For True Believers in Their Bibles Being the Literal Word of God.

[Donald H]

Just to confirm, Donald H ... you are a socialist and you would like for religion to perish, right?

I'm not misstating that, am I?

I am a socialist according to Americans' view of the political spectrum.
In Canada I'm a capitalist government supporter who leans about as far left as the majority of Canadians.

On religions and other superstitious beliefs, I'm of the opinion that they need to be discouraged and left to dying of their own accord. I wouldn't advocate banning religions but I take a stronger position on preventing them from being able to teach lies to children. Teaching children religious lies is child abuse and no socially responsible person should condone that!

That's not to say that christians need to throw out the parts of their biibles that promote child abuse. They should either support it totally or throw it all out!

So I didn't misstate anything. Perfect.

You are proving my point that socialists subordinate religion. It's what you guys do.

I have to agree that 'socialists' subordinate religions and their superstitious beliefs. I throw all of it out as the promotion of lies that contradict modern science.

You on the other hand only throw out some of your bible with your attempts to interpret it to suit what makes you comfortable.

Yet, you refuse to elaborate on what you can accept of your bibles, from that parts you are in the process of reinterpreting.

This is your issue to solve in your own mind but the issue continues to cause you discomfort. I know now that your issue with me and my beliefs are because I awaken your discomfort.

I don't know how I can make that better for you? You proclaim yourself to be a half-believer or a conditional believer.

 

[Donald H]

.

You are just doing what socialists do. It's your religion which is why you attack rival religions.

How on earth, or in heaven, could socialism be a religion? I'm o.k. with having another discussion but you're going to have to be rational.

Your biggest misconception stems out of you not understanding of the word 'literal' or 'literally'.
Socialism or fascism or even capitalism can be figuratively referred to as religions.

 

[ding]

Just to confirm, Donald H ... you are a socialist and you would like for religion to perish, right?

I'm not misstating that, am I?

I am a socialist according to Americans' view of the political spectrum.
In Canada I'm a capitalist government supporter who leans about as far left as the majority of Canadians.

On religions and other superstitious beliefs, I'm of the opinion that they need to be discouraged and left to dying of their own accord. I wouldn't advocate banning religions but I take a stronger position on preventing them from being able to teach lies to children. Teaching children religious lies is child abuse and no socially responsible person should condone that!

That's not to say that christians need to throw out the parts of their biibles that promote child abuse. They should either support it totally or throw it all out!

So I didn't misstate anything. Perfect.

You are proving my point that socialists subordinate religion. It's what you guys do.

I have to agree that 'socialists' subordinate religions and their superstitious beliefs. I throw all of it out as the promotion of lies that contradict modern science.

You on the other hand only throw out some of your bible with your attempts to interpret it to suit what makes you comfortable.

Yet, you refuse to elaborate on what you can accept of your bibles, from that parts you are in the process of reinterpreting.

This is your issue to solve in your own mind but the issue continues to cause you discomfort. I know now that your issue with me and my beliefs are because I awaken your discomfort.

I don't know how I can make that better for you? You proclaim yourself to be a half-believer or a conditional believer.

I'm glad that I have accurately described your beliefs. It would be super awesome if you could accurately describe mine.

Here... let me post them again.

I believe scripture is inspired by God.

The Church has always venerated the Scriptures as she venerates the Lord's Body. She never ceases to present to the faithful the bread of life, taken from the one table of God's Word and Christ's Body. In Sacred Scripture, the Church constantly finds her nourishment and her strength, for she welcomes it not as a human word, but as what it really is, the word of God. In the sacred books, the Father who is in heaven comes lovingly to meet his children, and talks with them.

God is the author of Sacred Scripture. "The divinely revealed realities, which are contained and presented in the text of Sacred Scripture, have been written down under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. For Holy Mother Church, relying on the faith of the apostolic age, accepts as sacred and canonical the books of the Old and the New Testaments, whole and entire, with all their parts, on the grounds that, written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they have God as their author, and have been handed on as such to the Church herself.

God inspired the human authors of the sacred books. To compose the sacred books, God chose certain men who, all the while he employed them in this task, made full use of their own faculties and powers so that, though he acted in them and by them, it was as true authors that they consigned to writing whatever he wanted written, and no more. The inspired books teach the truth. Since therefore all that the inspired authors or sacred writers affirm should be regarded as affirmed by the Holy Spirit, we must acknowledge that the books of Scripture firmly, faithfully, and without error teach that truth which God, for the sake of our salvation, wished to see confided to the Sacred Scriptures.

Still, the Christian faith is not a "religion of the book." Christianity is the religion of the "Word" of God, a word which is not a written and mute word, but the Word is incarnate and living. If the Scriptures are not to remain a dead letter, Christ, the eternal Word of the living God, must, through the Holy Spirit, open our minds to understand the Scriptures.

In Sacred Scripture, God speaks to man in a human way. To interpret Scripture correctly, the reader must be attentive to what the human authors truly wanted to affirm, and to what God wanted to reveal to us by their words. In order to discover the sacred authors' intention, the reader must take into account the conditions of their time and culture, the literary genres in use at that time, and the modes of feeling, speaking and narrating then current. For the fact is that truth is differently presented and expressed in the various types of historical writing, in prophetical and poetical texts, and in other forms of literary expression. But since Sacred Scripture is inspired, there is another and no less important principle of correct interpretation, without which Scripture would remain a dead letter. Sacred Scripture must be read and interpreted in the light of the same Spirit by whom it was written.

• Be especially attentive "to the content and unity of the whole Scripture". Different as the books which compose it may be, Scripture is a unity by reason of the unity of God's plan, of which Christ Jesus is the center and heart, open since his Passover.
• Read the Scripture within "the living Tradition of the whole Church. According to a saying of the Fathers, Sacred Scripture is written principally in the Church's heart rather than in documents and records, for the Church carries in her Tradition the living memorial of God's Word, and it is the Holy Spirit who gives her the spiritual interpretation of the Scripture.
• Be attentive to the analogy of faith. By "analogy of faith" we mean the coherence of the truths of faith among themselves and within the whole plan of Revelation.

According to an ancient tradition, one can distinguish between two senses of Scripture: the literal and the spiritual, the latter being subdivided into the allegorical, moral and anagogical senses. The profound concordance of the four senses guarantees all its richness to the living reading of Scripture in the Church. The literal sense is the meaning conveyed by the words of Scripture and discovered by exegesis, following the rules of sound interpretation: All other senses of Sacred Scripture are based on the literal. The spiritual sense. Thanks to the unity of God's plan, not only the text of Scripture but also the realities and events about which it speaks can be signs. The allegorical sense. We can acquire a more profound understanding of events by recognizing their significance in Christ; thus the crossing of the Red Sea is a sign or type of Christ's victory and also of Christian Baptism. The moral sense. The events reported in Scripture ought to lead us to act justly. As St. Paul says, they were written "for our instruction". The anagogical sense (Greek: anagoge, "leading"). We can view realities and events in terms of their eternal significance, leading us toward our true homeland: thus the Church on earth is a sign of the heavenly Jerusalem. It is the task of exegetes to work, according to these rules, towards a better understanding and explanation of the meaning of Sacred Scripture in order that their research may help the Church to form a firmer judgement. For, of course, all that has been said about the manner of interpreting Scripture is ultimately subject to the judgement of the Church which exercises the divinely conferred commission and ministry of watching over and interpreting the Word of God.

It was by the apostolic Tradition that the Church discerned which writings are to be included in the list of the sacred books. This complete list is called the canon of Scripture. It includes 46 books for the Old Testament (45 if we count Jeremiah and Lamentations as one) and 27 for the New.

