Well, for starters, I think I remember what you put in Post #39 (Page 2):
Just for clarity, are you saying that you believe "the devil" was behind the writings of the New Testament ONLY [Matthew through Revelation] or behind the writings of BOTH? [Genesis through Revelation], or with the division being between the Gospels and the Epistles (esp those of Paul in particular--since you are pointing out the "distinctions" between these--meaning, do you view the Gospels as "from God" but Paul's epistles having been written "by the devil")?
I am unsure of your intention, could you please clarify?
My view is that the writings (both... ALL OF IT [Genesis thru Revelation]) are supernatural and could therefore not be attributed to "the devil" having written it... I'm just not sure what you are meaning, exactly. If you could clarify, I'd be grateful. Thanks! = )
I am going to give you the most valuable phrase i have learned thus far from all language. A distillation of all faith and love and angst reduced from the entirety of my lexicon.
I dont know. Now, with this preface, and, having piqued your interest i had to dash it upon my ignorance. I hope you can relate to my intentions, which are; to share said ignorance with whoever will listen and perhaps find contemporaries who are as eager as i am, if we must live, to live in the truth, as it lives in us.
I have heard the bible called a puzzle, i have heard it described as the untranslatable, a love letter, a weapon, a testament. I have seen it used to bring peace, bring profit, elicit truth, and consummate unions. I have seen men used to hurt and to heal, build nations and destroy them, set fires and put them out, praise God and curse him. To that end, the bible is part of the world, just as the men who transcribed it were. The muse they claim is not, however, and if i stare at the bible long enough, it is a catalogue of the destruction of mankind and even the son of God. A picturebook of a people trying to live on earth against someones wishes, but God is credited with saying fill the earth and subdue it. Not by the bible, but by the will of God did christ live and love, and by the bible was he killed. (torah) words written and attributed to God. By the bible also is the end of billions required to establish Gods kingdom on earth, but the kingdom of God IS men and the earth is where we live. Do i believe the entirety of the bible can be described as the work of the devil? No. The bible is the binding of men. You and me, we shall either witness Gods people manifest or continue to live in a world surrounded by all we disdain until we, like the foolish woman, tear our world to pieces with our own hands. If God wanted subjects who spend night and day genuflecting and chanting on their knees, he could have just created that. Coulda skipped right to revelation and never showed us a man who lived as we should, and never once bowed before Him but said, I praise you, for you have hidden the things from the wise and revealed them to children. The intent of the bible was make us believe in a God, and you may find him either at the point of a sword, on your way to damascus, or at the bottom of a sistern, perhaps even hanging on a cross. If fear of the lord is the begining of wisdom, and the knowledge and virtue of life is saying "who is the lord" and the way of peace is self control and perseverance unto seperation from the world, though "God has put eternity in mens hearts but they cannot fathom it" then gee, i guess someone killed the author of life and wrote a book about it as christ is all these virtues and more and was before the world (fear of the lord) began. He did not need to suffer to earn/grasp them. All scripture may be God inspired but not all scripture is God be praised.
About the supernatural devil you doubt, I cant say, however, when christ (gave paul the epiphany) paul became an instrument of leadership and healing, noone fell dead at his feet, children were not slain 40 at a time, men were brought together, empowered and made weary of
supernatural beings who in contrast, divided mens' language, set up other men before them, gave them laws they could not live by, demanded blood sacrifice, throw men in prison, tear unborn children from their wombs, start our wars and then feed our armies to the birds and the sharks and trampled the son of man underfoot. Not every iniquity you suffer in life will be at the hands of a proud man or a vain woman, that just what they do to us, not every rebuke you receive is sent from divinity to help you. Hurting people makes them feel good somehow and they cannot rest till they have made someone fall i don't know why but christ said they refuse to come to him for life. Perhaps, the only way they want to be exposed to virtue is by virtue of suffering, missing the greater, more powerful forces of virtue exibited in the life christ
should have had and
did have and called out for saying, father, bring me into the glory we had before the world began!