jr

Hot and steamy.

I'll go with theopneustos = divine inspiration, divinely inspired. A human's work that is thospneustos will reflect the qualities of God, which, I suppose does mean perfect: perfectly accurate, perfectly beautiful, etc. (This leads to my earlier question: What is God?) I've witnessed athletic feats that I could only describe as divinely-inspired. And the athlete, when asked, can't explain how he/she did it, rendering the reporter's question, "What were you thinking when...?", to be utterly stupid. I recently heard Bob Dylan admit in an interview that he could never write songs like he did in the 1960s. The interviewer was shocked, but Bob was nonchalant and matter-of-fact and humble. It was a magical time, he said. He doesn't understand it himself. Certain literature, poetry, scripture so profoundly affects me, I'm moved to tears of joy. I've heard writers admit that sometimes the sentences or verses seem to write themselves -- there is no effort or work involved, they can't explain it, they humbly admit. Same goes for art, architecture, photography, any creative endeavor. It seems to me anything in nature or any human achievement that I might call divinely-inspired is NOT so because someone claims it to be so. Self-proclaimed works as theopneustos are surely not. Are sacred texts from around the world theopneustos? Sometimes. That is, sometimes for ALL scripture, not just Judeo-Christian scripture. Is PFAL theopneustos? No. It's bullshonta. I suppose I know it when I see it, but I would be cautious to label it theopneustos, probably because I would be too overcome with wonder and awe. The effort to label it as such seems foolish. Just my opinion. I could be wrong. And I'm perfectly ok with that.

Well the topic is On God-breathed Scripture — rather broad in scope. And your opening post is a declarative statement. I’ve asked questions in an attempt to focus the topic, but I’m not really sure what that is anymore. Though I sometimes find Bolshevik’s posts to be cryptic, I don’t think he’s off topic here. Raf, what do you want to discuss? Is there a question?

Gross.

I saw this bumper sticker today: "A closed mind is a wonderful thing to lose."

7x70

I can accept that something divinely-inspired doesn't necessarily need to be perfect. How does one know if something is divinely-inspired? Is one of the criteria that it must only come from the ancient Near East written by Jews? I generally believe that anything or anyone proclaiming to be of God or by God or from God or inspired by God is certainly NOT. Those proclamations are for story tellers and story readers/hearers -- a device employed to advance narrative. Maybe it all comes down to the question: What is God? But this, it seems to me, is an absurd question that can never be answered on an internet discussion board.

That's it!

Ok. ”God-breathed” is figurative, right? Interpretation is subjective. So, what does it mean to be God-breathed?

I don't think I would ever be able to find the time.

You couldn't have said it better yourself. Amen. Even if PFAL claimed, explicitly or implicitly, to be God-breathed, the claim wouldn't make it so.

I feel like my questions are designed to further the progress of the discussion. Maybe they aren't perceived that way. IDK. Should I add my questions to the Unanswered Questions folder and gently read them at the gentle beach?

Can we clarify this? If something is God-breathed, it is without error or contradiction by definition. PFAL and the Bible both have errors and contradictions. Therefore, neither PFAL nor the Bible is God-breathed. Is this the proposition?

God-breathed = inspired by God. Right? Or does it literally mean written by God? All scripture is God-breathed? All without exception? Or distinctly Judeo-Christian scripture? Says who? The writer of scripture says so himself about himself. Oh... well that settles it.

"Say that reminds me, how’d you get that kid so darn fast? Me and Dot went in to adopt on account a’ somethin’ went wrong with my semen, and they said we had to wait five years for a healthy white baby. I said, 'Healthy white baby? Five years? What else you got?' Said they got two Koreans and a negra born with his heart on the outside. It’s a crazy world."

I wonder what the take rate of "grads" is -- for very 100 "grads" how many stick around? This is hard to know, I imagine, because TWI wouldn't want to track that kind of statistic -- a negative confession, dwelling on the negative.

Thanks for this, Rocky. A rather balanced account. One can't say TWIts aren't represented in the article. They're the ones denying everything. Michael Rood is mentioned. Doesn't he have his own cult now? Or am I thinking of a different Rood? Do you know how the membership numbers were calculated/estimated? 40,000! I thought TWI didn't keep membership records. It doesn't really matter. Just curious.

Narcissism everywhere with this cult.

"I have no friends when it comes to the word." (Something like that.) Isolation, insulation, paranoia, devil spurts everywhere, empties, controlled information flow... Isolate to develop codependency. Typical NPD strategy.

Will someone please translate or interpret $dang for me? (According to usage, literally, please.)

Yes! The pimp-prostitute analogy fits like a hand in a…

The subtle difference between bull$hit and deception.

In my experience they promised relief for a condition that was NOT present, an imagined condition projected on the targets of their proselytizing. When I first encountered all of this madness, my life was full of joy, peace, wonder, prosperity, healings..."manifestations" that can't be counterfeited. But they persisted with the relentless, if subtle, claim that I was lacking something, that I was incomplete without taking "the class," incomplete without "having" their contrived truth, that I was without REAL "power" until I heard and revered what "the doctor" had to say, that so much was "available" for me, but I was leaving it on the table "untapped." Tell someone enough times they are missing something BIG, they will start to believe it, in spite of the evidence against the claim. This is called gaslighting. Gaslighting is the most wicked abuse.

"Homework" and "glove fitting" -- there are folders for those.

Everyone has their own tab, including you, OS. The folder is almost three inches thick. One day, when I have time, when I'm not so overwhelmed, I'll transpose all the questions to 3x5 cards and file them in a special file box. It's a cross between a lock box and a bookcase. It's a dandy... nay, it's a REAL dandy. All this filing and foldering takes time. Time I just don't have. And then there's the reading. I'm reading slowly. It's gentle and tremendous and absorbent -- it slowly absorbs time, gently.