Paraphrased and excerpted from the Catechism of the Catholic Church

Catechism of the Catholic Church - Table of Contents

 

[ding]

.

You are just doing what socialists do. It's your religion which is why you attack rival religions.

How on earth, or in heaven, could socialism be a religion? I'm o.k. with having another discussion but you're going to have to be rational.

Your biggest misconception stems out of you not understanding of the word 'literal' or 'literally'.
Socialism or fascism or even capitalism can be figuratively referred to as religions.

Let's see dogma, rosy notions of goodness, noble and just causes, euphoria, social order, equality through uniformity, communal ownership, an extraordinary ability to incite and inflame its adherents and inspire social movements, dismiss defeats, ignores incongruities, forcing moral relativism on others, attacks rival religions, deifies man and worldly possessions, worships science when it suits their purpose, violent rejects science when it doesn't suit their purpose and has a religious doctrine of abolition of private property, abolition of family, abolition of religion and equality via uniformity and communal ownership. That's how on earth you are a religious fanatic of the religion of socialism.

 

[Donald H]

.

Let's see dogma, rosy notions of goodness, noble and just causes, euphoria, social order, equality through uniformity, communal ownership, an extraordinary ability to incite and inflame its adherents and inspire social movements, dismiss defeats, ignores incongruities, forcing moral relativism on others, attacks rival religions, deifies man and worldly possessions, worships science when it suits their purpose, violent rejects science when it doesn't suit their purpose and has a religious doctrine of abolition of private property, abolition of family, abolition of religion and equality via uniformity and communal ownership. That's how on earth you are a religious fanatic of the religion of socialism.

religion​

[ ri-lij-uhn ]SHOW IPA


See synonyms for religion on Thesaurus.com

---

noun​

a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, especially when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs.
a specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number of persons or sects:the Christian religion; the Buddhist religion.
the body of persons adhering to a particular set of beliefs and practices:a world council of religions.
the life or state of a monk, nun, etc.:to enter religion.
the practice of religious beliefs; ritual observance of faith.
something one believes in and follows devotedly; a point or matter of ethics or conscience:to make a religion of fighting prejudice.
---------------------------------------------
I can see your point as it could apply to the last in the explanation above, but it still does refer to religion in the figurative sense. None of the other meanings work in a literal sense for socialism.

Social conscience or socialism, be what it may, isn't explaining your irrational dislike of the truth I've laid on you. That is, you are a half-believer in your bibles or a 'conditional' believer, by your own admission.

Is there anything more for you to say than finally starting to confess on the word of your god, which you have chosen to reject?

You can have your interpretations of your bible irregardless of whether or not those interpretations are popular with catholics.

Will we never hear from you what it is in your bibles that you can't accept?

I guess it's of little importance here on this thread, as it supposed to be a refuge fro true and complete believers.

If that doesn't sit will with you then you have no choice but to 'get the fk over it'!

 

[Donald H]

I'm glad that I have accurately described your beliefs. It would be super awesome if you could accurately describe mine.

Lets concentrate on that and get to work on it, as opposed to your continuing expression of anger. Keeping in mind that your partial beliefs in your bibles is a distraction from the purpose of this thread.

What do you reject as not being the word of your god, that's contained in your bibles?

By confessing to those fictional parts of your bible would at least give us 'total' believers and atheists something to debate with you.

 

[BreezeWood]

Just to confirm, Donald H ... you are a socialist and you would like for religion to perish, right?

I'm not misstating that, am I?

I am a socialist according to Americans' view of the political spectrum.
In Canada I'm a capitalist government supporter who leans about as far left as the majority of Canadians.

On religions and other superstitious beliefs, I'm of the opinion that they need to be discouraged and left to dying of their own accord. I wouldn't advocate banning religions but I take a stronger position on preventing them from being able to teach lies to children. Teaching children religious lies is child abuse and no socially responsible person should condone that!

That's not to say that christians need to throw out the parts of their biibles that promote child abuse. They should either support it totally or throw it all out!

So I didn't misstate anything. Perfect.

You are proving my point that socialists subordinate religion. It's what you guys do.

I have to agree that 'socialists' subordinate religions and their superstitious beliefs. I throw all of it out as the promotion of lies that contradict modern science.

You on the other hand only throw out some of your bible with your attempts to interpret it to suit what makes you comfortable.

Yet, you refuse to elaborate on what you can accept of your bibles, from that parts you are in the process of reinterpreting.

This is your issue to solve in your own mind but the issue continues to cause you discomfort. I know now that your issue with me and my beliefs are because I awaken your discomfort.

I don't know how I can make that better for you? You proclaim yourself to be a half-believer or a conditional believer.

I'm glad that I have accurately described your beliefs. It would be super awesome if you could accurately describe mine.

Here... let me post them again.

I believe scripture is inspired by God.

The Church has always venerated the Scriptures as she venerates the Lord's Body. She never ceases to present to the faithful the bread of life, taken from the one table of God's Word and Christ's Body. In Sacred Scripture, the Church constantly finds her nourishment and her strength, for she welcomes it not as a human word, but as what it really is, the word of God. In the sacred books, the Father who is in heaven comes lovingly to meet his children, and talks with them.

God is the author of Sacred Scripture. "The divinely revealed realities, which are contained and presented in the text of Sacred Scripture, have been written down under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. For Holy Mother Church, relying on the faith of the apostolic age, accepts as sacred and canonical the books of the Old and the New Testaments, whole and entire, with all their parts, on the grounds that, written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they have God as their author, and have been handed on as such to the Church herself.

God inspired the human authors of the sacred books. To compose the sacred books, God chose certain men who, all the while he employed them in this task, made full use of their own faculties and powers so that, though he acted in them and by them, it was as true authors that they consigned to writing whatever he wanted written, and no more. The inspired books teach the truth. Since therefore all that the inspired authors or sacred writers affirm should be regarded as affirmed by the Holy Spirit, we must acknowledge that the books of Scripture firmly, faithfully, and without error teach that truth which God, for the sake of our salvation, wished to see confided to the Sacred Scriptures.

Still, the Christian faith is not a "religion of the book." Christianity is the religion of the "Word" of God, a word which is not a written and mute word, but the Word is incarnate and living. If the Scriptures are not to remain a dead letter, Christ, the eternal Word of the living God, must, through the Holy Spirit, open our minds to understand the Scriptures.

In Sacred Scripture, God speaks to man in a human way. To interpret Scripture correctly, the reader must be attentive to what the human authors truly wanted to affirm, and to what God wanted to reveal to us by their words. In order to discover the sacred authors' intention, the reader must take into account the conditions of their time and culture, the literary genres in use at that time, and the modes of feeling, speaking and narrating then current. For the fact is that truth is differently presented and expressed in the various types of historical writing, in prophetical and poetical texts, and in other forms of literary expression. But since Sacred Scripture is inspired, there is another and no less important principle of correct interpretation, without which Scripture would remain a dead letter. Sacred Scripture must be read and interpreted in the light of the same Spirit by whom it was written.

• Be especially attentive "to the content and unity of the whole Scripture". Different as the books which compose it may be, Scripture is a unity by reason of the unity of God's plan, of which Christ Jesus is the center and heart, open since his Passover.
• Read the Scripture within "the living Tradition of the whole Church. According to a saying of the Fathers, Sacred Scripture is written principally in the Church's heart rather than in documents and records, for the Church carries in her Tradition the living memorial of God's Word, and it is the Holy Spirit who gives her the spiritual interpretation of the Scripture.
• Be attentive to the analogy of faith. By "analogy of faith" we mean the coherence of the truths of faith among themselves and within the whole plan of Revelation.

