Quote:
Originally Posted by Evangelical
I'm surprised an "alternative" someone such as yourself is going with the "it's not in the bible argument" when you know there are so many overlays Christianity has on the Bible. Even the concepts of New Testament and Old Testament, "age of grace" etc are overlays. The verse and chapter numbering is also overlays, and they also play a part in how the bible is interpreted. The term "faith alone" is also an overlay, given to us by the MOTA Luther and Calvin. But no verse in the bible saying that, ZNP was unable to produce it. There's even a "pagan" overlay coming up very soon - Christ mass. Christmas is a pagan overlay really on a concept the bible is silent about ( and we know that Jews did not celebrate birthdays, so trying to portray the nativity scene as Christ's first birthday celebration is naive).
We can even find overlays within the bible itself. Now here is one for you bible fundamentalists out there (awareness and myself included  )
Where in the Bible did Jesus ever say "saved by grace" or even use the word grace in a teaching, parable or conversation? The simple fact is that Jesus never taught or spoke about grace, as revealed in the 4 gospels. So the concept of grace in the Paul's letters was actually an overlay onto the gospels. Overlays, overlays, everywhere. |
Trenchant observation. Obviously, when one finds an "overlay" literally stated in the Biblical text it can be unequivocally termed "Biblical". When an overlay isn't literally stated in the Bible, the question whether it is Biblical or not is a matter of judgment. Thus, the matter of whether or not "The Trinity" is biblical remains controversial to this day. It may be unequivocally stated to be literally extra-biblical even though, the orthodox see it represented there conceptually.
Whether or not Jesus' understanding of his work corresponds with Paul's concept of soteriology is another question, although an internal biblical one. Wittingly or not, with your "overlay" observation, you have opened up a theological can of worms. Nothing you said legitimates the Witness Lee's concepts of the vision, ministry or minister of the age in terms of the Bible.