01-21-2014, 06:13 AM
Thirdwoe Wrote:I am leery of his motives, and concerned for those who may be swayed into thinking as he does, which can lead to one loosing their faith in God, as we have seen with some, thinking that the original words which God spoke through His Prophets and Apostles have been lost, and that we can't be certain if what we read in the NT is the original, or not, and doomed to endlessly speculate which one is the right reading. I believe that we have the right reading in the Eastern Peshitta's text, and that God helped preserve its text.
Wow. That actually hurts. I don't want to take it personally, and I said I didn't want to say any more about this, but I must be honest and say it's hard not to.
Thinking the way *I* do can end up with one losing their faith? I have no words to express how I feel. None in English or in Aramaic.
Faith is not about certainty. It's about taking chances; making mistakes.* It's about seeing adversity through despite difficulty. It's about a shared history, a shared suffering, and a shared wonder that there is something out there bigger than our collective selves and understanding. It's the mystery of Christ that cannot be fully understood no matter how hard we try. That's why it's called "the Mystery of Faith."
If dealing with certain realities of our situation vis-a-vis the transmission of the Bible -- or any realities -- causes you to lose faith, then what was one's faith founded upon? An unreasonable expectation of how the world works? Did one truly have faith in the first place if it is faith in an untruth? That faith might as well have been made of glass. One crack from reality and the whole thing spiderwebs and falls apart.
It's this kind of all-or-nothing thinking that's driving away the youth from the Church in droves. Kids are seeing Christianity as "anti-science," "anti-inquiry," and "anti-scholarship" and want nothing to do with it. (Or so the polls tell us with the reasons given by the "Unaffiliateds" or "Nones" climbing in ranks.) Just trust X. Just believe Y. Don't think about it. If you think about it, you'll lose your faith. Like Looney Tunes, don't look down or you'll fall.
Do you think I started AramaicNT.org to try and persuade people away from their faith or realize that it just might be a whole lot deeper than they thought? To tell people that Christ is a rubbish made-up figure, or share what has made my faith stronger over the years by examining his words?
Words, though. I need more words. So here are a few:
If "thinking as I do" -- one whose faith has been tried and tested in so many fires (I might even tell you about them one day) -- leads towards losing one's faith, then you have a very shallow idea of what Faith is all about and that very fact cries for you to re-examine yourself.
But that is between you and God. It's not my business.
I do not like to discuss theology online. I do not need to debate it to self-validate, I've matured past that. But I tell you, this careless, backhanded comment really got to me, Charley.
And with that, I'll shut up and be quiet before Paul comes in and says to break it up.
Peace,
-Steve
* Which, ironically is the same philosophy as Valerie Frizzle, but I digress...