In what sense is the Bible alive?

[Cat_Herder]

A christian should understand that God knows your entire life beginning to end.

If God knows your entire life then that means you aren’t free to do anything other than what God knows you will do… or are you?

The answer is that God knows every possible course of action your life could take. Accordingly, God knows every possible way the prophets could have committed God’s words to Scripture. But the Scripture itself couldn’t come into existence until the prophet actually made the decision and wrote.

This is critical because your argument is that the Bible, this particular expression of God’s word, is eternal; so you would have to demonstrate that the prophets’ choice of words was fixed from eternity and this is only possible if the prophets were mere sock puppets of God, and it is evident from the above (and from the Scriptures) that this was not the case. Accordingly the Bible is not eternally preexistent.

That doesn’t diminish the stature of the Bible at all; it is simply the case that the Bible is incarnational, having both human and divine elements—like Jesus Christ Himself!

 

[gtrenewed]

If God knows your entire life then that means you aren’t free to do anything other than what God knows you will do… or are you?

The answer is that God knows every possible course of action your life could take. Accordingly, God knows every possible way the prophets could have committed God’s words to Scripture. But the Scripture itself couldn’t come into existence until the prophet actually made the decision and wrote.

This is critical because your argument is that the Bible, this particular expression of God’s word, is eternal; so you would have to demonstrate that the prophets’ choice of words was fixed from eternity and this is only possible if the prophets were mere sock puppets of God, and it is evident from the above (and from the Scriptures) that this was not the case. Accordingly the Bible is not eternally preexistent.

That doesn’t diminish the stature of the Bible at all; it is simply the case that the Bible is incarnational, having both human and divine elements—like Jesus Christ Himself!

Wrong answer.

Once a movie is committed to film, it plays as recorded. It does not mean that the actors etc did not have free will in making it but once recorded that’s it. To change it must be remade.

Since God is outside of time, He has seen everything from beginning to end like a movie (an inadequate analogy). He has seen Pauls life from birth to death from all eternity. He knew His choices because He had seen his life entirely. So God knowing in no way restricts our free will.

Your view means God is restricted by time and won’t know what will happen until in time it happens. That limits God and He is not limited.

God’s word is eternal and divine. The leather and paper is human produced but His word is eternal and divine.

 

[Cat_Herder]

Your view means God is restricted by time and won’t know what will happen until in time it happens. That limits God and He is not limited.

No. I said:
Cat Herder:

The answer is that **God knows every possible course of action your life could take. **Accordingly, God knows every possible way the prophets could have committed God’s words to Scripture.

Notice that your Bible does not contain every single possible permutation of Paul’s letters, but only one. That is because it has a human author as well as a Divine one.

 

[gtrenewed]

No. I said:

You did not complete your quote, here it is: Cat Herder wrote:
“The answer is that God knows every possible course of action your life could take. Accordingly, God knows every possible way the prophets could have committed God’s words to Scripture. But the Scripture itself couldn’t come into existence until the prophet actually made the decision and wrote.”

You said scripture couldn’t come into existance until the prophet actually made the decision and wrote. That is a time constrained statement and God is not constrained by time.

Plus, you purposely left that part out, not an honorable thing to do.

Notice that your Bible does not contain every single possible permutation of Paul’s letters, but only one. That is because it has a human author as well as a Divine one.

This theory of yours about every possible permutation is not how God is all knowing for as your example shows it would constrain Him in time.

Again, divine author - human instrument.

 

[Cat_Herder]

You said scripture couldn’t come into existance until the prophet actually made the decision and wrote. That is a time constrained statement and God is not constrained by time.

God chose to use time-constrained men to communicate with us through the Scriptures, just as He chose to take on time-constrained flesh in order to ransom us from our sins.

 

[gtrenewed]

God chose to use time-constrained men to communicate with us through the Scriptures, just as He chose to take on time-constrained flesh in order to ransom us from our sins.

Of course since we are in time but since scripture is the word of God, and God has existed eternally, before time, His word has existed eternally.

You need to look back at the thread, you are just going in circles.

