It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
Etymology
From the verb ירה (yara), to bring about of a unified effect by means of many little impulses.
From the noun תור (tor), dove, from the verb תור (tur), to explore or survey.
How you can defend the OP's right to sprook garbage like " every God outside you is false including and especially Jesus Christ " is uncomprehendable.
Glad you chose to hear the call, even proud of you for answering it but " many are called few are chosen " and in this case we'll have to let you know your application has been refused.
originally posted by: TheOneInsideTheZero
... But whose to say my interpretation is right when all it is on the surface is just another interpretation given by one person to whom the truth is relative based on my own personal experience with our shared reality. ...
...
Let the Author Have His Say
... yet no one Bible writer says all there is to say about any particular subject. So to understand what the Author of the Bible says about a subject, it is necessary to gather together all the scriptures germane to the subject under discussion. ...
... For instance, open your Bible to Romans chapter 9. Here you will find an outstanding example of how the faithful Christian Paul did the same thing. ...
Of course, it would have been wrong for Paul to take scriptures out of their context and twist them to fit his own personal ideas. But Paul was not guilty of this. Apparently some early Christians were guilty, however, for the apostle Peter speaks of “things hard to understand, which the untaught and unsteady are twisting, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.”—2 Peter 3:16.
“Things hard to understand” can easily be misunderstood. Even the works of famous writers like Shakespeare come in for various interpretations—obviously not all of them accurate. Hence, it is not strange that this is true of the Bible. If Shakespeare were still alive, we could ask him: “Just exactly what did you mean?” Yet, this is not possible; neither is it possible for us to ask the writers of the Bible for further clarification. Happily, we can still ask its Author, for he lives! (Psalm 90:1, 2) And he has promised to give such spiritual guidance to men of faith who ask it of him.—Luke 11:9-13; James 1:5, 6.
While in Egypt, God’s faithful servant Joseph recognized the importance of asking for divine guidance when he was called upon to interpret a dream that God had given to Egypt’s ruler. “Do not interpretations belong to God?” he had earlier asked. After Joseph gave the correct interpretation, Pharaoh was moved to say: “Can another man be found like this one in whom the spirit of God is?” And to Joseph he said: “Since God has caused you to know all this, there is no one as discreet and wise as you are.”—Genesis 40:8; 41:38, 39.
The variety of contradicting interpretations we find today among so-called Christians is not the fault of the Bible’s Author, nor is it the fault of Bible writers. As God’s prophets, these “spoke from God as they were borne along by holy spirit.” (2 Peter 1:20, 21) It is the fault of Bible readers who have failed to follow the leadings of God’s spirit in allowing God to interpret his own Word. They have allowed personal ideas to becloud their view of what the Bible’s Author himself says. Let us take two examples.
What Is the Punishment for Sin?
Some people have been taught to believe that the punishment for sin is everlasting conscious torment in hellfire. Such people may read Revelation 20:10, which speaks of the Devil’s being “hurled into the lake of fire and sulphur,” and they interpret it to support their views. Of course, this does not agree with Ecclesiastes 9:5, which says that the dead “are conscious of nothing at all”; nor does it agree with Romans 6:23, which states that “the wages sin pays is death,” not conscious torment. Still, some might wonder, does not Revelation 20:10 say that Satan (and, supposedly, persons misled by him) “will be tormented day and night forever and ever”?
In the first century, the Greek word for “torment”—here used by the Bible writer John—had a special connotation. Since prisoners were sometimes tortured (although this was contrary to God’s law), jailers became known as tormentors.
Another Bible writer refers to this when speaking about an unfaithful slave whose master “delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him.” (Matthew 18:34, King James Version) Commenting on this text, The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia says: “Probably the imprisonment itself was regarded as ‘torment’ (as it doubtless was), and the ‘tormentors’ need mean nothing more than jailers.”
We can thus see that by comparing scriptures and taking into consideration their meaning in the languages in which the Bible was written, it is possible to arrive at an interpretation that agrees with the rest of the Bible. Free from preconceived ideas, we can clearly see that Revelation 20:10 is no proof of everlasting torment in hellfire. The fate for all rebels against God is everlasting imprisonment in death. Their destruction is as complete as though they were hurled into a literal fiery lake.
What Is Earth’s Destiny?
...
Why Not Open to Just Any Interpretation?
What would a housewife think of a recipe book that was open to just any interpretation? Or of what benefit would it be to spend money for a dictionary that allowed its reader to interpret the meaning of words just any way he chose? Is that the kind of guidebook we would expect God to give his creatures? Indeed, in such a case, would it even be proper to speak of it as a guidebook?
Honest, God-fearing persons are not interested in twisting the Scriptures “to their own destruction.” (2 Peter 3:16) To avoid doing this, they find all the scriptures dealing with the subject they are trying to understand. When scriptures are found that clearly contradict previously held views, those views are quickly discarded, as they cannot be correct.
...
...
Let the Context Speak
...
Do You Let the Bible Be Its Own Interpreter?
What if you cannot understand a scripture even after you have considered its context? You may benefit from comparing it with other scriptures, having in mind the overall tenor of the Bible. ...
...
When we read the Scriptures, we should take into account the context and the overall tenor of the Bible. Christians are admonished: “We received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is from God, that we might know the things that have been kindly given us by God. These things we also speak, not with words taught by human wisdom, but with those taught by the spirit, as we combine spiritual matters with spiritual words.” (1 Corinthians 2:11-13) ...
ONE definition of the word “interpret” is “to conceive in the light of individual belief, judgment, or circumstance.” (Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary) Thus, one’s interpretation of anything is usually influenced by one’s background, education, and upbringing.
What, though, about Bible interpretation? Are we free to explain Bible passages according to our own “belief, judgment, or circumstance”? Naturally, most Bible scholars and translators claim that they do not do so but that they are guided by God.
A case in point is what is said in a footnote to John 1:1 in A New Version of the Four Gospels, published in 1836 by John Lingard under the pseudonym “A Catholic.” It says: “Men of every persuasion find the confirmation of their peculiar opinions in the sacred volumes: for, in fact, it is not the Scripture that informs them, but they that affix their own meaning to the language of Scripture.”
Though the point is well taken, what was the writer’s intent? His comment was in support of his interpretation of that verse, which he translated: “At the beginning was ‘the word;’ and ‘the word’ was with God; and ‘the word’ was God,” a typical Trinitarian rendition.
What impelled the writer to translate John 1:1 in support of the Trinitarian doctrine? Is it “the Scripture that informs” him to do so? That is impossible, for nowhere in the Bible is the teaching of the Trinity to be found. Note what The New Encyclopædia Britannica says on this point: “Neither the word Trinity nor the explicit doctrine appears in the New Testament.” In addition, Yale University professor E. Washburn Hopkins observed: “To Jesus and Paul the doctrine of the trinity was apparently unknown; . . . they say nothing about it.”
What, then, can we conclude about those who support a Trinitarian interpretation of John 1:1 or any other Bible verse? By Mr. Lingard’s own criterion, “it is not the Scripture that informs them, but they that affix their own meaning to the language of Scripture.”
Happily, we have God’s own Word to guide us on this. “You know this first,” said the apostle Peter, “that no prophecy of Scripture springs from any private interpretation. For prophecy was at no time brought by man’s will, but men spoke from God as they were borne along by holy spirit.”—2 Peter 1:20, 21.