Skydiving

Hey the Poughkeepsie Marriott has free broadband now, I haven’t been here since the year 2000, now that is progress !

Thank you so much for sharing your Cornerstone #2 with me.

You said:

"The Christian faith cannot be properly grounded without a belief that the Bible contains fundamental truths as revealed by God himself."

Your choice of the term “properly grounded” here -- the word “proper” -- is interesting. For such a fundamental cornerstone is there an absolute definition of “proper”? Isn’t "proper" relative?

“… then why would God point to Scripture as Truth when it was in fact corrupt, something He would certainly know was the case?”

My response to that is – fundamentally -- Christians expect to go to Heaven, and for others not to go to Heaven. There are so many aspects of the doctrine that reveal it to be a test of some sorts. Our souls are constantly being tested for suitability for Heaven, if we fail the test, we don’t to Heaven, we go to Hell. If things are not a test then we could live any which way without concern for the consequences could we not?

Maybe God knows exactly what is going on. Consider this:
God allows his word to be corrupted God allows it to be seen that his word has been corrupted (to me this is obvious!) God tests his faithful followers like this:

“Can you see that my original word has been corrupted? Can you see that I would never want you to kill eachother? Can you see that I would never command that? Can you see that I do not want you to fear me?”
If the answer comes back as “No Lord, The Bible is 100% Absolute Unadulterated Truth”. Then the Lord says:

“Sorry, I can’t have you in Heaven, only people who can think (as well as worship) are allowed in. You failed the test."

Unfortunately I read somewhere when I was a kid “Never follow a leader without asking your own questions”.

And anyway, isn't it pointless to ask "Why would God ... ?", because then we're applying human reason to Him?

Or let's say Bill believes Jesus spoke to him yesterday and said "X." John also believes Jesus spoke to him yesterday, but Jesus said "Y," and "X" and "Y" are mutually exclusive. Is one right, one wrong? Or are both right? Or perhaps both wrong?

All of the above! I love it! This is great. This is the other way to believe in Jesus, and for me the somewhere of where I ground my faith.

And this is how the Bible was written also. Various authors had things revealed to them, some contradictory, as the atheist text “101 Contradictions In The Bible” points out (more like 30 contradictions I think). The answer to all of the contradictions is: God moves in mysterious ways of course.

Current song: “Live Like You Were Dying” – Tom McGraw (I heard this for the first time on Interstate 287 yesterday)

He said I was in my early forties with a lot of life before me
When a moment came that stopped me on a dime,
and I spent most of the next days looking at the x-rays, talking bout the options
And talking bout sweet time
I asked him when it sank in
That this might really be the real end how's it hit you when you get that kinda news?
Man what'd you do?

And he said I went sky diving
I went Rocky Mountain climbing I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named FuManchu
And I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter
And I gave forgiveness I'd been denying
And I watched an eagle as it was flying
And he said someday I hope you get the chance
To live like you were dying.

He said I was finally the husband
That most the time I wasn't
And I became a friend a friend would like to have
And all the sudden going fishing
Wasn't such an imposition
And I went three times that year I lost my dad
Well I finally read the good book
And I took a good long hard look
At what I'd do if I could do it all again
Like tomorrow was a gift and you got eternity to think about
What'd you do with it what did you do with it
What did I do with it
What would I do with it'
To live like you were dying