According to an ancient tradition, one can distinguish between two senses of Scripture: the literal and the spiritual, the latter being subdivided into the allegorical, moral and anagogical senses. The profound concordance of the four senses guarantees all its richness to the living reading of Scripture in the Church. The literal sense is the meaning conveyed by the words of Scripture and discovered by exegesis, following the rules of sound interpretation: All other senses of Sacred Scripture are based on the literal. The spiritual sense. Thanks to the unity of God's plan, not only the text of Scripture but also the realities and events about which it speaks can be signs. The allegorical sense. We can acquire a more profound understanding of events by recognizing their significance in Christ; thus the crossing of the Red Sea is a sign or type of Christ's victory and also of Christian Baptism. The moral sense. The events reported in Scripture ought to lead us to act justly. As St. Paul says, they were written "for our instruction". The anagogical sense (Greek: anagoge, "leading"). We can view realities and events in terms of their eternal significance, leading us toward our true homeland: thus the Church on earth is a sign of the heavenly Jerusalem. It is the task of exegetes to work, according to these rules, towards a better understanding and explanation of the meaning of Sacred Scripture in order that their research may help the Church to form a firmer judgement. For, of course, all that has been said about the manner of interpreting Scripture is ultimately subject to the judgement of the Church which exercises the divinely conferred commission and ministry of watching over and interpreting the Word of God.

It was by the apostolic Tradition that the Church discerned which writings are to be included in the list of the sacred books. This complete list is called the canon of Scripture. It includes 46 books for the Old Testament (45 if we count Jeremiah and Lamentations as one) and 27 for the New.

Paraphrased and excerpted from the Catechism of the Catholic Church

Catechism of the Catholic Church - Table of Contents

.

I believe scripture is inspired by God.

.
really, hey - by the way - wondering again, have you found the tablets you claim were etched by your christian god and their inscribed 10 commandments - that are somehow - "lost".

so, whats in your 10000 pg book if you do not have the original document ...

is that what you mean as - inspired - because no one really knows.

except of course - bing.

and also, not as you claim, just so you know - mary became pure through the Religion of Antiquity as why her religious itinerant - son - became famous. and likewise was crucified, being of the same mold.

 

[Donald H]

.
really, hey - by the way - wondering again, have you found the tablets you claim were etched by your christian god and their inscribed 10 commandments - that are somehow - "lost".

so, whats in your 10000 pg book if you do not have the original document ...

is that what you mean as - inspired - because no one really knows.

except of course - bing.

and also, not as you claim, just so you know - mary became pure through the Religion of Antiquity as why her religious itinerant - son - became famous. and likewise was crucified, being of the same mold.

The only thing clear on ding's beliefs is that he and his catholic church are again in the process of trying to sort out what they believe from that which needs to be thrown out as superstitious nonsense. Ding seems to be trying to act as his church's spokesman, but needs to be cautious for fear of his church not agreeing with his new dogma.

Inevitably the end position of the catholic church will have to become their bibles being works of fiction that are totally open to numerous interpretations of the flock.

What's left as the word of god now that his church has already accepted 'evolution' over the 'creation' myth? A reinterpretation of creation??

For the true and unconditional believers, ding's head is full of Satan's word. For atheists, he's just full of shit and has nothing to contribute to the purpose of this thread. He needs to go somewhere else to pick his bones on what he believes and what he scoffs at as bullshit.

 

[ding]

.

Let's see dogma, rosy notions of goodness, noble and just causes, euphoria, social order, equality through uniformity, communal ownership, an extraordinary ability to incite and inflame its adherents and inspire social movements, dismiss defeats, ignores incongruities, forcing moral relativism on others, attacks rival religions, deifies man and worldly possessions, worships science when it suits their purpose, violent rejects science when it doesn't suit their purpose and has a religious doctrine of abolition of private property, abolition of family, abolition of religion and equality via uniformity and communal ownership. That's how on earth you are a religious fanatic of the religion of socialism.

religion​

[ ri-lij-uhn ]SHOW IPA


See synonyms for religion on Thesaurus.com

---

noun​

a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, especially when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs.
a specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number of persons or sects:the Christian religion; the Buddhist religion.
the body of persons adhering to a particular set of beliefs and practices:a world council of religions.
the life or state of a monk, nun, etc.:to enter religion.
the practice of religious beliefs; ritual observance of faith.
something one believes in and follows devotedly; a point or matter of ethics or conscience:to make a religion of fighting prejudice.
---------------------------------------------
I can see your point as it could apply to the last in the explanation above, but it still does refer to religion in the figurative sense. None of the other meanings work in a literal sense for socialism.

Social conscience or socialism, be what it may, isn't explaining your irrational dislike of the truth I've laid on you. That is, you are a half-believer in your bibles or a 'conditional' believer, by your own admission.

Is there anything more for you to say than finally starting to confess on the word of your god, which you have chosen to reject?

You can have your interpretations of your bible irregardless of whether or not those interpretations are popular with catholics.

Will we never hear from you what it is in your bibles that you can't accept?

I guess it's of little importance here on this thread, as it supposed to be a refuge fro true and complete believers.

If that doesn't sit will with you then you have no choice but to 'get the fk over it'!

Do I need to say anything more than you lie because it's the nature of socialists to subordinate religion?

Isn't that enough?

 

[ding]

.
really, hey - by the way - wondering again, have you found the tablets you claim were etched by your christian god and their inscribed 10 commandments - that are somehow - "lost".

so, whats in your 10000 pg book if you do not have the original document ...

is that what you mean as - inspired - because no one really knows.

except of course - bing.

and also, not as you claim, just so you know - mary became pure through the Religion of Antiquity as why her religious itinerant - son - became famous. and likewise was crucified, being of the same mold.

The only thing clear on ding's beliefs is that he and his catholic church are again in the process of trying to sort out what they believe from that which needs to be thrown out as superstitious nonsense. Ding seems to be trying to act as his church's spokesman, but needs to be cautious for fear of his church not agreeing with his new dogma.

Inevitably the end position of the catholic church will have to become their bibles being works of fiction that are totally open to numerous interpretations of the flock.

What's left as the word of god now that his church has already accepted 'evolution' over the 'creation' myth? A reinterpretation of creation??

For the true and unconditional believers, ding's head is full of Satan's word. For atheists, he's just full of shit and has nothing to contribute to the purpose of this thread. He needs to go somewhere else to pick his bones on what he believes and what he scoffs at as bullshit.

He's a socialist too. So he is super sympathetic to your mission. He's on a very similar one as well. He just takes a different deceitful path than the deceitful path you are trotting down.

Keep up the good work, guys. God is using you.

 

[surada]

Just to confirm, Donald H ... you are a socialist and you would like for religion to perish, right?

I'm not misstating that, am I?

I am a socialist according to Americans' view of the political spectrum.
In Canada I'm a capitalist government supporter who leans about as far left as the majority of Canadians.

On religions and other superstitious beliefs, I'm of the opinion that they need to be discouraged and left to dying of their own accord. I wouldn't advocate banning religions but I take a stronger position on preventing them from being able to teach lies to children. Teaching children religious lies is child abuse and no socially responsible person should condone that!

That's not to say that christians need to throw out the parts of their biibles that promote child abuse. They should either support it totally or throw it all out!

So I didn't misstate anything. Perfect.

You are proving my point that socialists subordinate religion. It's what you guys do.

I have to agree that 'socialists' subordinate religions and their superstitious beliefs. I throw all of it out as the promotion of lies that contradict modern science.

You on the other hand only throw out some of your bible with your attempts to interpret it to suit what makes you comfortable.