 

[Cat_Herder]

Of course since we are in time but since scripture is the word of God, and God has existed eternally, before time, His word has existed eternally.

If you’re asserting that the human element of God’s Word existed before time, be consistent: So Jesus was incarnate before He was conceived in the womb of the Blessed Mother?

 

[gtrenewed]

If you’re asserting that the human element of God’s Word existed before time, be consistent: So Jesus was incarnate before He was conceived in the womb of the Blessed Mother?

We already settled this, The physical bible is in time, God’s word however is eternal because God knew precisely what the human authors would say because He inspired them and He is outside of time and is all knowing. See my earlier post using the movie analogy.

This is off thread so I’ll say it once only, the physical Jesus was born in time, but God knew eternally that He would be born in time, so the ot prophets could talk precisely about the redeemer, the messiah, Jesus for centuries, even thousands of years, before He was born.

 

[Cat_Herder]

We already settled this, The physical bible is in time, God’s word however is eternal because God knew precisely what the human authors would say because He inspired them and He is outside of time and is all knowing. See my earlier post using the movie analogy.

This is off thread so I’ll say it once only, the physical Jesus was born in time, but God knew eternally that He would be born in time, so the ot prophets could talk precisely about the redeemer, the messiah, Jesus for centuries, even thousands of years, before He was born.

You didn’t answer the question of when Christ became incarnate.

Just as the living Word did not become incarnate until the necessary human cooperation, so it was with the written Word.

 

[grndslm]

The Bible is alive in the sense that it is a vessel for the Word & Spirit of Christ Jesus.

Who cares about the papyrus, the trees turned into pulp into paper, etc.??

It is the message of Christ Jesus that will live forever.

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JOHN 6

• 32 … it is my Father who gives you the real bread from heaven.
• 33 For the bread that God gives is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.
• 35 I am the bread of life, Jesus told them.
  Those who come to me will never be hungry; those who believe in me will never be thirsty.
• 40 For what my Father wants is that all who see the Son and believe in him should have eternal life. And I will raise them to life on the last day.
• 47 I am telling you the truth: he who believes has eternal life.
• 48 I am the bread of life.
• 49 Your ancestors ate manna in the desert, but they died.
• 50 But the bread that comes down from heaven is of such a kind that whoever eats it will not die.
• 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If you eat this bread, you will live forever. The bread that I will give you is my flesh, which I give so that the world may live.
• 53 I am telling you the truth: if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you will not have life in yourselves.
  **- 54 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them to life on the last day.
• 55 For my flesh is the real food; my blood is the real drink.
• 56 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood live in me, and I live in them.
• 57 The living Father sent me, and because of him I live also. In the same way whoever eats me will live because of me.
• 58 This, then, is the bread that came down from heaven; it is not like the bread that your ancestors ate, but then later died. Those who eat this bread will live forever.**
• 63 What gives life is God’s Spirit; human power is of no use at all. The words I have spoken to you bring God’s life-giving Spirit.
• 68 Simon Peter answered him,
  Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life.

WISDOM 9 (is a cross-reference from John 6:63)
13 Who can ever learn the will of God?**14 Human reason is not adequate for the task, and our philosophies tend to mislead us,15 because our mortal bodies weigh our souls down. The body is a temporary structure made of earth, a burden to the active mind.**16 All we can do is make guesses about things on earth; we must struggle to learn about things that are close to us. Who, then, can ever hope to understand heavenly things?17 No one has ever learned your will, unless you first gave him Wisdom, and sent your holy spirit down to him.18 In this way people on earth have been set on the right path, have learned what pleases you, and have been kept safe by Wisdom.

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Now, would somebody here like to tell me that the Protestants are wrong in their belief that the body & blood of Christ are merely representations for the Word & Spirit of Christ?

Reading these words… it seems fairly obvious to me that flesh & blood are but metaphorical terms! Eat would probly be best replaced with consume.

Make whole God’s Word & God’s Spirit. Consume the message of God so that you will become less of this world, and your soul will live eternally.

In the same way that we do not care for the form of the Bible (papyrus, tree → pulp → paper) as much as its substance (Spirit & Word of God)… why even care at all for worldly flesh & blood??