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Deutsche Version | Wiki Start | Topics Collection iv

What Version of the Message? ...

Friday, Oct 4, 2012. When it comes to the message of the bible (or some other religions such as Islam) it is often quite difficult to get well-grounded information about what exactly the message is about! Who is the expert who knows? Whom should you ask?

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Who is the expert? …

What exactly is the message of the bible? I have approached this problem from different sides in the last 30 years. I started as a regular church member (and I am still a regular church member, nothing against that!), listening to preachers and people here and there. When you visit different Christian groups, you will find quite a variety of teaching, from narrow to liberal, from activist to lassez-faire.

But I also looked into theology. I studied the New Testament in its original Greek version. I studied theological literature from different schools. The theological schools of the 20th century show an even broader variety of opinions about the biblical books, their meaning and their particular message than the many Christian groups on this planet. You will find theologians who think that everything in the bible is fake, up to very dedicated believers among them who take every letter very serious.

You can also listen to the church teaching and doctrine. But that also quickly leads you to an area of dispute. Do you want to follow catholic or orthodox teaching? Or do you rather listen to the churches of the reformation with their evangelical message? What about the teaching of the evangelical and charismatic movement, who try to follow the original Christian message as genuinely as possible, believe and live in it?

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Shape your own view! Pray and follow the Lord …

If you want to shape your own view, you need to go to the source of all the other viewpoints. This source is the bible itself. And it is a good idea to look into the bible anyway - starting with the New Testament, with Matthew, Mark, Luke or John. Only here you will find the original, and you can start to understand why and how the different streams of Christianity got to their understanding. It is an exciting journey!

Personally, I also think that prayer is needed to gain an understanding. Only when you start to adress the Lord and ask him to open these books to you, you will be able to come to a genuine understanding. There are many reasons for this phenomenon, but I think that there is no way around the insight that only people who start their personal pilgrimage with the Lord will be able to fully understand what he tells us in the biblical books.

The bible itself can be a source of encouragement. Prayer can be a link to the eternal source of life, of truth and love. When we go to the Lord in reading, in prayer and in community with other Christians, he is able to help us, to guide us, to strengthen us and to do many miracles in our life. We live with wonderful possibilities day by day … (Roland Potthast) ... more texts

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