Yet, you refuse to elaborate on what you can accept of your bibles, from that parts you are in the process of reinterpreting.

This is your issue to solve in your own mind but the issue continues to cause you discomfort. I know now that your issue with me and my beliefs are because I awaken your discomfort.

I don't know how I can make that better for you? You proclaim yourself to be a half-believer or a conditional believer.

I'm glad that I have accurately described your beliefs. It would be super awesome if you could accurately describe mine.

Here... let me post them again.

I believe scripture is inspired by God.

The Church has always venerated the Scriptures as she venerates the Lord's Body. She never ceases to present to the faithful the bread of life, taken from the one table of God's Word and Christ's Body. In Sacred Scripture, the Church constantly finds her nourishment and her strength, for she welcomes it not as a human word, but as what it really is, the word of God. In the sacred books, the Father who is in heaven comes lovingly to meet his children, and talks with them.

God is the author of Sacred Scripture. "The divinely revealed realities, which are contained and presented in the text of Sacred Scripture, have been written down under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. For Holy Mother Church, relying on the faith of the apostolic age, accepts as sacred and canonical the books of the Old and the New Testaments, whole and entire, with all their parts, on the grounds that, written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they have God as their author, and have been handed on as such to the Church herself.

God inspired the human authors of the sacred books. To compose the sacred books, God chose certain men who, all the while he employed them in this task, made full use of their own faculties and powers so that, though he acted in them and by them, it was as true authors that they consigned to writing whatever he wanted written, and no more. The inspired books teach the truth. Since therefore all that the inspired authors or sacred writers affirm should be regarded as affirmed by the Holy Spirit, we must acknowledge that the books of Scripture firmly, faithfully, and without error teach that truth which God, for the sake of our salvation, wished to see confided to the Sacred Scriptures.

Still, the Christian faith is not a "religion of the book." Christianity is the religion of the "Word" of God, a word which is not a written and mute word, but the Word is incarnate and living. If the Scriptures are not to remain a dead letter, Christ, the eternal Word of the living God, must, through the Holy Spirit, open our minds to understand the Scriptures.

In Sacred Scripture, God speaks to man in a human way. To interpret Scripture correctly, the reader must be attentive to what the human authors truly wanted to affirm, and to what God wanted to reveal to us by their words. In order to discover the sacred authors' intention, the reader must take into account the conditions of their time and culture, the literary genres in use at that time, and the modes of feeling, speaking and narrating then current. For the fact is that truth is differently presented and expressed in the various types of historical writing, in prophetical and poetical texts, and in other forms of literary expression. But since Sacred Scripture is inspired, there is another and no less important principle of correct interpretation, without which Scripture would remain a dead letter. Sacred Scripture must be read and interpreted in the light of the same Spirit by whom it was written.

• Be especially attentive "to the content and unity of the whole Scripture". Different as the books which compose it may be, Scripture is a unity by reason of the unity of God's plan, of which Christ Jesus is the center and heart, open since his Passover.
• Read the Scripture within "the living Tradition of the whole Church. According to a saying of the Fathers, Sacred Scripture is written principally in the Church's heart rather than in documents and records, for the Church carries in her Tradition the living memorial of God's Word, and it is the Holy Spirit who gives her the spiritual interpretation of the Scripture.
• Be attentive to the analogy of faith. By "analogy of faith" we mean the coherence of the truths of faith among themselves and within the whole plan of Revelation.

According to an ancient tradition, one can distinguish between two senses of Scripture: the literal and the spiritual, the latter being subdivided into the allegorical, moral and anagogical senses. The profound concordance of the four senses guarantees all its richness to the living reading of Scripture in the Church. The literal sense is the meaning conveyed by the words of Scripture and discovered by exegesis, following the rules of sound interpretation: All other senses of Sacred Scripture are based on the literal. The spiritual sense. Thanks to the unity of God's plan, not only the text of Scripture but also the realities and events about which it speaks can be signs. The allegorical sense. We can acquire a more profound understanding of events by recognizing their significance in Christ; thus the crossing of the Red Sea is a sign or type of Christ's victory and also of Christian Baptism. The moral sense. The events reported in Scripture ought to lead us to act justly. As St. Paul says, they were written "for our instruction". The anagogical sense (Greek: anagoge, "leading"). We can view realities and events in terms of their eternal significance, leading us toward our true homeland: thus the Church on earth is a sign of the heavenly Jerusalem. It is the task of exegetes to work, according to these rules, towards a better understanding and explanation of the meaning of Sacred Scripture in order that their research may help the Church to form a firmer judgement. For, of course, all that has been said about the manner of interpreting Scripture is ultimately subject to the judgement of the Church which exercises the divinely conferred commission and ministry of watching over and interpreting the Word of God.

It was by the apostolic Tradition that the Church discerned which writings are to be included in the list of the sacred books. This complete list is called the canon of Scripture. It includes 46 books for the Old Testament (45 if we count Jeremiah and Lamentations as one) and 27 for the New.

Paraphrased and excerpted from the Catechism of the Catholic Church

Catechism of the Catholic Church - Table of Contents

The Books of the Bible were chosen quite arbitrarily by Constantine. You must be pretty young.. Catholics have never been much on Bible literalism.

 

[ding]

Just to confirm, Donald H ... you are a socialist and you would like for religion to perish, right?

I'm not misstating that, am I?

I am a socialist according to Americans' view of the political spectrum.
In Canada I'm a capitalist government supporter who leans about as far left as the majority of Canadians.

On religions and other superstitious beliefs, I'm of the opinion that they need to be discouraged and left to dying of their own accord. I wouldn't advocate banning religions but I take a stronger position on preventing them from being able to teach lies to children. Teaching children religious lies is child abuse and no socially responsible person should condone that!

That's not to say that christians need to throw out the parts of their biibles that promote child abuse. They should either support it totally or throw it all out!

So I didn't misstate anything. Perfect.

You are proving my point that socialists subordinate religion. It's what you guys do.

I have to agree that 'socialists' subordinate religions and their superstitious beliefs. I throw all of it out as the promotion of lies that contradict modern science.

You on the other hand only throw out some of your bible with your attempts to interpret it to suit what makes you comfortable.

Yet, you refuse to elaborate on what you can accept of your bibles, from that parts you are in the process of reinterpreting.

This is your issue to solve in your own mind but the issue continues to cause you discomfort. I know now that your issue with me and my beliefs are because I awaken your discomfort.

I don't know how I can make that better for you? You proclaim yourself to be a half-believer or a conditional believer.

I'm glad that I have accurately described your beliefs. It would be super awesome if you could accurately describe mine.

Here... let me post them again.

I believe scripture is inspired by God.

The Church has always venerated the Scriptures as she venerates the Lord's Body. She never ceases to present to the faithful the bread of life, taken from the one table of God's Word and Christ's Body. In Sacred Scripture, the Church constantly finds her nourishment and her strength, for she welcomes it not as a human word, but as what it really is, the word of God. In the sacred books, the Father who is in heaven comes lovingly to meet his children, and talks with them.

God is the author of Sacred Scripture. "The divinely revealed realities, which are contained and presented in the text of Sacred Scripture, have been written down under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. For Holy Mother Church, relying on the faith of the apostolic age, accepts as sacred and canonical the books of the Old and the New Testaments, whole and entire, with all their parts, on the grounds that, written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they have God as their author, and have been handed on as such to the Church herself.

