Posted by blue on July 14, 1998 at 21:42:19:
In Reply to: point of clarification please posted by thor on July 14, 1998 at 04:02:48:
: Blue, in the interest of clarification...which angle are
: you coming from? were you ever a mormon? i get the
: feeling you weren't. that's ok; great in fact. however
: like i've directed to you before, the idea of being
: truly taught what is in the bible is subjective...
: in fact i would bet that your particular angle
: on the bible is opposed by a lot of the same
: people who would call themselves true christians.
: i understand and appreciate where you are going, but
: honestly, the bible has soooo many problems, and
: its teachings are subjective, are they not? of course
: peter says that the scriptures are not for private
: interpretation, (what else would he say...) but if
: that is the case then we, as uneducated mormons,
: need to rely on 'your' interpretation. i've given
: up on relying on intermediaries.
: respectfully,
: thor
No, I have never been a Mormon. The closest I've ever been to a group of Mormons was at the '84 Holiday Bowl.
But interpreting the Bible is not as hopeless as you are making it out to be. It takes dedicated study similar to how one might study Shakespeare. You don't need an "intermediary," but it is enormously helpful to study the Bible with someone who already understands the Bible, like being taught math by a teacher. You could deduce arithmetic, but you sure learn faster after you've been taught.
My main "angle" is that my beliefs need to come from the Bible. Beliefs such as Arminianism were invented by a man who then lifted verses of the Bible out of context to support his view. I think a similar trick has been played on Mormons, and they have the extra burden of "unlearning" what they have been taught before the beauty of the Scripture can be seen. A key is that if you see a "problem" in the Bible, which usually means you see an inconsistency, you have to do some serious study to see where Truth really lies. The more often you do this, the more you see the cohesiveness of the entire Bible.
I think the key isn't that Mormons have been given a "bad list of facts to memorize." The problem is they don't look at the Bible as a whole, study it as a whole, and use the intellect they have obviously been given to form their own views based upon what Scripture reveals to them, not the facts someone taught them. I guess I am saying they need to learn the method, not the material. Do you get my meaning?