N
Nick777
Guest
Hi I would like to know your view on the book Soul Trap from Wayne Stewart. I didn’t red it all but it disturbed my faith alot.
(Sorry english not my first language)
(Sorry english not my first language)
- Status
M
Mintaka
Guest
I have never heard of Wayne Stewart or his book. I looked it up.
Claiming to have “solved and revealed!” a bunch of Biblical prophecies is not exactly making me trust his work.
I did find a preview. The guy uses paraphrased Bible verses as a substitute for actual Bible verses. He charges that God set up religion to be illogical, without using any logical proof himself!
The reason that God’s wisdom seems foolish to humans, and that human wisdom seems foolish to God, is that God is on a totally different level of wisdom than we are.
There’s always a toddler who thinks he or she knows everything about the world, manipulates adults, and so on. But if you talk to this child, you will quickly find out that the kid knows a lot of shallow things, but is also convinced of some very naive things.
(In my school, many “cool” kids were convinced that Bubble Yum chewing gum was made of spider eggs.)
God doesn’t do anything to fool us, and He loves us and wishes us well.
But we are creatures, even if we are made in God’s image; and we are fallen. In this life, we cannot understand everything as we would like to do. As in Flatland, we are like two-dimensional creatures trying to understand a third dimensional world. Or we are like babies in the womb, only knowing what life is like within our mothers, with only hints of the vast world we will encounter when we are born.
So there is a lot about God and the world that we cannot understand yet. When we go to Heaven, and even more, when our bodies are resurrected for eternal life in the new heaven and new earth, then we will understand by experience.
Until then, we just cannot know yet.
Claiming to have “solved and revealed!” a bunch of Biblical prophecies is not exactly making me trust his work.
I did find a preview. The guy uses paraphrased Bible verses as a substitute for actual Bible verses. He charges that God set up religion to be illogical, without using any logical proof himself!
The reason that God’s wisdom seems foolish to humans, and that human wisdom seems foolish to God, is that God is on a totally different level of wisdom than we are.
There’s always a toddler who thinks he or she knows everything about the world, manipulates adults, and so on. But if you talk to this child, you will quickly find out that the kid knows a lot of shallow things, but is also convinced of some very naive things.
(In my school, many “cool” kids were convinced that Bubble Yum chewing gum was made of spider eggs.)
God doesn’t do anything to fool us, and He loves us and wishes us well.
But we are creatures, even if we are made in God’s image; and we are fallen. In this life, we cannot understand everything as we would like to do. As in Flatland, we are like two-dimensional creatures trying to understand a third dimensional world. Or we are like babies in the womb, only knowing what life is like within our mothers, with only hints of the vast world we will encounter when we are born.
So there is a lot about God and the world that we cannot understand yet. When we go to Heaven, and even more, when our bodies are resurrected for eternal life in the new heaven and new earth, then we will understand by experience.
Until then, we just cannot know yet.
Last edited:
Tis_Bearself
Patron
I have not read the book, so I went to Amazon to see what it was about.
Here is its advertising blurb:
My thoughts, Nick, are that if you truly read this book and are not just here trying to promote it - and if you did read it, I truly hope you got it free somewhere and didn’t spend 20 dollars on it - that you really need to find some better books to read and something better to do with your time.
This is clearly not any sort of reliable or good book to read, just based on the advert.
Plus if this sort of silly thing disturbs your faith, then you had best be reading books that strengthen your faith instead.
Here is its advertising blurb:
This is just laughable, like a late-night infomercial.Soul Trap took over seven years to research and write. And, it promises to change everything you think you know about God, the Bible, and religion. Then it will change you: epiphanies can be weird like that. Example:
- The mystery behind the numbers 666: solved and revealed!
- The antichrist: solved and revealed!
- The mysteries to the book of Revelation: solved and revealed!
- The secret identity of Satan: solved and revealed!
- The true face of God and or Jesus: solved and revealed!
- The battle of Armageddon: solved and revealed!
- The location of the Garden of Eden: solved and revealed!
- The mystery of the end times (21 DEC 2012
solved and revealed!
- The mystery to both heaven and hell: solved and revealed!
- The mystery behind the Trinity: solved and revealed!
- What angels are really made of: solved and revealed!
- The riddle to the purpose of life: solved and defined!
My thoughts, Nick, are that if you truly read this book and are not just here trying to promote it - and if you did read it, I truly hope you got it free somewhere and didn’t spend 20 dollars on it - that you really need to find some better books to read and something better to do with your time.
This is clearly not any sort of reliable or good book to read, just based on the advert.
Plus if this sort of silly thing disturbs your faith, then you had best be reading books that strengthen your faith instead.
Last edited:
M
Mintaka
Guest
The Bible is not saying, “Be stupid.”
The Bible is saying, “This is the ABC’s of what you will learn later. Don’t get frustrated that you’re not learning calculus in preschool.” It says that if you want to know more, you should think about what you learned, and then talk to the Holy Spirit or other teachers.
Many of the things we don’t understand, turn out to be building blocks for things we learn later. Even in this world, this happens.
A schoolchild should push ahead, but also be ready to “wait and see.” A child who thinks he knows everything already and is better than all the teachers is going to have a hard time adjusting to new information.