God inspired the human authors of the sacred books. To compose the sacred books, God chose certain men who, all the while he employed them in this task, made full use of their own faculties and powers so that, though he acted in them and by them, it was as true authors that they consigned to writing whatever he wanted written, and no more. The inspired books teach the truth. Since therefore all that the inspired authors or sacred writers affirm should be regarded as affirmed by the Holy Spirit, we must acknowledge that the books of Scripture firmly, faithfully, and without error teach that truth which God, for the sake of our salvation, wished to see confided to the Sacred Scriptures.

Still, the Christian faith is not a "religion of the book." Christianity is the religion of the "Word" of God, a word which is not a written and mute word, but the Word is incarnate and living. If the Scriptures are not to remain a dead letter, Christ, the eternal Word of the living God, must, through the Holy Spirit, open our minds to understand the Scriptures.

In Sacred Scripture, God speaks to man in a human way. To interpret Scripture correctly, the reader must be attentive to what the human authors truly wanted to affirm, and to what God wanted to reveal to us by their words. In order to discover the sacred authors' intention, the reader must take into account the conditions of their time and culture, the literary genres in use at that time, and the modes of feeling, speaking and narrating then current. For the fact is that truth is differently presented and expressed in the various types of historical writing, in prophetical and poetical texts, and in other forms of literary expression. But since Sacred Scripture is inspired, there is another and no less important principle of correct interpretation, without which Scripture would remain a dead letter. Sacred Scripture must be read and interpreted in the light of the same Spirit by whom it was written.

• Be especially attentive "to the content and unity of the whole Scripture". Different as the books which compose it may be, Scripture is a unity by reason of the unity of God's plan, of which Christ Jesus is the center and heart, open since his Passover.
• Read the Scripture within "the living Tradition of the whole Church. According to a saying of the Fathers, Sacred Scripture is written principally in the Church's heart rather than in documents and records, for the Church carries in her Tradition the living memorial of God's Word, and it is the Holy Spirit who gives her the spiritual interpretation of the Scripture.
• Be attentive to the analogy of faith. By "analogy of faith" we mean the coherence of the truths of faith among themselves and within the whole plan of Revelation.

According to an ancient tradition, one can distinguish between two senses of Scripture: the literal and the spiritual, the latter being subdivided into the allegorical, moral and anagogical senses. The profound concordance of the four senses guarantees all its richness to the living reading of Scripture in the Church. The literal sense is the meaning conveyed by the words of Scripture and discovered by exegesis, following the rules of sound interpretation: All other senses of Sacred Scripture are based on the literal. The spiritual sense. Thanks to the unity of God's plan, not only the text of Scripture but also the realities and events about which it speaks can be signs. The allegorical sense. We can acquire a more profound understanding of events by recognizing their significance in Christ; thus the crossing of the Red Sea is a sign or type of Christ's victory and also of Christian Baptism. The moral sense. The events reported in Scripture ought to lead us to act justly. As St. Paul says, they were written "for our instruction". The anagogical sense (Greek: anagoge, "leading"). We can view realities and events in terms of their eternal significance, leading us toward our true homeland: thus the Church on earth is a sign of the heavenly Jerusalem. It is the task of exegetes to work, according to these rules, towards a better understanding and explanation of the meaning of Sacred Scripture in order that their research may help the Church to form a firmer judgement. For, of course, all that has been said about the manner of interpreting Scripture is ultimately subject to the judgement of the Church which exercises the divinely conferred commission and ministry of watching over and interpreting the Word of God.

It was by the apostolic Tradition that the Church discerned which writings are to be included in the list of the sacred books. This complete list is called the canon of Scripture. It includes 46 books for the Old Testament (45 if we count Jeremiah and Lamentations as one) and 27 for the New.

Paraphrased and excerpted from the Catechism of the Catholic Church

Catechism of the Catholic Church - Table of Contents

The Books of the Bible were chosen quite arbitrarily by Constantine. You must be pretty young.. Catholics have never been much on Bible literalism.

Thanks for saying I'm young. I feel young. Does that count?

I'm sure you believe you would have made better selections.

Who Decided Which Books of the Bible Made the Final Cut?

The books that make up the Bible were written over a span of 1,000 years. During that time, many other religious writings were also produced. So, who decided which would be part of the Bible and which would be left out?

people.howstuffworks.com

 

[surada]

Just to confirm, Donald H ... you are a socialist and you would like for religion to perish, right?

I'm not misstating that, am I?

I am a socialist according to Americans' view of the political spectrum.
In Canada I'm a capitalist government supporter who leans about as far left as the majority of Canadians.

On religions and other superstitious beliefs, I'm of the opinion that they need to be discouraged and left to dying of their own accord. I wouldn't advocate banning religions but I take a stronger position on preventing them from being able to teach lies to children. Teaching children religious lies is child abuse and no socially responsible person should condone that!

That's not to say that christians need to throw out the parts of their biibles that promote child abuse. They should either support it totally or throw it all out!

So I didn't misstate anything. Perfect.

You are proving my point that socialists subordinate religion. It's what you guys do.

I have to agree that 'socialists' subordinate religions and their superstitious beliefs. I throw all of it out as the promotion of lies that contradict modern science.

You on the other hand only throw out some of your bible with your attempts to interpret it to suit what makes you comfortable.

Yet, you refuse to elaborate on what you can accept of your bibles, from that parts you are in the process of reinterpreting.

This is your issue to solve in your own mind but the issue continues to cause you discomfort. I know now that your issue with me and my beliefs are because I awaken your discomfort.

I don't know how I can make that better for you? You proclaim yourself to be a half-believer or a conditional believer.

I'm glad that I have accurately described your beliefs. It would be super awesome if you could accurately describe mine.

Here... let me post them again.

I believe scripture is inspired by God.

The Church has always venerated the Scriptures as she venerates the Lord's Body. She never ceases to present to the faithful the bread of life, taken from the one table of God's Word and Christ's Body. In Sacred Scripture, the Church constantly finds her nourishment and her strength, for she welcomes it not as a human word, but as what it really is, the word of God. In the sacred books, the Father who is in heaven comes lovingly to meet his children, and talks with them.

God is the author of Sacred Scripture. "The divinely revealed realities, which are contained and presented in the text of Sacred Scripture, have been written down under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. For Holy Mother Church, relying on the faith of the apostolic age, accepts as sacred and canonical the books of the Old and the New Testaments, whole and entire, with all their parts, on the grounds that, written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they have God as their author, and have been handed on as such to the Church herself.

God inspired the human authors of the sacred books. To compose the sacred books, God chose certain men who, all the while he employed them in this task, made full use of their own faculties and powers so that, though he acted in them and by them, it was as true authors that they consigned to writing whatever he wanted written, and no more. The inspired books teach the truth. Since therefore all that the inspired authors or sacred writers affirm should be regarded as affirmed by the Holy Spirit, we must acknowledge that the books of Scripture firmly, faithfully, and without error teach that truth which God, for the sake of our salvation, wished to see confided to the Sacred Scriptures.

Still, the Christian faith is not a "religion of the book." Christianity is the religion of the "Word" of God, a word which is not a written and mute word, but the Word is incarnate and living. If the Scriptures are not to remain a dead letter, Christ, the eternal Word of the living God, must, through the Holy Spirit, open our minds to understand the Scriptures.

In Sacred Scripture, God speaks to man in a human way. To interpret Scripture correctly, the reader must be attentive to what the human authors truly wanted to affirm, and to what God wanted to reveal to us by their words. In order to discover the sacred authors' intention, the reader must take into account the conditions of their time and culture, the literary genres in use at that time, and the modes of feeling, speaking and narrating then current. For the fact is that truth is differently presented and expressed in the various types of historical writing, in prophetical and poetical texts, and in other forms of literary expression. But since Sacred Scripture is inspired, there is another and no less important principle of correct interpretation, without which Scripture would remain a dead letter. Sacred Scripture must be read and interpreted in the light of the same Spirit by whom it was written.

