Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: bnr-fos!bmers58!davem@watmath.waterloo.edu (Dave Mielke) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Translation (and still "Re: I Corinthians 7:1") Message-ID: Date: 15 Nov 89 08:35:44 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Bell-Northern Research, Ottawa, Canada Lines: 38 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article dtate@unix.cis.pitt.edu (David M Tate) writes: >I am not intending to be sarcastic; this is the actual (absurd) consequence >of the argument you present. Your entire reply has a very logical aura about it, but it has failed to answer my question. I shall, therefore, ask it again. Where do the Scriptures teach that great earthly wisdom is beneficial when it comes to their interpretation? You will find no such statement anywhere in the entire Bible. YOu will, however, find several Scriptures that state exactly the opposite. 1 Corinthians 2:14 says "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know {them}, because they are spiritually discerned.". Proverbs 3:5-6 says "Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.". I would also like to point out that a serious flaw in the belief that we need earthly wisdom to understand the Scriptures is that no baby could ever be saved. It would also preclude the saving of adults who, for one reason or another, possess severely impaired mental abilities. Fortunately God is not a respecter of persons and our salvation does not depend on our own individual abilities. You asked why we need a Bible at all if we do not need to possess earthly wisdom? I can think of at least two reasons. The first is that God wants the unsaved of this world to be confronted with His truths so that they cannot claim that they were left in the dark and so that He can clearly demonstrate that they cannot be understood by anyone other than those whom He has elected. The second is that the Bible provides a way for us to verify that we are doing God's will after we permit our thoughts to be tainted by all the sin that is going on around us and within our flesh. Dave Mielke, 613-726-0014 856 Grenon Avenue Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K2B 6G3