A child who knows he doesn’t know much, a child who knows he is a little “foolish,” is a child who is ready to learn when new information and experiences come along.
The best example I can give is taking classical singing classes. You do really stupid things with your mouth and throat, you sound really stupid, and you cannot see the point of all the silly noises. Your teacher warns you not to listen to yourself or the other beginners and get discouraged, and that singing requires the use of muscles which are not under conscious control.
And then one day, you open your mouth and sing like an angel.
Stewart doesn’t like verses directing people not to worry about things they cannot control. This seems a strange thing to hate. Basic psychology says that it is healthy not to obsess over worries or the future. (And worry kills your singing voice, and makes your worries come true.)
Mr. Stewart seems to be a bitter person. He doesn’t seem interested (at least in the sample chapter) in any kind of philosophy or wisdom literature from anywhere in the world, and he doesn’t read the Bible in light of anything but his own ideas.
Every wisdom tradition and every science and art acknowledges that there is a lot that we don’t know. That isn’t stupid; it’s honest.
Stewart’s not as good at criticizing God as the books of Ecclesiastes or Job. Which are in the Bible already and were inspired by God, so that you can think about these issues with God’s blessing!
My advice is that you read some better books, so that you can see the weakness of Mr. Stewart’s arguments. There are some good Catholic talks about Job and Ecclesiastes on YouTube, podcasts, etc.
The Bible is saying, “This is the ABC’s of what you will learn later. Don’t get frustrated that you’re not learning calculus in preschool.” It says that if you want to know more, you should think about what you learned, and then talk to the Holy Spirit or other teachers.
Many of the things we don’t understand, turn out to be building blocks for things we learn later. Even in this world, this happens.
A schoolchild should push ahead, but also be ready to “wait and see.” A child who thinks he knows everything already and is better than all the teachers is going to have a hard time adjusting to new information.
A child who knows he doesn’t know much, a child who knows he is a little “foolish,” is a child who is ready to learn when new information and experiences come along.
The best example I can give is taking classical singing classes. You do really stupid things with your mouth and throat, you sound really stupid, and you cannot see the point of all the silly noises. Your teacher warns you not to listen to yourself or the other beginners and get discouraged, and that singing requires the use of muscles which are not under conscious control.
And then one day, you open your mouth and sing like an angel.
Stewart doesn’t like verses directing people not to worry about things they cannot control. This seems a strange thing to hate. Basic psychology says that it is healthy not to obsess over worries or the future. (And worry kills your singing voice, and makes your worries come true.)
Mr. Stewart seems to be a bitter person. He doesn’t seem interested (at least in the sample chapter) in any kind of philosophy or wisdom literature from anywhere in the world, and he doesn’t read the Bible in light of anything but his own ideas.
Every wisdom tradition and every science and art acknowledges that there is a lot that we don’t know. That isn’t stupid; it’s honest.
Stewart’s not as good at criticizing God as the books of Ecclesiastes or Job. Which are in the Bible already and were inspired by God, so that you can think about these issues with God’s blessing!
My advice is that you read some better books, so that you can see the weakness of Mr. Stewart’s arguments. There are some good Catholic talks about Job and Ecclesiastes on YouTube, podcasts, etc.
Last edited:
D
DisorientingSneeze
Guest
Sounds like some of the self published authors who occasionally set up inside my grocery store trying to sell their books. I wouldn’t give it any time. Any one of us could publish our innermost ravings using those self-publishing companies.
Tis_Bearself
Patron
If people would actually pay $19.95 for my innermost ravings I’d be tempted to get right on that
I have not read the book, so I went to Amazon to see what it was about.
Here is its advertising blurb:
Solved and revealed! And Wrong!!!Soul Trap took over seven years to research and write. And, it promises to change everything you think you know about God, the Bible, and religion. Then it will change you: epiphanies can be weird like that. Example:
- The mystery behind the numbers 666: solved and revealed!
- The antichrist: solved and revealed!
- The mysteries to the book of Revelation: solved and revealed!
- The secret identity of Satan: solved and revealed!
- The true face of God and or Jesus: solved and revealed!
- The battle of Armageddon: solved and revealed!
- The location of the Garden of Eden: solved and revealed!
- The mystery of the end times (21 DEC 2012
- The mystery to both heaven and hell: solved and revealed!
- The mystery behind the Trinity: solved and revealed!
- What angels are really made of: solved and revealed!
- The riddle to the purpose of life: solved and defined!
N
Nick777
Guest
I am defilnitly not here to promote it. I didn’t even red it all. I red parts on google. Yes my faith is not enought strong because I consider myself a christian since only a couple of years and I am still diging to learn all the details about christianity and I stumbled on this book online. Thanks for your answer, I apreciate.
Sorry for my english.
Sorry for my english.
Tis_Bearself
Patron
If you’d like some good Catholic reading suggestions, perhaps try some of the books listed in this thread. Some of them may even be available in your own language.
Best Catholic Books of all time? Spirituality
Alright y’all, I need some good spiritual reading to get me though this Lenten season! What are the BEST Catholic books out there? Bonus points if it is written by a saint!
Last edited:
- Status