• Be especially attentive "to the content and unity of the whole Scripture". Different as the books which compose it may be, Scripture is a unity by reason of the unity of God's plan, of which Christ Jesus is the center and heart, open since his Passover.
• Read the Scripture within "the living Tradition of the whole Church. According to a saying of the Fathers, Sacred Scripture is written principally in the Church's heart rather than in documents and records, for the Church carries in her Tradition the living memorial of God's Word, and it is the Holy Spirit who gives her the spiritual interpretation of the Scripture.
• Be attentive to the analogy of faith. By "analogy of faith" we mean the coherence of the truths of faith among themselves and within the whole plan of Revelation.

According to an ancient tradition, one can distinguish between two senses of Scripture: the literal and the spiritual, the latter being subdivided into the allegorical, moral and anagogical senses. The profound concordance of the four senses guarantees all its richness to the living reading of Scripture in the Church. The literal sense is the meaning conveyed by the words of Scripture and discovered by exegesis, following the rules of sound interpretation: All other senses of Sacred Scripture are based on the literal. The spiritual sense. Thanks to the unity of God's plan, not only the text of Scripture but also the realities and events about which it speaks can be signs. The allegorical sense. We can acquire a more profound understanding of events by recognizing their significance in Christ; thus the crossing of the Red Sea is a sign or type of Christ's victory and also of Christian Baptism. The moral sense. The events reported in Scripture ought to lead us to act justly. As St. Paul says, they were written "for our instruction". The anagogical sense (Greek: anagoge, "leading"). We can view realities and events in terms of their eternal significance, leading us toward our true homeland: thus the Church on earth is a sign of the heavenly Jerusalem. It is the task of exegetes to work, according to these rules, towards a better understanding and explanation of the meaning of Sacred Scripture in order that their research may help the Church to form a firmer judgement. For, of course, all that has been said about the manner of interpreting Scripture is ultimately subject to the judgement of the Church which exercises the divinely conferred commission and ministry of watching over and interpreting the Word of God.

It was by the apostolic Tradition that the Church discerned which writings are to be included in the list of the sacred books. This complete list is called the canon of Scripture. It includes 46 books for the Old Testament (45 if we count Jeremiah and Lamentations as one) and 27 for the New.

Paraphrased and excerpted from the Catechism of the Catholic Church

Catechism of the Catholic Church - Table of Contents

The Books of the Bible were chosen quite arbitrarily by Constantine. You must be pretty young.. Catholics have never been much on Bible literalism.

Thanks for saying I'm young. I feel young. Does that count?

I'm sure you believe you would have made better selections.

Just to confirm, Donald H ... you are a socialist and you would like for religion to perish, right?

I'm not misstating that, am I?

I am a socialist according to Americans' view of the political spectrum.
In Canada I'm a capitalist government supporter who leans about as far left as the majority of Canadians.

On religions and other superstitious beliefs, I'm of the opinion that they need to be discouraged and left to dying of their own accord. I wouldn't advocate banning religions but I take a stronger position on preventing them from being able to teach lies to children. Teaching children religious lies is child abuse and no socially responsible person should condone that!

That's not to say that christians need to throw out the parts of their biibles that promote child abuse. They should either support it totally or throw it all out!

So I didn't misstate anything. Perfect.

You are proving my point that socialists subordinate religion. It's what you guys do.

I have to agree that 'socialists' subordinate religions and their superstitious beliefs. I throw all of it out as the promotion of lies that contradict modern science.

You on the other hand only throw out some of your bible with your attempts to interpret it to suit what makes you comfortable.

Yet, you refuse to elaborate on what you can accept of your bibles, from that parts you are in the process of reinterpreting.

This is your issue to solve in your own mind but the issue continues to cause you discomfort. I know now that your issue with me and my beliefs are because I awaken your discomfort.

I don't know how I can make that better for you? You proclaim yourself to be a half-believer or a conditional believer.

I'm glad that I have accurately described your beliefs. It would be super awesome if you could accurately describe mine.

Here... let me post them again.

I believe scripture is inspired by God.

The Church has always venerated the Scriptures as she venerates the Lord's Body. She never ceases to present to the faithful the bread of life, taken from the one table of God's Word and Christ's Body. In Sacred Scripture, the Church constantly finds her nourishment and her strength, for she welcomes it not as a human word, but as what it really is, the word of God. In the sacred books, the Father who is in heaven comes lovingly to meet his children, and talks with them.

God is the author of Sacred Scripture. "The divinely revealed realities, which are contained and presented in the text of Sacred Scripture, have been written down under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. For Holy Mother Church, relying on the faith of the apostolic age, accepts as sacred and canonical the books of the Old and the New Testaments, whole and entire, with all their parts, on the grounds that, written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they have God as their author, and have been handed on as such to the Church herself.

God inspired the human authors of the sacred books. To compose the sacred books, God chose certain men who, all the while he employed them in this task, made full use of their own faculties and powers so that, though he acted in them and by them, it was as true authors that they consigned to writing whatever he wanted written, and no more. The inspired books teach the truth. Since therefore all that the inspired authors or sacred writers affirm should be regarded as affirmed by the Holy Spirit, we must acknowledge that the books of Scripture firmly, faithfully, and without error teach that truth which God, for the sake of our salvation, wished to see confided to the Sacred Scriptures.

Still, the Christian faith is not a "religion of the book." Christianity is the religion of the "Word" of God, a word which is not a written and mute word, but the Word is incarnate and living. If the Scriptures are not to remain a dead letter, Christ, the eternal Word of the living God, must, through the Holy Spirit, open our minds to understand the Scriptures.

In Sacred Scripture, God speaks to man in a human way. To interpret Scripture correctly, the reader must be attentive to what the human authors truly wanted to affirm, and to what God wanted to reveal to us by their words. In order to discover the sacred authors' intention, the reader must take into account the conditions of their time and culture, the literary genres in use at that time, and the modes of feeling, speaking and narrating then current. For the fact is that truth is differently presented and expressed in the various types of historical writing, in prophetical and poetical texts, and in other forms of literary expression. But since Sacred Scripture is inspired, there is another and no less important principle of correct interpretation, without which Scripture would remain a dead letter. Sacred Scripture must be read and interpreted in the light of the same Spirit by whom it was written.

• Be especially attentive "to the content and unity of the whole Scripture". Different as the books which compose it may be, Scripture is a unity by reason of the unity of God's plan, of which Christ Jesus is the center and heart, open since his Passover.
• Read the Scripture within "the living Tradition of the whole Church. According to a saying of the Fathers, Sacred Scripture is written principally in the Church's heart rather than in documents and records, for the Church carries in her Tradition the living memorial of God's Word, and it is the Holy Spirit who gives her the spiritual interpretation of the Scripture.
• Be attentive to the analogy of faith. By "analogy of faith" we mean the coherence of the truths of faith among themselves and within the whole plan of Revelation.

