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Originally Posted by Timotheist
. . . As I have stated multiple times in my blog, when Mark and John agree on something, that is as close to the "truth" as one can hope to get. . . .
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This reminds me of Bart Ehrman's life long quest to get at the actual words of God, by seeking to get down to the actual words in the autographed copies of the gospels. In vain, of course.
As may also be your quest to get as close to the truth as possible.
As I see it, Christianity early on was very diverse. And the records of that diversity was lost by : one, when Jerusalem was sacked by the Romans in 70 a.d., and two, by early church fathers burning all the books that weren't "The Truth."
That makes it very hard to get close to the truth of what was really going on circa 2000 yrs ago.
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Originally Posted by T
But I will state that I am pretty sure I am much closer to capturing the thoughts of the first generation of believers than the inerrancy enthusiasts.
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Maybe ... maybe not.
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Originally Posted by T
. . . "where do I stop questioning?" seems to be what you are asking. It is a good question, and I do not discount it. To say I have not had thoughts along the lines of total annihilation of the gospels would be a lie as well. . . .
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Of course you're not going to do that. Unless we find another trove of documentation, like was found at Nag Hammadi in 1945, explaining more about what was going on back then, the gospels are the only sound records we've got. Tossing them is not a realistic option.
As a result, the questions will keep going on long after we're gone, and will never stop.
As I've stated, this questioning only leads to iffy-land. And iffy-land is very scary for many. We want, we seek, we need, we even obsess, for certitude. Witness Lee once delivered that for me.
But I have to announce, and even invite, that iffy-land is not as bad as it looks from inside the bubble of certitude-land.
There's a grand mystery out there. It's wonderful and awesome. And it's my experience that God is faithful to pull all the props and rugs out from under all that we put our faith in other than Him. And faith in God is the only way to go. It's really all we've got. That "iffy" is our certitude. The quicker you get use to it the better off you'll be.