But it has to be scripturally based!!!

I have a serious problem; I don't think that the Bible is the only true source of Christian knowledge. I believe it is good to create beliefs based on experience and other sources. I think it is ok to search out the truth in nature, in the writings of nonchristians, and in yourself. And worst of all, I don't think the Bible was meant to be God's rule book for man.

The Bible is a book, yes it is inspired but it is still a book. The writers of the bible we real people and they injected the book with their own personality and soul. God didn't take over people's bodies to make them write what he wanted them to; he worked through them (that's the miracle) to make a Book that is both timely and timeless.

Experience, in my opinion, is valid. God gives us experience and sensations in this world and I belive his eternal truth in found withint these things. Yes, other bad things can also be found, but He did create the world. I'm sick of people yelling that everything we do has to be 100% straight out of the Bible. If people bow and sing in worship we can too, but if they didn't paint, write, or do other activities as worship they must not be valid. If all of this is a good way to go about things what did the early christians do before the canonization of scripture? They must have been totally lost. Oh yeah! tha's right, they flourished dispite this "handicap".


Don't get me wrong I love the Bible; in fact, I believe realizing that the Bible is a group of inspired but human documents makes it all the more powerful. How did God ispire these people yet leave their humanity intact? It amazes me that we can find something like this fresh Book that is true for all people, at all times, and in all places, yet was written in cultural context. The majority of movies made tewnty, or thirty, years ago are completely irrelevanttoday but this Book was written of the course of thousands of years and the final "Chapter" was written around two thousand years before today! And we find new fresh ideas in new cultural contexts. Bring the bible into modernism and you find one things and bring it into postmodernism and you find something completely differnt (not opposite just different). Take this book to an African tribe and it will mean something new to them too. There is power in this ability to be both in and outside of cultural context. Of course, we have to be careful when dealing with context (how much culture are our conclusions) But God promises the Holy Spirit so he has our back covered.

Oh yeah, the Bible is awesome. But so are the writings of C.S. Lweis, Brian McLaren, the music of Beethoven, U2, etc. and the art of Michelangelo and Jackson Pollack. Find God in everything and you will see life in an entirely new way even if everything you believe afterwards isn't directly coming from the mouth of Paul.