According to an ancient tradition, one can distinguish between two senses of Scripture: the literal and the spiritual, the latter being subdivided into the allegorical, moral and anagogical senses. The profound concordance of the four senses guarantees all its richness to the living reading of Scripture in the Church. The literal sense is the meaning conveyed by the words of Scripture and discovered by exegesis, following the rules of sound interpretation: All other senses of Sacred Scripture are based on the literal. The spiritual sense. Thanks to the unity of God's plan, not only the text of Scripture but also the realities and events about which it speaks can be signs. The allegorical sense. We can acquire a more profound understanding of events by recognizing their significance in Christ; thus the crossing of the Red Sea is a sign or type of Christ's victory and also of Christian Baptism. The moral sense. The events reported in Scripture ought to lead us to act justly. As St. Paul says, they were written "for our instruction". The anagogical sense (Greek: anagoge, "leading"). We can view realities and events in terms of their eternal significance, leading us toward our true homeland: thus the Church on earth is a sign of the heavenly Jerusalem. It is the task of exegetes to work, according to these rules, towards a better understanding and explanation of the meaning of Sacred Scripture in order that their research may help the Church to form a firmer judgement. For, of course, all that has been said about the manner of interpreting Scripture is ultimately subject to the judgement of the Church which exercises the divinely conferred commission and ministry of watching over and interpreting the Word of God.

It was by the apostolic Tradition that the Church discerned which writings are to be included in the list of the sacred books. This complete list is called the canon of Scripture. It includes 46 books for the Old Testament (45 if we count Jeremiah and Lamentations as one) and 27 for the New.

Paraphrased and excerpted from the Catechism of the Catholic Church

Catechism of the Catholic Church - Table of Contents

The Books of the Bible were chosen quite arbitrarily by Constantine. You must be pretty young.. Catholics have never been much on Bible literalism.

Thanks for saying I'm young. I feel young. Does that count?

I'm sure you believe you would have made better selections.

No not at all.. I have an old friend who is a Catholic priest and we talk about these things often.

 

[ding]

Just to confirm, Donald H ... you are a socialist and you would like for religion to perish, right?

I'm not misstating that, am I?

I am a socialist according to Americans' view of the political spectrum.
In Canada I'm a capitalist government supporter who leans about as far left as the majority of Canadians.

On religions and other superstitious beliefs, I'm of the opinion that they need to be discouraged and left to dying of their own accord. I wouldn't advocate banning religions but I take a stronger position on preventing them from being able to teach lies to children. Teaching children religious lies is child abuse and no socially responsible person should condone that!

That's not to say that christians need to throw out the parts of their biibles that promote child abuse. They should either support it totally or throw it all out!

So I didn't misstate anything. Perfect.

You are proving my point that socialists subordinate religion. It's what you guys do.

I have to agree that 'socialists' subordinate religions and their superstitious beliefs. I throw all of it out as the promotion of lies that contradict modern science.

You on the other hand only throw out some of your bible with your attempts to interpret it to suit what makes you comfortable.

Yet, you refuse to elaborate on what you can accept of your bibles, from that parts you are in the process of reinterpreting.

This is your issue to solve in your own mind but the issue continues to cause you discomfort. I know now that your issue with me and my beliefs are because I awaken your discomfort.

I don't know how I can make that better for you? You proclaim yourself to be a half-believer or a conditional believer.

I'm glad that I have accurately described your beliefs. It would be super awesome if you could accurately describe mine.

Here... let me post them again.

I believe scripture is inspired by God.

The Church has always venerated the Scriptures as she venerates the Lord's Body. She never ceases to present to the faithful the bread of life, taken from the one table of God's Word and Christ's Body. In Sacred Scripture, the Church constantly finds her nourishment and her strength, for she welcomes it not as a human word, but as what it really is, the word of God. In the sacred books, the Father who is in heaven comes lovingly to meet his children, and talks with them.

God is the author of Sacred Scripture. "The divinely revealed realities, which are contained and presented in the text of Sacred Scripture, have been written down under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. For Holy Mother Church, relying on the faith of the apostolic age, accepts as sacred and canonical the books of the Old and the New Testaments, whole and entire, with all their parts, on the grounds that, written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they have God as their author, and have been handed on as such to the Church herself.

God inspired the human authors of the sacred books. To compose the sacred books, God chose certain men who, all the while he employed them in this task, made full use of their own faculties and powers so that, though he acted in them and by them, it was as true authors that they consigned to writing whatever he wanted written, and no more. The inspired books teach the truth. Since therefore all that the inspired authors or sacred writers affirm should be regarded as affirmed by the Holy Spirit, we must acknowledge that the books of Scripture firmly, faithfully, and without error teach that truth which God, for the sake of our salvation, wished to see confided to the Sacred Scriptures.

Still, the Christian faith is not a "religion of the book." Christianity is the religion of the "Word" of God, a word which is not a written and mute word, but the Word is incarnate and living. If the Scriptures are not to remain a dead letter, Christ, the eternal Word of the living God, must, through the Holy Spirit, open our minds to understand the Scriptures.

In Sacred Scripture, God speaks to man in a human way. To interpret Scripture correctly, the reader must be attentive to what the human authors truly wanted to affirm, and to what God wanted to reveal to us by their words. In order to discover the sacred authors' intention, the reader must take into account the conditions of their time and culture, the literary genres in use at that time, and the modes of feeling, speaking and narrating then current. For the fact is that truth is differently presented and expressed in the various types of historical writing, in prophetical and poetical texts, and in other forms of literary expression. But since Sacred Scripture is inspired, there is another and no less important principle of correct interpretation, without which Scripture would remain a dead letter. Sacred Scripture must be read and interpreted in the light of the same Spirit by whom it was written.

• Be especially attentive "to the content and unity of the whole Scripture". Different as the books which compose it may be, Scripture is a unity by reason of the unity of God's plan, of which Christ Jesus is the center and heart, open since his Passover.
• Read the Scripture within "the living Tradition of the whole Church. According to a saying of the Fathers, Sacred Scripture is written principally in the Church's heart rather than in documents and records, for the Church carries in her Tradition the living memorial of God's Word, and it is the Holy Spirit who gives her the spiritual interpretation of the Scripture.
• Be attentive to the analogy of faith. By "analogy of faith" we mean the coherence of the truths of faith among themselves and within the whole plan of Revelation.

According to an ancient tradition, one can distinguish between two senses of Scripture: the literal and the spiritual, the latter being subdivided into the allegorical, moral and anagogical senses. The profound concordance of the four senses guarantees all its richness to the living reading of Scripture in the Church. The literal sense is the meaning conveyed by the words of Scripture and discovered by exegesis, following the rules of sound interpretation: All other senses of Sacred Scripture are based on the literal. The spiritual sense. Thanks to the unity of God's plan, not only the text of Scripture but also the realities and events about which it speaks can be signs. The allegorical sense. We can acquire a more profound understanding of events by recognizing their significance in Christ; thus the crossing of the Red Sea is a sign or type of Christ's victory and also of Christian Baptism. The moral sense. The events reported in Scripture ought to lead us to act justly. As St. Paul says, they were written "for our instruction". The anagogical sense (Greek: anagoge, "leading"). We can view realities and events in terms of their eternal significance, leading us toward our true homeland: thus the Church on earth is a sign of the heavenly Jerusalem. It is the task of exegetes to work, according to these rules, towards a better understanding and explanation of the meaning of Sacred Scripture in order that their research may help the Church to form a firmer judgement. For, of course, all that has been said about the manner of interpreting Scripture is ultimately subject to the judgement of the Church which exercises the divinely conferred commission and ministry of watching over and interpreting the Word of God.

It was by the apostolic Tradition that the Church discerned which writings are to be included in the list of the sacred books. This complete list is called the canon of Scripture. It includes 46 books for the Old Testament (45 if we count Jeremiah and Lamentations as one) and 27 for the New.

Paraphrased and excerpted from the Catechism of the Catholic Church

Catechism of the Catholic Church - Table of Contents

The Books of the Bible were chosen quite arbitrarily by Constantine. You must be pretty young.. Catholics have never been much on Bible literalism.

Thanks for saying I'm young. I feel young. Does that count?

I'm sure you believe you would have made better selections.

