Teachers, can you do better, or worse?

[Still Alive]

10 minutes ago, Whyme said:

So you are saying Gods apostles taught the church error? I dont agree. 

That's not what I'm saying. I use my tag line to clarify. But yes, there are things in the bible that are absolutely not technically true. There are not 8 legged insects. The bible is a collection of books that are both human and spiritual in origin. They are not words handed down to some guy in a trance. They are words of men with a relationship with God, some told by God specifically to write down certain thngs. And in some cases they even contain the actual words of God, e.g. anything in red print in some bibles.

If it were otherwise, we'd only need one gospel. 

If you are looking for a book that claims to be "handed down" from God to man, look no further than the Book of Mormon or the Quran. That is not what the bible claims to be at all. 

To be clear, the bible has "incorrect" information when it comes to science. But it is not a science book. God did not impart 24th century scientific knowledge to any of the writers of its books. that is not the point. That is not its swim lane.

Edited April 22, 2021 by Still Alive

[debrakay]

17 minutes ago, Still Alive said:

But yes, there are things in the bible that are absolutely not technically true. There are not 8 legged insects.

Mites are one kind of 8 legged creature and most people think of them as insects or creepy crawlers. I would suppose when the writers of the Bible were here the word "arthropod" was not in existence. 

From Wikipdia: An arthropod from Ancient Greek ἄρθρον (arthron) 'joint', and πούς (pous) 'foot' (gen. ποδός)) is an invertebrate animal having an exoskeleton, a segmented body, and paired jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Euarthropoda, which includes insects, arachnids, myriapods, and crustaceans. The term Arthropoda (/ɑːrˈθrɒpədə/) as originally proposed refers to a proposed grouping of Euarthropods and the phylum Onychophora.

[Still Alive]

9 minutes ago, debrakay said:

Mites are one kind of 8 legged creature and most people think of them as insects or creepy crawlers. I would suppose when the writers of the Bible were here the word "arthropod" was not in existence. 

From Wikipdia: An arthropod from Ancient Greek ἄρθρον (arthron) 'joint', and πούς (pous) 'foot' (gen. ποδός)) is an invertebrate animal having an exoskeleton, a segmented body, and paired jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Euarthropoda, which includes insects, arachnids, myriapods, and crustaceans. The term Arthropoda (/ɑːrˈθrɒpədə/) as originally proposed refers to a proposed grouping of Euarthropods and the phylum Onychophora.

Yep. most of the bible was written at a time when "science" did not exist. And the concept of stuff like "R&D" was centuries or millennia away. And we sometimes apply our 21st century sensibilities to the words when what we think they meant was not what they meant at all. 

The first day of genesis begins in Genesis 1:3. So, how much time passed between verses 2 and three? It could have been billions of years. There could have been many, many phases of creation before verse 3. The Cambrian explosion could have happened before verse three. The bible doesn't talk about any of that stuff because it's not what it's trying to record and communicate. It's why there are no chicken recipes in an auto repair manual. It doesn't mean chicken doesn't exist.

[OneLight]

56 minutes ago, Whyme said:

I dont think teachers today have been appointed by God but by man and his flawed theology. If God appointed them they would have no errors.

Blanket statements are always a lie, so be careful not to use them.  In order for what you say to be true, my would have to personally know every person who is considered a teacher, or considers themselves to be a teacher.  That being said, do you really believe God would set someone in the office of teacher if He knew they would lead people astray?  Can God be fooled by man?????

[Alive]

An interesting observation that may be of some help in addition to clear scriptures that have been posted.

Men are not yet perfected, so we make mistakes. Teachers aren't perfect, but that doesn't mean that God doesn't use that same individual for His purposes as Paul in Ephesians explained.

Can we agree that the Apostle Peter was a teacher?

Early on, Peter was wrong as were others--yet Peter taught, preached and was instrumental in bringing many souls to Christ. Peter functioned in several ways as outlined by Paul. Peter was wrong, Peter taught and God used him. We all need the Peters that are members of the Church. The Body of Christ is very much a real functioning Life and that Life is Christ that flows from Christ through members to other members. Once we get that down pat, we can be open to hear and learn and grow up into Him. I am convinced that we do both ourselves and brethren harm, if we don't participate.

Another point--our God and Lord is not offended when we are mistaken. He is used to it. We can be in error and Life still flows.

Matt. 18:20 (NAS20S) “For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.”

[Still Alive]

23 minutes ago, OneLight said:

Blanket statements are always a lie, so be careful not to use them.  In order for what you say to be true, my would have to personally know every person who is considered a teacher, or considers themselves to be a teacher.  That being said, do you really believe God would set someone in the office of teacher if He knew they would lead people astray?  Can God be fooled by man?????

I dunno. Where do folks like Ravi Zacharias or Jim Jones fit into this? God may not be fooled by man, but man is fooled by man all the time. And as a side note, how is the quality of Ravi's public teaching, ignoring that "other" topic.

[Alive]

7 minutes ago, Still Alive said:

I dunno. Where do folks like Ravi Zacharias or Jim Jones fit into this? God may not be fooled by man, but man is fooled by man all the time. And as a side note, how is the quality of Ravi's public teaching, ignoring that "other" topic.

Yes---its a messy place at times and its obvious there are false teachers that are not teachers at all and there are those that God uses as teachers that make mistakes and sin. This does not change the reality of what God has given and gives the Church His Body.

What do we do with those? Whatever 'we' do, we should 'do' with care.

[Still Alive]

36 minutes ago, OneLight said:

Blanket statements are always a lie, so be careful not to use them. 

I think that is a blanket statement.

[OneLight]

11 minutes ago, Still Alive said:

I dunno. Where do folks like Ravi Zacharias or Jim Jones fit into this? God may not be fooled by man, but man is fooled by man all the time. And as a side note, how is the quality of Ravi's public teaching, ignoring that "other" topic.

I have no idea what you are referring to when speaking about Ravi Zacharias "other" topic.  Care to unpack that idea?

I will say that I was set back by your grouping Jim Jones with Ravi Zacharias.  Care to provide us with the similarities that would group them together?

[Still Alive]

1 minute ago, OneLight said:

I have no idea what you are referring to when speaking about Ravi Zacharias "other" topic.  Care to unpack that idea?

I will say that I was set back by your grouping Jim Jones with Ravi Zacharias.  Care to provide us with the similarities that would group them together?

Group together as discredited, at least as a person. That "other" topic is the stuff about his dealing with women.

I'll just post a google link: https://www.google.com/search?q=ravi+scandal

I've seen some of his teaching. Though I was not crazy about his style, I thought he often brought up solid stuff.