Just to confirm, Donald H ... you are a socialist and you would like for religion to perish, right?

I'm not misstating that, am I?

I am a socialist according to Americans' view of the political spectrum.
In Canada I'm a capitalist government supporter who leans about as far left as the majority of Canadians.

On religions and other superstitious beliefs, I'm of the opinion that they need to be discouraged and left to dying of their own accord. I wouldn't advocate banning religions but I take a stronger position on preventing them from being able to teach lies to children. Teaching children religious lies is child abuse and no socially responsible person should condone that!

That's not to say that christians need to throw out the parts of their biibles that promote child abuse. They should either support it totally or throw it all out!

So I didn't misstate anything. Perfect.

You are proving my point that socialists subordinate religion. It's what you guys do.

I have to agree that 'socialists' subordinate religions and their superstitious beliefs. I throw all of it out as the promotion of lies that contradict modern science.

You on the other hand only throw out some of your bible with your attempts to interpret it to suit what makes you comfortable.

Yet, you refuse to elaborate on what you can accept of your bibles, from that parts you are in the process of reinterpreting.

This is your issue to solve in your own mind but the issue continues to cause you discomfort. I know now that your issue with me and my beliefs are because I awaken your discomfort.

I don't know how I can make that better for you? You proclaim yourself to be a half-believer or a conditional believer.

I'm glad that I have accurately described your beliefs. It would be super awesome if you could accurately describe mine.

Here... let me post them again.

I believe scripture is inspired by God.

The Church has always venerated the Scriptures as she venerates the Lord's Body. She never ceases to present to the faithful the bread of life, taken from the one table of God's Word and Christ's Body. In Sacred Scripture, the Church constantly finds her nourishment and her strength, for she welcomes it not as a human word, but as what it really is, the word of God. In the sacred books, the Father who is in heaven comes lovingly to meet his children, and talks with them.

God is the author of Sacred Scripture. "The divinely revealed realities, which are contained and presented in the text of Sacred Scripture, have been written down under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. For Holy Mother Church, relying on the faith of the apostolic age, accepts as sacred and canonical the books of the Old and the New Testaments, whole and entire, with all their parts, on the grounds that, written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they have God as their author, and have been handed on as such to the Church herself.

God inspired the human authors of the sacred books. To compose the sacred books, God chose certain men who, all the while he employed them in this task, made full use of their own faculties and powers so that, though he acted in them and by them, it was as true authors that they consigned to writing whatever he wanted written, and no more. The inspired books teach the truth. Since therefore all that the inspired authors or sacred writers affirm should be regarded as affirmed by the Holy Spirit, we must acknowledge that the books of Scripture firmly, faithfully, and without error teach that truth which God, for the sake of our salvation, wished to see confided to the Sacred Scriptures.

Still, the Christian faith is not a "religion of the book." Christianity is the religion of the "Word" of God, a word which is not a written and mute word, but the Word is incarnate and living. If the Scriptures are not to remain a dead letter, Christ, the eternal Word of the living God, must, through the Holy Spirit, open our minds to understand the Scriptures.

In Sacred Scripture, God speaks to man in a human way. To interpret Scripture correctly, the reader must be attentive to what the human authors truly wanted to affirm, and to what God wanted to reveal to us by their words. In order to discover the sacred authors' intention, the reader must take into account the conditions of their time and culture, the literary genres in use at that time, and the modes of feeling, speaking and narrating then current. For the fact is that truth is differently presented and expressed in the various types of historical writing, in prophetical and poetical texts, and in other forms of literary expression. But since Sacred Scripture is inspired, there is another and no less important principle of correct interpretation, without which Scripture would remain a dead letter. Sacred Scripture must be read and interpreted in the light of the same Spirit by whom it was written.

• Be especially attentive "to the content and unity of the whole Scripture". Different as the books which compose it may be, Scripture is a unity by reason of the unity of God's plan, of which Christ Jesus is the center and heart, open since his Passover.
• Read the Scripture within "the living Tradition of the whole Church. According to a saying of the Fathers, Sacred Scripture is written principally in the Church's heart rather than in documents and records, for the Church carries in her Tradition the living memorial of God's Word, and it is the Holy Spirit who gives her the spiritual interpretation of the Scripture.
• Be attentive to the analogy of faith. By "analogy of faith" we mean the coherence of the truths of faith among themselves and within the whole plan of Revelation.

According to an ancient tradition, one can distinguish between two senses of Scripture: the literal and the spiritual, the latter being subdivided into the allegorical, moral and anagogical senses. The profound concordance of the four senses guarantees all its richness to the living reading of Scripture in the Church. The literal sense is the meaning conveyed by the words of Scripture and discovered by exegesis, following the rules of sound interpretation: All other senses of Sacred Scripture are based on the literal. The spiritual sense. Thanks to the unity of God's plan, not only the text of Scripture but also the realities and events about which it speaks can be signs. The allegorical sense. We can acquire a more profound understanding of events by recognizing their significance in Christ; thus the crossing of the Red Sea is a sign or type of Christ's victory and also of Christian Baptism. The moral sense. The events reported in Scripture ought to lead us to act justly. As St. Paul says, they were written "for our instruction". The anagogical sense (Greek: anagoge, "leading"). We can view realities and events in terms of their eternal significance, leading us toward our true homeland: thus the Church on earth is a sign of the heavenly Jerusalem. It is the task of exegetes to work, according to these rules, towards a better understanding and explanation of the meaning of Sacred Scripture in order that their research may help the Church to form a firmer judgement. For, of course, all that has been said about the manner of interpreting Scripture is ultimately subject to the judgement of the Church which exercises the divinely conferred commission and ministry of watching over and interpreting the Word of God.

It was by the apostolic Tradition that the Church discerned which writings are to be included in the list of the sacred books. This complete list is called the canon of Scripture. It includes 46 books for the Old Testament (45 if we count Jeremiah and Lamentations as one) and 27 for the New.

Paraphrased and excerpted from the Catechism of the Catholic Church

Catechism of the Catholic Church - Table of Contents

The Books of the Bible were chosen quite arbitrarily by Constantine. You must be pretty young.. Catholics have never been much on Bible literalism.

Thanks for saying I'm young. I feel young. Does that count?

I'm sure you believe you would have made better selections.

No not at all.. I have an old friend who is a Catholic priest and we talk about these things often.

Who Decided Which Books of the Bible Made the Final Cut?

The books that make up the Bible were written over a span of 1,000 years. During that time, many other religious writings were also produced. So, who decided which would be part of the Bible and which would be left out?

people.howstuffworks.com

 

[ding]

Catholics have never been much on Bible literalism.

I guess that applies to me as I don't read allegorical accounts literally.

 

[surada]

Catholics have never been much on Bible literalism.

I guess that applies to me as I don't read allegorical accounts literally.

Are you influenced by the Rapture and futurism?

 

[ding]

Catholics have never been much on Bible literalism.

I guess that applies to me as I don't read allegorical accounts literally.

Are you influenced by the Rapture and futurism?

Don't be silly.

 

[surada]

Catholics have never been much on Bible literalism.

I guess that applies to me as I don't read allegorical accounts literally.

Are you influenced by the Rapture and futurism?

Don't be silly.

Thank God.

 

[ding]

Catholics have never been much on Bible literalism.

I guess that applies to me as I don't read allegorical accounts literally.

Are you influenced by the Rapture and futurism?

Don't be silly.

Thank God.

Every day.

 

[surada]

Catholics have never been much on Bible literalism.

I guess that applies to me as I don't read allegorical accounts literally.

Are you influenced by the Rapture and futurism?

Don't be silly.

Thank God.

Every day.

Me too.